Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-03-14
Observation and Invention.


think, to walk through life with eyes
closed. There are things around US
and at our very feet that We have
never seen, because we have never
really looked. We should not keep
forever on the public road going only
where others have gone we should
leave the beaten track occasionally
and enter the woods. Every time you
do that you will be certain to find
something that you have never seen
before. OF course, it will be little
thing but do not ignore it. Follow il
up, explore all round it one discovery
will lead to another, and before you
know it you will have something worth
thinking about TO occupy your mind,
for all really big discoveries are the
results of thought.
Did you ever put your head under
water and knock two stones together
to find out what the sound is like :
If you have never done that, try il
and you will get new sensation. | did
il once, and ii sounded as if man were
hammering at my very ear. | then took
two tiny pebbles and tapped them to-
gether under the water. Ii sounded like
man knocking at the door. | was
rather startled TO hear such loud noise
from such slight cause, and of course
the question at once came to my mind:
How far away could hear the sound :
So sent a boy a couple of hundred
feet up the beach, and directed him
10 strike two stones together under the
water. When ! submerged my head |
could hear the sound as readily as be-
before. Then, determining to try the
maximum possible distance, sent the
boy across the bay in boat, TO point
at least a mile away from where stood.
Through my field glasses saw him
land on the other side, go down TO
little plank wharf, lie face downward
upon the wharf and put his hands into
the water then knew that he was
signaling with the stones.
Slipping into the water on my side
of the bay, | submerged my head
and listened intently. Clear and per-
fectly distinct the signal came to my
ear through more than a mile of water
1t was an astonishing revelation of
what can be done with water. In air
sound travels about a thousand feet a
second but in water it goes five
times as fast as that-about five thous-
and feet a second-becauSe water is
much better conductor than air.
Why should we not simply put an ear
to the water instead of submerging the
whole head? Why not ring a bell
under the water, instead of clicking
stones together TO make a noise ? An
ordinary dinner bell would do Empty
it of air and ring it under the water,
and a person with his ear submerged
can hear it a great distance. But
would it not be better to transmit the
sound vibrations from the water to the
ear through some intervening mech
anism and thus obviate the necessity !
of submerging the ear at all?
have tried submerged hearing tubes |
of various kinds and planks partly
submerged, with the ear a0Dlied to the
cart ort OF the water IF YOU out your
cor 70 the bottom Of Noat-i0side. OF
course-vou can readily hear a hell
ring under the water some distance /
away. Still better, fasten a telephone ]
transmitter to the bottom of the boat
and you can sit at ease with the tele-
phone receiver at your ear. Or you !
may put the transmitter overheard. 1t
then becomes a submerged ear and will !
listen for you under the water. That
is the principle of the submarine sig
mailing that is now in use on many large |
commercial and naval vessels
commercial and naval vessels.-AleX-
ander Graham Bell in The Youths |
COMPANION.