A BUSHMAN'S AID TO SEAMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 February 1919, Page 7

A BUSHMAN'S AID TO SEAMEN.

A TARANAKI PATENT. A bush farm in the interior of Taranald is hardly the sort of place in which anyone would expect to find an inventor of any kind of nautical appliance, but as our allies, the French, have it: "H: is the unexpected that happens," a case in point being that of Mr F Bracegirdle, one Of the pioneers of Kaimata. a more than 40 years resident of Moa district, who has invented and patented an improved apparatus for severing mine cables The value of such an apparatus will be better appreciated when vt is explained that the mines laid by an enemy explode only by contact, and if left singly would be of no effect, for the wave caused by a moving ship would thrust such away from its side, but when the mines are connected by cable and secured so as to float within a fathom or thereabouts of the surface of 'the sea they are truly dangerous. The oncoming ship catches the cable on her prow, giving little or no indication of having done so, and as she thrusts her wlay forward the Coupled mines are drawn against her sides, exploded by the contact and so an end to the vessel, often with loss of valuable lives, us witness the destruction of the Wmimera off our northern coast not so »'ery long ago. If, therefore, vessels that have to traverse sea areas where mines have been laid can be fitted with an apparatus which will at once sever the coupling, the advantage is ob»ioiis. «nd that is exactly what this appliance is calculated to do. Though Mr Bracegirdle has been so long a bushman and he, In his younger days, was certainly one in the front rank of them, he still has warm sympathy with all "who go down to the Bea in ships." He says it runs in the blood, and he should know, Tor h f , hails from Grimsby, and as a youth had more than just a taste of the brine of the grim North Sea. Anyhow, be that as it may, the constantly recurring reports of British vessels mined and lives lost by the Huns' devices awoke within him a desire to frustrate their designs for frightfulness of this sort, and after much thought he evolved the contrivance he has now patented; the model of winch, together, of course, with all details 'necessary, is now on its way to Britain to be submitted to the Admiralty authorities for their consideration. " This has been done at the urgent recommendation of Sir James Allen, Defence Minister, and heartily supported by Captain Hall Thompson, the New Zealand Government's Naval Adviser, who were so impressed with the value of the ap pliance that they persuaded Mr Bracegirdle to consent to this step being taken, and it is a sure thing that all who know the inventor will hope that m due course this child of his brain may be accepted and adopted by the power* who control such matters', though he himself says he can hardly bring himself to hope that such will be the case The device, now it is completed, seems to him so simple that he finds it difficult to believe that his idea has not been lorestalled by some amongst the vast number of men so fertile in resource as tndse whose calling in the navies of the world has brought them into close contact with these devils of the dee'p.and whose opportunities for designing a .satisfactory means of discounting their menace must, one would, think, be very much greater than, his own. Howevei he says: "There it is. If it is approved, good. If it has been forestalled I can't help it; no harm done anyway" -TAHI HERENI