He followed some false leads such as research into the hypothetical N rays, which did not in fact exist, and attempts to explain anomalies in laboratory measurements of radio waves in ionized gases, which he thought might be due to positive ions exerting a quasi-elastic force on electrons.

[6] Gutton was drafted into the Military Telegraph Service by the French army in 1915, and became the main assistant of Gustav Ferrié's team of young technicians working on tactical radio.

The team made wireless telephony transmissions from Paris to Arlington, Virginia, developed direction finders and antennas, and engaged in radio espionage.

Gutton returned to Nancy where he was made Professor of Physics, but remained a friend of Ferrié for life, and was secretary of the Société des Amis de la telégraphie sans fils (Wireless Telegraphy Society).

[10] In the 1920s Gutton and his assistant Émile Pierret worked on communications with waves in the decimeter range, with much higher frequencies than those being explored in other countries, although with much lower power.

Next, from 1915 to 1919 as a member of the military radiotelegraphy team he applied his scientific knowledge to study of the properties of triodes, to improve the use of radio for communications, particularly in aviation, and to carry out advances that led to the growth broadcasting after the war.

[15] Camille Gutton adapted techniques developed by Abraham and Jules Lemoine(fr) in 1899 to compare the propagation times of light and of electric waves.

[10] Gutton measured the speed of propagation of electromagnetic waves in different media, which distinguished the theories of James Clerk Maxwell and Hermann von Helmholtz.

He followed his mentor Prosper-René Blondlot in the belief that N rays were real, and published works on this subject in opposition to Albert Turpain(fr) until 1906.

[5] In the early 1920s Gutton started to study the electrical properties of ionized media at different pressures and their effect on short wave propagation.

They expected the effective dielectric constant (relative permittivity) to decrease with frequency due to the ionic refraction theory proposed by William Eccles and Joseph Larmor.

[7] In April 1930 Gutton performed experiments to test the theory of Peder Oluf Pedersen and Jørgen Rybner that resonance was an experimental artifact due to capacitance between a gas condenser's metal plates, and showed this was incorrect.

[18] Later Edward Victor Appleton and J. Goodier performed experiments which indicated that resonance was in fact an artifact due to confinement of the ionized gas in a finite space.