, 1885-12-15
ELECTRICITY IN MODERN WARFARE.


rhs Torpedo -nriiitaiJ Telegraph Fir
Ing OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Uses
New YORK SUM-
The essay Of Lieut.. b. A. Fiske, of
navy, read befor the Franklin institute,
of the part played by electricity in war
fare, shows it to DO already n military
agent Of high importance, instead of n
power to be developed only in the
future.
Probably few people appreciate the
fact that electrical torpedoes really date
back over forty years, to the time hen
Col. Samuel Colt, in the presence OF
President Tyler, Gen. Scott, and many
congressman, blew mp vessels FIVE
miles away by the use of an electric
wire. Long after, nevertheless, both in
European wars and in our own civil
conflict, combatants were content to
rely chiefly on the old mechanical mine,
which, when once fixed in a channel for
the defense of a harbor, blows up i'm
partially friend and foe. Hereafter the
almost universal rule will be to plant
torpedoes that remain harmless until a
signal delivered through the electric
wire shows that the enemy is upon them,
which will instantly be responded to by
the return current from the firing bat
terry on shore. The harbor is then no
longer blocked to all friendly commerce
from the moment that torpedoes are
planted. On the other hand, electricity
may 10 employed also to detect the
presence Of fixed torpedoes. In NOV
able torpedoes it exercises constant con
troll over the weapon, directing it against
the enemy. and hence preventing him
from evading it, as he may evade non-
electrical torpedoes.
The torpedo, however, though Just
now the most prominent military appli-
cation of electricity, is only one of
many. The military telegraph was
familiar in our civil war, where it had
its origin; and now military telegraph
corps, with their special apparatus for
laying wire at great speed, form a part
OF all great armies. The telephone sup
plements the telegraph. and both instru-
ments are used in artillery practice to
track hostile vessels so as to determine
exactly when to'ire on them, and also to
register the time of fight of proiectiles.
Since Lieut.. Fiske says that ''the pre-
else instant of start to within a thou
sandth Of a second is recorded
for pro '~ectiles by electricity. the
suggestion comes up whether
some application of electricity
will not n day give more curate in
dicatious in racing than stop watches,
whose recorded iiftbs of a second are
sometimes looked on withdoubt on mar
row questions of breaking records.
Electricity o fires whole broad
sides of prodigious guns at the touch of
a button. thereby not only producing
that absolutely simultaneous discharge,
which has hitherto not been known, but
also eliminating the element of change
in aim produced by even an instant's
roll Of the ship during the slower
process of hand firing. Electricity also
car handle with ease heavy ordnance
in forts and on shipboard: though this
must rather be ranked among its uses
hereafter to be developed.
Electricity examines the bores of guns
to ascertain their condition, and in the
powerful form of the electr o-dynamo
search light unveils in the darkest night
secret movements alike on ship and
shore, OF besiegers and besieged, the
stealthy approach Of the torpedo-boat,
or the movement of a hostile column to
surprise a fort. AS n signal light it is
palpably useful, while it can ever be
made to confuse an enemy by throwing
upon him sudden alterations of blind
ing light and paralyzing darkness.
Launches have been driven by cleo
tricity, which will, doubtless, on ac-
count of the steady improvement of
storage batteries, one day wholly re-
place steam for this purpose. Electric
sights for rifed muskets are now fur
nished for night firing; and combined
with them are small lamps for illuminat
ing the target. Rubber bands fasten
these ingenious devices to the marks
mans gun. There are also electric
rifles, in which the soldier presses a
small button, thereby, unless he is q
very skillful marksman, getting better
aim than when he pulls a trigger.
If, in addition to all these applica-
tons, electricity should furnish a com
pact and not too heavy power for steer
ing military balloons its contributions
to the art of war will be still more
remarkable.