REMARKABLE DEVICE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 166, 30 November 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE DEVICE

FOR SAFETY OF SHIPS. Considerable interest has been aroused in Liverpool (says the Daily Mail) by a demonstration of the working of ail invention for use in ships, particularly in time of fog, to show the direction of sounds such as those' of the sirens of other ships. The apparatus, which is the invention of two brothers named Ilodgkinson, consists of a "drum" to receive the sound waves and an indicator. The "drum," which is Oft by sft, is placed aloft, where it cannot be affected by Bound on the deck, and it is connected electrically with the. indicator, which is placed in such a position that it can readily be seen by the ship's officer on duty. The receiver consists of a number of units, each of which receives sound waves from a particular direction. Though sensitive to sound waves, they are not affected by ordinary mechanical vibrations. l!y means of an electrical device, a sound wave from a particular direction causes an electrical lamp in a particular position on the indicator to light. The p. isition of the lighted lamp shows the position that the, ship whose siren is sounding occupies with regard to the ship which carries the apparatus. The lamp remains alight until seen by an ollicer on duty, who can then switch it off. If the other vessel is moving different lamps light in succession, showing the vessel's course. It is claimed that the apparatus indicates the direction in which a vessel blowing a fog horn is travelling—whether she is going ahead, astern, or on either side. If there are several ships in the vicinity, the recording lights from any of them can be shut off until the position of the others lias been observed, Exhaustive U'sts, extending over eight days, have been made on the Mersey in misty and windy weather. The sounds made by the foghorns of steamships and the whistles of railwav engine were recorded.