Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-01-06
FUTURE WAR VESSELS.
Swift Alcohol Driven Craft to Be Used,
Saws Lewis Nixon.

Placement ana creepy little submarines |
fitted with hydroplanes that will send |
them skimming like flying fish at the |
steel giants, and then, when their tor |
pedOeS have Strucl1-Shome, they will |
dive under the water and come up at
a safe distance ready for more deadly |
work
The speed of those little mosquito
scouts will be GO knots and over The
speed of the battleships they convoy
and attack will be from 10 to II knots
less. The torpedo of the future will
be a light one-say go pounds-and
will carry a charge of fifty pounds of
explosive. Strangest of all these bat
tie craft of the years to come will be
alcohol driven.
Lewis Nixon, the famous marine
constructor and inventor of freak and
speedy war craft, recently declared to
Il New York Evening World reporter
| that he has now under construction In
his workshops at Tottenville a small
vessel in the neighborhood of fifty tons
| that will skim over the water at GO
| knots or a shade less. Her motive pow
err will be gas, and her sanguine Gre
ator says she is the forerunner of the
| new type ships that are to come
Those who looked at newspaper pic
lures of the departing peace" feet
| few days ago and saw for themselves
what a tremendous smoke cloud bat
| tleships under way roll up will realize
what an advantage will accrue to the
nation that first goes into battle with
gas or alcohol driven engines. The
huge smokestacks necessary to create
draft to keep the gauge jumping on
| the high pressure boilers will be miss
ing.
| These warships of tomorrow will be
low in the water, swift, silent, deadly.
, Close behind them. like porpoises hay-
ing fun with school of sharks, will
come the little hydroplanes, all ready
to dive beneath the surface on their
errand OF destruction at first sight of
the enemy or prepared to hook on and
be hauled aboard their battleship con-
sorts in case of bad weather.
Mr.. Nixon was shown a newspaper
article quoting Lieutenant Commander
G.. c. Davison's opinion that before
|
and that submarines will take their
places.
"Battleships will be designed long
after Mr.. Dawson is gathered to his
II fathers" said Mr.. Nixon. with a smile.
There is undeniably field, however,
for vast improvement in the torpedo
as weapon. In fact, l may-say that
surface ship of great speed, armed
solely with torpedoes, will be factor
to be dealt with in the future wars.
The submarine of today is sluggish
and clumsy. Then, too, the problem OF
light under the surface is vet to he
solved. Under present conditions it
: would be impossible, except under the
most favorable conditions, to launch q
torpedo effectively from a submarine
beneath the surface. There are several
reasons for this, one of which, as ]
; have said. is the almost total darkness
, under water. Again. there is the re
sistance of the water to overcome. The
torpedo would have to consist almost
solely of engines sufficiently powerful
: to drive it at any speed if launched be
meath the surface.
1.-THE best way to deliver a tOrped,
is from the surface The submarine
. of the future will have immense sur
face speed and only dive as a mean:
of protection or escape. Half do=eI
of such craft attacking a battleshil
> would give her q terrible tussle for he
life.
THE torpedo itself will not advanc,
- along the present heavy lines. w
. shall. l believe, evolve light torpedoe
> carrying great charges of some higl
: explosive. A hydroplane boat of
60 knot speed could carry mum
Der of these and be handled by tw
men.
''As to the motive power of the fu
ture, believe that some day the worl
will wake up to the possibilities o
alcohol. Gas engines, however Wi
be a step in the right direction.
, modern warship is most heavily al
mored about her engine and boile
rooms. These are her vital parts. .
blow struck home there and she is on
!, of the fight. The maze of pipes, tn
4 complicated parts of a steam engine
all contribute 10 lllS cause. fuC
feed pipe out of business. and where
your steam engine?
with gas engines it is differen
= There are few parts, comparativel.
!" and no boiler room and roasting flu
: naces. A few men tend the engine
in comparative comfort. From til
:, standpoint of economy, too, the futul
:. power will be gas engines.
''As for alcohol driven engines, the
will come some day, and as long as "
q have a sun to induce fermentation "
q will be able to get alcohol In inc
> Unable quantities. believe the day
coming when every fire will be ru
\ md every lighting system operated t
alcohol.
"The gas driven warship is almo
here. Within the next twenty yea
we shall see radical changes in nav
construction, and our seas will he file
with swift, smokeless, formidable W.
craft, and the nation that gets the
first will be on the top of the nav