In Meriden, Connecticut, the disappearance of Miss Emily McCarthy, a nurse, led searchers to Black Pond after her hat was found in the water. The grim discovery suggested that she had drowned, possibly after wandering into the pond in the dark and becoming confused.
But finding her proved difficult. Dragging the pond brought no results, and the water kept its secret.
Then Scout Executive John D. Roberts tried something different. He made a simple water telescope from a keg fitted with a glass bottom. From a boat, he lowered the homemade device over the side and peered down into the pond’s depths.
There, at last, the missing nurse was seen.
Water Telescope Finds Missing Body
Miss Emily McCarthy, a nurse of Meriden, Connecticut, disappeared and her hat was found in Black Pond, indicating that she had drowned, probably by wading into the water in the dark and becoming confused.
Every effort to find the body by dragging failed, so Scout Executive John D. Roberts made a water telescope from a keg, with a glass bottom. Holding this over the side of a boat and peering into the depths of the pond, the body of the missing nurse was finally seen and brought ashore.
Source: The Hazard Herald. Hazard, Ky. October 7, 1921.
