"Who are those thin men, papa, with old clothes on?"
"Those are inventors, my child."
"And who are those fat men with nice clothes and big cigars? Are
those inventors too, papa?"
"No, my child. Those are the men who improve on the inventors' inventions."
In Lord Brassey's Naval Annual for 1906 is an extremely able and interesting chapter, by Commander Charles N. Robinson, R. N., called "The Gunnery Practice of the Fleet."
The chapter is largely historical, and begins by reciting an Admiralty Circular, dated January 31, 1906, in which their Lordships express great satisfaction with the gunnery practice of 1905, and attribute the successful results mostly to "the great interest and keen spirit displayed by officers and men, the general introduction and use of additional instructional appliances, and the improved system of gunnery training now in operation."
Commander Robinson says of this memorandum, "It marks indeed the beginning of a new era in the conditions and aspects of naval gunnery." He also says of it, "The letter is at once an official pronouncement that, as battle efficiency is the first consideration, so accuracy of fire is the first essential to its attainment; that everything else is to be deemed of secondary importance in relation to proficiency in this respect; and that officers who look for future advancement will find no better stepping stone to the goal of their ambition than a zealous effort to achieve distinction in this direction."
I should like to quote the whole of this interesting chapter, because it is hard to show otherwise how perfectly its writer is convinced that the excellent gunnery of the present time is due wholly to a certain system of training faithfully carried out, for which the entire credit belongs to the British Navy, led by Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Scott. The only suspicion shown by the writer of the chapter that any other navy or any other person was concerned in it, is shown by the following sentence which speaks of a time, approximately 1902 or 1903. The sentence reads: "The Americans had already recognized the need for improvement, and an inspector of target practice, in the person of Lieutenant W. Sims, had been appointed to reorganize this department of gunnery with marked results."
The chapter describes the condition of naval gunnery as having been bad for very many years, and then says, "Things went on pretty much as here described until 1898, when two things happened to draw the attention of the naval world to the subject of marksmanship with big guns. One was the battle of Santiago, when of Cervera's squadron of cruisers, it was said that their fire was at first terrific, but the harm done was next to nothing, owing to the unskillful handling of the Spanish guns; nor did the proportion of hits to shots fired redound to the credit of the American gunners. The second concerned the record firing of the Scylla, a small vessel of the Mediterranean Station. The captain of the Scylla (now Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Scott) had struck out a line of his own. He had provided his own telescopic sights and instructed his men with a loading teacher and a dotter, both of his own invention; so that presently the ship made a score at prize firing such as the navy had never thought possible."
The present writer has no desire to rob the British Navy of any of the credit which it justly merits for the marked improvement in naval gunnery during the past few years; neither has he any desire to rob Sir Percy Scott of any credit that he has received; because he has received no more credit than he deserves. All the praise that Sir Percy Scott has received, and all the official commendations, promotions and decorations that he and the officers whom he inspired have received, both in the British Navy and in other navies, have been justly earned. But, nevertheless, the present writer believes that he can prove that the credit for the accurate naval gunnery of the present day does not primarily belong to the British Navy, but to the American Navy; and that the naval gunnery of to-day did not have its birth on board of H. M. S. Scylla, on the Mediterranean Station, at some time after 1898; but on board the U. S. S. Yorktown, at Unalaska, on September 12, 1892.
The facts are as follows: (I hope I shall be forgiven for telling the story in the first person; but after several attempts, I have found it utterly impossible to do otherwise, without making the story sound artificial and mock modest.)
In the spring of 1890, I went out to sea on board the U. S. S. Baltimore with the Board of Inspection, to be present when the battery and the electrical range finder were tested. Firing had finished with the port battery, and begun with the starboard, when a large flock of schooners got in the way, and practice had to be stopped for a while. I amused myself by looking at the schooners through the telescope of the forward instrument, and noticing how definitely the cross hairs of the telescope moved across their sails, with the gentle rolling and pitching of the Baltimore. I had watched this in an idle way for a few minutes, when the thought came that anybody could fire all the guns in the broadside from that place, and hit the target every time, by setting the telescope at the angle of depression equal to the proper angle of elevation of the guns, leaving the guns parallel with the deck, and firing when the roll of the ship brought the cross hairs on the target.
