Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-06-26
Army and Navy News.

ARMY and navy News.
Washington, June 25.-,rhe advantage
of having signal corps ner who under
stand their business is shown in the
results attained in the signal corps
company organized a. Fort Leaven-
worth, Kansas, under Captain William
Mitchell. He commands the only COM
pany which has remained intact long
enough to permit the men to be drilled
in various duties devolviEg upon them
in the way Of communication i'm the
field. One of the most intricate details
upon which the signal Elen are engaged
is that of visual signalling. This Is
considered of importance. although it is
coming to be superseded by the cleo
trical means of communication, such aS
the field telegraph ana tcIephone. and
the modern appliances for establishing
those systems between the central con-
troll and the firing line. There will still
be occasions when visual signalling viii
be used, and it is of Importance that
the lnen of the corps at Fort Leaven-
worth have been specially trained in
that respect. with the result, says Cap
tain Mitchell, that thee fourths OF
them are experts. The company is now
available for service i'll the field and IS
likely to be sent to the Philippines
shortly. The difficulty has been, in
training men under one command for
signal corps work, that there are 81
many demands upon thu service of sucn
soldiers, not only in this country. but in
the Philippines and in Alaska, in which
territory there has been great deal of
cable and land telegraph work accom-
plished.
The Navy Department has decided to
leave with commanding officers of ships
armed with torpedo tubes the duty of
keeping up the practice with that form
of armament. 1t has been found that
there has been great lack of work in
that particular The recent prelimi-
nary and record practice with tOrpedoe.;
by the ships of the North Atlantic flee:
in Southern waters convinced the naval
authorities that thare must be more
systematic training in the firing of the
torpedoeS if the most effective results
are to be obtained. THelc was prac-
tically no knowledge possessed by Off
GERS and men i'm the working of the
torpedo mechanism, and the practice at
Pensacola disclosed the tact that in
actual war the tOrpa1Oes of our ships
OF war would be a very uncertain factor
in the system of offence. There We're
many complaints of the uncertainty OF
the torpedo during the preliminary
work, but the naval ordnance officers
who are familiar with tOrpedOeS say
that in the competitive firing later
those attached to the vessels found tina:
the missile was all that had been
claimed for it, at close range, and that
it was in all respects an instrument of
precision. All that was required to
make the torpedo effective was the
training of the operators. OF course,
some such work is done at the torpedo
training station at Newport, but there
are necessarily limitations to such in
Struction and after I'LL. the real work
must be done under conditions which
shall attach to those of actual warfare
on board ship. The Navy Department
officials. say that the service has been
greatly benefited by the work at Pensa
cola, and the results ara destined to be
appreciated when there is occasion Cor
real attack under conditions which will
permit the close range lighting. In
tho me: n time, the commanding officers
nave been instructed that, since they
will he held responsible for the success
or failure of the torpedo armament i'll
time of war, they shall be allowed to
maintain the work OF training as 1p-
pears the most effective.
The Navy Department officials are
taking great pains in the selection of
books for the crews ana ships libraries
in the navy. The new Eattleships will
each possess Il library G. some 1.S0H
volumes. costing the government about
s., 900. They embrace Il wide and varied
range of subje, is. with a due proportion
of fiction such as would appeal TO the
sailor man. and naturally with a strong
flavor of the sea. There will be books
on s,Icn subjects as sociology and re-
ligion. as well as textbooks, of approved
character, on the sciences. Much care
has been exercised in the selection o.
these works. and Il large number of
volumes has recently been bought of
one of the correspondents schools. IL
is observed that the introduo ton or TINS
class of literature in the ships libraries
has served to stimulate i'll the crews
more StudiOuS habits and 1t is founi
that many of them improve their tim'
in pursuing subjects Of Il practical sort,
such as electricity, which will be of
use to them when th"y are discharged.
The President has appointed Colonel
Winfield s Edgerly of The 2d Cavalry
brigadier general taking the place that
would have been filled by Colonel Ar
thur L. Wagner, who died on Saturday
last General E,dgerly IS now in the
Philippines.