SUBMARINE DESTROYER

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 580, 26 November 1902, Page 2

SUBMARINE DESTROYER

A RUSSIAN MARVEL.

A cable message published somo timo ago announced that Admiral Makarov, ol St. Petersburg, had evolved an invention which would deal a blow at submarine wariaro, in the ahapo of an apparatus which gives warning of the approach of submarinos bv means of sound. Admiral Makarov, by the way, is tho author of the colebrated demonstration of tho instability ol tho Victoria. Fuller particulars of hi 6 latest apparatus are now to hand. It is called the “radiosou,” and several successful experiments have beon made at Kronstadt. By connecting tbo contrivance with tho military tolephono system, the whole course of Whitehead torpedoes off Kronstadt was transmitted to an officer seated in a room in ono of tho Government offices in St. Petersburg. Neither weather nor any other circumstances affect tho accuracy of ascertaining tho direction and speed of the object under observation. Tho radioson will detect the submarine foe at night, in a storm, or in a fog, at any distance, as unerringly as in broad daylight or a dead calm. Not only can the wonderful discovery be used for giving notice of the submarine’s approach, but it enu be employed for destructive warfare. By a simplo modification it can bo rnado to blow up tho enemy either automatically or at tho will of a person who may be miles away. A squadron served by the radioson is practically invulnerable from unseen foes, for, having been notified of their approach, it can either steam away or lie in wait and crush the enemy. If the radioson does all that is claimed therefor, naval warfare of the future will be conducted on an entirely new scientific basis. Besides being a war invention, however, the radioson is also for use in times of peace. It can be sunk any distance into the earth, and then, owing to its extraordinary sensitiveness to the slightest sound, it will disclose the presence of springs of water, In this role the radioson recalls the acoustic device used by the Arabs in the Sahara, but it vastly exceeds in delicacy the primitive apparatus of the Bedouin. No details have as yet been published, but it is known that the radioson consists essentially of a sounding apparatus, which transmits sounds of a very low intensity, and cnaules the man at the receiver to trace both distance and direction of the object emitting the sound.