The Ordway new era., 1915-08-20

| eASo'eF puDlcity than his father. II
seems probable that the German
army technicians have appropriated
MS thermit shell. which will gnaw its
way through steel girders. His wire
iess-controlled torpedo for harbor de-
Iense is about to be adopted by the
United States military services. He
VIII probably sit some day on Secre
tary OF the Navy Daniels new board
OF inventors. with Edison and Ford
and Steinmetz. d9
Ihis Is considerable progress for
even a young American to make in
hve years out OF college. Hammond
ioliows right after his dad in that un
onicial gazette Of celebrities, Who's
Who In America" We learn there
that the inventor was born in Sar
Francisco April 10. 1888. He is there
fore twenty-seven years old.
Hammond is a hard-bitten young
American. to use q phrase OF Sir Ar.
thur Conan Doyle. Just at the tango
age" when with his. fathers great
wealth he could cut wide swath in
gay and frivolous society. he has de-
voted his days and nights to abstruse
calculations. endless blueprints and
sputtering dynamos.
His keen. lean face and spare figure
remind one much of Henry Ford
Both men are hard-headed, practical
Yankees, without bit Of fuss or pa
laver about them.
Reading further In our WHO'S
Who" we find that In 1912, two years
after his graduation from the Shefleld
Scientific school Of Yale university.
Mr.. Hammond was delegate by ap-
pointment OF the United States gov
eminent to the Radio-Telesraphic con
ventfon at London.
He 70. moreover. the treasurer and
chairman Of the committee on mem
bership Of the Institute OF Radio-Engi.
neers. q member Of the advisory COM
mittee of the aerodynamic laboratory
OF the Smithsonian Institution. and a
member Of the Royal Society OF Arts
Of London.
All this Mr.. Hammond has done
with three years stiil to go to the
thirty mark-not by being an infant
prodigy. but by hard work, by driving
every nerve and fiber Of his wiry body
at full speed.
Mr.. Hammond has an office in lower
Broadway. New York city. but has
done most of his work in the more
inspiring and less distracting atmos.
phere of y beautiful little slate-roofed
laboratory situated in the side OF a
crag overlooking the water at Glouces.
ter. Mass. Here he has conducted the
important experiments which may
mean much to America some day In
repelling powerful enemy.
Nikola Tesla was the pioneer in tel
automatics. as the branch Of electri.
cal science to which Mr.. Hammond
automatics is the control of mechani.
cal movements at a great distance by
means of wireless waves.
Mr. Hammond is not the first person
to control water craft at a distance
by wireless. But he is the first man
to do this effectively. He has taken
out more than one hundred patents to
protect his inventions. Incidentally
he has spent $50 900 in experiments.
Until Mr.. Hammond improved or
the previous devices, 1t was not pos.
sible to guide by wireless torpedo
making a greater speed than eight
miles an hour. and even then 1t was
impossible to prevent the interference
OF hostile wireless apparatus.
The young inventor has solved both
these difficulties. He can control a
boat or torpedo making 33 knots. or
38 miles an hour. Wireless transmit.
ters much more powerful than his own
have tried in vain to check the direc-
tion of his boat.
The secretary of war, Mr.. Hammond
recently announced, has recommended
that the Hammond system be pur-
chased by this government and be
| kept as an American secret.
II congress will appropriate the
money number OF wireless plants
and torpedo units to be directed by
radio will be constructed. One OF the
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