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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1922)
THE - OHEGON x SUNDAY JOURNAIV POKTLANI), SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1922. ' ...-. ....... . , .. - ....... t ... .....:.,;'.: '- rr , . " . tui 7 IV . ..,.'.pijn iisrciiis Revealing the Secret of the Wireless Wizard? New "One- Way" Radio(Which May Supplant Light Buoys and A 2"JD jxow the radio lighthouse T AA A real lighthouse, set like a tower m the rocky coast,1 with search light and revolving reflectors, sweeping Che aea In eTery direction with its flashes. Just as lighthouses have done in the past, but sending out invisible radio waves in stead of rays of light. A lighthouse whose rays will pierce the thickest fog and enable a distressed ship to find its bearings, even though the ship'? own radio transmitting apparatus has been put out of business by wreck or storm. - This Is the latest invention of SIgnor Guglielmo Marconi, which he described fully la' a recent lecture before the Amer ican Institute of Electrical Engineers and ' t 'A', - 4 zJfvlr' ie Institute of Radio Engineers fa New Yark. v The "secret of this remarkable new Invention has Just been fully revealed by Sfenor Marconi. The statements In this article are based on his own explanation and on simplifying notes supplied by one of America's foremost practical radio ex perts, Dr. Alfred Goldsmith, of the City College of New York, J)rdlnary radio sig ns Is and messages are carried by long ws.ve-lengths that are sent broadcast that is. they go out from the instrument In all directions. The radio lighthouse is based on an invention by which short wave-lengths are used and sent out in a single direction, like the beams of light from a search light or a bull's-eye lantern. In the case of light, the thing that concentrates the rays and sends them out In one powerful beam is a combined reflector and lens. In the case of the short-wave radio signals there is, of course, no lens, but a peal ""reflector" is used. Jusf as in the case of light rays. Instead of being a con cave, shiny surface, it Is a concave ar rangement of wires, before which the sending Instrument is set, just as a lamp or electric light is set in front of a pol ished reflector. This reflector is mounted on a revolv ing tower, operated by machinery, and slojwly turns the complete round, sweep Ing the sea In eTery direction with its Iri- risible radio searchlight vibrations. By another mechanical device a different code letter Is sent out on these uniform wave lengths for each point of the compass toward which the reflector is turned. When the reflector sweeps a ship at sea the ship's wireless operator can tell, from then particular code letter or signal he is recjeiving. precisely from what angle or direction of the compass the message Is 'coming. From a second similar radio lighthouse at another point on the coast (signals from two different points are necessary to this process) the ship picks up another vibra tion. It identifies this and gets its exact single from the code letter. With- these two signals, by the simplest of sill processes of triangulations, the nav igator gets his exact bearings. He needs neither complicated Instruments nor loga rithms nor other mathematical formulas. All he needs is a chart, on which the two lighthouses are shown' and an ordinary penill and ruler. He -draws a line from one lighthouse at the angle of the com pass! which the code letter has indicated. : and draws another line from the other lighthouse in the! same way. The Dolilt where the two lines cross is the point where his ship is. Tlere are already in existence excellent coastal radio signal stations by which ships can get their bearings at sea.! One . i . l is called the "Radio Compass," and nuni- uea xne "iiaaio uompass, ana nun:- of these stations are now being oper- by the navy, both on the Atlantic and Cers ttedj Other Signal Devices Guiding Ships at Sea ' Photograph, of , , i S" X 41'-- Pacific coasts. The other Is called the "Radio Beacon," and is operated at a num ber of points along the Atlantic coast by the United States Department of Com merce. In the case of the radio compass system, however, a ship, in order to get its bear ings, must have both a transmitting, ap paratus and a special "loop receiver SigJ nals must not only be received, but ex changed as well, before the bearing can be taken. In the case of the radio beacon the ship needs no transmitting apparatus, but still has to have the special "loop" receiver. The loop receiver is a circular coll of wire (shaped like an ordinary coil of ropy) wound round a wooden frame. The frame when the loop la broadside to it, and strongest when The loon la oolnted. ede. wlsS. directly toward it. - cv," " I . C . " ' &" . "r00 UUIUU16 wsaierer due a re- ceiving outfit of the ordlnarr kind. It is not necessary for It to exchange signals with the lighthouses. It