Radio Hammond

Capable son of a capable father, John Hays Hammond Jr. sailed in to the port of New York back from a fresh conquest. He came from Rome, ancient city of the Caesars and brought back a triumph.

In the first place, he had arranged with the Italian Government for the formation of a semi-official radio casting company, to have the monopoly of the air in Italy. The name of the company is the United Broadcasting Co. of Italy. It is a coalition of a number of companies, chief of which are the Sirac (Hammond), Radiofono (Marconi), Italian Western Electric and Radio Araldo (owned 'by a banking group). The coalition is to build three radiocasting stations. One at Milan with 395 metre wavelength, one at Rome with 425 metre wavelength and one at Taranto or Messina with 455 metre wavelength.

The semi-official nature of this enterprise is evident in all the provisions made. By arrangement with the Government, the coalition will be allowed to collect licensing dues, and also subscription dues, or annual fees, from those who have receiving sets to get the benefit of the radiocasting. The Government reserves the right to use the radiocasting stations during the hours of 1 to 2 and 7 to 8 (p. m.) daily. Doubtless, although Mr. Hammond did not say so, the Government will exercise a strict censorship and employ radiocasting for propaganda purposes. Having obtained complete subservience of the press, Mussolini's next step was naturally to master the radio. This has gone to the extent that all radio equipments must be of Italian manufacture, and foreign parts cannot even be imported for assembly.

This is typical "Mussolini." But the interesting part of Mr. Hammond's arrangement is the provision for making radio listeners pay for their entertainment.

The other important result of Mr. Hammond's trip was the approval which the Italian Government gave to his system of narrowcasting, or secret radio. This system employs short wavelengths, superimposed with high frequency modulations. Unless a receiving station was properly fitted to receive these modulations, or to use his own phrase, "to straighten out the dents in the rays," the message could not be made out.

The advantages of his system are that it permits multiplexing (sending several messages at once), that it is largely free from atmospheric disturbance and can achieve great distance. He went so far as to declare that "using the new methods of photographic transmission, it will be possible to flash complete pages of print across the Atlantic, increasing the transmission speeds in this way enormously."

This invention of Mr. Hammond Jr. is the product of 14 years' work -although at the present he is still a young man of 36. The younger John Hays had his early schooling abroad, partly in France, partly in England, partly in South Africa, where his father was working with Cecil Rhodes.*

He then went to his father's country home at Gloucester, Mass., set up his experimental laboratory on a high bluff. Soon he had developed a means for radio control of a boat at sea. The perfection of this invention covered a period of years, but is now practically perfect. He applied the same principle to a torpedo and developed one that could be steered at will at a speed of 50 mi. an hour on the surface, or 27 mi. submerged. It was in this connection that he developed a type of non-interferable radio transmission. Several foreign Governments were reported to have offered tremendous sums for the patents of this torpedo. Young Hammond preferred to let the U. S. Government have them for $750,000. In 1916, the arrangements for the sale were made, but, in the Government's leisurely way, not carried out. Meanwhile, the development of bombing from airplanes led the Chief of Coastal Artillery to doubt the value of the torpedo. So that transaction was called off.

His more important inventions include:

The dynamic torpedo for coast defense.

Radio control of unmanned ships.

A system of radio coast patrol for airplanes.

A thermite incendiary-shell used during the war.

A selective, or private, system of radiocasting.

* During the Boer War, John Hays Hammond Sr. was sentenced to death for his activities. Later, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Finally he was released on payment of a $125,000 fine. Free and healthy, he lived en to become Chairman of the U. S. Coal Commission and now enjoys a plutocratic old age.