RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SUBMARINE SIGNALING. 109 



ran daily between New York and Boston, passing several lightships which were 

 provided with submarine bells. For an observer to locate a submarine bell within 

 one-eighth of a point when five or ten miles ofif and going at full speed is no longer 

 regarded as a feat of special interest, but in those early days ships' officers and 

 practical shipping men were amazed at it and appreciated its value, although few 

 would believe it until they made their own tests. Realizing that an accumulation 

 of tests covering a large period properly certified by witnesses would be necessary 

 in order to impress authorities abroad, frequent demonstrations were tried on these 

 steamers for over a year, and their officers made practical use of the apparatus 

 whenever they were in fog. At the end of that time, I was sent abroad to "revo- 

 lutionize" navigation. The greatest tribute to the invention is to be found in the 

 fact that this actually was accomplished, and in a comparatively short time every 

 large transatlantic steamship company, the British Admiralty, the French and 

 German navies and the navy of the United States all adopted the system, thereby 

 recognizing the importance of the invention. 



In brief the system is as follows : Bells having very heavy rims are rung under 

 water either from lightships or attached to bell-buoys (which are operated auto- 

 matically by the wave motion) or supported on the sea floor by a tripod and oper- 

 ated by electric cable connection with the shore. All these methods have been in 

 successful use for several years. On board ship the transmitters which receive the 

 sound are placed in tanks (one on each side of the vessel well forward, below the 

 waterline) and are connected by wire with the direction indicator, which may be 

 placed in any spot most convenient for the navigator. By comparing the strength 

 of the bell sound on one side of the vessel with that on the other, the direction to 

 the bell may be quickly ascertained, for the comparison may be made by merely 

 turning a switch and the bell will always be found on the side where its sound is 

 louder. 



It would be a great pleasure were I able to say that the United States Govern- 

 ment or any of the shipping concerns in the United States took up this invention 

 with active interest, but, outside of a few members of the Lighthouse Board, no 

 one in authority paid much attention to it. The fact is that the first great authori- 

 ties connected with shipping to take any special interest in the invention were the 

 North German Lloyd Steamship Co. of Bremen, the British Admiralty, and Trinity 

 House of England. In the same breath I ought to mention that Capt. James Watt 

 (now retired) of the Cunard Co. had always displayed entire confidence in the in- 

 vention, and he had frequently reported to his owners that the time would come 

 when navigators would trust the sound in the water and not the sound in the air. 

 Although the invention has now been adopted by all the great steamships which 

 cross the Atlantic Ocean, and many of those on the Pacific Ocean, to the number 

 of over twelve hundred, and although submarine bells are being rung at nearly two 

 hundred points on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the shores of the Great Lakes, 

 of Great Britain, and on the Continent, there is a great deal yet to be done be- 

 fore the invention will have reached its complete usefulness. It would seem as if 



