WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1595, 27 October 1905, Page 2

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

In ’96 Signor Marconi, under good Italian credentials, was able to prevail upon the British Telegraph Department to allow him to make experiments in the system ; and from the first he derived encouragement from the sympathic attitude of Sir W. H. Preece, then chief electrician to the post office. Early work was done on Salisbury Plain, across the Bristol Channel, and between Alum Bay and Bournemoutn (a distance of sixteen miles). At the •close of ’9B, under the auspices of the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Co., and with the permission of the Trinity House, experiments were set on foot between the South Foreland lighthouse and the East Goodwin lightship, twelve miles away, and communication was established. On March 28th, ’99, the first message was exchanged between France and England. This was followed by successful demonstrations made during the ’99 naval Manoeuvres. The Admiralty definitely adopted the system during 1900. The Marconi apparatus is working commercially on board many of the largest passenger steamers afloat—viz., the Campania, Umbria, Lucania and Etruria, of the Cunard Line; the Savoie, of the Compagnie Generals Translantiquo ; the Lake Champlain, of the Beaver Line ; and the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Kronprinz Wilhelm, of the Norddeutscher Lloyd. The coast stations open for ship communication are Withernsea, Hull, Caister, near Yarmouth, North Foreland, St. Catherine’s, Isle of Wight, Holyhead, Eosslare, Co. Wexford, Crookhaven, Co. Kerry, La Panne, near Ostend, Borkum Lightship and Lighthouse, Germany, Nantucket Lightship, and Siasconset, U.S.A. A demonstration of the system was made for the French Government in the early part of 1901, when communication was established and maintained for some time between Antibes, near Nice, and Calvi, Corsica. The International Yacht Eaces were reported for the Associated Press by means of the Marconi system. An agreement has recently been made between the Marconi International Marine communication Company and Lloyds, by which the latter Corporation exclusively adopted the system, and agreed to fit up their stations with the Marconi apparatus. In June, 1904, a daily news bulletin was issued every morning to the passengers on board the Cunard liner Campania, and since then all the Cunard mail steamers have been supplied with a similar Daily Bulletin, on the Marconi system. In November, 1904, the Marconi station at Poldhu transmitted a message to another ! station at Ancona, Italy, a distance of about a thousand miles, almost entirely overland, the waves having to pass over the Alps to reach their destination. On December 30th, 1904, the post office announced that provisional arrangements had been made with the Marconi International Marine Communication Company for the acceptance and prepayment at telegraph offices in the United Kingdom of telegrams for transmission from wireless stations on the coast to ships at sea. The arrangement came into operation on January Ist, 1905. The charge is 64d a word, with a minimum of 6s 6d for each telegram.