OUT OF THE AIR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 3

OUT OF THE AIR.

VOICES OF THE NIGnT. Atmospheric conditions.count for agocd deal in wireless telegraphy 1 . Of lato theso have been particularly good for a largo radius of spaco round Wellington, nnd tho apparatus located in Nathan and Co.'s clock has boon busily employed in picking up messages and snatches of messages from tho "empty, vast and wandering air." ■ On Sunday night, for instance, what sounded liko the song of tho Telefunken; system was heard in Wellington, but it was so faiiitaiid ununderstandnble that its origin could only bo a matter for conjecture. It may , have travelled over tho calm of tho Tnsman Sea from the station on tho roof of tho Hotel Australia in Sydney, but what is more likely is that it was' a fragment of a'messago sent by. the Ulimaroa (which left Sydney on Saturday afternoon) to Sydney, or from somo other boat in tho vicinity of Port Jackson. The Ulimaroa is' the moro probnblo theory, as sho would be at that timo well on her '.way to Wellington and somo hundreds of miles from Sydney. Another fugitive message was picked up tho same evening from H.JI.S. Challenger, bound from Sydney to the AVest Coast of America. The nian-of-wur gave her positions (lat. 27.27 S., long. 175.5 E.), barometrio reading (29:02), temperature of sea (73), dry (74;, and wet (72), bulb thermometer readings, and tho weather. (clear, with E.N.E. breeze). This information was transmitted to tho Jfcteorological Office, and is especially useful in view of the fact that cyclones frequently .approach from that direction; nlso, that there arc no stations except Norfolk Island in tho vicinity. Tho message had travelled about 900 miles and was/read with ease. Other messages were gathered in from H.JI.S, Cambrian, lying at Nelson.