The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1902-02-13
CLOSE RANGE SEA FIGHTS
EFFECTIVE DISTANCE Is UNDER A
MILE AS OF OLD.

fiRhting Distance OF Wooden Vessels
Must Come Back in Modern Combat.
Naval progress of the last ten years
is summarized by ]. f. Meigs, of the
American Society OF Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers, as follows:
To summarize results 1t may be
said that in the past ten years by the
use OF better mixtures, by improved
heat treatment and by very marked
Improvement In face hardening the
power Of nrmor Of n fixed thickness
to resist penetration has been increased
about forty per cent, while Its power
to resist cracking has been increased
in even greater degree, This has been
taken advantage Of in large measure
in a reduction Of the thickness OF ar
NOR plate on ships side. The total
weight of armor carried is not less
than formerly, and, indeed. 1t is per-
haps greater than II was, but 1t is
more spread out, and, while the pro-
lection on the vital parts is as good
and perhaps better than It was, there
is now some weight In armor left to
cover parts that formerly We're with
out protection.
Gun steel also-and In speaking Of
gun steel we may include the steel for
shafting as well-has been materially
improved in the period under review.
The shafting steel now going into
ships is very much stronger than that
which was used ten years ago. 1t is,
indeed, perhaps quite seventy or eighty
per cent. stronger than the former
material, The advance in gun steel
has not been so marked, because ten
years ago the purchasers OF gun steel
wanted an elastic strength of about
10000 pounds, whereas only 2S000 or
10000 pounds was asked for In shaft
ing. Now they both run 10000 pounds
or even more. The noted advance in
the strength Of gun steel has not been
followed by a reduction in the thick
ness Of guns walls. Indeed, the guns
thickness is rather greater perhaps
than it was, and the increased
strength serves only as an additional
guarantee against disaster.
When we come to what may be
called the tactical aspects of guns and
armOr, we find also material changes,
The quality Of the gun steel and Of
the armor as is stated above, has adj
vanced by perhaps forty per cent, and
full advantage has been taken Of this
in design. The notifications in de-
sign which have. come about have
been numerous. The armor is more
distributed. 1t has come to be recog-
nized that unprotected guns have no
chance, and that 6-inch and 12-inch
guns should be protected respectively,
by 6-inch and 12-inch armor.
1t should be noted that this means,
II battle ships are to penetrate each
other, that ships must approach with
in 1000 yards range in combat.
This brings us back to the fighting
range of old wooden ships very near
ly, for they had to approach within
about 600 or 200 yards; and, when you
consider that q battle ships 6-inch
guns must have normal impact to
perforate the armor protecting the g.
inch guns of their opponents at 500 or
1000 yards, It may be said that the
fighting range of ships has not so
very materially altered In the past
hundred years, What is here said
may perhaps be- combated, but, as
22O0 feet velocity in a 6-inch proJec-
tile will not, even with normal Inn
pact, carry it through 6-inch armor,
nor will 1000 feet carry 12-inch pro-
iectile through 12-inch armor under
like circumstances, it follows, when
the vast preponderance Of oblique Inn
pacts is considered, that ships must
fight within 1000 yards.
Finally, in closing" want to bring
forward, in order to more definitely
determine the coming range Of naval
combat, the fact that there is one Of
its ruling factors which remains con-
slant for all time. This is the ac-
curacy and delicacy Of the frer's eyes
and nerves If a man can appreciate
four intervals in a second, and If the
firing apparatus put into his hands Is
instantaneous in action, he can hit a
ship fifteen feet high, at a range OF
about 1000 yards, when his own gun Is
swinging, in rolling, at an angular
rate of one degree per second, This
consideration, Of course, remains fixed
for all time. Another important con-
sideration is what is usually called the
danger space. With medium calibres,
with 1000 feet velocity, the danger
space is HOO yards. That is to say,
the gun is independent of the range,
as the trajectory is so nearly fiat at
that distance. The new guns now COM
4 ing AIonG, having 5000 feet velocity,