The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-13
TO Be HAD BY THE SCORE
Inventors of Torpedoes Seek to
Equip the Government.
READY TO SUPPLY DEVICES
Irregular Package Resembling Lump
OF Coal ered-Preparations Al
ready Made by Uncle Sam
for Coast Defense.

Scores of new and terrible internal
machines are being peddled by invent
| ors anxious to equip our army and
navy with means of distributing among
| our enemies just such wholesale
| slaughter as occurred aboard our ill
| fated Maine. When found unavailable
| by our government these death distribu-
| tors are usually offered to the Cuban
| junta or to the Spanish authorities.
| Some of these devices are so diabolical-
| ~ deceptive in action that any grea-
| battleshlp like the Maine could be
/ readily exploded thereby, from either
| within or without, no trace being left
/ to tell the tale.
The purpose of an Internal machine
of this sort, known as the coal torpedo,
| is to cause just such an explosion as
occurred aboard the Maine. 1t is
metal case, cast to exactly resemble
huge, irregular lump of coal, painted
| black and vanished. 1t weighs the
same as an actual lump of coal of the
| same size and is charged heavily wl-h
dynamite 1t is to be placed by a spy
| either in the coal bunker of a hostile
vessel or in its coal supply. Upon be-
ing shoveied into the ships furnace or
broken by fireman it eXpiodes. blow
ing the whole vessel to atoms.
Not long ago a Michigan farmer
named Jerry Hill offered the govern
ment designs for an Internal machine
/ purposed TO destroy ships from with
out. 1t is brass ball i've feet in cir
conference, filled with dynamite and
carrying five powerful magnets, four
along the sides and enc on top. A time
device is set for whatever hour the ex-
plosion may be desired and the ball is
| then launched in the direction of the
hostile vessel, the steel of whose hull
attracts the magnets, it IS claimed,
| from distance OF $50 yards, even dur
ing rough sea.
The magnet idea is shared also by
three Pennsylvania inventors, who
would manufacture for the government
an automobile internal machine, on the
cigars shaped torpedo principle, carry
ing in the bow a powerful electric mag
net fed by a long electric cable in the
hands of operatives at a distance, eth
ef on shore or on a vessel.
Should the government adopt the re-
cent proposition of Chauncey Dutton of
! New York to build a gigantic torpedo
| charged with from 100 to 200 tons OF
4 dynamite or other high explosive, and
! provided with motive power to propel
/ 1t faster than any Warshp atioat, the
| jingoes would be threatened with but
meager happiness In the future. War
! fare would become too terrible to be
I EoSSiDlt. II was pIopOStd " buiid lillS
machine 800 feet long, cigar-shaped and
/ very slender. with powerful engines
/ and to be steered and controlled by ca
/ bles over distance Of eight or ten
! miles by aid of telescope. 1t is esti-
/ mated that a fleet OF vessels within a
/ quarter of Il mile of its explosion would
] be lifted completely out of water, the
] shock at the same time causing an
earthquake and tidal wave.
A man named Barton made similar
ly gigantic proposition and has gone 10
the trouble of having it patented. His
continuance was to be colossal tor
pedo, to be driven by engines and con-
trolled by a crew. On approaching the
4 hostile vessel to be blown UP the giant
torpedos rudder was to be bound
straight ahead, all steam turned on and
the crew, escaping IN life preservers, to
be afterward picked up in lifeboats.
Another proposition is TO float over the
enemy a fleet of paper balloons bearing
about Il pounds OF dynamite apiece and
buoyed up by hot air furnished by kero-
sine burners beneath. 1t Is estimated
furnished the government for 81 900, 0000.
and that each will have a slaughter
radius of so feet.
1t would be difficult to estimate the
/ death radius Of an odd contriVance Of
fered to the Cuban junta by Western
4
car, run by storage battery, and having
ON either side conical snout containing
a deadly machine gun This diabolical
contrivance is intended to be run on
/ track through the enemy's country and
to cause a wholesale rain of death and
] destruction before it. behind 1t and on
] both sides. 1t is really difficult to imag-
/ inc how such machine could spare a
/ single soul within firing distance. 1t
would leave waste of human life
/ wider than the path of a cyclone
Considerable progress toward the per-
/ lection of the automobile torpedo, ac-
! cepted as a legitimate agency of war
+ fare, has lately been made. No Internal
machines are more deadly than these at
/ TIE point Of application. The navy de-
/ pertinent lately experimental with an
attachment for torpedoes. restoring their
/ course TO a straight line when DETECTED
! Such an appliance makes an automo-
/ bile torpedo weapon almost at precise
I az the gun. The difficulty of craft OF
this kind has always been their uncer-
/ tainty as 10 reaching the intended
/ mark. The wasting of one torpedo as
! adopted in our navy costs no less than
$500. One class of dirgible torpedoes
Is now built to be controlled from shore
| or vessel by a cable two miles long. 1t
can be steered so accurately as 10 cut
mark hardly visible to the naked eye.
Some new torpedoes carry as much as
500 pounds of dynamite or explosive
gelatine
Torpedo mines used as stationary
means of coast defense. in connection
With fortresses or Independently, are
operated by the army and not by the
navy. Our army engineers have ar
ranged many bloody surprises for hos
tile ships striving to enter our harbors.
All of our important harbors are now
sown with submarine mines. Their dis
tribution Is made according to a care
fully arranged plan. locked up in the
office of the chief of engineers. Any
officer who should give information
concerning them to any foreign power
or 10 anyone who might SO communi
cate il. would suffer the fate of Captain
Dreyfus. the French officer who now
languishes on De fil.s Island. No mill
tary secrets in time of peace are guard
ed SO carefully as those relating To har
Dor defense. Should Spain attempt hos
tile demonstration in any harbor of