LAUGHING JACKASS BROADCAST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17345, 27 September 1924, Page 24

LAUGHING JACKASS BROADCAST.

EXPERIMENTS AT ZOO. LONDON, August 10. After broadcasting the Surrey nightingale the laughing jackass at the London Zoo naturally came next. Jn preparing to give the country a Zoo concert by wireless, the British Broadcasting Company carried out some strange and novel experiments in the Gardens last night after visitors had left. The whole test centred round an extraordinary new device which has been christened “ The Wireless Perambulator.'’ Backed inside a gadget which looks like a portable refreshment harrow from a big railway station is a transmitting apparatus which has twothirds of the power of a relay broadcasting station such as Plymouth. Above it rise two wireless aerial masts ten feet high. The microphone is carried at the end of several vards of flex. Iho “Wireless Perambulator ” first visited the laughing jackasses (Great Australian Kingfishers they prefer to he called). Tt. was getting dark and the sleepy birds only emitted squeaks and flutters. A keeper disturbed them, but they scarcely smiled. BIRDS CHUCKLE. Then it was suggested that the whole* procession should move off. and two of the birds naturally started to chuckle. Everyone joined in at the infectious sound—even the busy experts. The birds’ laughter “came through ’ perfectly, and the perambulator left for the laughing hyena so as to compare chuckles. On the way the sea-lions sang their oratorid, which will also be broadcast to the. country later on. “ Punch,” the star humourist among the hyenas, was full fed and refused to jx?rform at first. “I can hear the brute snuffling.* came the report of the listener at the head-phones. Bones were waved in front of the great jaws, but the sounds made by the hyena- suggested a fresh breeze and a channel steamer rather than mirth. He worked up some enthusiasm a little later and “ blasted the microphones.” (The language is that of the engineers.) The power was lessened. and 11 Punch ” was also passed as perfect for broadcasting purposes.