Imperial Wireless Communications

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

Imperial Wireless Communications

IRELESS telegraphy and tele- . phony’ will ‘presently be recognised- as the- greatest inventions of the age. The conquest ai of the Ether will have a greater #1 effect than the conquest of the Air. The invention of "wireless" will shape future history to a extent than the discovery of gunpowder affected past history. Gunpowder overthrew feudalism. Wireless will unite mankind.

It is only a question of a few years before -every part of the civilised world will be in instantaneous communication with every other part of the civilised world by. word of mouth. Already, to-day, it is easier for the President of the United States to speak from Washington to his Ambassador in Paris or for the Prime Minister of. England: to speak to the Prime Minister of Canada than it was for Mr..Gladstone to speak to the Mayor of Birmingham. If, to-day, a business man, or statesman, sitting in an office in London :¢an talk to another in New York, Montreal or Johannesburg, and, to-morrow,

"In Austraha or Japan, it is obvious that distances inthe world are annihilated. Yet these wonders have actually happened. It is only twenty-nine years ago since Senatore Marconi sent the first message .by* wireless telegraphy from Cornwall to St. John’s, Newfoundland; yet, despite four ‘years’ interruption by ’ the Great War, to-day we can hear a speech as clearly: across the Atlantic or from Egypt to England, and talk to each other over these immense distances with ‘aS much ease and understanding as. two persons can telephone to each other from adjoining rooms in the same building. UT this is not all.- By the latest invention the same stations can be used for speech over distances of thousands of miles between them by

beam wireless and at the same time and on the same wavelength, telegraph messages can be sent two, and even four, ° at atime. Thus, ~while.the man in London is talking to the man in Montreal, four commercial messages by telegram are being sent from the same stations through the ether at the rate of -hundreds of words a minute. This has been made possible -by a recent invention which is not very elaborate or expensive

and which can be easily adjusted to the existing wireless installations .at the powerful stations. The clearness with which speech can be heard over these immense distances is uncanny. As soon as one speaker pauses in his conversation an automatic regulator switches over and permits the reply. If the two parties to the conversation try to speak at the same time the result is jamming. But equal confusion results if two people try to talk at the same time on the ordinary short-distance telephone! As soon as they stop one can begin again and the words come through as clearly as before. And "by the directional beam system of wireless telegraphy almost complete secrecy can be preserved, 7

FRANCE, Germany, Japan, India, the South American Republics-all can communicate with each other in this way now; and presently the whole world will be encircled... This wonderful and magical development of the great invention of wireless telephony will bring about farreaching and inevitable results. First, let us take commerce. .Remem‘ber we are only on the threshold of the uses of the wireless telephone. As is so often the case, the inventor has

outstripped the public understanding. Neither the business man nor the journalist nor the statesmai nor. the diplomat has yet grasped the possibilities. ’We all use telephones within the frontiers of our own countries. We have hardly begun to use the. existing facilities for ‘commpnicating with overseas nations. The long-distance wireless telephone is, at present, an expensive means’ of communication. So was Edison’s early invention of the telephone, It has been cheapened by use, and so will the beam wireless be, especially, as I have stated above, now that it can be used for the double purpose of speech:

and telegraphic signalling. AS the DuUsiness world,. which will probably: lead in this matter, grasps the possibilities, commerce will be facilitated, international trade will increase, and international economic interests be enhanced. ‘Commercial "arrangements," cartels and trusts, between merchants and manufacturers: engaged in the same line of business in different ‘countries will be facilitated.:' This will be the future tendency of international trade and enterprise in any case. The unregulated international trust may have dangers for the general public in the future; but it is bound to come, and certain advantages should come with it. For the more international. business is developed and ‘-Continued on page 2.

T is at least a possibility that the world, in the comparatively near future, will be united as one huge empire, linked together commercially, socially, and politically by the modern marvel of wireless telephony and telegraphy. At the present day the general public are apt to think of wireless only as a wonderful means of securing entertainment and »instruction. On the more PPLPPPPPPP PPD serious. side of Imperial and world communications, how- . ever, the effect of recent and, as yet; little known discoveries' will be the most far-reaching of all. The following article, by Lieut. Commander the Hon. J. M. Kenworthy (published recently in the "Nash" magazine), reveals and discusses the supreme importance which wireless will undoubtedly assume in the near future as a means of Imperial communication. . PP ey a a PPPPIPPPDPPPRAPPRAPPRPPPARPPD PPP PPP Pad LLL LL LLL DELL LILI SIE LLL III

Imperial Communications (Continued from front page.)

interlocked, the clearer will. be the realisation of the disruptive effects of war or evenof strained relations between peoples. In this direction, therefore, wireless communications will. tend to cement world peace, Another effect will be the facilitation of the transmission of news. As peoples get to know and understand each other better, the old international antagonisms, fears, and suspicions will gradually fade and pass. Broddcasting is sure to have an effect on the language of the world. It is impossible to resist the conclusion, and.the more the subject is studied the firmer that conclusion becomes, that English will become the universal world language for all purposes, as it practically is for commerce and finance to-day. An international language is badly needed in any case, and will become essential in the future. Politically the effect must be. very great also. In a very short time from now the British Prime Minister, from his room in Downing Street, will be able to sit at his desk and telephone to‘his fellow colleagues in the British Dominions: with perfect ease, clarity, and secrecy. His spoken words, transmitted by land-line to one of the powerful wireless stations, will be heard by his colleagues in Canberra and in Wellington.... Their: speech will be heard as clearly in. London or ‘in each other’ s capitals. Radiovision will be the next. step. Some of the bést brains in the world have been working to perfect the transmission of living pictures by wireless. As the British Postmaster-General stated in his written opinion of the recent radiovision demonstrations ~witnessed by him, "the experiment represented a noteworthy scientific achievement." In his words, "the demonstration showed that the system was capable of producing with sufficient clearness to be _ recognised the features and movements of persons posed for the purpose at the transmitting point." Though radiovision is admittedly still in its experimental state, and though the images when received are, as yet, imperfect, yet who would have believed it possible, even twenty years ago, to: have actually transmitted by wireless. telegraphy the moving and living picture of an actual person? It may be that some years will elapse before actual events can be reproduced over great distances by wireless, but that it will be accomplished one day is a certainty. Who can set limits to the ultimate results of this annihilation of distance and the bringing together of all parts of the globe within speaking distance? The human race will soon be one unit. And that the ultimate effects will be for great good, no. one of vision and faith can doubt.