The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-08-23
ERICSSON'S LIFE WORK.
HOW THE INVENTOR HOPED TO
DEFEND NEW YORK HARBOR.

His Genius and His Money Concentrates
in the Completion Of the Torpedo
Boat Destroyer-Death Interrupts Him
in His Plans.
In an obscure part of the Brooklyn navy
yard, behind 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, end upon the sue
cessful completion of which he hoped to
achieve a success second only to that Of his
Monitor. "My life work." said the great
inventor two months before his death to
engineer who had been near and dear
to him since the eventful days Of 1851, "is
to provide a means of defense for New
York harbor." 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.
sat the time he spoke to me of his life
work, ~ said the engineer above referred to,
che was active enough to go up stairs two
steps Mt a time, and his shoulders were
quite as 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
I never saw him SO filled 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 browning ambition of his life, a fitting
goal in which to close 80 useful and SO
brilliant a career.
HIS DESTROYER A FAILURE.
"Day after day, night after night, he
watched the progress of that boat as a
mother watches her child. I never saw
such Jealous devotion. He and his true
friend, the late G.. II. Delamater, paid out
of their private purses the $4,000 neces-
sary to build the Destroyer. This is a
experiment, but they did it without a
scruple, Ericsson feeling confident that his
new craft would be heartily received by
the government to whom he had, in a sim
spirit of generosity, given the Monitor.
His hopes were strengthened after the De-
was launched by a series of very
tests made in the North river.
These trials ran through several years, and
they were witnessed and highly COM
mended by boards of experts.
"And yet when the Destroyer was COM
pleted it was not purchased by the govern
ment. Perhaps the vessel lacked certain
requirements, perhaps she was deficient In
many things that have been recently sup
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 a q
model for torpedo experts in subsequent
years, I say it is a shame that Ericsson's
great invention was allowed to lose itself
in the unnoticed wrecks of the old time
hulks.".
The Destroyer is an iron vessel 100 feet
long, IL feet wide and II feet deep. pro-
tected by a wrought iron breastwork of
great strength near the bow The vessel
was designed to supplant the widely prev
alent system of rams. Placed along the
keel, projecting from the bow, was a subma-
rine gun of 16 inch caliber, 80 feet long, the
muzzle projecting through the opening at
the stem. The projectile is Is feet long,
and as originally designed it weighed 1900
pounds, including its explosive, which con
sisted of 800 pounds of gun cotton. The
Destroyer attacks bows on, discharging its
projectile at a distance of 500 feet from the
enemy.
.ERICssON's IDEA.
"a heavy body of regular FORM" wrote
Ericsson himself, as early rs 1876, whose
density is greater than that of atmospheric
air, moving laterally through the atmos-
phere, is inexorably under the influence of
the earth's attraction, and therefore de-
scribes a foreshortened parabolic curve
during it's fight; 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, If put in mo-
tion under the surface Of a quiescent fluid
of unlimited extent, such a body will con-
tinue to in a straight line until the
motive power which propels it becomes
less thar the resisting force of the sur
rounding medium"
The advantages of the Destroyer over
the ram are plainly apparent, and they
form a part of the controlling idea in the
construction of u new ships, where the
ram and the torpedo both have n place.
Having approached within range the De
stroyer was designed to send q 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
tu0 cOuUrArys III UASAluB AS hItdCA Hubt
approach within extremely short range,
her movements being proportionately ex-
posed to the deadliest sort of fire. In ram
ming she is subject to as 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 splen-
did promise on her trial trips, that it has
always seemed to many Of E~ricsson's friends
q mistake on the part Of the government
in not purchasing it outright. It was
known then, as it is known now, that John
Ericsson had experimental to final conclu-
sions as to the perfect safety of his plan,
both az to gun and projectile, using either
compressed air or slow burning powder
for his %propelling force.-New York Times.