L'Écho de Paris 07 juin 1923

The festival of the T.S.F.

In the immense amphitheater of the Trocadéro, Paris will today celebrate the French TSF, its admirable progress, its glorious craftsmen.

On this occasion, I was asked to recall the important role that France has played in the development of these new techniques and the hopes that can be based on future discoveries to be made by French scientists and engineers in these domains, provided that they are helped by a fair appreciation of their efforts and by material means which have hitherto been too sparingly limited to them. Accustomed as we are, by our national spirit of equity and impartiality, to do full justice to the work of foreign scholars, we sometimes forget the merits of our compatriots who, more modest, have pursued in the cabinet or in the laboratory. , far from any publicity, meticulous, patient, often brilliant research; it is therefore worth recalling them today.

From the publication of the beautiful discovery by Professor Hertz, of the methods of production and observation of electromagnetic waves (whose existence Maxwell had announced much earlier and calculated the effects) our compatriots have perfected the technique of studying these waves; this is how Blondiot measured their speed and imagined, to produce them, excitation by induction, built the condenser resonator which made it possible to study their propagation with precision, and to see how it depends on the medium in which they are immersed the conductive wires. From this resonator, Mr. Paul Janet derived the "wavemeter", whose use has become universal. It is to Henri Poincaré that we owe the notion of the damping of oscillators and resonators, and the explanation of phenomena hitherto obscure.

It was still one of our compatriots, Mr. Turpain, who first had the idea of applying Herizian waves to wired and wireless telegraphy, and who received, by sound, in a special resonator provided with a telephone , Morse signals through several thicknesses of walls. M. Branly then demonstrated, by known experiments, that the resonator, if metal filings are added to it, can record the passage of the wave; these results gave to Marconi, according to the picturesque expression of Mr. Daniel Berthelot “the electric eye”, which he needed to create his telegraphic system, formed of two tuned aerials connected by the ground; this eye was then perfected by various French scientists, in particular by General Ferrié, who discovered the electrolytic detector, the precursor of galena.

The late commander Tissot then created the methods for the remote measurement of the intensity of the waves of T.S.F. and made on this occasion the study of many detector systems. It was another French researcher who, twenty years ago, imagined the emission by musical sparks, the acoustic sorting by monotelephone and by vibrating relays (a principle which the late Guéritot made, during the war, with the greatest ingenuity, application to the remote control of aircraft), directed wave antenna systems and direction finding frame, automatic radio beacons and the first wireless telephony system by modulated waves using microphones. The possibility of wireless telephony was therefore acquired, despite the annoying "frying" due to the arc in the oil. MM. Colin and Jeance went further and obtained even more convincing results, by modulating Poulsen's arc.

These inventors lacked the flexible producer of pure waves that is the tube with three electrodes. Unfortunately, we had neglected a little too much before the war, precisely because of the lack of a sufficient number of research laboratories specializing in wireless telegraphy, the study of these empty lamps invented by de Forest, and on which all telegraphy and telephony are based. modern wireless.

But how much, under the impulse and the high technical direction of Gégéral Ferrié, our technicians were able to catch up during the hostilities! Thanks to the admirable organization of research, created by this great, animator of the TSF in France at the Eiffel Tower, and to the central establishment of military telegraphy, thanks to the elite of researchers with whom he knew how to surround himself, the French army obtained from the beginning, and increased during all the war its advance compared to the foreign armies. It came as a surprise to many how much the Germans suffered during the war from the inferiority in which they found themselves from this point of view. This is how the best models of amplifiers, generating stations were created in France by the labors of MM. Latour, Brillouin, Gutton, Jouaust, etc... and the most delicate problems of selection were solved by MM. Abraham, de Bellescize, Armagnat, Mesny, Lévy, etc.

The same progress has been maintained with regard to the large telegraph transmission stations; the installation of the Eiffel Tower which had served as a model, was successively eclipsed by the large posts of Lyon, Bordeaux, Sainte-Assise, etc... which far outweigh all the large foreign posts, thanks to the inventions French technicians. It is to the late Maurice Joly that we owe the frequency transformers, to MM. Bougherot, Béthenod, Latour, that one had successively the creation of the most beautiful models of alternators with high frequency and the French construction triumphed over the enormous difficulties which this manufacture presents; wireless telephony could not be left behind in the country from which it originated; and again, the Eiffel Tower post has been at the forefront of progress, and we know all the services it renders, not only to sailors, but to farmers.

The astonishing diffusion of radio receptions in France is only the beginning of a general organization of information and popular relaxation. Here again, French inventors take the lead with original creations, such as that of modern loudspeaker receivers. This means of information can even be supplemented by the "transmission of images by wireless telegraphy", due to the inventions of MM. Belin ee Touly.

