PROFESSIONAL NOTES
Prepared by Lieutenant W. B. Jupp, U. S. Navy
BRAZIL
U. S. Navy Teachers for Brazilian Navy.—Secretary Daniels announces that a commission of American naval officers will go to Brazil as instructors in the Brazilian school for naval cadets.
In sending these officers the United States is carrying out a recent promise to Brazil to assist in that country's war preparations.—Official Bulletin, 28/1.
Brazil Would Aid Air and Sea Fight.—Commenting on notes exchanged between the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Nilo Pecanha, and the British Minister, Arthur Peel, on the subject of Brazil's naval contribution to the war, the Jornal do Commercio lays stress on the firm determination of Brazil to act, on the one hand, by means of aviators sent to England, and, on the other, by cruiser and destroyer squadrons.—N. Y. Herald, 31/1.
Brazil Building an Army.—Plans for the mobilization of an army of defence to be composed of several hundred thousand men are being put into execution with almost feverish haste, but no announcement has been made that Brazil will send troops to Europe. It is generally believed that this fighting force is to remain in Brazil.
When Brazil declared a state of war to exist with the German Empire the Brazilian Army was composed of 18,000 men, with officers enough for 30,000. Plans were made immediately for increasing the standing army to 35,000 men by January 1, with the possibility of further increasing it to 100,000 within the year.
The mobilization plan provides for three lines of defence, the first eventually to comprise 100,000 between 17 and 30. To assure this number, it is said in official circles that conscription will take the place of the voluntary system of enlistment, which has been in effect until now.
The second line is to consist of an army of 500,000 men between 30 and 37, with detachments in every city and town in the republic. These men are to be mobilized on a war footing, ready for service at short notice, though it is not believed that they will be kept under arms, the plan apparently being to organize them as a home guard and permit them to attend to their business affairs, devoting stated periods of time to drill.
In addition to these two armies there is to be a reserve army, to be known as the national guard, comprising men between 37 and 44. The officers of this force are to be chosen from government administrative officers, commercial men, and employers of industry.—N. Y. Times, 21/1.
FRANCE
France to Take Merchant Ships.—Requisition of Entire Fleet is Decreed as Effective on March 10.—A decree published in the Journal Official provides for the requisitioning of the entire merchant marine of France on March 10.
Government commissioners will confer with the ship-owners as to the conditions under which the government will take over the vessels.—Washington Post, 17/2.
GERMANY
Submarine Building.—To arrive at a fair or accurate estimate of the rate at which Germany can build submarines in the future is difficult. Assuming, however, that all yards in the country were utilized exclusively for this kind of work and that no mercantile shipbuilding or repairs to the battle fleet were undertaken, which, of course, is far from being the case, the probability is that not more than 100 submarines could be completed every six months.
Information at hand would indicate that the actual recent output has been approximately 10 per month, of which the great majority are in the neighborhood of 800 tons to 1000 tons displacement. Several groups of about 1500 tons have also been commissioned and quite recently the construction of a flotilla of eight so-called submarine cruisers of 2800 tons displacement has been undertaken, of which three or more are reported completed and the remainder will be ready for service by next February. These vessels will mount two 6-inch guns, besides two guns of lighter caliber, and embody the innovation of an armored conning-tower. This is more or less essential where the conning-tower constitutes the central control station of the vessel and at the same time is the most vulnerable part. It is only feasible, however, on vessels of great size, because of submerged stability considerations.—Navy and Merchant Marine, January.
Germans to Build 5000 Planes.—Germany will have on the front some 5000 modern type war aeroplanes, with sufficient machines being constructed monthly by the various manufacturers to nearly replace those lost in battle and by accidents.
By offering special inducements to men entering the aviation service, great numbers of volunteer pilots, observers and bombarders have been secured, and are now under training in adequately equipped training camps.
It is realized by the allied aviators that 1918 will see stiffer fighting in the air than was deemed possible even a few months ago. The aerial forces of the United States cannot be whipped into shape too rapidly if they are to participate in the coming decisive struggles for the mastery of the skies.
The number of Prussian, Saxon, Bavarian and Wurtemburg escadrilles at present on a war footing and at the front is 270, classed as follows:
Bombardment escadrilles (Kampfstaffeln), 23; chasing escadrilles (Jagdstaffeln), 40; protection escadrilles (Schutzstaffeln), 30; campaign escadrilles (Fliegerabteilungen), 80; artillery observation escadrilles (Fliergerabteilungen A). 100.
