WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.

Kumara Times, Issue 677, 28 November 1878, Page 3

WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.

A discovery -is alleged to haVe been \nade by Mr Gresham, a practical me'chaniciau. of New. Sork, of a method by which a ship may be photographed on the high seas, distant from 100 to 6000 miles-r^-the.photograph.giving the bame, the latitude and longitude* and the destination, taken from chalk marks ’on het deck.; Mr Gresham (says the Observer), after a long series of experiments, has found that, .he can produce an artificial miiage, the principle of which,- he says, is the ■ same as that which reflects in the middle of the desert of. Sahara the images of lakes and water a thousand miles distant. This mirage can, so fhr as has yet been ascertained, be only produced by petroleum and asphaltUra. AH that is necessary is thepossession on hoarcha Vessel of a few pounds 6f asplialtdm, 'with a ce.nser td burn it in, and a small hatteiy. to heat the wires by which it shonld be surrounded. By a machine invented by ’ifcr Gresham, the artificial fnirage is reproduced on tin. The instrument used for photographing the ‘objects seen in the mirage is called by the invent dt the “ phantasmograph,” Ond is-at present in a very crude form. He anticipates, however, that it will before long be brought to perfection, and that the marine insurance companies, when they realise its value, will only be too glad to, insist that all Vessels shall carry the necessary apparatus.” They will thus be cognizant of the whereabouts of the vessels upon which they have sold risks! At four ’o’clock precisely, on ,a ; clear afternoon, ’clouds Of carboniferous-smoke shall, Mr 'Gresham proposes, be sent up" from bhips at sea, the required information ias to names and so forth being previously marked in chalk in large letters On their , respective decks. Then the photographic instruments are set. One Vessel photographs the artificial mirage of another at the distance of perhaps inofe than 4000 miles, Md on arrival at port the "intelligence thus obtained 5s cOnveyed to those interested in the inatter.. .