UNDERGROUND WIRELESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1522, 19 August 1912, Page 9

UNDERGROUND WIRELESS.

A.YOUNG AUSTRALIAN'S REMARKABLE INVENTION. Mr. E. R. Warke, whose recent invention for sending wireless messages per medium of the ground has attracted notice, is on his way to Europe ior the purpose of completing certain negotiations with tho British War Orticc-, which were opened up some months ago as a consequence of a former visit to England. He was spoken to in Melbourne prior to his departure. Ho is well-known in Wagga, New South Wales, his father having been a civil engineer there many years ago, prior to his departure with his family to Sydney. The inventor, whose age is 29 years, worked as a clerk threo years ago for Messrs. Winchcoinbe, Carson, and Co., Sydney, and about that time, he developed his idea, which lie has since patented. For some timo before this ho made a hobby of electrical science, and carried out a number of satisfactory experiments in subterranean wireless telegraphy, and in VJIO, as a result of patient trials, he sueceded in securing a circuit of 92 miles through his method. He had an instrument at the two ends of his field of operation, and his co-worl;cr at Hie distantpoint notified that circuit had been established at a time previously arranged for making this important test. His signal (o this effect was received with joy, for then Mr. Warke felt satisfied that he had reached an important stage in his research. The instrument is described as a small and complex one, and the inventor says ho developed it by the study of the Marconi syslcm, and noting phenomena obtained by it during electric storms. A marked effect was produced upon the earth at such times, this being recorded by a sensitive instrument designed for tho pnrposo, ordinary insulated wire bein" tho principal means by which the desired results were achieved. In 1911 he went to England, duly armed with letters of introduction to useful people, and he was well received by persons connected with the War Office, who made sufficient investigation to satisfy them that the young Australian visitor had brought with him an idea which would be useful to them for field communications and other purposes of a like nature. So pleased wcro they, Mr. Warke remarks, that they, have kept in touch with him ever since, and his present mission is in furtherance of his' project in respect to making a sale to the authorities in England. He also intends to go to Gerraauy to study electrical science, and thus further equip himself in this branch of activity. The eminent scientist,- Dr. Loewry, ot Germany, has confirmed Mr. Warke's experiments by discovering the identical method of transmitting messages wbiuh has been patented by the Australian. But the German investigator made his discovery eight months after the ono under notice, hencd Mr. Warke may fairly claim to ,bo the real parent of the idea, and he may reasonably hope that he, as such, will reap the financial reward that is always due to genius. In the course of his tests in Wagga about a year ago, Mr. Warke discovered that by his instrument lie could discover tho whereabouts of minerals underground. Trials to prove the accuracy of that which was at first only a surmise wero quito satisfactory, and, says the inventor, a big field of usefulness lies ahead of the machine in this direction. There is, it appears, no guesswork about it, as the locating of minerals has been done by him with exactitude, the work being in perfect accord • with the largo principal upon which the instrument is based. The sending of wireless messages, says Mr. Warke, will some day be a system that will have no distance limits, for there is really no obstacle to the flight of the current if tho sending forco bo sufficiently powerful. Ho sees immense possibilities in the future connected with the task "of harnessing the wonderful forces of nature, now but partly developed and bent to man's use; and having the vastitudo of tho scope in mind, be is anxious to not only develop the idea ho has already brought into the realm of -reality, but also equip liimself with knowledge that will 'aji' wfomos a young, mail with. a. strong, ambition.—From the Melbourne representative of tho Sydney "Sunday Times."