AUTOMATIC HELMSMAN
TESTS ON MOTOR-SHIP ELECTRIC EYE APPARATUS The first device of its kind to be fitted Sn a British ship, the Chance automatic Bteering apparatus, is the subject of experiment in the Blue Star motor-ship New Zealand Star, now on the Australian coast. Unlike other automatic steering devices, it requires no power and is worked directly from the compass. A light beam is projected from a magnetic compass by a mirror with photo-electric cells, and an electric eye detects and corrects the slightest deviation from the set course. It is claimed that the device will steer a ship more accurately than can the most skilled helmsman, because the electric eye constantly watches the compass, arid is more sensitive to any variation than is the human eye. The inventor, Mr. B. Chance, is a passenger on the New Zealand Star. Experiments were carried out on the voyage from Liverpool, and will be continued on the ship's return journey. If successful, the ""fitting may be adopted in other vessels of the Blue Star fleet
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23057, 7 June 1938, Page 8
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173AUTOMATIC HELMSMAN New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23057, 7 June 1938, Page 8
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