The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 17, 1903. ROYAL HONORS.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 828, 17 February 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 17, 1903. ROYAL HONORS.

Tho keen interest taken by His Majesty tile King in inventive skill and the progress of science is most encouraging to those who are devoting their Jives to the improving of modern facilities. Our Cablegrams informed us that the King had honored Marconi by receiving him at Buckingham Palace. By the last mail there arrived full details of the progress made by Marconi. Writing from Table Head Station, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, a correspondent states: On this bleak, frozeu headland, which is guarded night and day against attempts to invade the secrets of wireless intercontinental telegraphy, 1 found Guglielmo Marconi, to whose hare little room, at the foot of his four wooden towers, kings, queens, princes and prime ministers have been sending their congratulations in reply to messages flashed across the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. As he stood beneath the great loose harp of fifty wires hanging from a cable stretched across the Cops of Che towers, he waved his hand upward and said : *• There it is. Powerful currents of electricity, sent into those fifty wires intermittently from the power-house below, start forth the electro-magnetic waves which cross the ocean in one niuoticth of a second and record thomsolves on similar wires at tho Poldhu station on the coast ol Cornwall, 2400 miles away, Nothing can stop or divert them ; they will go through or around any obstruction ; like sound waves they do not liuvo to go in a straight line. The messages are received through a telephone or are printed automatically in Morse letters as cloarly as though the stations were only a mile apart.” Marconi looked over the gray winter ocean stretching out before him. “ England is in that direction,” ho said, pointing to the dreary eastern horizon, “ but we can send messages from this station to any point of the compass. With the Italian warship Carlo Alberto at Venezuela wo can talk to her without difficulty, for La Guayra is nearer to us than Cornwall. If there had been any reason for doing so, we could have reached her constantly during her voyage to South America, but we were too busy sending messages to Europe to waste any time on the ship-to-shore system, which is now thoroughly established.” There was something almost pathetic in the slender, boyish figure standing out on the rough headland against tho leaden sky—the master beside his masterwork. It soemed almost incredible that this slight, blue-eyed Italian, bred in an English school, as shy and self-conscious as a schoolboy, could be the mighty captain of science to whom the nations of tho earth were offering homage. He was dressed in gray clothes, with a cloth cap set carelessly on his head. His forehead has a singular slope, his face is thin and rnobilo and a faint blond mustache shades the sensitive upper lip. Mr Marconi is only twenty-seven years old. He spoaks quickly, jerking his words out, pacing the ground nervously as he talks. His eyes are timid, and he gives one swift, ,furtivo, sidewiso glance.. He clasps his hands behind his back and twists his fingers nervously. Altogether ho suggests the impulsive Italian temperament writhing under the restraints of English manners, for in all but nationality Mr Marconi is an Englishman. His speech, his dress, his training, and his habits are distinctly English, and the contrast between the reserved young inventor and the impulsive Marquis Solari, representative of tho King ot Italy, whon we sat down to luncheon to-day, was very striking. “ Wonderful 1 wonderful .1” said (ho Marquis, with sparkling eyes and radiant face. ‘‘lt is the dream of centuries realised. This lonely place is the most interesting, the most lasoiuating spot in the world to-day.” “ We are doing quite well," said Mr Marconi dryly. “ Wo work steadily and gain in knowledge day by day.” “ It brings all nations and all ships into communication,” said the Marquis. “It is hard to realise the wonderful thing that has been done..” “ A practical political point,” said Mr Marconi, with a shy sidewise glance, •“ is that widely-separated nations can communicate with each other telegraphically without asking the permission of inter-

vening countries. France can talk to Piussia without asking tor the consent of any other government. England can talk to Italy without touching any branch system. That, of course, is a political phase of the matter.’' Presently Mr Marconi went to the little wooden power-house with Mr Vivyan, the managing engineer ; Mr Ivemp, the English naval electrical expert, and other members of the expert j staff, to send a message from Lady Mintc to one of her friends in London. Later on i' was taken through the simple | little structure wlilch contains the holy of i holies of wireless ocean telegraphy. I I promised to attempt no detailed description of the sending aud receiving mechanism or other apparatus, but even if I tried I could give no idea of the mechanical instrumentalities by which signals are ex changed across the Atlantic

There were an engine-room, a storeroom, a room full of b&tfegios and a room full of transformers or converters —£ forgot which. The telephone receiver and the magnetic automatic recorder took up no more space on a table than ordinary tele-

graph instruments, The paper tape showing messages recorded was printed with extraordinary distinctness. The wooden sending apparatuc was as simple as the mechanism of a large church organ. Mr Marconi worked the big wooden sending keys for me without comment. Then we went out to the icy ground between the great towers again. He seemed fearful of talking to the public lest he might be suspected of boasting,

and besides the bitter war waged upon him b,y the desperate ocean cable companies aas made nim cautious and suspicious ; but after awhile be spoke freely.

