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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1024, 1 August 1911, Page 2

The possibilities of wireless in linking up space was demonstrated in Wellington the other evening. Mr Gumming (who is one of the Department’s most valued experimenters) has erected a 45ft. aerial at his residence at Ngaio, and, with the aid of a little receiver, he sits comfortably in an easy chair, and hears the world talk —or a big section of it. One night recently when the wind blew, and the

rain pattered, he was sitting at his ease when he heard a faint buzzing “A.A.1,.,” and again “A.A.L.” Then he listened more attentively, adjusted the detector a little, and then listened to the A’.U.S.N. Co.’s steamer Levuka, then off Dimi, Fiji (1300 miles from Wellington), talking to Suva and Sydney. When, with a small, home-made gear, a man sitting under a pole at Ngaio can hear a vessel speaking the full width of the Tasman Sea, one asks what is the limit ? Mr Gumming could not say. At the Wellington station in the G.P.O. they have picked up a message sent by the Ulimaroa when in Bass Strait, and it was so clear that it was estimated that the message could have been heard hundreds of miles further to the east. Wellington can hear Sydney talking plainly, but cannot talk back —in this case it is much easier to receive than to give.