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Originally Posted by Adrian Roberts  A slightly better picture than the one on the link, of the Sound mirror at Kilnsea in Yorkshire, dating from 1917.
They had some degree of usefulness in 1917-18, providing the enemy conveniently flew within a few miles of the mirror (we're talking aeroplane bombers not airships by this time), and prviding there was no background noise (so they were situated in isolated areas). The pole just visible in from the bowl held a microphone, which was pointed at the part of the mirror which gave the loudest sound and hence the direction of the enemy could be calculated (roughly).
But sound-waves travel very considerably slower than light or radio (electro-magnetic) waves, so any usefulness the mirrors had against Gothas traveling at 90 mph, giving maybe 20 minutes or so for the Home Defence fighters to intercept, had dissappeared by the time of WW2 when the enemy was travelling at 250mph, giving maybe four minutes warning. |
Good to see that they were at least being pro active!