I have an unusual question. I'm a baseball historian, and I recently found a
fascinating 1913 article in Baseball Magazine about the first-ever "radar gun."
Adapting a device designed by Remington to measure bullet speed, the
editors set up a wire screen in a gun shed, bolted a steel plate to a wall, and
then attached an electrical device to both. The device would time when the ball
touched the wires and when it hit the steel plate, then calculate the number of
feet per second the ball was traveling. (They tested it against Walter Johnson,
the fastest pitcher of his time.)
The article goes into great detail, but doesn't show the machine. Is there
anyone here, or any historian you know, who might have a picture or a
detailed description of what the device looked like and exactly how it worked?
I'm interested in writing an article about it.
Thank you!--Joe