Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-21
WRITING BY WIRELESS
BY Frederic J. HaSkin
VIZ ASHINGTON, D. c., April ia
wv written message transmitted 1000
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| The wireless writing machine, which will
make it possible for man in the wilds of
Alaska to capture the news of the world in
written form by merely setting trap for it,
so to speak, and by which an explorer might
locate his position on the face of the earth
| by wireless, within 33 feet of exact, is the
! invention of two government scientist; work
| ing in the Bureau of Standards. Another gov
eminent department, the Coast and Geodetic
Survey, expects to save, by the use of it this
summer three times much as it cost to
perfect the invention and make two of the
machines. The whole achievement is one
more illustration of the value of scientific
research by the government departments
which gets such scanty support.
The machine itself, a simple looking af-
fair which weighs about rs pounds, exclu-
sive of the two storage batteries and the
metal .chronograph drum, is the result OF
research work by DR.. e. A Eckhardt and
DR.. J. C. Karcher. Small in size, light in
weight and easy to operate, it offers solu-
ton to many of the vexing problems now ex-
listing in radio operation.
| For example, under the present system of
listening for the dots and dashes with a
telephone receiver, two, three or more send
| ing stations may, by sending signals out 81
simultaneously mix their messages in the
ether and lam the air. The man at the
receiving end, listening for one particular
message, must adjust his apparatus to tune"
| to wave length as nearly possible equal
to that of the sender whom he wishes to
catch The other senders seriously interfere
and often cause the receiver to lose or garble
parts of the message. This new invention goes
long way toward eliminating that diff
| Guilty.
| The macLI1e was designed to meet the
need of an autographs wireless time record
ing apparat to obviate the expensive
stringing Of wires to places remote from tel
egraph lines and to eliminate the lag due to
no nv recording Of a. signal
by hand.
How 1t Works
The recording is done roughly in the fol-
lowing manner, according to the semi-tech-
nical explanation Of the inventors.
Adjustmer is made on a condenser for
the particular wave length desired to be
caught AS the signals sent out are gathered
| in bv the antenna, which can be strung on
any light poles reaching about 40'feet above
the ground, oscillations started in To-
cal circuit, through an "electron tube" This
local circuit derives it's power from an or
! binary storage battery such as those used
| in self-starters for automobiles. The starting
of these oscillations releases enough direct
| current energy from the batteries to oper-
| ate small relay, or magnet set in some re-
| spects like the magnets in an ordinary elec-
trio door bell, but capable of more delicate
adjustment.
This relay, or magnet set, makes and
breaks power in another circuit derived from
| a second storage battery. This second circuit
| operates another magnet set, to which the
| stylus is attached.
The STYLUS in the present apparatus is an
ordinary fountain pen. 1t is in contact with
a. revolving drum which has sheet Of paper
placed on it. The dots and dashes are record
ed as humps in the otherwise straight line.
Short humps indicate dots, and long ones
dashes
The action OF the mechanism is very much
| which muSt he cooked 6aCn
time before it is fired, which action takes
place automatically and rapidly. The first
circuit fires the gun and pushes back the
hammer, ready to fire again, so to speak.
AS long as the circuit stars closed the nam
mer" stays back. But when the circuit Is
broken, corresponding to pressing the tr1g-
gdr, then the secondary circuit is closed and
the hammer or stylus goes on its way 10
make mark.
/ The action O fthe mechanism is very much
more selective than the receiving action now
in use. 1t absolutely eliminates any chance
of the message being garbled by wave lengths
even closely approximating those which IL
wishes to gather and record.
/ Permanent Record
The record thus made on paper is per-
manent and the message can be declphered
at leisure In a recent test, signals sent out
from Lyons France, 1000 miles away, were
caught in the heart of the residential dis
trict of Washington, and transferred to
record which even person unSkllled IN the
Morse code could readily translate
The machine, that morning had been In
the Bureau of Standards a few miles away.
In the afternoon it was installed downtown
the antennae> were run up on light poles, anu
the message caught in the drawing room OF
the house.
With this machine it is possible to record
simultaneously, with the same pen, the sec"
onds of local time, as furnished, by the To-
cal standard chronometer, and compare them
with the standard time as sent out by wire
less from observatories, without any errors
incident to flag" of the Instruments
| In this way the latitude of a spot far
away from cables or wires and out OF touch
with the world, can be determined to with
in two-hundredths of second of time, or
about SO feet, on the earths surface. This
makes the invention extremely valuable to
geographers and astronomers and surveyors.
! A machine designed to perform much the
same functi IS has been turned out in
France but it's completely, and non-portabil-
ity, together with its high cost, an irregular
action, prevented it from being more than d
laboratory experiment. German scientists
tried to work out the problem during the
last eight years, but it remained unsolved IN
any satisfactory way until our own Govern
ment scientists 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, a trading post in Alaska, apart
from civilization, lacking all news Of edo
ings back home" may be able to buy one OF
the machines, when they get the manufac-
turing perfected for about $500 The instru-
ment could be set up and tuned by a lay
man. in accordance with marks indicating
soI. ~,Iooo No