Great Falls tribune., 1921-04-22
The HQSki,l Letter . 's1Rsssas Rssaa
WRITING BY WIRELESS.

ing action now in use. It absolutely
eliminates any chance of the message
being garbled by wave lengths even
closely approximating those which 1t
wishes to gather and record.
Permanent Record.
The record thus made on paper IS
permanent, and the message can be
deciphered at leisure. In recent test,
signals sent out from Lyons, France.
1000 miles away, were caught in the
heart Of the residential district OF
Washington, and transferred to q rec
ord which even q person unskilled IN
the Morse code could readily translate.
The machine, that morning had been
il the bureau Of standards few miles
away. In the afternoon it was in
stalled downtown, the antennae were
run up on light poles, and the message
caught in the drawing room OF the
house.
with this machine it is possible to
record simultaneously, with the same
pen. the seconds Of local time, as fur
nished by the local standard chrome
meter. and compare them with the
standard time as sent out by wireless
from observatories. without any err
rors incident to flag" of the instru-
ments.
In this way the latitude Of spot
far away from cables or wires, and out
Of touch. with the world, can be deter
mined to within two -hundredths of a
second of time. or about 80 feet, on
the earth's surface. This makes the
invention extremely valuable to geo.
9raphers and astronomers, and sur
veyors.
the same functions has been turneo
out in France, but it's complexity, ana
non -por liability. together with its hlgn
cost, and irregular action, prevented 1t
from being more than laboratory. ex-
pertinent. German scientists tried to
work out the problem during the last
eight years. but it remained unsolved IN
any satisfactory way until our own
government scientist got on the JOB;
The new instrument will possibly
play an important part in the lives OF
many people living in isolated sections
Of the country. For example. trad
ing post in Alaska, apart from civ1llza-
ton. lacking all news of "doings back
home" may be able to buy one OF the
machines, when they get the manufac-
turing perfected. for about 5000. Inc
instrument could be set up and tuned
BY a layman, in accordance with marks
indicating sending stations which could
be placed on the head Of the condenser.
By setting the machine for these Ger
tain wave lengths, everything which
that station sent out would be record
ed, and the paper drum would mark Off
all the news Of the day, as it was
flashed from Washington, Paris, Lon
don or Moscow. The record could
then be deciphered at leisure.
Prices Of farm products in cities
could be collected each afternoon and
sent out by radio under the supervision
of the Department Of Agriculture.
Newspaper offices will be able to
catch radiograms direct from distant
lands. transcribe the accurate record
and give you even more rapid service
than under present conditions.
Warships. equipped with the re-
corder. would avoid errors in the re-
ceiving Of messages which are now
possible. Should an admiral of the
fleet WISH to send radiograms to the
various ships the commanders will
have a record Of what was sent, which
can be filed away and brought up in
connection with the orders should any
slip occur. The responsibility now
placed on the hearing OF one or more
men, on the receiving end, would be-
Eliminated.
Merchant ships. by having the re-
corder placed beside the ships chrono-
meter, would have an automatic check
on their timepiece every day when sig
nails are sent out from observatories.
The invention will mean much to
ships lost or in distress. Even if the
wireless man on board got seasick or
died, the ship would be able to receive
information. by having certain marks
on the condenser head showing where
to turn to listen for powerful sending
stations. Even a layman could turn
a knob until the arrow pointed to
Annapolis, Paris, or London. and the
record would be taken down in black
and white, to be read or deciphered at
any chosen time.
n J.