ACROSS THE WORLD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 309, 24 September 1918, Page 8

ACROSS THE WORLD

DIRECT WIRELESS MESSAGES FROM , ENGLAND

WIRELESS TELEPHONY ACCOMPLISHED

: Yesterday Mr. J. L. Mulholland, New Zealand superintendent of the Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), ; Ltd., received the following cable message from Mr: E. T. Fisk, managing (director in Sydney (in corroboration lot"' a Press message published day):"Firsfc direct wireless messages from England to Australia received to-day (Sunday) at Wahroonga, using 103 receiver. Aerials (at Wahroonga) 70 feet high, one hundred feet long. The messages were sent bv Mr. W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, and Sir Joseph Cook, Federal Minister for the Navy, from the Marconi trailsAtlantic station at Carnarvon. Wales." To the general public the developments in the science of. wireless telegraphy have been practically a closed book for the last four years for obvious reasons, but probably at no other time has there been such astonishing pj tigress made in this branch of scientific endeavour. Mr. Mulholland, when interviewed bv a Dominion representative,' said that- the message _ referred to was no doubt the first direct one sent officially to Australia, but that did not mean that it was the first message sent from England which bad been picked up in Australia. As a matter of fact, the whole world was open to direct'messages. That was to say, direct messages could bo sent from one point and picked up at tlio farthest, point possible on the earth's surface,. assuming that the stations were there. Formerly distances were limited owing to the lack of sufficiently sensitive receivers to pick the longdistance messages up, but the receiver referred to as "103" in the cablegram quoted had successfully eliminated distance troubles. For some time past direct English and American messages have been received at Wahroonga, where messages from the ijig station at Nauen in Germany are picked up also. Probably such messages have been picked up at the New Zealand stations too, so that the receipt of direct messages is not so much-of a novelty to the initiated as one might expect. The old crystal receiver or detector had been superseded pretty generally by the Marconi-Fleming valve receiver, cf which "103" was an advanced type. As an example of what work those receivers (now being manufactured in Sydney) can do. it is a. simple matter for vessels-fitted with them, when off the Australian: coast, to pick-tip messages 'sent: from New Zealand stations in the daytime; and over a distance of between 5000 and 6000 miles at nighttime. Incidentally, -Mr. Mulholland remarked that the message received direct in Sydney would have to flash through air-spaces of night as well as daytime. The action "of wireless was instantaneous. Taking the speed of wireless at 186,000 miles per second, the" message to Australia would take about' one-tenth of a second. The realisation of direct, wireless to awl from almost any part of-the inhabited globe ooened out enormous possibilities, especially when the war-time developments were "let out of the hag," so to speak. In the case of New Zealand such a method of communication would not be without its humorous aspect. New Zealand is 11* hours ahead of Greenwich in time, which'presents the prospect of a.message being received in London at least 11 hours earlier than it ir, sent. It also opens the field for wireless telephony, a good deal about which was being said when «ar broke out. Mr. Mulholland stated that by the use of the continuous wave and a special rawer" it was now possible to transmit speech direct by wireless,- so that the imagination is rendered dizzy by . contemplating the possibilities • _ of future Prime Ministers never being out of speech range with the electors, even though they are at the other side of the world: Such a thought has iis horrors as well. Concerts have already been "given in New York and heard in Seattle. Mr. Mulholland says that the new station at Rarotonga provided by the New Zealand Government is fitted with "103" receivers. Parenthetically he stated that sending stations to cover vast distances have still to he very high-powered. The one at Carnarvon was in,the vicinity of 100 kilowatts. For the sake of comparison our. stations at the Bluff and at Awanni are 30 kilowatt stations, and the Mount Etako (Tinakori Hills station) 2} kilo-, watts-