THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1907. OVERCOMING FOG.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8385, 20 March 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1907. OVERCOMING FOG.

A most important invention to safeguard mariners is finding its way to favour. This is the method of submarine signalling patented by an American by which the sound of a bell on a buoy near the shore, or on a vessel, is communicated to an approaching vessel. Suppose a vessel fitted with the apparatus is approaching a coast where there is a patent buoy, in a fog. The apparatus on the vessel consists of a microphone in a tank of special solution, attached to the inside of the ship below the water-line. A wire extends from the . microphone to the wheel-house, and ends in a telephone receiver. There are two sets of apparatus, one on each side of the vessel, and the navigator tails by a*n indicator from which set the sound is coming. As the ship approaches the buoy the notes of the bell are transmitted . through the sea to the microphones, and the navigator, listening above, can tell by the difference in the volume of sound from the instruments, whether the 'danger is on the port or the starboard side. If the sound from the instruments is the same, the danger is straight ahead. A bell rung in a ( tank of water in'the fore-peak of a ship will transmit notes to the ships in the neighbourhood. The notes di a submerged bell have been detected sixteen miles away. The Admiralty experimented with the invention last year with most satisfactory results. It was clearly demonstrated that at a distance of five miles the submarine bell could

be heard, and its distance located i with certainty. This is a distance beyond the certain range of any aerial sound signals in use by light-vessels in fog. The officers who conducted the trials reported that if light-ves-sels round the coast were fitted with submarine bells, it would be'possible i for ships fitted with receiving apparatus to navigate in fog with almost ( as great certainty as in clear weather. "The fog signals at present in use in light-ships in Great Britain," y they say, "cannot be depended on to be heard in all conditions, even at one or two miles distance; and a vessel failing to make the fog signal may be in a safe course, and in her ; estimated position, yet sh3 must stop, or anchor, or altar her course out, because she is uncertain." Even when a vessel has not the apparatus, a man can hear the bell by going below to the water-line, and applying his ear to the side of the vessel. The usefulness of the invention to navigators on the New Zealand coast is obvious.