The Washington herald., 1920-10-07
RADIO GUIDES
BLINDED SHIP
FIFTEEN MILES
Dots and Dashes of New In
. vention Thwart Ambrose
Channel Perils. .
FIRST TEST AMAZING
Navy Proves Value of De-
vice Young Californian
Has Developed.
CBy Universal SeryiceD

New York, Oct. 6.-With the glass
front of the bridge completely
covered with heavy CANVAS, render
ing him blind to all intents and
purposes, Commander H. H. Norton,
U. S. N, this afternoon piloted the
destroyer Semmes through the mar
row, devious ways of Ambrose Chan
mel from the Ambrose light to Fort
Lafayette, a distance of Is miles.
The only thing he had to guide
him was the monotonous click of
few dots and dashes repeating
over and over again, million
times. the one word. navy. But
as long as he heard it, he knew
he was on the right course.
If the sound grew slightly faint,
he would turn a little lever right
and left which accentuated or di-
minished the sound. That would
show him that he was going either
to the right or left Of the center
of the channel. Then he would
turn the ships nose in the proper
direction again.
Past the dangerous bend in the
channel just off Roamer shoals,
where many a pilot has met dis
aster, Commander Norton guided
the Semmes as straight as a die
along the center of the ships road
bed. Then, approaching Fort Le-
fayette, with hundreds of ships of
all descriptions on every side he
continued triumphantly on his
sightless way.
Pilot Systems First Test.
The occasion was the first test by
the government of the radio pilot
ing cable system, the invention of
Earl c. Hanson, 2S years old, of Los
Angeles. The test was arranged by
COmdr. r. +. Mcconnell, in charge
of the governments radio system
and was witnessed by score of
other naval officers, expert cleo
tricians and engineers.
During the war there was much
comment as to just how the war
ships were able to move through
the mine infested waters. Just re-
Gently it has become known that
they operated by a system OF audio-
frequency sound waves. Young
Hanson, who is connected with the
Navy Department. decided that the
idea could be made practical for
guiding ships through narrow
channels when fog rendered them
useless and tied up all shipping.
The Navy Department thought so
well of the idea that a year ago
it took over Hanson's idea to COM
plete it's development.
For months past they have been
busy laying an insulated electric
cable along the entire length of
Ambrose Channel. 1t required ST.
600 feet of cable. One terminal of
the generator producing the alter
mating current is connected at the
shore and to a ground current. The
other terminal is grounded at the
bottom of the channel. Although
the cable is fully insulated, it is a
fundamental law of electricity that
any conductor carrying an electric
current produces a magnetic field
around the conductor.
Copper wire. on Board.
ABOARD the SemfneS NIne only snip
yet equipped to use the new inven-
tion) are two coils of copper wire
on the bow.
These coils pick up the electric
current and transmit it to a small
set of amplifiers. Attached to these
is an ordinary set of telephone re-
ceivers. From the shore end at Fort
Hamilton is an automatic device
which spells out Navy"
When a ship reaches the mouth of
the harbor it picks up the sound
within a thousand feet on either
side of the actual location of the
cable. Then, if the fog be so thick
that the pilot cannot see ten feet
on either side of him, he follows the
sound, which gets louder and louder
as he approaches. When he is
astride the cable, all he has to do
is to follow it, as simply as a blind
man would follow a string stretched
-Rlong the length of Broadway.
Commander Mcconnell declared yes
terday that if the system had been
in operation during the dense fog
which held up hundreds of ships
outside the harbor last week, every
oDa Of thaDo wOtlld have mada tbei