Evening star., 1941-03-24
Robot Will Radio
Weather Data From
Island in Pacific
Iron Sentry May Be First
To Be Placed on Guard
Duty Across Seos
By THOMAS H. HENRY.


On an isolated, uninhabited
island in the mid-Pacif1c the Navy's
first iron sentry soon will mount
guard-perhaps as the forerunner of
an army of robots with copper
brains to form cordons around the
poles and walk posts across the seas.
The iron sentry will report every
six hours. For the time being he
will be visited by repair crews every
80 days, but it is hoped that his
successors will be able to stick to
their posts from six month to
year without any attention what
oever.
This first private of the robot
army now is being built, according
to Navy specifications, by a COM
mercial firm. The model after which
he is being constructed has been
on duty for a year at the Naval
Air Station at AnacoStia, D. c. Dur
ing this time he never has been
caught mapping, and has required
little attention. Four times daily
he has looked around made his OBJ
servations and radioed his reports,
which are received reliably at dis
tances of at least 200 miles from
Washington.
Data Recorded Accurately.
His reports consist of the baro-
metric pressure, the air tempera
ture, the humidity, the force and
direction of the wind and the
amount of rainfall. Each of these
is recorded accurately on his copper
brain and transformed Immediately
INTO radio impulses. The worse the
weather, the better he likes it. His
life blood is the wind, which con-
stantly recharges the storage bat
teries, through a windmill on his
head, which keep his brain in op-
Grafton.
The robot was constructed by DR..
Harry Diamond and his associates
at the United States Bureau of
Standards, in cooperation with
Navy officers. The things he does
are not only an indication of what
he may be able to do as he grows up
in the service, Navy officers say.
One of the jobs already forecast for
him is to drift about in the Allan
tic. keeping ships, land stations and
planes informed of the weather
ahead.
The robot was first proposed by
DR.. Willis Gregg, late chief of the
United States Weather Bureau, at
meeting of the American Associa-
ton for the Advancement of Science
in Ottawa in 1888. At that time it
was considered a futuristic dream.
DR.. Gregg wanted these robots set
up in continuous sentry line
around the Arctic Circle and over
the interior of Greenland to keep
the world informed of tempests
striking southwark from the North
Pole.
Radiosonds Put in Service.
The idea at the time was little
more than a "hunch." The idea of
robot weather observers, it is eX-
planned by DR.. Diamond, originated
in Russia about 10 years ago. The
Russian device was crude, but quick
ly became practical in the hands of
the Bureau of Standards physicists.
The final result was the radiosond.
sent aloft in a balloon to attitudes of
nearly 80 miles to report by radio
on conditions in the upper atmoS-
phere. on which so much of the
worlds weather depends. These
were all, at first, suicide flights. Now
many of the radiosonds are being
recovered and put into service again
The robot being put into service
by the Navy is direct development
| from the radioSond But whereas
the former weighed less than a
pound, this new iron brain weighs
more than ton, is built to live
Indefinitely, and to stand any sort
of conditions.
There is no reason, Comdr. H. T
Orville of the aerology branch of the
Bureau of Aeronautics. explained
why the robot should not stand post
anywhere that he can be set up
provided he can be reached often
enough to be reserviced The one
on the lonely island will be treated
tenderly with this nursing service