In a few minutes, however, cold, pitiless reason pointed out the practical impossibility of mounting the guns so that the angle of elevation of all would be the same.
Nevertheless, I decided to patent the scheme, reasoning that ships would be constructed, as the years went by, of increasing size and with increasing perfection of workmanship. On May 15, 1890, I applied for a patent on "A Method of Pointing Guns at Sea." The Patent Office made numerous objections, but finally granted a patent on September 9, 1890.
In 1891, I found that the British had tried a plan substantially the same; in fact that they had mounted in the conning-towers of one or more of their ships telescopes called "gun directors."
I did not think the scheme would become practicable for some years to come. My main idea in taking out the patent was to combine it with some other patents that I already had on "range and position finders." By the method and apparatus described in those patents, the distance and direction of a distant object could be ascertained, and all the guns of a fort, by electrical arrangements on their elevating gear and training gear, could be concentrated on it from central protected stations; and I thought that it might become possible, in the future, to put similar electrical gear on the guns of a ship, and by combining this system with a range finder having two armored observing stations, to direct and fire all the guns correctly from the conning-tower.
Meanwhile, I sketched many schemes on paper for mounting a telescope on a ship's gun, much as one is mounted on a musket, but arranged so that, when the gun recoiled, the sight itself would not come back with the gun and strike the gun captain in the eye, but would stay away from it; that is, the gun would slide under the sight. The favorite plan was some electrical mechanism, which, when the gun captain pressed the firing button, would cause the telescope to slide forward. Some of the plans were not so very bad, but they all seemed too dangerous, because the mechanism might fail. In those days, it must be remembered, we did not have any guns that recoiled in the line of fire, except small guns.
One evening the idea came sharply:
"You needn't put the telescope on the gun; just put it on something that moves with the gun but doesn't recoil."
A simple mechanism for carrying the idea into effect was quickly devised; and on March 9, 1891, I applied for a patent on "A Telescopic Sight for Ships' Guns."
The Patent Office, after fighting a year and a half, finally yielded and granted a patent, which was issued on September 5, 1893.
Figs. 3 and 4 show the construction. As our main battery guns did not recoil in the line of fire, the sight was attached to the gun shield, as shown in Fig. 1; and the range indication was brought into alinement with one of the marks on the stationary rim, surrounding the range disc, which showed the initial angle of elevation of the gun. The idea explained in the specification of the patent was that the gun should be given some convenient initial angle of elevation, the range mark on the disc brought opposite the mark which indicated that angle, and the gun fired when the roll of the ship brought the sight on the target. This was the best that could be done with that kind of gun-mount.
After filing the application, I constructed an instrument substantially like that shown in Fig. 3. The base shown in the figure, however, was mounted upon another base, on a vertical pivot, and a tangent screw, operating against a spiral spring, was arranged to revolve the telescope and its supporting base through a small angle in azimuth, to make proper allowance for drift and speed; a pointer on the upper base being thus made to move over suitable graduations on the lower base.
The telescope was like those used on the Vesuvius range finder. It was 2 feet long; the object glass was 2 inches in diameter; the field of view was 8°; the magnification was 4.
It was constructed by the late W. E. Stackpole, who had been making high grade telescopes for surveying and astronomical use nearly all his life. I have never seen a better telescope than the one he made for the first naval telescope sight in 1891. The field was flat, the definition excellent and the cross wires as fine as was compatible with strength and clear visibility. They were secured very firmly in the exact focal plane of the object glass, and there was no discoverable parallax. The wires formed a single cross.
