Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-16
AN INDIA RUBBER NAVY.
An Indiana Man Thinks IroncIatis Have
Got to give Way to Rubber.


An Indiana Man Thinks IroncIads Have
Got to give Way to Rubber.
As the ioan was going out of the big
hotel he wht,pered to me in sepulchral
tones, Colonel Rice is not right in his
upper story-he is clean daft"
In few minutes l saw the iocund face
OF Colonel James H. Rice, ex-auditor of
Indiana, coming from the elevator He
looked perfectly 81 ne, and asked him who
his friend was that had just departed.
That man." sale the colonel, lis a pro-
moter and has not given me moments
rest since arrived in the city. I've just
let him in on the ground floor of an idea of
mine and haD shown him illustrations of
it. offered to have him elected vice presi
dent of a company that is not formed. III
my idea is put into execution it will reyo-
lutioniZe naval warfare, and an ironclad
will be as harmless US a barge CARRYING a
load of Sunday school excursionists
The colonel invited me to his room.
where l saw number of illustrations in
the rough OF queer looking ships. / asked
him to explain them. His eyes beamed
with pleasure as ne proceeded to elucidate
his ideas. 1.-The outs,' he said. represent
war vessels armoIed with tough india rub
Der. Each vessel is protected with rubber
seven feet in thickness and with enough
give or elasticity to it to send the largest
ball ever fired against it bounding back
INTO the water. i admit that the common
rubber Is not of sufficient toughness to re-
slst Che impact OF the ordinary cannon
bail. but the rubber / intend to use is not
common. Every man who makes an in
nOvation and relegates established meth
DDS to the past is in the beginning consid
cred crank. But | do not mind any
little epithet of that kind"
What IS the tall spire in the vessels?"
That" said the scientific colonel. lis
the lookout. 1t is tower that can be tele-
scoped IN a second to the surface of the
vessels deck and erected in the same space
of time. 1t is 500 feet high There is only
one smokestack and it can be taken down
in minute. Cannon? All! that is Sc
cret, but l shall tell you because you are
not promoter. In the rear of the vessel
there Is turret tower with four destruc-
tive guns. You don't see it. Ell? Well,
neither do |, but ifthe enemy appeared, by
manipulating machinery there would rise
from the hull of the vessel turret, pro-
tected by india rub bier and ready to sink a
fleet of ironclads. Everything on the deck
of my india rubber vessel can be dropped
below in n few moments"
Have you ever studied that branch of
mathematics which treats of trajectory"
The colonel had, and added: My boy, a
ball dropped on the deck of one of my YES
sells would bound a mile high There
Is absolutely no powder or force strong
enough to drive ball into the rubber"
Zone more question, colonel. How long
have you had this peculiar elastic idea?"
1t came to ne as an inspiration five
years ago. was in Chicago and wea-
zened faced man with voice that sounded
like the noise made by tearing calico made
life miserable to me. He had Il scheme,
and for week he became my shadow. try
ing to get me to 90 into it. | worked out
the india rubber vessel and for three hours
| earnestly explained to him the fortune in
it if he would accept the vice presidency
From that time lie has never said scheme
to me again. Lave shown it to dozens OF
promoters and have talked so much about
it that | really think some Kind of rubber
can be made to resist and throw back can
non lls."-New York Herald.