That they will be able to converse with their homes may seem no advantage, but that they can remain in touch with the rest of mankind is most obviously desirable.
If this were understood to-day, I should not need to make noises with my lips or require the simulacra of these noises to be produced upon paper to convey my thoughts. If thought is a process of energy-conversion—and who will deny it?—what form of screening prevents its use, and why should its reception be confined eventually to life upon this particular and very troublesome planet?
It is remarkable how little is known of wireless: the very simplicity of its painfully standardised features is a trap for the unwary. It is a universal science, but we do not yet know the correct diaphragm size for a loud speaker, nor how damping should be employed. The finest apparatus is available to all, and yet we do not understand the fullest range of wave-lengths. The study of radio-active materials and short wave radiation may in one day produce the cold-emitter valve, abolish the outside aerial, and bring to our closer understanding some of the many senses now so atrophied in mankind, that we can only speculate as to their existence. I doubt much if the schoolboy of the future will greatly esteem the radio expert of this century.