Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-27
NEW TORPEDO A TERROR
Passed Through Fourteen Feet of
ArmOr Plate and Ten Feet
of Coal.

Lieutenant Commander C1eland Davis,
United States navy, has devised a torpedo
gun capable OF tearing holes in the best
armored warship afloat. Not more than a
score of persons have seen the Davis
torpedo gun in action, and not one-third of
that number could describe 1t II they would.
1t is one OF the secrets Of the Navy depart
ment that must be kept secret to main-
tain its value. But enough is known to
prove that the Davis invention is the great
est advance In the art of hitting the enemy
hardest since Ericsson set his Yankee
cheese box on a plank" and cleared the sea
Of many times it's weight in ironclads.
While the invention Of Commander Davis
is called a gun, it is in reality an improved
torpedo. Torpedoes such as those in gem
eral use detonate when they strike the ex-
terror of a ships hull. and lose much OF
their effectiveness through the escape OF
gases. The Davis torpedo is fired from an
ordinary torpedo tube. operates by com
pressed air, and has an effective range of at
least a mile. Like the torpedo proper, it
becomes destructive when it strikes an OBJ
struction, either the side of a battleship or
a vessels torpedo netting; but, unlike the
common torpedo, 1t does not itself detonate.
Immediately on impact a high explosive is
set off, which discharges a projectile
through the hull OF the chip. This pro-
j%ectile contains another charge of explo-
sive with a time fuse attached, which is set
working at the moment Of the original i'm
pact. The projectIle is hurled through the
armor plate with a destructive force suffi-
cient to sink the finest fighting craft afloat.
Much stress is laid upon the fact that net
ting such as is used to protect English
battleships against torpedo attack has no
effect against the Davis torepdo gun.
In actual trial at Washington, the Davis
torepdo gun recently hurled a projectiIe
through seven inches Of armor plate, then
through ten feet OF coal, and again through
seven inches OF armor on the other side.
As the projectile itself was not charged
with explosive, the amount of destructive
force that would have followed was not
demonstrated at that test, but the experts
have a way OF calculating these details that
leaves little to the Imagination.
There is not a bsttleship afloat that can
live ten minutes after it is hit with that
projectle." exclaimed one of the men who
saw the test; and there was no one present
to disagree with him..
A more recent test held in Boston harbor
showed equally surprising results. A tar
get tank had been constructed, stronger
than a section of a battleship. of three
quarter-inch iron with three interior bulk
heads. This tank was formerly the PROD
erty Of the Standard oil company. 1t was
ballasted with forty tons OF scrap iron and
submerged eleven and one-half feet. The
projectile was driven clear into the center
OF the tank. which sank in fifteen seconds,
and the torpedo gun was found and re-
turned TO the government storehouse I'm
as good condition as the day when It was
turned out OF the Whitehead factory. The
force Of the explosion Of the forty-pound
charge OF dunnite. however, was demon
strated by the remarkable condition Of the
torpedo tube. Commander Davis had
shrunk two steel bands around 1t. One OF
these was found broken I'm two. and the
other stretched 10 such an extent that II
could be moved from one end Of the tubs
TO the other. Yet the tube itself remainded
uninjured.-Harper's Weekly.