Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-11-19
NEW WIRELESS WONDER.
Submarine Mines Exploded Four
teen Miles Away.
Nov. II.


Submarine Mines Exploded Four
teen Miles Away.
sensation has been created in mill
tary, naval and mining circles of the
world by the success OF series of expert
ments recently conducted in Havre har-
Dor, France, with an apparatus for dis
charging submerged mines or any high
explosive by wireless current.
The apparatus and radiobalistic ex-
piosion are the invention OF young Italian
by the name OF NJ. Ulivi, VINO resides In
Paris. The first experiments were made
ON July 80 OF this year. Different kinds
OF powder were placed in Theoretically
sealed cans of iron and submerged in the
harbor waters at intervals OF one thousand
feet apart. They formed, when all sub
merged, line nearly twenty thousand
feet in length.
When everything WAS in readiness the
inventor, stationed on board yacht,
touched button and one after another all
the mines were exploded. There was per-
feet accord between the discharging
station and the floating markers upon the
mines. On a second experiment a mine
was placed fourteen miles away from the
yacht and was exploded by wireless cur
rent with great success.
Frank t. Clifford, who witnessed some
OF the experiments, said:
ALTHOUGH the mines were submerged
I far from shore the detonation or explosive
noise from them was heavier than from
the firing OF the largest coast defense guns
planted on the cliffs behind my hotel, and
the vibration made the hotel building
culver. In several instances where saw
the mines discharged, columns of water
rose in the air to a height Of fifty feet or
more"
Apparently the invention differs from
anything hitherto known. With this in
vention of UIivi the only requisite for an
with some metal. By the discovery OF
special rsdistions in the order OF the mira
red radiations known as F rays, and by
the construction OF powerful and ingen-
ious apparatus, Ulivi Is able to ignite by
resonance explosives inclosed in metallic
containers and placed at a distance.
|. is, in fact. a new application OF the
wonderful invention of wireless tele-
Eraphy The engineer who directs The
apparatus hrat seeks, with the aid OF a
special protector, the metallic masses
which are 10 be found in certain radius
OF land or water. The return wireless
waves reveal to him not only the distance
10 the mine to be exploded, but also ae-
eurately its Electromagnetic activity or
capacity. The engineer then sends the
exact wireless wave which will produce
inside of the iron can the spark that is to
cause the explosion.
There are no two metallic plates ever
made that are identicsiIy alike. II such
were not the case the invention OF Ulivi
would be fraught with great danger. For
example, any or all mines placed for war
defense purposes or for excavating might
be Unexpectedly exploded at once. There
fore, il Is important to know that for each
mine a separate wireless wave must be
sent out.
The terrible potential power OF the in
vention from one point of view isbthis-ii
nations intend to go to war again and to
keep up war, they will have to abandon
their navies and do all their fighting on
land or in the air, and then run chances.
Two men with tug can place Sufficient
of these mines in an hours time to blow
up the best battleships of the world, and
the operators can be from ten to fourteen
miles away when the wireless causes the
explosion. No battleship can be safe
under any circumstances with such an in
veniion In existence. The French imin-
lister OF war who witnessed the expert
ments said that the apparatus would make
it necessary for humanity to change all
its tactics of fighting if war was to con-
Time