Science and Signalling

RADIO is now the plaything of the hour. Broad-casting provides a curious hotch-potch of education and amusement, and, in its own way, is undoubtedly performing valuable service to the community. The utilisation of wireless waves, however, promises to be put to far more serious use in many branches of human activity. In the railway world it seems probable that, before many years have passed, we shall witness extensive utilisation of wireless waves in train signalling on many of the principal main-lines.

As was pointed out by Mr. R. G. Berry, Divisional Signal Superintendent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in his recent presidential address to the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers, an invisible air wave can transmit in minute detail, from one end of Britain to the other, a full concert performed in London. It should not, therefore, be beyond the ingenuity of the signal-engineer so to harness this wave that it would do anything required of it. It might light up a signal of a required colour, operate a pair of points, work level crossing-gates or stop a train. It was Mr. Berry's opinion that, within a very short time, many of the present methods of railway signalling would be regarded as crude and primitive. In a recent article appearing in these pages, the writer dealt briefly with the utilisation which is now being made in Germany of the metal selenium in train signalling. This metal, which is peculiarly susceptible to the effects of rays of red light, offers distinct possibilities for simplifying train signalling apparatus. Its properties are at the moment being carefully studied by signal engineers at Home, and here again there seems a likelihood of old methods of train signalling being completely overhauled, thanks to modern scientific research. Whatever developments the future may have in store, one may safely prophesy radical changes in the railway signalling field in the near future.