Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

RADIO, RADIUM, AND X RAYS 143
An early radio receiving
set constructed by the
Bureau, designed, along
with a separate transmit-
ter, for use on ships of
the Lighthouse Service,
Bureau of Navigation,
and the Coast and Geo-
detic Survey.
It was a closed-circuit type
of receiver using a vari-
able condenser of the
decremeter t y p e and
with a crystal detector
connected across the con-
denser. This particular
set served as a wavemeter
and decremeter as well
as radio receiver.
The Koister decremeter for
measuring wavelength
and decrement was de-
veloped between 1912
and 1914 for the use of
the Department of Com-
merce's Bureau of Navi-
gation and for the armed
services.
It was 1919 before the impasse was resolved and the direction finder
was successfully demonstrated and officially approved. Soon after, Koister
left the Bureau to set up a company to manufacture his radio compasses.
When success eluded him, he turned to the development of radio receiving
sets. The radio boom was on, he was hired away by industry, and his inven-
tive genius was exploited, but he got none of the millions made through his