A VALUABLE INVENTION.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 160, 3 March 1903, Page 5

A VALUABLE INVENTION.

Friday's New Zealand Times says : There was a representative gathering of shipmasters and shippiug people at the rooms of the Shipmasters' Association yesterday afternoon to see a trial of a working model of a patent automatic tide signalling device. Captain G. Allman, of the Manaroa, and Mr F. Clennell, chief engineer of that vessel, are the patentees. Mr Clennell manipulated the rise and fall of a diminutive sea, whilst Captain All man explained the working of the mechanism. A full -ized device, which is intended for harbour bars, would stand 15ft high, having a semaphore arm 4ft in length, moved automatically by a float attached to a shaft operating on the semaphore. The rise and fall of the tide would naturally raise or lower the float, which would consequently move the semaphore Figures are painted on an arc denoting the amount of water on the bar, and tin- semaphore moving up or down points to the number of feet of water. The figures could be seen two or three miles away. At night another apparatus is brought into play, by which a white light is shown at flood tide, and as the tide goes out the light is obscured. Those present at yesterday's trial were favorably impressed with the invention, which would be esp°cially suitable for such ports as Westport, Grey mouth and Motueka, and applicable to all tidal harbours. The estimated cost of a serviceable apparatus is LSO. It is intended to floit a syndicate to push the patent in all parts of the world. The inventors conceived the idea of the automatic tide signaller about three months ago, and patented the contrivance a month later.