The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-08-02


highest rank as inventors. The board
will not only work out its own
ideas. but 1t will endeayor to assist
other inventors to perfect their
plans, and it will make recommen-
dations for the improvement Of ma
chinery now In use. In brief. the
naval advisory board will try to ap-
ply to the practice of warfare the
4 great supremacy of the American
Inventor. thus aiding Uncle Sam to
1 maintain his position among the hrst
4 class powers OF the world.
II this theory becomes an estao-
! lished fact, and there appears TO be
no valid reason why it should fail.
! the REPETITION OF history. America
| has not alone the steamboat. the
cotton gin. the electric lamp. the
telephone. the telegraph and many
/ other peaceful inventions to her
credit. She also leads the world
in the perfection of new machines OF
war. as a glance at history will show
Three Transformations.
Within the past century three
epochal transformations in the con-
struction OF a modern navy have
taken place-the change from sail
ing navy to one whose motive power
was steam, substitution of armored
vessels for wooden ones and the IN
production of the submarine. For
! all of these the United States may
claim the credit. The invention of
the steamboat belongs, of course. to
Robert Fulton, who also dall1ed with
the submarine and made several I'M
portant changes in the underwater
craft as first designed by a Yale
undergraduate. Fulton's chief work
however. was sending every sailing
ship of the navies of the world to
1.-THE discard. and substituting for the
ihaphazard motive power of the wind
/ the dependable motive power OF
steam.
! The second great change in the
fleets of the world was accomplished
by John Ericsson. designer of the
not only for the Yankee cheese
box on raft" but also for the screw
propeller, the first great improve
ment upon Fulton's invention of
| the steamboat.
Wooden vessels of war had been
in vogue since the earliest days of
history up to the time of the his
toric battle between the Monitor and
the Merrimac in Hampton Roads,
battle which sealed the doom of
this type of warcraft. According to
Percy Scott, the English authority
on matters pertaining to the navy.
! the submarine has sounded the
knell of the surface battleshtp as
| effectually as did the Mintor send
all the wooden ships to the scrap
heap. But here, again, the super
iority of American creative genius
makes itself seen, for the submarine
| is quite as much a product of Amer
,Ir; oV11 ivo iYx &c w
| first steamboat or the Monitor. Hol-
! land built the first modern sub
marine and Simon Lake Is respon-
sible for the majority of the i'm
provements upon this type of craft
SO that the United States may truly
J be said to have been responsible for
I ALI the great changes in naval war
fare during the past century.
Essentially the Same.
The Improvement of the aerop1ane
by Professor Langley and the Wright
Brothers is too we'll known to re-
| quire comment, other than to state
that the aeroplane now used in war
! fare is essentially the same as that
which the Wrights brought to its
present state of usefulness. The sea
realm of Mars, and the air which
| covers it, have therefore been sue
| cessfully invaded by Yankee ingen-
| uity.
With respect to warfare upon
land. it is necessary only to recall
the fact that Richard Calling. a
North Carolina school teacher. not
only perfected machinery to SOW cot
| ton and rice, but astonished the
world with the first machine gun
the famous Calling gun of the Civil
war-while Colonel Derin ger gave us
the vest pocket pistol that bears
his name and which was the i'm
mediate progenitor of the modern
automatic. The disappearing guns.
used in coast defenses. and the
! giant howitzers which played havoc
with defenses of Liege and Antwerp
are also of American origin, as are
many of the smaller machines of
/ war.
| 1t will therefore be seen that, If
American genius merely lives up to
the traditions and achievements of
the past. 1t will more than enable
the United States to protect itself
against aggression or invasion.