The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-08
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsIZIN, Director.
Washington, D. C. -
a RANKER-NAYIGAToR.


ship in mid-ocean can find his exact
position. in latitude and Longitude, by
the use of wireless and without the aid
of the stars and the sextant 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. S. N. r. F.. is a banker,
lawyer and financier, who has been
known chiefly as Spectator in copper
mines and a figure in so-called cop
per 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 eleven
years. He spent several years at the
naval observatory in Washington
studying astronomy and navigation in
business hours and law out of business
hours. When he had finished his legal
education, he said good bye to the
| navy and entered 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 ex-
tremely slow. The Civil war had
| created a glut of officers. The situa-
ton 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 Cements's
case is that, altho he left the navy, he
| did not neglect the sciences of mathe-
mates and astronomy which had
fascinated him as a student. During
the most strenuous phases of a some
what spectacular career in finance, he
found his recreation in working out
problems in ballistics. navigation and
astronomy. The formulate of calculus
and trigonometry, which the average
college man forgets within three years
or his graduation, Clements was still
using as playthings thirty years after
he had severed his connection with the
navy. That relief from business worry
which other men found in dissipation
and sport he got with far less waste
of energy and money by studying the
stars and advising rifle manufacturers
how to make barrels that would give
the-projectile flat trajectory.
When the war broke out, the gov
eminent cashed in on Clements
hobby. He found his place in an Of
ficer's school at Mare Island where
he taught the technique of naval war
| fare to men some of whom ought to
/ IL
! Now as to his invention, which is
i not a machine but a method, and a
method SO simple Gas mathematical
methods go) that it seems a wonder
no one thought of it before.
During the war, a device was per-
| fected by the navy for discriminating
| the direction of radio waves from an
| other ship. This device, very briefly,
consisted of an electrical coil turning
| on a perpendicular axis. If the radio
/ NJ
/ current is started and the operator
| can recognize the fact by the loud
buzz which it gives off. If the waves
hit the flat 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, or least, the direc-
/ ton from which the radio waves are
coming can easily be determined. In
this way, our ships often located
enemy ships.
Another use Of this direction finder
Immediately suggested itself. A ship
| going into a harbor in a fog would
| send out radio message to a shore
station. The shore station would get
the direction of the ship by this direc-
| ton finder, and having this direction,
by a process of triangulation, it could
determine the ships position and COM
| municate it to the ships captain by
1 wireless
This method has been in use for sew
| eral years now, on all coasts adequate
" equipped with wireless stations, and
by both naval and merchant ships.
1t not only helps a ship to enter a
harbor, but it enables a ship within
sixty miles of a coast to determine its
position even when the stars are not
visible, When you understand that
nearly all wrecks are caused by ships
running ashore in the fog, thru ignor-
ance. of position, you appreciate the
value of this method to vessels travel
| IA
! toll of life and property taken by
dangerous capes like Hatteras is
greatly reduced.
But this method did nothing for the
mariner at sea. He could pick up the
wireless messages from the shore sta
lions, but he could not send messages
in return. because the puny wireless
on board a ship is only reliable for
distances less than a hundred miles.
1t Is hard to explain this matter to
laymsn Especially for another lay
mani, but suffice it to say that in
order to compute his position by trig-
onometry, the computer must have at
least one known distance. That is
where the shore station comes in. The
shore station knows its own position,
and the distance to some other point,
say another shore station. 1t can get
the direction of the ship. The COM
puter on shore can then draw two
lines of a triangle. BY trigo-
nometry he can compute the third
line, and complete the triangle. The
position of the ship is the apex of the
triangle.
Whether this is clear to you or not,
you will understand that the mariner
in mid-ocean lack. the two positions.
He could find out, with his little direc-
ton finder, in what direction some
shore station lay. for his wireless
could always pick up messages from
shore stations. He could locate that
shore station on the map. He then
! had one point and one direction. He
could draw one line of his triangle
and that is all. He could say with
certainty, for example, that the sta
ton at Old Point Comfort was due west
of him, but he could not tell how far
west.