Submarine 'Eye' Would Reveal Ocean Secrets

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 25, 13 February 1937, Page 16

Submarine 'Eye' Would Reveal Ocean Secrets

SIOUX ClTf , iowa. — An inlander who iearnedvall he could of iive natuxai sciences in the publie iibrary, Gharies W. Jieath, of Bioux Uity, has patented a submarine " eye" designed to pieture in a ship whatever xs on the underlying sea iioor. Television is the means. Mr Heath was an eariy wireless enthusiast. iLe later studied radio engineering in the navy, retumeci to his native Iowa to beoome a construetion mechanie and eventuaily designed the "eye/' which he is confideht will be valuabie commercially and educationaliy. The invention embodies seven separate new ideas, a patent oiiiee. bulietm said. After Mr .JfcLeath applied f'ot the patent m Juiy, 1932, there was eonsiderable debate in which severai rivais participated. He reeeived the patent in Uctober. ^ Before then, however, public and private agencies showed interest m Mr Heath's invention. As a director of thd Bermuda oceanographic expedition, VVilliam ' Beebo has corresponded with him, The Navy Bepartment has mdicated' it would offer "iacilities for a conhdentiai demonstration. ..." The Bepartment of (Jomnferce, aeronauties division, and -private groups were mterested in the possibility of usmg a similar "eye" for fog penetraton. How It Works As Mr Heath has planued it, the "eye" proper wonid be suspended from a snip by cable. Bowerfui buibs of the * • eye" would cast oif light waves, which would be picked up, couverted mto electricai waves, carried by the cables to the ship and- there reconvcrted into light waves, castiug the lmages on a screen. Cameras attached would eapture the iinages permaneutly. By rectifymg the light, the "eye" would see what cannot be seen. in that depth which to divers is "blaek" because outside the huniau speefrum, the photo-eleetrie celis of the "eye" would reaet to infra-red rays. A continuous seareh would be possibie as contrasted with the short time divers can be submerged in comparatively shallow water. Assembly Job Mr Heath has not assigned sole rights to his invention. He does not have a model. The construetion will be "largeiy an assembly job," he says, as( ali the 'paris except two castings can

oe Dought from standard stocks. A barge equippcd with an "eye" could be built xor 15,00(1 dollars, he estiiuates, aud a lUU-foot salvage ship equipped for 150,000. The apparatus would. be adaptable to any lioat and fcransferabie from a raft to a vessel. Uonfessedly, "quite a Dookworm," Heath read all he could liud in books and periodicals about optics, television and electricai, mechanical and marino engineering. in 1911 he had helped to build a wireless set that'sent and reeeived in a 500-miie radius from yioux Balls, «.B, then his home. The war biui ciosed the station in 1014. j