Evening star., 1923-01-26

weymouthshire this afternoon"
EXACTLY
Horsford, a lean. elderly man, rose
pervously, clasped and unclasped MS
shaking hands, then pressed them to
his eyes His agitation indicated that
he was on the verge of collapse. Rem
nison,. ElancinG at his watch, saw 1t
was ten minutes after o.
AS the assistant secretary reSeated
himself, Towndrow, resting his folded
arms on the table. leaned forward
and spoke.
Mr. Horsford," he said. what lit
tie that is known concerning this az
fair has been communicated to me-
AS prompt action is Imperative, we
might save time, perhaps. II / were
to summarize the case for Capt Rem
nison in such a manner as l would
wish him to summarize 1t for me.
With your permission and his. I will
do So"
Horsford assented quickly.
This boat, the Dragonfiy. equipped
with Channings apparatus. had its
first and only official trail three days
ago" Towndrow began. I'm order
to assure secrecy. the boat was
handled by only five men-a lieuten-
ant boatSwain, two seamen and an
engineer. The others on board were
Charming and three representatives
of the Navy Department, who were
invention. They were Rear Admiral
L.ongley, Capt. Reifsnyder and Com
mander WitheSley, all experts on the
subject of navigation.
"Channing manipulated his device
without assistance from others. He
revealed only effects. but carefully
refrained from explaining the causes
which produced them. The demon
| stration was as astonishing as it was
convincing.
Seated in darkened cabin below
the deck. Charming had in front of
him in a nearly horizontal position
what appeared to be the head of a
bass drum about four feet in diam
eter. Outlined on tho white surface
of this was what might be described
as checkered heart. BY this I mean
the heart was divided into squares,
each of which bore d number. the
numbers. like the lines, being only
family perceptible. This big disc was
lighted by ray which was projected
| upon it from cylinder near the roof
of the cabin"
Towndrow paused as Rennison
nodded curtly.
"As an Army man. familiar with
the use Of mortar batteries, the sig
nificance OF what l have described is
clear to you" Towndrow went on.
"It represents in this instance, how
ever new application of the prin-
ciple Of the camera obScura. On such
a disc the director of a mortar bat
terry may sec distant ships move from
square to square. but this man, Chan
ming. achieved something which
seemed litrie short of supernatural |.
| for on this disc he revealed the move
ments of every Screw-propelled ves-
sci, whether atioat or submerged, by
night as well as by day, within a ra-
dium of fifteen miles"
Rennison stiffened suddenly. No
| assumption of Indifference was mask
ing his newborn interest. His face
had heightened, and his eyes were
/ alight with wonder Horsford, lean
ing toward him, clutched his shoulder.
And all this the poor fellow DEM
| onstrated beyond the peradventure of
doubt" the assistant secretary said
in a quavering voice.
1T appears. therefore, that Chan
ming had discovered some method
whereby it was not only possible to
detect the presence of a moving screw
within radius of fifteen miles, but
TO measure accurately the distance to
thai L"..It. and to visualize on the
screen the changing positions Of the
vibrating object" explained Can't.
Reifsnyder of the bureau of expert
, mentation.
The only defect in the device Law
in the fact that IL was imperative
while the screw of it's own vessel was
vibrating, muttered Capt. Merschon
Of the bureau of naval intelligence.
If"
"Those are details with which we
have nothing to do just now" Rem
nison interrupted. impatiently, and