All these results are the culmination of laboratory research, often very long trial and error, which the public does not even suspect. In reality, nothing is as difficult as making and perfecting an invention, as the elements have become so complex. The astonishing flowering of the discoveries and improvements of wireless telegraphy, and more generally of physical methods during the war, was a striking demonstration of the fruitfulness of a real organization of scientific research. It is by the selection and co-operation of a large number of specialists, by placing at their disposal the necessary laboratories, personnel and funds, that it has been possible to obtain so many useful improvisations. The post-war period must not cause us to lose the advance thus achieved and cause us to fall back into the situation in which our researchers found themselves before the hostilities. However, they are threatened by it, especially independent researchers, who do not have the administrative resources to help them, nor the powerful organizations of industrial companies. However, it should not be forgotten that the isolated researcher is very often the most worthy of interest and that he can sometimes have remarkable ideas. This is how a modest worker in the arsenal of Cherbourg had imagined, a dozen years ago, the telemetric method, based on the combination of acoustic signals and herizian signals, a method which, after having been properly developed and perfected, has received remarkable applications. in naval operations. — The man of science who has only his own resources for his laboratory is constantly handicapped by the increase in the price of all scientific apparatus and all means of research. Let no one object to the classic example of the discoveries of Ampère, Fresnel, Pasteur, Curie and other brilliant scientists, made despite the lamentable insufficiency of the means placed at their disposal, at least at the beginning. of their career. For this shortage of means has delayed the success of their studies and made them suffer as any good worker suffers who has at his disposal only insufficient or mediocre tools. Pasteur's centenary, which we have just celebrated, has given many occasions to recall his ordeals. And on the other hand, the very progress of science requires much more extensive knowledge and reading than in their time and more complex tools than when it was a question of simply establishing the first principles of electrodynamics or of optics. The laboratory which could then be rudimentary, must today be equipped with important installations and numerous and expensive apparatuses; wireless enthusiasts can realize this by calculating the price at which they must currently buy the apparatus they use and periodically renew important parts, such as lamps and accumulators.

If Germany, whose example has often been invoked, was able to astonish the world in the last century by the abundance of its scientific production, it owes it much less to the originality and intelligence of its scientists, organization, so to speak industrial, of this scientific production: distribution throughout the territory of numerous research establishments, universities and technical schools, recruitment of an abundant staff of professors, assistants and researchers, remuneration suitable personnel, proportionate to their value and their output, placing at their disposal ample premises, abundant and constantly perfected tools, and the necessary auxiliary labour. If we take into account these powerful means, compared to those very weak which we have in France, we are easily convinced that the yield obtained in our country is proportionally higher; but our volume of production, and consequently our technical and industrial power, remain less. It is this state of affairs that must be changed.

To increase the number of our research agents, whose practice of telegraphy and wireless telephony will undoubtedly rapidly increase the number in the new generation, it is necessary above all to be able to offer them means of work and remunerative outlets; this is the goal which must be kept constantly before our eyes and which justifies the efforts not only of the State, but of private initiatives. The large German industrial companies have in practice a monopoly on invention, all the more so since this is facilitated by the work of invention in series as practiced by these companies, whose laboratories systematize research, giving them an almost mechanical form, made possible only by the employment of a large number of technicians working like a disciplined army under competent directors. In France, our individualistic spirit does not lend itself well to this method; French inventions are still most often the work of isolated scientists, and this is why aid for scientific research retains all its opportunity and raison d'être here.

May the great momentum which has been building up for some time now in favor of this work of national interest, and which the generous subscriptions which the press has registered over the last few weeks bear witness to, draw new nourishment from the important demonstrations to which the wireless telephony. Perhaps we are not yet at the time predicted by the American engineer Tesla (the inventor of the T.S.F. transformer that bears his name) when a man will be able to get in touch with a friend residing in any other distant point of the globe by means of a simple telephone call by hertzian waves and exchange with him his impressions; but let us be convinced that the radio broadcasting of information is not a simple matter of fashion, that it will become more and more anchored in our mores, and that it will render greater service every day in all the classes of the population. The farmer will no doubt soon be able to receive, with the aid of inexpensive sets, all the useful news transmitted daily by secondary sets having a small radius of action; the retiree will be able to find as many intellectual elements in the country as in the city, and keep in touch at all times with the life of the latter; interesting prospects for returning to the land will thus open up for many city dwellers. This is a social result which is far from negligible and which, in itself, would justify the aid which is solicited in favor of those who will soon make it possible.

ANDRE BLONDEL,

Honorary President of the French Society

electricians,

Member of the Academy of Sciences.