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Operation of Fog-Signals from a Distance

Abstract

IN the issue of NATURE for July 10, p. 58, reference is made to an installation for the operation of fog-signals from a distance. I wish to direct attention to two misstatements. The apparatus is not automatic in the strict sense of the term, as it requires to be started and stopped by human agency. The statement “These guns are the only automatic signals at present in use” may apply to the Clyde, but there are two lighthouses in the port of Dublin which are equipped with automatic fog-signalling apparatus, and these have been in operation there for almost two years. The system in Dublin depends on the interruption of a beam of light by fog. The light beam traverses the channel in an oblique direction over a distance of about half a mile, and the apparatus upon which the light acts is so arranged as to respond when the visibility falls to a dangerous degree. These lighthouses in Dublin were undoubtedly the first completely automatic lighthouses to be in operation.

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DOWLING, J. Operation of Fog-Signals from a Distance. Nature 118, 265 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118265b0

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