The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-10-10

me Dat' Inc extremely delicate nature of tha
oa' wings together with the sensitiveness of
10 olA'n sense contained in it's delicate face
neI'eS' enaoles the bat to judge the distance of
any object by the lapse of time between the send.
ing out and the receiving of the waves II 10
tnls exceptional mechanism, and not any faculty
OF seeing in the dark, which enables the hat to
ny unerrinsiy without the least light to guide it.
rms was proved a hundred years ago by the Able
opahanzanl, who made experiments by blotting
out the eyes of bats with red hot irons and found
tnat they got along just as well without eyes as
Win them. Other experiments, without cruelty,
may be made to show the same thing.
We all know that if we capture a wild bird and
lberate it in a large room with closed windows,
1t makes a wild and furious rush for what its
senses tell 1t is an opening through which it can
escape. It's eyes do not reveal the presence of
the glass, and the result is a broken neck. A
bat liberated under similar circumstances makes
the same dash for freedom. The Tapping of it's
wings, however, brings its sixth sense into action
and 1t soon perceives that it is face to face with
a solid wall and stops short before it touches
the glass.
Sir Hiram proposes to apply this sixth sense to
~sea-going vessels. His apparatus will produce at
mospheric vibrations of about the same frequency
as those produced by the bat, but Of energy at
least three hundred thousand times as great.
These will not be audible, but they will travel
at least twenty miles, so that they could be re-
ceived and recorded by a suitable apparatus at
that distance, and would be able to travel at least
five miles and return back to the ship a reflected
echo that would be strong enough to be detected.
In describing his invention, Sir Hiram states
that it might be considered an artificial ear. The
apparatus is provided with a large diaphragm
tightly drawn over a drum-shaped cylinder, and
so arranged that the atmospheric pressure is al
ways the same on both sides, quite irrespective
of any air blast. 1t is therefore always able to
vibrate freely in response to the waves of the
echo, and it's vibrations are made to open and
close certain electrical circuits which ring a Sc
ries of bells of various sizes. If, for example, the
object is very small or at a very great distance
from the ship, a very small bell rings, while a
large object at a distance of two miles would
ring a larger bell, and a very large object a
still larger bell. The apparatus gives an audible
notice If anything is ahead of the ship.
Another apparatus, similar to the first, is pro-
vfded, but instead of ringing a bell 1t produces a
diagram of the disturbances in the air-that is,
when there is no noise except that due to the
action of the ship or the sea waves, a wavy line
is produced on paper, but whenever the vibrations
sent out by the vibrator strike an object and re-
turn, the wavy line on the paper becomes very
much increased in amplitude. so as to be easily
observed, and the distance that the object is from
the ship can be measured by the length of the
paper strip between the giving off of the vibra-
lions and the receiving of the echo. In this way
the distance of the object can be determined with
a considerable degree of accuracy, and the size
of the object may be determined by the amplitude
Of the waves that return.
The apparatus for producing the atmospheric
vibrations should be placed we'll forward on the
main deck or in any other position where it can