Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-01
WIRELESS THUMB ON SHIPS.
Plan for Determining VesseFs Lati-
tude and Longitude by Length OF
Waves.

| flute the claims of men VINO feCeh1iS ca
cited the scientific world with announce
ments of discovery and invention calcu-
/ lated to crowd the bughear OF sclehtilic
warfare back into the primer Glass; anu
/ to safeguard the lives of seatarers' flrs'
I ne takes up and disposes OF the an
| neuncement of an invention said TO en-
( able receiving ship equipped with WIRE
/ less to tell the longitude and LATITUDE OF
! a sending shin without the latter vessel
! Offering it's own calculations. 1t hash
/ been done and it will probably be years
I before the means for so doing can be
applied successfully" he says. AS 10
the power of ultra violet rays to explode
the powder magazine of warshlp from
! a distance, he insists it can't ne zone
/ through that medium. If charges OF
/ powder have been 50 exploded, ne con-
/ tends, the detonation was accomplished
/ with the familiar waves now utilized oy
the wireless. But Mr.. Tesla admits that
in all probability there will come time
when science has so harnessed and de-
veIoped the means at hand that such re-
suits may be obtained. Mr.. Tesla sets
I forth his views on the two subjects as
/ follows:
The first and incomplete announce
r1ents of technical advances should al
ways be taken with a grain of salt. 1t
is true that the newspapers are getting
more and more accurate and reliable in
putting forth such information, but,
nevertheless, the news frequently is mis-
leading.
For instance, not long ago reports
were widely circulated that powder had
been exploded at distance by mira
red or ultraviolet rays, and that a Brit
ish battle ship had been used in test of
this kind, which proved successful. The
dispatches gave great opportunity to sem
sational speculation, but the truth is that
there was no novelty whatever in what
Was done.
"a mine or magazine may have been
blown up, but this was accomplished in
a well-known manner through the appli=
cation of a kind of electrical waves
which are now generally adopted in the
transmission of signals without wires.
Similar experiments were performed in
/ TINS country many years ago by myself
aud others, and quite recently John Hays
Hammond, Jr., has done creditabe work
in this direction through the application
of an art which has been named 'Telau-
tomatoes or wireless control of moving
mechanism at distance.
by means of such teautomatic ves-
sells surface, submarine or aerial per
feet system of coast defense can be es-
tablished. Torpedoes on this plan also
/ can be controlled from battle ships, and
there is no doubt they sooner or later
will be adopted and their Introduction will
have a revolutionary effect on the
methods of warfare
"The results described are, however,
not impossible. 1t is quite practicable
to explode by rays of light mine at
distance, as by acting on a mixture of
chlorine and hydrogen. Certain dark
rays also can be employed to produce de-
struetive effects. As far back as 1897 l
i disclosed before the New York Academy
of sciences the discovery that Roentgen,
or X-rays, projected from certain bulbs
have the property of strongly charging
an electrical condenser at distance.
The energy so accumulated readily can
be discharged and cause the ignition of
some explosive compound.
But ultraviolet rays are of very short
wsve lengths and cannot penetrate steel
shells, while the longer and more pene-
trating waves of the infra-red rays are
chemically much less active. There is
no doubt in my mind that We soon shall
! be able to project energy at a distance
not only in small, but in large amounts,
! and what the effect of such an achieve
ment will be on existing conditions words
cannot express.
CAS- regards the determination of lati-
. l., IL 1f Of lxs
wireless, there is nothing in use as yet
which would make such direct obserya-
ton possible. Some suggestions, how
ever, which / have since many years adj
vocated. have been adopted. They are
the flashing of time signals over a wide
area and the employment of an instru-
ment known as a wireless compass.
.These means enable an expert on a
vessel to ascertain the exact hour at any
sending station within reach, and also,
in an imperfect manner. the direction
in which it is situated, and from these
data it is possible to get a rough idea Of
the position of the ship relative to the
points of reference
"a perfect means for determining not
! only such and other data important to
the navigator already is available, but it
may require years to apply it. l refer
to the use of the stationary waves,
which We're discovered by me IA years
ago. The subject is too technical 10 be
explained in detail, but the average
reader can be made to understand the
general principle.
The earth is a conductor of electricity
and as such has it's own electrical period
of vibration The time, OF one complete
swing is about one-twelfth of one second
In other words, this is the interval the
current requires in passing to and re-
turning from the Numerically opposite
point of the globe.
"Now, the wonderful fact is that not
withstanding it's immense size, the earth
responds to a great number of vibrations
and can be resonantly excited just like a
wire of limited dimensions. When this
takes place there are formed on it's sur
face stationary parallel circles of equa
electrical activity, which can be revealed
by properly attuned instruments.
Imagine that transmitter capable
VF,.. ~