Science: Quiet Ears

Radio receivers on ships at sea have been silenced since war began. Reason: an ordinary receiving set sends out radiations of its own that can be detected by an enemy submarine. Sailors chafe at this restriction because radioed baseball scores and news bulletins used to be one of the high spots of their day. Government officials suspect that they occasionally give their ships away by surreptitious tuning in, mistakenly supposing that if they keep volume low the enemy cannot hear them.

Last fortnight Chicago’s E. H. Scott Radio Laboratories announced an invention whereby ships could safely turn on their radios again. It is a new receiver that cuts down oscillator radiation so that it cannot be picked up more than 25 feet away. Standard Oil of New Jersey has already equipped a fleet of tankers with the new sets; the Navy and freighter lines are following suit.