The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-11
,iAxIrs PEEP INTo THE FUTURE.
lie Says Ordnance and ships OF War
VIII Undergo a Revolution.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
Hudson Maxim declares that complete
revolution in The construction of ordnance
and ships of war is inevitable. He alleges
that in the future heavy ordnance instead
Of being made as at present of small, cali
Der, with thick and heavy walls, win be
constructed Of much greater caliber and
with comparatively thin walls The pro-
jectiles of the future Mr. Maxim says,
will be a thin she'll simply thick enough to
support the mass of contained explosive
in its flight from the gun. A new system
of throwing high explosives must be adop-
ted he believes and he declares that this
system consists of a projectile, as stated,
sufficient in quantity to work definitely
more destruction upon any target than our
projectiles thrown from the heavy guns of
the present.
One of the requisites of primary import
ance to a system of successfully throwing
high explosives in large masses rested upon
the prope ling charse-upou a suitable gun
powder-one which should give a sufficient
iy low initial pressure and maintain that
pressure behind the projectile in its fight
throughout the entire length Of the gun,
and a powder which would with absolute
certainty burn alike at all times, under
like conditions, in order that the predeter-
HlOeu pressure ana NelOcilleS might De
depended upon. The value of high eX-
plosives in naval and military operations
was becoming more and more to be recog-
niZed. One of the great advantages of
high explosives as an agency of destruc-
ton was the impossiblity of opposing to
them any efficient means of protection
when applied in large quantities.
BY the subdivision of the hull of the mod
ern battleship into a honeycomb of water
tight comma rfTnppts and nv surrounding II
with torpedo netting, some protection was
secured against attack from even the larg-
est of present forms of torpedoes, such as
the Whitehead.
The largest and latest type of these
most up-to-date torpedoes will carry
about 300 pounds of gun cotton. 1t there
fore remains Mr.. Maxim states, only to
be able to attack with a sufficiently large
quantity of explosives in order to render
absolutely useless as a means of protec-
ton all precautions in the form of net
work and water-tight compartments. Five
hundred pounds of gun cotton exploded
against the torpedo netting surrounding a
modern battleship, Mr.. Maxim states,
would insure her destruction to say
nothing of what would result from the
explosion of still larger quantities. How
often, Mr.. Maxim says, in the history of
war, has speed been sacrificed for the
sake of strength but with the advent of
in sufficiently large masses to render ar
NOR absolutely useless, navies will de-
card their armor and everything will be
made subserVient to speed and mobility.
According to Mr.. Maxim's system, the
torpedo boat will be the boat of the flu
ture, and particularly the submarine va
riety, for that craft will be enabled to APP
proach sufficiently close to throw such
tremendous charge of high explosives that
no matter how great the vessel may be,
or how well protected from assaults by
the enemy she will surely fan a victim
to the frightful conclusion of gun cotton
or whatever explosive may be used.
Mr.. Maxim declares that it will be ut
terly useless in future to erect such mon
ster battleshps as the Oregon, just or
dered to Hawaii, or the Indiana and
Massachusetts of the North Atlantic
squadron A torpedo boat of the first
class, following the system of throwing
high explosives that he has suggested,
would, he declares, be able to- unseen and
unsupported, blow any of the three ships
mentioned almost to fragments and itself
escape uninjured. The torpedo boat, then,
will be the battleship of the future and
what better defense could a harbor have
than two or three Of these submarine
craft, which would be more fatal to the
enemy than any broadside from the Iarg-
est ship that ever flew a pennon. AS a
matter of fact, Mr.. Maxim says, 1t is more
than probable that in the ships of the
near future little attention will be paid to
armor, for it is of small advantage, any
way, he believes, and that in view of
the fact that the penetrating power of
projectiles is constantly increasing it will
be a waste of money to add the huge
plates of steel to the tonnage OF the bat
tleship or to cruisers. Mr.. MaH1m says
also that by his system of throwing high
explosives such boats as are known as
monitors would be practically useless.