THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF WIRELESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 37, 27 February 1937, Page 17

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF WIRELESS

How Marconi Led the Way

'J/HE FIBfeT WlBELEBS signals sent oht and receiyed by man acrose the Atlantic wete heard oh Signal Hill, Newf oundland, by a young inventor, G:. L, Marconi, an4 his two assistants on Peceinber 12, iQOi, thirty-flve years; hgo. These signals, Whieh were a. conhnuoqe rabetiiidh thp Morsh' B— tbree dQts-^-were Sefit ©qt fffim 'Poldhu, xn Cornwail, ■v- ' i # I The experimenial rece(ying eqnipment at Cape Cpd hhd hcen dfestroyfed in a'stprm, but Marceni sent up a kite ^vith lho feet of Wxre auepended below it, and heard the signals, faint, but clear, The mass of seiehtific opinion whieh said ¥ that signalling across the Atlantic was impo&aible because wxreless wnvee .would" not bend rounci the curvature of the earth, was prove,d to' be. .wron^i, . » ' :*• The annonncement of Marconi 's triumph wai reoeived w:ith scepticism, and even with blank denial, '• • ':■ The chief adverso criticism was that even if wireless wavos were found to

travel over long digtancp, this form of telography eoxxld never. rival submarine cablea bo^ause the signals would be un* qert.ain and coiild never be made secret. Both wireless telegrhphy and telephony are nqw not only perfectly dependable bflt can also be mftfte secrqt if desired. -* Marceni 's answer to all criticism wa? a swift and eai'taiu advnuce.'iBy March, . 1902, The Times wap siiftieientiy hapressed with the possibllities ©f wire- • less to ask Marconi to establish a news service between Grace Bay, Canada, hnd Poldhii, ahd by the anttimn of that ybar the Gunard. Hherg L'XOania and Campania were fitted with receiving gear and wore piiblipliitig the lirst wirHless news builbtin« • . Marconi was - not ; the . inventor of Wireless. ' His Jjart' wah ' tha adaptation of -pureiy ' kboratOry' exjibrlments !to eommereial use, and his 'success was dlie to a cgnfldcnve which refused to be .ihakeh fithbr bx ihHifd or by tlje doubts pf gcipn.tis.ts, - An ' Qxporimontbr; David ' HugliCs, working. In Bnkor street,1 Londop, wbs the first human beirig td ix'ear wireless signals. This was in' i87iyMN ^nghes announced. his discoyfer/ ,.to 'tHe. Eoyal Society, but could xjo^ get q'nypne to ' believe that. the phenoni^% he. denionsttated were due to the fetlieri6 wuves" mathmatiQally ,^3f.eji9undcd by James Clerk Maxwell in 1873., It was n6t until 1889 thai ' the German, Hertz, convinced the world that wireless waveg actually exfsted. In 1894 Oliver Lodge demonstrathd signalling over short distqnces by ,mpnns of What were then known"-W» 'iHortzien waves," ' .i;. '