New-York tribune., 1905-08-28
SUBMARINE FOG SIGNALS.

1t is announced that the plan of transmitting
fog signals through the water rather than the
air is about to receive a trial on the English
coast The lghtship on Goodwin Sands has
been, or soon will be, equipped with the requi-
site sending apparatus, which is merely bell
that can be struck while submerged. AS soon
as it is ready tests will be made, presumably
on vessel which will cruise in the vicinity;
and these will be witnessed by representatives
of the Admiralty OF the lighthouse services of
England and Ireland and of the Mersey Dock
and Harbor Board. AS the result can be readily
foreseen. owing TO the practical to which
the system has been put this side Of the At
lantc, there is strong probability that the eX-
ample of the United States and Canada will
soon be followed by England. There must be
| cooperation by that department of a govern
| ment which manages the lighthouses i'll order
10 justify the equipment of ships with the kind
| of telephones necessary to receive submarine
/ signals; and there already indications that
the country which has larger maritime interests
than any other in the world already has real
iZing sense of the value of the invention In uues
! ton
| The first experiments made with the subma-
| rine fog signal We're conducted two or three
years ago on the New England coast. Several
steamers running between New-York and BOs-
/ ton were provided with receivers. and the
mechanism for giving signals was placed on
three or four lightships in the neighborhoOd Of
Vineyard Sound. Representatives of navigation
companies were permitted to watch the opera
ton of the system. In consequence the Allan
Line decided to adopt it for those steamships
which in summer come from Liverpool TO Mon
treal: and the Dominion authorities thereupOn
installed signalling apparatus at several points
along the lower St Lawrence. In the mean
time the United States Lighthouse Board has
supplied similar facilities at Fire Island and
one or two additional points. and several Of the
fastest transatlantic liners which come to New
York now take advantage of them Sir Will
lam H. White a leading British authority on
naval construction and shipping interests, re-
Gently outlined the system for the engineering
supplement OF THE London Times" In the
second OF his papers on this subject he gave an
Illustration which must have convinced any OF
his readers who were skeptical. During the last
three days Of one Of her eastward voyages not
I long ago the Lucania was beset with dense fog
Had the light stations the Irish coast been
provided with submerged bells she could, with
out danger, have approached the land more
| closely, ascertained her exact position more
| quickly, saved many hours of time and lessened
the anxiety of her officers and owners.
AS between submarine bell signals and wire
less telegraphy it is difficult If not impractical
/ BILE, to make Fl choice a means of avoiding
! collisions and shipwreck in n fog 1t cannot he
| denied that Hertz waves have a longer range
than sound. Still, the cost of the wireless out
! fit for land stations and lightshps may prove n
drawback to its introduction; for submerged
/ bell cannot he much more expensive than the
ordinary fog bell. Already it has been demon
strated that a signal sent through the water can
! be detected further away and with greater GER
: tsinty than one sent through the air: and that
single fact has exercised powerfully persua sivc
! influence upon progressive mariners.