That the telescope was rugged is proved by the fact that it remained in excellent condition, without any repairs whatever, for several years, two and a half of which were spent in the Yorktown and one and a half in the San Francisco. That it was pretty nearly what a telescope for a telescope sight ought to be, is shown by the strong resemblance between it and the telescopes issued in sights during the past two years.
Shortly after making this sight, I wrote to Commander Folger, Chief of Bureau of Ordnance, asking his permission to show it to him. He replied in the affirmative, specifying a certain hour in the afternoon a few days later. I sent him the sight and followed it the next day.
I appeared at the bureau at the designated time, and saw the instrument on his desk.
Our interview did not last half an hour. At first, Commander Folger was opposed to my idea; but as soon as I had explained it fully, he reversed his attitude completely, and declared that I had made a very great invention. "You have changed naval gunnery from a game of chance into a science," he said.
When I was taking my leave, he said that he thought the best way in which to get an intelligent trial of the sight was to send it to the Yorktown, because Commander Chadwick was the captain.
I did not see the Yorktown for about a year, and then I went on board of her at the New York Navy Yard. I found that the sight had not been tried during the year, and that it was still in the box in which it had originally come. Commander Chadwick had been relieved by another commander.
A few days later I was ordered to the ship. The ship went to sea on October 10, 1891, bound for the Pacific.
Some time during the first quarter of 1892, we had target practice. I asked to have the telescope tried; and a few shots were fired by the gun captain, with the result indicated in the following report. I think he fired four shots, and they all went to about the same spot, about 400 yards short of the target. I tried to explain to the captain that this must have been due to my not getting the zero adjustment just right, and pointed out that this was extremely difficult to accomplish at sea, with a vessel that rolled as much as the Yorktown. I could not make him see the matter from my point of view, however, and so the following report was sent.
This may seem very curious to officers now who are familiar with what we call "bore-sighting"; but the fact is that all the officers of the Yorktown agreed with the captain. I heard him order one of the watch officers to look through the telescope sight and tell him what he thought of it. The officer replied, "I think it increases the difficulty of sighting, sir."
The report was as follows:
U. S. S. YORKTOWN, 3D RATE,
NAVY YARD, MARE ISLAND, March 31, 1892.
The Honorable Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C.
SIR.—I have the honor to report, that during the target practice, for this quarter, I tested the Fiske telescopic sight under the personal supervision of the inventor.
The sight was fitted to the forward 6-inch B. L. R. and the gun captains, who had been doing excellent shooting, with the ordinary sights, were required to use it. The shooting immediately became so bad that the use of the sight was discontinued, the inventor admitting that something was radically wrong with it.
Afterwards, I required the executive officer to observe the target through the Fiske sight, when the gun was fired with the ordinary sights. He reported that the target was not anywhere near the cross wires when the gun was fired, yet the shot was an excellent one. He was cut over the eye by the recoil of the sight. The shots fired with this sight are marked on the returns.
In its present shape it is of no value on board ship.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
Commander, Commanding.
Commandant's Office, Navy Yard, Mare Island, Cal., April II, 1892.
Forwarded to Bureau of Ordnance. John Irwin, Commandant.
As the captain declined to let me have any more shots, I wrote an official letter to Commander Folger, who was still Chief of Bureau of Ordnance, describing the difficulty, as I understood it, and requesting that the commanding officer of the Yorktown be ordered to let me fire ten more shots. This request was granted. On the afternoon of September 12, 1892, after the usual target practice, I obtained permission to fire five shots, using the telescope sight.
It had not been altered in any respect, whatever, since it had been tried in the preceding spring.
Eighteen shots had been fired in the morning of September 12, 1892, six from each gun on the starboard side. I fired five shots in the afternoon. The results are shown in the accompanying diagram. The shots fired with the open sight are numbered from 1 to 18, inclusive; the shots fired with the telescope sight are numbered from 19 to 23, inclusive. As each one of the squares represents only 2½ feet on a side, it will be noted that the worst shot (No. 23) was less than 10 feet from the center of the target.
