The Invisible Arm
| Date | 01 October 1931 |
| Published date | 01 October 1931 |
| Author | J. H. Harker |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3100400412 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Invisible
Arm
BY
SERGEANT
J.
H.
HARKER
Lincolnshire Constabulary, Lincoln, Member
of
the Radio Society
of
Great Britain
and Owner-Operator
of
Experimental Radio Station
G6HK
LONG
time has elapsed since the electric telegraph first
A
proved
its
usefulness to the police service. The evolution
of
the telephone from the experimental stage to the present
highly efficient system further facilitated police work, but the
arrest of the notorious Dr. Crippen through the instrumen-
tality of the wireless telegraph marked a new era in police
methods. Since that time great strides have been made in the
science
of
wireless communication, but unfortunately there is
a lot of misconception in the police service as to its present
value, due primarily to the fact that the apparatus required for
wireless transmission appears to be too complicated for the
average man to understand, and to the impression that the
expense involved would not be justified by results. The
newspapers, with their paragraphs about
‘
Flying Squads
’
and
police wireless communication, written by non-technical jour-
nalists, do not assist.
It
is therefore proposed to try
to
explain
in simple language how radio may be of service to the police,
and
its
superiority over the ordinary land line telephone for
special purposes.
This article
is
written as the result of personal experi-
mental work in radio transmission, with no knowledge of the
systems1 already used by certain police forces and with no
knowledge whatever from official sources, and
it
will deal
principally with
‘
tactical considerations.’
It
may be stated,
first of all, that the apparatus is not expensive, and that
its
operation is about as complicated as that of a modern type-
writer.
It
is
as
reliable
as
the Post Office telephone-quite as
See
‘
The Use
of
Wireless for
Police
Purposes
’
in
The
Police
Journal,
vol.
iii,
p.
226.
590
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