December 23, 1922] 



NA TURE 



«59 



accordance with the speech vibrations, which result 

 in a fluctuating current radiated to the receiver. 



At the receiving end the oscillating current is 

 changed into a uni-directional current, and made 

 suitable for reception for hearing in an ordinary 

 telephone receiver. It is an essential condition of 

 reception that the receiving set be " tuned " to re- 

 spond to the wave-length of the station it is desired 

 to hear. Electrical waves emanating from a trans- 

 mitter travel in all directions through space, and can 

 be picked up by any number of receivers, provided 

 these are tuned to receive the particular wave-length 

 used. 



Broadcasting stations comprise transmitting-room, 

 studio, green-room, offices, listening-in room, and 

 workshop. Programmes are designed to operate 

 throughout the whole evening, and all tastes and 

 ages are catered for. It is usual for artistes to 

 operate at the station, but by means of ordinary 

 telephone transmission it is possible to transmit .1 

 political speech or entertainment from a central hall 

 in a city to the broadcasting studio, and to radiate it 

 from the station to listeners. 



The pioneer work in broadcasting as a means of 

 public entertainment and instruction was undertaken 

 by the Westinghouse Co. of Pittsburgh, U.S.A., in 

 December 1920. The Metropolitan-Vickers Co. of 

 Great Britain has close technical association with this 

 company and has the advantage of this pioneer ex- 

 perience. There are now more than 500 broadcasting 

 stations in the United States, and their growth with- 

 out proper co-ordination has caused some confusion. 

 To avoid this confusion in Great Britain, the Govern- 

 ment insisted that manufacturers of radio apparatus 

 should co-operate in forming a Broadcasting Company 

 to control broadcasting. Three stations of the eight 

 contemplated are in operation, London, Manchester, 

 and Birmingham, and it is intended that Newcastle 

 shall have a station. The revenue of the Broadcast- 

 ing Company for maintaining stations is provided by 

 the manufacturers, but the Government assists by 

 remitting a proportion of the licence fee. 



Care should be taken in selecting a set suitable to 

 the local conditions. A good crystal set costing about 

 four or five pounds will receive satisfactorily over ten 

 or fifteen miles. A two-valve set would pick up over 

 fifty or one hundred miles, and in addition to this, a 

 further two-valve amplifier could be arranged to 

 increase the distance to 300 miles, or would permit 

 the use of a loud speaker up to fifty miles. Sets sold 

 by reputable manufacturers are very efficient and 

 simple to operate. 



The development of radio-telephony will have a 

 very profound influence upon social life. It will over- 

 come the isolation of the rural worker, the invalid, 

 and those who are confined indoors, and it has unique 

 potentialities for entertainment, instruction, and the 

 development of public taste. 



Excavations at Borg' en Nadur, Malta. 



AT a meeting of the Royal Anthropological 

 x *• Institute held on November 21, Prof. F. G. 

 Parsons, vice-president, in the chair, .Miss Murray 

 gave an account of some excavations carried out by 

 her at Borg en Nadur, Malta, during the past summer. 

 The excavation was purposely limited to a small 

 area to the west of the so-called " dolmen " of Borg 

 en Nadur in a terraced field which had been made 

 over this site, as high as the cap-stone of the dolmen, 

 and completely covering the remains of the ancient 

 buildings. The principal building found was an 

 apsidal structure of the type peculiar to Malta. 

 From the small size of the stones and the primitive 



NO. 2773, VOL. I 10] 



style of the building, Miss Murray is of the opinion 

 that Borg en Nadur is considerably older than 

 Mnaidra and Tarxien. The principal results of the 

 excavation are (1) the discovery of types of pottery 

 transitional between the neolithic and bronze age ; 

 (2) the finding of painted pottery showing Cretan 

 influence, perhaps of the Middle Minoan era, thus 

 connecting prehistoric Malta witli another ancient 

 i i\ ilisation. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of 

 the paper, Prof. J. L. Myres said the pottery of Malta 

 presents a puzzling problem. Evidence is needed 

 as to which of the large number of tvpes are con- 

 temporary. The pottery from the " window tombs " 

 of the lower levels of the ravines with flat alluvial 

 bottoms, which form the characteristic watercourses 

 of Malta, presents certain affinities with the " Sikel " 

 pottery of Sicily. Miss Murray distinguished between 

 "neolithic" and "bronze age" pottery; but, 

 whereas she found the latter at ground level in the 

 apsidal building, at Hal Tarxien the lower occupation 

 layer, resting on ground level, contained no metal, 

 and the bronze age interment had been found over 

 a sterile layer of some thickness imposed upon the 

 neolithic stratum and at a considerable height 

 up the great stones of the temple. The painted 

 pottery, for which a Cretan affinity had been suggested, 

 is of the type found in Sicily and Southern Italy 

 for which Prof. Peet had traced a Thessalian rather 

 than an ^Egean relationship. Prof. Myres also ex- 

 pressed his opinion that the Borg en Nadur building 

 was of late and degenerate type rather than early 

 and primitive. Mr. H. J. E. Peake said that Miss 

 Murray's suggestion of a type of pottery transitional 

 between the neolithic and bronze age types was new 

 and needed substantiation. The restricted distribu- 

 tion of the " bronze age " type suggested that it 

 might be an intrusion, of which Miss Murray's 

 transitional type was an attempted copy. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Birmingham. — Dr. Dorothy Margaret Patrick has 

 been appointed assistant lecturer in physiology, 

 Grade III. 



Mr. T. V. Barker, of thedepartment of mineralogy 

 at Oxford, has been invited to deliver a course of 

 lectures, during the spring term, on chemical 

 crvstallographv. 



The annual meeting of the Court of Governors 

 will be held on Thursday, February 8. 



The vice-chancellor (Sir Gilbert Barling, Bart.) is 

 to represent the University at the celebration of the 

 Sooth anniversary of the foundation of St. Bar- 

 tholomew's Hospital in June next. 



The new hall of residence for men students is to 

 be known in future as Chancellor's Hall. 



Glasgow. — The University has received a gift of 

 25,000/. from Mr. Henry Median, of Medians, Limited, 

 engineers and contractors, Glasgow, for the founda- 

 tion of a new chair of public health. 



London. — At a meeting of the Senate on December 

 13, a resolution was adopted accepting a bequest of 

 3000/. made by the late Sir William Meyer, fellow of 

 University College and High Commissioner for India, 

 to be applied at the discretion of the Senate " with 

 special reference to the encouragement of proficiency 

 in European History, and in the History and Geo- 

 graphy of India." An offer from the council of the 

 Society of Antiquaries to continue the Franks student- 

 ship in archaeology, of the value of 100/. per annum, 

 for a further period of five years was accepted with 

 thanks. 



