New-York tribune., 1909-05-04
4 FAULT OF RADTOTELEGR1PHY.


Much has been said and justly, about the
service rendered by wireless telegraphy when
the Republic and the Florida came into collision
off Nantucket last January. Yet it is now
known that even in the most skiful hands
MarcOnis famous invention nearly failed 10
save the lives Of the passengers and crew of
the two vessels. When the Baltic started back
to render aid she was only sixty or seventy
miles from the scene Of the disaster, but she
steamed at least two hundred miles before she
was able 10 afford the slightest help. The Re
public drifted dozen miles to the eastward
after the collision and was still enveOped in
dense fog when she was found In order that
the hunt might not be in vain the Baltic fol
lowed zigzag course and spent twelve or tf-
teen hours in a search which, In clear weather,
would have lasted scarcely four.
In its last issue THE Electrical World" dis
cusses the inability of a ships captain to de-
termine the direction from which wireless mes
sages come and mentions some of the sugges-
tions which have been made for remedying the
defect Each of them seems TO have its draw
back, however. and none of them has yet had
practical Test. 1t is in order, therefore, to in
Quire whether other agencies would not give
greater help than wireless telegraphy in emer-
gencies like that which arose off Nantucket
last winter
1t was reported at the time that the new
its value in an entirely new manner. The state
ment has not been verified, and was mdOubt-
edly without foundation. Still, it is easy TO see
how the invention might have been used to
save life Many steamships in the transatlantic
service as well as those engaged in coasting
traffic, are equipped with special form of
telephone receiver, devised to pick up the
sound of q submerged bell At present the
bells are in use only at fixed points along the
coast. They are suspended from lightshipS and
for purposes of identification each lghtShip in
signalling employs different number of strokes
on the bell When the captain Of a westb0und
steamship knows by dead reckoning that he Is
in the vicinity of Fire Island and the lighthouse
there is hidden by fog, he can determine his
position with precision by using his telephone
U-p TO the present time no vessel except a
lightship has been provided with n submarine
bell for signalling. If the Republic had had one
and the Baltic had been-as possibly it was
provided with the necessary receiver the hunt
for the damaged vessels might have been smpli-
fed Such bell cannot usually he heard more
than mile or two away, but when its sound
IS once perceived the direction from which 1t
comes need not long be uncertain. In that re-
spect it is manifestly superior TO wireless teeg-
raphy, and shipping companies may proftably
inquire whether the use of submarine bells
would not be advantageous. Before the new
means of giving signals is adopted if it ever is,
the formulation of a special code will be neces-
sary, and the difficulty Of preparing a salts
factory might prove q formidable objec-
ton to making the use of the bells here sug-
gested But If the bells not to be intro
duced. energetic efforts should be made to over
come the deficiencies Of wireless telegraphy.