Washington. first "radiolocator" was invented over twenty-one years ago to determine the location of "atmospheric electrical discharges" (lightning is such a discharge) and not to detect enemy bombers.
This is disclosed in a British patent (No. 129,336) granted on July 17, 1919, to Robert Alexander Watson Watt, who was recently announced by British authorities as the inventor of the radiolocator now being used by the R.A F. to detect enemy bombers at night, long before they reach England's shores, states the "New York Ti At the time Mr. Watt obtained his "rst patent, he was a meteorologist with the British Meteorological Office. which corresponds to the United States Weather Bureau. In the years that followed he obtained fourteen other British patents. Copies of the fifteen patents are on file here in the Patent Office. They relate to radio direction and position-finding apparatus, and devices desi for in such systems. It thus appea: research work om ghe secret radiolocater now being by the British began at least twenty-one years ago. mes?
On a ship such a device would
by ships et night or in a fog, or make visible the location of, near-Shore stations from the radio signals which they broadcast.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.