The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-06

of the steam machinery of the Idaho and the electric machinery os her sis ter ship, the New Mexico, is 205 tons. That would not go far towards the pro- vision of l2,o00 tons of extra armour
 l think we shall find, however, that naval architects will not need to armor the underwater hull of the future battle ships. They will put blister on them Many new British warships already have this device, and it is being considerably improved. It is really a sort of outer hullp surrounding the ship below water and taking the force of the explosion if either mine or a torpedo hits it.
 There remains the problem of side ar nor vs. deck armor and we shall prob ably have a compromise by which the greater share of protection will be given on deck.
 SIDE OR DECK
 Guns will certainly increase in size and number in battleships The eight 1e-inch guns of the American Colorado class are already a pretty formidable armament, but the United States ord nance bureau has recommended the adop- tion of 1S-inch guns, and these may be actually fitted in the ships of the three year programme. Indeed naval con- structors in England are already talking about ships carrying F of these pieces
 
 be stupendous, and it is quite certain that if the United States navy has such ships other navies will have them, too. That is the whole trouble about naval armament There Is no finality. Every improvement leads to another and the last word of today is not worth reprint ing tomorrow.
 In connection with electrical drive. too, British naval engineers are still uncon- VinCG0 that the Navy MaNicn ba problem of battleship propulsion. Most Of the experts here are inclined to think that the internal combustion engine is the motive power that is going to oust the steam turbine offer no opinion of my own on this point. I merely record other peoples. But if the motor launch of today becomes the motor bat tleship of tomorrow then we shall see another great change in the external appearance of our ships.
 There will be no tunnels
 Such change would be of consider able assistance to more than one of the developments of the near future, but Will dwell on one only-the use of air planes from warships.
 During the war we heard a good deal about the work of the British seaplane- carriers, special ships that formed float ing self contained aerodromes attached to the grand fleet. But long before the armiStice was signed we had advanced far beyond that primitive idea and most Of the British battleships were equipped to send up their own airplanes. These were small two-seater bplanes. They were not seaplanes They took off from the ship itself, running along a short platform built on top of the lower of the superimposed gun turrets. These platforms could be quickly dismantled in case of action stations being sounded off. The airplane. once it was up. had to make land in order to descend in safety If it could not make a. landing it had to get as near to a ship as it could and the pilot and observer had to chance being picked up by a boat from the ship before their airplane sank. This is a development that will go a long way. because it is almost certain that in the near future these airplanes will be used to spot" for the battle ships when they are firing at targets 20 miles away. It is probable that aviation experts. too. will arrive at a hellcopter device that will enable the airplane to settle down gently to its place on the ships deck again, just as a bird settles down into its nest
 All these foreshadowings are practical I am drawing no- fancy picture of the big warship of the future. It will be as different from those we know today as the dreadnaught was different from the ships built before 1905
 Even the league of nations and the limitation of armaments will not affect these changes. You may limit the num- ber of ships that man shall build. but you cannot limit the productivity of his inventive genius.