The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-27
T0RPEDoEs.
Tyom ths ran MAJ Gazette.

last ten or fifteen years in the application of
science to warlihe purposes are nowhere more
marked than in the use of electricity as n mili-
tary agent II is applied to military telegraphy,
10 signalling and recommending purposes, to the
determination of the ballistic powers of guns, to
MANY naval uses, such rs signalling and the
simultaneous discharge of broadsides; to various
experimental purposes, including the proof of
guns; last but not least, to the explosion of
land and submarine mines. The history of
the subject, and its most recent phases, were
treated few nights ago at the Royal In
stituton by the gentleman to whom,
above all others, we are indebted for
application of the science. The interest of Pro-
fessor Abels excellent lecture centred, however,
in his account of what has been done in this
country toward the establishment of ~ system of
torpedo defense' 1t was the first authoritative
utterance on the subject which has yet been
heard, and the immense Importance of the ques-
ton combined with the secrecy in which it has
thus far been enshrouded, suggest the desira-
bility of taking advantage of the occasion to
say few words about 1t.
Torpedoes form the most important class of
those marine distractions which are now gene
rally admitted to be indispensable to coast aud
river defense. They are the active as contradis-
tinguished from the passive distractions. The
Importance of obstructing roadsteads rivers,
and harbors--of placing so to speak, an outer
bed or circle of deenses, external to the chain
OF forts and even where no forts eXisted-has
long been understood. 1t would be difficult to
assgn,a date to the first employment of rude APP
planCeS OF some SOrt IOr cHccJlnS IlllS OBJECT;
even submarine mines, which are more ad-
vanced type of defense than piles and
artificial barriers and fre-ships, were used
as far back as the sixteenth century,
when they were employed, in 1888, by the Duke
of Parma at the siege of Antwerp. The English
used them against the French ships off Rochelle,
: in 1923; and during the long lapse of years be-
tween 1923 and 1854 the subject was never
wholly lost sight of. Always there were men,
with contrivances more or less ingenious, more
or less impracticable, ready, when the oppor
tunity offered, to revolutionize with their torpe
does the art of coast defense. But science
during that time in its infancy The torpedoes
in occasional use prior to 1854 were rude and i'm
perfect and the development of the subject was
cramped by the absence of sufficient knowledge
study to enable electricity to be usefully en-
plOyed as the agent of ignition. Thus the first
torpedoes were of the mechanically exploding
class. All sorts of plans were devised, and all
sorts OF agents were employed-percussive,
frictional, chemical. and clockwork. 1t is evil
dent, however that mechanical tOrpedocs can
never be altogether satisfactory. They are
open to one salient objection, viz, that once
in position and ready for action they close the
navigation alike to friend and foe and there is
always a certain amount of danger attending
their manipulation. These evils have been at
tempted to be mitigated by various safety ra-
rangements so called, the application or the
removal of which, however, often as not
proves so dangerous as to furnish formidable
objection to their employment. Thus, when
the Russians employed, for the defense of
arrangement which should have been removed
Mt the last moment, they generally for very
good reasons of their own, neglected to re-
move it, and the torpedoes in consequence
proved absolutely 1nnocuOus. Again, the re-
moval of the torpedo is frequently source
of danger; and several instances have recently
occurred in America of loss of life under these
circumstances. Nevertheless, mechanical torpe-
does Will probably always possess certain
value, as on remote foreign stations, where the
means OF defense have to be eXtemporized on an
emergency, or for what are called drifting or
movable torpedoes. This abortve employment
OF tOrpedoes in the Russian of 1855 marks
the first systematic use of the instrument in
European warfare on large scale. In 1855
electricai torpedoes were attempted; and by
1899 the Austrian Government had succeeded,
with the assistance of Baron Won Elmer, in per-
feeting sufficiently simple aud practical system
OF electrical t9Epedo. dsde2 &c was applied
without results, mt Venice. Until
lately the Austrians may be said to have headed
the science; and their exhibition of complete
system of torpedo defense formed an in
teresting- part nf tie display at Paris IN
80. NO really important iitnstinioih od Oi
the great value of torpedoes was furn. Nv"
until the late American war, when these
agents were employed in many forms, chiefly by
the Confederates, and with remarkable results.
No less than twenty-five vessels of the Federal
navy were destroyed, and nine others were in
jured by the explosion of torpedoes; and thus
an impetus was given to the subject similar to
that which breech-loading derived from the Bo-
hemian campaign of 1866. If any one wishes to
study the detailed application of torpedoes dur
ing the American war, he can hardly do better
than consult Won Scheliha's Treatise On Coast
Defense where he will also find the following
important deductions from 1ne experience OBJ
tained during thi,s contest. mo forts now built
can keep out large fleet unless the channel is
nbstructed" ''No fleet can force a passage if
kept under fire by distractions" 'In no single
instance did naval attack succeed when the
channel had been obstructed, and in no single
instance did it fail when the channel had re-
manned open.
The attention of our Government was directed
to the subject towards the close of 1863 when a
committee was appointed, at the suggestion of
Colonel Jervois r. E., for the thorough practi-
cal investigation of the whole question of
marine Obstructive defense. From that time
until the latter part of last year, the committee
was actively engaged in an experimental in
uuiry and the result has been the compilation
of a report which is likely to prove the most
complete and exhaustive treatise on
the subject yet produced Hitherto
the report has been treated as confidential and
it is no doubt desirable that the committees re-
objection can be urged against the production OF
so much of the report as would inform the public
in general terms of the successful termination OF
the committees labors, and of the broad results
purchased at a not nconsderable expenditure OF
time and money. 1t would be satisfactory tC
have some definite and authoritative assurance
that the national interests have not been ne
elected in this vital question of detense-as wei
as an assurance that the recommendations o
the committee viii be duly and practically ac
cepted We observe that the very inadequate
sum of $4,000 has been taken in this years esti
mates for the provision of torpedo equipments
and for further inquiry and instruction. IN