The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-12
THE TELEGRAPH IN WARFARE.
The Value of Experts in Photography
to IA Commander.
From the New ZOE Post.

From the New York Post.
Washington, May 5.-The battle of Ma
Mia offers an Illustration of the wisdom of
having experts in Biography and electrical
engineering attached TO every army or
fleet. II ought not, 10 have been neces-
sary to keep the world SO long in lgnor-
ance Of what Commodore Dewey had ac-
tually accomplished. If the electrical end
Of his establishment had beer cared for
as scrupulously as its strictly fighting end
he could have made his victory even more
complete in its moral effect by showing
the Spaniards the hopelessrAss Of a war
against so ingenious people as ours.
That the electricians are appreciated at
home is shown by the important position
given to the two expert telegraphers
Thompson and Allen at Key West and
Maxwell of New York, They were put
in charge of the cable service at the two
most important points on the continent.
not simply because they were men of dis
erection and intelligence well. 1t should
be the care of every commander of an
army or fleet to have with him small
corps Of men who not only understand the
working of the telegraph key and read
messages by sound, but are shrewd enough
to do thousand things in the way of re-
pairing and emergency work which may
be called for when no outside aid can be
procured. These men should understand
splicing wire and cable in any condition
and amid any surroundings. They should
be Of trained ingenuity in running down
and locating breaks in the connection
They should have enough sobriety of iudg
nlent to be able to play the censor if nee
essary on dispatches put into their hands
to send. They should be telegraphlc geog-
raphers as well as everything else, having
at their fingers ends the directions and
functions Of nj Ina all
earth, for it sometimes becomes Of the
very first importance to send a message to
the other side of the ehemy's country
without actually passing through ii.
The use OF electricity In warfare has
grown very much within the last ten or
fifteen years, but the war between Spain
and the United States promises to do more
to illustrate the possibility of this branch
OF science than has been dreamed OF here
tofore. Telegraphy and telephony will
both he called into play, to do what has
formerly been done by wig-wag signals.
sending dispatches by courier, etc Tele-
graph wire has been reduced so IN weight
that man caa transport two miles of in
sulated double conductor as RAPIDLY as a
column of cavalry can move This in
cludes the weight of the reel for paving
out the wire, as we'll as of the wire it.
self. The flying field telegraph and tee-
coed thirteen pounds, and this includes a
diminutive Morse key and buzzer 50 that
messages can be sent simultaneously from
both instruments.
We are likely also TO try the phonograph
as a dispatch vehicle. BY having the
mounting so arranged that a cylinder. IL
captured by the enemy, could not be
placed on a strange apparatus and made
TO reproduce the sounds originally com
United to it, the damage from losing a
cylinder would not be SO serious as that
from losing a dispatch written on paper.
The mlcrophone, which can be set SO as
TO catch the sound OF an approaching foe
when IL is too faint to be heard by the or
binary ear, is another ingenious device
which Will be tested The firing OF guns.
the explosion Of mines and torpedoes. and
the control OF a ca mera-shutter when pic
lures ire to be taken from a kite or bal
loon suspended IN air over the eneny's
works, are familiar uses Of electricity.
which will be developed and extended ia
our martial opera tons this season.
We have at the head Of our signal corps.
IN Gen. Greedy, an officer whose tastes are
all in line with his professional speciality.
Nothing delights him more than to expe-
riment and invent new methods In electri-
cal field work. In his report for 1894 he
drew attention to the increasing value OF
the telephone IN warfare, with a special
reference 10 the war between China and
Japan, which was then under way. All late
wars, he said, indicate that electrical con-
nections are Indispensable 70 the success
Of any army operating on base apart
from the general teleeraphic system lie
recorded the marvellous success Of experi-
ments made IN the army with the single
uninsulated blmetalic Wire stretched on