The total number of aeroplanes represented by these 270 escadrilles is about 2500. The bombarding and chasing escadrilles are being increased in number and strength rapidly, as the German aviation authorities consider them the most effective instruments of aerial warfare.
To the above formations must be added: The naval aviation groups, which include land escadrilles (Landfliegerabteilungen) and sea escadrilles, of an uncertain number; the fixed escadrilles (Kampfeinsitzerstaffeln), perhaps 10 in number, and some 12 depot escadrilles (Fliergerersatzabteilungen), which serve for the training of pilots and as a reserve for the escadrilles at the front.
The German aviation parks comprise:
With each army an army aviation park, including a depot for materials and machines; workshops and repair rooms and a reserve of personnel for the different escadrilles. In addition there are a certain number of special and emergency parks.—Evening Star, 30/1.
Torpedo Shortage Restricts U-boats.—Shortage of torpedoes is one of the most serious facts with which the directors of the German U-boat war are now faced. It is a well known and admitted fact that German factories are at present absolutely unable to turn out first-class torpedoes in anywhere near sufficient quantities for the needs of the submarines. In fact, the underwater craft are being turned out faster than the torpedoes, with the result that recourse has been had to various expedients to keep the submarines supplied with their chief weapon.
Germany's fleet of U-boats must carry thousands of torpedoes. Thousands more must always be ready in reserve. In fact, the reserve supply should be larger to-day than a year ago, to allow for the more frequent calls made on it. The augmented destroyer patrol is responsible for this. They have made the submarines use up more torpedoes and have caused them to return to their base more frequently for reloading.
Eight may be said to be the average number of torpedoes carried in one submarine. The number ranges from four to twelve, according to the type of submarine. The U-53, which raided shipping off the Atlantic Coast of the United States, carried 10. More recent types load as many as 12. Mine layers can accommodate two, four, or six, depending on their size.
In connection with this shortage is the fact that all U-boat commanders now are strictly "rationed" as far as their supply of torpedoes is concerned, and are not permitted to waste torpedoes on long "chance shots" except in circumstances which they must explain in detail as justifying the expenditure of the underwater missiles.
Recently the German factories have been turning out a smaller torpedo which is less accurately tested but which may be used with a fair degree of certainty at close range. Of late very few German torpedoes have proved effective unless at fairly close range, and it has become unusual for a U-boat commander to make any attempt at a merchant ship unless he can get within 500 to 600 yards.
The Germans are now using two types of torpedoes. They may be described as short-charge and full-charge torpedoes. The short-charge is the one used mostly against merchant shipping and is fired at 500 to 600 yards. The full-charge, which has probably twice the destructive force and is better made, is reserved for men-of-war. It is fired at a great distance and is used less frequently than the cheaper torpedo.
But the comparative immunity of the American destroyers from torpedo attack—despite the loss of the Jacob Jones and the slight disablement of the Cassin—is noteworthy in this connection. The Germans hate the American destroyers as one of their worst enemies in their most fertile field of war action, and there is scarcely an American destroyer but has had one or more German torpedoes fired at her, yet only twice have the torpedoes found their mark.
The Americans and the British, with whom they are cooperating so successfully in this game of hunting "tin fish," attribute their immunity to the mobility of the destroyer. The alertness of the American naval men, coupled with their well-known keenness for offensive tactics against the submarine, have been responsible for their slight losses. Sharp lookouts and skillful maneuvering enable them to cheat the Germans so often.—N.Y. Herald. 3/2.
Explosion at Munition Factories.—Reports of explosions in Germany are becoming increasingly numerous, notwithstanding all the efforts of the German authorities to suppress them. A Karlsruhe telegram to the Frankfurter Zeitung states that a few days ago an explosion occurred at certain munition factories, presumably caused through improper manipulation of the ammunition. A fire followed the explosion, and three persons were killed and five injured. The damage, says the telegram, was relatively slight. Experience shows that these notices are never inserted in the German press unless absolutely necessary in order to reassure the public. Slight explosions are left unrecorded.
The Mannheim Volksstimme reported a serious explosion in munition factories at Kirchbaum, near Forbach, followed by an extensive fire, and the death or injury of many people. Apparently this explosion and fire are identical with those reported from Karlsruhe as very slight.
These repeated explosions are causing considerable anxiety in military quarters, not only because of the interference with the supply of munitions thereby occasioned, but also because of the spirit of unrest in the districts where they occur. This unrest has been acute since the advent of the frost, with the attendant suffering and the paralysis of potato transport.
