A
31
station in Hong Kong, to make it possible to communicate with Honolulu on one side and India on the other, or because it is impracticable, suggest we should have increased cable accommodation. So far as we know, the wireless station at Manila connects with Honolulu, and they are in daily touch with New York, and it has been our lot to see in Hong Kong important commercial information sent to us from Manila via the United States by wireless. And it is known to us that there are certain powerful wireless stations which do not belong to Great Britain, though they do belong to friendly powers in China. We feel it is of vital importance to us that we should have a station of sufficient power and magnitude so far as is practicable —to communicate at long distances, in order that we may have in time the very latest commercial information at our command and coming through British sources.
J
Asked by the Chairman to give his views, Lieutenant R. R. Stewart (H.M.S. Alacrity"), said :-
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, the kind remarks which Mr. Holyoak has said about me are not quite true. My job out here is wireless officer of the fleet, and as such my duties are to make myself conversant with all wireless telegraph stations out here. I merely co-ordinate the views of experts on the subject, and that is what
propose to give you this morning,
I
I think the best way of dealing with the matter is to try and answer three points (1) Can Stonecutters compete with commercial traffic home to England? (2) The question of the installation of a powerful installation at Hong Kong, and (3) to give you some general remarks on the subject.
In order to bring out my first point I would like to say what has happened with regard to wireless stations. Before the war the question was brought up for the installation of a chain of stations connecting England with the Colonies. War broke out, and a hurried station was erected at Stonecutters. This was fitted with spark gear, and the power of the station was about 30 kilowatts giving about 1,000 miles communication. This gave a total distance of the link in the chain of 2,000 miles or more. That met certain necessities for communicating with ships at sea. but they found they could not communicate satisfactorily with home through the intermediate stations. So they installed a Poulsen arc, which was a step further in wireless transmission, and which gave out a continuous wave enabling them to get a further distance with less power.
It is necessary for me to point out here that wireless communication is not so easy as the ordinary man would believe. If you have a wireless station at Hong Kong trying to get into touch with Sumatra, you do it through Singapore. Then first you have got to get into touch with Singapore. Hong Kong fires off its message. Singapore replies message received and then gets into communication with Sumatra, so you will see that Singapore has a lot to do. Then there is the question of atmospherics. Atmospherics are things about which we do not know a great deal at present, but atmospherics in connection with traffic are a continual source of trouble. The message from Hong Kong to Singapore might meet with a great deal of trouble. I have known of a message of ninety groups taking an hour to pass, and that is not going to be much good for commercial needs as they stand. The Admiralty sent out messages by wireless to relieve the cables, and I have known messages take as long as fourteen days to come out. Those. however, were routine messages, and merely sent out that way to relieve the cables.
The next thing I want to point out is that the wireless station at Hong Kong has a very busy time. There is the communication with Singapore, communication with the Yang-tsze gunboats and communication with the flagship. A great deal of work goes from Hong Kong to the flagship, not only telegrams, but matters upon which the Commander-in-chief's approval is required. Really Hong Kong is the centre of naval activity in the Far East, and the programme at Stonecutters is very full. When D'Aguilar was started as the commercial station, I pointed out to Mr. Fletcher that the receiving gear was in rather a bad state, and he replied that they would he only too pleased to make it efficient. We have installed at D'Aguilar a set giving sunerior transmission from the naval supplies, new gear is being purchased and D'Aguilar will soon be more efficient, and Stonecutters will be having a little more time in which to do its own work.
Wireless stations have to compete with telegraph offices in which rapidity, cheapness are absolutely essential factors. but you would not get rapidity in messages passing through the Hong Kong wireless station.
35
There is another point which I would bring to your consideration, and that is that you would not get the Hong Kong wireless station to pay. The Navy would be only too pleased to take commercial messages if they could squeeze in the time, because it would help to pay for their installations. Now, with the new organisation, I believe the Commander-in-chief is prepared to squeeze in time in the Hong Kong routine by which commercial people in Hong Kong could carry out shore to shore traffic. It would not be a commercial proposition, but if they wanted to get into touch with Manila. Swatow or Saigon, we could introduce into the daily routine say a quarter of an hour every four or five hours in which they could actually communicate with those stations or the coast.
"My second point to be brought out is the establishment of a powerful station at Hong Kong. Now we come to the Imperial Conference scheme. When we first came out here we wrote home to recommend certain wireless stations to be put up, and the answer to the letter was that we got out the report of the Imperial Wireless Committee which has been presented to Parliament from which I will give you a few notes. But before I do so I would state that the letter we wrote home showed that we pointed out that it was necessary to bring commercial requirements into line with naval requirements, because they would have to be dealt with separately though the two would be dealt with by one large organisation, whereby the require- ments of all services would be met,
The first thing that was pointed out in the report was that wireless is not like telegraphy. A good deal of trouble comes in the transmission and receiving, and consequently delay, and though reliability, speed and cheapness were essential factors the installation had to be made to pay. They got the Post Office to keep a listening watch on the main European systems of wireless, and they found that transmission across the Atlantic was not all it was commonly thought to be, and that there was a great deal of repetition going on. Hours were spent merely in repetition. That was a loss of money. The thing was not a commercial proposition. They then went on to discuss methods of transmission-the spark, the Poulsen are, high frequency alternators, high frequency oscillators, which have the same effect as the continuous wave, and the thermionic valve, which is the latest development of wireless trans- mission. They came to the conclusion that the thermionic valve was the best thing
to use.
Every wireless scheme which has come into being has been on the principle of trial and error. Marconi tried with 23 kilowatts to eommunicate across the That was not found sufficient, Atlantic. In 1906 it was increased to 70 kilowatts and the Poulsen are was introduced with 13 kilowatts. The spark was then pushed up to 200 by Marconi. That did not have much effect, and the Poulsen was pushed up to 250 kilowatts. The whole demand was for more power. Germany, Nauen, has #400 kilowatt installation, and they are thinking of increasing that,
CL
Before I came here this morning I was able to get for the Admiral the Nauen press from the Nauen installation of 400 kilowatts. This was done by hand opera- tion, and it is only sometimes that we can get it out here. Now, business people. for whom the trial and error system has no appeal, realising that it is no good for com- mercial purposes have to determine what distance they are to get with absolute certainty. My people want to get a distance of 4,000 miles which will allow of 4,000 was what people communication from England to India and Australia. wanted. People say we are getting wireless signals from Mars, that must take an enormously powerful installation and cannot be a commercial proposition at all. When, however, they came to work out wireless telegraphy as a business proposition. they came to the conclusion that 2.000 miles with the thermionic valve would give reliable communication, and the cost would be considerably less than a station with a distance of 4,000 miles: they would get more traffic, more words passing through per day. The result was that they derided upon two 2.000 mile steps for India at a capital cost of 483.0007. and an annual cost of 185,000. Then they discussed how much traffic they could expect and they came to the conclusion that they would lose on the stations for five years at first, after which they would make up.
"I may say that this scheme of 2,000 mile step allows for stations at Egypt. Cairo. Poona, Singapore, a branch to Hong Kong and Australia. Already they are putting up an arc in England and another in Cairo, and they will have another valve in England and Cairo. Hong Kong may consider that the branch from Singapore rather puts them out of it. hut the whole question is whether the thing can be made to pay. If it is found that Hong Kong cannot pass the messages with the installation it gets, it will be the simplest matter in the world to erect another
503
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.