SHIP’S NEW “EYE”

Evening Star, Issue 21619, 15 January 1934, Page 1

SHIP’S NEW “EYE”

SEEING THROUGH FOG INFRA-RED PHOTOGRAPHY “ Tliis nows—that an instrument has been devised that gives vision through fog— w iH be very welcome to all seamen,” said Captain G. H. Lacy, deputyharbour master and chief pilot at Auckland, commenting on the cabled report that the steamer Manhattan has been equipped with a fog camera which, using infra-red rays, supplies a photograph every 50seo on the pressing: of a button. “Fog is the sailor’s most dreaded peril,” said Captain Lacy. “In a wellfound ship it is the only thing he has to fear, and it has cost the worlfl more in ships and human lives than all the gales that ever blew. This news has been eagerly awaited by shipmasters ever since the infra-red camera was invented, for they have been promised by the scientists who were experimenting with it an early adaptation of the principle to the needs of navigation.” “ Its possibilities are boundless,” Captain Lacy continued enthusiastically. “ According to the cabled report the officer of the watch aboard a ship which would otherwise be groping her blind way through the fog sees every 50seo a photograph of what lies ahead. It is, as the cable says, ‘ the biggest thing since wireless.’" When all ships are equipped with it fog will lose most of its terrors. Even though she is the only ship so equipped, the Manhattan — which is, incidentally, an American steamer, 8.074 tons, built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, in 1898, and owned by the Atlantic Transport Company—will be comparatively safe from the perils of navigation in fog. Not only will the officer on her bridge be able to see his own course clear, but he will be able to see also what other ships, who are blind, are doing, and either avoid them or, if a collision is unavoidable, receive their impact so that the damage is minimised. “ Installed in lighthouses, the same apparatus will enable the keepers to maintain a good look-out in all weathers. In warfare it wall possibly nullify the value of smoke screens, as the infra-red rays pierce artificial smoke as easily as fog. This invention seems to be as yet in its infancy, but if as much has been achieved as is indicated by fine cable shipmasters and shipowners will rejoice.” • Photographers are not generally so enthusiastic over the utility _of infrared rays, except for the taking of “ povelty ” pictures or for use under special circumstances. Long-distance views can be taken, the infra-red rays piercing the haze, but distances are fore shortened and the colours are strange, green appearing as white. Plates sensitive to infra-red rays are difficult to keep, being affected by variations of temperature,' and must be developed in absolute darkness. “ To achieve what the cable says has been done the scientists who have been experimenting with these plates must have progressed far beyond what we thought,” said a photographer. “ Plates imported from Great Britain have proved so difficult to use and so easily spoiled that we have not bothered much about them, save for the taking of a few novelty pictures.” Infra-red rays, he explained, are of such long wave length that they are invisible to the human eye. but owing to this long wave length they are not dissipated by solid or liquid particles suspended in the ait. as are rays of shorter wave length. This enables them to" pierce fog or smoke, and since they

are present in what to the human eye is complete darkness photographs can be taken on infra-red plates on the darkest night. It is generally considered that infra-red rays are rays of heat rather than of light, and it is the heat diff used by the object that is photographed.