inea evAn if Ha tifluf7 ? been compfetoSstrred ouirea no iL efr1ZL. , i. oTca - Marconi s 1 " - y'' t, a' Experimental ZSi':"'- Erected at si "" r'hy fnchkeirh, I V1' X Scotland. At ,''Sg Rightt Signer I rH,4V CugKalmo J ,'"-' Marconi. J : ' I - -h I L.7 x f I I LAND V? COAST J USHTHOl CHAl7 ACT COMPASS Above, Small Experimental Model of the Searchlight Reflector for Radio Lighthouse, and at Right, Short Wave Length Receiving Apparatus, the Only Radio Equipment a Ship at Sea Will Require in Getting It Bearing from Two Radio Lighthouse. '4' Diagram' Showing How Fog bound 'Ship Gets It Exact Bear ings from Radio Sig nals Pro jected from Two Light houses oa Coast. need wire strung from mast tn mast Th i "Tv . rec,eivers- veMn8 tie invention, for which eJL?f ,c.redIt the assistance of Mr. C. S. Frafeklin. a British Marconi a i . a.. h rar rim i-; . en- X., " uxmseit aaia, in tne course teciure Deiore the engineerine deties SO- "Aa far back . irqo t i . V "7 metas or snort waves and reflectors, to project radio rays to a beam !? one. dfa"on only, instead of allowing xaem xo spreaa all-around. In such a way - , -' Cepyrishs, IPCS, by IntemaUonal raatur that they could not affect any receiver . which happened to be out ot the angle of projection of the beam. "I also described the tests carried out In transmitting a beam of reflected waves across country over Salisbury Plain in England, and pointed out the possible util ity of such a system if applied to light houses and lightships. "Following those early tests, practically so research work was carried on for years along these lines. The investigation waa taken up by me again in 1916, and sine that time I have been most valuably as sisted by Mr. C. S. Franklin. "Experiments in Italy showed that gool directional working could be obtained wit reflectors properly proportioned in respect to the wave length employed. The tests were continued in England and' at Carnar von, Wales. With an improved com pressed air-spark gap transmitter, a three meter wave and a reflector having an ap erture of two wave lengths, a range ot overj twenty miles was readily obtained. (The range has since been more thaa doubled.) "Experiments carried out with revolv ing reflectors, which make it easy to read nv-wuxeraents at any distance, prove that "pre tne polar diagram for a given reflector and wave length is practically constant at all ranges. "The results obtained by re flectors appeared to be so good that I was tempted to try out my old idea of twenty-six years ago. and test the system as a position finder for ships Sear dangerous points. This is cow being done in Scotland through the courtesy of Messrs. D. and C. Stevenson and of Jhe Commissroners on Northern Lights. Trials are being car ried out under the supervision of Mr. Franklin with a revolv ing reflector erected at Inch keith Island, in the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh. The transmitter and reflector re volving: act as a kind of wire less lighthouse or beacon, and by means of the revolving beam of electrical radiator it is possible for ships, when within a certain distance, to ascertain, in thick weather, 'the position of the lighthouse. The experimental revolving reflector was erected and the first tests were carried out with the 8. S. Pharoa during the Autumn of 1920. "The I reflector was caused to make a j complete revolution every two minutes and a distinctive sig nal was sent every half point of the compass. It was ascertained on the steamer that this enabled the bearing of the transmitter to bi accurately determined within one-quarter point "bf the compass, or within 2.8 degrees. "By means of a clockwork ar rangement a distinctive letter Is sent out every two points, and short signs mark intermediate points and half points; and-tfils is done in i practice by contact seg ments arranged on the base of the revolving signal, so that a deflnlts aya aisunctive signal mitted at every ha: point or ine compass. Kadio experts are engaged On plans which may put the Marconi "HghUessE lighthouse1 nse the world over. oervto. Jac 6ret Britain JUsnto BoserroJ. It or quarter r mmmm rTTTTTi; .v3 Inl r"kvia ;. 'i VT c : smn ului mm mn i & r mm Minn 9 ., ftattiu a eHf W - i at i Mi x. . in . n '.IIUHIIIHiMiio I.,. LVv I iJ il H i M IIS H t. 1 1 i I mi -a-'i r-.- wt T.U ."i.'Vi7A'i mm mm mm is trans- .m.vr:a5 .S54j .AtdiHtdrS?syr Ji&&-.i&JWX. The, Radio LSghthouM i of the future Showing tho Revolring Aerial Wings from Which Radio Code LetUrs Are) Projected, There Being ' Distinguishing Latter for Each Different Point of- fhm CompasSf . and .Sectional Interior View Indicating, on Top Floor, Motor Control Room Floor Below, Reflector i Roong Containlns; Marconi a "Ingeniooa Mechanical Doric for Automatically ' Projectmg -Varying ' Radio Letters as tho Wings Revolvei Floor Below, Radio Room? Floors Below, Store, Sleeping Quarters, ; Elevator; etc. f: 7, A --V 5 : mm 1 rm i. L-rjr-tjtr.