Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-18
TIE VISION OF RADIO

WliEN such huge machine as the old
" battleShip Ohio. without IL man on
board. can be made to perform oil of the
erolutions required of vessel with the
directing impulses furnished entirely bv the
mystic medium of the radio apparatus. the
predictions Of wireless enthusiasts must he
taken with more seriousness than We have
been giving them. It is their vision that the
day is not far distant when earth, air and
water shall fall under the sway of the ether
wave ana when men many miles distant
shall control machinery and direct CONNER
cial enterprises of vast importance.
When young John Hays Hammond made
his first experiment with radio controlled
motorboat in the waters of Long Island
Sound only few years ago his work was
regarded with patient tolerance by people
who had no intimate knowledge of the forres
with which he was working and tho possi
btlities which his success might opcn up.
But the grzzled old hulk of the Ohio is now
mute warning to all of us that we must be
prepared to believe almost ANYTHING that thc
scientific visionares of today are dreaming.
Suppose. for moment. that We had had
efficient radio direction Of ships and aircraft
during the war. What would the result have
been? Fleets Of bombing planes would have
sailed over the enemy lines scattering de-
Ht' "'f'b anu u'd'h' Ut DD TlSk OF loss OF
precious lives to us. The German + .hoat
menace would have been a simple probIcm IN
solve, for ships could have been SEM into
every submarine harbor--Ship following shin
as the preceding one was sunk until an i'm
paSsabe barrier had been piled up across the
entrance to every port, with no danger to
human life in the undertaking
vital months of training. spent in camps
by embryo aerial pilots Of both planes and
drigibes, would have been saved, for tho
aerial fleets visioned by these radio enthu-
siasts require no pilots. The personal eo,Ia
tion-the most important of all requisites for
modern warfare in the ClOuds-wouId have
been entirely eliminated, and great fleets of
devastating. incxorabIe machines would have
been sent forth with no nerves. with no
fallible muscles. with no fear of a mcnacinp
machine gun. with no errors of snap iudg.
ment-all operating imperSOnallv. unswery
ingly, very Juggernauts of Judgment whose
ranks could have been Swplpd and re
enforced by numbers limited only by the
limitless power of American cumulative pro-
production and not by the sadly circum
scribed boundaries Of human adaptabiIity to
a totally new environments
Commercially, the radio vision il no Iess
extended. Great streams Of mail and express
planes and dirigiboS can he sent forth with
out waiting for the skill and judgment of the
pilot, 80 difficulty acquired and 80 fire.
Qucnty and ragically demolished by one tiny
error. And on the land and on the water.
and even under the water, the same vision
holds good, of one man doing the work of a
hundred and OF vast systems of machines
responding to touch upon the key.
1t is a vision that all of us have not the
sight q see; 1t is one. however, which We
all can appreciate when we know that the
keen eyes of the elect, peering out over the
horizon of the future, make it out in the
mists coming toward US and very soon to be
alongside.