The San Francisco call., 1896-02-19

and inventor, known the world over. His
inventions comprise bulkheads of his own
contrivance for preventing ships from
sinking, cushions for rams on warships, so
that at times OF peace they may not acci-
dentaily injure other vessels, and many
other contrivances.
His whole life, when not fighting, has
been given in large measure to a study
OF how to prevent ships from sinking.
The famous rear-admlral was here
thirty-four years ago, when midshipman
in the navy. 1t was in 1864, at the time of
the civil war. 1t will be remembered that
Russia, with feeling of friendship toward
the United States. sent two vessels to this
country, one to New York and the other
to San Francisco. The rear-admiral,
then youth OF IA, was aboard the latter
vessel.
He has had many thrilling and danger
Gus experiences in the different waters of
the world since then. He was given the
rank of lieutenant for the inventio of the
collision mat and received two promotions
during the war With Turkey. He was first
made captain OF a corvette and then cap
tain of a frigate. The reason of the first
captaincy was because he was the first man
to hoist boats with torpedos. The promo
tion to the second position was because he
attacked and subdued Turkish feet in
It's own harbor.
After that he made a speciality of attack
ing the fleets of the Turks in their harbors,
and, as all readers of naval history know,
sank many vessels.
His last voyage around the world was as
commander of the Victory. The voyage
was begun in 1856 and ended in 1885, and
was for the study of the temperature and
specific gravity of water. For his work
then he was made chief of artillery in the
Russian navy. He took four wears and
wrote book called 1.-THE Victory and the
Pacific" 1t is in Russian and French and
contains all his conclusions in regard to
temperatures and specific gravities.
1t is customary for the Russian Academy
of Sciences to each year award prizes to
the authors of the most valuable scientific C
books issued during the year. In 1894, the
year the book came outs the admiral re-
ceIved the first prize.
Before the rear-admiraI sailed from
Hongkong on the City of Peking, on which
he reached here yesterday, he delivered an
address before the Hongkong Cham ber of
Commerce on devices for minimizing the
effects of collisions at sea. There were
present many notable men from the navies
of England, Germany and other countries.
The address attracted great attention.
The rear-admiral says that after avoid
ing collisions altogether, if possible, the
second and most important thing is to
minimize the damages that may occur and
the third is to have water-tight bulkheads
The admiral is very entertaining con-
versationalist. In an interview last night
he said:
If we cannot accept guns, capstans, winches,
etc, without trial, why then do we accept
bulkheads without trial? l propose that when
ship has been fitted with engines, boilers
water-tight doors and everything else which
cannot be damaged by water, trial of the
bulkheads should take place by filing the
compartments with fresh water to the upper
part of the bulkheads.
This trial ought to be made in the presence
of competent officials, who should certify that
the bulkheads are strong enough to withstand
the full pressure OF water, and that they are
water-tight. This trial over, the boilers, cylin-
ders, pipes, ETC., can then be covered with the
usual non-conducting composition and the
cabin fittings put in their proper place. Prob
ably all this work will occupy week or So but
the loss OF time viii be amply compensated for
by the ship being guaranteed absolutely trust
worthy in this respect. If the collision takes
place upon one of the main bulkheads two
compartments are filed with water.
In order to avoid this l propose that each
main bulkhead should be supplied with extra
small water-tight compartments at the side of
the ship, from ten to twelve feet wide. Then
the collision would only affect one bulkhead
OF these small compartments. and the result
would be that instead of two big compartments
being filled with water only one big compart-
ment and the little one would be flooded. The