The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-08
NOT BELIEVED WIRELESS
 HURTS CABLE BUSINESS

From the London Electrician
 At meeting of the stockholders of the Western Telegraph company. limited, | held in London on October 3o Sir John Wolfe Barry, K. c. B., one of the most prominent engineers in Great Britan, who presided over the meeting, said in | his address,:
 After the recent statements in the newspapers about the promised early opening for commercial business of wireless system of telegraphy between Ireland and Canada, you may, perhaps, expect me to offer few words on the subject. One ought not. we are told, to prophecy until one knows, and l am by no means anxious to obtrude my opinions. On the other hand, however, I have been l asked for my views as your chairman by several respected shareholders. and I feel it to be somewhat of a duty not to refuse I to say what I think on a subject which touches our interests, though l should have preferred to adopt the safer and more eongenal policy of silence and the awaiting of the verdict of the logic events
 But as l have been invited to express my opinion, I feel bound to say at once that as far as I can judge. I do not look upon any system of wireless telegraphy as serious competitor with our cables Some years ago said the same thing, and nothing has since occurred to alter my views, nor do l think that those of the experts whom we then consulted have become different. At that time the length over which wireless messages were sent was, perhaps, 300 to 100 miles, but l then said that did not put any bounds in that respect to the development of science and that greater distances would probably be compassed.
 The fundamental difficulties and imper- fections of wireless telegraphy, however remain, in the want of certainty of trans mission, the want of secrecy, and in the confusion which must occur when numer- ous messages are not conveyed by di- rect conductor. such as a telegraph cable or land-line, from point to point, but are thrown with great violence up into the ether. into which they radate in all di- rections, to be disentangled and interpre- ted at the other side of the globe. I am well aware that by tuning or syntonisiny the receiving instruments to the wave length of the sending instruments some
 
 fusion can be met. and to a limited extent this IS the case. Secrecy. however, Is only really attainable so long as third parties abstain from tuning their instruments to interpret the messages--a process which l am tod on the highest authority, pre- sents no difficulty. 1t is also evident that confusion of simultaneous messages in the ether can be lessened by tuning. but there again we must remember that the number of graduations of tuning is limited to an extent which seems to me to be quite incompatible with the acquire ments of large telegraphic business. I believe that some 25000 paying words pass to and from this country by cables during busy hour, and we know that New York expects to receive and answer stock exchange telegrams with London in four or five minutes. After making all allow ances for possible tuning, I cannot but think that the confusion in the ether will be worse confounded if any considerable number of wireless messages are attempt ed With regard to certainty of transmits sion, believe that many disturbances of the ether by natural causes must always he encountered, and that the longer the distances attempted the more formidable will be the difficulties from atmospheric