WIRELESS MUSIC.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

WIRELESS MUSIC.

SONGS TRANSMIf Tfilf %V RADIOTELEGRAPHY. For some years,- ever since the secrets of wireless telegraphy: "were discovered by Admiral Jackson . and .developed' by Signor' Marconi and others, scientific investigators m the. same field have been seeking to discover a" prbcess'by which musical sounds might be transmitte-1 through the air and heard ai a distance without the aid of wires. . To an Englishman, an officer m his Majesty's Navy, success has come fi/st, and he has done tlra musical critic oi The Times the honor of allowing him to be the 'first member "of the musical and the journalistic worlds to hear the fesalt of hiß V The inventor, for reasoiui'wnichwill be obvious, is unwilling that his name should be mentioned at the present stage, but he has kindly given, his permission . that' l ' should write a short account of the visit I paid him ai Chatham. T r His own description" of the process of musical wireless telephony is something like . this: "Musical, sounds are turned into electric vibrations, and thus, transmitted ib the distant station, whore they are again transformed, from electric vibrations into musical sounds." How this 'is accomplished' is, of course, his secret. Arriyed on the deck of a greui man-of-war, I^as invited to seat myself m a cabin and place receivers to my eara Buch a din of hammering was going on, not oiily m th. IhadTgoarde'd, but m het neighbors^ ihai'ihe miraculous nature ot tne experiment I was about' to test seeirieii 'greatly, heightened. . How was it possible, thai t should hear thixrogh a clatter which Moi.-. ba'B Voice had she been . singing by iiie m the cabin, how should I hear the tunes piped by an amateur vocalist, stationed m anothfer partpf tbe ship, and, that without"- 'connecting wirpT, ■; ..:• „"... A SLENEIER 'THREAI) OF TONE. At fitst I c6Uld only. hear «^i9ks,|Vdue to anprdinary ( wireless tjyegjrapWCi message, \_ hifch vvas being .' .sighalfedl T a. d which" h'^ci' bbtriided 'itselT/intb the receiver, biit ; in a moment tbese sounds' had come "to' an end," and. yes— ;sgmeon'e was singing M God"S_Ve the' r King.7- Every note was ' distinct— a_; slfeiider; thread of tone, ; it ' is true, but quite I ,' clear", " and ihe iribdulatiohs of the '.ihger's' voice were easily discernible.' The quality of tone was not, it 'may '.be admitted, Tof a class that jwould satisfy amaiieurß accustomed to 1 CarusoT It ; was rasping,,' t lik. the sound produced' from the gramophone, before that instrument had reached its present perfection. This was, however, to be expected; and tH_. inyentor is.cori fident that the' difficulijr^will T^ooii _be overebmie by means of damping. \ . Marvelling Very miith at whai I had heard, I was next bidden to audience to a signaller who I 'was Stationed m a Bbip quite Jialf a mile away. His fir.il song was much interrupted by the.itans mission of ordinary messages, but I could make oui ' fragments of a tune which turned out to be that popular nautical melody "Out on the^^ Deep." The m vet: tor now put the receivers to his' ears and presently said, "Take them, you can hear distinctly." I donned the headpiece anlf heard 1 "Pop Goes the Weasel" ' with wonderful clearness. "The sound was much louder than thai made with "God Save the King;" Perhaps the Signaller m the distant ship was tlie more accomplished vocalist, or, more probably, Ihe transmitter had been adjusted with 'moie perfect nicely. ":'-''•: '■'. LOUD AND QUITIBDiSTiNCX Nejtf. I listened to tbe Soldiers' Choros from "Faust." This was also 'loud and quite distinct m its inflexions, save when towards .the end it wasdimmed by an accompaniment' of .."clicks," though even under this disability the tune 'could be made out. . We then moved into Another ship, also, more: than half a mile away from that to which a. new signaller had been despatched with instructions. What he proposed to sing was not revealed, and his first strain was either unknown to me. or it was inefficiently ■transmitted. Anyway, I could not make out a definite melody. ; That some one waß singing into my ears woe certain, but it Was like tHe rather vague wandering which we hear sometimes m church from the worshipper who is determined to join m the hymns, but "has.no ear." ■ Presently, however, complete silence reigned, no hammers were falling at the moment no messages being sent, and I heard "The Bay of Biscay,"- from beginning to end, the quick messages as well transmitted as the declamatory. This was as successful an instance of the new process as any." Now, I am not going to affirm thai the singing transmitted to me, without aid of wires, gave me as much musical pleasure as the singing— even by certain German singers— in the Opera House does. ; But I have sat m an hotel with an electrophone to my ears and listened to portions of an opera without much greater pleasure ihan that experienced on 'the boats. To the unscientific mind, tbe magic of ihe wireless; transmission of melody is more astounding than thai due io the agency . of electric wires.- . It is hardly, a month since success first began to reward the inventor's toil, and - l.c heard the first . faint note of music— a note to him more sweet and enrapturing than any *'high chest. C" to occupant of stall or box. The progress from that. one. mysterious note which, found its viewless .way over ihe waters to the completed verse of "The Ray of Biscay" has' thus, been very rapid, and th^ inventor . is confident of making futher improvement m a short time ; when we may look for the communication of particulars of his discovery to the naval authorities and the scientific world. IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERY. It will be asked what is the practical importance of this new discovery. -Well, it is clear from the experiments so far conducted that an intoned message is more clearly to be heard without the. aid of wires tnan ordinary; speech — wor is spoken m the ordinary way are not as yet clearly heard. Now if the, system of signalling by night can be made a sUe-it one — silent, that is, so far as an enemy is concerned— the advantages are obvious. The inventor has already found put how to restrict the area of operation. of this sound transmission. He. can. so arrange that the sounds can be heard at one distance but hot at another. , Signals could thus be sent, round a fleet without danger of their falling into the possession pf hostile cruisers hovering near, their operation being confined lo the immediate vicinity; Or if a commander so chose he could work m such a manner that tho enemy should' receive his signals.. But m thai case he would send f4_ h two different sets of signals, one pitched m a high key, another 'in a low. Ono. of these would be false and used for the purpose of misleading fjie enemy, the ships of the signalling fleet tying .m possession of the right tone, and thus able to distinguish the guide they are to follow. But into these matters a mere musician may well fear to i: entef. It is, however, well within ray province to describe the extraordinary results of the discovery as tested by me. I once had the privilege of sending a message from Marconi's towerat Poldhu to the Foreland Station, and I got an answer. That was very wonderful, but not so wonderful as to hear Songs which had been chanted into a transmitter half a mile away. — C. W. James, m London Tribune.