PROFESSOR HOLMES’ SIRES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 37, 11 January 1884, Page 3

PROFESSOR HOLMES’ SIRES.

The Zuider Zee was recently iiit .*’ ! rne of a very interesting, and in some respects rather amusing experiment, Two steam vessels—the one the Swalaw, belonging to the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company, the other the Hollahaie —wisre each fitted with one of Professor Holmes’ Siren fog-horns, which, though well known in our own navy, have only up to the present time been usfed by the Dutch Government for lighthouse fog-signals. The object of the experiments was to afce*’tain if a small apparatus operated by steam could advantageously be used at sea for signalling oil the Morse system of dot and dash. The two vessels left Rotterdam at 10 o’clock, and created mtfch excitement by occasionally sending forth Home rtf the sonorous noW which the Siren produces After pur-hing through the and entering' the Zuder Zee, the smaller of the two ships ceased steaming, whilst the larger put out to sea. Telegraph clerks wf?‘e' employed to manipulate the apparatu , dmlcfthougii ths distance eventually becan o so great that .each, vessel was invisible to thosw* on board thX other; yet thf signals reached the ear distinctly; ana were at read oft and understood, • The unitshal and unexpected sounds caused the of fth outward-bound steamer, the Willem ID., to imagine the Hwalaw was in dishesa, and to hasten to its cssistanco. Upon getting alongside and lotunfr.g the cause, he expressed his disgust and sailed away at full-speed. After some five hours’ experiments at distances varying from one to five miles, the signal “ Come to u.4 ’’ wtts given from the Bwalaw, to which the Hollandifi replied “We come,’’ and soon was seen steaming tdvfrttvds her consort. The trials were in every way sittipfactory, and demonstrated the possibility of drit vessel communicating intelligence to another at sea, although separated by a considerable distance; an advantage it is difficult to overrate: