Evening star., 1924-05-29
ACROSS OCEAN PHONE.
SERVICE LIKELY SOON
Voice of Subscribers Would Go
Over Atlantic Via Radio
Stations.
EXPERIMENTS PROGRESSING
Two-Way Conversation Would Be
Possible.

Following a demonstration in jan
uary. 1928, made by the officials of the
American Telephone and Telegraph
Company and the Radio Corporation
of America, in cooperation. when
radio telephone speech was trans
mitted for two hours from New York
to London. the British post office ap-
pointed committee to investigate
transatlantic telephony. This COM
mittee has recently recommended that
the British post office establish a 200
XIV. radio telephone plant at its
new radio station at Rugby. England
The committee recommends that this
plant be OF type similar to that
which has been used by the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company
and the Radio Corporation of America
in the experiments which they have
been carrying on for the last eighteen
months in transmitting speech across
the Atlantic.
Hook-Up with London.
If this work is carried out, it is the
expectation that under favorable at
mospheric conditions during the winter
months, it will be possible to connect
telephone subscribers in the United
London, and in this way permit them
to talk to each other as they do over
ordinary telephone circuits. In doing
this the subscribers at each end
would be connected to their respec-
tive radio stations by the wire tele-
phone lines.
Atmospheric conditions, however
vary tremendously from winter to
summer and during the different
hours of each day. To determine the
NJ Il, OH,
the engineers of the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company, in CO.
operation with the Radio Corpora
tfon, have been transmitting speech
weekly from America to England
and have been measuring static in
reference and the strength of sig
nails received from a number of Brit
ish telegraph stations.
The British post office, to cooperate
In this work, erected Il special form
or receiving antenna, and pending
the erection of a telephone transmit
ting station, has been carrying out
careful measurements of the energy
which 1t receives under various con-
ditions from the telephone transmit
ting station in America, and also from
certain telegraph stations.
First Test in 1918.
The tests which will be possible
when the British transmitting station
Is completed will form another i'm
portant step in the work which has
been carried on for many years in
the development of radio telephony
across the Atlantic Ocean. The first
successful telephone transmission
across the Atlantic was in 1915, when
engineers of the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company succeeded In
talking by radio telephone from the
United States naval station at Airing
ton. Virginia, across the Atlantic to
Paris, while the same messages were
heard 5000 miles to the westward, at
Honolulu.
The tests which have already been
carried out, and the additional tests
which will be made if the new Brit
ish station is erected, will give infor-
nation as to the practicability of es-
tablishing transatlantic telephone
service, the best operating methods
to be employed, the attitude of the
many other factors necessary to be de-
termined before the opening of any
regular commercial service could be
undertaken. The difficulties of the
technical problems to be overcome
are we'll indicated by the fact that at
mospheric conditions often change so
greatly that the amount of power re-
quired at one time to give audible
speech in England may be 10000
times as great as that required few
hours before.
The news from London indicates
that preparations are well under way
for transmission from London to New
York, and that when completed two
way talking, at least experime ntally,
will be possible.