It is not possible to make a mathematical comparison between the shooting done in the afternoon and the shooting done in the forenoon, because they do not belong to the same class; especially since the last shot, No. 23, was not fired at the target, because the target had been knocked down and was lying in a wreck on the raft; but was fired (very foolishly) just above the vague outline of the wreck.
When the target was brought back on board ship it had three holes through it, though only four shots had been fired at it. The target was of the regulation pattern of that day—practically a triangle about 12 feet high and 10 feet across the base.
Surprise has been expressed that the accuracy was so great; but there is no reason whatever why the accuracy should not have been so great; and there are two conclusive reasons why it should have been:
(I) The telescope sight in. the Yorktown was as accurate and reliable as any that have been made since.
(2) I was careful not to fire except when the cross wires rested on the center of the target.
A few days later, moving target practice was held. Nine shots were fired using the open sights, and the tenth shot was fired using the telescope sight. The results of the target practice are shown in the following diagram.
I then made the following report to the Bureau of Ordnance:
U. S. S. YORKTOWN,
UNALASKA, ALASKA, September 29, 1892.
Commander William M. Bolger, U. S. Navy, Chief of Bureau of Ordnance.
SIR—Referring to the allowance of ten rounds of 6" ammunition, kindly made me by the bureau, I beg to state that I have been able to fire six of these; five at stationary practice and one at moving practice. The telescope was mounted on the shield, and I used electric primers.
I send herewith diagrams showing the results.
At the stationary practice, shot No. 22 carried away the target, and shot No. 23 was fired at the wreck.
At the moving practice shot No. 7, fired using the ordinary gun sights, carried away the target, and shot No. 10, using the telescopic sight, was fired at the wreck. As nearly as could be determined, this shot would have struck the target, had the target been there, on the left side 2½ feet above the water-line. After firing this shot, I remarked to the commanding officer that the wreck was hard to see, and he discontinued the practice; the weather was now becoming bad.
I found no difficulty in directing the gun on the target at either stationary or moving practice, using the telescopic sight.
I found that any change in setting, necessitated by a change in range, can be more quickly and safely made than with the ordinary sights, where a man has to step up to the breech of the gun. At the recent practice, a man who had just adjusted one of the ordinary sights was hurt, because the gun was fired before he had gotten clear of the breech.
I found no inconvenience arising from the proximity of the eye to the eye piece of the telescope at the instant of discharge; but as a matter of precaution, I held the eye piece by the thumb and forefinger of my left hand and rested my eye against my thumb and forefinger, instead of directly against the eye piece. I found no inconvenience in thus holding the telescope.
A BATTLESHIP 300 FEET LONG, MASTS 150 FEET HIGH, SEEN OVER ORDINARY GUN SIGHT AND THROUGH GUN SHIELD.
Horizontal field in gun port = 9.5°. Vertical field = 3°. Eye of gun captain 60 inches behind rear right. Ship is 2000 yards distant.
Targets are frequently struck, when the ordinary sights are used; of course, this kind of shots could not be improved by using the telescopic sight or any other sight. It would seem, however, that this sight ought to stop wild shooting altogether, because the cross wires show the gun captain exactly how the gun points, and also magnify by 4 the distance by which the gun is off the target at any instant. This sight seems to eliminate those errors of naval gunnery that are due to inaccurate sighting; if a man can see through a telescope at all, the construction of the telescope forces him to look along the axis of collimation, even if his eye is not accurately placed. That this is not the case with the ordinary sights, where a man can keep the pupil of his eye exactly on the line running between the front and rear sights, need not be pointed out.
Almost as important as the question of accurate sighting is the question of rapid and convenient sighting; and it is apparent that, if the field of view of the telescopic sight were small, it would be worthless on a moving platform, because it would be nearly impossible to keep the target in the field of view, and therefore nearly impossible to direct the gun on the target.
