The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-14
NOVEL USE OF MAGNETS
A GREAT ELECTRICAL FEAT THAT
WILL SOON BE ATTEMPTED.
1t Is Proposed by BritOns to Employ
This Method to Raise the Great
Battle Ship Victoria.

London Letter in Baltimore American.
A feat which will assuredly be one of the
most wonderful science has ever attempted
has been proposed to the British govern
ment. 1t is to raise by means of monster
magnets the great battle ship Victoria,
which at present lies at the bottom of the
Mediterranean sea. If this is successfully
performed, and electro-scientists of note be-
lieve that it will be done, it will revolu-
tionize the wrecking industry, as well as
mark a giant stride in electric science.
The suggested experiment on the part of the
British government is of especial interest
at the present time, in view of the sinking
of the American battle ship Maine, in Ha-
vana harbor.
Before going into the details of the Brit
ish governments plan it is necessary to say
something about the sunken battle ship. In
the minds of most people the incident of it's
loss is still fresh. The British fleet was
steaming in double column up the Medi-
terranean. The sea was as calm as mill
pond and the thought of ship going to the
bottom was furthest OF all things from the
minds of those in the fleet. The order came
from Admiral Tryon, the officer in COM
mand of the ship, for the execution of a
maneuver that had always been a favorite
one with him when the vessels were prac-
ticing difficult evolutions. 1t was simply
a turning right-about-face of the en-
tire fleet by the simple process Of the
leading ships swinging bow in towards each
other and continuing to turn until side by
side again with the prows pointed in an ex-
actly opposite direction to that in which
they had before been steaming. 1t was the
simple wheeling inwardly of two parallel
Chi I,od
turned to be where they had been when
beginning the maneuyer. but with the direc-
ton reversed. The only thing necessary to
be careful about was to see that the space
in which the maneuver was to be made was
of sufficient width to keep the ships from
colliding, when turning in preparatory to
moving in the opposite direction
The ships had only half completed the
wheeling process, when the massive sides
of the Victoria were crumpled like so much
paper by the ram of the Camperdown, and
into the hole thus made water poured so
suddenly that, although the sailors OF the
fleet made the most heroic efforts 10 save
life twenty officers and 1886 men went down
with the ship. She lies at the bottom CT the
Mediterranean, i'll $50 feet of wafer, off the
harbor OF Tripoli. All attempts TO laise any
portions Of the equipment OF the great IRON
clad have been futile. 1t is too deep down
for divers to reach her. The value If the
equipment alone is immense, for the Vic
toria was a modern steel nrmored fighting
ship, $50 feet long, and armed with I0-ton
rlH6S.
USE OF THE MAGNETS.
To raise the mammoth ship the British
admiralty is considering the following
method: Above the spot where the Victoria
is known to lie they will moor a fleet of
wrecking pontoons. The chief instruments
to be used will be monster magnets which
will be let down from the sides of the pom
toons attached to great chain cables. Down
the magnets will sink until the attraction
of the steel sides of the Victoria will draw
towards them to the ship to be attached in
strong embrace by the mysterious force
that every schoolboy has tested small
scale. What the diver cannot do because
he cannot get down deep enough to at
tach chains TO the sunken fighting machine
the magnets will do by the power of the
attraction that electro-magnets have over
steel. When one magnet has been lowered
and the points are firmly attached to the
sides of the ship, another will be dropped
at q little distance, and this process con-
tinued, the magnets being lowered at reg
ular intervals from each other until the
sides of the battleship are firmly Joined in
the pontoons by the chains that are at.
tached TO the magnets So large will these
magnets be. that the lifting capacity of
he magnetic power Will be no less than
one hundred tons TO magnet. That is to
say. they viii stick to the armcred Sides
OF the Victoria with force enough for each