How hard it would have been in the '50's to build a remote control bomb?
 

How hard it would have been in the '50's to build a remote control bomb? I mean around 1955-1957. Or could you use miniature tubes?
I asq this question becuase I'm writing a B category storie (just playn' with the imagination) and some fellows are organaizing the brake of a convict from a police escort.

Maybe use one of these?

http://mike-austin.com/blog/images/1..._Remote_Ad.jpg

No, radio frequency. I heard about those remote controls with light "beams": when the sun light was intense,the commands from the tv could start working because of the sunlight. :)

Not hard at all. The US Navy was using subminiature tubes in drone receivers back in the 1950's - my Dad was in a utility squadron that flew the drones for gunnery practice. Receivers were all VHF, with pulses representing functions. Different pulse widths were discriminated, processed and sent to the flight servos. Engines were McCullough, and had two speeds - idle (for landing) and max throttle. Keep in mind most drones were flown in an simple, flat flight profile, and "caught" in nets to keep it simple.

Transmitters were modified field radios - the modulator and output power being the bulk of the modification.

If triggering a bomb, a subcarrier (ultrasonic would be best/least likely to accidentally trigger) could be used, much like the FM stereo signal triggers the stereo light in a receiver.

Think about it - if Marconi could receive a morse code "S" back in the early 1900's, technology would have made it very possible by the 1920's or 30's to trigger a bomb. Radio controlled bombs existed in WWII, and even radar triggered devices existed late in the war.

Cheers,

Almost forgot about Carl and Jerry - characters from Popular Electronics Magazine - in the mid 50's. They almost certainly built something remote controlled in their columns:

http://home.gwi.net/~jdebell/pe/cj/cnjindex.htm

Cheers,

Speaking of stories...
 

Telecolor3007's statement that he is writing a story (the reason he asked about remotely controlled bombs) reminds me of a story I am currently writing, and have been writing since perhaps the 1980s. The story has several subplots and is about 700 pages long (more or less) at this point; however, I mention in a part of the story I wrote about eleven years ago a fictional Hawaiian radio station, KNLS-AM 1040 in an equally fictitious Hawaiian resort town I call Nookyolani, in which the disk jockey could control everything in the studio, except the transmitter, simply by dancing around the room. I came up with the idea for this a decade or so before the Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 came on the market, but I'm not worried about Sony stealing my idea since my story is not and will not be copyrighted.

BTW, I remember the Carl and Jerry stories in Popular Electronics. One of my favorites was titled "Therry and the Pirates", in which Carl (the more athletic one) wore a theremin on his back during one of his high school's basketball games, and the thing kept sounding off with loud feedback-like noises through the gymnasium's PA system (which Jerry controlled from the school's audio control booth). I didn't look at the index linked to in this thread to see if that particular C&J story is listed there, but I'll look again later on. If it is listed and is hyperlinked (many of the listed C&J stories aren't), I'd like to read it again, as I seem to have forgotten what role the theremin played.

several internet sources point out:
1) Tesla demonstrated radio controlled boats in 1898
2) RC models using tubes were built by hobbyists in the 1950s, but the hobby did not become widely popular until the use of transistors increased battery life (mid 1960s)

http://www.xenonproject.com/history-...line-a-21.html

Tesla is perrhaps the most unappreciated man in electronics. I did a report on Marconi as a kid, and somewhat idolized him. But thanks to the modern retrospectives by the History Channel, PBS and others, I see that he was the one behind most most innovative products in the early 20th century. It would be fun to rank all of the inventors from that era and see how they stack up.

Cheers,

I'd like to toss in Edwin Howard Armstrong and Philo T. Farnsworth into the generally unappreciated inventor topic.

There were also the proximity fuze bombs/shells they used in WW2. I remember reading an article on 'em in "Electric Radio" magazine several years back.

I started to write a story with remote control bombs. Yeah, I like old noir B category movies, but my story is I category :no:


