Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-01
ANNIHILATING VAP0R.
1t Will BE Dispersed by Application
of an Electrical Force.
DENSE FOGS CAN BE SCATTERED.
A Pittsburg Inventor Dissipates the Super
saturation Theory.
NAVIGATION WILL BE MADE MORE SAFE

NEW YORK, March 31.-A wide-awake
inventor has discovered a means of over
coming fog The fog has always been the
greatest enemy of the mariner, the one
which he has never been able to control. It
makes the huge steamship as helpless as
dory. It is the one element of danger in
ocean voyages with which human ingenuity
has thus far been unable to cope.
This inventor is now in New York per-
fecting the details. Experiments were
made last week at Sandy Hook and have
been made in Boston harbor. These were
conducted with the greatest secrecy because
the application for patients has not yet
been filed at Washington. The result of
these.experiments was perfectly satisfactory,
and if this be thoroughly demonstrated there
are big fortunes in the scheme.
The man representing the business end Of
the fog annihilator is NJ. E. johnson. He
inherited large sum of money and has
turned it to good account His home was
in Pittsburg. For many years, however, hS
has been bird of passage.
Force In an Electrical Discharge.
He has spent much of his time in London
and returned to this country only three
months ago. While in New York he stays
at the Murray Hill Hotel Mr.. johnson
has been interested in a number of inven-
tions. He made large sum OF money out
of a chemical refrigerator among other
things. The inventor is man who keeps
altogether in the background Mr. John
son, however, described the result of the
experiments
electrical discharge. The effect is in direct
ratio to the intensity of the fog; that is, the
denser the fog the more easily it is affected
by discharge. The consequence is that with
dense Jog larger area can be cleared with
the release of the same amount of energy.
There is no electric spark to be seen, and no
detonation or explosion accompanies the
discharge" Continuing, he said:
The largest area we have been able to
practically clear by one discharge has been
approximately 150 feet in every direction
from the site of the discharge. This was
done in Boston harbor. With greater energy,
steamships, many times that area can bS
cleared.
Fog Will Fall in the Form of Rain.
The fog falls in the form of rain. The ae
mosphere of the cleared area is exceedingly
clear, just as 1t is after shower in summer.
The period of absolute absence from fog is
merely momentary in duration. The fog
Immediately begins to form again and to
drift in from surrounding areas. This takes
place rapidly that within five minutes
the original condition prevails. In our ex-
periments in Boston Harbor, seven minutes
elapsed before the fog reformed. 1t is, of
course, impossible to obliterate the fog, but
by succession of discharges at intervals of
two minutes it keeps the area l have re-
ferred to practically clear. Therefore, in
the immediate neighborhood of the particu-
lar steamer from which the discharges are
made. no fog exists.
Now, in order to understand this new dis
covery, it is necessary to know something
about fogs. fog IS body of aqueous
vapor in the atmosphere, like clouds, but
tion and its manner of formation. A large
class of clouds result from the diminution
of temperature produced by the elevation
and expansion OF moist air, and a small
class is due rather to the cooling of the air
by radiation in a horizontal direction to
bodies of cooler air; while again, very i'm
portant class arise from the radiation of
heat vertically into the cold interstellar
regions. To these simple causes must also
be attributed the formation of q large class
of fogs.
On the other hand. the peculiar feature in
the origin of a number and especially of the
heaviest fogs Is that the moist air radiates
Its heat downward to comparatively cold
body of either water, earth or air. The
former case occurs when the earth, after q
period of low temperature, becomes very
cold, and the winds watt warm, moist air
over the cold regions, while the small con-
Quoting power of the earth, ice or snow
does not allow its surface to at once adjust
itself to the change in temperature.