Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-12-12
THINK-TANK FOR SHIPS.
The Solarometer Figures Out Prob
lens Just Like Sea
Captain.

Englands crack transatlantic flyer,
Campania, on her next trip out from New
York, will carry an American invention
which, according to the World, will, to
a large extent, simplify the intricate prob
lem of determining a vessels position
at sea. The instrument, patented lately
in all maritime countries, is the inven-
ton of Lieut. Beehler, of the hydrograph-
ic office at Washington. He has given
to it the distinctive name of solarometer.
The advantages he claims for it, If borne
out by actual experience, will give the
new invention precedence over the time
honored seXtant. In explaining his in
strument the lieutenant calls attention
to the unreliability of compasses aboard
iron or steel ships. A metal ship with
affected cOmpaSseS is liable at q time
when all hands think there is sea room
enough to go piling hard and fast ashore.
With this invention of Lieut.. Beehler's it
is possible at all times to determine the
error In the compass. A great point is
It's freedom from the necessity of having
absolute observations of the sun. When
the sun is obscured for days at a time
the ship master has to depend upon a
dead reckoning, in many cases productive
of disaster. 1t is seldom that twenty
four hours pass by without either some
star or the sun showing ITSELF and, al
though it is difficult matter to take an
observation from a star with q SeXtant
1t Is perfectly easy to do so with the
SOlarometer.
In appearance the solarometer is more
like skeleton baseball than anything
else. 1t rests upon a stand of cast-iron
about 30 inches in diameter and 4 feet
high. On top OF this stand there is large
cast-iron bowl, balanced on knife edges
resting on a stel ring. Dramatically oppo-
site to the knife edges on the bowl there
are knife edges on a steel ring, which rest
on stand, forming what is known as a
glmbal, device used in keeping nautical
instruments mOtionless and horizontal
while the ship is pitching and rolling. The
cast-lron bowl is weighted at the bottom
to make it swing like a pendulum, and in
side the hemisphere, resting upon a float
ing stand is the instrument proper The
float is made in two parts and consists OF
two bowls, concentric hemispheres. The
inner bowl is filled with lead, from which
rises steel column holding the solarome-
ter. The base of the bowl is fiat, parallel
to the horizontal plane passing through the
top of the bowl, and at the center of the
bottom there is a ball and socket joint
which holds the two bowls together. Annu-
lar grooves are cut into both bowls to keep
them from booking, after the same theory
as bilge keels, and both bowls float in mer-
curry. The weight of the inner bowl
filled with lead, determines the amount of
mercury required between the inner and
outer floating bowls. The float is entirely
independent of the outer BOWL the mercury
alone holding it suspended The instru-
ment consists of a series of concentric
rings representing circles of the nautical
astronomical triangle.
The principle upon which the instrument
works is that it is at a certain moment
fixed at the intersection of two circles, one
passing through the poles, the other
through the observers zenith. No elabo-
rata calculations are necessary-the instru-
ment does all the thinking.