SEEING THROUGH FOG.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 252, 23 September 1929, Page 7

SEEING THROUGH FOG.

IMPORTANT INVENTION. AID TO NAVIGATION. The “Noctovisor,” an apparatus which, it is claimed, will enable the lights of a ship half a mile away to be seen in the densest fog, was demonstrated at a little chalet on Box Hill, England, by Mr John L. Baird, the inventor of television. The machine, mounted on a turntable, was directed toward the Surrey valley, where the headlight of a car moving along the road two and a-half miles away could easily be seen. At a flashed signal from one of the Catchers on the hill, the car light was shut off for ordinary view by a sheet of ebonite which, for the purpose of the experiment, was “fog.” Gradually, as the “Noctovisor” was moved round, an image of the vanished light crept across a screen inside, its exact bearings being registered on a graduated scale on the turntable. It was explained that, while a light house or a car-lamp behind an ebonite screen could thus be made visible two and ahalf miles away, an ordinary ship’s light would be detected within half a mile, though a radius of two miles at least was expected to 'be achieved shortly. . In its present form the new invention is able to register only the invisible in-fra-red rays emanating from a direct source of light at these distances. The principle on which it is is that of a combined televisor and receiver. It reproduces the infra-red rays as ’an orange light. Mr Baird says that several naval and mercantile officers have seen the “Noctovisor,” and believe it will be of enormous use to ships at sea. ‘lt should be of great use to fog-bound ships,” he says. A ship in even the thickest fog will be able to see the lights of ships near by.” . „ It is hoped that the “Noctovisor” may soon be placed on every British liner, and it is pointed out that in naval'yvarfare a battleship so equipped would possess eyes that the enemy would lack.