The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29th, 1925. THE SCIENCE OF RADIO.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29th, 1925. THE SCIENCE OF RADIO.

The announcement that experiments in the United States have given practical demonstration of the existence of what- is generally known as the Heaviside layer will excite the interest of the many enthusiasts who are engaged in exploring the mysteries of wireless telegraphy, while to those who are less intimately concerned verification of the achievement will afford a more substantial explanation of radio phenomena than the mere .statement of a theory, which has not ltec-n universally accepted, comments a northern writer. The history of wireless telegraphy has been almost completely a record of practice running ahead of theory; the pioneers have advanced ini:) the unkn :wn and the explanation of their achievements lias followed. In the early days of wireless telegraphy, it was supposed that the electric waves were thrown off into space, and not only were there sceptics to deny the possibility of their surmounting the mountain of water 100 miles high that rises between England and America, hut there was more confidence in the possibility of wireless communication with Mars than in the idea of encircling the earth with wireless waves. So. when on December 12th. 1901. Marconi received signals at St John's Newfoundland, from his station at Poldlm in Cornwall, a great sensation was created. It was Oliver Heaviside, an English mathematical thinker, who died only seven months ago. who, contending that Transatlantic communication was possible, advan-ed the theory of a permanently ionised upper layer in the atmosphere that would act as a guide for the electric waves around the globe. Theoretical expositions have since been given of the

formation and the maintenance of the Heaviside layer, and of the manner ii which the waves are reflected hack to the earth—a much more comp:

eated process than the simple “bouncing’’ between upper and nether media suggested by the cable message. It will be for the experts in wireless telegraphy to exploit the practical value of the American demonstration of this condition and beyond that, the achievement is another notable illustration of practical experiment proving the truth of conclusions reached by pure deduction from observed facts.