SUBMARINE HARBOUR LIGHTS.

North Otago Times, 22 May 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUBMARINE HARBOUR LIGHTS.

The exisienco of the familiar lighthouse, mid its cherished place in the lore of the sea, is threatened.

By the use of a system recently patented by an ingenious inventor, Leon Dion, overy harbour may, in the not far distant futuro, bo converted into a "Great White Way." The patent is termed one of the few fundamental patents, and, like all revolutionary inventions, employs a method so simple and so seemingly obvious that it is inconceivable that nobody ever thought of it before. The idea is that there shall be a cable, having connected at suitable intervals short branches to which are attached incandescent electric lamps fitted with reflectors which will concentrate the light into parallel beams as nearly as possible, the system being designed .to withstand the pressure and corrosivo action of sea water.

Tho lamp and reflector are made sufficiently buoyant so that _ they will maintain an upright position. The cable thus equipped is then laid in the proper position in the waterway to bo lighted up, and connected with a source of electric supply from the shore. Tho. course of the channel thus will be marked out by brilliantly-lighted spots on the surface of the water. It is a wellknown fact that, even the highest waves do not produce any disturbance a short distance below their depth. The cable with its connected lamps, therefore, always will be in practically still water. One of the most important features of the Dion system is the fact that it oilers equally as good guidance in the densest fog as in perfectly clear weather. Fog a nd wind practically never occur together, so that tho'beam of light would project from the level surface of the water up through tho fog, the vessel being guided by pillars of fire like the Israelites of old.

By the use of what is known as a water telescope, which is nothing but a tube with an observation glass which can be dropped beneath the surface of tho water, as by a bull'seye in the hull of the vessel below the water-line, the ship could bo guided without regard to the surface light on the water. The rapidity with which such a system can be installed, and the fact that it is under control at every point from the shore renders it a very valuable aid in war time.

And, if all this can be done locally, and near the shore, who shall say that the principle involved shall not be utilised some day in making a "Great White Way" for ships to followl across the oceans of the world ?