Wireless telegraphy across the ocean is now as practical as cabling,” he said. “ We have sent more than two thousand words in all from Glace Bay to Poldhu, and have reached a speed of fifteen words a minutes, which, considering our clumsy sending apparatus—a mere wooden lever to connect and disconnect the current - indicates what we can do when we substitute a sending key designed for speed. With a proper sending key we cun easily get off thirty words a minute, and I shall be surprised if we do not soon send at a higher rate. ” The Atlantic cables aierage about twenty-one words a minute in their regular work, I believe. And there is this vital difference in the two systems of transoceanic telegraphing : As the cable grows longer the rate of speed in sending messages decreases, while distance makes no difference in the rate at which we can send by the wireless system.” “Can you send more thou one message at a time from the same station ■?”

“ Yes, I have already demonstrated that we can send two at a time for a short distance. Whether more than two messages can be transmitted simultaneously by the same wires lam unable to say. Probably not. But separate stations can be set up and worked in the same neighborhood without interfering with each other, so that our capacity for sending messages can be multiplied indefinitely.”

The ketch Coronation was berthed at the wharf last evening. A lost cheque on Bank of N.S.W. and a lost order on Messrs Williams and Kettle are advertised for. Sinclair’s East Coast coach will leave the Masonic stables at nine o’clock this morning.

Messrs Common, Shelton and Co. notify the postponement of their Wae-renga-o-kuri sale to 12th March. East Cape reported yesterday Barometer corrected 30 10, thermometer in shade 60, good tides, land halo, heavy N.E. swell and cirrus, calm cloudy. The steamer Kent arrives early thi s morning, and leaves direct for Wellington this evening. A Southern mail will be despatched by the steamer. Tenders will be received until 5 p.m. today by the Gisborne Co-operative Building Suciety for the purchase of a ballot loan of ±“300.

The following won amounts over ±2OO at the C.J.C. meeting last week : —J. Monk, ±4251 ; G. G. Stead, ±335 ; C. Machell, ±275 ; George Clifford, ±215.

Messrs Parnell and Co. have a change of advertisement in this issue. Everything in the way of ironmongery is being sold at the very lowest prices. Tho programme of the annual St. Patrick’s sports, to ho held at the Park Company's grounds on Thursday, March 19th, appears in this issue. Tbo sum of ±IOO is being given away in prizes. The train arrangements for the races on Thursduy and Eriday next are advertised. The return faro from Gisborne to Makaraka, including admission to the course, will bo 2s 6d.

Dr Schwarzbaeb, eye and throat spe» ciaiist, late of hospitals at Berlin and Vienna, has a card in another column. His present address is Auckland, and he may be consulted at the Star Hotel. Captain Edwin telegraphed yesterday • —Gale after 15 hours from now from between north-east and east and south, glass fall, tidos very high, sea heavy, expect heavy rain.

Yesterday’s weather report showed Auckland S. wind, with overcast weather; Nupier, W. ; New Plymouth, N.E., blue sky ; Wellington, N.W., overcast ; Westport, N.W., gloomy ; Christchurch, calm, overcast ; Invercargill, calm, blue sky. The Gazette gives the following as applicants for letters patent:—O. Hanson, Gisborne, for "losing gates ; J. Paterson, attachment for bicycle; J. Paterson and another, clothes wringer ; J. Siglcy, newspaper delivery box ; E. A. Slack, dental suction cells. Wo call attention to the stock sale to be hold at Matawhero yards at 11.30 this morning. A largo number of sheep, cattle, and pigs will be offered ; also a number of cows on account of Messrs Evans Bros., and sheep on account of Mr W. M. Smith and Mr D. Kirkpatrick. In the Australasian of the 7th inst. appears a group photo of the Australasian detachment in the Johannesburg telegraph service, and among them we recognised two ox-Gisborne boys in Messrs J. E. Brosnahan and A. Gox, both of whom appear as it life on the Band was suiting them to perfection.

We would remind our readers of the grand promenade concert to be held tonight in the Bev. H. Williams’ grounds, To Bau. The programme is an excellent one, the grounds are to be lighted with incandescent and othor lights, and given a fine night the evening should prove most enjoyable. The full programme appoars in another column.

On Sunday afternoon a presentation was made by tho congregation of St. Mary’s Church to Mr Gwalcer Palairet as a slight token of their appreciation of his services as organist and choirmastor. The gift took the form of a valuable soup and breakfast dish, and was presented by Mr J. H. Martin, who referred to the good work done by Mr Palairet in connection with the church. The recipiont suitably responded.