Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-03-02

formed considerable number of air plane radia telegraph experiments, was assigned by the Chief Signal Officer to assist in the carrying on of the work. While Captain Culver was not developer of equipment, he at all times rendered great assistance in testing out equipments which were developed, in securing the necessary field data and in facilitating the adoption of wireless telephone to the intricate needs of airplane opera tion. In the fall of 1917 he was dele gated by Colonel Slaughter, the head of the Radio Division of the Signal Corps, to go overseas with some of the early sets of radio telephone equipment for a demonstration of the new facilities to the forces in France. Following the conference of May 22nd, Colonel Jewett applied all of the resources of the Western Electric Company to furtherance of the de- velopment. So great had been the pro- gross since the 1915 experiments that under the tsimulus of war pressure the engineers of the Western Electric, Company were able to test out the first radio telephone sets on air !planes at Langley Field during the first week of Judy, 1917. This first test was necessarily accomplished with improvised apparatus. During the months which followed the initial successful demonstration every energy of the huge Western Electric Con- panys engineering organization was employed on the problem of reduc- ing to a practical manufacturing basis the various elements involved. The magnitude of the production re- quired and the time elements involv7
 ed were such that no chance of failure
 could be permitted at this stage of the work Although the production of a Night, compact and fool-proof radio transmitting and receiving set was a
 large problem in itself. an even great CT amount of time and skill were re-
 quired in the development of suit
 able power plant for the transmit
 ting set and the still more difficult
 problem of a telephone transmitter
 and receiver and their mounting to
 above the tremendous roar and vi-
 propelled by the unmuffled energy of l appreciated that under normal condi- tions a passenger in an airplane can-
 not even hear himself talk, we can form some idea o fthe problem which
 confronted Colonel Jewett and his as- sistants.
 The notability of the achievement : is evident from the result, which per
 mits the pilot or observer in an air %o of or with his fellow pilot or observer in
 distant airplane 0 rwith comrade
 on the ground many miles away by
 radio telephone and to do this without
 raising his voice above the ordinary Conversational limits and without any interference whatever from the ever-
 present din and roar from the motor !of the onrushing airplane. :, The achievement has undoubtedly |revolutionized the operation of air. lplanes in both peace and war and well merits the statements by General
 Sauier in his address of January lOth before the American Institute of Eiec- tric Engineers as one of the most
 revolutionary and far-reachlng de- ivelopments of the war.
 Although less difficult and of an |entirely different character, the pro- duction of suitable power plant for the radio transmitter was fraught with knotty problems. Light weight, durability, uniformity of output un. lder every conceivable condition ot
 airplan operation and minimum of interference with the normal funct- lions of flying, combat or acrobatlcs Tall combined to circWmscribe the en-
 gineer within very restricted area:
 The ultimate solution was small
 wind driven genator with an lngen- Iious vacum tube regulating device
 which produced an almost unvarying quantity of electricity for the tele-
 phone set, whether the plane were
 climbing sharply and at low speed or
 nosediving at 150 miles an hour or more. !,
 Bv the late summer of 1917 all of
 these developments of the Western
 Electric Company's engineers had
 progressed to the point that practical apparatus was ready for quantity pro-
 duction under modern manufacturing
 methods and on the, Sunday following Thanksgiving, 1917, an official demon stration was made before the entire Aircraft Production Board, assembled
 at the Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. President at this demonstration, in
 addition to the members of the Air.
 craft Board. were numerous efforts of
 both the Army and the Navy. and
 there for the first time in history air planes in flight were directed in in- tricate maneuvers at one instant by the spoken word from the ground and ! at another by the voice of the com lnander in the leading plane. Reports and combat directions were
 given and received in the dearest of
 spoken speech without hitch and
 everyone present voted that the ach-
 ievement marked an epoch in air plane operation. ] With the formal demonstration com l