Evening journal., 1917-11-23

no ono had ANTICIPATED my idea. and
was able to securc the basic patent in
inly. 1912. TO my intense amazement
"Thc invention attracted a good deal
Of attention from the papers and mags-
zines here and in Europe. The British
began experimenting with g. in the Au-
iumn Of 1919. and they have been pro
crossing with 10 over since. In Au-
gust. 1915. a British Navy Lieutenant
made several flights from the Mcditer-
ranean into the Sea Of Nlarmora. car
rying torped0cs weighing about 40
pounds each. and ne sank four Turkish
ships. Many reports have been received
that the Prtish have been using Tor
pedoplancs in considerable numbers
ever since. hui exactly how much IS
not stated Tho Italians under The
leadership of Captain Alcsandro Gui-
donia Of the Italian Navy. made many
successful experiments with torpedo
planes in 1914. bot how much they
have used ihom in the present war is
not definitely known The Germans
sank the British steamer Cena near
the English coast on May I 1917. hut
we do not know Of any further use
they have made lf torpcdoplanes. cX-
cept that on one occasion a German
torpedopane discharged torpedo into
The mouth ~ an English harbor. The
torpedo did 40 harm. however. be
cause 10 ran into a sandbank This sand
bank had recently been formed there
through The foresight and prompt ac-
iion Of the inhabitants by the simple
cxpedeni of dumping several barge
loads OF sand.
"lt Is my hope that the United Stalos
Government will also develop The tor
pedoplane. II seems 90 have two fields
Of usefulness-one for operations from
the water and The other for operations
from the land
when our country entered into the
present war; The question OF the pos
sible usefulness Of The torpedoplane
IN defending our own coast was at once
supplanled by The question Of rs pos
sible usefulness for offensive Oper
ations in Europe This matter q naval
ollcer must discuss with considerable
reserve. FOR reasons that are obvious.
No harm is apparent, however. IN call
ing attention 90 facts that have fire.
quently been mentioned In the news
papers, and that are we'll known 10 an
intelligent people. including our devil
ishly intellieenl enemies. n may be
mentioned therefore. That the distance
from England 20 kicl Is only S1j miles
and the distance from the northeastern
part OF France TO the same Ilacs is
only 200 miles while the distance from
these points TO Wilhelmshaven are
only go and 300 miles respectively; and |
while it, is matter of record that a [
squadron of Capronl airplanes recently !
made a IN of SO miles without slop-
pins
1T may be that NJ the present mo-
ment there are NO airplanes that are
able TO carry full-sl1ed torpcdocs from
England TO kicl. discharge the tor
pedoes and return 10 England but there
are airplancs i'm existence that fall short /
OF such ability by ouly small per.
centagc. Certainly. therefore. II no
such airplan's do exist they can be /
made TO exist and J am Informed that /
they can, by one of The most competent I
engineers I'm the world
Ut may hc pointed out hero that /
some Of the greatest successes in war
have been gained by the Joint efforts
Of strategisls and inechanicians. In
bringing new weapons into being. and
that the Monitor and the U-boat did
not exist until a perception OF their
stratcgical possibilities hy certain
strategists. and TIC deveng of appr1-
priato mechanism 10y certain mechani-
clans, caused them io exist
ut Is interesting also 10 recall the
fact that, of all The many factors That
decided the result ~ the Russian-Jap-
aneso War The most important single
factor was d new invention. tho naval
telescope sight because 10 was The dc
clsivU Japanese victory at ihe naval
battle of raushima That decided the
outcome Of The war by running ever,
chance the Russians had Of conduering
Japan because 10 was tho enornoous