Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/255

 We immediately put out No. 8 panels which mean that “the battery has fired.” Shrapnel is used during these trial shots as the observer in the airplane can easily see by the bursts just how far or close they come to the target and this is what he does. After having seen where the shots landed the observer flies back over our station and signals down to us the number of yards to the right or left of the target and short or over the shots landed.

The telephone man sends this to his Battery Commander, who computes the necessary correction in aiming the gun, and the performance of signaling and firing is repeated until every shot becomes a target, that is, hits squarely on the mark.

At intervals of half-an-hour the balloon station, that is, the captive balloon, sends out meteorological data, which means weather reports, chief of which are the barometer readings, by wireless and this we get and transmit to the B. C. station by telephone. At 4 the batteries cease firing, we take down and pack up our station and go back to camp.

As I have said we repeated this performance for a month until we were letter perfect in co