THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 113, 2 November 1911, Page 8

THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE

A ! WONDERF UL INVENTION. ' J 3 *®iawntor of the wireless telephone Mr. Grindell Matthews, claims that he is nearly ready to place his apparatus upon the market. He has been conducting many experiments in London, and lrns succeeded in satisfying several experts that he is able to converse with a friend at a distance of over five miles. Recently lie was locked in the strongroom of a commercial house, in the presence of witnesses, and tin- instrument he had with him conveyed his voice to another wireless telephone in a distant room, through steel plates, concrete and •brick. Now he is contemplating tt test through five miles of solid rock, "between Chepstow and Tintern, and he has succeeded in speaking from, Beachley, in Gloucestershire, to New Passage, nearly six miles away, on the other side of the river Severn. The inventor states that his instrument, which can be made to sell at a handsome profit for £lO, and costs practically nothing for maintenance, will consist of a box of such modest dimensions and weight that any man could, if he wished, carry one about with him, and thus become his own telephone exchange, able to get into immediate communication with any friend similarly armed. He points out "that, apart from' private use, his instrument would be of the greatest possible value to Great Britain in time of war, by enabling commanders of columns miles apart to keep constantly in touch with each other, and interchange ideas and information much quicker and more fully than they could do by wireless telegraphy under war conditions, or b3* any other means of communication. Some scientific men have expressed the opinion that Mr. Matthews' invention cannot be put into general use, but a few years ago a similar statement was being made with ;reigia,i|d( to Marconi's wireless telegraph apparatus. It seems, however, that if many of the new telephone instruments were sold* the owners would be in danger of interfering with one another's conversations.