Abstract
ANOTHER milestone in the history of practical radio communication was reached on Friday, January 26, when Sir Philip Sassoon, Under-Secretary of State for Air, officially opened the world's first commercial ‘micro-ray’ radio service on a wavelength of 17 cm. between the civil airports at Lympne, Kent, and St. Inglevert, France. M. Delesalle, Undersecretary of State for Air in France, was present at St. Inglevert, and messages of greeting were exchanged, both by teleprinter and by telephone. The inauguration of this service is the outcome of a demonstration given in March 1931 by Messrs. Standard Telephones and Cables, Ltd., who secured the contract for the Lympne installation from the Air Ministry. The corresponding station in France was erected by the associated company—Le Matérial Télephonique, of Paris. The actual wave-lengths employed in this radio link are 17 cm. in one direction and 17.5 cm. in the opposite direction, and this separation enables duplex working to take place simultaneously by teleprinter and telephone. The teleprinter has been used on land-line commercial telegraph services for some years, and its application to radio communication on this occasion will enable messages to be sent and recorded at a speed of 60–70 words per minute.
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Micro-ray Radio Link across the English Channel. Nature 133, 167–168 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133167b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133167b0