FIRST MUSIC BROADCAST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16724, 16 August 1928, Page 4

FIRST MUSIC BROADCAST

NAVY REVEALS A SECRET SINGING SIGNALMAN 21 YEARS AGO .Details of the lirst. conceit Broad-, cast- in English waters have just been, released from the confidential tiles of the Admiralty. It took place in 1907, when speech by wireless was considered almost an impossibility. The concert was the result of experiments by Captain (,). C. A. Craufurd, R.N., and was broadcast from the warship Andromeda to the Channel Fleet, then lying at Chatham, in those days valves were not used, the system depending on the magnetic, detector which registered the dots and dashes of the Morse code. Captain Cruufurd was convinced that a modification of this system would enable speech to be broadcast as well, and to test the new invention tin' Admiralty allowed him to broadcast a surprise concert. Those on board many vessels listeiied-in, among them the crews of the warships Ocean, .Bulwark, Goliath, Canopus, and Jupiter. THE FIRST SONG. Captain Craufurd said recently to a Daily Vail reporter: — [ had several signalmen helping me, and we chose the most musical of them to sing the first song, “God Save the King.” This was the first song ever broadcast. We followed this up by “Rule, Britannia,” “Trafalgar Day,” “On the Missisippi Shore,” “Three Blind Mice,” and others. The Admiralty did not want the general public to know of the invention. I was not allowed to say a word about if. They thought, it could be adapted with great profit for use in submarines.

The range of the broadcast was about three miles.

Captain Craufurd, who lives at North View, Lydd, Kent, would be glad if naval ratings who assisted in the experimental work would write to him.