Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of WarTalbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose
History
Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War
Talbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose
Aeronautics, Military; Airplanes, Military -- History; Airships -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations
The generator is carried upon the horse's saddle, and is fitted with a
pair of legs on each side. On one side of the saddle is mounted a
small highspeed explosion motor, while on the opposite side, in axial
alignment with the motor, is a small dynamo. When it is desired to
erect the installation the saddle carrying this set is removed from the
horse's back and placed upon the ground, the legs acting as the support.
A length of shaft is then slipped into sockets at the inner ends of the
motor and dynamo shafts respectively, thus coupling them directly, while
the current is transmitted through a short length of flexible cable to
the instruments. The mast itself is made in lengths of about four feet,
which are slipped together in the manner of the sections of a fishing
rod, and erected, being supported by means of wire guys. In this manner
an antenna from 40 to 50 feet in height may be obtained.
The feature of this set is its compactness, the equal division of the
sections of the installation, and the celerity with which the station
may be set up and dismantled in extremely mountainous country such as
the Vosges, where it is even difficult for a pack-horse to climb to
commanding or suitable positions, there is still another set which has
been perfected by the Marconi Company. This is the "knapsack" set,
in which the whole of the installation, necessarily light, small,
and compact, is divided among four men, and carried in the manner of
knapsacks upon their backs. Although necessarily of limited radius,
such an installation is adequate for communication within the restricted
range of air-craft.
Greater difficulties have to be overcome in the mounting of a wireless
installation upon a dirigible. When the Zeppelin was finally accepted
by the German Government, the military authorities emphasised the great
part which wireless telegraphy was destined to play in connection with
such craft. But have these anticipations been fulfilled? By no means, as
a little reflection will suffice to prove.
In the first place, a wireless outfit is about the most dangerous piece
of equipment which could be carried by such a craft as the Zeppelin
unless it is exceptionally well protected. As is well known the rigidity
of this type of airship is dependent upon a large and complicated
network of aluminium, which constitutes the frame. Such a huge mass
of metal constitutes an excellent collector of electricity from the
atmosphere; it becomes charged to the maximum with electricity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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