It was found possible, however, by Stackpole, the instrument maker, to construct this telescope with a magnification of 4 (which is enough) and a field of 8°. This takes in 504 feet at 1200 yards, 840 feet at 2000 yards, 1008 feet at 2400 yards, etc. It will be seen that this field is ample, being in fact considerably larger than the field obtained using the ordinary sights, and looking through the ports in the gun shield. To a man standing 60 inches behind the rear sight, the total field is 9½° horizontally and 3° vertically. On page 8 are shown two diagrams, drawn to scale; one diagram shows how a ship looks when viewed over the ordinary sight, the other how she looks through the telescopic sight. In each case, the ship is supposed to be 2000 yards distant, to be 300 feet long and to have masts 150 feet high, above the water.
SAME SHIP SEEN, AT SAME DISTANCE, THROUGH TELESCOPIC GUN SIGHT.
Horizontal field = 8°. Vertical field = 8°. Magnification, 4 diameters.
With the ordinary sights, accurate shooting on the down roll is difficult, unless the sea is smooth, because, owing to the small field below the line of sight, the target cannot be seen at all until it is almost "on"; and it comes "on" very suddenly. With the telescopic sight, the fact that there is a field of 4° below the cross wires, as well as above, makes it as easy and accurate to fire on the down roll as on the up roll.
By making one trunnion hollow, and placing a little lamp near it, to illuminate the cross wires, as is done with some surveying instruments, a night sight is obtained more simple than those now in use.
Should any accident befall the telescope, the ordinary sights can still be used, as at present; the telescope does not in any way interfere with the ordinary sights.
Very respectfully,
B. A. FISKE,
Lieutenant, U. S. N.
Forwarded. ________, Commander, Commanding.
Commandant's Office, Navy Yard, Mare Island, Cal.
Forwarded. H. S. Howison, Captain, Commandant.
To this report the following answer was received:
BUREAU OF ORDNANCE, October 19, 1892.
Lieut. B. A. Fiske, U. S. N., Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, Cal.
SIR.—Your report of the experimental test of the telescopic sight has been received, and the results obtained are considered sufficiently promising to justify further trial.
The Bureau, therefore, requests that you furnish it with a description of the sight and its attachments, and of the method of using it; also with the information as to through whom two sets of these sights may be purchased for trial on some vessel at this station.
Respectfully,
Wm. M. FOLGER,
Chief of Bureau.
Through Commanding Officer, U. S. S. Yorktown, Navy Yard, Mare Island, Cal.
I answered this by a letter giving the information requested.
Up to this time, guns larger than 6-pdrs. had not been fitted to recoil in the line of fire, but I knew that they would be, after a while. So, as soon as I had demonstrated the applicability of my invention to guns that did not recoil in the line of fire, I set about the much easier task of demonstrating its applicability to guns that did recoil in the line of fire.
About the first of November, 1892, the late Rear-Admiral Frank Wildes, then a commander, took command of the Yorktown. After I had explained my scheme to him and told him what had been accomplished, he became very much interested, and gave me permission to shift the sight from the 6-inch gun to a 6-pdr. on the port side of the quarterdeck.
No opportunity to try the sight for accuracy presented itself; but one afternoon in December, 1892, I fired several shots with my eye at the telescope sight, to show that there was no danger in so firing, and that the sight itself would not be injured.
The Yorktown reached New York about the middle of February, 1893. I went to Washington several times during the spring and summer. I found that the Chief of Bureau of Ordnance had realized the advisability of taking up the question of fitting our guns with telescope sights, and that an officer had been placed in direct charge of the matter.
About this time, June 13, 1893, a patent was granted to Lieutenant, now Captain, F. F. Fletcher, U. S. Navy, covering the application of the naval telescope sight to turrets. Fletcher's invention solved the problem in the most complete and admirable way; and in its essential features, it is the method still used.
