Skegness Magazine

Source: Skegness News 1927

Beam Wireless between England and Australia, via Skegness, was definitely initiated on Friday last, and on the previous day Mr. L. S. Amery, the Secrteary of State for the Colonies, exchanged messages with Mr. Bruce the Prime Minister of Australia, the reply of the latter being “beamed” to Skegness whence it was automatically transmitted by land line to London. The distance was 10,500 miles, but this wonder of the age will probably awaken no quiver in the breast of the average Englishman and woman, so used are they getting to the scientific discoveries of the present era.
The rates per word show a certain advantage over those for cable, as the following comparison will show :

Full rate telegrams, beam 1s. 8d., cable 2s.; deferred telegrams, beam 10d., cable 1s. ; daily letter telegrams (minimum 20 words) beam 6d., cable 9d. ; weekend letter telegrams (minimum 20 words), beam 5d., cable 7d. ; Press telegrams, beam 4d., cable 6d. ; deferred Press, beam 3d., cable 41d. It will thus be seen that the cost of beam messages is from 16 per cent to 33 per cent less than cable, according to the class of message sent.

MESSAGES RECEIVED AT SKEGNESS
Australia sends from Ballan, which is 55 miles away from Melbourne, and we receive the messages at Skegness, 130 miles from London and, of course, the reverse process is equally swift, the land stations being connected by wire in the same way.
Mr. Amery, the Secretary for the Colonies, who was standing near me scribbled the following message on a form and addressed it to Lord Stone-haven, the Governor-General of Australia, to Mr. Bruce, the Prime Minister of Australia, and to Mr. Hughes, the ex-Prime Minister :
“Delighted to have first talk with you over Beam. Hope you have dined well and under better conditions than chilly downpour here. Trust before many months to see you again in person.”
The form was taken and the message converted to a white strip of paper punctured with a series of tiny holes. The alert young operator took it, and we watched it go spinning through the instrument. . . . ” O.K” replied Australia.
Click, click. Here comes the reply-back over the ten thousand miles odd. Mr. Amery reads it delightedly and passes it round.
“Am delighted to be present at the opening of the latest and most wonderful channel of communication with the Motherland. Weather and dinner perfect here. Sooner you come and share both the better.”
And by the time we have read that comes the reply from Mr. Bruce who tells us that he has waited for the Governor-General’s message to be dispatched. He assures Mr. Amery of a great welcome if he carries out his intention of visiting Australia.
The messages were sent and the replies received in less than ten minutes, and Lord Stonehaven’s reply was timed 12.22 a.m.
An official invited me to send a message, and the “Daily News ” had the distinction of being the first English newspaper to use the Australian beam service. I sent a greeting to the “Herald ” and ” Sun Pictorial,” Melbourne.
I sent this second message to Capt. Gee, Bosworth’s absentee M.P., who has settled in Mullewa, West Australia: ” Congratulations on opening of beam wireless between Australia and Bosworth, England.—’Daily News.’ ”
Mr. William Hughes, the ex-Premier of Australia, in a beam message to Lord Burnham, declared that telephony would follow, and that would make it possible for the King’s Speech in the House of Lords to be heard by the whole Empire.
The astonishing possibilities of the beam stagger one’s imagination.