"The government does not permit private installations."
"Yet there might be some, clandestinely built?"
"That is possible."
"However, you can assure me of this: if any such do exist, they are outside the law?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Why are private stations prohibited?"
"They are prohibited because they would interfere with the government stations. You understand, sir, that wireless waves clash in the air, as it were; when they cross or intermingle, the result is a confusing chatter, until the sending and receiving instruments have been carefully tuned with each other. Even that does not always overcome it. A few private stations have been authorised strictly for scientific purposes, but there is none nearer than that at the University of Lyons."
"Do you ever suffer from interference here?"
"Oh, yes; the English have a very powerful station at Gibraltar and another at Malta; their battleships are all equipped with it, as are those of Italy. So are most of the passenger steamers which enter the Mediterranean. The air is often filled with messages."
"Has there been any such interference during the past few days?"