The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-05

measure OF marine ChSudltlcS,
l. ranging all the way from the
loss OF the Empress OF Ireland
10 minor accidents. Again the naviga-
tors arch enemy fog. has been respon-
sible for the mishaps.
Manifesuy. most collisions IN fogEy
weather are due to uncertainty as to
the direction whence come the sounds
Of a nearing ships whistle. In meas
ure this error may be due to the faulty
placing OF the whistle upon the ap-
preaching craft. nelghborlng or inter-
vening surfaces aboard tending TO de-
fleet the sound waves just as a man
may direct his voice by placing his
hand at one or the other side OF his
mouth. But the majority of mistakes
in locating another vessel In time OF
fog are the consequences OF unequal
acuteness of hearing in iookouts ears
and the nervous stress he Is under.
But the ear can be counted upon to
make navigation reasonably secure in
the darkest night or in the heaviest
fog. About two years ago Sir Hiram
S. Maxim announced that he had dis
covered how 1t was possible for a bat to
guide its flight at night and ne offered q
mechanical substitute for that sixth
sense Of the bats TO safeguard ocean
liners in time of fog. An exqulsitely
constructed apparatus was TO pick up
sounds beyond the ordinary range OF
human detection and at the Same time
to Identify their source. Much was said
OF the device at the time. but few peo-
pie knew that right here in Me- York
was a man who had devised a far more
practicable mechanism. Sir Hiram HIM
self later on was frahKly ready to admit
that the New Workers. device was supe-
rior 20 his own and he proposed a COM
bined installation of his sound wave
producer and the detector designed by
Elias Il. Ries Of this city.
Mr.. Ries's sound detector is In effect
a composite megaphone and micro--
phone. the megaphone serving to absorb
"A greater volume OF arc Of sound waves,
| while the microphone Increases the
| audibility of these aerial disturbances.
In this fashion Mr.. Ries suppemen It's
the normal ear Just as the telescope
does the ordinary eye. That Is to say,
he can carry the range OF hearing as
far as the navigator can see. From the
bridge OF an ocean liner the visible
horizon lies about twenty miles away.
A vessel sounding her whistle at that
distance could be distinctly heard by
means of Mr.. Rless invention.
In reality the sense OF hearing Is
many times more acute than that of
vision. Prof Tyndall in his we'll known
treatise on Sound" says: THE power
to accept and transmit multitudinous
impulses is shared by air. which con-
cedes the right OF space and motion to
any number OF sonorous waves. The
same air Is competent to accept and
transmit the vibrations Of thousand
instruments at the same time. When
We try TO visualize the motion OF that
Air, to present to the eye of the mind
the battling OF the pulses direct and
reverberated, the imagination retires
batiied from the attempt. - And
the most wonderful thing OF all Is that
the human ear. though acted on only
by cylinder Of that air, which does
not exceed the thickness OF a quill, can
detect the components OF the motion
and by an act OF attention can even
/ isolate from the aeria! ENHANCEMENT
any particular sound"
1t is this difference between IN,
problem OF vision and that Of acoustic,
that has made Mr.. Ries's apparatus
possible In its widest application. b,