The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-22
FIGHTING ny MACHINERY.
what the Contest between Spain ana
the United states VIII show.

the United states VIII show.
A. K. FislSe In The Ne& York Times.
All the world viii watch mtently for
great naval battle, because the machinery
for lighting upon the seas, which has been
devised and developed in the last thirty
years, has never been put to a serious
test. The iron steamship was the product
Of a period OF our civil war and the ar
mored war vessel. with It's terrible arma-
ments, Is later outgrowth. which had
its germ ln the Ericsson monitor
First the now waTship was an iron
clad" ana assumed unwleldly proportions.
The British lndeXibie, which was launch
ed in 1876, carried a belt twenly-four
inches thick, and the huge battleships of
Italy of a little later date were protected
with twenty-five inches Of iron armor.
That was also the day Of guns of enor-
nous weight and huge caliber-l00 tons
ana sixteen inches or more. with heavy
charges of coarse powder thes monstrous
engines hurled solid shot or the old spher-
zeal shell from their smooth bore threats,
down which the charge had first been
crammed. The first notable change was
In the tightening and hardening of the
armor plates by giving 1t steel face
Then the cheapcnng OF steel by the Besse-
mer process of manufacture led to its
adoption as the sole material for armor
belts, and the Harvey process and the
Krupp gas process came 10 give It's sur
face hardness and toughness never be-
fore attained.
This Improvement In armor plate, giving
better protection with diminished weight,
accompanied by new Inventions in boilers
and engines, made possible much
higher speed and great facility In handling
vessels Of vast size. out Of this advance
in the construction Of ships came the fast
cruiser, armored almost as effectively as
the battleship but not so heavily armed.
Had the progress been only in means OF
protection, the warships would have be-
come practically inVulnerable TO each
others weapons. But while ingenuity
was expended upon armor plates and pro-
polling machinery, the armament was not
neglected.
The cast-iron gun with its smooth bore,
loading at the muzzle became a thing of
the past Cheapened steel became the
chief material of naval ordnance first as
a core within a jacket of wrought iron,
and finally as the entire body of the dead
~ tube. The problem was distribution
Of the strain throughout the substance Of
the gun to avoid bursting from the heavy
charges used and forged steel effected this
best. But the strain did not come alone
from the explosion of heavy charges OF
powder; the explosives themselves were
greatly increased IN power. The dominat-
ing purpose was to give velocity and force
to the projectile, and this necessitatcd the
utmost strength in the gun. The tremen-
dous force of the explosive and the terri
BILE velocity of the shot through the riiied
bore made length of gun necessity, and
this compelled the breech-loading devices
which ingenuity did not fail to provide
Nor did the progress stop here. The pro-
jectiles shared in the Improvement. They
became elongated in form, tapering 20 a
point, they were made of forged and har-
dened steel, 10 escape breaking or hatten-
ing, and to enable them to perforate ar
NOR plate, and they carried bursting
charges to lend destructiveness when they
penetrated the enemys armor.
Year after year the emulation Of inven
tors strove for Improvement in one factor
or another Of the great problem of nava
warfare while no naval battles took place
and each new battleship or cruiser was
supposed to show some fresh advance. The
gun "built up from hoops of steel, anC
even made of wire, would bear the strain
of a more powerful explosive or a heavier
charge 50 that the most deadly pro1ectih
could be hurled with force to crush thu
but around the "vtas" and the arma
ments Of ships was wrapped armor o
ever-increaaing power of resistance. Thei
the insidious enemy of arrnor-clads, thu
ugly and venomous torpedo, was provided
with a craft of its own capable of accom-
panying fleets upon the ocean and dartinl
forth to deal lis deadly blows This devel
oped the use Of the secondary armamen
of rap!d-fre guns of email calibre, usinl
I a. IT. Ngsa.t a
ing, and of machine guns 20 hurl thei
rafting charges at the pestilent SINAI
craft OF the enemy.
During all this time tests have been al
most wholly experimental, without tn
conditions Of actual battle. Armor plat
has been tried in the form of huge target
set up on shore or on floats and guns, eX
plosives, and projectiles have been tre'
by firing at such targets. Force, velocity
resistance all the scientific and mechanica
factors could thus be gagged under con
| trollable conditions. In peaceful maneu
vers machinery and the handling Of vessel
and guns, speed, accuracy distance, al
| the theoretical elements could be put to
kind of test, but after all, who could tel
| how this vast and complicated machinery
| handled by men better or worse trained
| was gong to act an the fierce controvers
| OF war until It had an actual trial wher
| all the factors would be tested? Nothin
! Of the kind has happened since the rival
| ry began between means Of attack an
| means OF protection IN the fighting ma
| chimes of The sea, out Of which the moder
| fleet has been evolved.
! Now, the armor of the battleshiD Is te
! or twelve inches thick, instead of efghtee
to twenty-four and the heaviest gun
rarely have a caliber exceeding lively
| inches. where once they had sixteen. bu
| the resistance of the armor plate is create
than ever before. and the power of til
long breech-loadiug rife, handled by ma
/ chinery IS something not dreamt OF by IN
last generation. The tubular boilers, TIA
forced draught Of the furnace. the triple
| expansion engines. give speed unattaln
able in times past. and a reader handlin
Of the ship. and electricity adds Its subti
power 70 the working Of signals and IN
minor.devices Of the complex machinery q
war The naval battles Of the least me
ment in the last thirty years can be count
| cd upon the fingers Of one hand. and the
| afford no test of this machinery.
In The somewhat famous battle betwee
| the navies Of Chile and Peru in 1873, IN
| Huascar was caught between two fire
from the Blanco Encalada and the Aim