HOPED TO BROADCAST THIS YEAR’S DERBY BY TELEVISION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 144, 19 June 1931, Page 6

HOPED TO BROADCAST THIS YEAR’S DERBY BY TELEVISION.

A London Letter.

Sir W. Gren fell to go to Labrador with a new Scientific Expedition. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, May 10. Daylight television as applied to London street scenes was demonstrated in Mr Baird’s Long Acre studios this week. The demonstration took place in fickle May sunlight. The street figures were sometimes in sunlight and sometimes in ordinary diffused light. “ When shall we see the Derby by television?” has always been the popular test question of the practical advance of television.

JT IS NOW HOPED to broadcast this year’s Derby by this means, but the success of Mr Baird’s effort will depend on the weather, good daylight being required for a satisfactory result. The scene .will be broadcast from a short-wave station on a van at Epsom to the main broadcasting station, and from there relayed to lookers and listeners-in.

In a television van the apparatus literally mirrors the passing scene, for it is from a large revolving drum with mirrors fixed round its circumference that a succession of images of the passing scene is transmitted upon a photo-electric cell. This cell converts the moving images into a varying electric current, which is transmitted by wire or wireless to the receiving set, where the images are again produced. While the apparatus was taking a scene in Long Acre there was visible on the “ televisor ” receiver what was passing in the street, anti how the inquisitive populace would crowd up against the television van. Television by daylight was demonstrated for the first time as a laboratory experiment at the Baird studios nearly two years ago. It has now been so far developed that scenes from everyday life can be transmitted in ordinary daylight. The apparatus described above differs from that used in a studio, where a travelling spot of light is used in place of the mirrored drum in the street van. The Labrador Expedition. Important secrets of the Ice Age may be the yield of a new expedition, which Sir Wilfred Grenfell is this summer to lead into the interior of Labrador. The expedition is being financed by a Harvard professor; it is to be a joint British and American venture, and will set out from Newfoundland next month. But for# Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Labrador would hardly be on the map. It is the main object of this new expedition to put it still further on the map. One of the first tasks to be taken up is the ascent and survey of the Tongak mountains, which are believed to-.be the highest range in Eastern America. The Tongaks, or “ devils,” have never been climbed, and are distinguished by having escaped total submergence during the Glacial Age. For this reason their sharp points have never been rounded by an ice cap, a fact which gave them originally their satanic name. Captain Noel E. Odell, the English scientist, who is going out to deal with the geological side of the expedition, stated that vast tracts of Labrador were still unexplored, and that the 700 miles of its seaboard were uncharted. Captain Odell was the geologist to the British Mount Everest Expedition. “ We hope to give the world some knowledge of the interior,” he said, “ and expect to bring to light some secrets of the Ice Age which may be of value to modern science. The survey we hope to conduct will be geographical, geological and botanical.” It is not likely that the scientific members of the expedition will consist of ihore than six—three Englishmen and three Americans. They will assemble at Newfoundland and start immediately on their journey into Labrador. At a later date Sir Wilfred Grenfell will join them in his yacht Strathcona. When Sir Wilfred Grenfell, then Dr Grenfell, a medical missionary, first went to Labrador, a new day dawned for that land. Fifty years ago, he once said, no one cared much who owned this inaccessible and remote outpost of the British Empire. Now there is an ever increasing demand for its products. A Veteran of Trafalgar. The Duke of York’s appeal for the preservation and endowment of Nelson’s old two-decker ship the Implacable, the last survivor of Trafalgar afloat, should not go unanswered. “ It is a scheme to preserve, not only as a national monument, but as a holiday training-ship for boys, this old

warrior of the seas, restored to herself, and the only eighteenth century ship of her class in the world,” he said. “ The committee do not want to make professional seamen; their aim is wider. They want boys of all social ranks to be able to spend their holidays on board her—boys from the British Isles, from the Dominions and the Colonies, and boys, too, from the United States, who share so closely our sea traditions. “ On those spacious decks, recalling England’s history, those boys can meet and learn to realise how great a part ships and seamen have played in building up our splendid heritage. It is a noble aim, worthy of the past which inspired it and of the future which, with your help, will benefit by it.” Since it fought—though it was not the chief actor—in the battle of Trafalgar, the Implacable has nearly as good a claim for preservation as the first ship which circumnavigated the world. The Germans have decided to preserve a battleship of the war years as a relic and museum of Jutland; and if we do not imitate them, we can at least save this ship which has battled so precariously for life after another war and after an engagement which, century for century, must have been every bit as fierce. The anthropomorphic emotions which are stirred before suclj a picture as Turner’s “ Fighting Temeraire ” are by no means ridiculous, and by no means something to be ashamed of. The Duke of York is among those who have contributed to the fund, and subscriptions should be sent to the treasurer at 10, Bouverie Street, London, E.C. 4. Wiping Out the Navy. It is rare for an Englishman of the eminence of Lord Jellicoe to make sensational statements, even when living in retirement, but he evidently feels keenly on the subject of Naval reductions, for he said in a speech the other day;—“lt must be difficult for our Navy, which sees itself being wiped out of existence, to retain that efficiency which it has always had in such a high degree and which is so absolutely necessary for this country.” Lord Jellicoe drew a gloomy picture when he added:—“As to whether, should war arise in the future, nations would remain bound by treaty under which war should be conducted, if one can judge by past experience, I should very much fear basing our faith entirely upon the observance of any rules of warfare that may be drawn up in times of peace. If aircraft are going to bomb defenceless cities and kill thousands of women and children, as is anticipated, can anyone expect that they will not equally bomb merchant ships coming to these shores in the narrow waters? Can anyone expect, if that takes place, the submarines, too, will not also think it their business to carry on unrestricted warfare against our merchant ships? I, personally, cannot conceive that a treaty is going to stop that sort of thing unless it is applied in some way to the air, which is a far more savage method of warfare than anything else, and nothing that has yet been done in the matter of limitation of armaments has touched the air.”

The danger by which the nation was faced during the war in the matter of fuel supplies was revealed by Lord Jellicoe. “In spite of the fact that we had before the war something like four months’ reserve of oil fuel for our Navy,” he said, “ in 1917 we had come down to something like three weeks’ supply of oil fuel, and such was the position that, as Chief of the Naval Staff, I had to issue orders to the Fleet that they were never to steam at a higher speed than 20 knots—any class of vessel—unless in the presence of the enemy.”

QREDULITY is the error of sanguine, imaginative, and weak minds, which, in their eagerness to receive and hold whatever dazzles the fancy, or moves the sensibilities, or awakens pleasing emotions of wonder and admiration, believe whatever of this sort may be presented to them, without inquiring upon what evidence it rests, or perhaps rejecting contrary testimony.— I. Taylor.