The air raid reprisals undertaken by the Allies are, I have good reason to know, having a most salutary effect in awakening the population to a sense of the consequences produced by the Germans' ruthless air raid policy. Only by this means can the German home population be brought to realize their rulers' mistakes. Every Entente air raid is a most valuable educational influence in this direction. Great nervousness is felt throughout Germany, especially in the more exposed parts, by the intention of the Americans to invade Germany by air. This subject is universally discussed, though efforts are being made to calm the uneasiness by declarations about American bluff.—London Times, 31/12.
GREAT BRITAIN
The First Sea Lord.—By Arthur Pollen.—When I returned to England at the end of last week, after having spent nearly six months in the United States, I learned that Admiral Sir John Jellicoe had left the Admiralty to receive a peerage, and that Sir Rosslyn Wemyss had been appointed First Sea Lord. These events constitute what the Daily Telegraph quite accurately described as a "sensational" announcement. But judging from such public comments as I have had the opportunity of perusing, a great variety of sensations seems to have been excited. A good many people are plainly at a loss to understand the significance of what has occurred.
Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, save for his appointment as Second Sea Lord six months ago, and his more recent promotion to acting as Sir John Jellicoe's deputy, appears to be almost unknown to the press or to the general public. This may account for a certain lack of enthusiasm in the reception of the news of his promotion. Similarly the causes which made a drastic change in the higher command necessary, seem also to have been very little understood. One paper of very wide circulation, I noted, published a portrait of the outgoing First Sea Lord, and printed underneath it and in italics a statement to the effect that this particular journal had "never joined in the anti-Jellicoe campaign." When people see no reason why a change should be made, and then hear that an officer entirely unknown to them has been entrusted with the most difficult and the most arduous post in the anti-German Alliance, they are not unnaturally filled with misgivings and suspect that the late holder of the post is the victim either of some personal intrigue or of a cowardly submission to press clamor, and so look upon his successor as a pis-aller—a choice where there is no choice. The facts of the position are diametrically opposite to what such people suppose.
My readers may remember that some time before Mr. Balfour reconstituted his board, about 13 months ago, I pointed out in these columns that such a reconstitution was necessary, that the task of selection was extremely difficult, and that it was exceedingly unlikely, so obscure were the indications of competence in this grave matter—that Mr. Balfour could rest satisfied with his first, or even with second choice of advisers. I said this because the first choice was already known to him. To those who shared my doubts of a year ago, and have noted what has occurred between their expression and the present date, will have been more surprised that the second choice has been so long a-coming than that it has at last been made. It is unnecessary then to explain to them, as it would be ungracious now to explain to others, precisely why the first of the events of last week was inevitable. It is unfortunate that these transitions cannot occur without inflicting pain. The British public is extraordinarily loyal to its favorites, and particularly to its naval favorites. A large section of the public, which for years before the war had taken real trouble to study naval affairs, was led to believe that the greatness of the British Navy derived solely from the seamanship and statesmanship of Sir John Fisher, and depended on the leadership of his chief pupil and successor. It was shocked when events at Gallipoli led to Lord Fisher's retirement. It is shocked now when the gallant and popular officer, who had the full confidence of the nation in his command of the grand fleet, has to make way for another. This mental distress is deeply to be regretted, but it cannot be avoided. Old estimates of personal worth and ability formed in times of peace are constantly upset by the rude realities of war, without those who have formed those estimates being able to realize exactly how the upset has occurred. For the moment it is best to leave this mystery unexplained. It is more to the purpose to set out why the "second choice" is a sound choice. It may be some consolation to such people to know that the officer who is now First Sea Lord is where he is because it is war, and nothing else, that has shown him to be what he is.
If, therefore, I am asked what the recent changes in the Board of Admiralty signify, my simplest answer is, to say that at last we have an officer appointed First Sea Lord, not because of his seniority in the navy list, nor because he is blessed—or cursed—with a newspaper or popular reputation, but simply on merit shown in war. I was in Washington when Sir Edward Carson joined the War Cabinet, and an enterprising interviewer asked me why the Premier had put an ex-railway manager, presumably ignorant of the sea affair, at the head of the British Navy. I replied that he had done so for the almost incredible, but nevertheless valid reason, that Sir Eric Geddes had shown himself to be the right man for the place. Just as Mr. Lloyd George passed over all the popular politicians and chose the ablest man he knew for the most difficult position that a civilian can fill, so now Sir Eric himself has passed over all the advertised admirals and appointed the proved man for the most difficult post a naval officer can fill. It is natural to ask in what the proof consists.
