The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-05-14

lock, worked on Gne principal OF an nouTs
glass, which can be set to drop a bomb.
The balloon which will be used can be
compressed into a bundle three feet square
and weighs rs to 100 pounds. This can
be filed and made ready for an ascension
in ten minutes; the ascent and descent
require eight. sAlthough / have studied
all the latest improvements for directing
balloons, / have found none of them work
able against wind, said she. "Ascen-
lions near an enemy's camp would conse-
quently be very risky, as in descending
one could be carried into the camp by con-
trary winds and held or shot as a spy. I
have taken many photos from various
heights between 500 and 1000 feet. These
are very minute in detail, but by enlarg-
ing magnificent results can be obtained
Such a method of spying would become
productive of excellent results. Balloons
lave this advantage, that no annon can
be trained to reach them, and even SO the
balloons do not offer enough resistance to
be perforated. They can only be pierced
by rife balls with corrugated tips"
Lieutenant Wilson of the photographic
office will carry east with him a plan for
| destruction. He received it recently from
a bearded tourist who claimed to have
passed several winters and summers in
the latitude of the Klondike. "That fell
low was certainly a wonder" Lieutenant
Wilson said. 81 really believe be was thor
oughly in earnest, though his plan had no
parallel in history. He came to me one
afternoon and astonished me by asserting
| that his underwear was lined with buffalo
! hides. This chap was not long in getting
down to business. He said he had a cold
air invention that was simply marvellous
While he was traversing the yerdant fields
of Kansas in the summer he declared he
let a bag of this chilly atmosphere explode
and, 10, the yerdure was frost bitten
These Spaniards are marks if you only
know the way to so about it, said my
caller. its an easy matter to manufac-
bure this cold storage stuff, and 1t is all
yours, and you enemy wiA fear you for
aver. Now, these little manufactures do
not occupy so much space after all. You
could locate n on every battleship in
the navy or in the tents Of the commando
ing officers. General Miles would not need
one, because wherever he goes there would
be a frost. Suppose we get our warshlps
conveniently close to Havana and the forts
roundabout. Let is attach our tunnels to
the cold storage roomss turn on the cur
rent and a draft of 90 below zero would
issue forth. The Spaniards do not know
ANYTHING about a freezing temperature
and they would die in their ignorance.
You could go about the capital of Cuba
the next day and gather up icioles every
where. Let the cold wind blow on the
soldiers and their faces would freeze.
William S. Mcdowell of Williamsburg,
Pa, and a student of the Pittsburg Law
school, has a plan which will, in his esti-
nation at least, prove of great service to
our forces in their operations in Cuba.
The plan IS to make possible at q mo-
ment's notice a movable fort behind whose
protection the Infantry and the light artil-
lery may advance with safety upon Span
ish troops intrenohed behind sand forts Oh
In woods. These movable forts are to be
made by the clamping in position on the
caissons steel plates three-eighrhs or half
an inch thick, z feet high and wide enough
to extend s or 10 inches beyond the wheels
ON each side. A group of caissons thus
equipped, Mr.. Mcdowell thinks, will
make a shield impervious to everything
except shot from the heavy ieldpieces,
and one behind which a considerable body
of troops may advance with speed and inn
munity from danger until within a short
distance from the enemy, when the plates
may be separated and Calling guns placed
In position between them and the soldiers
1eployed for an advance, the length OF
which win be materially reduced and the
number of mon who will fall greatly de-
creased. The advance of this fort, the IA
ther OF sno plan continues, may be made
very simple. If the enemy is not particu-
larly aggressive the caissons may be drawn
by horses in the usual manner, but if 1t Is
necessary to move them forward under fire
another mode must be adopted. The
whifietrees are then to be placed at the
yoke end of the tongue andethe horses
hitchcd with their heads toward the cais-
son instead of away from it. The progress
will then be virtually one of backing, bur
the TACT that the horses advance will in
crease the rapidity of motion. When not
in use, the plates may be slowed away in
the baggage wagons.