WIRELESS PIONEER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5077, 19 January 1927, Page 3

WIRELESS PIONEER.

THIRTY YEARS ON THE WORK. ABOUT SENATORS MARCONI. Senatore Marconi was the chief guest of the National Association of Radio Manufacturers and Traders at a luncheon, which was held at the Savoy Hotel, London. inaugurate the wireless exhibition at, the Albert Hall.

Mr W. W. Burnham, chairman of the association, presided, and, proposing the toast of “Our Guest,” said that Senatore Marconi was not cointent, to rest satisfied with what he had done ; he was still a pioneer and continued inventing and perfecting.

Senatore Marconi, who was loudly cheered on rising, said, looking back over a period eft 30 years;, that he had to confess to a feeling of very great satisfaction, mingled perhaps wit,h bewilderment, at the. wonderful progress made by wireless or radio science since his first experiments and tests at his father's country house at Bologn, in Italy. He well remembered, when he was a boy, reading of the epoch-making experiments carried out by Professor Heinrich Hertz which proved that Clerk Maxwell’s hypothesis of the existence of ether waves was correct, thereby giving the world a new insight, into 1 the hidden mechanisms, of Nature. Somehow f|r other, he soon came to realise the idea that these waves might be eminently adapted to a new system df communication through space which would possibly work over long distances. . Senatnore Marconi described his early work, and how, in March, 1896, he came to England and submitted his ideas to the. late Sir William Preece, then Engineer-in-Chief to the Post Office. ' “I shall ever be grateful,” he added, "to the memory of Sir William Preece, and also to the authorities of the Post Office, who at such an early date realised something o£ the importance ctf the work in which I was then engaged.” Perhaps they would agree with him that the science and art of radio communication in the last thirty years had made gigantic strides, in many ways far exceeding the anticipations of the very few persons who, like, himself, so many years ago believed in its future.

Referring to pioneer work in wireless telegraphy, he said that what he thought he did discover was that electric waves were capable of travelling and being received across very great distances. The successful .tests of wireless transmission which he had carried out across the Atlantic Ocean in December. 1901, proved for the first time that the possible range of these waves was enormously greater than almost anyone before, that time had supposed, that the curvature of the earth was no real obstacle, and that radio communication would probably be possible across any distance on" our earth. Telephonic broadcasting, which became possible after the invention of the thermionic valve, was rapidly becoming a necessity in every civilised country as a means of disseminating information and entertainment. In the short period of three years the number, df license-holders was now close on one and a-hlaf million, representing a total audience of habitual and occasional listeners of 10,000,000 in Great Britain alone. The art of radio, communication was now undergoing a complete process of evolution, the effects of which were still difficult to foresee. THE BEAM SYSTEM. The extraordinary results obtained in recent years by means of short waves and the possibility of projecting these waves in beams covering only a limited angle or area seemed to indicate, that the previously planned powerful and very expensive stations would no longer be necessary for long-distance communications, and that better and more reliable services could be established and maintained by means of much less, costly stations working at high speeds, and utilising a fa<• smaller amount of electrical energy. “Electric waves are proving te bo far too valuable to be always br adcast in all directions,” Stenatore Marconi added, “especially when it is desired to communicate only with one particular place or area, and it is for this reason that, the new stations operated on what is called' the ‘beam system,’ which are now being erected for communicating between England, India, the dominions, and foreign countries, are likely to provide what might almost be considered a new method of communication, destined to fill a posit,ion o'f the greatest importance in further 'facilitating and cheapening communication throughout the world.” (Cheers.)