The Miracle of Wireless

Observation Post, Volume 1, Issue 28, 27 November 1942, Page 3

The Miracle of Wireless

THIS HAPPENED BEFORE THE WAR (By W.O. 11. L. V. Winks.) There was once a nightingale who sang more beautifully than any nightingale had ever sung before; she was certainly the queen of all nightingales. A great poet had discovered her deep in the forest of the Bavarian mountains. Everywhere this poet sang a hymn of praise of the little nightingale, and as he was a great, and very famous poet, people the world over- read with great interest what he had to say about the magic voice of the insignificant troubadour. : — — We want to hear it, they said. Thereupon a famous broadcasting company sent its engineers up into the Bavarian mountains to instal a microphone secretly, very carefully, so that — the already world renowned nightingale should on no account notice it. They crept very closely to the old elder tree from which she sang her love song every evening. Over the microphone they hung a few scented sprays of blossom in order to conceal the glitter of the metal. The great transmission took place the next. day. All ■wireless companies the world; over had asked to be allowed to relay the magic song of the little bird. Gramophone records were to be taken. It was a really important experiment in broadcasting. As the 5 sound controller of the great broadcasting, station listened, careful that he should not miss the right moment, people in countries thousands of miles away turned the knobs of their sets to tune in to a unique programme. At the right time, the tuning of a few controls and the festival concert died , away, to be succeeded by the’ beautiful , pure notes of the nightingale. It was movingly simple that little song, full of melodious sweetness, a refreshing change from the blare of a concert orchestra, that even the sober engineers of the broadcasting station stood enraptured. Marvellous said one, how the high frequency comes thr ... He got no further. The syllable stuck in his throat, for from the loud speaker, there suddenly came a long,' ugly, extremely unmusical humming which drowned the delicate voice of the nightingale. It was an extremely awkward moment. There was humming in a world transmission. What was to be done? The chief technician rushed to the control panel, put on the headphones, connected both plugs-direct to the cable which ran to the distant

microphone, and shook his head despairingly. "The humming is coming through alrignt." That was bad. They waited another few —perhaps the humming would stop —but it went on. Thus the novel world transmission had to be interrupted prematurely, " on account of electrical disturbances." it was very disappointing. Only The engineers still sat and listened. - > "Perhaps the wind is blowing into the microphone," one suggested. “Ur perhaps some small boy has discovered the microphone and is humming into it, advised another. But this explanation didn’t seem reasonable for was not the microphone very carefillly hidden and covered with sprays of blossoms. " With what?" The cnief technician sprang up humming the disturbing note and hurried from the room. Somewhere in an empty studio he could be heard striking notes on a piano. When he returned, he was not humming any more. ‘ ‘ How many cycles is B below middle C," he asked? "240" answered the sound controller. ' • “That explains everything," replied the chief, * ‘ you and your sprays of blossoms, what we have just heard was the humming of a bumble bee.” "But how do you know?" someone asked. '"From the frequency!" The wings of the lady bird are moved up and down 90 times per second in flying, those of the housefly 190 times, and those of the bumble bee 240 times. Nowj how is sound produced! Vibrating bodies produce sound." We only hear such oscillations when they are neither too quick nor too slow. For instance, if you could make the pendulum of a clock swing to and fro so quickly that it makes about twenty such movements per second, you would hear it. It would be the very lowest sound we are able to perceive. We would also hear it if the pendulum swung to and fro a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times per second. Now the spray of blossom gave the chief technician the idea of an insect—perhaps a bee, a wasp, or a bumble bee and he searched on the piano for the right note. It was the so-called B be low middle C, and as he knew exactly the number of vibrations per second he was able to identify it as the hum ming of a bumble bee. An ordinary bet only makes 200 vibrations per second a wasp 110. Cycle mean vibrations pei second, so 240 cycles would be 24( vibrations per second and you have it. (To be continued.)