In the early stages of the war the evidence of Sir Rosslyn Wemyss' merits must either have been slender or was unperceived, for when Sir Sackville Garden fell ill, a day or two before the last and most disastrous attempt to force the Dardanelles, Rear Admiral de Robeck was appointed to succeed him, and two officers senior to him were passed over by this preferment. Sir Rosslyn Wemyss was one of these. It is not an agreeable position for a rear admiral to find himself suddenly and unexpectedly subordinate to his junior. But it is in the day's work to accept these things with simple loyalty, and it would be no compliment to the present First Sea Lord to select that for congratulation which every naval officer must look upon as the most obvious and elementary of his duties. The fact is recalled to show that in March, 1915, Whitehall did not yet know their man, and likely enough because he had not yet been given his opportunity. But it was not long in coming now. It is known that on him devolved the chief share in the naval part of the two evacuations of the peninsular, and that the naval part was the chief part. But his work at the bases previous to this and his subsequent work when he succeeded Sir John de Rebeck in command of the Mediterranean, seem hardly to be known at all.
The abandonment of the Gallipoli adventure coincided, it may be remembered, with the beginning of the enemy's submarine activities on a large scale in the middle seas. The Mediterranean command was not limited to the Mediterranean, and it included the care of at least three lines of communications to different large army bases, and necessarily involved the closest co-operation with the French and Italian fleets. Few, if any, naval officers, therefore, have ever undertaken duties more difficult, more extensive and various, or more complicated than those which now fell upon the new C.-in-C. I see it has been stated, on the strength of his having commanded the vessel in which the King once visited his Eastern Dominions, that Sir Rosslyn Wemyss enjoys a reputation as a courtier. This is about as illuminating a remark as to say that because he wears a monocle he has a reputation as a dandy. But it is true that Admiral Wemyss is, in the best sense of that much hackneyed term, a man of the world. It was this fortunate circumstance combined with a perfect acquaintance with the French language that smoothed his diplomatic path with our gallant naval allies. He illustrated in short, but in an unexpected sense, the dictum of Nelson, that the best of all negotiators was a British admiral backed by a British fleet. The Paris Conference decided, I understand, and the decision was in every sense gratifying, that an Allied Naval Council was to be established. In acting with such a council Sir Rosslyn Wemyss has his Mediterranean experience to guide him. He has to welcome a new ally, the United States, as an addition to those with whom he has dealt before. It is surely a happy augury that these complex relations will be handled at the British end by one whose knowledge of the world, whose tact and diplomatic accomplishment are unquestionable.
However, the essence of the Chief Command to-day is to get, first, out of the British naval force and then out of our allies, the maximum dynamic effort against the enemy's effort to cut our sea communications. As most competent observers have long since realized, the defeat of the submarine is far less a matter either of new inventions or of mere multiplication of known weapons or weapon-bearing units than a matter of the best combination of forces already in existence. This combination can only result from a rightly organized staff. What ground is there for supposing that Sir Rosslyn Wemyss will do better than his predecessors in this matter? They are of the most solid possible description. They are, in point of fact, just these, that when faced with those extensive, varied, complicated and difficult tasks to which I have alluded above. Admiral Wemyss was able to deal with them, and deal with them successfully, precisely because, knowing exactly what he wished to do and being resolute to get it done, he also knew how to organize the men at his disposal, so that each separate task was clearly defined and plainly feasible. He profited, in other words, by the grinding experience of Gallipoli, and realized that only by a rightly constituted staff could the manifold work of war be properly done. The scale of this achievement was naturally enough known to few. But, by July of last year, the evidences of it were available at Whitehall, and Sir Eric Geddes had not long been there before he had appreciated their meaning. It will be remembered that it was almost his first act to bring Sir Rosslyn Wemyss into his councils. The change was announced in America in the second week in August. I may, perhaps, be pardoned for quoting from an interview with me in a Washington journal on the occasion.
"The really big stroke is the retirement of Sir Cecil Burney and his replacement by Rear Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss. I have not a British Navy list by me, but, at a rough guess, I should say there are probably 40 officers senior to Admiral Wemyss who have been passed over to permit this officer to take this position. Wemyss has long been regarded by the forward school as a 'white hope.' He was second in command during the Gallipoli campaign, where his promptness, energy and fighting spirit showed him not only a real leader, but a man possessed of that cool, quick judgment which is of the essence of the matter in war.
