WAR ON ICEBERGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 769, 16 September 1929, Page 14

WAR ON ICEBERGS

NEW SAFETY FIRST PLANS TO CLEAR SEA LANES An expedition, whose mission is to destroy icebergs, headed down the St. Lawrence River recently in the 76ft ketch Uvlra for the Straits of Belle Isle, between the North of Newfoundland and the mainland of Labrador. Mr. R. B. Vanhorne, son of one of the founders of the Canadian Pacific, lead the party, which included Dr. H. B. Faber, the inventor and chemist, of New York, and Dr. Howard T. Barnes, of the McGill University, Montreal. It is gathered that tests will be made with flares shot far ahead from a gun, and recorded, as they go, on a photographic plate—which it is hoped will reveal the silhouette of any iceberg on the course. By shooting small flares, supported by parachutes, in the immediate vicinity, it is expected that liners will be enabled to proceed at full speed and still avoid bergs. Further experiments will be made with infra-red-ray producing mechanism developed by Dr. Faber and Dr. Barnes, which is said to be calculated to reveal outlines of bergs through dense fog, when the flare apparatus would be useless. Then, too, the scientists will try out a microphone detection method, in an effort to pick up the distinctive sound of air escaping from the under side of an iceberg. Finally, a powerful explosive, which is designed to shatter large bergs, is also to be tested. This is “Therit,” a mixture containing aluminium and iron oxide, which, exploding at a temperature of about 3,000 centigrade, gives off a gas capable theoretically of splintering a berg Into fragments.