Evening star., 1898-08-20

| fights, although this is not saying that
they might not be of the greatest import
ance under other circumstances. Before
war was considered a serious possibility,
eminent electricians made forecasts Of
many new, strange and valuable uses to
which electricity would be put in the next
contest between civilized nations.
"Ships were to be blown up while SAIL
ing over mine fields unconnected by wires
with shore battery. They were even to
photograph themselves on a chart in the
shcre room OF an operator, who would then
send direct current to the mines through
salt water. Torpedces We're to be projected
through the air to drop the deck of
ship, and destroy It. Electricity was to be
their propellng as well as their guiding
fCrce. Now what of all this has been
realized? What have we learned of mines
and torpedees? About all that is practical
as the lesson from the mines in Santiago
and Guantanamo harbors, of which the
one on our deck is a specimen, is that sub
marine mines ought to be taken up and
inspected at least once a month to keep
them efficient. Otherwise, in tropical eli
mates at least, mines will be so injured by
general fouling and the contact pins so
oyergrown with barnacles that the whole
thing will be useless and harmless. Not
torpedo has been exploded in the course
OF the war and the attempts of the Span
1Sh torpedo boatssto get near our vessels
were so quickly frustrated by the use of
the searchlights that this arm of naval
warfare for which so much prophesied
iiiy pe pronounced practically barren OF
results.
Searchlights' Valuable Aid.
1T is in the operation of the search
| light, by the way, that electricity seems to
have been of the greatest practical benefit
In b!ockading work, such as has principal
ly occupied the American squadron off
Cuba, the usefulness of the searchlght in
guarding harbor entrances and sweeping
1.z-r,,
draught vessels may otherwise slip by un-
observed, has proved of the greatest value.
When Admiral. Cervera was bottled up in
Santiago harbor, the Texas and the Brook
lyn, or some other of the fleet kept their
searchlights playing on the narrow har-
Dor entrance every night, and 1t would
have been an impcssibility for the Spanish
commander to sneak out under cover of
darkness, as some of his critics have sug-
gested that he should have done.
1.-THE electric searchlight may be put
down the list of the modern
improvements which have really a practi-
cal value in war One of the Brooklyn s
turrets has been operated by electricity in
stead of by steam or hydraulic power, as
the turrets Of the Texas are. but have
not yet heard any report as to whether
this motive power was found to possess
any advantages or not.
Guns Fired in the Old Way.
'It is striking fact that the carefully
poised appliances for improving the ac-
curacy of a ships fire seem to have been
forgotten in the heat of conflict. So far
as 1 have heard, the guns of the Oregon
were sighted and fired in the old-fashioned
way. l know that those of the Texas were,
for the simple reason that Our guns are not
fitted with range finders. We used the
standimeter to determine the range and
sighted the rapid-tirers just as used to be
done with the old-style gun. And yet l
think that for accuracy of fire, the work
of the Texas gunners left little to be de-
sired. This. of course, is not saying that
| the range finder is not a most useful in
strument especially for long distance work,
but merely that it was not brought into
play in the Santiago fight, nor in the battle
of Manila, which was fought at even
shorter range.
las to armament, the 13-inch rife has
proved to be the most desirable because
the most destructive weapon. and next TO
it, l think, comes the rapid-fire siX-pound-
ers. There can be no doubt that a 13-inch
gun is preferable to a 12-inch such as the
Texas is armed with, when it is remember
ed that 13-inch fires with equal velocity
and penetrating power a protectfle weigh
ing 100 pounds, while the 12-inch shell
weighs only $50 So far as the results of
the naval fighting have come to hand, it
seems to me that the mfddle-caliber guns,
such as the eight and 10-inch, might we'll
be dispensed with. The most efficient
armament, so far as our experience goes, is
found in a main battery of say four 13-inch
rifles and a large number of small rapid
fire guns. This principle has already been
adopted in the new battle ships which are
now building"
Balloons of Slight Value.
"Of what value are military balloons for
observation purposes on shipboard?"
80 far as 1 know, the project of send
ing up a balloon from the ships deck for
observation purposes was not tried. 1t is
true that the fleet carried one or two of
these balloons, but l do not think they
were ever tested by actual operation. The
idea does not seem to me to be practical.
From what l have heard from the station
airy balloon used on shore, about all ii did
was to draw the enemy's fire and to con-
centrate it where it did considerable harm.
Warships Should Have Little Wood
work.
zone great positive lesson of the war is
the danger of having too much woodwork
about a fighting ship. That was the undo
ing of the Spanish vessels. They Were
ablaze almost as soon the fighting began,
and it didn't take long for the flames to
draw the men from the guns. OF course,
wood is bound to enter in some extent into
the construction of a ship. The deck of
the Texas on which we were standing is
Of wood with thin covering of steel. The
steel affords fair sort of protection
against igniting from any small projectiles,
and the wood makes life below much more
endurable. Were the decks simply steel,
or steel covered with linoleum the men be-
low decks would get such continual
scorching, especially in tropical waters like
those about Cuba, that there wouldn't be
much fight left in them after a short ex-
perence of it. Unquestionably, however,
the new warships will have less and less
wood in them to mitigate the dangers from
fire and flying splinters.
THE telephone is another electrical con-
trivance which has proved of effectual use
in the recent operations. Its utility, like
that of the searchlight, the great value of
smokeless powder and the effectiveness of
the megaphone, have been demonstrated in
this war quite as Enthusiastically the force
of the big gun and the destructiveness of
the secondary battery. But the wonderful
new mine cables, boats running on wheels
at the bottom of the ocean, the flying tor
pedoes and the current of electricity pro-
jected along a column of water of which
we read before the war, are as much in the
future as ever
She Wanted to Know.
From Tft-Bits.
Little Birdie (nestling up to him)-"Tell
L@ -f,oI, ,,-;1I