Abstract
THE use of compressional waves in water for the measurement of the depth of the sea beneath a vessel now lacks the novelty which it possessed some years ago, when practical schemes for using them in navigation were first put forward. Briefly, all such schemes reduce to three essential parts—the source of the compressional impulse, the receiver of the echo from the ocean bed, and the mechanism for recording the time interval between the emission of the original disturbance and the moment of receipt of the echo, or, in some cases, the direction of the returning wave front. Small explosive charges dropped into the water, automatic hammer-blows on diaphragms, and diaphragms which are caused to vibrate electrically are used as sources of compressional disturbances within the audible range and form parts of actual sounding sets which are obtainable commercially. Microphones attached to diaphragms exposed to the sea are in general use for receiving the echo and for transforming the sound energy into electrical power. Various mechanisms, some of which are simple and ingenious, while others appear, from their descriptions in technical papers, to be unduly complicated and too delicate for continued sea-going use, are favoured by different firms who have embarked on the manufacture of echo-sounding gear. A typical echo-sounding apparatus for use in shallow water was described in NATURE in an article dealing with the use of the method in navigation.1
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References
NATURE, March 29, 1924, pp. 463–65.
Special Publication No. 14 of the International Hydrographic Bureau, Monaco, August 1926.
NATURE, May 9, 1925, pp. 689–90.
Beiheft zu den Nachrichen für Seefahrer. Nr. 7, 1926.
Ibid., Nr. 41, 1926.
Koninklijk Mag. en Met. Observatorium te Batavia. Verhandetingen No. 17, 1925.
NATURE, April 10, 1926, pp. 531–33.
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B., J. Developments in the Use of Echo-Sounding Apparatus. Nature 118, 846–848 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118846a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118846a0