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The Telephone 171 bility of talking through the ether across the broad Atlantic was satisfactorily demonstrated. Will wireless telephony supersede the ordinary overhead wire and underground cable systems ? For general commercial purposes a vehement negative is expressed by those who have been engaged in the experiments. The fact that the messages may be tapped by anyone possessing wireless receivers within radius is fatal to such a widespread application. Privacy in conversation would be absolutely destroyed. More- over, the criss-crossing of messages, sent in all direc- tions simultaneously, would be recorded by any instrument tuned to the transmitter from which they were dispatched, and would lead to hopeless confusion. Again, the clerk of the weather possesses the last word in the matter. Some days, and under certain conditions, there would be no reliability or certainty in the receipt of the messages. It is maintained that wireless telephony will occupy its especial and limited channel of application. It will enable speech to be carried to extremely remote corners of the world, thereby keeping the latter in more intimate touch with civilisation ; will be useful to navigation ; and, to a certain degree, to navies as well. But no promise of a universal wireless telephone service is held out. It is rather a wonderful achieve- ment of science than a commercial possibility. Wire- less communication is in its infancy. The future may bring forth a means whereby selection of messages, and consequently privacy of conversation, may be assured as completely as it is with wires and cables to-day. Who knows ?