SEA TELEPHONY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1672, 26 September 1887, Page 3

SEA TELEPHONY.

Some account, have recently appeared relative to co n e experiments by Mr Edison ou the practicability of telephoning from a ship to the shore, which showed that B>gn>.la cou d be made within certain distances without the aid of wires. Mr H.niy Edmunds relates hh_ experience *ith a instrument Invented by himself m 1878, aTd called the "nquaphone," which essentially consisted of a submerged sounder, »nd which cjuld be actuated by means of a key, operated either from a boat oc on the shore. Mr Edmund says : — " It was soon found that aignala which were entirely inaudible In the air at a given range were distinctly audible under water, even at twice or threo times the i limit of their range m the air. After trying several kinds of it-caiv^ra, the simplest was found to be a pine rod, with one end shaped like a piddle, immeraed about 3ft m the wat.r, wth the other end held close to the ear. Experiments were made m Febrmry, 1878, down below Greenwich, where an attendant m a boat (whioh waa seve.al times bidden from ! Bight by intervening objaots) reoeived and transmitted signals readily, aud aoted m accordance witn a prearranged code." " Again, m 1879, off the Lancashire ooast at Blackpool, I made freah experiments m a very rough sea, and had no difficulty m making aud receiving signals, provided iho sounder and reosiver were sunk sufficiently deep below the surface of tha W _ V6B .»_«' Mechanical World."