A WORLD BENEFACTOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 157, 21 July 1937, Page 4

A WORLD BENEFACTOR.

News of the death of the Marchese Marconi has come upon the world with tragic suddenness. For those who can cast their memories back to the nineteenth century his name will always be linked with what may be regarded as the most marvellous oi the many marvellous scientific achievements oi the twentieth. The telephone in its day was looked upon as sdmething to be wondered at, but hfere there was always visibl to th« eye the material conductor through which the sound was transmitted. With wireless, however, there was nOthing of this kind that was appreciable to the ordinary senses. It is, of course, claimed that it was not by Marconi that the idea was first conceived, but it was most undoubtedly due to him that it w.as first brought to practical fruition. • As to thfe value of his discovery there can be no question for it has rendered rapid communication possible between points on the^earth's surface that were previously completely and hopelessly isolated. There is virtually no limit within the aarth's atmosphere to its operation, its messages crossing oceans, seas, mountains, plaiiis and deserts, and coming even from the clouds. And yet the seeming miracle of only thirty-odd years ago is now something belonging to our everyday lives and taken very much as a matter of course, indeed as something that we could scarcely do without. Unlike many of the other discoveries and inventions of modern science, Marconi 's has on the whole served none but good purposes, if perhaps we except its use for spreading abroad vicious propaganda. It has, of course, been on the seas that its value has been most dramatically demonstrated and, if only as a means of helping to save the lives of those that go down to the sea in ships, wireless should make the name of Marconi blessed among all maritime nations of the ertb.