SEA SIGNALLING: A DUTCH INTENTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2239, 28 January 1897, Page 50

SEA SIGNALLING: A DUTCH INTENTION.

I An Amsterdam correspondent writes :—lb: — Ib i looks as if we dull Dutchmen are upon the poinb of giving to the world a. priceless invention — the means by which ships at sea may b& on speaking terms under all circumstances or have the power to communicate with the shore. Some weeks since people living en the outskirts of the town, returning homo in the dark hour* of the evening, were Bc*red by very peculiar unearthly sounds something skin to the deep perietr&ting scream of a steamer's siren ia the tnisfe, although there was no water near to speak of, and consequently no possibility of a steamer. The riddle is now solved. Ib has been found possible to produce a constant, unvarying | sound, which may— l. Be hoard at a distance of at least five miles against a stiff breeze. 2. Is of such a nature and quality that ib is quite easy to determine to a nicety the direction from which ib comes. 3. Is produced by an instrument which can ba moved about without altering the sound— that is, in the «aa.e manner as an electric searchlight. I. Last-., not least, that parts of the instrument may : be differently tuned, which makes ib poßsiblo to, give constant alternative signals whif'a may be codified,' so that a conversation may be kept up. It appearTthat the inventors sq&q weeks sinee 1 ' made trials in the .dark, and, of course, in lonely, outlying places in tbo neighbourhood, and so produced tbe ghostly/ noiiea aforesaid. Competent persons' are of opinion that the thing really is a. gre&ff success. Th» Zealand Company has resolved to give the invention a fair trial ; and the world may soon hear more of ib. Ib is quite clear that if th*steamer whioh met the Drummond Castle ban possessed such an instrument, and its aigo*:^ j could have been understood by the Drummer^ '& !' officers, the disaster murhfc not have ocoantul