Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-04-06
AMERICANS MADE The TOOLS
Roster of Death Dealing Devices In
vented in This Country.
ALL IN USE IN WORLD WAR
Telegraph and Telephone, Aero
planes, Bsrbed wire ana sub
marines our Contribution to
the Titanic struggle.

the Titanic Struggle.
We haven't put swords in the hands OF
the nations at war, but we have invented
or originated nearly every other weapon,
instrument or device used in modern war
fare Imagine. II you can, this great con-
flict being waged without armored battle
ships, without submarines, without tor
pedoes, without aeroplanes, without mag
azine rifles. without rapid-firing guns. II
was the creative genius of the American
that brought all these into existence and
not only these, but the telegraph and the
telephone, without which war on its
present colossal scale would be impossi-
BILE Still more, what would the millions
intrenched upon the long line in northern
France do without the American barbed
wire which guards every foot and every
ditch?
We cannot claim to have invented gum
powder. which is attributed TO the Chi
nese. although the beginning Of its mod
ern use is credited to Berthold Schwartz,
German monk: we are not responsible
for the sword nor for the bayonet. which
originated in France: nor for SINGLE
fire guns, which were in use before we
were discovered. No doubt we would
have invented all of these things il we
had been given an earlier start, but as 1t
is they do not rest upon our conscience.
They. however, are the commonplace OF
warfare, and II the world were now linn
tied to them war would be nothing more
than a succession OF comparatively in
significant skirmishes, like the battles Of
Napoleon. We are a peaceful people. but
we have been fighting pretty much all Of
the time since we were born, and very
soon after that birth we began to devise
new and hitherto unthought-of methods
OF destroying that portion OF mankind not
so devoted as we to the arts of peace
Fulton began 1t. Yes, the man who in
vented the steamboat. What a terrible
chap he was! Handsome, gentle as q
lamb hating Wharf.-The last man In the
world one would expect 20 be concerned
in the construction of death-dealing
weapons. yet he invented the torpedo and
was the first man to blow up ship with
one. He believed that his torpedo was a
greater and more beneficial invention
than the steamship, for out OF it, he
said, will grow the liberty of the seas"
his notion being that it would put an
end to naval warfare. a delusion which
has Influenced many a later humanitarian
Origin OF the Torpedo.
II was not until the civil war that the
torpedo was used in actual conflict. and
that great struggle brought into active
existence four of the most powerful in
| struments of modern warfare-the ar
mored battle ship. the submarine, the
torpedo and the submarine mine. No less
than twenty-eight vessels were destroyed
Or seriously injured by torpedoes and
mines in the civil war. Every school boy
has read the thrilling story Of the sinking
OF the confederate ram Albemarle by the
boy lieutenant. William b. Cushing. He
did II with torpedo.
The confederates, however, were the
first to use the torpedo and the sub
marine. They established a torpedo bu-
reau in 1852. and in 1863 used a submarine
boat. called a David, after it's inventor, IN
| fighting the federal blockading squadron
at Charleston. Three times this boat sank
and failed to rise. its crew Of eight men
perishing each time. but the fourth trial
was successful. blowing up and sinking
the federal warship Housatonic. Several
OF these Davids were afterwards con-
structed by the confederates. The pres
ent day submarines are nearly all based
on the designs OF the boat invented by
John p Holland, an American and 10
American genius and American energy
Is due the dubious honor of having not
only invented, but put into actual and
effective service. all forms OF submarine
warfare. The fundamental weapon In all
the armies Of the world is the rifle. Be-
| fore the civil war in the United States
nearly all rifles were single shot muzzle
leaders, requiring TO be reloaded for every
shot, powder, ball and wad being in
serted separately and hammered down
| vigorously with the ramrod, an operation
which took considerable time.
Rifle and Revolver.
Breeeh-loading devices with cartridges
began to be used about the middle OF the
last century. one Of the earliest effective
weapons Of this kind being the Sharp car
bine, an American gun. many OF which
were used with success in the war with
Mexico as well as later in the civil war.
But even the breech-loading single shot
rife was a slow weapon compared with
the magazine rifle upon which the mill
tary authorities Of today depend. The
first successful breech-loading magazine
gun In the world was the Spencer. the
invention Of an American. and patented
In 1850. It delivered eight shots without
reloading and all Of them fired within
ten seconds. Nearly 10000 Spencer rifles
we're used by the federal troops in that
war and thousands more would have
been used could they have been supplied.
most Of the soldiers being forced to rest
content with their old Springfields. The
Spencer revolutionized firearms as the
, Monitor and Merrimac did nayies. An