TRANSMISSION OF NEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20892, 5 December 1929, Page 10

TRANSMISSION OF NEWS.

LONDON INVENTOR’S CLAIMS. NO MENTION IN TECHNICAL JOURNALS. (Special to Daily Truss.) _ WELLINGTON, December 4. Amazing claims were made recently by an inventor in London concerning tho transmission of messages at very high speed. Ten thousands words, it was stated, could be transmitted by telegraph in a minute. Empire newspapers could be published simultaneously in London Sydney. Capetown, Montreal, and Calcutta, including pictures, the whole contente of a large daily newspaper being faithfully transmitted over those distances in a few minutes. When asked concerning the matter, the chief engineer of the Telegraph Department, Mr A. Gibbs, was distinctly surprised at the rate mentioned—lo,ooo words a minute. “ There has been no mention of any such system,” he explained, "in any of the recent technical journals. 'Possibly the new idea depends upon some method of picture transmission. It is already possible, of course, to set up newspaper type at distances of hundreds of miles, but that does not refer to pictures which require individual treatment. The usual speed, as employed in this Dominion, is 40 words a minute. Thanks to what is known as the multiplex system, it is possible for us to use four two-way channels over the same line, and thus greatly expedite 1 tne work. In some countries where ' considerable quantities of press messages are handled, speeds up to 250 words a minute are achieved.

“ The new system mentioned, though, must make use of some method altogether different from current practice,” added Mr Gibbs. “All the same, it is stx-ange it has not been discussed, or even mentioned, in the technical papers. I should say there is very little chance of its being employed out here for many years.”