Inventions of the Great War

by A. Russell Bond

THE WIRELESS COMPASS

This problem was solved very nicely. The audion had made it possible to receive radio signals on a very small aërial. In place of the ordinary stationary aërial a frame five feet square was set up so that it could be turned to any point of the compass. A few turns of copper-bronze wire were wound round it. This was called the "wireless compass." It was set up on the roof of the radio station and concealed within a cupola. The shaft on which it was mounted extended down into the operating-room and carried a wheel by which it could be turned. On the shaft was a circular band of aluminum engraved with the 360 degrees of the circle, and a couple of fixed pointers indicated true north and south. Now when a signal was received by the aërial, if it struck the frame edgewise the radio waves would reach one side before they would the other. Taking a single wave, as shown by the drawing, [Fig. 11], we see that while the crest of the wave is sweeping over one side of the frame, the trough of the wave is passing the other side. Two currents are set up in the radio compass, one in the wires at the near side of the compass, and another in the wires at the far side of the compass. As these currents are of the same direction, they oppose each other and tend to kill each other off, but one of the currents is stronger than the other because the crest of the wave is sweeping over that side, while the trough of the wave is passing over the other. The length of the wave may be anything, but always one side will be stronger than the other, and a current equal in strength to the difference between the two currents goes down into the operating-room and affects the receiver. Now when the compass is set at right angles to the oncoming wave, both sides are affected simultaneously and with the same strength, so that they kill each other off completely, and no current goes down to the receiver. Thus the strength of the signal received can be varied from a maximum, when the compass is parallel to the oncoming waves, to zero, when it is at right angles to them.

Courtesy of the "Scientific American"

Fig. 11. The radio compass turned parallel to an oncoming electro-magnetic wave

To find out where a sending-station is, the compass is turned until the loudest sound is heard in the receiver and then the compass dial shows from what direction the signals are coming. At the same time, another line on the signals will be found by a second station with another compass. These directions are traced on a map; and where they meet, the sending-station must be located.

With this apparatus it was possible to locate the direction of the station within a degree.

After the station had been located as closely as possible in this way, a motor-truck was sent out in which there was a concealed radio compass. The truck would patrol the region located by the fixed compasses, and with it the position of the concealed station could be determined with perfect accuracy. The building would be raided and its occupants jailed and the radio equipment confiscated.

Even receiving-sets were discovered with the portable compass, but to find them was a far more difficult task. For the receiving of messages from distant points without a conspicuous aërial an audion would have to be used and this would set up feeble oscillations which could be picked up under favorable conditions by the portable compass.