The Portland daily press., 1892-04-08
WHAT ONE WOMAN HAS DONE.
The Invention of the Signal Lights That
are Used at Sea and on the Coast.


are Used at Sea and on the Coast.
Almost everybody in Washington rec
ognizes the noticeable figure and face of
Mrs. Martha J. Coston whenever she APP
pears in public places. She has had re-
markable career, and her name is known
in many countries. She was a Maryland
lass when she met and was wooed by
Benjamin Franklin Coston, an officer of
the marines, and an inventor, who had
charge of the laboratory of the Navy
Yard here, and invented a number of ap-
pliances now in use by the Navy Depart
ment, among them being the attachment
on the Dahlgren gun for firing it. When
ordered elsewhere Mr.. Coston persuaded
his schoolgirl love to marry him. She
consented, and the ceremony was per-
formed secretly. The fact did not, how
ever, remsin long unknown, for a few
weeks afterward, coming down to her
breakfast one morning, the schoolgirl
wife found large envelope on her plate
that bore the address, MRS. B. F. Cos
ton." In some way it had been intimat-
ed to Mr.. Coston that the secret of the
marriage had been discovered and he
fastened to acknowledge it. Of course
there was some disturbance in the family
but it was quiete0, and at sixteen years of
age Mrs. Coston omitted her school to live
with her husband.
Four years later Mrs. Coston became a
widow with three little children and only
her brains and hands to provide for them
and herself. Mr.. Coston had left a num-
Der of unprotected inventions, all of
which he had talked over and discussed
with his young wife. With some of them
she experimental, but with none of them
was she successful. A small, myster, Gus
box had been nailed up and stored away
and toward it Mrs. Coston was attracted
so unusually one day that she opened it.
It contained only the the results of some
preliminary experiments in the product
ION of signals to be used at night, but the
idea was there for some continuance that
would be useful to mankind. With pa
tience and downright toll she sought to
perfect the idea. She had the good sense
to know that the secret worked out sue
cessfully would not only yield a result
that would be of incalculable value to
fortune for herself and her children. The
secrets in the pursuit Of which she was
SO eager were revealed to her in the
course of time, and, as many things are
likely to be, they were very simple.
The signals known the world over as
the s'Coston Signals consist of only
three colored ights-white, red, and
green. Mrs. Coston's patriotism made
her long to have the third color blue, in
stead of green, forming, with the other
two the national colors; but blue is not a
color that can be discerned distinctly at
any considerable distance, while green is
perceptible as far as the light can be seen
At sea the use of them is invaluable, es-
pecially in time of danger or disaster.
The colors, shown in well-defined combi-
nations. indicate the numerals, and an in
definite number OF messages may be con-
veyed by the use of them. The perfect
ed system has book, printed in the Ian
guage Of all seafaring people, containing
combinations of numerals set opposite
the sentence conveying the Information
to be sent.
Mrs. Coston brought her invention to
the notice of the government and sue
ceeded in having it adopted. The sig
mails were of great value and were used
during the war. Distinguished military
and naval commanders have written to
Mrs. Coston, mplimenting and congrat-
ulating her On her genius and good for
tune, and attributing their success in en-
gagements to the use of her signals.
They are used also in other departments
of the government, notably in the Life
Saving Service, and have been the means
of saving many hundreds of lives and
many hundreds of thousands of dollars
Conscious of possessing an invention
of value Mrs Coston took it to Europe.S
The story of her ten years life abroad is
more like romance than a realty. She
was presented at the English court, at
the French court, it being in the time of
Napoleon III and Eugene, and at the
German court, and she received the most
gracious attentions from royalty in Rus
STA, Austria, Italy and Sweden. Her sig
nails were adopted by the French, Italian,
Spanish, and Austrian governments.
A romance that was tinged strongly
with melancholy marked Mrs. Coston's
career abroad. While in Italy she be-
came engaged to the Count Piccolomini,
a member of one of the noblest old fami-
lies of the country. He was very
wealthy bachelor, with numerous train
of dependant relatives, who were waiting
for him to die One evening after the
Count had visited Mrs. Coston he was
apparently, in the enjoyment of the most
robust health. The next morning he was
dead. The German physician who was
called in, when too late, to attend the
Count, when asked what was the matter
with him, only shrugged his shoulders
and replied that it had better not be
asked.
On most commanding site in the
northwestern part of this city Mrs. Cos
L +l.e4 1,,r.lf
about quarter of century ago by Gen.
O. o. Howard, but she spends most of
her time in New York or Staten Island,
where one of her sons lives. She is well
to do, but she is full of thrift, diligence,
and business, and her personal qualities
make her welcome in the highest circles
there.
For pyug'j1o senilis that eruptive aflictiOn of