The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-06-26
PRICE 5 CENTS.
IN MODERN wAaFAR
The TorpedO-NInitary Telegraph - Fir.
ing Observation-Disclosures Uses.


New York SUM-
The essay of Lieut. B. A. Fiske, of the
ravy, read befor the Franklin institute,
the part played by electricity in war
fare, shows it to be already a military
agent of high Importance, instead of
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 when
Col. Samuel Colt, in the presence of
President Tyler, Gen. Scott, and many
congressman, blew up vessels five
rules 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 harbor, blows up i'm
partially friend and foe. Hereafter the
almost universal rule will be to plant
torpedoes that remain harmless until
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
may be 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 lust
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 bad
its origin; and now military telegraph
corps, with their special apparatus for
laying wire at great speed, form part
of all great armies. The telephone sup,
plemerts the telegraph, and both instru-
ments are used in artillery practice to
track hostile vessels so as to determine
exactly when to fire on them, and also to
register the time of fight of pro ectiles.
since Lieut.. Fiske says that the pre-
else instant of start to within thou
sandth of second" is recorded
for pro ectiles by electricity the
suggestion comes up whether
some application Of electricity
will not one day give more accurate in
dicatiOns in racing than stop watches,
whose recorded ifths of second are
sometimes looked on with doubt on mar
row questions of breaking records.
Electricity now 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
can handle with ease heavy ordnance
~, 4 81, Il.
must rather be ranked among its uses
hereafter to be developed.
Electricity examines the bOres of guns
= ascertain their condition, and in the
owerful form of the eIectr o-dynamo
sarch light unveils in the darkest night
secret movements alike on ship and
more. of besiegers and besiege1, the
teaithy approach Of the torpedo-boat,
- the movement of hostile column to
surprise fort. AS signal light it is
palpably useful, while it can even 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
GRACE batteries, one day wholly re-
lace steam for this purpose. ElectrtS
81 hts for ri1ed muskets are now fur
shed 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 a.
very skillful marksman, getting better
aim than when he pulls trigger.
If, in addition to all these applica-
t:0uC oIoatripifu ShOT1Id fpr ali
TACT and not too heavy power for steer
t1g military balloons, its contributions
10 the art of war viii be still more
remaykahIe