STEAM FOG WHISTLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18759, 16 July 1935, Page 2

STEAM FOG WHISTLE

CANADIAN “FIRSTS” ST. JOHN, Xevv Brunswick, June 4. This city has 'been counting it? “firsts.” It gives front rank to the fact that on Partridge Island, at the mouth of St. John harbor, was installed the first steam fog whistle in the world. It was invented and installed by one .Robert Fonlis shortly after 1854. The stcajn .‘signal long since has been succeeded by the modern diaphone system tl)at produces two blasts at regular brief intervals, the second note an octave lower than the first. These notes so greatly resemble the call os' a moose that frequently they lure antlered monarehs of t.lie forest to mainland shores. One Benjamin Tibbetts, of Xcw lirunswiek, born in 181.>, invented, built and operated the first steam compound engine in the world, and vised it for years in the St. John Liver trade. Tibbetts received no reward for his invention and died in poverty. The St. John. News, published here in 1838, was the first penny newspaper in the British Empire. The first Methodist church in Canada- w;ts built at Point-de-Buto, near St. John, in 1788, on land deeded to “The Reverend Jolip Wesley of London.” Fire destroyed the building many yearsougQC. A L