In July, 1893, I was ordered to the San Francisco. I took the telescope sight with me, and fitted it to a 6-pdr. on the starboard side of the after bridge, and then wrote the following letter:
U. S. S. SAN FRANCISCO,
BOSTON, MASS., July 25, 1893.
SIR.—I beg to state that I have a telescopic sight fitted to a 6-pdr. on board this ship, and I would respectfully request that a board of officers be ordered to test and report upon it, and also that I be allowed fifty rounds of ammunition for the purpose of adjusting and testing it.
Very respectfully,
B. A. FISKE,
Lieutenant, U. S. N.
The Honorable Secretary of the Navy.
Concerning this the Bureau of Ordnance wrote the following letter:
BUREAU OF ORDNANCE, July 31, 1893.
SIR.—I. The bureau requests that you will appoint a board of officers of your flagship to test and report upon the telescopic sight fitted to a 6-pdr. on board the San Francisco. Such ammunition as may be required can be expended for these tests.
2. The attention of the board is especially called to the possible advantage of the telescope as a night sight. The report should contain a description of the telescope and method of using it.
Respectfully,
W. T. SAMPSON,
Chief of Bureau of Ordnance.
Commander-in-Chief, North Atlantic Squadron.
In accordance with the above a board was ordered which made the following report:
U. S. F. S. SAN FRANCISCO,
GARDINER'S BAY, N. Y., August 8, 1893.
SIR.—In obedience to your order of August 3, 1893, constituting us a board upon the telescopic sight fitted to a 6-pdr. on board this ship, we have the honor to report as follows:
The sight is one devised by Lieutenant B. A. Fiske, U. S. Navy, and consists essentially of a telescope 24 inches long, of large field and good definition, mounted on trunnions in a quadrupod standard 4 inches high and 4 by 3 inches in area of base.
The telescope is fitted with cross hairs for laying on, which the designer purposes to replace by platinum wires, in order that these last may, for night work, be made luminous by the passing of an electric current.
The telescope is moved in a vertical plane by a worm gear and tension spring and its elevation and depression are shown by graduations for ranges on a disk cast in one with the milled hand hold for operating the worm gear.
As the pedestal of the telescope is rigidly secured to the shoulder piece no traversing device was needed and none was provided.
A trial of the sight was begun with practice at 2000 yards' range, having been the intention of the board to have several of the good shots of the ship fire six shots each, using the service sight and the telescopic sight alternately.
All the first few shots fired from the gun laid on with the telescopic sight were wilder than those when the service sights were used, and an investigation of the telescopic sight showed that the worm shaft of the telescope had bent under the strain due to the flip from the gun.
When II shots had been fired, the designer withdrew the device from trial, and no definite conclusions as to its merits were arrived at.
The board is very favorably impressed with the ease and accuracy with which a 6-pdr. gun can be laid when using the telescopic sight, and can see no reason why the device should not be very valuable for use with secondary batteries, provided it can be so attached to the shoulder piece to withstand the severe shocks it would meet in service.
We are, sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servants,
E. D. F. HEALD, Lieut.-Comdr., U. S. N.,
Wm. W. KIMBALL, Lieutenant, U. S. N.,
F. W. KELLOGG, Lieutenant, U. S. N.
To the Commander-in-Chief, Commanding U. S. Naval Forces on N. A. Station.
FIRST ENDORSEMENT.
U. S. S. SAN FRANCISCO,
GARDINER'S BAY, L. I., August 9, 1893.
Forwarded. J. C. Watson, Captain, Commanding.
SECOND ENDORSEMENT.
U. S. S. SAN FRANCISCO, 2D RATE,
GARDINER'S BAY, L. I., August 9, 1893.
Forwarded. Further tests will be made when Lieutenant Fiske furnishes another telescopic sight, as he purposes to do.
A. E. K. BENHAM,
Rear-Admiral, U. S. Navy.
