RISGUISING A STEAMER.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3778, 3 May 1919, Page 2

RISGUISING A STEAMER.

EDISON'S CAMOUFLAGE

How Edison, the famous American invented one of the earliest and most successful systems of " camouflage " for merchant vessels has just been revealed by one who assisted in the experiments. In those days, before the Convoy system had been so largely developed, and when merchant ships had to rely upon their own unaided efforts .foil safety, scientists ..( fflll countries were devoting much time to the question of the reduction of visibility at sea. Amongst them were .Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor. To aid him in his work, the Cunard Company placed at bis disposal for experimental purposes, the Valeria, a 10,000 ton freight carrying steamer. Edison got quickly to work, and. before long, the result Was seen iv tho Mersey, where an in-com-ing vessel—squat, dumpy, . barge-like : excited general wonder* It was the,, " camouflaged " Valeria. Her funnels bad almost disappeared, and her masts were cut rMit down : port-ions if her superstrueTnre bad been removed or concealed ; and, filially, immense painted screens of canvas were ■angod along the shin and "wrapped"' u-ound her top sides.' She looked like nothing else on earth—or at sea. Slip was almost invisible at a short distance, 'ami quite unrecognisable. Tl. was the crew of tbe Valeria tkaf bad a (lirill of feeling a shock in the vessel's boltoin. and tbe subsequent ruV.fl•oire nf seeing a German submarine ••merge with a. broken periscope. The distance sonn rating the two vessels was so small that the Valeria's « n ns Tind fo_ ho rl-prccQ-rl to their fullest extent in order to fire, on the intruder.