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Marconi Company HOUSE OF COMMONS (Mr. Herbert Samuel]
course
and at the first meeting of this large Com- mittee to which I have referred, that was fully discussed. It at once appeared that there was no company in any part of the world which had practical experience of continuous long distance working of wireless telegraphy. That was stated to the Committee by the expert representatives of the Admiralty, of the War Office, of the India Office, and of the Post Office, and all agreed that there was no company in any part of the world which had that experience except the Marconi Company. It is true that there were one or two syndicates and companies which were working and had worked various forms of wireless telegraph systems, and which occasionally had covered very con- siderable distances.
It is a well-known fact in the science of wireless telegraphy that remarkable dis- tances are from time to time--atmospheric and other conditions being favourable-- made by comparatively low power stations. Our own Post Office station at North Fore- land, which has a normal range of regular communication of 250 miles, has occasion- ally exchanged messages with the Mediter- ranean, but that is rare. The Marconi station at Clifden, which is in regular day by day communication, or for very many hours per day, with Canada, Glace Bay, which is a range of 2,000 miles, has trans- mitted signals as far as Buenos Ayres, which is a distance of 6,000 miles. There are certain systems, which are now being experimented with, which occasionally have covered what experts call "freak distances," That is a very different thing from being able to maintain continuously, through atmospheric and other interrup- tions, a commercial service day and night at all times of the year. It was found impossible in this matter to go into the market and to ask various firms, "How much are 2,000 miles' wireless telegraph stations per half-dozen?" The science is new, its operation is of extreme diffi culty, and the Committee came to the con- clusion that it was not advisable for that reason to throw the contract over to public tender.
I should like in this connection to put this point to hon. Members. Suppose we had invited tenders from those syndicates which are now experimenting with various inventions, and suppose they had quoted a comparatively low figure, and that I had presented it to the House of Commons, what would hon. Members have said then?
Agreement.
Marconi Company
They would have said, "Have you tester lews with him, and the secretary and this system; do you know that it is capafsistant secretary to the Post Office had interviews. The Government of carrying out this service which it und her takes to carry out? Have the promoters very much lower terms than the We offered a of it got the engineers and the staff pmpany had tendered. the experience which would enable thewer price per station; we offered a very to perform properly the contract oderate royalty indeed; and we offered which the Government has entered much smaller lump sum for the purchase the right of use of the Marconi patents. them." And if those questions were satisfactorily answered I venture to be negotiations continued for some time, that the IIouse would blame, and wd finally the company made a revised fer in, I think, November or December properly blame, the Government of day for having entered into a contract last year, and in the form of the terms some syndicate or company which had they now stand in the coutract, except been able to show to the world that it with that, that for a large lump sum pay- capable of carrying on a service of ment, they would give the right of user to The company character.
For those reasons, and which I have referred.
definitely and categorically declined to those reasons alone, the Committee on
They said that for 9th August, 1911, decided that it was Accept lower terms. sirable that the Government should any years they had been carrying on sider in fuller detail the offer which experiments, very costly experiments, and Juring all that time their shareholders had been made in April, 1911, the second received no profits of any kind, and that of the Marconi Company. The comp
ow, when they had developed their was then aware that the Governm
tem and made it of real commercial would probably resolve not to give this
ne, they were not prepared to enter licences such as they had asked for to sto & contract unless they considered it stations which would become the prop would be remunerative to them.
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7 AUGUST 1912
Agreement. committee should be formed, which should go in detail into the cost of erecting stations on the assumption that they were to be erected by the Government and not by the Marconi Company. That technical Committee consisted of six members-- three Admiralty experts on wireless telo- graphy, one War Office expert, and two Post Office experts. After a minute ex- amination of the whole subject they ulti- mately reported that, without entering into any question of royalties and dealing only with the cost of the erection of the stations themselves, they estimated that the cost of their erection by the Govern- ment would average £60,300 each, exclud- ing, as the Marconi estimate excluded, the sites, but including, which the Marconi estimate did not include, buildings and foundations. On the other hand, while they included the cost of buildings and foundations, they made no allowance for general office charges. Further, these stations were to be simplex or single stations, while the Marconi Company have recently developed a duplex system, which enables wireless telegrams to be sont and received in two directions at once. Their stations were to be duplex stations, and in many respects double those which were contemplated by the Government Committee had Government stations been erected. So that the Mar- coni Company estimated £60,000 for duplex stations, excluding buildings and founda- tions, and the technical Sub-committee re- ported that the cost of Government stations would be £60,300, including build- ings and foundations but, being stations of only a simplex character. Therefore it was obvious that so far as the cost of stations was concerned, there was no very great difference either way.
It was
of the Government itself. That offer stated that the price per station would April, 1911, to erect as many station leave them a very small margin of profit might be required at a price per stat and that they depended for their profit, in was higher than it was ultimately agis enterprise and for recoupment for past. to, and the equipment of the station work on the sums that might come to them to be in several respects less than by way of royalty. On that I sum- was ultimately agreed to. They asked moned a further meeting of the Com- a much higher royalty than was ultimamittee on 15th December, 1911, and conceded and for a longer period. reported to the Committee thal also offered to sell for a very consider negotiations had resulted in an impasse, lump sum all the rights at present an and that the company had definitely future of Marconi patents, for the us stated they would not erect stations for non-commercial purposes of all Go lower terms than those which they had ment Departments, both here and in finally stated. The Committee at once Dominions which had adhered to the A formed the opinion that the lump sum pay- mout, and also in India. For this ment which the company had asked for sum they were willing to give the rig the user of their patents by the various use the Marconi patents to the Admit Departments was too high, an
opinion with the War Office, the Board of Trade, which I entirely concurred, and indeed I for other similar purposes pract should not have made myself responsible throughout the Empire.
for the payment of any such sum for such & purpose. And on those lines negotia- tions with the company were broken off, Mr. HERBERT SAMUEL: All Pr question of purchasing the right to use and it was agreed to drop altogether the
and future Marconi patents. They Marconi patents by the various Govern- Some of them have been operativment Departments, and each Government time and others quite reas to be left to make what bargain it patented, and there are a number uld, if it desired to do so.
These ventions that have not yet been pateegotiations therefore concluded and The Committee resolved to negotiate were abortive. this company.
Major ARCHER-SHEE: For how
some
In the autumn and # of last year there were a series of With respect to the erection of the wire- views with the managing director des stations for the Imperial chain, the Marconi Company.
Committee resolved that a technical Sub- I myself had
We
There remained the question of royal- ties. If we used the patents of the Mar- coni Company, or other patents, should necessarily have to make a reason- able royalty payment. We could not tell beforehand precisely what it would be, but some payment there would necessarily be.
Further, the Marconi Company offered to give us the use of all future patents and all future inventions without any further payment beyond the royalties. We thought that the Marconi Company, being now in a sound financial position, were just as likely as anybody else, and probably more likely, to be able either to evolve or to buy future patents or future developments of wireless tele- graphy. In addition, the Marconi Com- pany have had now some years' experience