Development of the wireless valve was greatly assisted by the War: the aeroplane, the art of plastic surgery, and many other human benefits have arrived more rapidly from the same cause.
Let us see, therefore, what wireless can do now, and what it may accomplish for the future of organised destruction.
Mentally, the fittest should survive, in both the realms of invention and physiology. It is only a few years since wireless was of no intrinsic value for ordinary land warfare, by virtue of the fact that interference was extremely easy, and that any coded message could be so easily decoded.
At present wireless messages are chiefly of service where secrecy is not of such importance as speed; but an enormous number of experiments are being conducted upon beam wireless, directional wireless, and in the combination of the Radio oscillation with some other oscillations such as those of visible or invisible light. By these means secrecy will be obtained when we discover how to use small powers for long distance, but at present Radio is chiefly of value as a time-saver.
The pilot in an aeroplane can talk to his base: he will soon be able to write and transmit vision from a plane which could be controlled by wireless. The time will come when low-flying wireless planes will explore, and render visible at many miles distant, places where no human pilot could remain for any length of time in safety.
It is not long ago that we rejoiced because a damaged ship was able to call for help by wireless, but we have only to look back to a recent war to remember an occasion when one ship was totally unable to call assistance because its wireless was jammed. In other words, enemy interference was possible.
This should show us how far we have yet to go in an utterly new and very little understood science.
We began with sparks, we progressed to coherers, and now we have valves; but let it not be thought for a moment that the valve represents finality to any thinking being.
Broadcasting at present has really become so universal only on account of the exceedingly public nature of wireless, for, when we are able to obtain accuracy of tuning and direction, we shall not only use the latter to guide ships at sea, but we shall have correspondence which can be conducted with a reasonable degree of secrecy. We shall have special wave-lengths for the Government, special wave-lengths for Parliamentary debates, and the Divorce Courts. We shall not conduct our conversations in such a manner that any schoolboy with a piece of wire, a needle, and some sugar, can promptly listen in.