RADIO TELEGRAPHY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5514, 16 December 1929, Page 2

RADIO TELEGRAPHY.

CLAIMS OF NEW INVENTION. POST OFFICE ENGINEER’S VIEW Amazing claims were made recently by an inventor in London concerning the transmission of messages at very high speed. Ten thousand words it was stated could be transmitted by telegraph ip a minute ; Empire newspapers could be published simultaneously in London, Sydney, Capetown,, Montreal and Calcutta, including pictures, the whole contents of a large daily newspaper ' being faithfully transmitted to those distances in a few minutes.

When asked concerning the matter, the Chief Engineei- of the Post and Telegraph Department, Mr A. Gibbs, was distinctly surprised at the rate mentioned—ten thousand words a minute.

“There has been no mention of any such system,” he explained, “in any of the recent technical journals. Possibly the new idea depends upon some method of picture transmission. It ‘is already possible, of course, to set up newspaper type at* distances of hundreds of miles, but that does not refer to pictures, which require individual treatment. At present the usual speed as employed in this Dominion is 40 words a minute. Thanks to what is known as the multiplex system, it is possible for us to use four two-way channels over the same line and thus greatly expedite the work.

“In some countries where considerable quantities of Press messages are handled speeds up to 250 words a minute are achieved. , The new system mentioned, though, must make use of such method altogether different from current practice. All the same it is strange it has not been discussed or even mentioned in the technical papers. No, I should say there is very little chance of it being employed out here for many years.”