Arizona republican., 1898-05-07
MAXIM'S CLAIM.
An Aeriel Torpedo Ship to Dcstroy
 the Spanish Navy.

New York, May 6.-The Brooklyn Eagle has received a letter from Hud- son Maxim, of London, England, con- taining remarkable offer to the Uni ted States government to furnish to it at a cost of half a million dollars, a ship to be capable of destroying the entire Spanish navy. The plant in wolves the use of aerial torpedoes, in vented by MT. Maxim. The writer is a brother of Hiram Maxim, the famous i inventor of weapons of destruction. Hudson Maxim has worked in CO., operation with Hiram, and is a man of good standing and repute in the scientific world. He expresses a desire to serve his native country. Just one cruiser built and equipped complete with torpedo guns according to his system, he says, would be sufficient to destroy every Spanish warship which It might encounter at sea. The cost of such cruiser would be about $500, ,O0O. He offers the United States govern ment or any of his patriotic fellow cit izens, who may be willing to furnish the capital necessary for the construc- t1on and equipment of one such cruis- CT, the free use, without royalty, of all his inventions for the purpose and says that he himself will come to America and superintend the building Of the cruiser, without any charge whatever for his services.
 An opportunity to serve on board in an engagement would be very accept able to him.
 Mir Maxim holds that if his inven- tions are put into practice, armor will be rendered absolutely useless. Ma vies will make everything subservient to speed and mobility. The projectile, instead of being an armor-piercing shot, will be a thin shell intended only as a cover for the explosive which it will carry. MT. Maxim points cut that pneumatic guns for throwing high explosives necessarily have a very lim- tied range. He says it is obvious that practical system of throwing aerial torpedoes must have a range substan- tially equal to that of high power guns.
 Owing to the fact that these guns are not intended to throw armcr-pierc- ing projectiles, and that, therefore, a l flat projectory is not necessary to thair i successful operation, the charge of powder to propel the shells may be less powerful than that used in high power guns.
 The tCrpedoes which carry half a ton of explosive, according to MT. Maxim's theory, may be sent nine miles, while a ton of gun cotton can be thrown five miles. These ranges are equal to the effective ranges of high power guns on battleships.
 MT. Maxim believes that ten torpedo cruisers equipped with his guns may be built at cost of $500,000 each, Or in other words, at the same cost oi building one first class battleship. He 1 would equip each of these cruisers with one 24-inch torpedo gun weigh ing forty-six tons, and two torpedo mOrtars, weighing twenty tons each The cruiser would fight head on, the exposed portion of the vessel being protected by deflecting armor, suffi. ciently thick to turn aside the projec- tiles of battleship, save those from the 12-inch guns.
 He says that the fatal area present. 1 ed to a ton of gun cotton is 132,O2; square feet. The cruisers would have a speed of from twenty to twenty-foul knots, and could, therefore, choose their own position with respect to bat
 tleships.
 MT. Maxim has made many expert
 ments, both with regard to suitabll
 explosives for the torpedoes and {,
 proper powder to propel the projec