The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-11-10
From the Kansas City Star.

dudpteu lot ming. Iney VIII SNOW. inc
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, he 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.
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
science of navigation, is a recording COM
pass, the work of an American, Carl Lud-
wig, Jaeger, a resident of haywood, Ber-
gen county, N. j.
The machine is the result of fifteen
years of experimenting, and it is but a few
months ago hat complete practicability
was obtained and a full course of success
full experiments conducted. Within the last
fortnight only was the slightest public hint
of the final achievement given, and then by
Jaeger himself at a 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 1t 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 have 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 have some friction so Mr.. Jaeger
in the beginning of his experiments turned
to electricity, in which there is no friction
In such an application.
His first machine made a commas record
and was exhibited at the Chicago worlds
fair, where 1t was practically sold to the
representatives of the Russian govern
ment. Before the deal was closed Mr..
Jaeger returned one day to his exhibit to
find 1T surrounded with a guard of Rus
SLAMS, within whose Gordon were local and
visiting Russian officials, two 1raughts-
men taking notes and two photographers
who We're taking photographs of separate
parts of his instrument. He entered a
protest, but was outnumbered until he
secured a detachment of guards, thu the
Russians apologized, folded up their para
phernalia n moved away, saying they
meant to properly compensate him, that
he would have been certain Of a decoration
Of some high Russian order. He observed
that, strictly speaking, all the decorations
in the empire were not worth three deep
chested hurrahs In a warmer climate to
him from the American point of view.
That first machine, though a working
success, was so narrow in scope and crude
In construction compared with his ideal
that he withdrew 1t from display and be-
gan on a 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, but, 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 ramifications OF the machine extend
to every part of the ship from the bridge
house to the engine room, from the side.
lights to the taffrail log, yet the vitals of
1t, located in the steering room, are ex-
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.
h principle by which each direction OF
the needle is recorded Is the Gig 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. IL at noon the
ship is headed due east the noon line ON
the chart will point due east and coincide
with a radial duc 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
1t crosses the east line. Should the ship
turn south, the spark will perforate the
1901 line, which has in the minute been
revolved over the radiali conductor, at two
inches from the center, for then the spiral
will cross the radial conductor at the south
line.
Should the ship then continue south for
twenty-four hours, a row of tiny perfora-
tons will follow the south line the entire
circle around the chart. Beyond the circle
of the north line are other lines on spaces,
in which sparks will put perforations every
second the whistle is blowing, every knot
or quarter knot that the log registers and
every thousand or ten thousand reyolu-
lions the engines make.
Tn DISC Of the chart revolves by a
mechanism that Is electrical and is con-
trolled and adjusted by and to the 3chro-
nometer. The chart can be made to regis-
tor an hour. a watch or q whole day. For
the mechanism which would allow the
chronometer to control the chart revolu-d
ton, without interfering with In chrome
meter. Mr.. Jaeger was compelled to invent
what he calls an ~.'irQnclal,, magnet. Not