The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-12
High Angie Firing Renders
the Most Strongly Armored
Vessels Helpless Against At
lacks. -. -.

, utilized in So great a degree, for the
power of the greatest vessel to with
stand the recon of a gun in surprisingly
| limited. It is a very small percentage
of the recon which can be safely figur-
| ed upon by those who can man the
guns in Notifications.
Therefore it can be seen that the
great advantage of high angle fire
from guns on shore is that they can be
| mounted behind earthworks or para
pets entirely concealed from view, SO
that it would be a matter of great
difficulty to silence them. Again, their
fire has a plunging character, and is
thus effective against objects them
selves invisible The great effect made
possible by the use of guns Of this class
has caused a Capitalization of attention
from military men upon them, all of
whom say without hesitation that the
practice Of high angle firing has I'M
queStionably great future.
The main idea of the high angle fir
ing is to furnish a mode of attack
against ships so heavily armored as
to be almost proof against artillery
used in the ordinary fashion. At first
it might be thought that a lombard
ment by high angle guns mounted so
deeply in the earth that it would be
well nigh impossible to direct their
aim at all, would be in the nature of
shooting at random. AS matter of
fact, it would be anything but that.
1t is now possible to tell the speed at
which a projectile travels and to call
culate from this speed the distance ira
verSed with certain charges Of powder
used to give the necessary impetus.
Now with these calculations possible,
and the points of the compass carefully
calculated, it is not at all among the
impossibilities to place a shot with fair
accuracy.
This knowledge given the rest is
comparatively easy. The officers in
charge of the gun would, of course.
have an accurate chartered map OF
the waters which it commanded. They
would be able, from occasional Oh
servations of lookouts, to gain an &C
curate idea of the course the vessel
at which they were firing was taking
and the chances are that they could
rain projectiles upon her in man
ner which would cause her to speedily
| retire from range, if she We're not SO
| disa bled as to be unable to do so.
| That is what the naval ordnance eX-
| perts, who have watched the expert
| ments, say and the oldest and most
conservative officers of the English
navy join them in the opinion So 1t
! can be seen that a series of high an
! gle firing gun batteries could make
! any roadstead a very uncomfortable
! place for war vessels, heavily armored
though they might be.
1 am Informed that the United
| States government has instructed its
naval representative here to look into
! the matter and see if all is as repre-
! scented. This inquiry, / am sure, IS
being carried on, for 1 have myself
| seen the attache at Woolwich and in
| the vicinity of the place of high angle
| firing experiments within a week. The
| British government is making no eff
fort to hide it's light under bushel,
so far as this experiment is concerned.
at least, and I fancy the whole world
| is at liberty to follow its example If
| it likes.
| One thing the new discovery seems
| to put an end to and that is the idea
that great fleets can threaten the sea-
port towns of Z powerful nation with
1 any degree of success. The chances
+ are that, before two years have
| passed, some effort will have been
1 made by every nation which will fight
for what it considers it's rights to
equip at least one of it's main sea-
| ports with high angle firing guns.
This done, the most powerful navy in
the world may lie helpless before a
seaport of one of the weakest of ma
lions.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10-Inquiry al
the war department here develops the
fact that the result of the English eX-
periments with the high angle firing
guns has been known for some days
A naval officer of high standing said
within my hearing that Great Britain
was not so far ahead of the United
States in this matter as she imagined
1t would be WELL he said, for the Brit
ish experts to wait until they heard