Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1919 — HAMMOND IDEA O. K. [ARTICLE]

HAMMOND IDEA O. K.

Crewless Ship Proves to Be a Success. Army and Navy Experts Report That Wireless Control Is Possible. Washington.—Army and navy experts have reported the device of John Hays Hammond, .Tr., for radio control of surface craft to be sent laden with explosives against enemy ships a success, and predict similar results with submerged craft showing above water only wireless antennae. Results of tests were made public In connection with the new fortifications appropriation bill, which carries $475,000 for construction of an experimental submerged boat. Secretary Baker, wrote the house appropriations committee, which is considering the b|H, that, the jofnt army and navy board was “convinced of the practicability of the control” of the surface craft, and added that there had also been demonstrations of the possibility of the control of a craft completely submerged except for an air intake pipe. Before finally deciding on the purchase of the patents for $750,000 the board desires further experiment with the submerged craft. Coastructlon of the submerged craft, which will be about 80 feet long by 7 feet in diameter, will take two years, according to Mr. Hammond, who told the committee he has spent

ten years and $400,000 on his invention. “There is no question whatever as to the ability to control with great accuracy the torpedo or carrier,” said a letter of Maj. Gen. F. W. Coe, a member of the board, “so, long as it is a surface vessel or has any antennae above the water, by direct radio waves, either from shore or from an airplane.” With a shore station having a height of 80 feet above sea level radio control of the craft has been demonstrated to the board up to a distance of seven miles, but General Coe said that if controlled from an airplane there was no limit as to distance except the propelling pow’er of the torpedo or the boat that carried it Or the airplane.