ROBOT CAMERA DEVISED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 2 March 1935, Page 11

ROBOT CAMERA DEVISED

Takes Automatic Snaps of Upper Atmosphere.

the Radio Eescarch Station at Slough (writes a sepcial correspondent of London Daily Mail), I was introduced to a radio robot' with an “eye” which probes the mysteries of the upper atmosphere and studies the effect on radio signals thousands of miles from the earth. It has befen devised by scientists in the National Physical Laboratory to explore in a manner which man could never do in the regions far beyond the stratosphere. The robot’s ability to work automatically is uncanny. It consists of a transmitter which projects the signals,. a receiver to which they return, and a special type of camera which photographs th< waves after their long journey through the layers which surround the earth

the next exposure. After the original radio signal has been photographed on transmission, it is recorded on-its return fronr the upper atmosphere as an echo.

The robot records hoiv far the waves have penetrated into the ionosphere—a region beyond the stratosphere' of which little is known; Sometimes the' waves never come back. They have penetrated too deeply into the ionosphere, and are lost to the “eye” of the robot.

But those that do come back bring with them more and'more information about the conditions they have encountered (n places hitherto (Unexplored by science. . “This automatic watchdog is a great boon,” I was told by one of the “keepers” of the robot. “It is wresting Many secrets from the ionosphere—secrets which are unfolding strange things about the phenomena in the universe which affect the earth and) radio sent, from - the earth.” '. - A•

The transmitter aiid receiver switcl themselves on automatically and keel in tune without human assistance. The camera also switches itself on and off.

As one picture is taken, It even moves the photographic paper for