Electrical Projects For Rendering Ocean Travel Safe.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2021, 20 June 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Electrical Projects For Rendering Ocean Travel Safe.

Imiij, aro two eluUncil piojeets under conBHkr.Uion jUt row wmicm, judging frcra paHt oxpi ujripiM, nuy not unreuaonftbly be looked to for u^tioni <hin,; i'iautical reaultn in the iuturo. Tho firrt is baaed upon u disco vory in part due to Vi'ata^ot Graham U'_ll, thus ve-~ela on tho hi^.h eoai mfty hold telephonic communication with ono another without connecting wires, and the other project has reiereuce to a oham of light bhipa stretched across the Atlantic and communicating with both Ainorioa and Europe by means of a cablo. In accordanco with scriptural law, tho first shall bo considered last and the last first. Tbe project of lighting the Atlantic, or rather of lighting the steam lane botween America and Europe, may bo said to bo founded upon two undisputed possibilities, i.e., that a light ship will he at anchor in a heavy soa without protection, sad that cleotrical communication may zeadily be maintained between tho two continents. It ia proposed to utilise theee already aeoertained faots, by not only marking out the track across tho ocean, but affording at short intervals a safe refuse for tho p&ssengora and crewfl of disabled vessels, aad a means of keeping the great fleet continually strung along thia lane in daily communication with the shore. The line of light vessels would extend due east from the Banks of Newfoundland to the Irish coast ; the vessels, ten in number, being dht&ut tho ono from the other two hundred miles. Each of these vessels would ride behind a mushroom anchor, which permits of a vessel's swinging to her anchor when the tide serves without fouling it. Many a light ship, as we know, xideu aafely in as heavy seas aa can be found on the broad ocean, beside taking their ohancos of going ashore on & rock-bound coast or drifting upon such deathdealing Hands bh Nantucket shoals and the like. Ho far as the extra length of cable required for these ocean light ships ia concerned, there need be no fear for a light oable has been devised which permits of a ship's anchoring with two or three miles of water under her. In accordance with tbe plan devised these light ships should ba eleotrioally oonnected with a trans-Ailantio cable, buoyed to the surface in their vicinity no as not to run the risk of being fouled by their anchors. In case a light vessel should break adrift, as light vessels will at times do, the oable should be cast off and connected up again when the ohip has regained its proper position. Let us see now what results might be looked for in the establishment of such a service. As is well known, the dangers of navigation during thick or foggy weather are as great now as they were a century or more ago. Marino architecture has been aa good aa revolutionised with the last two decades, the chances of disaster from fire and sinking naving been greatly diminished, but the chances of collision have not been lessoned. Indeed the fact that great cumbersome steamships now dot the ocean, vessels that cannot be quickly turned, has served to make the danger or collision greater now than before. Innumerable sjatema ol nignailing buro been devised and considered, but none have as yet been adopted, bsoause none have been found which oombined simplicity with efficiency, and the old and unreliable one is still in force which requires sailing vessels to sound horn* in thick weather and steamers to go at half epeea and blow their whistles. The result is that, though the master of the vessel to leeward knowa that another vessel is advancing toward him, he cannot always telHrom what direction unless the wind it blowing directly from that advancing ship to bin. Hence theio is at all timos a ohanco of disaster from collision, to say nothing of broken BhaflH, fires and the like on tbe steamers and other and various descriptions of aooidents on Bailing vessels. Now, with the chain of lif.'ht vossela as devised, there would at oil times be a straight lino of lights marking the shortest route aoross, and steamers, in order to avoid aollision with each other, could leave this line on the port hand, sailing both east and west. Such a line would not be open to the same objection an has been urged against the so-called steamer lanes, because it would bo bo sharply defined as not to compel a veusol to go a long distance out of her course. As the light vessels would ba numbered for identification by day, and carry lights differing the one from tho other at night, such aa Bteady lights, rovolving lights, ono second flash, minute flash, and the like, they could bo readily identified at night. 3?or steamers this would insure the ex tot determination of their position in thick weather when the sun, moon, and stars were visible. For sailing vessels working against head winds, such known points would, of course, bo invaluable, for the exact latitude and longitude of each light ship would be marked off on all ocean charts, and Railing vessels that had been beaten about by stress of weather could, when it cleared up, take a now and certain departure from one of these light ships. Being only two hundred miles apart, no ship following thetr alignment could be more that one hundred miles away from a point of communication with the shore, or a point of refuge for passengers or crew, should disaster befall. The progress of eaoh ship as it was sighted and signalled, should be recorded daily at the expense of the company tbat owned her, and in easo of disabled ships, the nature of the accident could be signalled before the continued absence had caused any alarm. As it is now, the friends and relatives of passengers in a disabled ship must often wait for weeks before intelligence comes, and in the meantime knows not if tho vessel is lost or proceeding under sail by reason of accident to her machinery. In giving the position of stray icebergs and telegraphing approaching storms, the services of suoh a line would be likely to prove invaluable to the mariner. Taking up now the project of telephoning between ships traversing the high seas, the rcHults already obtained show that it is far from chimerical. Professor Bell has actually carried on a conversation in deep water between two boats, a mile and a quarter distant from eaoh other, both vessels being under weigh and having no wire connection between them. From one of the boats one of the two terminals of a telephone was suspended over the bow, and the other allowed to trail over the stern. In the other boat there was a muoh similar arrangement, except that instead of a telephone it had aboard an eleotric battery and an apparatus for interrupting the current quickly ; that is to say, at about the rate of one hundred times a second. As soon as the eleotrio battery was put into connection with the water the latter became charged with electricity and only oeased to be that condition when the circuit was interrupted, and this always resulted in tho reception of a musical note that could be distinctly heard in the boat at a distance. When the interesting fact became apparent that a musical note could bo transmitted through the water at the will of tho operator, the project of telephoning botween ships seemed as good as feasible, because then it was only a question of making a code of telephonio signals. Professor Morse, as we know, first discovered that he could transmit a meohanioal movement to a distance, electrically and then set to work to utilise this movement in making dots and dashes, of which his entire alphabet is composed. In like manner Professor Bell, when he found that, by interrupting the eleotrio current connecting two ships, he oould projeot a muiical note across the intervening space, readily composed a code of electrical signals by which every lotter in the alphabet could be denoted, and thus transmitted messages by sound. As said before, this interesting and important disoovery is not to be credited in its entirety to Professor Graham Bell. The original investigation whioh made this soheme practicable was made by Professor Trow, bridge, of Harvard University, for it was he and not Professor Bell who first had the idea of a galvanometer instead of a telephone, and it was Professor Trowbridge also who suggested tho use of a dynamo eleotrio machine for charging the water. As a matter of fact nearly all the large steamers— passenger steameri — carry dynamo eleotrio maohinei to generate

electricity for their electric lights. Now, in thiok or foggy woather— on the dangerous banks of Newfoundland it itf nearly always thiok or foggy— theso dynamos coula be connected with tho water and the telephones be placed in tho position already described. Then tw Eoon aa sbipa came in dangerous proximity an olectrio alarm signal would be given, the engines could be stopped, the relative positions of the two ships and the directions of their ooaraea could bo ascertained, after which they might proceed in safety. As may be inferred from what was Raid above, if we judge from past experience with electrical projects in their incipiency, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the discovery, as so far developed, is only the germ of a something which in time and with continued investigation will lead to results the importance of which we oan now scarcely form an idea of. Indeed, in time, that part of the discovery which relates to electrical communication between ships on the high seas may prove tho least important of a series of other discoveries founded upon tho same principle. Brooklyn Eagle.