Radio Broadcast (Nov 1924-Apr 1925)

852 Radio Broadcast the Allies, and the liaison established between the practical engineers of the above mentioned companies and those of the nations aligned against the Central Powers, brought about quick changes and some real advances. At the close of the War, the reputation of the vacuum tube had advanced to a high plane. As a means for radio reception it had proved its excellence, and its use as an oscillator and a transmitting agent had begun in earnest. Its use as a generator enabled many of the front line engineers to "get the jump" on many a zero-hour attack by the Germans, and it also served as an excellent "scrambler" for the German attempts to maintain radio communication at the front. Following the rapid development of the vacuum tube itself came the circuits designed to use it. Some of these were the reflex, the super-heterodyne, the super-regenerator, and the neutrodyne. All of these helped attain greater selectivity, hence a greater degree of secrecy in communication. Later, have come the circuits of Meissner, the junior Hammond, and Senator Marconi. PEACE-TIME ADVANCES AID WAR TN EVERY case 1 where peace-time advances are being made in the radio art, that development has a place among the resources for war. For ten or twelve years a tremendous amount of laboratory and experimental work has been done toward achieving a practical MASON M. PATRICK — —Major General, United States Army, Chief of Air Service Since the War, the great advance in the development of radio has been followed with interest by the Army Air Service. It affords a rapid and accurate means of communication between forces behind the guns, on the land, sea, and in the air. Experiments have proved that airplanes can be operated by radio without pilots on board them. 77 is believed to be possible that a number of airplanes may thus be directed and controlled from a single plane or from a control station, guided on their course and that from them bombs may be dropped when the attacking plane is over its target. Aerial torpedoes may likewise be made to find their mark. While great progress has been and continues to be made in this method of distant control of war machines, there seems to be likewise a further large field for experiment in hampering or preventing the radio operation of these engines of destruction and it is possible that this may tend to a still further radio development. I am interested and glad to note the stimulative effect of the publication of articles and data of this character by such magazines of the excellent quality of Radio Broadcast. control of distant mechanisms by means of radio waves. In the United States Patent Office are anywhere from two to three hundred patents all bearing on this branch of the art, and probably .three or four times as many applications not yet passed upon by the government staff of experts, as patentable. The proposition of distant control has many peace time uses. Railroad train cab-signal and control mechanisms can be operated by means of radio. Great unit power plants located at distant points from the zone of power delivery are going to require some means of radio communication and control. Our coast -line lighthouses and beacons are going to figure in a radio control development. In the near future, the transcontinental air mail will require radio tell-tales, showing positions of mail carrying units at some central point, as the volume of business by air mail requires a more complex control and intelligence system than its present incomplete development allows. In the event of aerial passenger and freight movement of any consequence there will be an immediate need for practical intelligence and control mediums. Certainly in time of war, the nation which is able to keep in the air, and control the flight of mechanical engines of death will be able to sway the tides of combat in its favor. A recent dispatch from England told that the Royal Aircraft Forces there are making