EXTENSION OF TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION 83 



during the week to be transmitted on a Saturday night or during Sunday for delivery 

 on Monday or Tuesday. 



The " deferred " rate system has also been applied to Press cablegrams, and this 

 should prove an enormous impetus to the circulation of news of a not too urgent character. 

 A reduction in press rates between any two countries invariably means that the newspapers 

 of each print a greater volume of matter about the other, which, again, means an 

 increase of business between them in addition to a better understanding and more 

 friendly relations being developed. In fact, a lowering of price in anything invariably 

 leads to increased demand and in proportion to the degree of rebate. Where some 

 sort of guarantee of traffic is given, further reductions should reasonably be looked for 

 in many directions. The cable companies at present demur to extending the deferred 

 rate plan to coded messages, fearing apparently that too large a proportion of their traffic 

 would become " deferred. " 



If the effect of distance is to be satisfactorily overcome we must commune a great 

 deal more than we do through wires that bring us into speedy touch. The facilities at 

 present available do not permit of this, partly owing to cost, but also on account of an 

 actual insufficiency of cables to bear any considerable increase of traffic during mutually 

 busy hours. Many more cables are required in a variety of directions, for accommodat- 

 ing an increase of traffic such as would undoubtedly result from any considerable reducr 

 tion of tariff. It may be said that, meanwhile, the network goes on increasing steadily 

 from year to year as much as ever. The preponderance of cable worked by private 

 enterprise as against that by governments is gradually becoming greatly modified, partly 

 because it is seen that public interests are bound to differ from shareholders' interests 

 in such a case. It will, no doubt, in time be recognised that a nation's oversea communi- 

 cating links should be put on the same footing with general defence the Navy, Army, 

 etc. to which it serves as so important an auxiliary. A great war may, at any moment, 

 make this abundantly clear, but in that case the lesson will be dearly bought. 



Radiotelegraphy. A few years ago there would have been but little to record in regard 

 to radiotelegraphy or " wireless," except in the matter of experimental work. But 

 things have moved rapidly of late years, following on steady progress in the practical 

 realisation of this branch of applied science. 



It suffices here to say that like most other branches of applied science radio- 

 telegraphy, even in its present form alone, is the work of many hands of different 

 nationalities. The different systems at present available, in so far as they differ 

 fundamentally, do so mainly in regard to the form of oscillations, or waves, emitted 

 and the method of producing them. These may be classed under the following heads, 

 in the order in which they were brought to public notice: (a) the spark, or intermittent 

 wave, of Marconi and others, (b) the quenched spark Telefunken, Lepel, etc., (c) the 

 continuous (undamped) wave of Poulsen and others. 



By far the most of the practical, and long distance continuous commercial work has, 

 as yet, been effected by the Marconi and Telefunken systems, 1 though, on the other hand, 

 in the opinion of some, other systems possess several advantages. For instance, the 

 Galletti system has certain favourable characteristics. This method has recently been 

 taken up by the Indo-European Telegraph Company with a view to serving as an auxil- 

 iary to their cable and land line service between England and India. With this idea, it 

 is being put on trial for working between France and the United States. 



A recent invention that is likely to prove of great value is the high-frequency alter- 

 nator of Prof. Rudolph Goldschmidt. The Goldschmidt patents are worked by the 

 Compagnie Universelle de Telegraphic et de Telephonic sans Fil (10 million francs capital) 

 of Paris. This company has just established a high -power trans- Atlantic station near 

 Hanover (Germany) with two Goldschmidt alternators (150 K.W. high frequency out- 



1 At the end of 1912, of coast stations European and non-European there were 107 

 Marconi stations and 161 others, of which 85 were Telefunken stations. Of ship stations, 

 there were 726 Marconi (including the Italian Navy) and 583 others, of which the Telefunken 

 Company had 289; or, adding the 245 Telefunken stations of the German Navy, we get 

 M.arconi 726, others 828, of which 534 were Telefunken. 



