258 



THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



The Usual Aerial and the Direction Finder Aerial 

 on Board Ship. 



captain's compass and chart reckoning 

 and resulted in the United States Navy 

 and the revenue cutter service installing 

 the equipment on some of their vessels. 

 The exhaustive investigations yet pur- 

 sued, however, are those made from the 

 Norske Amerika liner Kristianiafjord 

 and mentioned earlier in the article. In 

 the report presented by her captain, L. 

 C. Hjortdahl, it is stated that distances 

 of 90 to 130 miles were obtained and 

 bearings were taken very quickly. There 

 were present besides the wireless men 

 and government telegraph experts, Cap- 

 tain Gootwaldt, of the Royal Norwegian 

 Navy, and Engineer Skolem of the army, 

 the investigation being an official one of 

 the little country that ranks fourth in 

 tonnage among the maritime nations of 

 the world. For this reason the report is 

 of significance beyond its. value as the 

 first record made of an instrument prob- 

 ably destined to become an important 

 factor in safety of life at sea. 



A translation of the substance of the 

 report follows : 



The Kristianiafjord left Christiania on 

 March 21, at 9 a. m. During the passage out 

 of the Fjord wireless communication was 

 steadily maintained with the land station at 

 Ovresaeters, a one-half kilowatt temporary 

 military installation. 



At Filtvedt bearing was taken from the 

 Navy Yard station at Horten by the direction 

 finder until we had the station abeam. The 

 bearing was checked with the one taken from 

 the bridge and found correct. The communi- 

 cation with Ovresaeters was lost fifty miles off 

 when we passed Fuflehuk. 



We were keeping steady bearing with the 

 Tjomp station while we were going out of 

 the Fjord past the Faerder lighthouse, and re- 

 sults very good. At 5:30 p. m. bearing was 

 taken with the Flekkero station at a distance 

 of thirty-four miles. The bearing correspond- 

 ed exactly with the ship's position. At the 

 same time bearing was taken of the naval sta- 

 tion at Horten, ninety miles off. The dis- 

 crepancy in this bearing appeared to be one 

 and one-half degrees and two miles off the 

 ship's actual position. 



At 6:20 p. m. bearing was taken with Flek- 

 kero at a distance of twenty miles. The dis- 

 crepancy of the angle was about one-half 

 degree. At 7 p. m. we again took bearing 

 with the Tjomo station, ninety miles off, the 

 discrepancy in the angle being one degree, and 

 referring to the ship's position, 1.6 miles. 



At the inlet to Christianssand, at 8 p. m., 

 bearing was taken with Flekkero and this cor- 

 responded; the same good results were ob- 

 served when we passed out from Christians- 

 sand again at 9:45 p. m. During the voyage 

 westward we found by the direction finder the 

 correct position of different Norwegian war- 

 ships scattered along the coast. 



At midnight we took bearing with a Norwe- 

 gian torpedo boat destroyer, which we then 

 called up by wireless and checked the posi- 

 tion; it was one degree off. At I a. m. bear- 

 ing was taken with a Norwegian cruiser and 

 from communication learned that the distance 

 was 38 miles and the discrepancy of the bear- 

 ing two degrees. 



At 2:45 a. m. bearing was taken with the 

 same warship, twelve miles off; the fault was 

 three degrees. At 5 130 a. m. and the distance 

 seventeen miles, the fault was one and one- 

 half degrees. 



At 6:30 a. m. bearing was taken with a gun- 

 boat lying at Haugesund, thirty-one miles 

 away; the discrepancy was one degree. At 

 Stavanger at 10:45 a. m., the same ship was 

 thirty and one-half miles away and the fault 

 was two degrees. At 4 p. m. bearing was 

 taken with the same ship repeatedly, the faults 

 being on an average of one degree. 



During the voyage from Stavanger to Ber- 

 gen, on the same evening, bearings were taken 

 with a Norwegian cruiser and a torpedo boat 

 destroyer stationed in these waters. These 

 bearings showed a constant fault in a southerly 

 direction of six-eighths of one degree, and it is 

 believed that this fault was due to local con- 

 ditions of the district. During the trials later 

 made with the Bergen station and a Norwegian 

 warship lying in that port, the results varied 

 between one and four degrees from the ship's 

 actual position. The distance to Bergen and 

 the warship ranged between fifty and sixty- 

 two miles. 



While lying in the port of Bergen tests were 

 made with the same warship, anchored only 

 600 meters from the Kristianiafjord, and the 

 results were exact. This should prove that it 

 is possible with the direction finder to take the 

 exact position of other steamers in foggy and 

 thick weather even at short distances. 



During the afternoon of the 21 st, bearings 



