THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



Dark and boisterous nights which frighten the distressed 

 landsman have no terrors for the sailor. Given an 

 open sea-way he knows that he can ride out any gale 

 that blows. It is the foggy night that fills him with 

 apprehensioii. 



In perfectly still weather the sound of the fog horn 

 carries far enough, and indicates location well enough 

 so that two ships approaching each other, or a ship 

 approaching a bell buoy, can detect its location and 

 avoid danger. But this is under favorable conditions; 

 and unfortunately such conditions do not always pre- 

 vail. And if there is a wind stirring or the sea running 

 high atmospheric sounds cannot be depended upon. 

 A fog whistle whose sound ought to carry several miles 

 under ordinary conditions, may not be heard more 

 than a ship's length away. And scores of accidents, 

 such as collisions between ships, have happened in 

 fogs, when both vessels were sounding their fog whistles 

 at regular intervals. 



When wireless telegraphy was perfected sufficiently to 

 to be of practical use, great hopes were entertained 

 that this discovery could be used to give warning and 

 prevent accidents to fog-bound vessels. But experi- 

 ence has shown that its usefulness is confined largely 

 to that of calling for help after the accident, rather 

 than in preventing it. Thus in 1908 when the wireless 

 operator on board the steamer Republic flashed his 

 message broadcast telling ships and shore-stations for 

 hundreds of miles around that his vessel had been run 

 down in a fog and was sinking, he could only give the 

 vessels that hurried to the Republic's aid an approxi- 



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