MARVELS OF WIRELESS

Evening Star, Issue 19799, 24 February 1928, Page 1

MARVELS OF WIRELESS

A NEW BEAM STATION MESSAGES ROUND THE WORLD V A SEVENTH OF A .SECOND. A new Mai coni beam wireless station, able to tend messages round the world in ono-seventh of a second, lias been opened at Dorchester, in tbo peaceful heart of Thomas Hardy’s beloved Wessex. Where the old villagers not long ago sang carols and gossiped of events in the next valley, a mechanism is started that is likely to change international conditions. Morse messages carried by land lino from London will jump out into space from Dorchester to New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires, and when the station is finally completed next year to Egypt and Japan. Very soon—next year also—telephony will bo installed as well, for the same transmitter serves for both; and then this most English of English places will tie the centre of a science in which England leads all othei countries.

Photographs can bo shot invisibly through space this way—a process being gradually perfected—and fashion plates thus sent, says a correspondent of a London paper, will allow the 'Japanese geisha, if she wishes, to have the latest Western mode. When telephony enters, trading with Latin America will be as simple as trading with Manchester; and from engineers it was gathered that even the sending of moving pictures is a matter of near date. The writer says: “Small wonder, then, that I felt strangely over-modern as I passed to-day, with other visitors, through this old-world town of occasional thatched roofs, along a road that Toss might have walked, to the beam station, a cluster of electrically-equipped buildings, beside slender diaphanous masts, seeming as peaceful as the rest of the country, and almost unbelievable under the faint December sun. Horses and cows browsed quite close in undisturbed ' indifference. MASTS 270 ft IN HEIGHT.

“But the externals of (he scientific wonder are not really terrifying. The Tshape masts are even beautiful, with a bare wintry bdauty in keeping with tbo bare trees that grow like bluish smoke over the distances of the Downs. Standing 270 ft high, with 90ft crossbars, (hey let fall from suspension wires a motionless snow of white insulators, dotted down the length of vertical aerials, each of which has its ‘ reflector ’ aerial a-half—or three-quarter—-wave-length behind it. The cold wind did not sway them, because of late triatic suspension, which prevents sway unless the wind is over ninety miles an hour, in which case the balance-weights allow a certain ‘ give.' But this is the only vulnerable part of the beam system—the aerial may bo temporarily put out of action by an excessive gale. For the rest, it is impervious to weather and atmospherics. “Inside the two main concrete buildings the sense of a remote country place is more certainly forgotten. One is back in the metropolis of electrical romance. Here, on concrete floors, lined with cork to prevent vibration, are the transmitters, large brass cages containing each a tangle of valves, coils, metres. They are seven in number, and will soon be in full going order. TWO THOUSAND WORDS A MINUTE. “ Meantime, two transmitters in a temporary shed sent out messages to North and South America, silently, except for the soft hissing of air valves. It is a more impressive silence than the clang of a factory. You would not know even that London was communicating abroad (by remote control) were it not for two very small loud speakers on a side table.

“ A very rapid'Morse of 200 words a minute—2,ooo can be attained at a necessary pinch—was audible, tuned to whatever note the engineer’s ear chose—one, in this case, being like a sparrow with an industrious chirp, the other like a breathless dove.

“ Yet the words sent out go so rapidly round the world that occasions have been known when one .• word circled the world three times and came back to mark the reception tape three times within the space of 3in. The marvel, which is a, fault, is remedied by reducing the power of transmission.

“ The powerhouse is the only noisy part, of the station. Here the three main dynamos are charged with, a steady roar. Flywheels, weighing seven tons, revolve quickly, and valve rockers waver with a satiric movement. The main .switchboard appears shiny and black and impressive, spotted with gauges and levers,

“ As we, travelled through the, most dangerous part, beside the glimmering rectifiers, a. flash of light and a cloud of smoke suddenly sent, the engineers panting with anxiety to the lop of the mom. The alarm, however, was only a. Press photographer's effort, and harmless. But I then noticed bells and safety devices in every corner of the. place. ’’

ft is added; "A visit In (hose stations certainly indicates ihe nearness of the world wireless telephone, and it is an interesting moment lo recall that just thirty years ajn wireless transmission was firs! effected at (he (hen miraculous rate, of five words a minute over a seven-mile radius.”