At the Marconi Inquiry on Monday evidence was given by
Mr. H. A. Madge, a naval expert in wireless telegraphy. He said that in his opinion the Poulsen system "could do the work to a certainty." He was "rather surprised" that when the sub-committee of technical experts had issued a report on the Poulsen system the Imperial Wireless Committee had not been called together to consider it. As regards the use of the Marconi system in the Navy, he said that the Admiralty made use of certain patents and processes belonging to the Marconi Company, but that in the main they had "worked on inde- pendent lines—they had gone on in their own direction?' Again, "most of the apparatus used in the ships was not apparatus designed by or purchased from the Marconi Com- pany." Captain Charlton was asked whether the ships of the Navy were registered as Marconi ships, and he said that they bad "not been so registered." There was an agreement to register them under certain conditions, "but not exactly as stated by Mr. Godfrey Isaacs." There is no need to insist on the significance of this evidence. The Government have proposed to give a virtual monopoly for a long period to a company whose apparatus the Admiralty do not for the most part care to use.
Previous page
