Two-way Communications

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 11, 27 September 1929, Page 31

Two-way Communications

__o Interesting Address R. BW. T. FISK, Australia’s greatest authority on wireless, and Managing Director of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Limited, delivered an interesting address from 2FO on Sunday, September 15, from 6.40 to 7 pm., 8.10 to 8380, New Zealand Time, on "Bridging the Gulfs of Distance." BR=XFORE the advent of cable communication, said Mr. B. T. Fisk, managing director of A.W.A., speaking from 2FC on Monday night, and in the days of sailing ships, Australia and New Zealand was extremely isolated

from the rest of the world, and consequently her development was slow. The first cable connection between Australia and Great Britain made an astonishing difference, because, although the eost of communication was very high and the time of transmission was great, it enabled urgent messages to be sent with greater certainty and rapidity than by the long and precarious oversea route, Additional cables were laid as time went on, the cost was reduced, and the speed of transmission was increased. More news could be received from the outside world, and the transaction of important business was facilitated. Extension of the cable service, however, involved capital expenditure of several millions sterling, and the great distance between Australia and important centres of the outside world involved the necessity of relaying messages at several intermediate points, with the result that the speed of communication was.limited and the cost remained relatively high. Thirty-three -years ago Marconi demonstrated in Hngland the first practical system of telegraph communication without connecting wires. In the early stages he communicated across a distance of five miles. His next step forward was the transmission of a wire:

less message across the Hnglish Channel, which was followed soon after by the transmission of a very faint signal | across the Atlantic Ocean. The first great application of wireless communication was between the shore and ships at sea, thus destroying the isolation which had previously been the greatest handicap of the seafarer. The next step was the-establishing of regular communication between Great Britain and North America, but in spite of the remarkable strides made by the new discovery, very few people could accept the idea that it would ever be possible to send a wireless message direct across the world between Australia and Great Britain. As a result of the pioneering efforts of a very few people who had faith in the further development of this great science, not only haye wireless messages been transmitted between

Australia and Great Britain, but 4 regular high-speed telegraph service is now in full operation, eliminating all intermediate relays, carrying messages at a higher speed than any other longdistance telegraph service, and at the same time very materially reducing the cost of communication. This great advance in world-wide wireless telegraphy has been followed by an equally startling development in wireless telephony, with the result that two persons-one in England and one in Australia-can now converse by this = -~

means as easily a and clearly as we speak by telephone between Sydney and 2 nearby suburb. By means of modern wireless stations, Australia can now be put into telegraphic and telephonic communication direct with any place on the face of the earth, without having to lay costly cables and by using the ether as a medium through which the élecromagnetic waves travel at a speed greater than one million miles | per minute. It may safely be said that distance and isolation have been greatest and perhaps the only serious handicap to Australia and New Zealand, and the development of wireless has now atrived at such a point that distance is practically annihilated and isolation no longer exists. This means that our country of vast potential wealth can be brought into close contact with the great masses of humanity in other parts of the world, that it will be better understood, more effectively advertised, and the development of our trade and commerce will be facilitated to a far greater extent than ever before. No other country has so much to gain from the full development of wireless communication, and Mr. Fisk considers that wireless is the greatest gift of science to Australia.