BEAM WIRELESS

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 30

BEAM WIRELESS

. TRANS-ATLANTIC TELEPHONY. - LONDON, -January 17. In announcing the erection of a supplementary station at Dundee to ensure greater,clarity of the .trans-Atlantic telephony,, Colonel, Purges, engineer-in-chief to the. Post Office, says that he never claimed. to. guarantee secrqcy, but special efforts were being made .in that Even on the beam system such a wide “track” was required that the signals Cftuld easily be read. Regular users, of telephony should .adopt code words and phrases,,but Colonel Purves said he hop.ed to devisg means of ; puttj,ng up words in,to fragments at. the transmitting point, and pieqing -them together, again at, the receiving end, thus baffling interception en route. - NEW METHOD OF SENDING. . r; LONDON,. January 18. A Marconi expert,. Mr ...G. M.-Wright, is., perfecting a system.; ’of s facsimile' ;telegrapli .transmission, dispensing with the key-.tapping. operator and .thus reducing the possibility of error and saving both tiihe, ; .:and money. A written or typewrit.fcen? message is simply placed pn. a finder,,,and..'isl duly reproduced in .fajQthe receiving station to-,whieli it is despatched by s directjppal

Marconi officials say that the system is only workable in conjunction with beam wireless, and therefore it will be one of the systems used in the inter-Empire services. While purely line drawings could be transmitted, the despatch of half-tone . pictures is not yet within range. CABLE MESSAGES. . CAPE TOWN, January 19. - The demonstration of the new regenerator system adopted by the Eastern Extension Company, by means of which delays are eliminated, took place and' was remarkably successful. Congratulatory messages were exchanged between London and Capetown. Viscount Burnham expressed the opinion that the system was an enormous development in the facilities of cable communication, as messages were transmitted practically instantaneously. EFFICIENCY OF NEW SYSTEM. LONDON, January 19. The new system is destined virtually to bring Australia to the doorstep of England. . Stripped of all technicalities, the regenerator, which is the invention of the Eastern Company’s own staff, cuts out the human element in the relays, and the transmissions are done automatically, the machinery passing on the messages with increased strength, and even correcting errors en route. By means of the regenerator direct communication was maintained to-day between a large group of journalists representing the British Overseas Press in London and four Capetown journalists. The system will operate from London to Adelaide within three months. The South African Postmaster-General (Mr T. Boydell), replying to an inaugural message sent by Sir John DenisonPender (chairman of the Eastern Company), stated that “where cablegrams traverse the South African land lines yon may rely upon our continued efforts to pass them on with the utmost expedition.” The regenerator system promises a. valuable speeding up of all classes of cables between Britain and South Africa, and later Australia; Mr J. C. Denison-Pender (a member of the House of Commons), speaking at a luncheon following the demonstration, declared: “We do not fear the future. We cannot yield , a point in the argument to our wireless friends for their transmission cannot be speedier or more accurate. That is the Eastern Company's reply to wireless.” SERVICE TO AUSTRALIA. LONDON, January 20.. It will be at least a fortnight- before the inauguratinn of the beam service is possible—first, because time is likely to be taken for analysing the results and for the purpose of determining the period when a stabilised service may best be achieved; secondly, because the Canadian experiments with alternate wave lengths may point to a solution of the difficulties in the case of Australia. It is no secret that the Canadian service is subject to bad fading out, sometimes for the best part of 24 hours. The experts believe that a resort to a longer wave during these times will overcome fading. This theory will be tried out in the next few days. . . Meanwhile it is interesting to learn that China is throughout the whole day pickingup our beam better than Australia. The explanation is that the outgoing waves are seeking the most direct route of travel from London, slightly north of east, before finally dipping to Australia. While it is obviously possible to conform to the requirements of seven hours a day, broken time, with an aver- • age of 100~ words a minute, the experimenters are now aiming to ensure a certain “all-hoars’ ’ service, even if it is at le^The P< telts show that signals from Melbourne reach London in one-twentieth of a second. TRANSATLANTIC WORKING. LONDON, January 22. * An important extension of transatlantic telephony took place to-day, the midland and southern counties being connected with eastern United States. All the calls wete successful. The conversations included the president of Harvard University with the vice-chancellor of Cambridge recalling that Cambridge founded Harvard, commercial firms in London and Boston recalling, the tea dumping affair..in Boston Harbour., and Mr Lloyd George spoke to the Governor of Massachusetts. BEAM TESTS-CONCLUDED. - - ‘ : ’ LONDON, January 22. The Australian beam' tests have concluded, and the'engineers are now drawing up their report.