Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-06

l l A system of submarine signaling
 which, according to the officers of the 1 North German Lloyd liner Kaiser Will l helm der Crosse, which recently ar
 rived at New York, is destined greatly
 to minimize the dangers of fog and l mist to ocean liners when they are , nearing shore has been fitted to the l three great North German liners-Kai- !. ser Wilhelm H., Kronprinz Wilhelm l and Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse-says ! the New York Times. The apparatus,
 which the Kaiser Wilhelm officers de- clare has proved complete success, | consists of small tank filled with a
 special solution of greater density than
 water, which is attached to the inner I skin of the liners hull and which con- ! tains microphone or transmitter. l From the microphone wire extends | to the bridge where the officer on duty with an ordinary receiver is enabled i to hear distinctly submarine bells at | tached to the hulls of lightships miles away.
 Second Officer Rabien of the Kaiser
 Wilhelm der Crosse discussed this ap- paratus. 81r. Rabien was on the bridge as the liner left the German shore and again was on duty when the great ship
 neared the lightships off Nantucket,
 Fire island and Sandy Hook.
 Every ships hull," said Mir. Ra-
 bien, lis practically drum. Sound
 vibrations in the water travel at four times the speed they do in the air and can be heard for miles whether they be caused by the action of the screws of
 a steamer or the ringing of bell.
 For instance. without any special apparatus at all sailors working on the floor of schooner can detect the sound made by the screws of a liner miles away. Now, the problem of which the apparatus on this ship is the outcome has been to collect these sound waves as they strike the ships hull and then convey them to the off, cer of the bridge.
 "TO do this a small tank-smaller shoh 0 Aidh D Adt-lo dILdlucu IO lue lu- ner side of the skin of the liner. This tank is filled with chemical solution, denser than water, which contains the mircophone. There are two of these tanks on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse, both forward, and to each of them Is attached a wire which leads directly to the bridge above. At the end of each wire Is an ordinary tele- phone receiver, which, when the liner hears shore and the weather is foggy, the officer on duty keeps constantly to his ears. There is switch provided by which you can shut off either the starboard or port microphones and tho officer holding the instrument fs ena- bled to hear bells struck beneath the water several miles distant.
 "The noises made by the engines of the liner when she is travelling at great speed do not seriously affect the work ing of the instruments, while when she is in a fog and naturally travelling at a reduced speed this obstacle is prac- tically obviated, the result being that tuC OluCCl uOiuluS IttclNCI judge almost exactly the distance he is from the warning bells. He can also tell exactly the direction from which the sounds come, two advantages that submarine signaling has over wireless telegraphy.
 There is no doubt that in the devel- opment and application of this system lies the solution of the problem of nav igation in the densest of fogs. By means of a numerical code not only can warning, but information as well, be conveyed with great accuracy. For instance. on the voyage that ended at New York on Tuesday (hay 3o) was on the bridge when the Kaiser cleared German waters and again was there as she neared the American mainland. When four miles distant from the mouth of the river Weser plainly made out the signals conveyed from the lightship there.
 "As we neared Nantucket I had the receivers to my ears. and when we were about four miles distant from the ukuteuip ou thdt piaSt eaoeAa oAc sss nal sixty-six-six bells, a pause and then six more bells-the Nantucket lightship code signal. When we were about the same distance from the Fire island light caught the signal sixty eight, the code number of that place. and again as we approached Sandy Hook the Sandy Hook code number, ffty-one, rang just as clearly and plain ly.
 By the use of this system of sub- marine bells the whole coast between New York and Boston sends out warn ings for miles, and there seems no ex- cuse why the same conditions should not obtain along the coasts of all na- tons Another use these bells can be put to. in my mind, Is in naval warfare. especially with reference to the ap- proach of submarine torpedo craft It would be the easiest thing in the world to keep track of their movements. and the danger of their landing a telling blow would be reduced to a minimum 1 Great Britain. Germany and Italy have i taken up the system. which they are h. l stalling along their coasts. while in ] Canada the St. Lawrence Is guarded !. with the bells from the Atlantic to | Quebec