“ Modern Theory and Practice in Radio Communication.” By Assistant Professor Gordon D. Robinson, U. S. N. A., Department of Electrical Engineering, United States Naval Academy, and Lieut. Commander Paul L. Holland, U. S. Navy, Department of Electrical Engineering, United States Naval Academy.
The student of radio, or of any other subject, often finds it necessary to search through several books to find a particular phase of the subject covered in a lucid manner. One chapter may be good and the next rather vague. An effort has been made in this book to bring out certain points which will make the book appeal to all classes of radio students. The phases of the subject which are most often vague, or entirely omitted, have been fully covered and explained in accordance with modern theory.
Attention is called to the following points:
The electron theory is the basis of explanation of numerous phenomena. This is in accord with modern theory and renders the explanation in many cases quite simple.
The subject of wave propagation, with attendant phenomena, is discussed at length.
An unusually complete treatise on the three-element vacuum tube as applied to generation, detection, and amplification, is presented. '
The fundamental principles upon which the design of receiving circuits, including interference preventers, is based, are covered in detail.
One chapter is devoted to the radio compass, or direction finder.
The book has been adopted as the text-book for midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. An elementary knowledge of physics and electricity is presupposed, hence the chapters on electricity and magnetism are brief and devoted to the points not fully covered in an elementary text on electricity. The book is a theoretical treatise on radio and is not intended to serve as an instruction manual for either commercial or naval apparatus. A greater degree of permanence in use of the book is thus insured.
The contents follow:
Chapter I: Electron Theory—Electric and Magnetic Strains. II:
Capacitance and Inductance—Energy of Charges—Condensers. Ill: Oscillating Circuits—Damped Oscillations—Buzzers—Wavemeters—Detectors— Resonance—Frequency—Decrement—Wave Propagation—Wave Length. IV: Coupled Circuits—Transfer of Energy—Mechanical Analogues. V: Three-Element Vacuum Tubes—Theory of Operation—Use as Amplifier and Generator. VI: Spark Transmitters—Gaps—Tuning of Circuits. VII: Continuous Wave Transmitters—-Arcs—H. F. Alternators—Radio Frequency Spark—Application of Three-Element Vacuum Tubes as Generators. VIII: Detectors. IX: Receivers. X: Radio Telephone. XI: Direction Finders. XII: Measurements—Formulae. Appendix: Standardization Rules—Codes—Extracts from Laws Governing Radio Communication.
P. L. H.
“ From Midshipman to Rear Admiral.” By Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske, U. S. Navy. The Century Company.
Interwoven in this extremely interesting autobiography are three distinct narratives, each of which deserves close study by the present and coming generations of American naval officers.
The first is the author’s running description of the stupendous and unprecedented changes in our ships since his entering the Naval Academy in 1870 and in the attitude of our naval officers towards the technique of their profession. He then found them on board of wooden vessels armed with muzzle-loading smoothbores, the winds of heaven the prime mover. They based their service reputations on old-fashioned seamanship alone. Gunnery was a hit or miss proposition and target practice a vexatious and disturbing quarterly obligation to be discharged and then forgotten for the ensuing three months. He has lived to command a squadron of modern steel battleships carrying high-powered breech-loading rifles and propelled by turbines. Sails are things of the past. Gunnery has become almost an exact science largely through his own contributions to that art. This story somewhat overlaps, in the beginning, Mahan’s delightful volume “From Sail to Steam,” with which it may be compared to the disparagement of neither writer, and it brings the account up to the present time. Every one who cares to follow the marvelous development of things nautical (and all naval officers ought to care) should read attentively Fiske’s personal experiences, from which he will learn much that is valuable, and, incidentally, derive great pleasure in the pictures of old-time cruisers in home and foreign waters. Especially interesting among them is the Battle of Manila Bay in which he took part. Moreover, to his great gratification, he was able to demonstrate the utility of his range finder in actual engagement with an enemy. His account of the action leaves nothing to be desired in the way of fullness and accuracy. Like the rest of his adventures, it is told with the skill of a ready writer. His clear and agreeable literary style is so well known to his colleagues that further comment is unnecessary.
The second narrative is a heart-rending record of his trials and tribulations as an inventor. It seemed, at times, as if every hand that should have been friendly was turned against him. Such encouragement as he did receive came almost entirely from foreign naval authorities; our own apparently regarded him as an obnoxious pest. Endowed as he was with a quite uncanny sense of the perfectibility of practically every mechanical device then existing on ship-board, and of the overpowering necessity of adopting new ones to meet the requirements of the rapidly shifting conditions of naval warfare, he simply could not sit idle. His active brain forbade such supineness. In spite of official disfavor, that brain persisted in keeping busily at work producing instruments and machines many of which ought to have remained confidential accessories, jealously guarded for our own exclusive use. To enumerate and discuss all the inventions he produced would need more space than is at my disposition. Let it suffice to mention a few, commencing with his earliest, a boat detaching apparatus. Then followed a typewriter, a machine gun, an electric log, a breech-loading musket, gun-pointing by steam and by electricity, a range finder, an electric ammunition hoist, etc., etc., etc. All present-day gunnery is founded on his telescopic sight. Read the book and learn what a wide range of possibilities was opened to his vision; then shall you be able to appreciate the indebtedness of our navy, and unhappily, other navies as well, to this one man. The torpedo plane, which may eventually prove to be his most important contribution to naval battles, was never used by us although it was used by our Allies in the late war.
The third narrative deals with his preparation for the highest position he held while on the active list. That it was his ambition cannot be admitted; Fiske is far too modest. But he realized, while it was yet time, that every service advancement offers a new field of usefulness and duty, as with each step upwards he endeavored to fit himself for the next. This is the rule in the navy and Fiske is no exception. He grasped the fact that the scope of the commander-in-chief’s responsibilities embraces the wider and more philosophical activities coming under the head of tactics, strategy and plans of naval campaigns. His example is worthy of emulation. In consequence, he was well equipped to assume the work of Aid for Operations when called to that position by Secretary Meyer.
An unfortunate episode, indeed the climax of his career, practically terminated his active employment. All went well until, through a change of administration, Mr. Meyer was succeeded as Secretary of the Navy by the present incumbent, whose views on preparedness and naval matters generally were in marked contrast with those of his principal official adviser. It is manifestly improper for me to discuss this clashing of opinions on the part of two high officers, each of whom believed himself in the right. The details, from Fiske’s standpoint, are given in several chapters towards the end of the volume wherein those who wish may find them. Indeed, all naval officers should read those chapters to understand his attitude, whether they agree with Fiske or not. His record entitles him to a hearing, at least, in the court of service opinion. The outcome of this inability to work towards an end approved by both these gentlemen was Fiske’s resignation of his post a resignation but tardily accepted and then under circumstances that bespoke the grave disapprobation of his superior.
It is, however, quite within the proprieties to commend Fiske’s action. When a subordinate, charged with weighty responsibilities, finds himself in irreconcilable disagreement with his senior; when he feels that his self-respect and his standing among his brother officers will be jeopardized by association with the execution of plans which he is convinced, rightly or wrongly, are detrimental to the good of the service as he sees it, it becomes his plain duty to sever at all cost his relations with a chief to whom he cannot render unreservedly loyal support. Such was the situation as it seemed to Fiske and he met it with rare moral courage. His manner of exit from the Navy Department proved that he was faithful to his conception of esprit-de-corps and that devotion to “ The good of the Service " which are the embodiment of the navy’s best traditions if not its very soul. His sacrifice, while great, did not cause him to lose the respect of his colleagues and it set up an example which should be followed invariably in similar cases.
C. F. G.