DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLir POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OP KNOMTIXDGE 



No. 5. MAY 1920. 



PRICE fid. NET. 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

 ledge. 



Edited by A. S. Russell, M.C, D.Sc, 4 Moreton Road, 

 0.\ford, to whom all Editorial Communications should be 

 addressed. 



Published by John Murr.w, 50A Albemarle Street, 

 London, W.i, to whom all Business Communications 

 should be addressed. 



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 S.W.I. 



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Editorial Notes 



Those who are in favour of changing our present 

 coinage system for a decimal one will not view with 

 especial favour the recent report of the Royal Com- 

 mission on Decimal Coinage. It is not a unanimous 

 report, but two-thirds of the members of the Com- 

 mission are against making a change in the present 

 system. It is felt that the obvious advantages to be 

 gained by changing to a decimal system — as, for 

 example, in keeping accounts — are outweighed by the 

 disadvantages arising from the loss of convenience 

 of the present system for other purposes. If a change 

 must be made, the Commission thinks that the pound- 

 mil scheme is the best. 



In this scheme the pound sterling remeiins as in 

 the present system. It is not altered in any way. 

 The farthing is altered sUghtly in value, however, 

 so that instead of 960 there are i,ooo- of them in the 

 pound. These new coins would be called mils. One 

 hundred mils would be equivalent to the present 

 florin, and ten of them to a new coin appro.ximately 

 equal to twopence-halfpenny. 



***** 



There is no question that, if everybody in the 

 country would agree to drop the present system, 

 forget all about it, adopt a decimal system and acquire 

 ability in using it in a very short time, the change 

 would be one for the better. But it is, of course, a 



much simpler thing to condemn the present system 

 and to devise a decimal one, than to suggest a means 

 of " switching over " from the old to the new without 

 causing inconvenience that in many cases would be 

 little short of chaos. It is a change, however, that 

 ought to be made sometime, and it appears that the 

 adoption of a decimal system of weights and measures 

 throughout the country would prepare the way to some 

 extent for the adoption of a similar system of coinage. 



***** 

 Direction-finding by wireless waves has now been 

 brought to a considerable degree of perfection. The 

 apparatus used for this is called the wireless direction- 

 finder. \Vhen a ship loses its way through fog, or 

 owing to any reason, this instrument provides a 

 means whereby the captain can get into touch with 

 wireless stations on land or on other ships, and 

 know in a few minutes just where he is. Recent 

 Admiralty orders have provided for the establishment 

 of wireless stations on the coast, which wiU work in 

 conjunction with these direction-finders. The Marconi 

 direction-finder not only receives wireless signals ; 

 it also indicates the direction of the sending station. 



***** 

 It has a working range of from 200 to 300 miles 

 as ordinarily employed, and it is unaffected by weather 

 conditions. In wireless telegraphy, as is well known, 

 the signals are transformed into sounds by the receiving 

 gear, and these are heard by the receiving operator, 

 who wears a telephone headpiece for the purpose. 

 If wc imagine ourselves " Hstening in " in this way on 

 board ship in the Enghsh Channel, we should hear all 

 the ships and shore stations in the neighbourhood 

 that happen to be working at the moment. By means 

 of the direction-finding apparatus a bearing to the 

 source from which the wireless waves are coming may 

 be obtained. By finding the bearings to two or 

 more stations whose positions are known, the ship's 

 position on the chart may be found. Suppose, for 

 e.xample, that a ship coming up the English Channel 

 in foggy weather is somewhere to the west of the 

 Channel Isles. It could ascertain its position by 

 taking bearings on Land's End and Ushant, and a 



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