Evening star., 1922-05-14

nature.l
Radio, mans newest and destined to
be, perhaps. his greatest servant. is
still in it's veriest infancy.
This mysterious power. which picks
up words. phrases. the music OF an
entire band or sound of any de-
scription, and literally hurls it across
a continent; which guides ships safely
through a wall of opaque fog; which
has been made to control a ship with
out a crew; which penetrates the sea
and enters submarines resting on the
bottom of the ocean, and IN dozens
of other ways has mani1esteo powet
that seems beyond belief, has not yet
left the swaddling clothes stage ana
the limit of its development ana
power cannot as yet, with any degree
of certainty, be forecasted.
These assertions are made aiter
which have been employed In re-
search, and development work In the
service of Navy. which has GER
tainly done as much, If not more, tnah
any other one agency to bring ra91o
to its present stage Of perfection For
it is the Navy which has erected the
greatest radio stations in the world;
has perfected the radio compass TO
its present state; has made the eX-
periments with radio-controlled cra1p
and has studied ceaselessly for new
methods by which this mysterious
power may be made of more use TO
the nation and to mankind. II IS
due to the Navy efforts that radio
station sending out unauthorlzeo
messages. may be detected and closed
up, and there are thousands or ilttle
details, each worked out by the Navy
>in the most painstaking manner. that
have gone far to give radio its pres
ent popularity.
Has Million DevOtees.
For radio broadcasting, practically
unknown few short months ago,
has leaped into instant popularity
among all classes. Call 1t fad, amuse-
ment, hobby or what you will. there
is no denying that anything which
can claim more than a million deVo-
tees almost overnight is more than
passing fancy. And the Navy wants
TO encourage these amateurs, Tor II
has learned by experience that your
amateur is usually a thinker, ready
to experiment at all times to get bet
ter results, and these improvements
are passed on to the government FOR
use in ,perfecting its apparatus on
land and. sea. Also this popularity
of radio broadcasting is building up
a veritable army of amateurs, who
will be ready to step to the front as
professionals in the event of any
emergency.
The growth of this fad is due most
ly to the fact that the radio sets are
with a mechanical turn of mind, ana
are reasonable in price for those who
do not care to take the trouble to
build a set. Radio is responsible Tor
the addition of another great indus
try in the United States-the building
q nannfQcturefS
today are hardly able to keep pace
with the demand. Estimates are that
within a year the present more than
a million fans will have doubled In
numbers.
May Mean Universal Speech.
To take just peep into the future
possibilities Of radio we must con-
stations are constantly being built,
and eventually, 1 believe, it Will be
possible to hear a phonoeraph record,
played in New York; an opera or
band concert, or even a speech, in
stantly on the other side of the world.
This should lead to a universal music.
at least. and might be the means of
introducing a universal speech. 1 be-
lieve that the time will come when
it will be possible'to talk to the other
side of the world as easily as it is
now to talk over a space of few
hundred miles, and that time is not
so far distant as might be imagined.
Radio also seems destined to solve the
problem of all our people getting
high-c1asS entertainment at practical
ly no cost, for it will be only neces-
sagy to tune the receiving set to
resonance with that of broadcasting
apparatus of a great opera star, a
noted band or similar amusement, to
hear it as plainly as If one were
present.
adds to it's attractiveness. People
are prone to admire things they
cannot exactly understand, and the
appeal to the Imagination made
through the picking of a concert lit
orally out of the air gives the new
science an ever-increasing popu-
larity.
Ever since Marconi made his first
practical demonstration of radio sig
mailing. twentyfiv years ago, in
vestigations, research, experiments
and trials have been carried on by
Army, Navy and civilian-and al
though great strides have been made
in the past twenty years. these ex-
perts will make only the most guard
ed statements concerning this sub
ject. particularly as regards the con-
of any form of radio service over
long distances under varying sea-
sonal and other conditions.
Little known Of "Ether.-
This attitude will be appreciated by
the public when consideration is
given the fact that the mysterious
substance which we call the "etiler,"
and by the utilization of which radio
signals are transmitted and receiv-
ed, may be said to exist only in the
Imagination, as 1t cannot be physi-
cally grasped and it's presence in the
universe Is known only as a result Of
it's manifestations in connection with
the science of radio. Coincident with
the invention of the wireless or radio
by Marconi it was necessary, so to
speak, to invent the ether on which
to build up a theory in explanation
of the function of this medium of
, signaling through space. And it is
mot strange, when the little scientists
positively know of this force is taken
into consideration, that the general
public knows practically nothing at
all.
Radio broadcasting. however, is
not fad, but is the result of an
extremely forward step by scientists
in their efforts to wrest from nature
her secrets to be utilized for the well
fare and betterment of mankind.
A most exasperating problem is
furnished by vagrant ether waves
, which interfere with broadcasting