The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-08-25
Suggestions for Making War Moro
Destructive.

Are not discoveries possible which
should radically alter all the conditions
of fighting, and either render war inn
possible or give certain victory to those
who dare face such destructive machines?
It Is most improbable. The human race
has been studying the art Of war for four
thousand years, and has discovered ex-
ceedingly little, except the fact that an
explosive in a confined space will drive.
missile long way. They have learned
to throw stones scientifically. Since
Agincourt, man has improved on the
discovery of gunpowder, but has invented
nothing absolutely original. For thirty
years the most learned chemists, the
most inventive mechanicians, the most
scientific soldiers, have devoted their
minds to the subject, with akind of fury
of eagerness prompted at once by the love
of fame, by patriotism, and by the hope
of rewards which, to some of them, like
Mr.. Whitworth, Sir. W. Armstrong, and
Herr Krupp, have been granted with
lavish hand, and they have. discovered
nothing. They have made bigger guns,
and better shells, and more explosive
powder, and have devised clever ways OF
keeping the shells out, but that is all.
The way of killing soldiers is to fire lit
tie bullets through small barrel; the
way of destroying works is to fire big
bullets through big barrel--and this
is all. New explosives have been dis
covered, but no new way of throwing
them for the required distance. If ships
ever touched, or nearly touched, as in
Nelson's time, we suppose q catapult
might throw barrel Of nitro-glycerine
which, exploding downward, would an
initiate the enemy's vessel; but the ex-
pertinent has never been tried. A ship
which approached so close could ram;
and such barrel, not being driven by
an explosive, could be kept off by wire
netting.
The only two directions in which even
dreamers can see probability of much
change are the use of electricity or the
use Of balloons, and of either the prospect
is very slight. We can do a great deal
with the lightning, but we can not throw
it, nor is it easy to conceive how it could
be darted, except through a conductor.
Mr.. Urquharts dream of the quietsavant
who fought the capitalists army without
weapons was original, but was only
dream. The capitalists had mastered
the world, and the Proletariat rose in
revolt, resolved to die rather than be
pillaged longer. They had no weapons,
the capitalists owning all; but as the
capitalists army approached electricity
shot from unseen batteries, struck every
particle of metal used by the soldiers, and
the army persisted assuddenly and silent
1x, hot sc Tln&
mere dream. 1t is just conceivable that
some Mr.. Edison might manage SO as to
establish wire connection with an from
clad that the whole structure should be
full of death-giving electricity-be, in
fact, a huge wire charged by dynamo.
But it is only conceivable, as in the sim
liar dream which has greatly interested
some able mechanicians, if so arranging
mirrors as to concentrate intolerable heat
heat that would pulvarise diamond,
at considerable distance. The thing
could be done, we believe, so effectually
that the very ribs of an iron ship would
dissolve into molten metal, but not at
any distance. In balloons there is lit
tie, and very little, more hope. 1t is
always possibility that immense electric
force may be concentrated in such
small space that machine, supported in
the air by balloons, could be guided at
will and if that were achieved, the con-
ditions of war would, of course, be finally
altered. No cities could be defended
against machine showering dynamite
shells, armies might be destroyed in
few minutes, and all fortresses must be
subterranean structures. In practice,
battles would have to be fought in the
air, and the survivors would be accepted
as irresistible masters. But the more
experienced a man of science is, the
more he doubts the possibility of making
an aerial machine independent of the
wind, or of using balloons in war, except
as he would use steeples or other high
pOints of observation - london SPECTATOR