WIRELESS FOR SHIPS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2648, 2 November 1909, Page 7

WIRELESS FOR SHIPS.

COST OF INSTALLATION

It is commonly supposed that the cost of installing apparatus , for wireless telegraphy on passenger liners is extremely heavy and that the shipping companies do not utilise the system because the annual cost of maintenance is heavy. But so far as the Atlantic liners go, at least, the cost to.shipowners' must be comparatively small, and in some instances, no doubt, the wireless installation brings in a fair revenue. For the sum of £2OO, payable yearly, the JYlarconi Company will install the necessary apparatus and will provide and pay the operators. Beyond furnishing space for the equipment and providing quarters for the operator, the ship has no further expense to meet. Of course the £2OO can be regarded as an insurance premium. The value of the installation has been proved again and again, and only a few months ago there was a striking illustration of the service, that “wireless” can render to a vessel. On July 23 a Canadian-Pacific liner collided with an iceberg in a dense fog, Her wireless signals for assistance promptly brought H.M.S. Brilliant to the rescue. But the liner gets back some part at least of the annual expenditure of £2OO. Of the revenue derived from passengers’ messages the ship takes the first £SO, and -after that the ship and the Marconi Company share equally. Of course the same system could not be applied to smaller ships or to yessels trading in this part of the world, because the private messages to and from a vessel would be few in number. , But Mr. Marconi is considering this aspect of the matter. The cost of purchasing apparatus outright would be prohibitive but small vessels engaged in the coastal trade at Home are being fitted with inexpensive apparatus capamc of sending messages some ten or twelve miles. Of course, if the colonial Governments took over the Marconi rights in Australasia they could probably make very reasonable terms with the shipping companies, seeing that, in the interests of puMic safety, the Element of profit ought to be ignored.