An early dot and dash man revisits Hobart Harry Lewis1972
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IAn‘earlydotan
4
' man rewsfls Ho
ONE of the first Tasmunians to coax dot cmd dash'
sounds out of the air is revisiting Hobart after a virtual.
L absence of more than 50 years, andhe is pleasedwnth
PRAR SV
2% —
; what he has seen.
oS
T e AT2y
He is Mr Harry G. him a' job bé‘ca’use of his"
et
Lewis, of Melbourne, who “persistence” at the .
in a talk the other
LT
day princely rate of 5s a week,
admitted neighbours des- but his first pay envelope ~
cribed him as a “crank” contained 15s.
when he erected a radio
He was one of the first
mast in his former Ho- and‘
‘radio operators ever to 3UZ’s first radio transmit-"
" bart home in Forest Rd.
communicate by ‘radio
He left Hobart in 1923, ter (Melbourne’s second):’
o
telephone with Melbourne ‘at 3 time when broat
and his visits since could
on an experimental basis.’
best be described as casting was just ‘ett
fleeting — Hobart was a His partner in this ex- under way.
mere port of call for tour- ercise was Mr Ross Hull,
‘Another transfer -took"
‘i ist liners on which who became a very im-
he him to Sydney .in* ‘the %
!, was a passenger, portant radio man in the
wholesale side of mdlo
This time, however, the United States, and was
parts, ,,‘,
| serious illness of a sister editor of the American
radio magazine QST, He described that as, a”
= ! brought him for a longer
huge
- business becausg o
\ . Stay.
Self taught - there was no such thing
as a manufactured radio
Revolutiona ry Mr Lewls said he could -set. s I'
* In a lifetime spent " find nobody in Tasmania They were all blts and -
in
" radio first on the techni- to teach him Morse Code pieces that had to be as-
cal side and later on the MR HARRY G. in the early days and he sembled.
commercial side, he has
+watched it grow - from
LEWIS had to teach himself.’
It paid dividends, be-
Mr Lewis found that'
the sale of wireless parts
orse code messages cap- cause in the First World was & much more lucra-.
#1 tured out of the air to the
Revisiting old War he was commandeer- tive undertaking than
, 'Vimazing development of Hobart scenes. ed to become an instruc- that of a wireless techni-
% ransmission by satellite, tor in Morse Code and cian and on his return to
g’:;;"[-f nd he claims that no He said it was an amaz- portable field telephones. Melbourne remained in
ing coincidence that it
~eicl:ivity of man has been Printed information on that side of the business.
1.S0 revolutionary in should have been pub-
radio work was almost
'e’mort a time as wireless
lished during his
because he had
visit
taken
non-existent in Tasmania Astoundlng
§ And radxo communica- at the time, so he sent to
«z }\Ihon part in preparing the dec-
orations in 1919, the United States for ra-
He descrmed Hobarts‘ 1
'3 My contact with Mr dio publications, and they
development as “astound-’ ||
rewm came as -a result “It was just after I are among his treasured
ing”. He said the strong-| |
i | a picture published in had returned from the est impression on his pre-_| |
possessions,
’-I'S§is column last week of First World War,” he vious brief visits was the
But he added they cleanliness of the streets,
ir‘xe GPO tower decorated said. “The Hobart firm make quaint reading now.
i| for the peace celebrations of Medhurst had been
particularly around the | !
The set-ups were “the waterfront,
‘after the First World given the job of lighting
most inadequate things
E ; z War. the GPO for the celebra- “On this longer visit,” |
you ever saw,” and, of
tions and I went back to he added, “it still re-
course, radio telephone
work quick and lively, mains a strong impres-
| was unheard of,
) &
“Bert Ellis and I had sion, In fact I would say.
D
N
N
(
/1 A
s\
% -~
\ Mr Lewis concedes that it is the cleanest city in
\ ( =
the job, and I still have
in all his experiments he the Commonwealth.”
¢ \ N vivid memories of climb- ]
=X . was not lucky enough to
ing over that green dome The cleanlinesg of 'the
-
; U o preparing
pluck any sensational
= T - the decora- waterfront and the Rail~ |} |
) v SOS messages out of the
> tions.” way Roundabout founs< i
)/\ / “air, but his serap book
( ~ tain combined tq ' give
Q
3 ) (
» 5s a week records , communication
'with the Mawson exped‘ui
visitors a delightful first'_
i, STl i i
v o
& r
= <. e impression. 3
Mr Lewis was 2 member tion in the Antarctic, and
e
P~ of the 7th Field Artillery a demonstration he gave
Business grew
D
RN Battery, a Queensland of time signals from Min.
i ~ \ PAN unit, in the First World neapolis naval station in Mr Lewis recalled that
O Ly
War. the United States at- many. years ago a young
= ¢
-Mr Lewis as a “ham” tracteq a lot of public at- . man named Arthur,
G J tention,
= ¢ enthusiast was among the Warner came to his Mel-
S)
£ b RN
N\
first in Australia to get bourne shop offering ra~
¥
J -
Q\
=
an official radio licence to Engineer dio parts for sale and in-..
e
A
conduct a transmitter. quiring whether there
R~ - A long newspaper ar-
That was in 1912, and| ticle records what a won- was a market for such’
= he still holds the things. An order for the
official\l derful thing it was to re-
parchment document. parts was arranged. i
|\ ceive signals from
He said he was keen America “off a tin roof”. Eventually .the ' young
m anything to do with man became associated
Mr Lewis transferred to- with My Louis Abrahams,
tlectricity and radio, but Melbourne about 1923 and
here were few jobs offer- became radio engineer ‘another “‘crank” on radlo,
12 in that line, and thatled to the gs\‘.ab- :
for.Oliver J. Nilson, lishmentof the b 4=
Eventually Mr F, W As such he was respo that, gréw into th%th- ;
l Medhurst (“Papa”) gave sible for the manufacture “orgal tion ‘/ 7