Proposal to Put Prestel Viewdata System Into Every British Home Racing for the Cosmic Flash

_4l_O _______________________ NEWS------------N_A_T_U_R_E_V_O_L_.3_3_0_3_D_E_C_E_M_B_E_R_1_98_7 Proposal to put Prestel viewdata Racing for the system into every British home cosmic flash London to supply continuously updated informa Sydney BRITISH Telecom has decided to embark tion on ferry availability. Indeed, by 1981, AsTRONOMERS in Australia and New on an ambitious scheme to put its pioneer British Telecom had changed its market Zealand are rushing to complete gamma ing viewdata system Prestel into every ing strategy to aim at the business world ray telescopes in time to catch the ex telephone subscriber's household. At rather than householders. Now, of Prestel's pected arrival of gamma rays from the present. only 24,000 British households 78,000 terminals, 69 per cent are in the February supernova in the Large Magel have Prestel terminals, out of 18 million workplace and 31 per cent in the home. lanic Cloud. domestic telephone subscribers. It is The lack of interest of domestic users is Two new instruments are under con understood that British Telecom will in generally blamed on poor marketing and struction; one in the Australian desert at the first instance set up a trial, with sub the cost of hardware. At present, the least Woomera and the other 1,650 m up a scribers in one London telephone district expensive means of using Prestel is to buy mountain near Blenheim on New Zea and one district outside London being an adaptor priced at around £100 for an land's South Island. supplied with Prestel terminals for a existing television set. Although Prestel's Visually, the supernova has long passed fixed time. The town of Milton Keynes, a office says the system makes a profit its peak, but no gamma rays have yet been traditional test-bed for British Telecom's (figures are not made public), of the seen because they cannot penetrate the innovations and with the country's numerous services available, it is the shell of hot gas and dust that surrounds the youngest. least technology-shy population, financial and travel companies that supply supernova's innermost regions. But that is being tipped as a possible trial district, the bulk of the business. veil is growing thinner. although a city such as Nottingham would Despite the relatively modest number Gamma-ray telescopes observe indi be more representative. of Prestel subscribers, the service is grow rectly. When gamma rays strike the atoms British Telecom has not yet publicly ing. The number of terminals has in the upper atmosphere, they scatter announced its plans, and the size of the increased more than threefold since 1982- their energy in a cascade of secondary trial sample is not known. It is understood 83 and in 1981 there were only 1,300 particles; these in turn give off flashes of that tenders have been invited for the domestic users. If British Telecom does light called Cerenkov radiation which can supply of 5 million Prestel terminals, and decide to provide householders with be picked up by the telescope. Philips Business Systems is one of the free Prestel sets, the capital outlay will be The Woomera instrument, being built companies invited to tender. Officials considerable. But one immediate benefit by the University of Adelaide's depart want the trial to start by September. would be to relieve the much-lambasted ment of physics at a cost of A$22O,OOO, Launched in 1979, Prestel has never directory service (the Prestel system would should be able to locate a light source lived up to its early promise, and British provide a national telephone directory), to within a half degree on the sky. The Telecom's hope that the Prestel terminal which is now free, although British Telecom telescope consists of 57 separate 8O-cm would become as ubiquitous as the tele hints that this might not always be so. diameter mirrors mounted on a steerable vision set or refrigerator failed to become The overall standard of service from frame in three groups of 19. In each group, reality. Prestel was originally conceived as British Telecom has come in for a good the light collected by the mirrors is a means of increasing domestic telephone deal of criticism recently. Its Pres tel brought to a common focus where it is traffic, traditionally subsidized by the scheme could do much for public rela picked up by a photo-electric detector. business community, but soon became tions, and with a half-year pre-tax profit to The detectors can resolve time differ established as a trade medium when the September this year of £1,120 million, it ences as small as five thousand millionths ferry company Sealink installed 600 should be able to take the financial strain. of a second. Any event not detected simul terminals free of charge in travel agencies Simon Hadlington taneously at the three focal points is rejected as noise. The Woomera site was chosen for its Seismologists unshaken by earthquake dark skies, the prime criterion for gamma Washington has been a pattern in the place and time of ray observation. The telescope had been Two more earthquakes hit southern Cali Californian earthquakes that, while not planned long before the supernova and fornia last week, both measuring a little fully understood, suggests that stress, was not due for completion until the more than six on the Richter scale. But generated in the slow movement of the middle of next year. But the project unlike the earthquake of similar magnitude Pacific plate, is transferred up and down leader, Professor John Prescott, now that rattled Los Angeles on 1 October, no the faults in a predictable manner. Stress is plans to have it operating by 1 January. deaths were caused and few puzzles were particularly likely to concentrate at the end The New Zealand telescope owes its set for seismologists. of faults which are slowly creeping. Super genesis entirely to the supernova. Uni Robert Wesson, a geophysicist specia stition Hills had been marked down by versities in Japan, Australia and New lizing in earthquake prediction at the USGS researchers as a possible spot for an Zealand are working together, with Pro United States Geological Survey (USGS), earthquake during 1986-96. Earthquakes fessor Y. Murakami of the University of said that while the 1 October earthquake occurred nearby in 1979 and 1980. Tokyo as the project leader. According to "made us feel humble, this one made us feel The citizens of Los Angeles are not likely Dr John Humble of the University of that we are beginning to understand what to gain much comfort from the knowledge Tasmania, the telescope is largely being is going on". The pair of earthquakes that long-term earthquake prediction is put together using spare parts gathered occurred on the Superstition Hills fault in gaining some respectability. Similar stud from around Japan. New Zealand is the sparsely populated Imperial Valley ies by the USGS suggest that there is a 50 providing the site and Australia largely close to the Mexican border. per cent chance of a magnitude 8 earth 'moral support'. The site was chosen in The area's location at the end of the San quake, likely to cause 3,000-13,000 deaths, May, construction began in September Andreas fault system puts it at risk from on the San Andreas fault in the next 30 and the first test observation had been earthquakes. Over the past decade, there years. Alun Anderson completed by 20 November. Charles Morgan © 1987 Nature Publishing Group.

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