PREVENTION OF COLLISIONS AT SEA.
What is described "as a new device, designed to prevent collisions at sea." was | recently exhibited by Mr. James P. O Brien, its inventor, between the Battery and Staten Island, off New York, to a number of capitalists and electricians, Electro-magnetic coils carried on board a tug influenced a new chemically-prepared compass" as far distant as six miles, causing it to ring bells instantaneously. How the invention is adapted to prevent collisions at sea is not stated. If the Idea is to pass messages from vessel to vessel by a kind of Morse code arrangement, it is conceivable that wheu several vessels are in proximity dangerous misunderstandings mtaht 'be brought about. Tho brief report of the exhibition concludes as follows 5— "The tests were a complete success, A syndicate of wealthy shipping men ordered 20 outfits for ocean travel. It successful for six months, Mr. O'Brien is to > receive £100,000 for the patents." Considering that in the large majority of collisions that occur the colliding vessels have been in sight of each other for some length of time, many nautical men fail to see the value of a patent which will indicate their approach at six miles.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10035, 23 January 1896, Page 4
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202PREVENTION OF COLLISIONS AT SEA. New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10035, 23 January 1896, Page 4
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