The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-26


The first essential step in the modern
navy was the construction of the mod
ern' high power rifles, requiring in
their design high order of mathemat-
ical ability and an intimate knowledge
of the characteristics of modern steel
All guns in the navy have been de-
signed by Professor Philip A. Alger, a
former graduate of Annapolis, who
has since been transferred to the corps
of the professors of mathematics in
the navy, and who is the highest au-
thority on ordnance matters in this
country, if not in the world Profess
scr Alger received u diploma from the
Worlds fair commission for his system
of gun construction, now il use in the
navy.
In order to make these guns efficient,
methods had to be devised for handling
them on board ship; opening and clos
ing the breech for loading, mounting
them on carriages for sighting and
training, protecting them with armor.
supplying them with powder and shell,
developing smokeless powder for their
use, designing primers, fuses, teic-
scopic sights, and hundred little ac-
cessorieS used in connection with their
service. 1t was also necessary to pro-
vide the necessary appliances for using
the modern automobile torpedoes to be
fired from our ships and torpedo boats;
apparatus for signaling orders from
the coming tower TO the guns and to
every part of the ship, for measuring
the distance Of the enemy, for counter
mining harbors and clearing channels.
and many other devices more or less
directly connected with the ships as a
fighting machine.
MILLIONS SAVED.
To perfect these devices in foreign
naVieS the governments have had 10
pay millions of dollars for improve
ments and inventions tina. tended to
make their guns and ships mere pow
erful, in THAR keen competition for SUI
premacy. In this country, the home of
the inventor. our government has paid
little or nothing. Nearly every i'm
proVemert has been invented by its
naval officers. one instance Of u naval
officer who received a compensation
for an invention was that of Chief
Constructor Wilson. now retired, to
whom the navy department paid 1000
Tor an air port-hinge. But most Of the
work Of naval officers brains has been
given 20 the government free.
How much the inventive faculty OF
its keen-ninded officers has meant to
the navy department is illustrated in
the case of Lieutenant Frank +.
Fletcher, now on duty in the ordnance
bureau. 1t was said at a hearing be-
fore a committee of the senate last
winter, on a bill to give naval invent
ors compensation. that gun-mount of
Nj Fletcher's had saved the govern
ment more than $685. COO All rapid-fire
guns are now placed upon this gun
mount, and the Worlds fair commits
sion awarded it diploma. Briefly de-
scribed, and without technical terms.
this gun-mount is the application OF
ball bearings to the upper carriage Of
the gun, with q hydraulic TO take up
the recoil after firing. and a spiral
spring TO return it to its place There
is also elevating and training gear of
a complicated character.
FLETCHER'S MANY INVENTIONS.
Mr.. Fletcher is the inventor Of sew
eral other devices. One Of these is a
breech mechanism fer heavy guns
This mechanism is used for handling
all the heavy breech plugs, Weighing
from 500 pounds to half ton, of our
eight-inch. ten-inch. Pinch and 13-
inch guns The army has also recent
ly adopted it. These plugs We're for
merly handled by hydraulic machin-