THE MAGIC OF SCIENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1004, 3 October 1912, Page 4

THE MAGIC OF SCIENCE.

MORE-THAN-HUMAN MACHINES.

A clean-shaven man, with the smile of a happy schoolboy, his hands in the pockets of his dark blue lounge suit, and his straw hat tilted on the back of his head, wandered through a workshop of wonders at Chelmsford.

He was apparently the least interested of a group of the world's “wireless experts,’’ the delegates to the International Radio-Tele-graphic Conference now meeting in London, who were fhen being conducted round the'new works of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd. Few of the party knew this young man, who seemed the only unamazed spectator, but presently a whisper ran round: “It is Marconi himself.” And so it was.

The visit to the Chelmsford workshops, a veritable home of modern magic was a rare privilege, for the secrets of the air are naturally carefully guarded by those who have probed the great mysteries, but Commendatoie Marconi had made a notable exception in honour of the world's first “wireless” congress. Scientists of nearly every nation came to see these Djinus of the Air harnessed to service by a magic as swift as any in the Arabian Nights. A swarthy, bearded Moor, in turban, and heavy overcoat over his flowing robes, Turks in red fezes, almondeyed little Japs., and a sphinx-like Chinaman, mingled with the delegates from Australia, Africa, America, and every European country.

All through the afternoon Chelmsford chatted with Poldhu in Cornwall, more than three hundred miles away, and there was little to show how the magic was worked, save a two hundred foot mast on the lawn, from which the Union Jack waved in the sunshine.

Inside the works, in a tiny cabin as. tigutly closed as a safe, an operator, pressing a knob, spoke with his colleagues flying replies from the air as a conjurer collects rabbits from an empty hat. A closed motor car, part of a military field equivalent, stood in the grounds, and inside, guests, with telephone clips over their heads, talked across London with Hendon, while Mr Marconi was helping his visitors to strawberries and cream as cheerily as a Harrow boy on Speech-day.

The latest wonder of all was a marvellous instrument which was photographing these “wireless” waves.

On a narrow strip of sensitised paper—like the tape ot a “ticker” machine —a jagged line, irom which a message could be read like print by an expert, was being photographed swiftly, foot by foot.

This ingenious device enables an operator to leave his instrument with a sure knowledge that his much-more-than-human machine will record any message that may come through the air out of the unknown while he is away, and leave a permanent record. A plantation wire, only x-2400th of an inch in thickness, so fine, in fact, that it can only be seen under a microscope, is the cause ot this miracle. This infinitesimal line is moved by the slightest “wireless” wave, and the movement is photographed on the strip. On the “wireless” side there was no difficulty about this device, but the perfecting of the camera has taken two years of thought by Mr Marconi and his assistants. It will now soon be ready to be placed on the market as a commercial fact. Another new invention is a “wireless” telephone, which accurately indicates the direction from which any “wireless” message is coming. A compass in front of the receiver shows at a glance the point from which the “wireless” waves originate, and to vessels in fogs 01 in grave distress at sea the device should be invaluable.

“Wireless” equipments for airships, motor vehicles, and cavalry corps were shown to the delegates, and also a neatly packed set which can be carried by four mules or horses for military field transport. Sir J. Henniker Heaton, of postal reform fame, Lord lilyth, Captain Cecil Norton, M.P., assistant Postmaster-General, and Sir Henry Babington-Smith, president of the “Wireless” Congress, were among the guests of Mr Marconi at Chelmsford, and at a banquet at the Savoy Hotel in the evening.

There honour was done the “Wizard of Wireless” in many tongues, and Professor Koehler paid him tribute for “his immeasurable services to commerce and the navy, and in saving lives at sea.”