WIRELESS WONDERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3520, 30 August 1921, Page 5

WIRELESS WONDERS.

VAST FIELDS OPENING UP. Professor Jack, of Otago University, is an expert and an enthusiast in all matters concerning wireless communication, arid a chat with him in his office the other day left one wondering how anyone could have had the- audacity to propose to the Imperial Conference a chain of wireless stations with a 2000-mile radius for linking up Australia and Britain, when with very simp’e apparatus one can sit down here now and listen to messages from the other side of tiie world at any time. It was in the forenoon when Dr Jack courteously gave Ins attention to a reporter, and he explained that that was the worst time of day for hearing the wireless working. He has in his room a few delicate instruments and appliances with bulbs, coils, detectors, amplifiers, and such like that constitute his receiving apparatus, and it is instructive to learn almost all his equipment has been made in his own laboratory. The on Hess messages that are always floating about can be classified under four headings according to their character. There are the- press messages giving out news, business messages, personal messages (mostly of greeting and friendship), and (he .messages sent in code. For tho great bulk of these there is no occasion whatever for secrecy; and against the risk of having the messages read by unknown listeners there is to he out the great cheapness of wireless. '1 he use of code would largely, if not entirely, overcome the difficulty of secrecy, and in any case the cables could be reserved for messages about which special privacy was desired. By the use of automatic senders using a lane the speed can be made so groat that the message cannot he taken down unless automatic recording receivers are installed. AR R EOT IN G ILLUSTR A TIO NB. As an illustration of what is now going on. Dr Jack referred to the recent Car-pentier-Dempsey fight, which was decided at about 7 o’clock on Sunday morning by our reckoning. About 8 o’clock Bordeaux was heard giving out the unmistakable but quaintly bilingual message: “Dempsey vainqueur. Carpentier knocked out au quatrieme round.” The clock of the Eiffel Tower is, at certain tiroes, connected with the wireless apparatus there, and it is a somewhat startling fact, that here in New Zealand one may listen to its steady ticking and compare the ticking of liis own watch. There is no limit to the purposes to which wireless may be put. The result, of the recent Derby was wirelessly signalled from a captive balloon, and amateurs who were listening all over the country heard the result. Every morning one can hear coining front Bordeaux: “All stations in Europe, Asia, the two Americas, and steamships li-M-e. French press information, etc.” Auatrclas’.r. is omitted, but it can hear. .Another field of most interesting and important possibilities) is opened by such an appliance as Ihe BHlbh Thonuon-Hoiiston portab’e wireless set. Tt is carried about in a neat little box about the size of a Corona typewriter case. It can be set down on a table anywhere without any aerial, and a listener in Enerland putting the receiver to his ear can hear stations at Rente, Berlin, the Eiffel Tower, and so forth. Moreover, it can be adjusted by changing the wire length and also bv directing it to a certain point of the compass so that one message can be heard to the exclusion of all others. WIRE LESS TFLEPI TONY. In tiie field of wireless telephony progress is being made with such . startling rapidity that Dr Jack declared he was afraid to say what tit© present position is. Wireless te.ophony is, at any rate, commercially established for a radius up to 300 miles. But that matters are not going to rest long at that stage is clearly indicated by such messages as the recent one telling that Berlin had sent out a performance of “Madame Butterfly” so that it was heard 800 miles away. Tho same apparatus and aerial is used for receiving telephony us for telegraphy, and the difference in the sending apparatus for telephony and telegraphy is so small that the change over can be effected by a switch. A Dutch station is now sending out concerts every Thursday night and Sunday aftermoon, and news of stocks and shares is also being transmitted in the same way. The Chelmsford station, using 15 kilowatt power, sent out. a concert that was heard in Newfoundland. 2673 miles away, and by ships 1000 miles out at. sea. While near Rugby Dr Jack listened to a concert being given in Amsterdam ana on ah Atlantic steamer, while listening to the wireless Morse, suddenly a man’s voice broke in from 300 miles away. He showed the reporter an advertisement of an apparatus costing only £25 by which a concert given in Java had been heard 9000 miles away in Holland. “It could very easily be arranged t.o send out concerts from here every month or so,” he said. “Why should the people of New Zealand not be allowed to hear the best things going?” The halls would require to be fitted with microphones, and when the message was received at a distance it, could be- amplified to a roomful or even a hall full of people. There could be a big' wireless receiver to which telephone subscribers who cared to pay could be linked up for the purpose of hearing any particular speech or concert. The Professor humorously suggested that a man could sit in hif room for an evening and switch on to a scientific lecture, but if he found it getting rather dry he could change liis mind and switch over to perhaps a comic opera. “You would have complete exclusion,” he said, “and you could exercise your choice just, by turning a handle. The thing is already here,” he declared, emphatically. “The day will scon come when it is possible to speak to Britain.”