EMPIRE CONNING TOWER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 239, 2 October 1908, Page 4

EMPIRE CONNING TOWER.

WIRELESS INNOVATION. WARSHIPS LINKED WITH THE ADMIRALTY. London. August 14. An interesting article by Mr. W. T. Stead -has been published in the Westminster Gazette. At the outset Mr. Stead ask.-!: "How many have noticed the somewhat fantastic apparatus of wires that has thi s summer been iixed to the tower of the new Admiralty buildings in WhitehallV "They have/ 5 says Mr. Stead, '*a somewhat dishevelled appearance, as if an old lady's few remaining corkscrew curls had been blown into the air, at lirst sight an inexplicable spectacle, until on. closer inspection the lines of parallel wire.- stretching aeros s the roof in mid-air explains the mystery. It is the outward and viable sign of the exact location of the couning-towcr of the British Empire, it is the installation ot wireless telegraphy which enable* my lords to communicate directly with all ships within 1000 miles of land. The full significance ol this latest application of science has, as yet, be.*n imperfectly appreciated at Home. It i s otherwise abroad. The wires weie hardly up at Whitehall liefore the tierman Admiralty ordered a u installation for their ollices at Berlin. Those w-jo understand best the secret of war, the concentration of superior forces upon the point of attack, will most vividly realise the extent of the revolution which these dangling wires have brought about. "Every battle fleet within 1000 miles of our shores—uay, every unit of eveiy battle licet—has now been brought within immediate sound, as it were, of the First Sea Lord's voice. For Sir •Mm Fisher, as he sits in his chair at 1 Whitehall, in the emming-tower of the Empire can survey, the whole area of possible conflict, and direct the moveineu'ts or all the Heels with as much ea>e as if they were manoeuvring beneath his ollice windows. No fleet i> now in danger of being 'lost.' even for a -ingle hour." j Mr. Steud adds that another element i of >afety, which has been entirely over-! looked by alarmists, is that, thanks to the übiquity of our merchant marine, and the certainty that before long evry tramp steamer and every steam trawler will be fitted with wireless installation, no enemy will be able to stir on any of the seas between the Straits of Beilisle and the Suez Caiml without his movements being in>tantly reported r.i Whitehall.