Wednesday, October 05, 2016
Was this for surveying?
I've been listening solely to the 1939 'Secret Agent' radio shows at bedtime lately. Praised them in detail earlier. One good quality is their comparatively accurate use of technology.
Thought I found an exception to the rule, in this episode about fortified borders. The agents are trying to investigate a Kraut effort to undermine a border wall. At one point the agents use what seems to be a shortwave depth sounder to locate the digging. The sounder works in an impossible way, so this episode is definitely an exception to the rule.
But it turns out that shortwave surveying equipment actually existed, or more precisely was pictured and described as such in a reliable magazine in 1937.
From June 1937, in a Gernsback magazine focusing on shortwave equipment and broadcasters.
Like all Kraut equipment, it's beautiful and precise, and it unquestionably existed. But was it a surveying tool as the authors believed? I doubt it. There's no transmitter, so it wouldn't work like radar. It's just a receiver, which means it's most likely a regular RDF set for locating other transmitters. The surveying scope would be a way to pinpoint the transmitter visually after you get the reading from radio. RDF was typically done by triangulation like surveying, so this device mounted the radio parts on a regular surveying transit.
The writers of K-7, who were technically well-informed if not expert, could have picked up this idea from the magazine.
= = = = =
Overall, tech magazines from the late '30s illustrate nicely why Stalin felt the need to weaken America after the war. Even in late '38, after Germany schlussed Austria an, we admired Kraut ingenuity and gave awards to Kraut equipment. Russia has always feared Germany above all, and our tight genetic connection (most Americans are German) meant that we would normally work with Germany. WW1 was a big exception, WW2 a partial exception, but the current setup has returned to natural affinities. We are the Axis, Russia heads the Allies.
Like all Kraut equipment, it's beautiful and precise, and it unquestionably existed. But was it a surveying tool as the authors believed? I doubt it. There's no transmitter, so it wouldn't work like radar. It's just a receiver, which means it's most likely a regular RDF set for locating other transmitters. The surveying scope would be a way to pinpoint the transmitter visually after you get the reading from radio. RDF was typically done by triangulation like surveying, so this device mounted the radio parts on a regular surveying transit.
The writers of K-7, who were technically well-informed if not expert, could have picked up this idea from the magazine.
= = = = =
Overall, tech magazines from the late '30s illustrate nicely why Stalin felt the need to weaken America after the war. Even in late '38, after Germany schlussed Austria an, we admired Kraut ingenuity and gave awards to Kraut equipment. Russia has always feared Germany above all, and our tight genetic connection (most Americans are German) meant that we would normally work with Germany. WW1 was a big exception, WW2 a partial exception, but the current setup has returned to natural affinities. We are the Axis, Russia heads the Allies.
Labels: defensible spaces
¶ 2:04 AM
