The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, OCTOBER 16, 1903. THE TREASURES OF THE DEEP.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1023, 16 October 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, OCTOBER 16, 1903. THE TREASURES OF THE DEEP.

For many centuries Italy was in the fore-front in the world of letters, art and invention, but in more modern times sho has not been so prominent. The inventions of the submarine boat, wireless telegraphy and the latest, the hydroseope— a machine by means of which objects can be seen at a great I depth add' distance in the water, and can be reflected on to a screen on deck —all tend in the direction of recovering to' Italy its former reputation. The power possessed by .Cavaliere Pino, engineer of Genoa, should make him the enVy of the world. His submarine boat is well known, having been thoroughly tested in the Gulf of Genoa, the invention gaining him the honor of knighthood from the King of Italy. But the hydroscope is a still more wonderful invention, seeing that it gives power to reveal all the secret ß of the sea—to find all the treasure ß that are hidden by the sea, and not only to find them but to gather them, the latter being done by means of tho “ elevator,” another wonderful invention of Gavaliore Pino’s. In this way Pino proposes to rob the sea of all her treasures. They that go down to the sea in ships will in the future by means of the hydroseope be able to look down into the waters and examine the bottom of the sea at any depth ; they will he able to scan the ocean-bed just as easily as one examines- 'an ordinary landscape •through a telescope.- The elevator will be able to pick up any object revealed by the hydroseope at the 'bottom of the ocean. A writer, commenting on the work of the Italian inventor and giving a few particulars of his life, says . “ Imagine the worth of these inventions and what, it means to be able to see clearly into the sea, to any depth. In the first place—and this appeals most strongly to the romantic—it means that many of the treasures that have been lost in the sea—the works of art, the ship-loads of gold, •priceless cargoes of all kinds—maybe found and recovered. Then it means that ships’ captains may see, as they voyage, what rocks or sandbanks are Iteneath them.. With the hydroscope’s help, salvage companies can locate sunken ships ; explorers may map the land beneath the waves; cable companies can see where their cables are lying ; commanders of nien-of-war can perceive the: stealthy approach of the submarine or the torpedo ; while anyone may find corals, pearls, sponges, or examine the • mineralogy of the sea-lied. But perhaps one of the most important uses of the hydroseope will be its I application to sea-fislung. Already many fishery companies of Germany, Sweden, and Holland—which are among the most paying commercial companies in existence—are clamoring for the rights of Pino’s invention, fully convinced that with its help they will take hundreds of fish from the sea for every fish taken today, .so that fish will become the cheapest and the universal food. With a hydroseope attached to the fishing-boat, the fishermen need never cast their nets where there are no fish to be caught. On the other •hand, they can absolutely locate the best fishing grounds. The captain of tlie fishing-boat of the future will steam along, his eye glued to the eye •piece of his hydroseope—or keeping a sharp look-out on an image of the sea-bed cast by the hydroseope on to •a screen—and not until he finds himself above the chosen spot where the shoals have congregated will he give tlic order, “ Nets out !” Then the nets can he dropped with certainty so as to encompass the shoal on •every side —and great will be the haul. If the shoal should move oft before the nets are ready lor its capture. why, then the fishermen can fallow its movements, and track fi down unerringly. The idea of ail instrument wherewith to behold the wonders of the sea and all therein has beeu in Fino’s mind since the days of his boyhood. He has ever been passionately devoted to the sea, and he has studied the Jaws of the sea all his life. Now he has conquered—and his success is entirely due to his iron will, and his wonderful power of brain. He is thirty years old—small, strong, with blonde hair and- moustache, and grey, eyes. Outwardly like other men, bis enor- •

moutiy powerful brain sets him apart—his will-power is terrible, almost, in its concentration, so that •the stifiest problems seem to drop away before its force. Pino .was born at (Jhiampo, in Venetia. II is mother ami father dying when he was a boy, he was left to the care of his brothers, who regarded his ideas as the vaguest dreams. They tried to persuade hint to turn his mind from his ceaseless thoughts of new inventions. They misunderstood him so completely that he decided to take liis modest capital in hand, and run away from home. Run I away lie did, and his relations? have seen nothing of him since. But they' heard of his fame when the King oi Italy, presented him .with a knighthood as a mark of appreciation oi Iris genius. Young JPino, finding himself alone in the world, passed all his days in study and research—he is entirely, self-taught. liis never-end-ing experiments soon ran away with liis money, and he was obliged to turn laborer, finding employment in the Royal Bread Factory, at Genoa. A- poor laborer he was, one suspects, for ’he spejutj mopt of his time drawing strange designs on bits of paper, calculating, dreaming. The manager oi the bread factory, one Herr Kunl, called to Pino one day,; and asked : “What are all these sket-1 ohes that you are for ever making, Pino ? - “ Oh, sir, they are drawings for a submarine boat that shall be able to descend 300 yards. ,Ycm see, there is no boat that can do so, but this boat could steam about beneath the surface as easily as on the surface.” The manager’s curiosity WoS aroused ; he became to believe in Pino. lie introduced his plans to financiers, and himself lent him money, wherewith to iloat a new salvage company, Pino becoming its director The latter lias made more .than one hundred and fifty, descents in his boat, to depths of more than 500 feet and many more descents to lesser depths. He gives the following eloquent description of the waters of the Mediterranean “ They are exquisitely beautiful, with wonderful rocks in places, rich vegetation here and there, and myriads of flowers and fish—there are flowers that look like fish, and fish that look like flowers ! A curious thing about the fish is this—there are different fish in each stratum of water. At twenty yards depth the fish are quite different to those at two hundred yards. At certain depths the fish arc as plentiful as the leaves of a forest in summer. By means of the hydroscope photographs have been taken of the sea bed, showing the wave-like growth of seaweed on the rocks. The figures with regard to shipwrecks prove wdiat a vast fortune awaits Cavaliere Pino if liis inventions can he used for no other purpose than to raise the vessels that sink month after month. On an average, 130 vessels of more than 500 tons sink every month. Last February no fewer than 503 ships went down, and only one has been recovered. The value of each ship lost, of above .500 tons, including cargo, amounts to hundreds of thousands of pounds—tlie cargoes, of course, often being of greater value than the ships. So there can never he lack of work for the hydroscope in locating sunken ships, or for, the elevator in raising them. The elevator takes the form of an entirely new species of submarine craft, but at present no more may, be written about it than that it is unlike any lifting apparatus ever designed before, and that it is strong enough to lift the heaviest iron-clad from the deepest depths. Not until after the trials will further details of the apparatus be made known.