The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-11
READY FOR AN ATTACK.
San FranCiSco's Harbor Will
Be Better Protected Than
That of New York.
THROW IMMENSE PROJECTILEs
A Half-Ton of Dynamite Hurled
Forth by Each Gun at Every
Discharge.

WASHINGTON, D. c., June 1O.-By
next fall, if all goes well, the new battery
of pneumatic guns located at Fort Winfield
Scott, on the Preside reservation, will be
turned over to the War Department. The
battery is even now practically complete,
but owing to the difficulty of securing an
adequate water supply, upon the applica-
ton of the contractors the War Depart
ment granted an extension of the time for
the delivery from April to November y
next.
To operate the plant a powerful steam
pumping equipment is necessary to COM
press the air which throws projec-
tiles laden with half ton of
dynamite, and, of course, the steam
plant requires a water supply for
the boilers. When good progress had been
made in putting up the battery and ma
chinery, the contractors found, to their
dismay, that not drop of fresh water was
to be found on the site. To obtain water
they were obliged to run pipes half a mile
TO tap the conduit leading to the Preside,
and then to install pumps to force the
water up to the bluff. They have con-
tended that the Government should defray
the expense of this work as the water is
intended for the supply of the fort, but as
the contract was so worded as to require
them to furnish every appurtenance neces-
Sary TO the operation of the battery the
success of their application is doubtful
This battery is composed of three fifteen
inch guns-one more than the battery in
stalled at Sandy Hook for the defense of
New York harbor-and it is so placed as to
give it a complete sweep of the main chan
mel LEADING nm fO San EraDp:Sco
AT present there are but two of these
batteries in use, and while it was contem-
plated to install another in Boston harbor
this project may have to be abandoned.
The difficulty lies not in the lack of money.
but in serious objection that has been
made by engineer officers that the dyna-
mite guns would, in such places as Boston
harbor, endanger the whole of the costly
and elaborate system of submarine de-
lenses planned for the protection of the
harbor.
Wherever the depth of the water is not
too great at the entrance to a large harbor
the engineers have placed or intend to
place in case of war, submarine mines and
anchored torpedoes, lying beneath the
surface of the water.
The accepted plan of operations against
c1Oh Obole-ASS W Tue entrance OF q Meet Is
to send ahead small torpedo boats, which,
by firing torpedoes or heavy charges of
powder in the channels, succeed in ex-
ploding the hidden mines by the shock,
and thus clearing the way for the larger
ships. This plan was used with success
By the Japanese at Port Arthur and Wei
hai-wei, so that the engineer officers feel
that it is necessary to protect their mines
in turn by placing them under the line of
fire of their shore batteries, which would
be relied upon to keep off the torpedo
boats.
But, in the case of the dynamite bat
teries, it has been urged that the effect of
a miss in a shot would be to explode all of
the mines in the vicinity of the places
where the projectiles strike. This would
open the very channels that the guns are
designed to aid in keeping closed against
a hostile feet.
Fortunately the objection does not lie
against such harbors as that at San Fran
cisco, where the water is so deep that sub
marine mines cannot be effectively used
but it undoubtedly does apply to many of
our other harbors.