Leonard, his friend Jack and Jakc’s wife, Veronica where sitting in the living room of Jack’s apartment (flat). Leonard was looking on the “Joestwon Jurnal”. On the front page, was printed with a span long letters “Vera Adina Leonard, the woman that killed all her three lovers was sentenced to the death”.
“They didn’t pronuced the verdict and already they say that she was sentenced to the death”, commented Jack.
“Throu all that I don’t think they like too much to sentence women to the death, for three men killed in those condition I don’t think they will be satisfied with a life inprisoment verdict” sayed Leonard.
“Yeah… gas chamber is nasty”. Jack started caughin, trying to imitate the last moments of a man sentenced to die in the gas chamber.
“In this state we have the electric chiar, throu all want the gas chamber”.
“<<Sparky>> isn’t much better”, conclude Jack while he started to shake.
“Stop with that stupid thing” apostrophized him Veronica.
“Can’t the man have some fun? Anyway I have to agitate this juice”.
“It’s horrible to frie the skin of such beauty”, sayed Leonard. “You must be a barbarian to do that”.
“You like her, don’t you” sayed Jack.
Leonard stoped to think for a few moments. He wanted to say something to Jack, but was afraid that Jack may make fun of him.
“I would like to be seduced by her and to make hot love with her”.
“And after that get killed” sayed with humor Jack.
“Yes. Shot with a small pistol. Not to fell any pain at all. Just to pass away very nice, falling onto the bad with a smile on my face and heat on my body, and to see her devilish smile… of a girl from Dracula’s country”.
“Man, this lack of women is doing you bad. You start to have hallcunitaions”.
“Oh, don’t pretented to be a quite guy. You wold love to do that too”.
“He’s having me” sayed Veronica.
“And if I dind’t have her, I wouldn’t be mad enough to do that. I would use an easy lasy service”.
Veronica gave Jack an nasty look.
“Oh, stop talking crap. You like to get a nice desise. And no prostitute can make you feel like a bad girl in black cans. I want her”.
Jack looked with a big smile at Leonard.
“But in order to do that I have to save her”.
“All by yourself. You must be Superman”.
“Strange, I thought that you where going to help me”.
“Ha-ha. You drinked again, dind’t you”.
“I dindn’t touch Mr. Influence since two days ago. And I thought Veronica was going to help us two. I don’t belive that a woman can let that another woman to be fried on the electric chiar”.
This time Jack gave Leonard an angry look.
“Well, I’m going home. Bye-bye Mr. Barbarian. You’re a coward. You can’t recognize your feelings”.
Jakc let Leoanrd to make a few steps towards the door and after that jumped at him.
“Hey, guy, we are friends, but if you talk like that I’ll hit you more hared then a mob guy”.
“Well, you can hit me as hard as you can, but you’re still a hen baby”.
Jack rised his fist and prepared to hit Leonard. But at that last moment he stoped.
“And just what do you inted to do?”
“If you let me go, I’ll tell you”.
“I won’t let you go”.
“Low your voice. We aren’t living in the Soviet Union, but walls may have ears around here too”.
“Tell me now”.
“Well, you must take great responsibilities”.
“And why that?”
“Because we must kill some cops”.
“Get out of here” Jack pushed Leonard a little bit.
“Well, they still hand’t made a freeze gun, and I can’t make a Knouck Out Drops gun. If the cops see what you want to do, they will kill us”.
“That’s right. I see your mind camed back to you”.
“So we must kill them before they can do anything”.
“And how we are going to do that?”.
“We’ll blow up them.”
“Ha-ha”
“We must proced after the verdict is returned. Because only then the convoy will be alone. They will stop the reports at the Court House. Probably on police car will be in the front of the jailhouse car, and one police car behind the jailhouse car. And on the street that goes from the Court House to the Fort Boyard Avenue there are some suerage lid that have an intresting position. At an cerain moment one of the police car will be on top of the one, and the other on the top of the other lid”.
“And how do you inted to blow up the bombs? With the power of your mind?”
“No, with the help of remote control”.
“And if the bomb strarts listening to the radio?”
“Some time ago, when I started experimenting with electronics I thought about tha. In order to detonate the bomb you will… the bomb will be detonated when 2 separate frequeynces are emitied simoultanious. If only one will be emited, nothing is going to happen”.
“Veronica” sayed Jack. “Don’t tell me you listen to his stupidities”.
“Well, Jack, I think Lenoard is right. That girl dosen’t desirve that faith”.
“Girl?!!”
“I was jocking Jack. Leoanrd, really, I think is time to go home and rest you mind”
Leoanrd went agry towards the door.
“Well, fellows, you have only 4 (four) days to think about it. Remember. You if you want your soul to be saved you have to save that poor girl!”.
Two days after the incident, Leoanrd recive an call from Jack.
“Well, I’m sorry for the incident from the day before yesterday. I think I drinked too much.”
Leonard remained silent for a few moments, thinking what Jack wanted to say with the drinking. He soon realized that was a speaking code.
“You’re expected here. Can you come?”
“ I have something to do. I’ll be there in a hour”.
Leonard arrived at Jack’s apartament an hour later, just like he promised to do.
“So, you want to be in the business, no?”
“Yeah, I do”.
“I hoped so”
“So how those bombs will look?”