Word: compassable
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...sensed in the windowless transport an even bigger mystery. The story got around that the plane would take off without a soul inside, fly straight to Honolulu by means of a "robot" pilot and directional radio. Finally it was established that Director Vidal was only testing out a compass-a radio "homing" device which, he thought, might revolutionize long-distance flying over water. It had been used by the late Macon, it had been tested for more than a year by the Army Air Corps and the Department of Commerce. It was, in fact, a key unit in their blind...
...operation, the Kruesi Radio Homing Compass is simplicity itself. You tune in on a commercial broadcast, listen to Paul Whiteman or Father Coughlin. Then you switch off the earphones, turn on the bearing-indicator. A pointer on the instrument-board dial guides you so accurately to the broadcasting station that if a balloon were sent up from it on a string you would cut the string in half, flying blind. By taking cross-bearings on two broadcasting stations you can determine your position to a hair's breadth...
...making her mortal and banishing her to a rock surrounded by fire. In Siegfried the perfect hero penetrates the flames and Brünnhilde is a woman radiantly in love. In Götterdämmerung the emotional range is so extended that few singers have been able to compass it successfully. In the first act a great Brünnhilde must be tender, exuberantly happy. In the second act bewilderment turns to blazing rage. Under the spell of one of Wagner's convenient potions, Siegfried has tricked her, given her to another. A great Brünnhilde...
...years we have seen what seemed a successful system grow slowly and mount steadily to a fair approximation of justice. Then out of God knows where came the change. . . . Where did the money come from? And where the devil has it gone? I am without rudder, anchor or compass. I don't know what is the matter...
...distance of the shocks from the recording station can be readily deduced from the difference in time of arrival of the P and S waves, since their speeds are known. Direction is much harder to determine, even with a half-dozen instruments lined up facing different points of the compass. Frequently it is necessary for three widely separated stations to compare their distance figures before the quake can be located...