Lord Snowden seems strangely forgetful in mentioning in the early
chapters of his autobiography that when he came to London in 1906 there were no cinemas and the principle of wireless telegraphy was still undiscovered. In fact by that time no less than ten years had passed since the date of Marconi's first EngliSh patent and his historic demonstration at the Post Office. The first wire- less company was formed in 1897, and by 1906 the prin- ciple was widely known and the social and commercial possibilities of wireless were already being realized. As for, moving pictures, I certainly saw them myself round about 1900, and though the cinema-theatre as such was still in the future, the biograph, as it was called then, was well established in the variety houses, and films of adven- ture were in wide popular demand. But probably Lord Snowden was no habitue of variety houses.
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