Friday, August 02, 2019
1906 radar
From Telegraph Age, 1906:
An inventor in Dusseldorf, Germany, has designed an instrument which he terms a "telemobiloscope." By its means, it is claimed, a pilot is enabled to detect a ship near at hand in a fog, depending upon the fact that electric waves are reflected when they strike a metallic object. The apparatus consists of a long box or tube, pivoted at one end and open at the other, containing a spark generator near the pivoted end and two lenses for collecting the electric waves. A suitable motor turns the box horizontally on the vertical pivot. As the box, slightly inclined toward the water, is swung around, the electric waves are projected outward, and if they strike an object containing metal they are reflected back, acting upon a receiver similar to that used in wireless telegraphy. This receiver is influenced only by return waves. When a vessel is discovered, the apparatus is turned until the reflection is strongest, when a good estimate of the distance can be made.It's not clear what the "lenses" were, but this would have worked in a general way. It was already the same basic principle as radar, with the same physical setup of a rotating scope. Makes me wonder why development paused for 25 years before the Brits started over with tuned waves and timed pulses. Those features weren't quite ready in 1906, but they would have been ready in 1914. Most likely the full development of CRTs in the late 20s made the idea attractive again, but XY plotters were available in 1906. The Telautograph was an XY plotter, and mirror galvanometers were fast and sensitive.
Labels: 1901
¶ 2:25 PM
