“FATAL” RADIO WAVES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21033, 23 May 1930, Page 5

“FATAL” RADIO WAVES.

SCIENTIST’S AMAZING THEORY. The startling theory has been advanced by a Canadian scientist that radio concert waves may, in certain circumstances, be responsible for fatal results. The cynic pi ght pretend not to be surprised. It .was in an endeavour to ascertain the cause of four mysterious deaths in a Toronto hospital that Sir George Filmei, the scientist in question, hit upon this “ death lurking in a song " theory. According to the Paris edition of an American newspaper (quoted by the Central News), the four patients were brought into the operating theatre.and were given ether before the. operation. Simultaneously a radio station near by was sending out a concert programme. , The theory advanced by. Sir. George is that the fumes from the ether .formed direct contacts with the lamps and other electrical apparatus over the operating tables, and that the electrical apparatus was thus able to pick up the various waves from the radio station and pass them through the rising ether fumes into the bodies of the persons about to be operated upon. The story reads like a thinly-veiled hoax, but with delightful naivete the message, adds that “the Ontario Medical Association is holding a special meeting to hear the scientist expound his idea,” When a • representative of the Daily Telegraph sought enlightenment at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital recently he was received with a very broad smile. The tape message which conveyed the news was left with the medical staff in order that they might ponder and discuss it over the luncheon table. Their verdict, delivered after due deliberation, was that they “ cannot conceive such a thing being possible.” At the 8.8. C. the verdict of the engi neers was even more emphatic. “Utter nonsense ” was their terse summary. The power in radio transmssion, they pointed out, was so infinitesimal that it could never cause or contribute to the death of anyone. Someone was even bold enough to suggest that if the electrical apparatus referred to happened to be an X-ray equipment it might provide an alternative explanation of the four deaths. It would seem, therefore, that radio, although credited with many short-com-ings, often quite unjustifiably, is not to he saddled with the power of execution.