Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-12
CONTROL BY RADIO
TO Be DEVELOPED
Handling of BattIeShipS With
out Wires or Crew in
Future Is Seen.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

Operating radio receiving set from
the dinner table, or from an easy chair
by means of a remote control tuning
device placed on the market this year,
is simple matter compared with oper-
ating tasks for which radio waves
themselves may be harnessed. Remote
control tuning is accomplished through
wire connection with the SET No
wires are needed for the radio operation
of battleships, torpedoeS, trains, auto
mobiles, street cars and even airplaneS.
Some radio scientists see in the radio
control of distant mechanismS an i'm
portant phase of radios future develop
ment.
DR.. Lee Deforest, inventor of the
audion tube, which makes modern
broadcasting and broadcast reception
possible, predicts that the ultra-short
waves will make available additional
channels in the ether for the work for
man. John Hays Hammond, jr., Of
Gloucester, Mass, has experimental
with considerable success with remote
control by radio impulses and has taken
out many patents on his devices.
Radio on the Farm.
DR.. Deforest suggests that a farmer.
sitting in an observation tower over
looking his broad acres, may be able
some day to control one or more trac-
tors by Short-Wave radio. Just as the
earliest radio applications had to do
with actuating bell or tape recorder
and performing other mechanical work,
says DR.. Deforest, so the future of the
radio art will also have to do with con-
trolling machinery.
Mr.. TeleVoX Is the most notable ex-
ample of mechanism controlled by
sound impulses. Voice is used in a COM
plicated system of telephony to work
relays actuating the mechanical mans
movements. The principle is the same
as in radio control.
For many years Mr.. Hammond has
been working on the radio control Of
torpedoes with the primary object Of
steering them to their quarry by means
of radio. Some of his patents also cover
the radio control of trains and ships.
It is understood that he has been deeply
interested in the possibility of operating
airplanes without pilots in the same
manner. There have been many actual
demonstrations, including several in
Washington few years ago, Of the OPP
Grafton of street cars and automobiles
without motormen or drivers.
Pilotless Planes.
The chief difficulty encountered in
operating an airplane by radio lies in
Ctth1llS ~ Ol1 anu 1dIluulB. O1lCG III lklC
air, it would be as easy to work relays
controlling the planes movements as
1t is to work them on ships, street cars,
trains or automobiles. But mans in
genuity has not contrived way to get
an airplane into the air or bring 1t
down safely without human guidance
What pilotless plane would mean in
war time is evident, though there would
always be the danger of the enemy'S
discovering I6nOthC
controlling the craft to its own pur-
poses.
The General Electric laboratories at
Schenectady recently developed voice
controlled model electric train. Orders
are issued through an ordinary telephone
transmitter and the action of the train
is dependent upon the voice impulses.
The commands are carried through a
radio detector tube to special Selector
which determines the polarity of the
track. Upon this polarity is dependent
the direction the train shall move. BY
blowing into the transmitter the oper-
ator checks the engine at any point.
Other Possibilities.
Many other possible practical applica-
tons of this sort of telephone control
were seen by the General Electric
scientists. BY the use of this develop
ment, it was stated at the time, the
householder might command the fur
mace to open from a telephone at his
bedside and elevators might be ordered
to ascend or descend.
British and German naval expert
mentors recently operated crewless war
ships by radio and the former have a
destroyer reserved to them for that
purpose. One such experiment was car
ried out with success some years ago
by the United States Navy. During
ship cunning and airplane bombing tests
held in connection with the sinking of
the obsolete battleship Iowa, naval radio
men controlled all the movements of
the vessel from another ship. No men
were aboard the battleship. Different
wave lengths carried radio signals to
receiving sets which actuated steering
gear, pumps, throttles and all the
mechanism necessary to control the
ship.
copyright, 1929, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance.)