Biggest Wireless Station

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1922, Page 4

Biggest Wireless Station

' FRANCE’S ACHIEVEMENT. LONDON, August i The biggest wireless station in 1 Lt world, that of Sainte Assise, near Melon, began work at midnight on An grist mil by flashing a message fr.ur President Milierand to President Hard iVig. This station, which will in futuii carry bn all the wireless eommumnl ion' between France and America _ '"ih soon be capable of sending diced nearly a million words a day (says tlic Paris correspondent of the “1 ?iegr.opli”). Only ono apparatus is at present in working order, but th-ee others will be added within a few weeks. .Messages have already been sent at a rate of eighty words a minute with perfect clearness, and when the equipment is completed it will be possible to send five or six messages simultaneously, with a total output ot about 600 words a minute. This powerful new station is worked from the very centre of Paris by means of the long-distance control system. The central office near the Bourse will pick up by means of six receiving centres in t|i<- suburbs messages destined loi transmission from Sainte Assise, ai d will automatically pass them on across the Atlantic. Previously France possessed the most powerful wireless s£ ition in the world in that at Bordeaux, completed near the end of the war, I i:t that of 'Sainte Assise is nearly four times ns powerful, and tnirty-ihe times as powerful as the Eiffel Tower station. In addition to messages sent to New York, direct communication has already I-ceii established with Argentina and China, and when the post is completely equipped it will be clearly beard in every part of the world. ‘The speed ol eighty words a minute was obtained during the earliest experiments made at this station about a month ago, but it is claimed that a speed of 100 words a minute on each message should easily be realised. This, il is claimed, is far

ahead of the results so far decided by auv other European station. Another development cf 'tvireltss telegraphy mi France is U ' inauguration of direct tonimunicari'n botwe.'ii Bordeaux and Saigon, ivith a lari.'F over 2f a word cheiiped than the ordinary cable rates The next step is to he the equipment of six colonial stations for transmission. Those stations, which at present .-an only receive messages ,are at Martinionej Guinea. Rufisque, in 'Vest Africa, Rjilmu'i, in East Africa, i raz/.aviil ■, in Equatorial Africa, and Tannrarivc. in Meridional Africa. This work comr.l tod. it is proposed to construct, probably in 1023. two stations in the Pacific which, says a high official. will complete the chain of communications linking up ninety million inhabitants of France and her colonies.