Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-06
AN INDIA RUBBER NAVY.
An Indiana Man Thinks Ironciads Hay
Got to Give Way to Rubber.

An Indiana Man Thinks Ironciads Hay
Got to Give Way to Rubber.
AS the man was going out of the big
hotel he whispered to me in sepulchral
tones Colonel Rice is not right in his
upper story-he is clean daft"
In few minutes / saw the iocund face
of Colonel James II. Rice, ex-auditor o.
Indiana, coming from the elevator. He
looked perfectly sane, and | asked him who
his friend was that had just departed
That man. said the colonel, sis a pro
moter, and has not given me moments
rest since l arrived in the city. I've lust
let him in on the ground floor of an idea of
mine and have shown him illustrations of
1t. | offered 30 have him elected vice presi-
dent Of company that is not formed If
my idea Is put into execution it will revo-
lutlonlze naval warfare, and an ironclad
Will be as harmless as a barge carrying a
load sof Sunday school excursionists."
The colonel invited me to his room.
where | saw a number of illustrations in
the rough of qIeer looking ships asked
him to explain them. His eyes beamed
with pleasure as he proceeded to elucidate
his ideas. THE cuts" he said, represent
war vessels armored 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. ! admit that the common
rubber is not of sufficient toughness to re
sist the impact of the ordinary cannon
ball, but the rubber l 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 l do not mind any
little epithet of that kind"
What is the tall spire in the vesselsyp
That" said the scientific colonel, sis
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 800 feet high. There is only |
one smokestack and it can be taken down /
in minute Cannon? Ali that is a SO. |
cret, but ! shall tell you because YOU are
not a promoter In the rear of the vessel |
there is a turret tower with four destruc |
tive guns. You don't see it, Ell? We'll. /
neither do l, but the enemy appeared, bv !
manipulating machinery there would rise |
from the hull of the vessel a turret. pro- /
tected by india rubber and ready to sink a
fleet of ironclads. Everything on the deck
of my india rubber vessel can be dropped
below in 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 nv 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 ideaY"
1T came to me as an inspiration five
years ago, was in Chicago and wea-
Lened faced man with a voice that sounded
ike the noise made by tearing calico made
life miserable to me He had a scheme.
and for a week he became my shadow. try.
ng to get me to go into it. | worked ont
he india rubber vessel and for three hours
earnestly explained to him the fortune in
t If he would accept the vice presidency.
from that time he has never said scheme /
o me again. have shown it to dozens of
promoters and have talked so much about
that | really think some kind of rubber
an be made to resist and throw back can.
ION balls."-New York Herald