The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-01-17
THE RADIO TELEPHONE

Probably the most wonderful inven-
ton of the present day is the radio
telephone Following quickly upon
the wireless telegraph, it has used
much the same principles of electrical
science. Twenty-Five years ago, when
the properties of the cathode and
anode rays were discovered, the pro-
cess of making X-ray photographs
was developed That was the begin
ing of the conquest of the mysterious
electrical waves, the very existence
of which had only recently been
known. When we survey what has
been accomplished in the past quarter
century, there seems no limit to what
the ingenuity of man can perform.
These wonderful new discoveries are
frequently made the basis of fantastic
speculation by the ignorant and the
INSCRIPTIONS. A pioneer in the art
of making literary material out of
science. by pushing its fancied scope
to undiscovered extremes, was Jules
Verne. He made some remarkably
z,
but he loaded his story with obvious
/ impossfbilities, such as glass windows
to explore the bottom of the sea. In
his trip to the moon, he was even more
fantastic. But the actual facts of
modern discovery have been more
wonderful than anything Jules Verne
wrote about.
Edward Bellamy was one of the
early writer's who had the foresight
to predict some of the developments
of the telephone, but he did not imag-
inc such a thing as the wireless tele-
phone. One of the things described
in Looking Backward" was the sys-
tenn of distributing news, lectures,
| sermons and music by telephone to
every house. He did not explain how
! it was done, and so, of course, was
able to jump over all the difficulties.
Under the wire arrangements such a
general program could hardly be pos
sible, as it would soon run into too
great multiplicity of wires. But the
wireless discoveries have swept that
difficulty away. Every house can now
| be on a multitude of circuits without a
single wire. The wonder is so great
| that the layman can scarcely believe
| it. Any sending station can now dis
patch waves to innumera'ble receiving
boxes scattered throughout the wide
| zone of it's radius of efficiency. Musi-
cal concerts and lectures or any vari-
| ETY. of sounds, can be sent with a
moderate sized equipment to all places
within one hundred miles. The more
powerful the equipment, the wider
the zone. 1t is believed that it will
| be possible to carry all over the Unit
ed States.
! The easy money takers never miss
an opportunity to exploit the over
! confident on all new ideas. They
hatch wonderful stock selling schemes
on the base OF them. BY playing on
the popular interest and lack of tech
| meal knowledge of the public, they
sepa@te the unsophisticated from
their money. 1t would he better to &c
slow on taking flyer in any untested
scheme backed only by roseate de-
scriptions.
But while we may not rush to get
rich in speeulations. there is no harm
in growing enthusiastic over scien-
! tific possibilities. Even though Bel
lamy pictured it, there is no likelihood
that the telephone will ever displace
the newspapers, although it will play
an increasingly more important part
in the distribution of news. The gath
| ering of news will be greatly simpli
fled and cheapened. But as no con
| siderable of people would want tc
hear the same dispatch at the same
instant, and all would want to be able
to read it when convenient, the news
paper will continue to exist. But the
idea of a singer or a lecturer being
able TO entertain everybody in the
state who cared to listen 10 him thrills
one with possibility. On Armistice
Day thousands of people in the Civic
Center of San Francisco heard Presi-
dent Harding speak to the people in
Arlington Cemetery, Virginia. That
was wire work. however. Truly. the
days of wonderful things are upon US