NEW DEPTH-SOUNDER

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 52, 25 November 1926, Page 12

NEW DEPTH-SOUNDER

MAPPING THE BOTTOM OF THE

A chart of the bottom of the sea, au(omatically aud continuously drawn during a voyage, is now available to the Navy as a result of the work of Lieutenant Leo P. Delsasso, U.S. Naval Reserve.

information received from the Navy Department tells of elaborate tests of liis new automatic depth-sounder conducted on board the U.S.S. Maryland on its trip to Australia. The apparatus follows previous development in the idea of sending a sound impulse at high speed from a ship to the ocean bottom, and calculating by the time of the returning echo now deep file water is. Heretofore it has been, necessary for au attendant to watch operations, aud make constant readings and calculations to be sure of safety. The Delsasso apparatus, employing vacuum-tube amplification along with marking devices, yields a chart which not only advises the navigator of the depth at a given time but shows gradients approach or recedence of shallows, and in general gives warning of anything untoward in the briny depths.

It is hoped that further improvements may enable the apparatus, built in more rugged form, to be placed on the bridge for ccfvenient use of the skipper. Had such a device been available on the U.S. destroyers, the Honda disaster could have been avoided. In this accident several vessels were beached after a blind run til rough water whose shallowness would certainly have been reported by the depth-sounder. Any solid surface of considerable size directly facing the vessel at right angles to the line of oncoming sound will report its presence to the depth-sounder.