396 



THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



telegraph sounder, a reply to a query of 

 the entrance examination: 



"A telegraph sounder is composed of a 

 pair of magnets, an anvil and a hammer 

 wound to a certain ohmage. When the 

 electric current is put through the elec- 

 tric magnets it draws the iron crossbar 

 down and bangs the hammer on the anvil, 

 and when the current is stopped the ham- 

 mer is released." 



This young man is given a little pri- 

 vate tutoring in the art of expression, 

 and after a few weeks' training is able 

 to describe the actions of such apparatus 

 with grammatical and technical accuracy. 

 Other statements are equally humorous, 

 but none the less blameable. For instance, 

 we have been told that it is 5,000 miles 

 from New York to Colon, Panama ; that 

 the Panama Canal is 300 miles in length 

 and a ship requires one month to take a 

 round trip from New York to South- 

 ampton. 



We are advised that the earth rotates 

 on its axis once in a year and that the 

 month of February has 31 days. Accord- 

 ing to some, there are only three seasons 

 per year. The query as to which is the 

 port or starboard side of a vessel elicits 

 this reply : "The port side of a vessel is 

 the side tied up to the dock 1" and so on. 



It is a difficult matter sometimes to 

 convey to the raw recruit that time is an 

 evasive factor and that at the same in- 

 stant widely separated portions of the 

 universe bear a different relation to the 

 sun. The wonderment is intensified 

 when as a trans- Atlantic voyager he sees 

 the clock changed from day to day. He 

 tries to keep pace with the changes and 

 finally gives up in despair. 



On his first trip to the land of the 

 Southern Cross he receives another shock 

 when he finds the moon on the north side 

 of the continent. It takes days and days 

 of reassurances from his fellow travelers 

 to ground this fact in his consciousness. 



Gradually he is lifted out of ignorance 

 and provincialism and he is the better 

 for the awakening. 



It has been the writer's experience for 

 some years to have under observation 

 several hundred of these roamers of the 

 sea. The psychological effects of en- 

 vironment are more than proven, and, 

 like all man-made rules, unfortunately 

 work both ways. 



On one hand we have the newcomer 

 who has not had the benefits of the better 

 things of life and whose appearance is 

 somewhat unkempt and slovenly. Per- 

 haps he is careless in conversation and 

 manner and affects an indifferent attitude 

 to law and order. Several months at sea 

 on the better class of vessels has com- 

 pletely transformed his disposition and 

 manner. His entire being is changed. 

 He is no longer slovenly, but dresses 

 neatly. His form is erect ; he is dignified 

 and courteous. He has caught this at- 

 mosphere from contact with the better 

 class of travelers. He can never return 

 to old conditions and habits. He forms 

 associations which some day when he has 

 tired of the sea are certain to redound to 

 his benefit. 



On the other hand, in a few instances 

 young men who have had the best of 

 home training and environment have 

 made companionships in distant seaports 

 which have all but reduced them to a 

 wreck. Fortunately, such cases have 

 been very few indeed. After all, is not 

 man the master of his own destiny ? 



The situations sometimes arising at 

 sea are dramatic in the extreme. We are 

 all familiar with the events of the past 

 few years when these men have stood 

 unflinchingly at their posts and then gone 

 down with their vessel. These young 

 heroes are reverenced and their feats 

 proclaimed broadcast. 



The writer never so appreciated the 

 tenseness of the situation when a ship is 

 in distress and the part the wireless 

 operator plays until he met with an ex- 

 perience some few years ago. 



While conducting some experiments in 

 radio telegraphy on a Government vessel 

 in Chesapeake Bay he was alarmed by an 

 insistent call for help from the S. S. 

 Kentucky, in distress a few hundred 

 miles distant. The call "S O S" had not 

 yet been adopted, but the operators made 

 known their needs in no uncertain 

 manner. A reply was sent from the sta- 

 tion at Cape Hatteras, N. C, and some- 

 what later from a coast liner about no 

 miles distant. After the situation had 

 been explained there was a great silence, 

 and one could not help but feel for the 

 occupants of that vessel, particularly so 

 on knowing that they were out of the 

 path of regular traffic. 



