Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Shipping and Navigation. By H. Rosman - Pilots and Lighthouses. Life-Saving Institutions. By E. A. Smith - Salvage and Diving. By E. A. Smith
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salvage and diving.
581
Sweden has always been to the fore in the matter of lighthouse technique
and invention. Thus the first revolving light that is known to have existed
was erected at Marstrand, an island off the west coast of Sweden. Another
Swedish invention was the von Otter System for illuminating with different
intermittent lights certain sectors which contain shoals within their radius.
Of Swedish origin is the Lindberg System of automatic rotators for producing
intermittent light in smaller lighthouses, whereby continual superintendence can
be dispensed with: this system is employed in inshore waterways almost all over
the world. Finally a lamp for constant burning specially constructed for these
lighthouses, with petroleum as an illuminant, was invented by a Swede.
In conclusion the reader’s attention must be directed to the "Aga"
lighthouses erected a few years ago, which have been rapidly disseminated throughout
the whole world, and to which such importance has been attached that their
inventor, the Swede G. Dalén, was in 1912 awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
These lighthouses may be said to be almost ideal: they do not require any
attendance, but burn automatically for a whole year. They are charged with
acetone gas accumulators, which are changed every year. By means of an
ingenious device, the "sun-valve" (solventil), they are extinguished at sunrise and
lighted at sunset automatically. They can be adjusted to a different number of
flashes of varying periods. These lighthouses are manufactured by the
Gasaccu-mulator Company at Stockholm, which is said also to have large branch
factories abroad.
Salvage .and Diving.
Diving operations for salving the cargoes of shipwrecked vessels are
first recorded in Sweden in the latter part of the 17th century, when a
foreigner, F. A. von Treuleben, received a Royal license to transact diving
and salvage business. Subsequently (in 1692 and 1729) two diving
companies, as they were called, were started, whose charters were renewed
from time to time. These two companies succeeded in subsisting side by
side down to 1802, when they were amalgamated into one. The
amalgamated Company survived until 1831, though in the later years of its
existence, it was shorn of certain of its privilegies. In the thirties attempts
were once more made to set on foot a chartered company, and a charter
for one was actually issued. However, diving operations soon passed into
the hands of private speculators.
The credit for having organized salvage work in Sweden is due chiefly
to Consul E. Liljewalch, who in 1869 founded the Neptun Salvage and
Diving Company, famous all over the world. The operations of the
Company are by no means confined to Sweden: they have been extended to
many parts of Europe and Africa. The Neptun Company has moreover
received offers of salvage business from America, although it has not been
in a position to avail itself of them.
The chief materiel of the Company consists at present of 10 salvage
steamers, 8 stationary centrifugal pumps, 18 portable steam pumps, 2 motor pumps
actuated by electricity, 28 complete diving apparatus, 4 pontoons made of iron
cylinders, 2 prismatic iron pontoons, 4 wooden pontoons, 1 800 fathoms of
nine-inch steel cables, 200 fathoms of Galle’s chain, 100 fathoms of chain-cable, 42
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