Daboll's Fog Trumpet

JANUARY 16, 1864.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

45

DABOLL'S FOG-TRUMPET IN THE BRITISH CHANNEL.

DABOLL'S FOG-TRUMPET.

WE give on this page an engraving of Dungeness Light-house, in the British Channel, where the English Government has recently stationed the FOG-TRUMPET invented by Mr. C. L. Daboll, of New London, Connecticut, and which is destined to produce a complete revolution in fog-signals for lighthouse purposes. An experiment on the trumpet, in connection with a bell and steam-horn previously put there, was made by the Trinity House Committee of London, on board their steam-yacht, on the 17th of November last, commencing at noon. The trumpet, bell, and horn were each tried in succession

for three minutes; then they were all sounded together for the same period of time, and afterward made continuous until 2 P.M., when the bell and horn ceased, and the fog-trumpet continued to give its signals at intervals of ten seconds, with five seconds' length of blast, until 3 P.M., when the trial ceased, and the yacht then steamed away for Dover.

There was a strong wind at the time of the trial, with frequent squalls of rain, and a heavy surf on the beach, but the result was so satisfactory to the Committee that the English Government purchased the apparatus of Mr. Daboll, and have made it a permanent signal at Dungeness Light-house. It

is placed in the smaller building, as shown in the illustration.

The American public have been made familiar with this signal through repeated discussions relative to its being placed on Cape Race. Captain Judkins, of the Cunard mail-steamer Scotia, in a speech at Liverpool on the removal of Captain Stone for allowing his vessel to get on shore in a fog at Cape Race, gave strong testimony in its favor. He said that but for the action and hostility of the British Government to this signal it would have been placed at Cape Race before this time, and not only the disaster of the Africa, but many others would have been avoided.

OBSTRUCTIONS IN CHARLESTON
HARBOR.

AN occasional correspondent from before Charleston sends us a sketch of a Floating Battery now ashore near the beach, and of several obstructions to the harbor washed ashore during the late storm. They will be found below. He says: "The battery was built to carry four heavy guns. It broke away in the recent gale, and brought with it a portion of the rebel obstructions. These consist of large pieces of timber, 15 or 20 feet long, to some of which were attached pieces of railroad iron joined together by links. The timbers were badly worm-eaten."

REBEL BATTERY AND OBSTRUCTIONS IN CHARLESTON HARBOR.—[FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT.]