144 Master Minds of Modern Science 



mechanics, after a last examination, left it standing there 

 with engine ticking over. 



Professor Low stood before the controls, some distance 

 away. Was it possible for him to control that machine 

 while it was untouched by human hands ? " We'll see," 

 he said to the officer standing beside him, and pressed a 

 button. Instantly the engine that drove the wireless 

 torpedo spluttered to full speed, faltered for an instant, 

 and then settled down to a steady hum. Dr Low touched 

 a switch and the machine began to move, gathering 

 speed with every minute, until at length it actually took 

 to the air from its directing rails, being given initial 

 impetus by compressed air, a method adopted years 

 after by the U.S.A. Navy. For some moments the 

 machine flew, directed from that same switchboard on the 

 ground. It was uncanny. Then suddenly, over-elevated, 

 it crumpled up and crashed to the ground. No matter, 

 for the first wireless-controlled torpedo in the world had 

 been successfully launched. 



As Professor Low told the authors : 



At that moment I realized that I could succeed in achieving 

 selective wireless control over a flying machine at a distance. 

 Sir Henry Norman, one of the greatest authorities of the day, 

 stated at the time that I had solved the problem of wireless 

 control within the limits of vision. I saw more than that — I 

 saw the possibilities of a manless aeroplane being controlled or 

 located by wireless even if unseen by the human eye. 



Discussing that remarkable achievement in the light 

 of more recent developments, Dr Low mentioned that in 

 the successful experiments with wireless control con- 

 ducted later in the War no power was sent to the torpedo 

 or other machine. That procedure had not been de- 

 veloped sufficiently for use in actual warfare. Wireless 

 control was exercised to influence operative power within 

 the machine controlled. Dr Low said : 



