On the morning of Friday, April 8th, the transmission of
commercial messages to Australia by beam wireless began. The messages despatched from London travel by land-line to the wireless beam station at Grimsby. Thence they are sent by wireless to the Australian station at Rockbank, thence again by land-line to the central office at Melbourne. The return journey is made by Balan (55 miles from Melbourne) to Skegncss and so to London. It is possible to direct the beam either across Europe and Asia or across America and time Pacific. The Times points out that the route varies according to the time of day, as wireless waves travel better at night. The beam journey to Australia takes only one-eighteenth of a second. The Marconi Company contracted to send messages at the rate of a hundred words a minute, but a rate of two hundred words a minute has been common. The Canadian beam service has been working since last October, and it is hoped that the Indian and South African services will he ready soon.
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