STEERING BY WIRELESS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 October 1922, Page 7

STEERING BY WIRELESS

NAVY’B SECRET DEVICE iNEW ERA IN SEA WARFARE THE AGAMEMNON TEST The manner ux which the old battleship Agamemnon. was manoeuvred, steered, and worked by wireless at speeds which at times readied 15 knots during the air bombing tests oh the isle of Wight has attracted wide interest. For a long summers day die cruised about the Channel witii no human being oai board, entirely directed ami controlled by wireless from the destroyer Truant, which followed nearly two miles astern.

Site 'was burning oil, and (lie smoke ut it at limes poured densely from her fore funnel, showing that the mechanical stoker was not quite so expert, as the human article.

Thu sight of this 17,000-ton battleship slowly circling the centre of a flotilla which took their movements from her ivas impressive; it suggested imniatifee possibilities to the imaginative. For example, if a new Zeebrugge had to be blocked, a ship with no one on board but wireless controlled from some distance away could be employed, to do the work. Or, again, a ship laden will) high explosives might be sent into a hostile anchorage and there blown up. An attack of ibis kind might prove distinctly trying to an enemy’s nerves. The day may yet come when whole fleets of surface ships will engage under wireless control from the shore or from the air—when giant aeroplanes, capable i of developing the necessary electric power, have been completed. In this, as in other developments, the world is only at the very beginning. In our own Navy progress bad been very rapid. Before the war a wireless-con-trolled torpedo was tried and rejected, as jt. did nut give satisfactory results. A similar weapon was used on two occasions in the war by the Germains, but with little effect. SCOPE OF THE DISCOVERY . Since the war, however, the problem of controlling a si lip from a distance has been mastered by British naval olheers. It is believed that no great dihicniiy would be experienced in steering a destroyed at 25 or 30 knots; the real dillicuJiy 'ls risk to harmless, peaceauie, merchant shipping which nug. Happen to get in the way of the magic vessel. The exact nature of the devices employed is naturally a secret, but, simply stated, the system consists in wireless currents which are generated at the control station (that may be either on board ship or on shore) being transmitted to the object being "controlled.” There they are “received”. by valves and made to operate magnets. Of the latter a series is installed in the ship—if it is a ship that is under control. Each magnet has a particular job to do. One puts the rudder to port, another turns it to starboard and so on through the whole lauge of actions incidental to “running” the ship. Each magnet does its special job and that job alone—and it worlds only when current is directed upon it. Communication is made or broken instantly. M tiu: operator at the control station wants a given number of degrees of starboard helm “put on” the “controlled” vessel, lie energises the magnet installed for the jmrpuse of starboarding the helm ami cuts it out again immediately the uelm is in tiie p ition required. In ■ liiutnc". - response .10 cue “signals' iioui l- 1 a: ; muiot station is an essential .e.uiu'e of radio control. DISTANCE NO PROBLEM Although lie may be 20 miles away from her, the man who handles a ship by this system occupies exactly the same position in relation to navigating her as he would if he were captain giving his orders from her bridge. In the latter case he tells various sailors what he wishes them to do. But by “control,” instead of giving verbal orders to men, he transmits “wirelessed” orders to ‘ mechanical appliances, and they do exactly what lie wants them. Theoretically, the use of different wave-lengths for operating different “control” instruments is satisfactory. In practice there are objections to it on Uie grounds of multiplicity of plant. The better method is to operate the relay switches, which do whatever is required aboard the “controlled” vessel by impulses—or “punches.” One wireless “punch’* sets a specific switch (or magnet) in action; two “punches” start up another—and so on through the whole gamut of activities that are subject to the will of the man. at the control station. '