WIRELESS TELEPHONE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1929, Page 5

WIRELESS TELEPHONE

NEW ZEALAND TO LONDON. Wireless telephone communication 1 between New Zeaand and Australia, and are predicted for the not far dis- ( tant future by Sir William Noble, a . director of the British General Electric Company, who arrived in Wellington from Napier on Tuesday. While pointing out that it was “bound to come,” Sir William, who was Engineer-in-Chief to the British Post Office when he retired from that department some years ago, stated that such a service would necessarily be expensive because ot the powerful' plant required and tlio short time in which it could be used. Sir William -Noble commenced life as a telegraphist in Aberdeen at. 12s a week, and 43 years May 31st. io22—retired as Engineer.-in-Chief of the British Post Office.; Hard work, he says, has been'jtjhb; secret; of his success. It took him 20 years to get to London after lie Joined the service. Then promotion followed rapidly, and by the end ot another 22 years lie had reached the top of the service. .n 1923 he was knighted by His Majesty the King for distinguished services to the Empire. Sir William. Noble is a director of the British General Electric Company and it is for the purpose of visiting the company’s branches in the Australian capitals. and in New Zealand that he is in this part of the world. His visit to Australia was timed to enable him to be iii''Hobart for the opening of the first automatic telephone exchange in Tasmania.. He last visited New Zealand early ip 1926. In 1922 ,Sir William .Noble was chairman of the committee;that inaugurated broadcasting in (Gheat Britain. The committee, representing the “Big Six” manufacturers, formed the British Broadcasting Companyyunder the Post Office to keep the, -system under one control. After four years the British Broadcasting Corporation was formed on the recommendation of a commission, and this was more directly under Government control. Sir William continues to take a Keen interest in broadcasting.

SPOKE FROM SYDNEY TO LONDON.

His recent experience of speaking by

wireess telephone from Sydney to London was referred to by Sir William Noble last night. “It was as good as you could' have it in this city, speaking to someone 1 a. hundred yards away,” lie sai&Ui“AAfew;years ago no one would. baYe .' dfeaipt that such a development ;<vas- possible.” . There Uis 'riot ’ yet any commercial wireless telephone, service-from Austra-

lia' to England, and'anything done so far has been purely; experimental. Sir Williani ibelieves, hoWjever, that the. service between. Loiidoh and Australia • trill he. regularly established on ,i\ cojnimercial basis at/an .early date. He spoke at'the Hiyy'iitftiiW of the .bend • bf/dflie-- Amafgainateli Wireless

(Mr Fisk) and his'conversation was with Lady Hirst, wife of the chairman of the General Electric Company (Sir Hugo Hirst). The speaking was remarkably good considering that con-

ections had to be made to the Hirst

home out of Reading, some 50 miles from London, and that it was (rather early and atmospherics were noticeable. ComtersatiAh with /friends living four miles from London was better, but when he came t_dl speak with the general manager of the General Electric Co. in the heart of London the atmospherics had died down and hearing was perfect. DRAWBACK TO SYSTEM.

“ It was wonderful to be able to converse with people 1200 miles aivay,” he remarked. “The drawback to commercial wireless telephony is that we are asleep in England when you are awake here. A telegram sent off-in the afternoon from here would be ready for a man in London when he reached his office next morning. It is not so easy to arrange a telephone conversation. That is why it is not possible to have more than a limited service of about three hours a day. The time will be late in the afternoon in Australia and early.• in the morning in England. When I was speaking from Sydnej late in the afternoon, one of the men at the other endthad just had his morning bath and another was having breakfast. The atmospheric conditions would be better at midnight (A.i|S(tralian time), but mo§t respectable people are in bed at that time, so it is proposed to arrange the service earlier. “ The time for the conversations will have to. be arranged ahead,” he proceeded. “If you wished to speak to friends in England from Sydney, advice would he sent the night before asking them to he ready at such-and-such a time in the morning. You could not afford to wait when you were spending £ls or so for three minutes’ conversation. They talk of making the charge either £ls or £9 for three minutes. Not many people in Wellington could afford that, but it is worth while for men with big business at stake. There is one American who uses the telephone to Britain for an hour a day. It costs him £180.”

Reference was made by Sir William Noble to the beam system of wireless. This, he stated, had been a great success and there were only occasional delays, due to atmospherics. Messages were sent at the rate of 200 words a minute. He considered that wireless would never take the place of cables. Wireless was so often affected by the weather, which interfered with longdistance conversation..

Sir William Noble is impressed with the hydro-electric development .in New Zealand. “This country is certainly to the front as far as distribution o* electric power is concerned,” lie said.