NEW DEFENCE AGAINST SUBMARINES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 290, 17 May 1915, Page 3

NEW DEFENCE AGAINST SUBMARINES.

TlTfi STORY OF A REMARKABLE LW'IvXTION. About the middle, of December, 11)14,, there returned from abroad an American inventor, Professor T!. :A. Fessenden, who reported to his associates in the Submarine .Signal CcTmpany, of Boston, Massachusetts, that one of the (ireat European Powers, after thorough tests, had decided to equip several of its battleships, with the'Fessenden electric oscillator, an: instrument that promises to change the I conditions of naval warfare, especially' the relations of liattlesliips and suhmar- • ines (writes Cleveland Molfett, in the j American Magazine). lie announced, ; 'furthermore, that another Great Power ■was in active negotiation for this American imention, the prartical value of Which will probably lie demonstrated with startling cll'oct in some one of the iiiot distant sea battles. Not only will this electric oscillator be of 'immense importance in time of war, Ibut it bids fair to render still greater service in time of peace by insuring ships against collisions at sea, cither with one another or with icebergs. To put it siinplv, this Fessenden oscillator is a submarine sounding apparatus tlmt sends its signals through the water, not through the sir, one result being that t'hvse signals travel more swiftly than tlivy would tlrrough the air, .since sound move* tln'or-h water at the rate of 4-NKI livi-t a second, while through the air it moves at the rate of only VIOO feet a second. All seafaring m«ii know Mie uiilnistworth'iness of sound warnings sen! t'hrovgii the air from steam whistles or steam sirens, These warn-] ings are often unheard even at a very j short distance, say one mile or less, ow- ] ing to adverse wind conditions, or to disconcerting "holes in the air." or to mi favorable reflections or skipping* oftlie sound from (he water's surface. For thin reason submarine bells have for yea™ been used with excellent results on lightships and buoys, and to some extent on moving vessels, their warning being transmitted for miles through the water. In fact, it Has in trying to extend the usefulness of these submarine bells, especially in connection with ships, that Professor Fessenden evolved his present electric, oscillator, and solved the whole lii-ol.'em of protecting vessels from collisions at sea. His system of submarine sifiiHllii!'.' is really a kind of water wire. , less, dc-tined. perhaps, to as important .a dcvc.'op/c-nt as aerial wireless. .