Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-11-30
POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS IN KILLING.

Are no discoveries pOSSlUlt WlllCn Suoulu lt.-
| ically alter all the conditions of fighting, and
either render war impossible or give certain
victory to those who dare face such machines?
| 1t is most improbable. The human race has
been studying the Art of War for four thou
sand years, and has discovered exceedingly
| little except that an explosive in confined
space will drive missile a long way. They
have learned to throw stones scientifically.
Since Agncourt, 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 this subject, with a
kind of fury of eagerness prompted at once
by the love of fame, by patriotism and by the
I hope of rewards which to some of them, like
Mr. Whitworth, Sir w. Armstrong and Herr
Krupp, have granted with a lavish hand, and
have discovered nothing. They have made
bigger guns and better shells, and more ex-
plOsive powder and have devised clever means
of keeping the shells out, but that is all. The
way of killing soldiers is to fire little bullets
through small barrel !; the way of destroying
works is to fire big bullets through large bar
rel-and that is ALL New explosives have
been discovered, but no new way of throwing
them for the required distance. If ships ey-
er touched, or nearly touched, as in Nelson's
time, we suppose catapult might throw
barrel of nitro-glycerne which, exploding
downward, would annihilate the enemy's yes-
sci but the experiment has never been tried.
A ship which approached so close could ram;
and such barrel not being driven 10y an ex-
plosive could he kept off by wire netting
The only two directions in which even dream
ers can see a 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 great deal with lightning, but we cam
not throw it, nor is it easy to conceive how 1t
could be darted except through conductor.
Mr. UruuLart's dream of the quiet savant who
fought the Capitalists army without weapons
was original, but was only Il dream. The Capt.
talists had mastered the world, and the Proleta-
riat rose in revolt, resolved to die rather than
be pi laged longer. They had no weapons,
the capitalist owning all but rs the Capital
sts army approached, electricity shot out from
unseen batteries, struck every particle of met
al used by the soldiers, and the army persisted
as suddenly and silently as that of Sennacl'e-
rib. That is a mere dream. 1t is just con-
ceivahle that some Mr.. Edison might manage
so to establish Il wire connection with an iron
clad that the whole structure should be full OF
death-giving electricity-be, in fact huge
wire charged by a dynamo. But it is only
conceivable, as is the similar dream-whlch
has greatly interested some able mechanl-
cians-of so arranging mirrors as to concen-
trate ntolerable heat, heat that would pulve-
rize diamond at considerable distance.
The thing could be done, we belive, so effect
uallv that the very ribs of an iron ship would
dissolve into molten metal, but not at amy
distance. In balloons, there is little, and
very little, more hope 1t is always pos
sibility that immense electric force may be
concentrated in such a small space. that Il
machine supported in the air by balloons could
be guided at will ; and if that were achieved,
the conditions 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 he subterranean strnc-
lures In practice, battles would have to be
fought in the air, and the survivors would be
accepted as irresistible masters. But the more
experienced 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 stee-
pies or otherhigh points of observation. spec
tOtUr,