The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-05-07
II. 5. NAVAL BOARD
| FINDS ANSWER TO
u BOAT MENACE
Plan for Solution of Diver
Problem Has Been
Tested.
ENTRANCE TO NORTH
SEA TO BE CLOSED
Edison Perfected But Did
Not Originate The
Plan.

New York, May IA program to
stop the ravages of German SUBJ
marines on maritime commerce has
been submitted to the government by
the naval board. This was announced
Saturday by w. L. Saunders, chair
man OF the board. He said the plan
in his opinion was practical solu-
it was not purely theoretical, but that
Il had been proved by actual tests
along the Atlantic coast.
The scheme Is not merely de-
fensive measure against the SUBJ
marine, Mr.. Saunders said. It called
for offensive operations on an ex-
tensive scale"
Thomas Edison, who is president of
the board, did not originate the
ventive wizard has been working
tirelessly to perfect its many phases.
Since declaration of war against Ger
many, Mr.. Edison and his assistants
have been considering thousands of
schemes suggested to block Germany's
undersea warfare, now admittedly the
greatest menace to the European al
lies and their new American partners,
the United States.
Edison Back OF Il.
Behind the program submitted to
the navy department is all the Edi-
sonian practicabflity and all of Edi-
sons deft skill. in accomplishing the
seemingly imposssible. Announcement |
Of the scheme by the chairman of the |
board dispelled doubts that it might |
be merely another academic idea de- |
void Of practical use. And that the
board made experiments before max |
ing their find public left little doubt |
in the minds of naval officials that at
h. ovrps "a eYNr0 h al
Will Close North Sea.
The most important immediate step
Mr.. Saunders said, is thel
closing of the north end Of the North
sea, so submarines could not get |
through into the Atlantic ocean, and
this could be done, he insisted, by the
of several new inventions
In conjunction with the naval forces
Of the United States.
Mr.. Saunders said the plan sug-
gested to the government involved the
possibility Of land operations. Without
himself definitely on this
point, the scheme is indicated includ-
3D. q military offensive against the
Kiel canal which would call for the
and landing of an army
against this important German water
way. German naval concentration
pOlutS, GCAOEdlly WOuIu uC ODJCCIlNC |
points in this suggested joint method
of naval and land operations.
What the new inventions are Mr..
Saunders said he could not reveal,
put he admitted they involve an sex-
lensiVes use, of elsctricity, ard had
been perfected largely through the
genius and work of Thomas A. Edi-
son, who had been devoting all of his
lime at his laboratory of Orange
and at a sea coast expert
nent station.
Channel 10 Closed.
The allies, Mr.. Saunders said, have
closed the English chan
lei to submarines by the use of high
watch towers on the shores of France
Ind England, from which suspicious
on the surface of the
water can be detected, and by the
in connection with these,
If nets, destroyers. airplanes, mines
Ind other implements; but the COM
narrowness and shallowness
II the channel has made is possible for
hese forces to be successful.
Similar operations at the northern
kit of the North sea have been made
by the wide, deep and
stormy waters between Scotland and
Norway, Mr.. Saunders asserted, but
lie added that these natural obsta-
les could be overcome by the naval
orces OF the United States in con-
JUNCTION with the recently invented II
apparatus tested by the consulting
'oard.