GLASGOW TO TARANAKI

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1935, Page 4

GLASGOW TO TARANAKI

RADIOPHONE GREETINGS SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT MEET. SON DELIGHTS HIS PARENTS. CLEAR AS AN ORDINARY CALL. The last 20 years—indeed the last five —have made, the world a smaller place. On Thursday night a New Plymouth Scot, who has not seen his parents at Glasgow for many years, gave them his New Year greetings by word of mouth over 13,000 miles of land and ocean. The father and mother recognised their son’s voice immediately—almost it sounded as though he were speaking from up-town —and were touched and delighted by the miracle of science that, people say, has so little time for sentiment. The preliminaries of the call were scarcely more elaborate than for lodging an ordinary toll service call to a South Island town. Mr. Alex. Fleming, the New Plymouth man who gave his parents so original and enviable a Christmas gift, merely informed the Post and Telegraph people that he wished to speak to Glasgow at 9 o’clock on the evening of December 19. A mechanic was sent to his home in Hamblyn Street to install a new receiver and check the wiring, and promptly at 9 o’clock the telephone bell rang in its usual prosaic tones to signal the beginning' v- the little romance. Mr. Fleming spoke to Wellington, for a moment so that the delicate radio telephone pickup could be adjusted to the tone of his voice and then, faint at first with distance but growing clearer, a voice in Scotland said, “Hello, Glasgow is calling you. Just a minute, pleasel” A moment later the voice of Mr. Fleming senr., was heard calling his son’s name. The greetings passed almost without interruption; only a faint fading now and then made a repetition of words necessary. An almost tropical downpour was drenching most of Taranaki at that time and the weather was steamy and warm. At Glasgow it was a clear, frosty winter morning and as the family spoke, one to the other, the sound of the city’s clocks striking nine was clearly audible. The post office authorities were generous because of the fading. It was booked a three-minute call, but the conversation lasted nearly six—and at the end of that time there were at least three happy and excited people looking rather wistfully at a dull, black receiver that had suddenly gone mute. When business men gabble technical instructions over 13,000 miles of ether, after all they are only saving cable money and making more—but when a son speaks the greeting of the world’s greatest and most touching festival to his aged parents at the other end of the earth commercial science becomes almost human!