The Lord Advocate said it had always occurred to him that one great secret of collisions at sea was the present system of lights, which made it impossible for the vessel at once to inform another vessel what it was about.  The method of signaling was very crude, and he ventured to say that it was quite out of date when vessels met each other at a rate of speed of 24 to 25 knots.  He had, as an amateur, tried a method which he would attempt to explain.  His idea was to fit up a lantern on deck, showing an electric light.  The instrument would be controlled by the rudder, and the commanding officer of the vessel would be able so to turn it when the helm was put up or down that the light would flash at some distance in front of either bow of the vessel, and thus be a signal to a vessel coming in an opposite direction.  When the helm was amidships, the light was shown straight ahead, and could not be moved until the helm was shifted.  The direction in which the vessel was going could not by any possibility be mistaken, and it was plain that if the lights from two ships crossed each other, then there was danger.  If the lights were clear of each other, then the ships would pass safely.

Sir James Douglass asked if his Lordship had made any experiments.

The Lord Advocate said he had not.  The Board of Trade had such a number of inventions on this subject on hand that he supposed they were already disgusted.  Besides, he was only an amateur, and left the carrying out of the suggestion to others.

Sir James Douglass said this idea of a lantern did very well for a short distance, but for a long distance it utterly failed.  It was very difficult to realize a movement from a distance of over a mile out to sea, and signals were required to be visible for from two to three miles.

The Lord Advocate said his idea depended not upon the object light, but upon the sweep of the light on the water.

Sir James Douglass said all those questions were of the utmost importance to a maritime country.  In regard to experiments with oil on troubled water, he had witnessed them, and he had carefully studied all the reports, and had come to the conclusion that they were all very well in a tub of water or a pond, but on the ocean they were utterly hopeless.  He would stake his reputation on that.  They had been tried in the neighborhood of Aberdeen, and he had prophesied the results before they were commenced.  It was utterly hopeless to think that a quantity of oil had the power of laying a storm—­all the world could not produce oil enough to bring about that result.