The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1919-09-11

d A0i5h~oE5 -. ecs
F-7HATEvER plans Germany may be
NVWY. making for the next war;" If in truth
IWMf \ she is will be capable of car
WW 4 ryng them out, it is certain that the
w submarine will play part in her
schemes.
~ ~ IA The submarine is dead. The o.
NHFvMIM boat peril has vanished forever, never
VVIWtUV to be resurrected
NsHlHW The collapse of submarine warfare
llEWXI during the closing months of the Eu-
WNKNW ropean conflict and the prediction that
wy its resumption may never be seriously
feared again, the result of the invention in
the United States of a wonderful listening Device
submarine detector, which came very close to
driving the Hun submersble 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 a 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 Ad-
miral r. S. Griffin is chief. 1t called to its 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, q. S. N, served as
executive secretary of the board, while the other
advisory members Col. f. b. Jewett of the
Western Electric company, and Prof. r. A. MILL
kan of the University of Chicago.
Development headquarters 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 were later joined by
fIa nfr;a
Out of the activities of these two groups of
scientists there developed the American
listening device, an instrument which proved to be
able successfully to detect submarines while SUBJ
merged within range of anywhere between 3 and
u miles.
Even with the signing of the peace treaty little
can yet be known of the details of this device. 1t
is, however, an instrument using the principle of
sound-wave transmission through water in a
and startling way and ii depends for Its d.
recton-gettng 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
volved.
AS soon as the device considered practical
the General Electric company undertook its
ufacture a large scale in Lynn, Mass, develop
ing three kinds of listeners: One which hung
overheard from the deck Of submarine chasers an
other which could be trailed off the stern and
third which protruded through the hull of the
vessel American destroyers, chasers and subma-
rines at equipped with the instrument
When the submarine detector had been turned
out in sufficient quantity, the navy department be-
lieved that the allies should get the benefit of the
invention at A special service party In
charge of Capt. r. II. Leigh of the bureau of steam
engineering, formed TO take samples of the
apparatus abroad and test 1t under actual cond
tons before the British admiralty. The instru-
ment was likewise demonstrated to the French
and Italian navles. The party consisted. besides
Captain Leigh, of Lieutenant Carter, U. S. N. En-
sign WEIGH u. S. n. II. F., six enlisted men, c. f.
Eveleth, G.. +. Scott. and L. p Collins OF the Cen
eral Electric company, representing the Nahant
group and w. l.. Nelson of the Western Electric
company, who connected with wireless deve-
opment. They sailed November %, 1917, and
Joined the British grand fleet 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
revolutionized.
Defensive tactics which had been employed
since 1914 were now no longer the sole reliance.
Tbe war was carried into the enemy's territory.
Fighting ships, instead of patrong the steam
shin lanes looking for stray sub to poke its