Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1919-09-11

here ssAsro
a11sA HATEVER plans Germany may be
kWTVWYs making for the next war;" If in truth
EWME she is or ever will be capable of car
WV rying them out, it is certain that the
submarine will play no part in her
schemes.
=: !: ; !: : ;
IN S2 M The submarine is dead The o.
MHTvb6[M boat peril has vanished forever never
MMREEkgW to be resurrected.
YHStHWu The collapse of submarine warfare
lnEWMlI during the closing months of the Eu-
VUkEW ropean conflict and the prediction that
wv its resumption may never be seriously
feared again, was the result of the invention in
the United States of a wonderful listening Device
or submarine detector, which came very close to
driving the Hun submersible from the ocean, and
would have done So in the opinion of naval ex-
perts, had the war continued through another
summer. =
As soon as the United States entered the war
the navy department formed special board to
develop ways and means for combating the U-boat
peril, then growing to alarming proportions
This board consisted largely of officers from the
bureau of steam engineering, of which Rear Adj
miral K. S. Griffin is chief 1t called to it's assist
ance in an advisory capacity many noted engineers
and scientists from Industrial concerns including
the General Electric company represented by Dr.
W. r. Whitney, director of that company's re-
search laboratories
Commander c. s. Mcdowell U. S. NJ. served as
executive secretary of the board, while the other
advisory members We're Col. f. B. Jewett of the
Western Electric company, and Prof. II. A. Mill
kan of the University of Chicago
Development headquarters were established at
New London, Conn. The General Electric COM
pany in conjunction with the Submarine Signal
company of Boston started an experimental field
station at Nahant Mass. and We're later Joined by
pnrtc frop th,W otrio
Out Of the activities of these two groups of
scientists there was developed the American
listening device, an instrument which proved to be
able successfully to detect submarines while sub
merged within range of anywhere between and
- miles.
Even with the signing of the peace treaty little
can vet be known of the details of this device. 1t
is, however, an instrument using the principle of
sound-wave transmission through water in new
and startling way and it depends for its di
rectongettng qualities the peculiar and little
understood faculty of the human ear to detect the
direction of sound by the shifting of sound from
one ear to the other the instrument was re-
vOlved.
AS soon as the device was considered practical
the General Electric company undertook its man
ufacture on a large scale in Lynn Mass, develop
ing three kinds of listeners One which was hung
overheard from the deck of submarine chasers an
other which could be trailed off the stern and a
third which protruded through the hull of the
vessel. American destroyers, chasers and subma-
rines were at once equipped with the instrument.
When the submarine detector had been turned
out in sufficient quantity, the navy department be-
lieved that the allies should ger the benefit of the
invention at once. special service party, In
charge Of Capt. r. H. Leigh of the bureau of steam
engineering. was formed to take samples Of the
apparatus abroad and Test It under actual condi-
lions before the British admiralty. The instru-
ment was likewise demonstrated to the French
and Italian nayies The party consisted besides
Captain Leigh, of Lieutenant Carter U. s. N, En-
sign WEIGH, U. s. N. r. f.. six enlisted men, c. E.
Eveeth, CT Scott and T. p Collins Of the Cen
eral Electric company, representing the Nahant
group, and w. L, Nelson of the Western Electric
company, who was connected with wireless deyel-
opment They sailed November o. 1917, and
Joined the British grand feet at Scapa Flow in
the Orkney islands during the first week of the
following month.
The admiralty and the supreme war council
shortly afterward adopted the american device
and from that time on submarine patrol work was
revolutionzed
Defensive tactics which had been employed
since 1914 were now no longer the sole reliance,
The war was carried into the enerny's territory
Fighting ships, instead Of patrolling the steam
ship lanes looking for q stray sub to poke it,