WIRELESS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2184, 24 June 1914, Page 8

WIRELESS

BY LAND AND SEA

EXTENSION OF ITS USES * J

SOME WONDERFUL MODERN DEVELOPMENTS MR. E. T. FISK INTERVIEWED. An interesting recital of a few of the developments in the use of wireless telegraphy v.'as given to a Dominion - reporter yesterday by Miv E. ■T. Fisk, technical manager/ for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Ltd. "Tho use of wireless is developing in wajis that have, become - surprising," said Mr. Fisk. "In America it has proved very successful in railroad trains, especially on the Lackawanna line. The president, of that road is highly pleased with the working of it, and recently ho prophesied that a wireless set would De part of the equipment of all long-distance trains. Just recently they , had a very good. experience of tho value of- their wireless plant. There was a heavy snowstorm which brought down telegraph wires, mado sections of line impassable, blocked trains, -and- isolated / several places, but, the wireless stations kept up communication. This enabled them to call up labourers to clear snow from the lines, and to dig cut theiiy stopped locomotives, and in tho end saved the holding lip of tho road, and. the loss of a great deal of money to the company. There aro wireless equipments on the trains between New York and-Scranton, Pennsylvania, also, and, -of course, there are wireless stations aloiig the line. On this' line, in one case recently, a conductor cn a train was. suddenly', taken' ill. The next station was communicated with by wireless, and when the train arrived a new conductor was ready waiting -to take the sick mail's place. There was no delay, and the train was not held up while a fresh conductor was. being procured. In many u'ays it has been proved that wireless for use on railways, and Especially on long-distance trains, is most Useful. I should not be at.'all surprised if after a wlii!6;it' is applied as an adjunct to the present methods of'.signalling/..'There are various possibilities of development 111 that .direction with the (hject... of decreasing risk from what,is sometimes called tho human element.' ■; Overland' Communication. ' "The value of wireless for commiinicatioit over land as ivell; as over sea is being shown, increasingly every month. In the North .of England and in .'Scotland they have always had trouble on account'of . the telegraph lilies carrying away in heavy snow-storms and floods in winter, and there has been considerable agitation to have the lines , laid underground. Heavy expense has always been the obstacle in the jvav of this and now tho British, Post - Office, instead of laying the lines, below groun.d, aro erecting wireless stations by means of which they will be able: to keep up communication whatever the weather may be. Tho advantage of wiroless there is that there are not niiles and miles of line to be laid and maintained in rough inaccessible country. All tho authorities have to do is to look after tho wireless stations, nns,,?s ,al-, Mv'ays in the population .centres; .this, is a simplo matter. For tho same reason it is not- easy to interrupt communication by wireless, and this is very ''important 111 some countries. 1 Most of the important cities of India aro noiv being linked up by wireless, so that at any, time communication between' these cities can bo kept up independent of the wires crossing open country. I need not enlarge upon the importance of this in a country like India. x lt seems to me that in opening up now "territory overland wireless has many advantages over the ordinary olectrie telegraph, tho working of which requires the laying of lines over miles of rough country. Its valuo for commercial and other secret correspondence ' has been established now, since tho objection of interference by unauthorised senders or receivers has been done'away with by what we call selective tuning. 111 South America, there/are quite a number of overland stations working. There aro also stations in several of tho'Spanish'and Portuguese.. cities working in conjunction with one-another, and out to the Azores and; the Canary Islands, and just_ recently the British Post Office has given the Marconi Comnany a licenso to work its station at Poldliu, in Cornwall, direct with Spain, for'a commercial telegraph service. - Circling the World. "Then, of course, there is the Transatlantic service, which has been working successfully for some time. You can hand in a message in any part of the United Kingdom or North America for transmission across tho Atlantic, via wireless. These long distance services are being extended. You. know ,of the Imperial chain that is coming out this way. There is to be another chain of stations which will go from . England to' New York, then probably .via Panama to San ■ Francisco, and from there across tho Pacific, via Honolulu, to China and Japan.- These stations are being erected 'now,, and when this chain and our Imperial chain are complete there will be a cliain. of wireless stations in communication right round the world.

