Radio Broadcast (Nov 1924-Apr 1925)

Record Details:

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New Fields for Radio 855 Radio-controlled mechanism can be called on to conduct underwater attack, to maneuver torpedoes to their destination, and to make whole mine fields "live", when, for instance, a fleet retreat is required to be "covered," by newly sown mines. Another new use of the radio control mechanism will be its application impenetrating enemy mine fields. During the late war there was devised and used by the British Navy an invention known as the "paravane," or "otter gear." A ship thus equipped was able to steam right through an enemy mine field, and provided it did not strike a mine bow-on, the otter gear, swinging out from its side, armed with huge steel jaws, snipped the anchor cable of any mine encountered. The mine/ then released from its anchoring weight, bobbed harmlessly to the surface, where it was detonated by watchful guards placed along the decks with rifles. Steel underwater sharks, entirely radioc o n t r o i l ed,, could easily be equipped with "otter gear," and can cut swaths through a mine field so that attacking ships can steam to enemy ports. An enemy zone can be placed in such condition that no enemy ships tad maneuver there because of the danger from their own mines, to their bwn ships. IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS OF RADIO CONTROL NOT the least important among the developments hinging upon the successful completion Of the distant control of mechanisms by radio, is the handling of decoy aerial fleets, and decoy battleships. It is a known fact that the British Admiralty completely fooled the German scout submarine commanders when they built facsimile copies of the superstructures of the Grand Fleet on the discarded hulls of pre-dreadnaught ships, — Photograph Courtesy U. S. Air Service THE PROMISE OF A THREAT Is dimly concealed in the armament of this airplane. It is theoretically possible to control the firing of the guns and releasing of bombs as well as to guide the flight of an airplane equipped for radio control and operating these decoy ships in waters far removed from the location of the Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow. There will always be a need for decoy vessels of the sea as well as of the air, and their operation will adapt itself quite well to radio control mechanisms. The U. S. S. Iowa was maneuvered by rudimentary radio control apparatus in battle evolutions three years ago. With radio-control, it will be quite feasible to deploy great squadrons of tanks in concentrated battle front, to batter a hole in a dangerous sector. Mechanical land mines, underground gas bombs, incendiary flares, and short-distance catapulted detonating devices containing all three of these elements lend themselves to control by fa d i o . An occupied area about to be abandoned, can be rendered absolutely untenable for long periods of time by intermittent explosions controlled by radio from a distant point. At recent frequent intervals, some very interesting stories of ammunition magazine explosions and disastrous fires caused by radio waves have appeared in the press. Many of the soundest scientists refuse to credit theories of that sort. People in general have ceased to wonder at the miracles of radio, and expect much greater marvels than the art to-day is capable of attaining. This blase attitude has restrained radioprogress to some degree. It may be that powerful transmitting stations, broadcasting radio waves of high frequency, can cause currents to flow in external circuits in such a way that sparks are produced of sufficient strength to do damage. However, when one considers the thousands of circuits, telephones, telegraph wires, and house-lighting, immediately adjacent to these powerful transmitting stations it is not hard to assume that