The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-05

London, April "details have been
obtained by the Associated Press of
the manufacture of submarine mines
in London for Spain, which was first
brought to the attention of the United
States embassy and cabled to the As
ISOLATED Press on March 4.
\ man whose cards described him
as being an electrical engineer, and
whose name was forwarded at the
| time to Washington, then said he sold
/ to Spanish officers in London, several
years ago, a large number of mines,
eight or ten of which were placed in
Havana harbor. He said they were
made in special way, had a specially
constructed call lie which he can iden-
| tify, if the smallest piece is produced,
and he added that some. of the mines
were fixed so that they could be fired
from a fort, while two of them had
bulbs so arranged that they would ex-
plode upon a vessel coming in contact
with them.
The man added, however, that he did
not believe the bulbs would be used
in water as shallow as that of Havana
harbor. Finally. the man exhibited
plans of one of these mines, which.
he said, was the most likely to pro-
duce the effect described as causing the
wreck of the Maine. 1t was numbered
''2," and was constructed to contain
500 pounds of guncotton.
COLWELL's REPORT.
Lieutenant Commander ]. c. Col
well, the United States naval attache.
has since investigated the matter, and
he made a report on the subject to the
United States government. The facts
learned strongly tend to show that Ha-
Vana harbor was mined, and that I'M
questionably Spain purchased mines
for that purpose.
The firm of Lattimer. Rhodes &
Clark. electrical engineers during 1887
SS, filed a large order for Spain of q
lot of mines in which were used four
teen and half tons of guncottOn. The
work was directly under the SurVeil-
lance of General Fernando and Cap
tain Bustamonte- The latter was then
the head of the Spanish torpedo school.
BY order of these officers, the mines
were divided into four consignments,
for Havana, Ferrol, Cadiz and Cartha-
gena. The mines were manufactured
under the direction of j. P. Gibbons. !
afterwards Gibbons patents, which are
described in Seiemen's book on tOrpe- !
does and mines.
MADE IN 1896.
Gibbons. from whom representative
of the Associated Press obtains the in
formation, and who furnished Lieuten- /
ant Commander ColweH a written /
statement of the above facts, and out /
lined his theory of the explosion which /
wrecked the Maine. was then employed /
by the firm as superintendent of the /
torpedo department. He also says a |
similar lot of torpedCes was manufac- /
tured for Spain in 1896.
The manager of the Western Engl-
neering company, which is the sue
cessor of the aforementioned firm with
which Gibbons is connected, confirms
the latters statements as to the manu-
facture of mines for Spain.
Gibbons. who is former sergeant Of
engineers and a government inspector
Of torpedoes, believes the Names first
explosion was caused by what is tech
nically called a ground mine, contain
ing 500 pounds of guncotton, several of
which were manufactured for Spain.
HOW THEY OPERATE.
He has experimental with these
mines largely at Portsmouth and says
that, once laid, they retain their pro-
Derties for 80 years. In addition Glib
Dons asserts that it is absolutely i'm
possible for them to explode accident
ally, as the electrical currents for their
explosion are found only by the manip-
llation of complicated key especially
devised to avoid accidents.
Three keys are necessary, which are
always kept in the possession of diff
erent officers. and if on outsider OBJ
aims possession of them, it would be
to manipulate the keys ,
without instructions. ;
Gibbons further says the mines and i
heir connecting cables are numbered.
md he asserts he would be able to
IDENTIFY them if any part is secured.