Competing with the Cables. "We sometimes "hear, although not so much now as formerly, that wireless will never compete-with, the cables. «iroless has been showing the cable cpihpanies somo pretty good, competitimv across the Atlantic,, thougli or course with the largo number of cables laid across that oeoan in tlie last lo or 20 years the cable people can handle far more,business than the existing oiie or two wireless stations. But there is.no reason why the number of wireless stations should not bo increased, and over theso long distances they can work duplex—sending and receiving at,_ the same time—and automatic up to a speed of 75 words a minutp. In the Imperial' chain the Marconi Company has guaranteed a speed of 75 words, , a minute, automatic working. Some of the stations arc 'three-way stations, ,which moans that, they can at the sarno time send to two stations and rccCivo from one, or vice versa, and for all stations the company has guaranteed an e|octive range under those conditions, ot at least 2000.miles, by day or by night. The Marconi people have been carrying on for some years, a .service.'from Collano. near Borne, to Mogadiscio,, m Italian Somalilanfl.' so that they know Cliiit thev can supply nil that-tliey have uuaraiiteed to give. There is. a station being erected in Norway guaranteed to communicate with a station.somewhere in North America, and the Telefunken ogoijlo nro erectiiig a station on Long Island, outside New York, which, I believe. is to communicate with a station at Nauen, near Berlin. I'n here in the Pacific the Telefunken Company is erecting a number of stations to connect up most of the German possessions in the Pacific, linking up with the cable at Yap, in the Camoroons. For Use In V/ar. ' "An interesting development in the use of wireless is in its adaptation to military purposes, which has gone ahead a great deal in, Europe. The British Army uses pack sots, carried in four or five carts, to equip stations, with a range of 100 miles over flat land. They have also cavalry stations, carried by- , four hors.es, motor-car stations .(corny

I pleto stations erected on specially fionI structed motor-cars for ireld work), right down to the smiißest stylo of sta- | tion known as the knapsack station, it complete station carried by four men. To bring designs of tins sort of stuff to a point of efficiency, berth front the wireless expert's and the military expert's point of view has cost a great dfcal of work, both of wireless engineers and military engineers. Together they have designed stations that caii be set up ready for use in ton minutes, and repacked for transport in from fifteen .to twenty minutes. BvOfy part had to be specially designed for itekl work, for rapid setting up, and for rough handling.' Thp atmy in Australia has four of these pack sets, two with the New South Wales troops, and two with the Victorian troops. In designing military stations yen Inwo to consider tho possibility that, the enemy is going to read what yon fire saying, and tho other is the possibility that you may be able t-0 step him working his stations. ' In one of our types of field station we have an arrangement which prevents messages sent from being read by an _ outsider, and with this same station ii is reasonably possible to . prevent the . ene>my from working his , wireless apparatus. Secrecy is secured by the the wave leugth at eartain stated intervals, in terms of a combination agreed unon by both transmitter a-.nd twseivei*. Tho combination mr? bo fre. quently so that it will never he discovered. An enemy's receiver might fl-iols up a word or two of a message, but before tho operator could get- enough te make an intelligible .messagfe. tho wave length would be altered by the moving of a switch in less than a second of time. The advantage a! wireless for military work'is that it _eiiables_ eommimication to be established without the necessity of laying lines over rough country, or perhaps over country where ail enemy is" likely at aiiy titee ts out them. I do not say that wireless Will do awav altogether With the IB® of Bfie-S for field work, because there are times when an- insulated wire can be run over country without any difficulty. To Ten the time. "The International Time Conference, ■ hold at Paris in 1912, lias concluded Ml arrangement by wMcli it will be possible ' in the. near f ijttiro for ships fitted with wireless apparatus sailing in aav part of the world to get, correct Grreuwich.'mean time twice in every 24,.1i0ur5. This. will not. only cmctsi, t-h'o ships' chronometers, but will -obviate tie »e- : cessity -. of carrying so : many chronometers as .are now carft-wl nil- ships: Tho time supplied by wireless will'be absolutely- correct, beca-use all th"<! outlying' station's will be Kin-onied bv tho controlling station which will be at Paris. Two-stations are Mow sending time, the Bi-iM Ttiwe-r, and a station at Nord. Deich iii Goi-rnany. Ships can get time from these stafeioiis ftwA distances lit) to 1000 miles. A large - number of clock-makers ih the European cities are putting up receiving-- stations iii order that they may get observatory time from these! big' stations, Tb4y get a special licrnvsp for tfcse receivers. They fit up a len-ivor that is tuned to tho wavo length of the time. sen-din.!; station, and (hen sealed up, so tint no . operator can ttuw it again io tat{§ messages from, any other statipil.. . ; "I don't think tiseuse of wireless.has reached its . maximum derelopnient bv any means," said Mr. Fis'k in conclnding- his talk. "It is growing in every possible direction,"