Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-18

ating the machinery of a million kilowatt power
station
Some of these machines, of course are mere
stunt performers, but the majority are hard
working "tindividuals' '-robotS-doing an hon.
est days work in return for their lodging and
the ration of electric Juice" that Is their only
food.
The art of war now has its robots no less
than the activities of peace. Engineers and
inventors in the service of the ordnance depart
ment of the United States Army have evolved
many devices that take over lot OF the pencil
and paper work that would have to be done in a
hurry under fire should ever come to us
again. Having no judgment of their own,
these military robots never make mistakes
are off by a fatal displacement OF
decimal point.
Perhaps the most amazing thinking ma
chine" that has yet made its appearance in
Army circles is the new fire-direction instru-
ment for anti-aircraft artillery. This device.
manned by few trained operators, can turn
its telescope eyes distant airplane and
within 30 seconds automatically train on it
battery of high-angle guns. that will harry it
with hurricane of steel and INT hurled accu-
Eatey upward at the rate of a ton a minute.
The cannoneers may be half a mile from
the eyes that aim the guns for them. They
need not even see their target or know what
it is; they may be hidden In the deep woods
or blanketed under fog smoke screen.
A LII they need do IS hold the noses of their
shells in the fuse-Setters for a moment
slam them into the guns and pull the lanyards
And miles away, and thousands Of feet up in
the air, some bombing plane, against which
they are defending a city, perhaps, is going
to be in difficulties.
Like most highly successful things, this new
Ora nfrol incfr nonf hag hnan NroHit
for more than it can actually perform. One
legend that gained considerable circulation was
that it automatically picked up the sound of an
approaching plane, trained the guns on it, and
opened fire, all without human aid.
That is a little too much of a good thing;
although one Army officer has prophesied that
eventually it will be possible to train similar
instrument on the plane by sound instead Of
by sight. thereby eliminating the necessity for
cumbersome and conspicuous Searchlights at
night But even If this comes to pass at ALL
1t is still in the future. And even then the
instrument would still require human operators.
The sober facts about the new fire direction
instrument are these: The machine has two
telescope detectives. Both OF these are kept
trained on the target by operators. one fol-
lowing horizontal movement and the other all
changes in vertical position.
These two components are combined by
to give definite direction setting, which can
be transmitted to the guns. Other operators,
manipulating control dials, feed into the ma
chine other necessary data such as the range
and altitude of the target, the allowances
needed for wind and barometric pressure
Corrections for these factors automatically
made.
The setting arrived at by the instrument is
transmitted to the gun position by electric cable
Here a SynchronouS motor mounted on each
gun translates the instrumental data into move
ments of the gun carriage keeping the muzzle
of the piece trained always on the target, with
just enough lead so that when 1t is fired the
shell will arrive and burst at designated spot
at exactly the same second that the enemy
plane arrives there.
&INCE the danger zone around bursting
three-inch shell is about so yards in
diameter, the arrival of SO or so of them in
about quarter of a minute is apt to be some
what embarrassing, at least for the visiting
bomber. One fire direction instrument NAV
operate several batteries.
For night defense against bombing raids.
sound-locating instruments and Searchlights
have to be brought into play before the fire.
direction instrument can begin its work
The sound-locator, which looks like a group
of four huge loud-speaker horns, searches the
suspected sky at night, and gets the approx
mate location of the approaching plane Then
the searchlights, to which elevation and All
muth have been electrically transmitted. whip
out into the darkness and presently hold the
plane in their unrelenting tentacles 1t is
VIGOROUSLY hard for bombing plane to escape
the beam of Searchlight
Once made visible, the plane is picked I'D by
the telescopes of the fire. direction instrument,
and in 80 seconds the guns begin to bark.
The guns that obey the commands of the
Army robot are far cry from the crude
"ArchieS" of World urki for