Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/534

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Pocket-Flashlight Distress-Signals

��AXKWtt\slem <il warning ajiiinjach- ing vessels along the Atlantic Coast when danger is near and of signaling to craft in distress has been adopted by the United States Coast Guard. It involves the use of pocket electric flashlights instead of the flaring red torches formerly employed. The new light will permit signaling to vessels at greater distances than has heretofore been

��casing a dr>- cell battery. At one end there is a parabolic reflector about five inches in diameter. Fitted at the base of the reflector is a six-volt bulb with a highly concentrated tungsten filament. At the other end is a "key" or switch to turn the current on or off and flash the light. Messages are sent b\' long and short flashes, corresponding with the Morse code dots and dashes.

���The flashlight consists of a heavy nickel-plated barrel en- casing a dry cell battery and having at one end a parabolic reflector fitted with a bulb containing a tungsten filament

possible and will also make it possible to flash communications. Hence Coast Guardsmen can signal m a ^hip m distress its approximate [position and ti'U the master thi- best course to safe water. Altiiougii onK- slightly larger than tiu' pocket lam|)s in common use, the new light i)ro(luces a flash that can be seen for seven miles in good weather. It con- sists of a heavv nickel piatcil barri-1 en-

��Keteiiiiy ("oast Guard oliicers made experiments with the new signal light olT the X'irginia Cajies on a stormy night, ("ape ilenr\- light, which under good con<litions ii^ \isibU' for nearly lwent\- threi' mill's, could not bi' seen for more than eight miles. The pocket flash could be sei'n four and one-half miles.

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