UNDERWATER WIRELESS

Grey River Argus, 3 February 1917, Page 7

UNDERWATER WIRELESS

I AN AMERICAN INVENTION. BRITISH GOVERNMENT OFFER REFUSED. (San Francisco "Chronicle," Dec 12;. j "Swish, swish, . swish— swi-i-ish!" ' The sound, heard yesterday afternoon a mile, from its source, through the waters of the bay, probably marked the making: of a bit of history ; for t it proved the success at an itial test of' the submarine signal system invented by Frank Rieber, a graduate of the University of California. ■ The signal system might be ffalled an underwater wireless. It sends Morse code messages, through the water instead of through the air. Rieber claims it will revolutionise all previous devices for submarine signalling. I A small barge anchored off Oakland pier was the sending station for the test yesterday afternoon, and a launch . that stopped and "listened" at various points was the receiving station. THE FIRST TEST. The aparatus at the barge or sendling end could all be packed into a ( golf-stick bag, while that at the receiving end would require a suit case. Both together, a full equipment, weigh about fifty pounds. The receiving apparatus includes a long, shiny black box with switchboard contrivances on top, a ladle-shaped instrument, with a disc as broad as a saucer, that goes down into the water and dues the "listening," and at the end of * wire, receivers like hose a teJepflone operai tor 'wears' on his head for the nnutm tt B listener. The launch went a mile from ?;«- barge for the first test, anu „.^ j himself in the launch put on the reJephone operator's gear. Then it was that the "swish, swish," and the long swish tlv-it icpresente dthe dash sounded -in the little receivers. But that, was all 11? a/ could be heard. I "That ting-ting-ting is the propel, lors of the ferry boat, about two i.r,d a-half miles over there," Rieber sa.-d, as he listened. I An important part of ihe aiai.-irafus. and one which was not te.s:-=>d ysteiday, is a sound selector, v.iiirh vull key the aparatus to pthe vignais ;i!one, shutting out the sound of .-nc.-teis! waves, ferry -propellers and all tlu-r water sounds. 1 "There is no reason why neps.^s cannot be sent two hundred Hues with my instrument," Rieber said-yi-s. terday. "We were using only .iboil twx> horse-power to make these sojnris, and_\ve have facilities for 100 horsi> power sounds. That means that a station on .the c Fa.raJpjN? islanjds could communicate with another, say at Surf, |r that an American ship could communicate with any other equipped ship or point within a radius of 200 miles." FOR BATTLE AND FOG. In battle and in fog the submarine communication will be most useful, he said. "An Admiral can hardly use wire less to signal the ships of his fleet in jthe thick of battle," he rftplained, j "because by that time the wireless an- , paratus is usually shot away. For signals in fog between lighthouses and ships it should be more useful than wireless, because winds do. not" interfere with it, as they do with sounds sent through the air." A naval officer will* be directed to see the next test of the submarine signal system, according to Rieber. That .is as> far as the United States Government has gone. But the Allied Governments have been quicker, and might be using the " system now if Rieber had not refused to sell the invention to another nation, lie says. • When he was in New York in September, an agent of the British Government wanted to purchase it, he said, although he had only just begun work on the invention in Aug-ust. i "They wanted to, make little submarines to carry one or two men and send them out to put bombs / under German submarines, using the signals to communicate with their battleships in locating their prey and with British submarines, so that the jitney submarnes would not get those of their own nation by mistake. ! "We didn't get as far as a;- money 'offer. I told him the first thing he couldn't make successful jitney submarines"! He is the same agent who offered me 50,000 dollars to start with for my fire control apparatus to di- | rect gunfire. He wanted it to bring: down Zeppelins with. But if any nation is going to use that apparatus it will be America." j Further tests of other attachments and improvements will be made shortly, according to the young- inventor;