The “appendix” here referred to is from the pen of the venerable Prof.
Joseph Henry, chairman of the Lighthouse Board at Washington. To his
credit be it recorded that at a very early period in the history of
fog-signalling Prof. Henry reported in favor of Daboll’s trumpet,
though he was opposed by one of his colleagues on the ground that
“fog-signals were of little importance, since the mariner should know
his place by the character of his soundings.” In the appendix, he
records the various efforts made in the United States with a view to
the establishment of fog-signals. He describes experiments on bells,
and on the employment of reflectors to reinforce their sound. These,
though effectual close at hand, were found to be of no use at a
distance. He corrects current errors regarding steam-whistles, which
by some inventors were thought to act like ringing bells. He cites the
opinion of the Rev. Peter Ferguson, that sound is better heard in fog
than in clear air. This opinion is founded on observations of the noise
of locomotives; in reference to which it may be said that others have
drawn from similar experiments diametrically opposite conclusions. On
the authority of Captain Keeney he cites an occurrence, “in the first
part of which the captain was led to suppose that fog had a marked
influence in deadening sound, though in a subsequent part he came to
an opposite conclusion.” Prof. Henry also describes an experiment made
during a fog at Washington, in which he employed “a small bell rung by
clockwork, the apparatus being the part of a moderator lamp, intended
to give warning to the keepers when the supply of oil ceased. The
result of the experiment was, he affirms, contrary to the supposition
of absorption of the sound by the fog.” This conclusion is not founded
on comparative experiments, but on observations made in the fog alone;
for, adds Prof. Henry, “the change in the condition of the atmosphere,
as to temperature and the motion of the air, before the experiment
could be repeated in clear weather, rendered the result not entirely
satisfactory.”
This, I may say, is the only experiment on fog which I have found
recorded in the appendix.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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