The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-19
ERICSSON'S LIFE WORK.
HOW THE INVENTOR HOPED TO
DEFEND NEW YORK HARBOR.

| In the Completion of the Torpedo
Boat Destroyer-Death Interrupts Him
In His Plans.
In an obscure part Of the Brooklyn navy
| yard, besAnd the Cob dock, half submerged
In the accumulated mud of six years, lies
the iron vessel Destroyer, to which John
Ericsson devoted the energies of the last
seven years Of his life, and upon the sue
cessful completion of which ne hoped to
achieve success second only to that of his
! Monitor. MY life work." said the great
inventor two months before his death to
an engineer who had been near and dear
to him since the eventful days Of 1861, sis
| TO provide a means Of defense for New
! York harber." 1t was with this Destroyer,
now neglected and almost forgotten, that
he had hoped TO defend the greatest harbor
/ of the country to which he had given his
! genius,
AT the time he spoke to me Of his life
| work, said the engineer above referred to,
"he was active enough to 60 up stairs two
| steps at a time, and his shoulders were
| quite rs erect as they were twenty-five
| years before, when he and I worked to-
| gether over the plans Of the Monitor. In
! those few months just preceding his death
never saw him SO filed with determine
| ton He based all the hopes Of his life
upon the Destroyer. He thought Of moth
! ing else. He worked for no other object.
To defend the harbor of New York was
the crowning ambition of his life, a fitting
goal In which to close SO useful and so
brilliant career
his DESTROYER FAILURE.
DAY after day, night after night, he
watched the progress Of that boat rs a
mother watches her child. never saw
such jealous devotion. He and his true
friend, the lste G. II. Delamater, paid out
OF their private purses the $3.50, 900 heces-
sary to build the Destroyer. This Is a
pretty big sum for two men TO pay on an
experiment, but they lid it without a
scruple, Ericsson feeling confident that his
new craft would be heartily received by
the government to whom he had, In q sim
| liar spirit Of generosity, given this Monitor.
His hopes were sirens thened after tha De-
stroyer was launched by q series af very
successful tests made in the North FLYER,
These trials ran through several years, and
they were witnessed and highly COM
mended by boards OF experts.
"And YET when thu Destroyer was CON-
pleted it was not purchased by the govern
ment- Perhaps the vessel lacked certain
requirements, perhaps she was deficient in
many things that have bean recently SUD-
piled in later models. Yet the system upon
which that vessel was built is precisely the
system upon which torpedo guns so
called, are built today, and, for the very
reason that the Destroyer served as
model for torpedo experts IN subsequent
years, say it is u shame that Ericsson's
great invention was allowed to lose itself
In the unnoticed wrecks of the old time
hulks."
The Destroyer is an from vessel 100 feet
long, IL feet wide and IL feet deep, pro-
tected by a wrought iron bresstwork of
great strength near the bow. The vessel
was designed to suppiAnt the widely prev
alent system Of rams. Placed along the
keel, projecting from the bow, Nvasa subna-
rine gun Of 10 inch caliber, so fest long. the
muzzle projecting through the opening at
the stem The proiectile is Is feet long,
and as originally designed it weighed ], 800
pounds, including its explosive, which CON
sisted OF 800 pounds of gun cotton. The
Destroyer attacks bows on, discharging its
projectile at distance of 500 feet from tho
enemy.
ERICssoN's IDEA.
"a heavy body of regular form, wrote
Ericsson himself, as early ss 1876, "whose
density is greater than that Of atmospheric
air, moving laterally through tho Gtrncs-
phera, is inexurably under the influence Of
the earth's attraction, and therefore de-
scribes foreshortened paraboiic curve
during its flight; while a submerged body,
the weight Of which is equal to the water
it displaces, is not affected by the earth's
attraction, and consequently, IL put in mo-
ton under the surface of a quiescent fluid
OF unlimited extent, such body will con-
tinue to move in a straight line until the
motive power which propels it becomes
less than the resisting force of the sur
rounding medium"
The advantages of tho DESTROYER. over
the ram are plainly apparent, and they
form part of the controlling idea in the
construction of our new ships, whereShe
ram and the torpedo both have O place
Having approached within range the De-
Btroyer was designed to send torpedo
through the water, aimed at the most vul-
nerable part of the ship-the unarmored
part below the water line. Against a force
of 800 pounds of high explosives thus pro-
jected in a vital spot water tight compart-
ments would be Of no avail. The ram, on
the contrary, in making its attack must
approach within extremely short range,
her movements being proportionately ex-
posed TO the deadHest sort of fire, In ram
ming she is subject TO IS severe a shock as
her opponent.
This was the method of defending the
harbor Of New York that John Ericsson
so fondly cherished all through the last
years OF his life. At the time of his death
the Destroyer was not completed. There
were certain details that he hoped to per-
feet before offering her to the government,
and he was actively at work upon these
minor features when he died. The vessel
at that time, however, was in such excel
lent condition, and had shown such SPLEEN
did promise on her trial trips, that il has
always seemed to many of EricsSonis friends
a mistake on the part Of the government
in not purchasing it outright. 1t was
known then, as it IS known now, that John
Ericsson had experimeHted to final conclu-
sions as to the perfect safety Of his plan,
both as 10 gun and projecrile, using either
compressed Eir or slow burning powder
for his propelling ferce.-New York Times.
a Salt Producing Invention.