NEW PERISCOPE.

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 24

NEW PERISCOPE.

An amazing invention is now being considered by the United States Navy Department, says an Australian journal. It is a periscopo for submarines which comes up above the water far away from where the submarine is hiding. Ono of tho ways; in -which a submarine can be detected is by the appearance of its periscope above the surface of the water. The enemy sees this and knows where to fire to hit the boat. The new periscope does away with that danger. When it appears, it may be a milo' from the submarine, it is serving. It is (ho invention of Dr. V. A. Clarke, of Now York, and the principle- involved is the same as that of wireless pictures. The periscope h mounted in a cigarshaped buoy about twelve feet, long and | three feet wide, which, when the submarine is travelling, can c packed into ;i compartment made to receive it. But when an observation is to be taken, the buoy is released, and is towed at the end of a copper cablo over a mile long. Electric controls in the conning tower of. the submarine permit, the periscope to be raised or lowered by varying the amount of water ballast in the buoy. This is done by pumping. Another electric device enables the periscope to be rotated through 360 degrees, so that a view ran lie obtained all round. Beneath" the periscope are a number of selenium c. ; lls connected with a. kind of wireless transmitter. The image of what the periscope "sees" falls on these cells,

and Hie variations of light intensity due (■i the shadows rind high lights on (his picture cause variations in the eleclrie:il 'impulses passing •In the submarine through the cable. In the conning tower these impulses arc transformed into light waves, and the picture is projected on the screen, where the officer can see it. Not only is the submarine preserved from danger through the detection of its periscope, but its range of observation is enormously increased. The

invention includes still another wonder. By attaching a sensitive microphone and amplifier to the periscope, sounds made by the motors of aeroplanes or tlic propellers of approaching ships can bo heavd in the.connins tower of the submarine. An ordinnrv telescope tvps of periscope costs from' £1600 t.i £2'loo. l-.ul. this •wonderful instrument can. 'accord ins to its- invent")-, be ronj.ti'i)rfsil for AISOOQ. .Up r-?!uf is ccrtaiwlv {»j- in cwcds <A iU ea»V,