THE EFFECT OF WIRELESS.

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 22, 13 December 1929, Page 6

THE EFFECT OF WIRELESS.

"AS we read in our daily Press the record of astounding feats of wireless in everyday aspects of life, the imagination is stirred to visualise the possibilities of the future. Less than 20 years ago wireless was harnessed to crime detection by facilitating the arrest of Crippen. To-day we read that the transmission of a photograph by wireless facilitates the arrest of another wanted man. Further, the transmission of a photograph of a document exposed a forgery. In another field the world listens to the flight of Commander Byrd as he wings above Antarctic wastes. In other realms _wifeless facilitates the mental contact of commercial men, politicians and statesmen thousands of miles apart. What is to be the outcome of all this? What will the inevitable reaction be upon the history of humanity? JN our front page article this issue we reproduce a reasoned analysis of the probable course of events, from the pen of Commander J. M. Kenworthy. This article records the growing use of radio in widely diverse fields of activity. It indicates that science is continuing its advance in blazing the trail for the progress of humanity, and that humanity now has facilities for intercommunication which, although they are beginning to be used freely, have not yet attained their fullest utility and freedom in use. The. progress in scientific attainment recorded by this writer is astounding, and indicates the immeasurable possibilities of the future. When people separated by oceans can converse as freely over the radio telephone as citizens of any important city cdn now do over the ordinary wires, a tremendous stride forward is made in-mutual understanding. The commercial effect of this is already being felt. The political effect is a growing factor. Radiovision looms in the distance as a supplement to present-day attainments. In each field barriers of misunderstanding are being broken down. With the facilities for intercommunication there will develop the use of a common language. By force of circumstance English seems destined to occupy this place. In that use there will be made available to the world, not only the language itself, but the principle underlying British literature, British political evolution, British commercial integrity, and administrative capacity. The inevitable effect of these forces will be the promotion of unity. That the world will one day be a single unit in the political sense seems at this moment an impossible conception. Political and geo-

. ee | graphic distinctions will unquestionably always remain; but in the, realms of international understanding and communion of spirit, with their influence upon human life, the future plainly. holds unity as the ideal. . Po, ay