ONE of the most interesting questions of the day for the world as large, and not least for those who hold stock in telegraph companies, is whether or no aerial telegraphy is to give their death-blow to submarine cables. It is but a few short months ago, on the last day of October, 1902, to be exact, that the British world was congratulating itself upon the "all red" cable then for the firet time open round the whole circuit of the globe, Now the same people ate asking whether their expenditure has not all been rendered worthless by the subsequent experiments of that wireless wizard, Marconi. A glance close at hand of utilising the service of these nerves of commerce and empire. Our latest achievement across the Pacific has cost altogether something near two millions sterling. Has it all gone for nothing? Will the seven thousand pounds a week which, for example, is spent in London in telegraphing to Australia alone go elsewhere than to the cable: om-panies, or are the latter cafe in their practical monopoly? Time will show, but the expectation is that aerial competition will be of the severest sort. Fora brief moment, perhaps, the world will be sorry for the cable companies. But not for long. Their possession of the whip hand for so many years, and the firmness with which' they have used it, will, with the material consolation of reduced rates, soon at the route taken by the "all red" assuage any grief that the general cable will show that a series of Mar-' public may feel at the downfall of coni stations could easily cope with'the present system. The shilling a the distances except perhaps across! word from London to Quebec will one or two stretches, and it is not!perhaps come down to a very few likely that these would remain long pence, the five and sixpence to unconquered. Its first dive takes it) China, the four and nine to Mel-across from England to Ireland, the next to Halifax across the Atlantic: land lines then take up the running to Vancouver, whence to the next station, Fanning Island, a useless barren rock in mid-Pacific, a distance of some 3,200 miles has to be crossed. 'I'wo more long stretches, one to the Fijian Island of Suva of 2,000 miles, and another thence of 1,680, bring us, viti Norfolk Island, to Brisbane in Australia. After that to Singapore, Penang, Madras, and so on along the line so familiar to the Shanghailander, to England again, It is. evident that there is nothing in this that could not be bridged e: by the Marconi system except perhaps the one section between Vancouver and Fanning Island, supposing it were necessary to follow the line taken by the submarine, and the question is being more and more freely asked, is the day of the cable gone for ever? Opinions ditter, and as a matter of course those interested financially in telegraphs as they are pooh-pooh the idea that their system can ever be superseded. They have too much money' at stake, however, to be accepted as un-Diassed judges. It is estimated that £55,000,000 have been "sunk? in submarine telegraphy. No fewer than sixteen. cables connect Europe with America. Others run along the Mediterranean to join east and west, others again encircle the Dark Continent as with a girdle. No place of importance is without some means bourne, and the six and twopence to Japan or West Africa, will probably be divided by three or four when Marconi and his rivals have come into operation and competition. Then our columns might vie for telegraphic news with those of our older home contemporaries, and the benefits to trade would be immense. here is nothing like cheap, reliable, and speedy communication to stimulate business, and we shall not know practically how much we have been hampered by high telegraphic charges until facilities are given us at a fraction of the present rates.
Naturally a great deal has yet to be done before in speed, and perhaps in secrecy, the aerial or etheric system can compete with its old-established rival. But students of electricity in the early seventies will remember the condition of telegraphic affairs then, and viewing present possibilities in the light of the past will have no doubt that the difficulties now confronting Mr. Marconi will be surmounted just as the apparently insurmountable obstacles to rapidity then have long since been got over. We have no figures to show the cost of a Marconi station, but judging from such pictures as we have seen a hundred pounds or two should suffice to put up the necessary apparatus. 'There will be no need for tens of millions of capital as in days gone by, no heavy charge for interest' therefore, and above all no cable ships to keep up at enormous expense to repair breaks. Should there prove to be greater difficulty in attaining speed than we anticipate there might be a multiplication of stations. That the system has come to stay is evident. Already the Atlantic has been successfully bridged, and arrangements made for communication between India and Australia, Already the "Times" has received news messages without the aid of an intervening wire, and the German army begun' work upon a new field telegraph of similar nature. Already steamers are in touch with land and with each other in their Atlantic voyages, and fleets receive and give orders through the same channel. Possibly in the nent future one grent centre of etheric influence in each land may become the focus for the reception and dispersion of all news from the rest of the world, and what is thought and done in London, Paris, Peking, and New York at one moment will be the subject of animated conversation the whole world over in the next five minutes, By that time perhaps the cables will have been pulled up to be sold in sections as souvenirs of the dark ages of early electricity.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.