WIRELESS WONDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1922, Page 6

WIRELESS WONDERS.

DIRECT RADIO CONTROL. IS PROBLEM SOLVED? EXPERIMENTS NEAR STRATFORD. A series of interesting experiments, which, if successful, will have an important effect on the science of radio control, are being carried out by Mr. Ben F. Hunter in a secluded spot on the Pembroke Road, Stratford. Mr. Hunter claims to have discovered a missing link in the chain of radio discovery, to which Signor Marconi referred as follows in a recent interview: “Although so much has been accomplished, the science of radio communication is even now only in its infancy, but developments which are likely to take place should be more startling than they have been in the past. The principles which underlie radio communication have already been mastered. It only remains to apply them to find the solution of many of the problems whicn have so far remained inexplicable and unintelligible. There is always the inspiring hope that at any instant an experiment, perhaps a mistake, may reveal the missing link of knowledge which will enable a wonderful new chain of discoveries to be forged.” Mr. Hunter claims to have discovered the mising link referred to by Mr. Marconi, and to have perfected a radio-con-trolled aeroplane. It is claimed that the machine, although as yet only in its model stage, has made successful flights and responded perfectly to the controls, influenced from the ground station. In an interview with the Daily News Stratford representative, Mr. Hunter said: “Month after month of hard work and study went on, till at last, after nearly five years, there came a day when I solved the problem. The final solution was due to an accident which nearly resulted in the destruction of the whole machine.”

Mr. Hunter has at his disposal a supply of direct current which is derived from a power station at his father’s farm on the Pembroke Road. The motive power of the plant is an overshot water-wheel, driven from a lake made by damming an adjacent creek. The wheel is belted to a lineshaft 24 feet long, running the length of the power-house. From the line-shaft the power is taken to a countershaft, which is brought into play in order to get the reI quired speed. A direct current generation of 110 volts 15 amperes is driven from ; the countershaft, and by this supply of • current the inventor is able to pursue his : experiments. The excess power from the water-wheel is used to drive other machines. The radio control plant and the room in which the electro-chemical experiments are carried out was inspected and proved interesting.

“At the outset,” said Mr. Hunter, “in undertaking to perfect any radio-controlled machine, it is amazing the number of prob-

lems that an experimenter has to contend with. It combines a study of magnetism, spectroscopy and electro-chemistry, as well as a study of the principles of aeroplanes and the theory of flight. In magnetism alone the following items have to be mastered: General phenomena, terminology and elementary principles, magnetic measurements, magnetisation of strong and jf weak fields, changes of dimensions attending magnetisation, effects of temperature and mechanical stress on magnetism, magnetic properties of alloys and compounds of iron, miscellaneous effects of magnetisation, including electric conductivity, electrothermal relations, thermo-electric quality, elasticity, chemical and voltaic effects, feebly-susceptible substances and the molecular theory of magnetism, and finally the most important problem of all—a problem which all the scientific men of the world are studying: Can the magnetic lines of force be controlled ?

“I say they can,” continued Mr. Hunter, ■‘and as we progress in the experiments I will prove that not only can they be controlled over short distances, but , also by means of radio communication. By controlling the magnetic lines of force, I mean that it is possible for me to direct a magnetic field and concentrate it at a distant, given point.”