Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-03
THE INVISIBLE EEL"
ONCE MEANT "U-BOAT''
That's Just One of the Interest
ing Points in "The Story of
the Submarine"

The U-boat war which Germany and
Austria are waging on Great Britain, and
the controversy in which the United
States has become involved on account OF
the Lustana and Arabic, victims OF the
undersea raiders, lend peculiar timeiness
to The Story of the Submarine" (the
Century Company New York;, by Farm
ham Bishop, who is remembered for his
concise account of American work in the
Canal Zone, through Panama, Past and
| Present"
The origin of the submarine and it's de-
| velopment into n terrible and spectacular
agent of destruction, are chronologlcally
| presented. Most well-read persons are
aware that the perfection of the sub
| marine Is due to two Americans. John p,
i Holland and Simon Lake. They knew,
too, perhaps vaguely from their school his
| tories, of the experiments made during the
| Civil War to practicalize the device of
underwater war craft, The Confederate
| "Peripatetic Coffin" which sank six times
before II finally was able to pot its prey
the warship HOusatonic, was one of the
interesting footnotes in the Fourteen
Weeks in History" type of school text
books of a generation ago.
This incident Is only one of the many
which Mr.. Bishop has assembled in his
first-hand and first-rate volume. The
British, German and Russian experiments
are fully described Such quaint early
efforts as Cornelius Van Drebel's device
of an invisible eel" to murder the fiat
bottoms" of enemy ships in the reign
of James l. and David Bushnells inVen-
ton offered to the Continental Congress
in the later years of the Revolution are |
described, and the vain endeavors of Rob- !
ert Fulton to add to his laures as a |
marine inventor by interesting govern !
ments in his submarine projects are |
noted. Then comes consideration of the |
part the U-boats have played in the pres
ent war.
The book, which is illustrated with
threescore drawings and photographs, is
comprehensive in a concise way. 1t Is
for two reasons, the rapid his
toric and structural survey of the sub
marine and the pictorial series showing
the evolution of the deadliest agent of
modern naval warfare.
About two years ago a curious book of
octave shape and paper covers made its
way into this country from England. Its
contents were as unconventional as its
makeup. Moreover it was entitled
Blast (John Lane Company, New York;
L name in itself calculated to arouse in |
crest. The first volume of BLAST" created
/ thirst for more, and now II has come.
Blast" apparently Is the outward ex-
,ression of the inward rage that a certain |
-roup of artistic and literary rebels in
london feels for all that is stupid and
name in British life. They call them I
Gives NOTllClStSt OF upnOluerS OF tne
vortex" theory OF art and existence. S
heir movement is an offshoot of the artis- Q
lc revolt that began with the impression :
SITS, who have been followed by the futur- /
SITS, cubists, imagists, etc. ?
This second number of Blast" lacks !
he gaiety of the first. Evidently the war N
as cast n pail over the English artistic "
'orld that will not pass in a day. But
he new book contains many harmonious
rawlings and much clever writing. often
larked by sincere feeling. One of the
lost fascinating things in the volume is T
letter from Gaudier- -Brszka, the sculp-
,r who afterward was killed in charge
Neuville-St Vaast Such a letter is
etter than many sermons against mill. L
rsm