from "Radiodynamics"
In
the year 1897, when wireless telegraphy was still in its infancy, Ernest
Wilson, an Englishman, was granted a British patent on a system for the
wireless control of dirigible, self-propelled vessels. The primary object
of this invention was to provide a weapon for use in naval warfare, which,
if in the form of a dirigible torpedo, controlled from a shore or ship
wireless installation, would be most deadly in its effect on a hostile
fleet. No mention has been found of actual apparatus constructed according
to Wilson's plans.
To Nikola Tesla, probably more than to any other investigator,
belongs the credit of first constructing a dirigible vessel which could
be controlled from a distance without connecting wires. His experiments
were begun in 1892 and from that time on he exhibited a number of wirelessly-directed
contrivances in his laboratory at 35 South Fifth Avenue, New York City.
In 1897 he constructed a complete automaton in the form of a boat (Figs.
40, 41 and 42), which would steer itself 
in
obedience to guiding impulses of Hertzian waves sent out from shore. On
Nov. 8, 1898, he was granted a United States patent on this invention.
In this patent he mentions the use of all forms of control energy including
electromagnetic induction, electrostatic induction, conduction through
earth, water, and the upper atmosphere, and all forms of purely radiant
energy.
The
drawings, of which there are ten, illustrate in detail the nature and
arrangement of the apparatus. These drawings were made to scale from the
completed model, which he had in operation at that time.
Wilson's was the pioneer patent in that branch of radiotelegraphy now known as radiodynamics. Since then a large number of patents in this field have been taken out by various inventors, and several of those who have been so fortunate as to secure the means, have developed their respective systems in the effort to realize their possibilities.
Gardner of England, Wirth, Beck and Knauss of Germany, Gabet and Deveaux of France, Roberts of Australia, and Tesla, Sims, and Edison of the United States have during the last fifteen years attempted to solve the problem in a practical way. All of these investigators save Roberts, Simms, and Edison have applied their systems on boats intended primarily for torpedoes, which they control by Hertzian waves. Sims and Edison, with the cooperation of the United States Government, developed a system for controlling a dirigible torpedo through a trailing conductor, and Roberts has applied his system to dirigible balloons. Fig. 43 shows A.J. Roberts and his wirelessly-controlled airship as it appeared on the lecture platform. The twelve-inch induction-coil transmitter may.be seen at the right on the table.
At A is the coherer, tapper, relay, and coherer battery;
at B is a rotary switch of the Tesla type; at C are several cells of a
storage battery and two signal lights; at D are two propelling and steering
motors which are mounted at the ends of a centrally-pivotted, horizontal
frame about two feet long. When both are rotating the airship moves directly
ahead. Steering is accomplished by stopping one of the motors. A single
wire about 4 feet long serves as the antenna. The length of the airship
is 15 feet and the weight is approximately 16 pounds. The gas bag consists
of four layers of pig intestine. The intestines of over 4000 pigs were
used in the construction of this bag. 
The
maximum control distance is about 500 feet.
These inventors have had various degrees of success in their endeavors to perfect their inventions, but apparently none have reached the goal. It is true that they have controlled the movements of vessels from a distance without the aid of conducting wires, but at best the apparatus has worked spasmotically, unsatisfactorily, and the greatest distance at which their vessels have been controlled has not exceeded one-half mile. But why, we may ask, have these able experimenters failed to secure the desired results when wireless telegraphy, the mother of radiodynamics, has made such wonderful progress?
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