The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-11-10
THE new ELECTRIC
RECORDING COMPASS
The Navigator's Dream OF
Many Years at Last
Realized.
TELLS THE WHOLE STORY
Carl Ludwig Jaeger Has Invented an
Automatic Log That Records
Every Movement of
Ship. .
TELLS THE WHOLE STORY


Ship. Z.
From the Kansas City Star.
Steam stole something of romance from
feafarirs life. and now another stride of
scicVce has brought near extinction the
ancient custom of keeping the log of the
voyage. 1t is all to be done by machinery
instead OF the navigating officers pen on
the log book. The burning finger of an
electric spark will write on a circular chart
the complete history of the ships behavior
during each twenty-four hours and record
it without error. -
In the future there will never be a uues-
tion as to whether another Brooklyn made
certain evolutions in another Santiago;
no other burgoyne controversy as to sig
mails before the collision can occur; no
naval officers will be undcservedly dis
graced. as in the British Pacific squadron.
over matters of relative speed and course
before going aground. In the place of the
official navigating officers and engineers
log books there will be a neat little pile
of charts. which do not even need tram
scription to a book record. being perfectly
adapted for fling. They will show the
direction Of the vessel at every given min
ute of the voyage. the speed, with any
VIBRATIONS: the stops. the reversals. the
signals of the whistle. the number of
revolutions of the engines and the con-
dition of the sea being traversed. With
such charts no dead reckoning can have an
element of uncertainty worthy of the
name. IS
The invention which has made these
things possible, and which is pronounced
by experts at home and abroad to be the
greatest advance of the century in the
Scinprp of n "a viyrptio ic 81 rn.prlipp nm
pass, the work Of an American, Carl i.ud-
wig, Jeager, a resident of haywood. Der
gen county, N. j.
The machine is the result of hftecn
years of experimenting, and it is but a few
months ago that complete practicability
was obtained and Il full course of success
ful experiments conducted. Within the last
fortnight only WAS the slightest public hin
of the linal achievement given. and then by
Jaeger himself at Il dinner Of engineers at
the Holland house in New York.
Many Experiments.
The result obtained has been sought for
in many ways by other inventors. An
Austrian had a complicated system that
worked successfully by taking rapid pho
tographS OF the compass, save that it was
too cumbersome and expensive. 1t is not
difficult to record anything in the ships
history except the movements of the com
pass. and there inventors rave been
blocked by the fact that there could be
no FRACTIONAL interference with the needle.
The most delicate machine for taking
tracings or receiving Impressions was GER
tain TO LAY some friction so Mir. Jaeger
in the beginning of his experiments turned
to electricity. in which there is no friction
in such an application.
His first machine made Il compass record
and vas exhibited at the Chicago worlds
fair, where it was practically sold to the
representatives of the Russian govern
ment. Before the deal was closed Mr..
Jaeger returned one day to his Xhibit to
find it surrounded with a guard of Rus
slams. within whose Gordon We're local and
visiting Russian officials, two draughts-
men taking notes and two photographers
who were taking photographs of separate
parts of his instrument. He entered Il
protest. but was outnumbered until he
secured a detachment of guards. then the
Russians apologized, folded up their para
phernalia and moved away, saying they
meant TO properly compensate him., that
he would have been certain of Il decoration
or some high Russian ordcr. He observed
that. strictly speaking, all the decorations
In the empire We're not worth three deep
chested hurrahs in d warmer climate to
him from the American point of view.
mat first machine, though a working
success. was so narrow in scope and crude
III Jill llO compared i liS c
that he withdrew it from display and be-
gan on q second, which when finished was
not even shown, as experience with the
first had taught him a lesson. 1t was tried
with marked success on cruisers in west
ern Atlantic waters. bur, still not satisfied,
he began the evolution of a third principle,
going from a strip record to a circular
chart. and after years of patient expert
ment in his laboratory in Mulberry street,
near Spring. New York city. he produced
the highly finished instrument that fills
all requirements.
The qualifications OF the machine extend
TO every part of the ship from the bridge
house to the engine room. from the side
lights to the ~tafrail log. yet the vitals OF
it, located in the steering room, are cx-
ceedingly compact and installed in two
sections, the compass with its chart disc
and attachments and the switchboard and
its devices.
Tells the Whole Story.
The principle by which each direction of
the needle is recorded Is the height of
ingenuity. An aluminium spiral of one coil
is attached to the needle, fastened at the
pivot and the north pole of the needle.
Say the diameter of the compass card is
eight inches, the spiral curves out until
on the line pointing east it is one inch
from the center. on a line pointing south
two inches, on a line pointing west three
inches and on the north line four inches,
or the tip of the needle. If at noon the
ship is headed due east the noon line on
the chart will point due east and coincide
with a radial conductor which lies under
the chart and points the ships direction.
The spiral will cross the radial conductor
three inches from the center of the chart,
and a tiny spark leaping from the spiral
to the radial conductor will perforate the
paper of the chart at the noon line where
it crosses the east line. Should the ship
turn south, the spark will perforatc the
1901 line. which has in the minute been
revolNed over the radial conductor, at two
inches from the center, for then the spiral
will cross the radial conductor at the south
line.
Should the ship then continuessputh for
twcnty-four hours, a row of tiny perfora-
tons will follow the south line the entire
circle around tho: chart. Beyond the circle
of the north line are other lines on spaces,
in which sparks viii put perforations every
second the whistle is blowing. every knot
or quarter knot that the log registers and
every thousand or ten. thousand revolu-
tons the engines make.
The disc of the chart revolves by a
mechanism that is electrical and Is coll
trolled and adjusted by and to the chro.
noMeter. The chart can be made to regis
ter an hour, a watch or a whole day. Fol