Our Mail-Bag

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 24, 27 December 1929, Page 8

Our Mail-Bag

Appreciated by the Old. [ HAVE been reading in the "Radio Record" about a pal in sickness. Well, every word he says is true, It is just a pleasure to hear Mr. Announcer’s sweet voice. I am to-day (Tuesday) sitting in my dining room listening to those sweet records that have been playing all the week from 12 o'clock. It is simply lovely. I have five old pensioners with me. They do enjoy the music from my wireless, and I often have from 10 to 15 people in to hear my wireless going. Of course they are poor old pensioners; and then I have eight men in the house staying with me, lodgers. When they read some of the complaints they laugh and say "the poor milkman will have a rest now ; something else to find fault with." I think we are treated better here than in Australia. I was born in Australia, Victoria. I know Smithy’s mother and father in Sydney, and I know more about the Kelly Gang than I have read in our evening paper. I knew- Ned’s mother, and sister Kate. I saw the four of them a few hours before they were caught in Glenrowan. I am going to tell you that there is a few in Wellington a -- sight worse than the Kelly Gang. ‘I am no friend of the Kelly Gang, but I know that much. I lived near those Kellys. Why did they start bushranging? They never put the foundation in print.-Q. (Wellington). The Detector Valve. To the Hditor: May attention has been drawn to a statement made by me, appearing in your "Topical News": column on Page 9 of last week’s issue, end of first paragraph, which reads as follows :-*... and in October, 1922, by Professor Fleming’s detector valve," is, unfortunately, a_ slight error on .the part of the reporter, for I said that it was in 1904 that Professor J.. A. Fleming, of London, invented the Meming valve, which consisted of a carbon filament lamp with a sealed-in plate, and I ex-

plained that it was while Fleming was ‘investigating a phenomenon discovered by Thomas A. Hdison in 1890, known as the Hdison Effect, he discovered that the unidivectional conductivity accompanying this effect could be utilised as a detector of radio frequency currents. I then went on to say that it was about 1912 or so that Lee de Forest introduced a third member into the valve between the filament and plate which he called the grid. My reference to October, 1922, was in connection with the first radio exhibition held in London (in which I had the privilege of taking part) a month or so before the British Broadcasting Company started their activities--D. Neill Keith (Wellington). An Appreciation. LASt evening some eight lovers of good music gathered at my home and listened to the relay of "The Messiah," rendered by the Lower Hutt Methodist Choir and assisting artists. It was a wonderful performance, and my friends and I would like to congratulate everyone concerned on such a splendid rendering, We were very sorry when it concluded. I have heard "The Messiah" many times and consider this rendering far above any I have listened to. The choir was beautifully balanced, the soloists were ~outstanding, the orchestra performed well, and the whole performance reflects great credit on the conductor. Station 2YA is to be congratulated on the excellent programmes it provides its listeners’ with, and I consider this rendering of "The Messiah" on a par with the recent Maori Pageant, and look forward to many more such programmes. I would like to mention before closing that we listeners-in regard the announcer at 2YA as a real friend, so here’s wishing the staff at 2YA greetoe) for 1930.-Grateful (Otago Cenal).