A New Era in Marine Communication

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 25, 2 January 1931, Page 9

A New Era in Marine Communication

Wireless Telephony at Sea

Wits the introduction of wireless telephony at sea, marine wireless eommunication has made its most important advance since Marconi first installed telegraph apparatus on board ship more than thirty years ago. The use of wireless telegraphy elimjnated the isolation of ships at sea by providing a means of immediate communication between ships and from ship to shore, an innovation which has revolutionised the conditions of sea travel during the present century. The wireless telephone does more. It places e marine traveller in direct personal pmmunication with his friends and usiness associates ashore, or on other ressels suitably equipped, as easily as though he and they were at home or in their offices. It opens a new era in marine communication, as surely as the telephone ashore opened a new era in domestic and business communication. The rapid extension of the present telephone facilities at sea, both in the number of ships fitted wita the: new: radio telephone and the number of countries with which they are linked, is a future certainty. Within the next few years it is probable that passengers on any of the principal passenger liners will be in a position to."ring up" any telephone subscriber in practically any country in‘the world, while the ship is steaming on any of the seven seas. A Convincing Demonstration. ~ THE remarkable equality of the telephone service already . availabie through the new equipment was de-

monstrated to thousands of wireless listeners in the British Isles recently, when a conversation between a passenger of the White Star liner Homeric in mid-Atlantic and Mr. Harold Nicolson, in the B.B.O. studios at Savoy Hill, London, was broadcast. Hvery word of the Homeric passenger’s vivid description of the sea scene before him and of the day’s happenings on board was as clearly heard as the questions and comments of Mr. Nicolson: speaking into the microphone in London. Particularly noticeable was the clarity of' the speech from mid-Atlantic and the absence of "background’’-that annoying hum or crackling which some-~-times ruins long-distance telephony even by land-line. The telephone equipment of the Homeric, the first liner to be so equipped for commercial purposes, is identical in its main features with the ap. paratus used by the Marchese Marconi on his famous yacht Dlettra. In his recent experiments Marconi has spoken from the Mediterranean to Sydney, London, Bombay, Montreal, New York, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Thus it may be seen that the installation is capable of a world-wide range. Wireless experts who have heard conversations carried on by its means have been amazed at the clarity and steadiness achieved, and have declared it to be far ahead of

any telephony hitherto carried on from a ship at sea. Though great interest centres on the use of telephony on such ships as the Homeric, telephony at sea is not likely to be restricted to larger passenger vessels. It is already widely used on smali vessels on which no skilled operator is earried, the Marconi Company having designed and constructed self-contained transmitting and receiving equipments which require no more experienced manipulation than the ordinary domestie telephone. Use by Whaling Fleets. S2ts of this type have been used for the past two or three seasons by whaling fleets in the Antarctic. They are normally operated by the harpoongunners and have proved invaluable in the process of hunting, by making it possible for whole fleets to co-operate in the search for whales, and at the same time to keep in touch with the floating factories and the bases ashore. Prior to the introduction of wireless telephony in this arduous industry, it sometimes happened that one whaling vessel would discover a whole school of whales while other sought in vain. Nowadays a telephone call across the southern seas concentrates all the fleet immediately on the site of the rich hunting area, with the result that record seasons have been attained. By

means of a simple code system, special hunting information may be restricted to the vessels of a particular fleet, while general information or calls for assistance can be broadcast, Another important use for wireless telephony at sea was recently introduced when the new White Star liner Britannic was equipped with radio telephone equipment for the period. of her trials, to enable the technical experts and observers on board to keep in touch with the builders’ yards, where similar equipment was installed. So valuable did this innovation prove in passing immediate information regarding progress between the ship on trial in the Clyde Hstuary and the yards in Belfast, ‘that the builders, as soon as the trials were completed, arranged for similar facilities on board the steamer Innisfallen, which they had just completed. Future Importance. Tt is evident, therefore, that the wireless telephone is destined to play an important part in the future of all departments of marine communication, especially having regard to the general increase in "the international telephone habit" following the development of overseas telephone services. The efficiency of the installations is demonstrated by their proved utility under all conditions of working, and their reliability by the fact that the design of the equipment employed is based (Concluded on page 10.)

(Coneluded from page 9.) upon the results of more than ten years’ successful research in marine wireless telephony. It was, in fact, as long ago as 1920 that the Marconi Company demonstrated the possibilities of ship-to shore telephony when delegates to the Imperial Press QConference of that year, which was held in Canada, were enabled to speak from the ss, Victorian in mid-Atlantic to Wngland and Canada. This‘demonstration was followed, by a number of further experiments which may be sald to have culminated in the perfected apparatus used for the commercial marine telephone services of to-day