OCR Text |
Show 1 Aviators Use Wireless Phone, j One of the most remarkahle achieve- ! mcntrj of American invention since the j war hegan has been the development of a method by which flying men are en- I a bled to epak to one another over long I distances. Everybody has heard crows calling to one another in the air talking after their own fashion. Wild geese, do the same thing1, using a different Inn-g Inn-g ua g:e. Now the American h i rd m e n are to do it, the instrument utilized for the purpose being the wirelest; telephone. Crows and geese, while in flight, limit their conversation to short, distances, ut our a via tors can make their spoken words understood over many miles of intervening in-tervening air. The apparatus, as it has been finally perfected, is contained in a box a foot and a half long, a foot wide and a foot high. It is thus very compact, com-pact, ajid, weighing only about ten pounds, is easily carried on an airplane. In the box are coils, condensers and a small storage battery, which is charged with electricity by a revolving fan a little lit-tle wind propeller energized by the a lr pressure as the flying machine is driven along'. The aviator wears a head-telephone arrangement which, with Its receivers re-ceivers clasped close to his ears, is structurally struc-turally a part of his leather helmet. A transmitter is attached to his person in much the same way as such things are worn by telephone girls, so as to be convenient con-venient for talking. Suspended from the airplane is a wire that serves the purpose pur-pose of an antenna. The whole apparatus is remarkably simple, and the claim is made that it will carry vocal speech 200 miles. But ordinarily it will not be arranged ar-ranged for covering any such unnecessary distance. Tt is easy to see how useful such a contrivance is likely to be for example, ex-ample, enabling a flock of fighting bird-men bird-men (who often operate in squadrons) to talk with one another while high In the air. They can thus co-operate to greater advantage, perhaps obeying the sponn orders of an officer In command. The tjilk of the flying men Is audible, of course, only to the ears of one another. Tn this respect it differs from the conversation con-versation of crows and wild geese. Of the language of these birds some little has been learned by naturalists, who say t that it is more complex than most persons per-sons would suppose. The crow has three different calls that mean warning of danger one of Mhem a long-drawn "ca-a-a-aw." Its ordinary conversational remark is "owV. owk. owk." rather quick-lv quick-lv uttered. The danger-warning cry of the wild goose is a loner-drawn "aw-a-a-rik." But it has other notes for signaling the start to fly. for social talk. etc. Philadelphia Ledger |