PHOTOGRAPHS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 30

PHOTOGRAPHS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

COMMERCIAL SERVICE IN THREE MONTHS. (See Illustrations in This Issue.) (F»om Oua Own Cobbespondent.) LONDON, April 16. According to Mr Richard H. Ranger, dorigning engineer of the Radio Corporation of New York, within three months there will be a commercial radio-photography service across the Atlantic. Mr Ranger, who is the inventor of wireless photography, has just arrived in London, accompanied by Mr C. H. Taylor, chief communication engineer of the Radio Corporation. Between them they have 23 packing cases loaded with wireless ■apparatus, which has been shipped from New York to install in Radio House, London. “My visit.” said Mr Ranger, is a sequel to the wireless research carried out in November, 1924, when pictures were radiographed between New York and London by technicians of the Radio Corporation a*d the Marconi Company, who have been working in co-operation all the time. Ido not claim to be the actual inventor of sending pictures by wire,” he said. "The J^ ea °* telegraphing pictures was started by an Englishman, Mr Alexander Bain, in 1842. What I have done is to utilise the existing radio system to send pictures automatically frorA one hemisphere to another, and this has been very largely a question of developing technique.” Among the interesting features of the new international radiographic service are:—A complete picture can be despatched across the Atlantic Ocean in 25 minutes. The latest technique enables the subtlest gradations in shade to be transmitted by radio. All the transmission is automatic. The cost of sending a picture will be very little more than a written message. Mr Ranger, who has been working on his ftyatem for three and a-half years, said that lie had already proved the value of the comlAsrcial possibilities between San Francisco and Honolulu. When the transmission set he has brought to England has been instiled in Radio House pictures can be forwarded to New York, and thence to San V.rancisco or Honolulu, where wireless picture sending sets are already installed. investigations at present are almost all directed to the speeding-up of the transmitand receiving apparatus, largely with » view of ultimately transmitting films. With wwnething like 4000 dots to the square inch, the problem is not an easy one. A wavelength of 16,000 metres is being employed in the present experiments and no interference whatever is caused to ordinary operaThe principle involved in Mr Ranger’s *ystem, which is claimed to be particularly Immune from atmospheric disturbances, is that of sending a code of simple “ dot ” signals of uniform strength in place of the carefully graduated impulses used on other systems. These “ dot ” signals have the effect of interrupting a pen in the receiving apparatus which travels in series of parallel lines, and of producing an astonishingly clear and artistic picture.

Mr Ranger said it was already possible, with the instruments he has brought with him, to transmit a clear quarto-sized picture from London to New York in 25 minutes and a rough picture in six minutes. The cost of these transmissions will not be excessive, and it is estimated that for a New York newspaper to print a picture of the Derby finish on the same evening as the race would not even now cost more than £IOO. A photograph of the Prince of Wales, as received by wireless in New York, is reproduced in a London paper. It is a remarkably clear likeness. TRANSMISSION EXPERIMENTS. LONDON, April 23. The Hon. A. B. Houghton, the American Ambassador, went to Radio House, Finsbury, to see messages transmitted to New York by the photo-radio system invented by Captain R. 11. Ranger, the development engineer of the Radio Corporation of New York. Captain Ranger has come to England to demonstrate the practicability of npening up a commercial service for the transmission of pictures and messages by wireless, by means of which he has been an gaged for many years. One of his transmitting machines has been installed beneath the skylights of Radio House. Next to it is a replica of the receiving machine in New York, by means of which those present at the demonstration were able to see the progress of their messages as sent out from Carnarvon, to which station they travelled by land-line. The transmitter is described by the Dailv Telegraph as a marvellous and beautiful instrument, containing two glass cylinders for the despatch of two pictures or inesnges if simultaneously required. The picture is transferred by photography to a film—or, in the case of a message, it is >vritten on the film—which is yound round the glass cylinder, at the extremity of which is fixed an electric 100 candle power lamp. A crystal prism, fixed on a rod, is made to travel backwards and forwards inside the glass cylinders, reflecting a spot of intense brilliancy on the message, the gradual movement of which is regulated With the greatest nicety by the machine itself. The minute currents of light travel along a tube into a cabinet, where they are changed into an electric current and amplified. The receiving apparatus resembles an elaborated tape machine, the picture or message being reproduced on a continuous roll of paper by the little Instrument which travels backwards ohd forwards over the outline, repeatedly, until it gradually assumes the form of the message or picture on the film round the transmitting cylinders at the other end. The first message despatched was a iheque for lOOOdol on the Rankers’ Trust Company, signed by General Harbord, the receipt of which in New York was acknowledged by Morse within about 20 minutes of its being placed in the transmitter. Mr Houghton then sent a message to his old school at Concord, New Hampshire, in the following terms: “This is the first message reproduced by wireless across the Atlantic. May I send it to you and to the school With my best wishes.—Houghton.” This was also acknowledged with similar promptitude in a Morse reply. To General Hawes, Vice-President, U.S.A., Mr Owen D. Young, and General Harbord wirelessed: “We send you our greetings in the second picture radiogram ever sent across the Atlantic or any other ocean.” General Harbord also sent a message to Mr Adolph 8. Ochs, of the New York Tiroes, in the following terms:—'Dear Mr Ochs, —Here *.s the picture radiogram I spoke to you about one evening in February in the subway, .When I met you and Mr Sulzburger. It

moans a great deal to the world of news and business.— V* yours, J. G. Harbord.” Mr Young transmitted an autograph manuscript of Robert Browning to St. Laurence University, Canton, New York, with the message: “This is the first time in history that such a document has been sent by radio across the Atlantic.” The words sent were from “A Grammarian’s Funeral,” in memoriain of Johannis Conington, as follows: Loftily lying— Leave him —still loftier than the world suspects: Living and dying. As the messages were clipped in turn round the glass cylinders of the transmitter, the progress of their transmission and receipt at Carnarvon was watched with keep interest by the senders and others present, who crowded round the receiving machine, and saw the words “growing” under the industrious repetitions of the little recording instrument. Captain Ranger is confident that in the near future it will be possible to give a demonstration of the dual process of transmission and receipt between England and America, Instead of the one-way service, to which the demonstration was confined.