The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-16
NETWORK OF DEADLY FORCES
Making Electricity Contribute to the DIS
comfort of Zoe.

Z. Il
Making Electricity Contribute to the Dis
comfort of IA Zoe.
The bays and harbor of New York
are peculiarly adapted for defense py
submarine mines and controlied torpe-
does operated by electricity Iroih
shore. The ten 1athom curve 600 teet)
of soundings runs about hve STATUTE
or land miles from the hockaWay
Beach shore. The air me a.
from this shore line to the BATTERY Is
about ~ miles. The entrance 10 the =
Gedney channel, Through which All
heavy draught vessels must pass IN
entering New York harbor, Is III miles
from the Narrows, in an air llne' anu
15% miles by channel, while the Nan,
rows are, in turn. seven ana haiL
miles from the Battery. The water
snaces within the ten-fathom line, or
Roclaway Beech and Coney Island
and comprising the channels OF entry
into the harbor, could be so pldnteu
with submarine mines and guarueu oy
moving torpedoes, all controlled from
shore, as to make 1t hazardous lor an
enemy's vessel to enter them; 50 that a
Acct could not. in all probability, APP
proach within II miles of the Battery,
or Is miles of the business center or
Rrooxlyn. for bombardment purposes,
without serious risk of destruction. AT
these distances New York could not De
reached at all. and only the outlying
districts of Brooklyn could be seriously
damaged. by even the heaviest ord
nance afioat.
An enemy's fleet, therefore, to do Sc
rious damage to New York, Jersey City
| and Brooklyn, would have TO force a
passage through the lower bay and
| Narrows into the upper bay and har-
| Dor: and while / firmly believe that
| submarine mines and the other auXii-
| iaries of defense will not to-day stop
! determined admiral, of the FNarragut
type. any more than they did Farragut
himself in Mobile Bay in a. they can
undoubtedly infiict serious damage.
| SUBMARINE MINES.
The army engineers have prepared
elaborate plans for the location or
these mines in all OF the approaches
! and channels in the bays and harbor.
| They consist of buoyant steel cases,
containing four or five hundred pounds
! of dynamite or other high explosive,
and attached to heavy Mushroom
anchors by a length of cable, so that
they will stand in the channel 10 or ~
feet below the waters surface. Each
mine is connected by an electric cable
to an operating station on shore, for
example, at Sandy Hook, the Dry Ro-
mer Shoal, New Dorp Beach, Norton $
Point (west end of Coney 1sland,)
Forts Wadsworth and Hamilton. at the
Narrows. etc. At the operating sta
ton are suitable batteries and key
boards so arranged that the operator
can explode any mine or group o.
mines at will. There Is also an accu
rate chart covering the area controlled
, by the station, and indicating the ex
act location of each mine BY means
of what is known as a range and posi-
ton finder, the movements of any YES
4 sci within the area are followed from
the station with telescopes and her pc
sition is shown on the chart When
$ ever this position comedies with the 10
cation of a mine, the ship Is over tina
mine, and If the latter is exploded tn
: ship will be struck and destroyed o
disabled. This system of mines, how
ever has its limitations, for the wealth
!, er must be clear, and IL must be light
for the observer TO see and follow tn
vessel with the telescope. For thi
p reason some mines are so arrange
that they will explode whenever struc
by an object as well as when fire
3 electrically from shore. Such mines
however, are dangerous to friend an
foe alike, and cannot be generally EN-
70 ployed If the channels are to be use
at all by our own vessels. 1t is ger
trally understood that the army ha
mines cables and operating static
equipment manufactured and ready Il
immediate installation in New Yor
. bays and harbor in case of necessity.
q" Submarine boats are as yet untrue
in warfare. but great improvement
>, have been made in them, and the ele'
: trically driven and controlled subm;
rine boat will undoubtedly have a pa
70 to play DIN any future naval war. or
h. the defense of our harbors.
Such. then, are briefly, the princip
elements of defense of New York CT
Ia and vicinity against an attack by {
ee enemy's fleet, in case of sudden host
tiles, and provided our first and secoi
great lines of defense are in their pre-
IT, ent state of incompletion. Applied ele
in trictty, as the great practical develo
ment of these modern times, will pl
an important part in such a defen'
.er but behind and beyond all modern IN
of provements in the mechanical app
le ances of warfare. land or naval.
must rely upon the patriotism, .ingen
in ity. bravery. and endurance of our pc
he pie; qualities which have never be
"a found wanting in times of our cou
try's need. and upon which our COVER
ment has never yet called in vain.
cir S. Dana Greene