BEAM WIRELESS SYSTEM.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 9 April 1927, Page 9

BEAM WIRELESS SYSTEM.

Opening Featured in I London. ! 1 INFLUENCE ON EMPIRE ! RELATIONS. / by Cable —Press Association —copyright. ! Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received April 8, 5.0 p.m.) LONDON, April 8. The morning paper:; featuro the j opening of beam wireless, with editorials, numerous i-peeinl messages, and photographs of the opor.-uiug ' room at tho Genera! Post ; dl'toe during the transmission, of tho ■ mos.-ages io Australia. ! The ’‘Daily Telegraph” says: It was ; said, when the ordinary telegram i system was begun, that, distance was annihilated. What was then only a figure of -speech, is a statement of fact to-day. There i.s now practically instantaneous communication both ways between the heart of the Empire and the most distant sister State. In the drawing together of the peoples of tho Empire, at least as much can be effected by cheapening IJress messages, as hv any other agency, but in all ways, the news service must open a new chapter in Empire relations.” The “Morning Post” says that those who are cynical about the British Empire as an organism too wide-spread and cumbrous to continue, must now revise their opinions in the light of the beam achievement. The “Daily News” says that not all scientific triumphs can bo hailed by humanity with unqualified rejoicing as the almost miraculous improvement in communication. The feat is as beneficent as it is wonderful.

OPEN FOR PUBLIC BUSINESS. BEAM OFFICE IN AUSTRALIA i j I j By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. J Australian and N.Z. Cable Association, j (Received April S, 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, April S. The Beam Wireless Office has opened for public business, and is being well patronised.

FIRST PRESS TRIAL. EXCHANGE OF FELICITATIONS. Sy "ib.'e—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cabla Association. LONDON, April 7. No fault could be found with this afternoon’s first press irial of the G.P. 0. beam, which worked splendidly and within the safe limit of one i hundred words per minute. It was un- j canny to watch tho Wheatstone j automatic transmitter on one side of | the operator swallowing up yards of | hice-like Morse tape, while isimul- ! tancousiy on ins left hand tho printer ; was reeling off dots and dashes coming j from Italian. An amazed onlooker was j Mr Amery (Secretary for the Do- i minions), who led off with a message to ; Lord Stonehaven and Mr Bruce. Then j Lord Burnham conversed with Mr Geoffrey Fairfax of the “Sydney ! Morning Herald” on behalf of the i Empire Press Union and Sir Joseph I Cook congratulated Messrs Allard and j Fisk. The acknowledgements were j ticked out with bewildering rapidity. Longest Wireless Link. It is not divulging a secret to state that Mr Amery showed the greatest thrill of interest when Mrs Bruce asked Mrs Amery did she realise that they were the first women to greet each other on the world’s longest wireless linkMr Amery said that anything which accelerated Empire communications was all to tho good. He was given a souvenir of perforated tape with which the wives had wirelessly j performed the Dominions’ offices social I amenities. I

Journalists Exchange Greetings. The Australian Press Association’s first greeting to its units in Australia was used as a test of speed in transmission of acknowledgments. From the instant the end of the tape, entered the AVlieatstone till Melbourne's answering “0.K.” strongly resounded in the metal amplifier, was a. shade under forty-live seconds. Journalists’ greetings literally swamped the editor for more than an hour, during which time only once or twice was there any suggestion of fading, but never enough to make the incoming tape unreadable. In fact the signals the whole time were adjudged sufficiently strong to work the Creed automatic printer for direct delivery of addresses.

Vast Potentialities. The technical heads of the Post Office afterwards faced a battery of Press inquiries. They said there was nothing to stop a wireless circuit accurately transmitting a thousand words a minute. The only limit on speed was tho mechanical capacity of the instruments and the land lines. Perhaps a new invention in the near future would make the present apparatus seem very slow. Even if there were fading there would be sure to be a thirteen hours standard transmission daily. The London business day did not overlap Australia’s, and even with fading, it was fully certain that a Londoner’s message would b© waiting a Melbourne or Sydney man on his office desk before his arrival. MamnP'ihla flm*

| knowledge and information of vital I Imperial' importance. Wireless has I been years maturing, but it is here |at last.” Sir Joseph recalled the j wireless messages from Mr Hughes, j then Prime Minister to himself as Minister of the Navy, despatched from | the Mareoui station at Carnarvon on i September 22, 1918. and received ! instantaneously at Air Fisk’s home at j Wharoonga. He added: “It is right ! and just to remember Air Hughes’s ! great pioneer work in the early stages

j of this! wonderful development. | Speeding Press Messages. I The first newspaper message of I greetings sent by the beam wireless ■ system went to the Sydney “Evening News.” This was transmitted immediately after the official messages had been disposed of and a reply was returned from Australia in less than one minute. Australia seemed uncannily near in the vast Central London Telegraph Office. To-day when one’s ears had become attuned to the.metallic click, Melbourne's strong “O.K” could be heard almost simultaneously. Hero is an incident demonstrating the almost personal touch. It was midnight iu Melbourne and Sydney. Hence it was hardly expected that Lord Stonehaven, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth, would be available to reply to Mr Amery’s greetings. Horsing went on steadily until the official, listening, wrote: “Stonehavon now here waiting.” Thereupon Mr Amery’a message was sent, and in an incredibly short space came the reply. Future Possibilities. The Post Office engineers do not intend exploring the possibilities of telephony by the Australian beam till the shorter Canadian beam is satisfactorily harnessed for that purpose ' towards which considerable progress already has been made. The African and Indian beam stations will shortly begin an ingenious plan devised to assist in a mutual tuning adjustment at both ends of the Australian beam. When fading or other difficulty arises the operator here inserts a transmitte* set to agreed signals on the morse tape gummed to form a circle continuously feeding through the instrument which keeps sending out the same calls till Melbourne answers, and is getting them clearly, and the circuit is workable..