Arizona republican., 1904-08-05

tury ago, was threatened by cannon
 shot. and was obliged 10 let out more
 rope to insure safety Today the Mau-
 ser and other rifles carried by infantry
 soldiers have a range of three miles or
 more. At Santiago showers of well di-
 rected bullets flew around the sig
 officers who were on duty and whose
 elevation was at no time over 1,50O feet.
 There were narrow escapes from in
 Stant death on that account to say
 nothing of injury from premature de-
 scent had the balloon been badly pune | tured.
 Such risks have furnished an impor- tant incentive for experiments with air
 ships which could be kept moving by States the war department has lent en-
 couragement to Professor Langley for
 that reason. and several European
 powers have pursued similar policies
 for at least twenty years. The pro-
 totype of the Santos Dumont machine
 was developed by two French army of
 fcers, Renard and Krcbs. They used electric power instead of gasoline en- zines to drive their screws, but they adopted the cigar shaped gas bag. in
 order to lessen the resistance encoun- tered from the atmosphere while flying horizontally. They are said to be the first aeronauts who described a com plete circle while in the air aloft, thus
 demonstrating the feasibility of steer
 ing and propelling craft of this kind.
 No speeds have yet been developed
 which exceed fifteen or sixteen miles
 an hour, and no voyage has yet ex-
 tended over an hour and three-quar-
 ters. Little further Improvement in
 these directions is needed, though, to
 put in the hands of military men an agent of largely increased power. Not only villa good flying machine, prop erly managed, be able to keep out of the way of an enemy while engaged in reconnaissance, but it should be able to. assume the aggressive and work fearful havoc.
 The kind of service which now be- comes permissible has not hitherto been attempted, for a variety of req sons. The argument made at The Hague five years ago has interfered temporarily Before that prohibition took effect there had been no import ant war for considerable period. Be sides, the airship had not reached its present state of development. HOwev- er both in Europe and America 9 num- 1 Der of wide-awake men have consid- ! cred plans for making trouble for an enemy in new ways. One scheme is to | operate in the air mechanism akin to | the Whitehead torpedo The latter | propels and steers itself after being | launched in the water. The aerial tor pedo, if designed for horizontal flight. | could be liberated from a captive bal | loon or an elevated station on land, or from a self-propelled airship of the | Santos-DumOnt type. It has also been proposed to drop torpedocs from craft | of the latter kind, a convenient posi- tion first being reached above an army | or town, or even over a ship at sea.
 The possibility of the adoption of this kind of warfare by either Russia or Japan during the present struggle de- pends upon a number of things. One is the duration of the contest itself. is the degree of preparation for it which the combatants may have made in secret. The generally back ward state of the Russian provision for the war and the limited amount of at tention hitherto given to aerial navi- the expectations that they have anything up their sleeve" which can be produced On short notice. On the other hand, it should not be for ways been conspicuously devoted to aeronautic ventures, are friendly to Russia, and might cooperate wfJh her. had they anything new to offer. Again, Japan, though wonderfully alert to modern methods of fighting, has giv- en no indications of a purpose to avail herself of the privilege now open to her. Perhaps the world may be obliged to wait until the next great war is fought before it witnesses a trial of the areial torpedo. Nevertheless, free dom to use the latter will doubtless en- inventors to present a number of fresh ideas to the military authori- ties of the leading powers. That none of these propositions may prove ac- ceptable and revolutionary cannot safely be affirmed.