Commanding U. S. Naval Forces on North Atlantic Station.
During the next nine months no opportunity came for trying the sight. But on May 7 and 8, 1894, the sight was tried by a board, which made the following report. During the interval no change had been made in the instrument, except that the original worm shaft, that moved the telescope in a vertical plane, had been replaced by another, somewhat thicker.
U. S. S. SAN FRANCISCO,
NAVY YARD, NEW YORK, July 9, 1894.
SIR.—In obedience to your instructions, we have witnessed target practice with the 6-pounder Hotchkiss rapid fire gun of the ship, fitted with a telescopic sight by Lieutenant B. A. Fiske, U. S. N., and we report as follows:
The target practice was made on May 7 while at anchor at Pearl Cay Lagoon, Coast of Nicaragua, and on May 8 while at anchor off Bluefields Bluffs, Coast of Nicaragua.
On the first day, the firing was done by twelve persons, officers and men, four of them familiar with the use of a telescopic sight, and all of them trained in pointing and firing with the ordinary sight.
On the second day, the firing was done by eight men, only one of whom had ever used the telescopic sight, and he had fired but one shot with it, on the previous day. Two of these men had made zeros in the last quarterly target practice, and one of them had never had any target practice with any sort of firearm.
The fall of the shots was observed, recorded and plotted (Form A) in the regular manner, and the results of the practice are shown in the diagram and data on the two sheets appended and marked A and B.
It seems scarcely necessary to discuss the superiority of the telescopic sight under conditions which admit of its use; that is when the light is sufficient, and the lenses are free from moisture, etc.
It is superior to the ordinary sights just as the telescopic sight of a transit or a theodolite is superior to the alidade or the sight vanes.
The field of view is easily made as large as that for the ordinary VI gun sights with the usual aperture in the shield.
With the telescopic sight, the target is seen clearly with the cross hairs apparently resting on the target itself; all in focus, and with none of the uncertainty arising from more or less coarseness of sight, and in making alinement of sights, near the eye, with a distant object requiring a different focus.
The operation of pointing the gun (bringing the sight on the object) is as easy as with the ordinary sight, and it is less fatiguing to the eye. In conditions unfavorable to the use of the telescopic sight the ordinary sights are still available.
The mechanical arrangement of the mounting of the telescope was unsatisfactory. The shock of discharge deranged the adjustment, and made a new adjustment necessary after each shot.
Lieutenant Fiske offers a new arrangement now, which, it is thought, will avoid the difficulties found with the one used during the target practice.
The mechanical details of the mount which was used and the new one proposed, are shown in the drawings on the sheet appended and marked C.
Respectfully submitted,
T. C. McLEAN, Lieut.-Comdr., U. S. N.,
AARON WARD, Lieutenant, U. S. N.,
F. W. KELLOGG, Lieutenant, U. S. N.
The Commanding Officer, U. S. S. San Francisco, Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.
FIRST ENDORSEMENT.
U. S. S. SAN FRANCISCO, August 6, 1894
Forwarded. P. H. Cooper, Captain, U. S. N., Commanding.
SECOND ENDORSEMENT.
NAVY YARD, NEW YORK, August 17, 1894.
Forwarded by direction of the Commandant, C. A. Adams, Lieutenant and aide.
"The mechanical arrangement of the mounting of the telescope," mentioned in the third from the last paragraph of the report of this board, did not mean the mounting of the instrument on the shoulder piece of the gun, but the means for elevating and depressing the telescope for changes in range; that is, the combination of the lug under the telescope with the end of the worm shaft that carried the range disc, the two being held together by a spiral spring. This statement is proved by the last two paragraphs of the report and "the drawings on the sheet appended, marked C."
Every time the gun was fired, the lug would hammer the end of the worm shaft violently and make the shaft revolve in its bearings; so that the range disc had to be revolved back every time, and placed at the correct reading. Of course, the revolving of the shaft and range disc were perfectly apparent, and it took only a second to turn them back to the correct range indication.
