[Nick Forder]

A NEW METHOD OF SIGNALLING FOR AEROPLANES. THE JAMES MEANS’ DEVICE. (diagram not reproduced)
IT is an established fact that the maintaining of communication between a machine in the air and a point on land, is a serious factor when determining the value of the aeroplane as a scout. Up to the present wireless telegraphy or telephony have been regarded as the means to which we shall have to look for the solution of the problem, but, in this connection it must be mentioned that although messages have been successfully sent from a machine to the ground, considerable difficulty exists in deciphering messages sent from the ground to a machine in flight. This is due to the limited length of the ” aerial ” or collecting wires it is possible to use on an aeroplane and also to the fact that in most present systems, messages are received in the form of faint buzzes through a sensitive telephone receiver, which are extremely difficult to distinguish in view of the vibrations and noise emanating from the engine. As the science of aviation and the development of engines proceed, there will, no doubt, come a time when engines will become sufficiently smooth running and silent for this means to be effective. In the meantime, however, a suggestion the invention of Mr. James Means and marketed by Browne and Woodworth, 60, Congress Street, Boston, Mass., conies from America, which, at least, has some points to commend it in that, with quite a simple apparatus, it would be possible to establish communication not only between a machine in the air and the ground station, but between two aeroplanes in flight. Instead of making use of the waves set up by an electric discharge, the system merely employs light-waves, set up by the intermittent discharge of lamp black from a nozzle, and collected by a no more complicated apparatus than the human eye, or that organ assisted by an ordinary pair of binoculars. A sketch of the device accompanies these few lines. A is a receptable containing a supply of lamp black, which is released into the tube, E, by means of the shutter, C, controlled by a wire, G, from the pilot’s seat. A funnel, F, directed towards the relative wind is continued in the form of a tube to a point just above the shutter, C, in order that the air pressure established in the tube may assist the gravity feed of the lamp black. Lamp black introduced into the tube, E, is discharged into the atmosphere by the exhaust gases of the motor, which are conducted from the motor by the tube, B. For those aeroplanes employing motors in which it is an impossibility to trap the exhaust gases, that is in motors of the rotary variety, another device has been designed, a steel bottle of compressed air forming the means whereby the lamp black is ejected. The signals are given by pulling the cord G, which causes a puff of lamp black to escape from the nozzle of the tube E. Short and long puffs correspond to the dot and dash of the Morse telegraphic code. While being simple in its conception and operation, and readily fitted to any existing type of aeroplane, it has the failing that its effective radius is limited to the distance over which the lamp black discharges are visible. This, to a certain extent, is governed by the puffs discharged, and consequently by the size of the apparatus employed. Tests have already been carried out on a small signaller weighing about 30 lbs., and with this the signals have with the aid of field glasses been quite distinguishable at a distance of over four miles. The inventor points out that aeroplanes have been constructed to carry 1,000 lbs. of useful load in the form of passengers, and that it would be possible to carry a signalling device of 33 times the capacity. He , therefore, contends that it is merely a matter of arithmetic to arrive at the distance over which these signals could be effectively transmitted. It would be interesting to learn what radius of effectiveness the apparatus has, in comparison with other means of daylight signalling, the heliograph for example. Flight 16 March 1912