Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1919-09-10
NAVY NOW READY TO
TAME OCEAN FOGS
Contract Signed With Young In
ventor, Earl c. Hanson, To
Improve Ship Travel
DEVICE IS VERY SIMPLE

lie outside harbors waiting chance
TO creep in when the weather lightens. |
Ocean fog has been tanned by the navy.
Steamship service between New York
and Liverpool, Brest. Southampton,
and other channel ports
will be as regular as railroad passen-
ger trains arriving in the giant ter
of New York.
In a contract signed recently with
Earl c. Hanson. young inventor of
Los Angeles. the Navy Department
took the first step TO make practical
the greatest development in marine
travel since the invention of the steam
turbine Tests will be made at once
at the naval base at New London. and
later a greatest test with some of the
biggest liners in the world, like the
Leviathan, will be made in Ambrose
Channel, in New York harbor, Ma
terial has been shipped TO New Lon
don for the first test. and men have
already been detailed for this work
Many hundred men will be placed on
this task by the Navy between now
and January l. AS soon as the official
tests have proved satisfactory all of
the great ports of the United States
will be equipped by the Navy with the
device to defy fog, hail, rain, snow and
sleet.
Peace.Tlme Gift
In allocating naval funds for this
purpose Secretary Daniels, of the
Navy, has acted with promptness in
order that from the Navy itself the
United States would receive one of the
greatest peace-time gifts that science
has devised BY the use of the new
invention in connection with the
radio compass which the Navy has
now perfected all danger or delay in
ocean travel due to weather is abso-
lutely eliminated. The radio compass
brings all shipping in sight of land,
and the new device, like a friendly
hand, reaches out and takes the big
gest. of ships through the most tortu-
Gus channels safely and quickly to its
pier.
The new device is simplicity itself.
A cable is laid in the center of the
ship channel Through it is sent an
current of low frequency,
which through the listening devices On
board ship gives off sound Of certain
pitch that cannot be mistaken for any
other sound. The ship hugs the cable
from harbor line to the dock. On the
bridge and in the captains cabin lis
tening devices like telephone receivers
are placed and attached by wires to
the hull of the ship The ship fol-
lows the course of the cable. Any
variation away from the cable is in
Dictated by visible indicators, which
show in feet the distance away from
the cable and the ship is then put
bach over the cable by the Steering
rudder in the usual manner BY the
ear-receivers the indicators may be
confirmed at all times. Vessels going
into port will use one cable; those
coming out another The sound on
each is different and there can be no
confusion and therefore no collision.
EApeTsS IipcOIAMeHU
Along the cable at mile intervals a
section is insulated with lead.
Through this no sound can come, and
therefore the man on listening duty
can tell instantly how far the ship
has progressed. and by the cable chart
in front of him can tell where the
cable turns and where the ship must
be steered to follow the curve of the
cable and the center of the channel
The new device, according to the ex-
perts of the Navy, who have tested it
and recommended its use, is fool-proof
and as reliable as the telephone. 1t
will work in all conditions of water
and weather and no amount of elece
tricity in the air or powerful wireless
currents about the ship can effect it
in any way.
Earl C. Hanson, while only %, has
been granted 80 basic patents on the
use of this system of applied electric
ity. The best of these patents on the
naval devices were granted recently
and cover the invention by eight broad
claims, During the war Hanson do
mated to the government all his in
ventions to the use of war communi-
cation both on land and sea. General
Pershing directed Col. John H. Par
ker to secure the use of the device for
communications in the first battle
lines and trenches, and only the sign
ing of the armistice prevented its uni
versaI use in the American Expedi-
tionary Forces. At the request of the
War Department the issue of patents
to Hanson was held up in the patent
office until all possibility of their
knowledge by the enemy would be OF
no avail