The report does not mean that the telescope sight had to be re-bore-sighted during the trials. I wish to make this point very clear, and to state that neither on board the Yorktown nor the San Francisco was the telescope sight ever jarred out of adjustment in the sense that it had to be re-bore-sighted.
I had noticed the defect of the spring connection between the telescope and the range disc in the trials on board the Yorktown; and, in an application for a patent, which I had made a year previous May 20, 1893, this arrangement was abandoned in favor of a worm and a worm wheel.
For some reason that I do not know, the spring connection continued to be used in the telescope sights that were issued to the service, until about 1904.
On May 20, 1893, I applied for a patent on the telescope sight as adapted to guns that recoil in the line of fire and as fitted on 6-pdrs. of the Yorktown and San Francisco. The only difference was the worm and worm wheel connection instead of the spring connection. I had a great deal of difficulty in getting this patent granted. The dispute with the Patent Office lasted nearly three years, and the patent was not issued until April 14, 1896.
Figs. 1, 2, and 3 that follow are taken from the patent drawings and claims I and 5 show the scope of the patent, as finally allowed with sufficient definiteness for the purpose of this paper.
Claim I. The combination of a gun, a saddle whereon said gun slides longitudinally, a support for said saddle constructed so as to allow said saddle to be moved in a vertical plane, and a telescope or sight-bar supported upon saddle, movable on a horizontal, transverse axis, and disposed with its longitudinal axis in a vertical plane parallel to that including the axis of the bore of the gun.
Claim 5. The combination of a gun, a support therefor, and a telescope upon said support, the said gun and the said telescope being movable about their transverse axes, and the said telescope being supported on an inclined base; whereby the line of sight to a distant object from said telescope is corrected to allow for drift of the projectile thrown from said gun, substantially as described.
On May 20, 1895, I applied for a patent of a kind which comprises fully 99 per cent of all patents granted. That is, it was not for an invention in the best sense of the word, but for an apparatus that was an improvement on an invention already existing. It comprehended practically the apparatus shown in Fig. 2 of the report of the second board in the San Francisco, the telescope being firmly held near both ends. It was intended to remedy the difficulty mentioned by the board; and the board thought it a good plan, as is shown by the next to the last paragraph of the report.
I had an apparatus made under this patent. The apparatus was exceedingly strong, and is shown in the following drawings. It was mounted on one of the 4" guns of the New York some time in 1896. I do not think that it was ever tried.
Concerning the telescope sights that were issued between 1894 and 1904, it would not be proper for me to speak, as I had nothing to do with any part of their design, mounting or installation.
Returning to the article in Brassey, that seems to have been written under the impression that "the new gunnery" originated elsewhere than in the American Navy, it may be pointed out that the American Navy was the first to adopt, not only the naval telescope sight, but also the electrical range indicator. The first ship to be equipped with electrical range indicators was the U. S. S. San Francisco, which had an experimental set, consisting of one transmitter and two receivers. The test lasted one year, from July, 1893, till July, 1894. The test was successful, the electrical range indicator was adopted, and in June, 1896, the U. S. S. Cincinnati, Maine, Texas, Indiana, Massachusetts and Oregon had been equipped with them throughout. The multiple principle of the range indicator then used is still employed, though the form of the instruments has materially changed.
That the success of the naval telescope sight and electrical range indicator in our navy was known to foreign navies before 1898, is suggested by the facts that it could not possibly have been kept secret, and that descriptions and drawings of both, with a statement of the success achieved, were published in the NAVAL INSTITUTE in June, 1896.
Referring again to the impression evidenced in the article in Brassey that the new gunnery originated elsewhere than in the American Navy, it may be pointed out that the first ship to use fire control from aloft in battle was the U. S. S. Petrel, at the battle of Manila, May 1, 1898.