Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1898-09-17
TIE MEGApHoNE IN WAR
II has Played n New and Important
Part in the Navy on the
Cuban Coast.

| ADN nav ~ an tNhR 'ANAAh a II 1 n
already a megaphone is regarded
almost a necessity on every ship. II
megaphones used in the navy are ma,
of a deep red coiored composition rive
ed together an have alighthandle NJ
an aluminium m~outhpiece. The stan
ard size is about two and a half fe.
long and about Is inches across Il
end Smaller craft and auXiliari,
carry only one, which is kept on Il
bridge, but the larger ships car
more. On the flagship New York thr,
are in almost constant use, one on II
bridge, II OF the signal bridge, al
one on the quarter deck.
Tie officer Of the deck uses the or
on the bridge. 1t takes the place {
the small, heavy speaking trumpt
which used to be the sign of that o
ticer's rank at sea, as a long glass wa
in port. Speaking trumpets were gel
orally the personal property Of the o
ficers who carried them, and we're
ten handsome. Sometimes they wer
made OF silver. They possessed Nv
advantages over megaphones of tn
present day, the chief n being tina
they were not so easily blown away i
a heavy wind. On a sailing vessel in
storm the unaided voice will not carr
from the quarter deck to the foremost
head, nor can it be heard to windwar
of a large sail. A speaking trumpet
easily slung across the shoulder, is al
ways at hand, and concentrates tn
voice sufficiently for It TO he heard al
over a small ship, while a megaphon'
would not be so handy and might b.
blown away easily.
The second advantage Of the ole
speaking trumpet also grows out of it.
size and convenience. The speaking
trumpet has always been used as a sor'
of gayel, and in consequence was gen
orally pretty well battered and dented
So also were the various pasts of the
ship adjacent to the standing place Of
the officer of the deck. An expert.
enced MAI with sharp eyes might
judge of how pleasant a ships voyage
had been by inspecting the speaking
trumpets on board of it as it came into
port, Obviously a megaphone viii not
stand such treatment, though some OF
them become mysteriously iammed
and twisted, as though an absent
minded officer had tried the same trick
them.
The utility of the speaking trumpet
in communication between vessels was
always limited, and it is because the
megaphone so far surpasses it in this
respect that il has achieved its sud
den popularity, About the first neces-
recognized on each of the news
paper dispatch boats was a mega
phone, and the eyigencies of the Key
West market suggested a tin mega.
phone as the best substitute for the
regular article. Some were made with
he old-fashioned oval mouthpieces
md some with none at all. These tin
megaphones have, most of them, re-
excellent care, and most of
them bid fair to last the wal out.
To use a megaphmone artiStically
and effectively is not nearly so easy as
t looks. One who has heard a train
Dad Of college rooters at a boat race
roar their college yells through mega
phones at the struggling crew of an
'%ight-oared shell knows pretty well
the power of the voice is magni-
led by the use of a mcgaphone, but
probably the best Illustration of its
Use in the navy has occurred to the re-
and crews of the newspaper
in the vicinity of Havana when
he blockade was first established
here. A boat would be lying to, pre-
umably about five miles from the
The night would be calm and
ark and still, when suddenly one
would feel as though enveloped by a
dice. 1t wonld he n voice no, 70 no
ecognized-a harsh. vibrating voica
omething like the below of an angry
.nimal, yet speaking the English Ian
with r]emarkabls and stortIinn
.is,inctuess.
what shin is tbotq. would be tbo
all, given in a manner 10 command
instant attention and rrofornd ra
pect.
II world xsam 40 +oLo