Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

338 Radio Broadcast at the Eiffel Tower wireless telegraph station was not then used, as it was desired to approximate conditions obtaining on shipboard. From a small antenna communication was demonstrated to a government station at Melun, sixty kilometres distant. The Italian Navy, following the examples of our own, decided then to install the radio telephone on several war vessels at Spezia. Between the arsenal wireless station, at San Vito, and the little scout vessel Partenope, conversations were maintained up to eighteen miles, notwithstanding that the scout's aerial was only thirty-five feet high. Skirting in close under the lee of Palmuria's Isle, a rocky cliff and mountain 1500 feet in height separated the two stations, and yet the distant voices came in clear and distinct. Through the port-hole of the little cabin 1 could look straight into the black entrance of Byron's Cave, where it is said the poet has written some of his best lines. As I repeated to the hidden listener those first lines from the Corsair: "O'er the glad waters of the deep blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free," I wondered if ever in that rocky cliff Byron's vivid imagination had fared so far as to picture this strange reality! The growing realities of the possibilities of the radio telephone for naval purposes was shown when the British Admiralty next expressed a desire to witness its operation. In September, 1908, an elaborate demonstration was made at Portsmouth, between H. M. S. Furious and H. M. S. Vernon. Here was established the longest range record up to that time in an official test — over fifty sea miles, although the limit of the apparatus was by no means reached. As proof of accuracy, and significant of what the "sea-phone" could accomplish merely as long range, day or night, substitute for flag-signalling, lists of numerals were read off on the Furious and copied on board the Vernon. Lists of figures read at fifty miles were received without an error. Then came 1914, and the swift development of radio communication through the needs of war. In the light of what the Oscillion radio telephone accomplished for the Allies during the war, these bits of ancient history in this new young art (already "old" after ten years) now take on a new interest, for, thanks to this new young art, we had the voice-commanded squadron, airplane artillery fire control, and immediate communication at sea between ships, and between ships and shore stations, all of which is now taken as an ordinary matter of course. Obviously the prime field for the radio telephone is to furnish communication where it is impossible or inexpedient to stretch or maintain wires or cables, and yet let us not forget also that one of the big advances in wire telephony to-day, the recently heralded multiplex telephone, whereby several distinct, individual telephone conversations may be held over one wire at one time, is in truth nothing more or less than the practical use of a telephone wire in serving as a guide to a number of wireless waves of varying length, each wavelength in turn acting as the unseen messenger of the individual wire "telephone" conversation. Here, too, it is pleasing to note the results of pioneer work done by an American inventor; on this occasion, an expert who has long used his efforts in behalf of the advancement of the radio art. Major General George O. Squier. BROADCASTING IT IS in the field of Broadcasting, however, that I personally find an especial interest, no doubt through the fact that for many years, indeed since my first experience with the transmission of news and music by radiophone, in 1907, 1 have taken an eager part in dreaming of what was to come on this particular side of radio development. At no time throughout those many years, when so many of our foremost citizens refused to pay heed to the art of the radiophone, could 1 see anything but the practical service to be rendered by it. Failure to convince men of standing in the world of public interest, as well as in the commercial field, led to numerous disappointments, and further delays. The endless number of demonstrations we arranged with a view to convincing the public that the day of radio was here, were seemingly of no avail. To-day 1 would not, in dwelling on this almost uncanny Radio Renaissance which the broadcasting idea has brought upon us, overlook the all-important part therein which the newspapers have played. Without the discerning vision of certain of our more progressive editors, the already immense success of our radio broadcasting idea could never have