Rock Island Argus., 1920-01-08

method by which the captain Of .
ship in midocean can nnd his ex-
act position, in latitude and longi-
tude, by use Of wireless and with
out the aid Of the stars and the sex
tant which have guided marines for
centuries. has been perfected by a
member Of the United States Naval
reserve. and is published to the
world this month by the United
States navy.
This new method Is interesting,
and the man who invented It is still
more SO. Lieutenant Commander
Abner B. Clements, U. 8. N. r. F.,
is a banker, lawyer and financier,
who has been known chiefly az
speculator in copper mines and q
figure in so-called copper war"
Probably comparatively few Of
those who know Clements as a man
OF business are aware that he
graduated from the naval academy
at Annapolis back in 1875 and that
he was an officer in the navy for II
years. He spent several years at
the naval observatory in Washing
ton studying astronomy and navi-
cation in business hours and law
out Of business hours. When he
had finished his legal education, he
said goodbye to the navy and en-
tered business life.
There was nothing unusual about
that. A great many young men of
ability were leaving the navy about
that time, because promotion was
extremely slow. The Civil war had
created glut Of officers. The sit
uation in respect to promotion was
much the same as that which naval
academy graduates of this and the
next few years will face.
The unusual feature of Clements
case is that. although he left the
navy he did not neglect the sci
ences Of mathematics and astron-
omy which had fascinated him as a
student. During the most strenu-
Gus phases Of somewhat spectac-
ular career in finance, he found
his recreation in working out prob
lens in ballistics, navigation and
astronomy. The formulae of cal
culus and trigonometry. which the
average college man forSets with
in three years Of his graduation,
Clements was still using as play
things 80 years after he had sew
cred his connection with the navy.
That relief from business worry
which other men found in dissipa-
ton and sport, he got with far less
waste Of energy and money by
studying the stars and advising
rife manufacturers how to make
barrels that would give the pro-
jectile fiat trajectory.
When the war broke out. the
government cashed in on Clements
hobby. He found his place in an
officers school at Mare Island
| where he taught the technique OF
naval warfare to men. some OF
whom ought to have known more
about it thin he did
| Now as to his invention. which is
not a machine but a method, and a
method so simple (as mathemati-
cal methods go) that it seems a
wonder no one thought of it before
! During the war a device was per-
feoted by the navy for determining
the direction of radio waves from
another ship. This device, very
briefly, consisted of an electrical
coil turning on a perpendicular
axis. If the radio waves strike
the edge Of this coil, a current is
started and the operator can rec.
! ognize the fact by the loud buzz
which it gives Off If the waves
hit the fat side Of the coil. there
is no current and no buzz. By
turning the coil until the point is
found where the buzz is loudest, OF
least, the direction from which the
radio waves are coming can easily
be determined. In This way oul
ships often located enemy ships.
| Another use Of this direction find
er Immediately suggests itself. A
ship going into harbor in a fog
would send out a radio message to
a short station. The shore station
would get the direction Of the shir
by this direction finder, and having
this direction, by a process of tri,
angulation, it could determine the
ships position and communicate II
to the ships captain by wireless.
This method has been in use fol
several years now, on all coasts
adequately equipped with wireless
stations, and by both naval anG