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m I > 1922
ICl B53 3241
RADIO
BROADCAST
Vol. l' No. 4
August, 1922
J
The March of Radio
RADIO MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED THIS ACCIDENT
THERE are still definite, important, applications which we are slow to perceive and put into effect. Years ago Professor Trowbridge suggested the scheme of using loops of wire, strung in the rigging of a ship, for sending out and receiving messages over short distances, but in so far as we know his scheme was never actually installed. His idea of using audio frequency currents through the transmitting loops would have required quite powerful apparatus to make it sufficiently serviceable to warrant the expense of upkeep of the sets. The distance over which communication could have been carried out was rather small.
With the use of high frequency radio currents, however, the idea Trowbridge put forth is easy of accomplishment, and there is no good reason why it should not have been in operation while the Egypt was proceeding cautiously down the French coast, through a thick fog. We read: "For some time previous to the crash the vessel had been going very slow on account of the fog and the usual fog precautions had been taken (italics ours). Not until there was no possibility of avoiding the accident, it appears, did the watch officers on either vessel become conscious of the proximity of the other."
So we are evidently to conclude that this was an unavoidable accident, one to which each of us is exposed when afloat, even when all the usual fog precautions have been taken! Blow
ing the fog whistle — and stationing extra lookouts at the bow — these were probably the usual precautions. Now it is evident to any one who has passed through fog banks that the extra lookouts are nothing but a form; they might tell the navigating officer that he was going to hit a vessel a few seconds before the crash occurred and that 's about all the use they would be.
The fog whistle, with its penetrating roar, is probably the best protection we have to-day, but those who have made experiments on sound transmission know that there are silent spots, or zones, in which the sound of the fog whistle may not be heard even though the vessel may be close to the source of the sound. These silent zones occur because of the refractions and reflections of the sound waves by the dense fog banks and they shift around in haphazard fashion. And even though the fog whistle is heard, its direction is often problematical because of these same effects.
Now, a proper radio installation on board a ship would make practically impossible such an accident as that which caused the loss of a hundred lives on the Egypt. It will of course be said that there was undoubtedly radio apparatus on board. Of course there was, but this apparatus was also undoubtedly being used at the time of the collision, to listen on the 60cmeter wavelength — to listen for distress signals from other possible collisions!
How should this possibility of collision in