NEW MAGIC MIRROR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23121, 20 August 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

NEW MAGIC MIRROR

THE other day I went into a London cinema and saw moving pictures of a test match, jtates a special correspondent of a "London journal '"This may not appear to be n thrilling Item of news, but in fact it was quite a momentous little occasion. We were n ot watching a nows-rcel film taken a dav or two before, but the first television projection of a test match on a big screen. - It would bo idle to claim that television pictures on such a grand scale are quito as good in brilliance and definition as films, but it was significant that we soon became so interested in 'the cricket that we forgot the television. . _ Amazing Experience However, even the sight of Hammond at the wicket could not obscure the wonder of sitting in a darkened cinema in central London and watching a game in the sunshine at Lord's. The televising of actual events is even now almost a commonplace on the home screen only a few inches wide, but when hundreds of people can watch a screen eight feet wide our astonishment seems to be magnified in proportion. By means of a telescopic Jens on the camera we saw a batsman, almost lifesize, standing at the wicket. Suddenly he took a stride forward, his bat flashed in a wide arc, there was a click

Wonders of

as tho ball sped to the boundary—and we knew that we had seen that stroko at precisely the same instant as tho crowd on the field. Television is truly a magic mirror, for it instantaneously reflects a moving scene; but with many miles and many obstacles between the scene and the reflection. First in World Tlje test match was a memorable victorv for tho Baird and GaumontBritish engineers, with much credit also due to the 8.8.C., which has given us the world's first' and best television service. Boys and girls who have grown up with loudspeakers in their homes may not realise how short a time it is since wireless was in the crystal set stage. They did not see the beginning of wireless, but they are seeing the beginning of television, and the time is near when English cricketers will step into a 'plane one Saturday and on the following Saturday we at home will watch them playing in Australia. There is little doubt that we are on the threshold of tho Age of New Horizons.