Word: loran
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...Observatory staff went to war practically on mass. The highly diversified are of modern war-face had great need of their specialized talents; and while the Observatory found itself almost deserted, they helped out-race enemy scientists in the perfection of such technical, but still immensely vital, devices as Loran and aerial photography...
...Loran. When air lines cross the oceans, they will be guided by war-born loran (LOng RAnge Navigation), a whole new system of navigation which does not depend on celestial observations or hit-or-miss dead reckoning. The U.S. Coast Guard already operates 57 loran stations on the shores and islands of the Atlantic and Pacific. Each has an effective range of 600 to 800 miles by day, and up to 1,400 miles by night. A worldwide network of 70 stations is in the cards...
...Loran shore stations always work in pairs: the "master" and the "slave" (see diagram). Both operate on the same frequency and both broadcast the same radio "pulse signals"-short bursts of radio energy transmitted at regular intervals. The pulse from the master station appears as a "pip" on the "scope" of the plane's loran receiver. It also sets off a second pulse from the slave station, which is received as a second pip. The pulses arrive at slightly different times, since they have traveled different distances...
...loran is the measurement of this time lag, which the receiver does automatically in micro-seconds (millionths of a second). For each time lag, a special chart shows a "line of position." The plane's navigator knows at once that he is somewhere on this line. Then he tunes in a second pair of master-and-slave stations operating on a different frequency, and gets a second line of position. His location on the chart is the point where the two lines intersect. A skilled operator can complete the whole problem in less than six minutes...
...LORAN, an aid to navigation based on timed radio signals...