324 



DISCOVERY 



to make it ; and since we live in social groups, and 

 a man's actions depend upon and influence his neigh- 

 bours, it is what we choose to make it collectively. 

 There is no doubt to-day about our choice. We are 

 going to develop \\hat is most clearly worth de\-eloping 

 in us : intelligence, refinement, character, health. We 

 are going to eliminate pain, unhappiness, ignorance, 

 coarseness, violence, and poverty, as far as possible- 

 We are going to have a hundred commonwealths, ten 

 thousand cities, competing with each other in the reali- 

 sation of this ideal. So, when the war drums beat no 

 longer and the strong have ceased to exploit the weak, 

 the fundamental condition of progress, mutual stimu- 

 lation, will be provided on a higher plane, and the 

 close interconnection of the whole world will make it 

 more effective than ever." — Joseph McCabe in his book 

 on Tlie Evolution of Civilisation- (Watts & Co., 2s.) 



Broadcasting by 

 Directional Wireless' 



By Lt.-Col. C. G. Chetwode Crawley, 

 R.M.A., M.I.E.E. 



Deputy Inspector uf ^VireIess Telegraphy in the General Post Office 



Now that the broadcasting arrangements are prac- 

 tically completed, it is useful to consider along what 

 lines we may hope for future developments. 



The arrangements being made, it will be remem- 

 bered, provide for eight broadcasting centres in Great 

 Britain, as it was considered that more than eight 

 would lead to mutual interference, at any rate in the 

 earlier stages of the experiment. This shows incident- 

 ally how very far removed we still are from the 

 possibility of having a general scheme of wireless 

 telephony in any way comparable to a system of line 

 telephony. The very fact, indeed, of wireless tele- 

 phony being so suitable for broadcasting means that 

 it is unlikely that it can ever be very suitable for 

 point-to-point communications, unless it be possible to 

 arrange for directive working. 



As a matter of fact, within the last few years great 

 strides have been made in the technical details of this 

 directive working, that is, in arranging for the wireless 

 waves to be radiated, not in all directions, but as a 

 beam like a searchlight, and for the receiving station 

 to be affected by waves, not from all directions, but 

 from a desired direction only. At receiving stations 

 such arrangements have been available, when desired, 

 for some years, but they are too expensive and com- 



1 For a full account of " Directional Wireless," the reader 

 is referred to an article by the same author in Discovery^ 

 Vol. Ill, No. 26. 



plicated to be at all suitable for use by the general 

 public. If such arrangements were av-ailable for 

 receiving stations in the broadcasting scheme, the 

 number of transmitting stations could be increased, and 

 the listener would be able to hear any broadcasting 

 station, which is within range, without fear of inter- 

 ruption. He could then choose to listen to whatever 

 station was transmitting the sort of matter which he 

 wanted to hear, instead of, as now, being compelled to 

 listen to, say, Mr. Robey's latest song when he was 

 really itching to hear Mr. Bonar Law's latest speech. 



However that may be, the fact remains that appara- 

 tus for directive reception has not yet reached the 

 stage where it can be installed without considerable 

 expense, or manipulated without expert knowledge, 

 but as time goes on so will these difficulties diminish, 

 and it is easy to foresee great possibilities for broad- 

 casting by wireless to listeners fitted with directive 

 receivers. 



In the case of directive transmission, the technical 

 difficulties have proved to be much greater than in 

 directive reception. Within the last j-ear or two, 

 however, it has been found possible to fit, at small 

 stations, apparatus for transmitting messages in any 

 required direction in, as it were, a wireless beam. 

 This arrangement, when developed, will certainly be 

 most useful for navigational purposes, as ships, or 

 even aircraft, will be able to locate their positions by 

 observing when they come within the beams of 

 specified coast stations. A system of these wireless 

 stations will, in fact, become a most useful adjunct 

 to the present lighthouse system for navigational 

 work near the coasts. 



But so far as broadcasting is concerned, there 

 seems little scope for directional transmission, as, 

 after all, the chief object of a broadcasting station is 

 to send messages, without interference from or with 

 other stations, to as many receivers as possible, and 

 this can best be done by using directional apparatus 

 at the receiving end onlv. 



Some Children's Games 



and Songs in Ancient 



Greece 



By W. R. Halliday, B.A., B.Litt. 



Professor of Ancient History in the University of Liverpool . 



Most of us at one time or another have played the ' 

 uncomfortable role of the Complaisant Man who, 

 Theophrastus tells us, " when asked to dinner will 

 request the host to send for the children, and will 

 say of them when they come in, that they are as like 



