The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-10-10
NOW, INVISIBLE WARSHIPS.
The Government offered a Paint That
Disappears In a Strong Light
AMERICAN CHEMISTS STUDYING IT.
They Say II Must Be Neutral Gray
or Green. the Color of tho Water
Proposals to Test IL On the
New Alabama.

spain has made frantic appeal 10
Great Britain for the loan Of her war
ships. with these she proposes 70 hgnt
the United states. Her object is the sell
fling Of the Cuban question in her own
way. On the Sist OF this month SPAN
must decide. so says Tho President OK
the United states. The only way SPAN
secs OF doing It IS ~ borrowing Eng
lands navy to fight us.
England can lend her navy If she de-
tires TO 90 so, Russia can send her war
thips 70 Spain. Germany can despatch
her cruisers 10 Join Alphonso's feet, the
powers can gather their ships INTO ono
biz sauadroa, yet we can beat them al.
The United states within the last lew
Gavs has found a weapon which VIII bal-
lie al warships ever built IL IS the IN
Mention Of a French chemist, VINO mas
offered i 10 the government and VIII
bold its secret safe for Uncle SAM
This weapon is a color. IL IS paint,
spread over a warship. Whicn renders
that ship invisible under q scarchllght,
and banlshcs IL as completely from the
pecan as though 1t had never been
launched.
When a ship IS painted with this color
4, Is visible I'm the daytime but in the
night under q strong light IL fades from
sight This RarVellous discovery is one
lhat will destroy every opposing feet upon
The ocean.
Should this Frenchman decline TO come
60 terms with the United States we still
have the invention I'm our own hands.
American chemists have Icen much in
terested in this color, and speaking Of
Il Or. Drumnond, one Of the most noted
chemists IN the United States, says:
"French painters can do nothing that
we cannot do. Every color that Is known
10 the French IS known TO US, and if
they can render warships invisible we
Can also do It,
1T were asked without study to men,
ton color that would be invisible on
She sea / should say that IL would be
neutral gray or a neutral green. These
harmonize with the water tints and
would be scarcely visible long ways of,
The worst color for a warship is white.
White is the strongest color known. You
can see IL further than any other That
IS the reason that lighthouses in open
sea have clear glass. A red light or q
blue light is prominent close by but 1t
disappears az q distance, Red and blue
and green are useful at short range for
schooners. but when IL comes to long
vision there is nothing as powerful as
white.
"The White Squadron is very beauti-
ful but IT needs frequent patching up
THAT IS the trouble with white. II gets
dirty so soon. and looks dirty and patchy
1t needs constant repairing. dark lead
color Is much more useful for war-or a
green The neutral tints that are now
being put ON the torpedo boats are good
Under ordinary circumstances any
color looks stronger in strong light
Blue looks bluer red looks reddor, white
looks whittier. But on the ocean under a
searchnght the neutral grays and greens
might disappear.
IF the French have any secret OF this
kind we can easily unrayel II, and the
clue 10 Il Is given in what / have just
said. Tho French cannot claim that
they arc our superiors in the matter of
mixing paints. The United States rs the
greatest country for paint. We use more
Than any other nation. Other countries
build stone houses and use ironwork.
But here, outside Of the very large cities
we put up wooden structures and we
paint them. The paint industry is one
. OF the greatest in this country"
Reports say that the new warship Ala
bama now has her neutral tints on. She
IS almost ready 10 be launched If she
were subjected 10 "A searchlight in her
present state she would grow less dis
tinct, and if her neutral tints were car
ried further and intensified she would
disappear.
This is a mighty strong point and one
that. owing 10 the great production Of
paint in this country. can be speedily put
into operation. Our famous White Squad
ron could be- few weeks. so painted
that il would Oh. appear under the search
.F uI fgNIcf-
bly, we could steal up 10 them and de-
stroy them.
The new battleship upon which experts
are so anxious 10 experiment Is now on
the ways at the Cramp shipyards. She
IS rapidly approaching completion, and
when finished viii be one of the king
pins which uphold the honor Of the Amer
lean flag
The general dimensions and principal
features OF tho Alabama are as follows:
Speed u knots an hour; length of load
water line. 36S feet. extreme beam. e
feet 2.5 inches; frceboard forward, 1s
feet 50 inches: frccboard aft, 10 feet
inches; normal displacement. 1l525 tons,
mean draueht. % feet inches horse
power. 1900: capacity of coal bunkers,
200 tons.
Her armament is simple. as will be OBJ
served from the following: Batteries
main, four 12-inch breech-loading rifles;
fourteen 6-inch rapid firing rifles; sec
ondary battery, seventeen 6-pounder
rapid-hre guns, four 1-pounder rapid-hre
guns four machine guns, one field gun.
The four above water torpedo tubes are
placed two on each broadside amidships
and will fire through an arc Of 90 degrees.
Tho four l3-nch guns are mounted in
pairs in two balanced barbette turrets
and Uaryevizcd arnOr n inches thick
augmented on the slanting faces by two
more inches. Two or the 6-inch rifles
will be placed amidships on each side.
nrlne through an armor citadel Of steel.
The date OF the launching is not known
hut tho Cramps are working hard upon
her.