The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-08-24

by making it invisible. No one will
deny this. For IL the submarine COM
fnander can't see his quarry he can't
torpedo it. Now. this Is not intended
as joke. nor do refer to Grimn's
Fairy Tales, where the young prince
by the turn of his magic cap becomes
Invisible to all Rather wish to stay
within the realms of common physics,
and present day physics at that.
After all, what is visibility? 1t is
mat which Is perceptib1e to- the eye.
A ship visible in broad daylight Is
invisible in a dead black night. But
visibility depends upon sight. so that
a ship visible to you in broad daylight
is invisible to the blind man. All this
As obvious. #Ls
y Our problem as applied to sub
marine warfare then resolves itself in
binding the submarine comm n.der,
so that he cannot see the ship he
wishes to attack Can this be done?
am certain of it. And what is more
the plan which I advance herewith Isl
so idiotically simple, that probably
Just on account Of it's very simplicity
itahas not been tried before. 1t is the
old story of Columbus and the egg
it is simple If you know. IL,
In order to understand what I
mean let us try few simple expers-
ments.
Experiment 1. Light up a power
full auto searchlight tonight, only one
Enough. The auto must be in the
dark. Now station yourself SO yards
SWAY. Do not look directly into the
shaft of light. Can you tell where
the driver sits? You cannot. You sim
ply, see the light shaft, that is ALL
Il 80 q ov. fs
and whether it LIS the light of the left
searchlight that is lighted.
Experiment III Have an assistant
throw the full glare directly into your
eyes. You wiz be blinded for several
seconds. itfaa
Experiment 8. Try experiment in
broad daylight, but with the search
fight detached from the auto. Ask
your assistant to- move to one side
or the car. Have him train the full
glare into your face. It will be inn
possible for you to see the car, even
with the sun shining on it. You are
blinded in broad daylight This. of
course. Sfoviding that the searchlight
Is sufficiently powerful If you don't
own searchlight try a mirror. and
have your assistant reflect the sun-
light into your eyes. Try as you may,
you will never as much as glimpse
an object within 500 feet Of either
side of him.
Experiment a. Repeat experiment.
3. but protect your eyes by black
! glasses (smoked glasses.) You will
find that 1t won't help you at all. In
stead Of ball of white fire you now
Eet ball of orange fire into your eyes.
Less piinding, true-but you cannot
BEE the objects to either side of your
assistant-even in full daylight-be-
cause the darkened glass does not
pass Through enough light
You readily understand these ex-
periments, and they are correct as
stated. having been actually tried out
IN New York city by u.s. sBut, what
is the good OF them. = you will ask.
Here ia the answer: &
% Consider that the submarine COM
n1ander In order to look through his
periscope. must of necessity be in the
dark or at least his quarters imme-
diately surrounding him must be
more or less subdued and shielded
from light. You know you canno1
look through q telescope at a distant
object without placing your eye to the
eye piece, In order to shield your eye
from the light. Now then imagine
tor minute that you are the sub.
marine commander. with your eys
glued to the as yet submerged peri
scope. Slowly and cautiously yol
raise the periscope tube till it is q
foot or more above the water. Rapid
ly you turn it in a circle to scan ever,
point of the horizon. Nothing blu
the blue sky and the ocean. Yol
keep on turning. / Suddenly like {
bolt Of lightning your eyes, are file,
with water.
presuming that you are German
U Boat commander. Down come
the periscope, while you wipe you
eyes stupidity. After a few minute
you try again. Once more you ar
blinded for SECONDS at a time You Sc
the light but that's all.
Now to torpedo q ship you mus
know several things. First you mus
know its position, that is how ia
away II is from you. Second, 20
must know in what direction the shi
IL travsling. Third, you must kno,
its speed. without knowing thes
three things 1t is as rule impossibl
to torpedo successfully.
And with powerful search1igh
trained full on your periscope. yo
would, OF course. know where tn
ship was, but you could not possibl
know how far away 1t was from 20
as measured in yards, nor would yo
know if the ship was travelling tc
wards you or away from you. Yo
could not know IL the searchlight wa
on the bow or on the stern of the ves
sell Neither would you know If tn
ship was travelling at right angles I
you or. whether it presented its bo
or stern to you Articles such q
sensitive microphones will not hel
you much. You must take the ship
bearings accurately or you canns
take your bearings. And you don
dare come up to the surface to wal
on deck of the U-Boat, because tn
ship that has the searchlight, mo-
likely will have guns, too. So yo
curse a full round. haul down til
periscope for the ninth time an
drown yourself in a stein of wuri
burger.
My idea then is this. Mount G
the ship four powerful searchlight
There should be one attendant
each searchlight. Ordinarily II
searchlights are not lighted but r.
main dark. Each searchlight oper.
tor wears a telephone headgear, Q:
actly as our naval gunners do nor
Stationed high up In the crows ne
are two observers scanning the WI
ter at all times with their glasse
One observer scans the ocean on ii
starboard side, the other overlook