The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1907-07-25
Washington Letter.
(From our regular correspondent.)

ship, Georgia, at target practice oil
Boston, Mass. There was an ex-
plosion of powder in the turret, kill
ing nine officers and men and injur-
ing twelve others so that some Of
them will die. This accident was
the more serious in the view of the
Department because it was the
fourth one in four summers of tar
get practice and came after the De-
partment had taken what it consid-
cred was the amplest precautions tC
eliminate all such accidents. The
origin of the explosion is a mystery
Only one round had been fired from
the after turret and the men were
holding one of the 1CO pound bags
of smokeless powder ready to throw
into the breech of the gun. The
loader suddenly saw the bag smoul-
dering and Before there was time to
think, the charge ignited and the
100 pounds of powder went off fill
ing the tulret with smoke and gas
Of all the men is the turret not one
escaped serious injury. The turret
was not badly damaged because the
powder was not confined. But the
mystery came in knowing where the
spark originated that fred the
charge. The Department has elm
mated all known courses of danger,
insulating the electrical equipment
and installing automatic air blasts
to prevent Glare backs from the
hot guns. There will, of course, be
board of inquiry but it is doubtful
if the cause of the fire will ever be
discovered.
Some of the other accidents on
the modern warships were an explo-
sion on the Massachusetts in 1908,
killing nine men, another on the
Iowa the next year when again
twelve inch turret exploded,
killing three men AMI injuring
three others, an explosion from
Glare back" on the Missouri, killing
five officers and twenty-six enlisted
men, and another on the Kearsarge,
severely injuring three men.
The American navy has been par
ticularly unlucky in accidents of this
of this sort. The British navy in
the same time has lost many more
men through a series of torpedo
boat disasters and the French
through fire and submarine disas-
ters. Each navy seems to have it's
own specially in horrors. Whether
the Navy Department will ever he
able to eliminate the sources of
these explosions is a serious ques-
ton. Meantime, it seems target
practice in peace time is almost as
as service in time of war.
The Navy has leen working for
some time on the problem Of gaso-
line engines for the Navy. Great
Britain has been wol king for many
years on the problem of using oil
for fuel instead of coal. They have
had some success, but aside from
the facility of handling the fuel, it
has not proved of much advantage.
Some competitive tests have been
made on long distance runs between
ships using coal and others using oil
fuel. The usual course has been
from Gibraltar to Plymouth.
There has been but little difference
in the time of the runs, not enough |
to warrant changing the equipment
Of any of the big ships to oil burn
ers.
The American Navy has not been
working without burners but has
been doing some quiet work with
gasoline engines for torpedo boats
and destroyers. This work has all
been done on the quiet, and per-
maps it is hardly fair even to refer
to it. But some of the engin eer of
icers have developed a gasoline en-
CINE equal in horse power to that in
the biggest destroyer and occupy
ing only one-half the space. There
is enough fuel space to make the
cruising radius of the gasoline boat
once and half as long as steam
driven boat. Altogether it is a de-
cided advance in marine engineer
ing, and will mark great advance
in torpedo boat construction But
the gasoline engine, already familiar
i'll motor boat construction, is not
the only thing that the engineer
corps has been working on. There
is one officer who has been for some
years working on the problem of
gas direct from the ex-
plosion of oil and air, keeping it un-
der pressure in tank something
like steam for driving either recip-
rocating or turbine engine. 1t is
understood that this work is now a
and if this is so it will mean
a revolution in oil engine construc-
ton for motor boats, automobiles, /
and all sorts of small machinery.
The Secretary of the Treasury |