550 



NA TURE 



[August i i, 1904 



proposals made in this Bill in our notes columns, but a 

 brief abstract of the memorandum and of the provisions 

 of the Bill may be of interest to readers of Nature. 

 The paper opens by pointing- out that the rapid develop- 

 ment of wireless telegraphy which has been and is 

 still going on makes some form of State control 

 practically essential in the interests of the naval and 

 military requirements of the Empire. The United 

 Kingdom stands, in fact, almost alone in not having 

 any such control; in ordinary circumstances the powers 

 of the Postmaster-General do not extend beyond the 

 three-mile maritime limit; although in times of war 

 or emergency the Government can take over the 

 telegraphic business of incorporated companies, this 

 power does not extend to the installations of private 

 individuals. Obviously a private individual, were he 

 maliciously inclined, could cause a great deal of trouble 

 with a wireless telegraphy installation in the neigh- 

 bourhood of important strategical signalling stations. 

 A certain very limited power of control exists by an 

 arrangement already made with several foreign 

 Powers bv which these Powers undertake not to permit 

 the establishment of systems, for communication with 

 the United Kingdom except after consultation with 

 the British Government; this safeguard, such as it is, 

 would naturally fail in the event of war. It is 

 especially in the case of war that control becomes of 

 vital importance, and it is necessary to introduce legis- 

 lation to meet this event. 



The points which have to be particularly considered 

 are : — 



(i) That there must be means of preventing inform- 

 ation being conveyed to the enemy, and of preserving 

 secrecy as to plans and preparations. 



(2) That all possibility of outside interference with 

 Government signalling must be removed. 



It is therefore desirable for the Government to have 

 in their power (a) the control of the transmission of 

 messages; (b) the prevention of the establishment of 

 unauthorised stations; and (c) the disposition of 

 stations in the most advantageous way so as to obtain 

 the best results in working, free from interference, 

 accidental or intentional. 



In addition to these strategic reasons other consider- 

 ations make Government control of wireless telegraphy 

 desirable, notably, for example, the advantages to be 

 gained by international agreement on the subject, 

 which at present the British Government could not 

 enter into as it has not the power to enforce any agree- 

 ment which might be made. 



On all these grounds it is proposed in the Bill that 

 the Government shall e.xercise control by granting 

 licences; these shall be granted by the Postmaster- 

 General, but the consent of the .Admiralty and the 

 War Ofifice shall be necessary in order that the strategic 

 considerations may be duly regarded. The Board of 

 Trade is to be added as a third partv whose consent 

 is necessary ; this is done because the progress of wire- 

 less telegraphy affects so closely the trade and com- 

 merce of the country. The Bill provides penalties for 

 the unlawful establishment or working of a wireless 

 telegraph station. It is also provided that special 

 licences may be granted by the Postmaster-General 

 for experimental purposes. It is understood that the 

 Government proposes to push the Bill through this 

 session if possible, the reason for its wishing to do 

 so being partly that it may have power to act at 

 the next international wireless telegraph conference, 

 which is to be held early in October, probably at 

 Berlin. 



M. .S. 

 NO. 181 5, VOL. 70] 



NOTES. 

 A Standing Committep on niachinery desii^m* has been 

 appointed by the Admiralty. Prof. A. B. \V. Kennedy, 

 F.R.S., is to act as president of the committee; the other 

 members will be Engineer Rear-Admiral J. A. Smith and 

 Mr. J. T. Milton, chief engineer-surveyor to Lloyd's 

 Register. 



A Reuter telegram from V'ardo, Norway, states that the 

 relief party of the Ziegler North Polar Expedition arrived at 

 that place on .August 3 on board the steamer Frithiof. In 

 consequence of fog and ice the Frithiof had been unable to 

 establish communication with the expedition on board the 

 America. A later telegram states that the Fritliiof left 

 \'ardo on Friday last for Franz Josef Land. 



A Reuter telegram from Wellington, New Zealand, 

 reports that the heaviest earthquake for many years was 

 experienced at that place at 10.22 on the morning of 

 August 9. Several public buildings were seriously damaged, 

 and many private firms and householders sustained heavy 

 losses. No loss of life is reported. The shock was felt in 

 both islands. A slight earthquake shock was also felt at 

 Lisbon and its vicinity at n o'clock on the night of 

 August 8, but no damage was done. 



The death is announced, at the age of fifty-nine years, of 

 Dr. Carl Weigert, director of the Pathological and 

 .'\natomical Institute of Senckenberg. 



News of the sudden death, on the Continent, of Sir 

 William Mitchell Banks has been received. Sir William 

 Banks was born in 1842. He was educated at Edinburgh 

 .\cademy and University, became M.D., and took the 

 university thesis medal in 1864, and in 1899 was made 

 honorary LL.D. He acted for a time as demonstrator of 

 anatomy in the University of Glasgow, and settled in Liver- 

 pool in 1868 as a consulting and operating surgeon, being 

 particularly distinguished in cancer research. Dr. Banks, 

 who was knighted in 1899, rendered valuable service as 

 one of the founders of the new Royal Infirmary, Liverpool, 

 in the establishment of University College, and in the move- 

 ment which resulted in the formation of Liverpool 

 University. 



Major Ronald Ross, C.B.. F.R.S., and Dr. Weir 

 Mitchell have been elected foreign corresponding members 

 of the Paris Academy of Medicine. 



The Vienna correspondent of the British Medical Journal 

 states that a meeting was recently attended by the Senate 

 of the Vienna University to celebrate Prof. v. X'ogl's 

 seventieth birthday, and to bid him farewell on his retire- 

 ment from the position he has so long held in the university. 

 Prof. V. V^ogl's successor has not yet been appointed, but 

 he will, it is thought, probably be one of the retiring pro- 

 fessor's former assistants. 



The sixty-first annual congress of the British Archae- 

 ological Association was opened at Bath on Monday last, 

 and will remain in session until Saturday next. 



The arrangements for the annual meeting of the Society 

 of Chemical Industry, which is to take place in New York 

 from September 7 to 12 next, have now been completed. 

 The president. Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., is 

 to give an address in the gymnasium of the University of 

 Columbia on September S, and in the evening of that day 

 the annual dinner of the society will be held at the Waldorf- 

 Astoria. .\ tour has been arranged, to last from Monday, 

 September 12, until Thursday, September 29, with the object 



