Show VOICE HEARD TEN BILE ViAl Mighty Power of the New Megaphone which is to Warn Mariners from Falkners Island Lighthouse New York Tan 1iThe new monster mon-ster megaphone which haa been put up at the Falkners Island lighthouse station sta-tion brings about a revolution in the system of warning vessels In peril and will prove of Inestimable value to mariners probably revolutionizing the ocean danger signal system of the world This megaphone would never have been made practicable unless the focusIng focus-Ing of sound waves on the same principle prin-ciple that light waves arc focused In a searchlight had been made practicable I was contended by the most eminent authorities that them was no way o doing this but circumstances have disproved dis-proved their beliefs and the big mega phono Is an accomplished act Where many Inventors and experimenters experi-menters have failed one finally succeeded suc-ceeded This person was Mr R F Foster Fos-ter to whom it occurred that no suggestions sug-gestions hitherto made in the way of solving the problem had started from the right bane I occurred to Mr Foster I Fos-ter that the other Inventors had been working at the wrong end of the lob I I hem and that the proper place to locateS locate-S the fogsignal was In the signal Itself and that It should lie I so contrived that It would tell any person who heard it the direction from whlcn the sounds whlct came lie knew that In some places lighthouses werc so arranged that abeam a-beam of light shone steadily In one direction di-rection so that as long as a vessel kept in the beam of that light It was In the right channel I is obvious that I If I a lighthouse were provided with several sev-eral beams of light all different colors I I each pointing to a certain point of the compass the red beam to the north the white to the south and so on any vessel getting In line with one of these beams would know without a compass that the light was due north or south I or west of It as time case might be But the most powerful light In the I world is useless In a fog The 00000000 candlepower Hash at the highlands ot the Naveslnk sometimes cannot be seen 100 yards away The only warning Swill I S-will penetrate a rOE so as to command attention from any one whether he la i 1 looking for It or not and whether he Is In a rowboat or a steamer is sound Mr Foster therefore started to devise an apparatus which would throw sounds of different klndn toward dlf ferent points of the compass wh the same certainty that different colored beams of light might be thrown so that Is 0 vessel got In range with any of those sounds It would know at once exactly the direction from which the warning came Ills Idea was to confine I con-fine the sounds of the ordinary fog signal or siren in the megaphone so that the sound might be projected In one direction to the exclusion of all others Scientific men told him that It could not be done because beyond certain S cer-tain distances the soun l would spread and diffuse to such an extent that the original impulse or direction given to them would be lost He was shown the pamphlet Sound Signals by Arnold Ar-nold B Johnson chief clerk of the I Lighthouse board published by Apple tons In 1SS1 In which it was stated page 7o that Although sound Issuing from the I mouth of a trumpet Is at first concentrated concen-trated in aDriven direction yet It tends to spreadu rapfdly that at a distance of three 6rfit > armllcs It fills tho whole flpade of alvrlnclosed within the circuit of the horizon and is J beard behind tho truinpet nearly us well as at an equal distance In frontof Its mouth I This Is Ute fifth of the conclusions reached by jirof Henry the great authority S au-thority crn aVoustirs who spent twelve years In lho lUc of the phenomena of soUnds 08 applied to fogsignals and I who conducted mon experiments for the Lighthouse board Such tymliiK hixAuthorIty made the S LihiUi use board at Washington L t rather shy of taking up Mr Fosters I Invention but so confident was he that he knejtf what he was about and had L anel I discovered the exact proportions which L shQuld existTnetween the soundproduc ing IriStvumont j Ing um and the trumpet or mogaphonethat he offered to defray all the expenses of the experiments I I necessary tp demonstrate the truth of I I bis contusions If they would give him I tho opportunity and designate a comm com-m 11 fee toexamine and report The board thought this such a reasonable ppopoartlorf that they Immediately placed athfs disposal Falknoijs Island I i light I Son which Is In the Sound opposite Gullford Conn and gave him every faclljty for carrying out his ex periments appointing Col D Heap their cimlef engineer at Toirrpklnsvtlle engneer NY as an officer to make the tests The soundproducing Instrument was an ordinary Broun siren of the smallest size working at forty pounds steam pressure The megaphone bulk by Mcrrlman Eros of Boston who have made i study of speaking trumpets for many years und j uppjy them to time navy The largest megaphone ever made was six feet long but this one at Falkners H eighteen feet and seven feet In diameter the mouth I Is 1 so constructed hat It can be taken down to various lengths few feet at a time and the probable size for lighthouse use will not be more than ten feet those on ships being ftveor six only The megaphone Is mounted on a circular cir-cular platform on which It revolves and It leach etch or the eight principal prin-cipal points of the compass in turn going from right to left It sounds a dif ferent signal at each point In order that this code should be easily recol lected It was made up of long and short blast the code recommended by Chief Engineer Heap being as follows North one long blast south one short blast east one long and one short west one short and one long northeast two long blasts southwest two short blasts northwest two short and one long blast southeast one long and two short blasts I will be observed that In this code the opposite points of the compass have exactly opposite signals so that If a person learns onehalf the code or four signals he knows them all In or der further to assist the memory all I signals denoting the general direction of west begin with a short blast while all those Indicating the general direc tion of east begin with a long blast r The sIgnals gKe the magnetic bearing lnst of the apparatus from the observer If he hears one long blast the erer signal I I I due north pf him twia long blasts 1ortheastof him nnd so on When the official tests came to be I made It was found thfit all the accepted S notions of the Ihe11fhntol of sound were S untrue and that Fosters apparatus un doubtedly could and did confine sound1 1 within the analo of i the megaphone which Is about twority degrees and kept them tr hJnf In hat I direction dlrclon and within the angle for any distance ns far as tho sound could be heard at all When Col Heap made his tests ho sailed around Fajkncrs Island several I times and then away from It ay far as I Orient point He round that at all distances dis-tances the sounds that reached him I when the megaphone was pointed toward to-ward him wereImoionscly superior to those sent when i was pointed away from him At a distance of not more than two miles he could hear the sounds coming dlrectlyat him very loud those pointed fortyfive degrees away from his very faintlv 44 distances of threo miles and bey6ndjjothlng could be hoard but tho sounds coming toward him the signals t snt In other directions being perfectly inaudible I I THROUGH THIS GREAT TUBE MARINERS VILL BE WARNED OFF ROCKS AltfiSHOALS j AIII II4 f I 1 i I S ifl 1 I J From a photograph This huge megaphone constructed by Mr R F Foster of Brooklyn solves one of the most important prob Icms of navigation Through It the sirens voice can bo heard n distance of ten miles j |