The Portland daily press., 1898-04-02
THE COST OF WAR.
Physics and Chemistry Take Gum
powders Place.


observation-disclosures VIII Be the Doom
of The Modern Battleships.
"The next armed conflict in which
Uncle Sam is called upon TO engage wiz
be war of physics and chemistry we
ara on the edge Of d great revolution IN
the art of fighting, and before long the
methods of warfare most approved tooay
will he regarded IS wholly out or date.
Twenty wears from now, reckoning at the
vary farthest, there will be no floating
sontrasses of the kind which we call battle
ching. they will be considered as represen-
Emo an obsolete tpye of naval architect
IRE and their place will be taken by YES
cells comparatively small, yet Infinitely
more formidable and destructive. By
that time, also, electricity will have made
Its appearance as an active agent of de-
struotion, and military engines Of all sorts
will have ned forms as yet undreamed
Of"
The remarks quoted above, says the St.
Louis Globe-D Democrat. were made by
government official, who is one OF the
foremost scientific men of this country.
Imposing the condition that his name
should not be mentioned, he proceeded 10
develop the idea by a series OF suggestions
SO striking AS to excite the utmost Inter-
est. he said:
"To illustrate the tendency of the de-
yalopment of warfare at present, l Will
refer to the wiping out of the battleship
Maine. According to my belief, it TOOK
inst about three men to accomplish the
destruction of that gigantic fighting ma
chine. They had large quantity OF
nitrogIycerin, or some such high explos-
i've, packed in bags impervious to water.
In each bag was placed just enough cork
to give the contents the specific gravity OF
water, approximately. Dragging the
hays. one or more of the men swan out
TO within short distance of the ship,
then dived and swan under water to es-
cane observation, and came up under the
safe shelter of the side of the vessel. Io
attach the bags to the bottom of the ship
was easy, and a chemical time fuse that
would burn under water could be ignited
POI WAY
to swim away at their leisure.
WILL USE HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
"In some such way as this, think, the
Maine was destroyed. l only cite the case
to illustrate the ease with which mighty
warship of this description can be de-
stroyed by two or three determined men
1T minimum of cost. A few dollars
worth of high explosives will wipe out
81, 900, 900 worth of fighting machinery
and several hundred lives If halt a
the harbour of New York they would be
aunihiIated very quickly, not by our own
wsrships, but by small groups Of courage
Gus men with so-oalled Internal machines
of one kind or another. When this sort
of thing can happen, and is always llke!y
to occur, it means that the fighting ship
of the type described is odt of date. The
modern battleship is constructed, so to
speak. on gunpowder basis; in the
b Hiding of them no more account is
raken OF high explosives than if there
were no such thing. But 1T IS perfectly
certain that the wars of the immediate
future arctic be prosecuted with nigh ex-
plosives.
"You must remember that as yet no
ADEQUATE test of the efficiency of battle
ships has been made in practice. They
are built on theory. What does their
strength amount to, the thickness of their
armor and the weight of proiectiles they
can throw, il they can be SO readily de.
stroyed? They represent a putting OF
matter in theSwrong place. In museum
of natural history you will see the skele-
tons of many extinct animals which have
lived ativarious epochs of the earth's his
tory, You can tell at a glance the very
ancient skeletons from those which be-
longed to creatures of more recent times,
because the latter are so much lighter and
more graceful, representing improved
types. In one OF these great warships
you see masslng of material regardless
of expense and without regard to practlcal
conditions. Therefore this species OF YES
sci is doomed to early extinction, like the
huge and unwieldy mammals OF the
Pliocene.
GUNPOWDER GROWING OBSOLETE.
"Ihe great warship and the great gun
are the naval ideals of today. Both OF
them are based OF what? On gunpowder.
Modern forts, both on land and on sea,
are built on a gunpowder basis, and with
out any consideration of high explosives
The very brains of army and navy men
powder, as it were. Military experts,
generally speaking, are unable to think
of war except in terms of gunpowder.
Yet gunpowder is practically out Of date.
The day of high power explosives has ar
rived; they constitute the postulate to
which ideas of warfare must be adjusted.
These explosives have carried the art of
war beyond the stage when the battIeship
can be useful. With their aid it is as
easy to destroy the strongest armored ship
as to smash up wooden schooner. 1t is
not possible to predict with confidence
just what the character of the fighting
vessels of the future will be, but a sug-
gestion in that direction seems to be
afforded by the torpedo boat. A torpedo
boat costs S75, 600. and you can build q
whole fleet of such craft for the cost of
one battleship.
1.-THE advantage of high explosives is
that only little powder is required to
convey them to the place where they are
to do work. Their adoption as a means
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