ISOLATION OVERCOME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22991, 19 March 1938, Page 18

ISOLATION OVERCOME

J- PITCAIRN ISLANDERS - ■ RADIO TELEPHONE INSTALLED j ! [TBOM OXJ3 OWy CORRESPOND EAT ] I SYDNEY, March 12 J For the first time since their ancestors —the mutineers of H.M.S. Bount.v i—cast Captain Bligh and the officers loyaJ to him adritt in the Pacific the Pitcairri Islanders hare been provided with regular communication with the Test of the world. Last Saturday a modern telephone transmitter was installed on the island, and in the evening Andrew Young, self-appointed wireless operator to the islanders,*was in •communication by telephone with Canjberra. t The story of the opening of the Pitcairn wireless telephone station is like a page .out of fiction. Tho islanders are 'dependent almost exclusively for jwhafc tney obtain from the outside ;world on a system of bartering fruit and vegetables with passing ships. Often snips have called unexpectedly and trade has been lost because supElies of fruit and vegetables have not een ready. Using what knowledge he could obtain from oi'd papers and books Andrew (Young procured a crystal receiver and an old motor-car ignition coil—a gift from a passing ship—and constructed a crude wireless transmitter havinc a range of a .few miles. With this he succeeded in learning in advance of the ;toriyal of ships. His crude station, •JfSmipiscent of those used elsewhere nearly 30 yeara ago, gave the islanders i wonderful service. About six months ago an American j engineer was a passenger in a ship which called at the island He was ; astonished at tho muteness* of Young's i equipment. Ho described it in a tech- j meal journal when he returned to the! United States and, as a result, A men- ( can radio -manufacturers contributed I tho parts for a modern wire'ess tele- 1 phone for tho station, and a wind- j driven electrical power supply, as thero ! is no electrio supply on tho island. ' Two amateur operator* were sent; frojir New York, to install tin's equip- ' merit, and when tho task was finished • on Saturday Young was so overcome with delight, that he could hardly apeak when the microphone was handed to him, In half an hour he heard voices from all over the world, and in less than 15 minutes lie had talked to both New York and Canberra. Henceforth wireless amateurs all over the world will provide h new and #otim» of news for the jftlondor#.