MYSTERIES OF WIRELESS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1923, Page 4

MYSTERIES OF WIRELESS

LONDON, May 11. Much interesting informal inn that i- not to he found in mj at eessihle a lor anywhere el-e i, contained in l'rnfessor . A. Fleming's “ Elect runs. Electin'" ' Waves. 1 YVirch-s Telephony." The sorrels of electricity are not ensy to explain, nor can they he M't Inrllt without Mime use of mathematics, hut Dr Fleming is as popular as i- possible io hi - treatment in thivolume which is an amplification of his lei lit re- at the Itnval Institution ill irr_’l-L"g.

A good many pen ole probably do not know vvlmt exactly is meant by the term ‘‘wavelength” in wireless. It is the distance from the hump of one wave (or vibration) to the hump of the next one. Wireles- waves cover a large range, from 20.01111 metres (about lili.OOflft) to 10 metre- (about 33i1.t lit this invisible electric radiation of long wavehjgth wo are dealing with an agency identical in nature with light, except that it cannot, affect our eyes hut can only influence certain arli lir ial eyes called aerials and detectors. The waves which are vi*h!e to eye ns light are of very short, waive length, from l-HO.Ot'Klth ot an inch to 1-00.0001 It. Below them are rays or waves which the eye cannot detect. Inti which afiect a photographic plate, and below these, alter a gap of “miknows: or unprodueod wavelengths." crime the shortest ol all the X- and Y’-ravs, with wavelengths which do not exceed T-2.VJ.IifK).-(blllili of an inch.

THE ATOM'S SOLAR SYSTEM. These facts mav sound fantastic, hut model u physics and modern oleoiriciiy are concerned with the infinitely litlle. If. will surprise a good many people to know that a just audible sound in a telephone receiver has been measured and found to move the diaphrrgin i-30.000.000th of an inch only. I hat almost infinitesimal movement create! the .sound of speech. Professor Fleming gives a brief account of the modern theory ol the atom. It is a solar system in miniature. The nucleus corresponds to the central sun and the negative electrons to the planets circulated round it. li we desired to make a model, say of a sphere, say the size of a football, at a certain position to represent the positively charged nucleus. I hen at distances of about ]miles we should have to locale two golf balls to represent the two negative electrons and to assume that these were revolving round the tnotball. The actual size oi the atoms is so small that a million placed ill a row. like marbles in contact, would **orcupy a length less than the thickness of the thinnest shoot- oi ti"ue paper.