The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 13. WIRELESS WONDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 91, 13 May 1909, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 13. WIRELESS WONDERS.

mrougii tiiv non-utilisation ot the /wonderful discovery of wireless electrical transmission by this country the general j public is largely in ignorance of the | I wonderful uses to which tliv new inI vention, if such it might be termed, is I being applied hi the countries of the old , world. Wireless telegraphy is now acI cepted as an established accomplishment, over which the ordinary individual has ceased to marvel; although its use in Australasia is still so rare that the recent feat of th e Admiralty estab- . lishing wireless communication between • Wellington and Sydney was of sufficient ' novelty to be noted with interest. Wire- \ lees telegraphy has proved its value as an agent of vital importance to human- ) it)', and it is to be hoped that the day is not far distant when all inter-colonial shipping will b c equipped with this modern safety-insurer. The discovery of the marvellous powers of "wireless" was quickly turned into account for purposes other than those of peace, and within the last few weeks we have learned of the successful application of this marvellous agency to engines of war. If all that is claimed for the new radioautomatic torpedo, built at the Crucsot | works, in France, is true, it promises to | prove the most terrible cngin e of dei struction that the genius of man has' j yet invented. This weapon of naval warfare can be worked from shore or j from ship, and can be used against a i ship of the enemy's fleet in motion, i There is no escaping it. The radioi automatic torpedo is controlled and directed by the employment of Hertzian waves, and by the aid of an apparatus which, differs very little from that now j used in wireless telegraphy. When loaded, it would contain 1000 kilogrammes of guncotton and about ten times the quantity of explosive charge of the or. dinarj torpedo. Its' apparatus is synchronised so as to receive the Hertzian waves from the parent ship or shore station, and to refuse those emanating from the enemy. It will he capable if maintaining a maximum speed of nearly 15 knots for five hours. One of the most Important features is the wide I radius of its action. Prom its starting point the operator, bc he on ship 01 ashore, can control its' every movement; stop it, send it dead slow ahead a astern, and alter its course, with as much ease as if he were on board tlie deadly craft. The inventor is Sir. Gustavo Uavct, who lias long devoted himself to the study of the problem and of the science of naval warfare. Following the French invention, we learned yesterday morning of the success of thai inventive genius of the British Navy Ecar-Admiral Sir Percy Scott, with his invention for electrically directing guv fire, and showing a fifty per cent, in crease in hits over the ordinary gun laying methods. More wonderful stil are the inventions announced in thii morning's cables from London, sliow.m ■ that handwriting and printed character! may now be transmitted and received ► by the agency of wireless. Thew J seems, indeed, no limit to the wonder J ful properties of this indefinable am • mysterious electricity. Our knowlcdg. , of it is purely empiric. We can mak. J electricity, we can use it, apply it, a in ; see it when it takes the form of flam, . or light in order to spring across a ga] J or through a vacuum, as in an arc light ; but why or h o , v it ] lllpm . n6 W( , al ° M - tell. The whole subject is alluring, mvs • terlolls a,ld beyond all human compre ; licnsion, and where the research ol t scientists may lead us it would be futile to hazard.