"The cables say the new Second Sea Lord is to be relieved of certain departmental duties, but do not tell us what the new duties are to be…But is it not difficult to guess the character of the change. The rearrangement of two months ago brought about an amalgamation between the War Staff and the Board of Admiralty. The First Sea Lord was still left as the chief administrative head of the whole active navy and of the staff as well. I expect what will happen is that the First Sea Lord's functions will now be cut in half, that he will remain the chief professional administrator and the Second Sea Lord will become the chief of the War Staff. It will represent the triumph of the younger school. When the great changes took place in May, those of us who had fought so hard for them for so long approved everything that had been done, but complained that the thing had stopped too soon. We also saw that the thing could not remain stopped where it was. It had to be pushed to its logical conclusion It looks as if Sir Eric Geddes had found an extremely ingenious and perfectly effective way out of the difficulty. If the appointment of Admiral Wemyss means what I hope it means, we may expect to see the vast potential power of the British Navy applied to winning the war in a fashion which has not yet been applied."
It looks as if I did not very greatly misjudge the situation in August. What would seem to have happened is something like this. Sir Rosslyn Wemyss was tried at the Admiralty in the task of which he had shown himself to be a master in the Mediterranean. It was a task that had not been successfully met elsewhere, because it had never been attempted elsewhere. If he made good with the same success at Whitehall there would be no need for a deputy First Sea Lord, but a clear case for making him First Sea Lord. In the event Admiral Wemyss did make good.
Significance of Sea Power.—Surely the New Year could hardly open under happier auspices. The developments of the last few months have changed the position on land to the enemy's advantage in a most disconcerting and discouraging way. But as no one knows better than the enemy himself, it is at sea, and not on land that the war will finally be decided. The factors, that is to say, on which victory depends, are still those that derive from sea power. How well the enemy understood this a year ago was proved by his being compelled to drive the United States into belligerency rather than forego his only possible stroke at the sea supplies that kept the military alliance against him in munitions and stores, and the civil populations, on whose well being and contentment all military force is founded, supplied with the necessaries of living and prosperity. A year ago, when the enemy's efforts to make peace after his many defeats on the Somme had failed, when President Wilson's last effort at an amicable arrangement had shown all the world that no settlement by negotiations was possible, it became at once clear that a ruthless submarine attack on our supply ships would immediately be made. Those who remembered the terms of the German surrender to America of the previous May expected nothing else. For, with, curious and quite unnecessary candor, Berlin, for once, instead of making a promise and breaking it, entered into an undertaking that was purely provisional and warned the world that the objectionable sinkings would be resumed the moment it suited Germany's convenience or necessity. In other words, from the day when Von Tirpitz first threatened the world with the submarine, in December, 1914, until she drove America into war in February, 1917, Germany was never under the faintest illusion about the sea war being the real war.
It is a vital matter that civilians in all countries should bear this fundamental truth in mind, especially at the moment when the disappearance of Russia has altered the whole balance of power on land. For the disappearance of Russia and the change in the military situation that results, do not in the least degree affect the validity of the axiom on which our enemy has acted consistently and from the first. For the military change amounts only to this, that until the American army redresses the balance on land, the allied forces are possibly insufficient to obtain a definite military victory. But, meanwhile, the enemy forces are still less able to obtain a decision in their favor. The change in balance, then, restores a situation gravely weighted against the Central Powers to equality only. And it is, at best, temporary.
The problem of the day, then, is civil endurance; how shall we hold out till the enemy force is spent? It is largely a matter of confidence—of the certainty of ultimate and complete success. This confidence—if I am right in saying that ultimate success turns on the sea war—should now be better founded than it has ever been, for the reason that never before have we had a better assurance that a sea power would be rightly used. The reform of the Admiralty, initiated by the criticisms of last April and May, begun by Mr. Lloyd George in the end of the latter month, and now completed by Sir Eric Geddes, should form the turning point in the war.—Land & Water, 3/1.
JAPAN
Japan Responsible for Keeping Peace in East.—"Japan holds herself responsible for the maintenance of peace in this part of the world, and consequently in the event of that peace being endangered to the inevitable detriment of our interests, the government of Japan will not hesitate a moment to take the proper measures."
Thus Count Terauchi, the Japanese premier, spoke at the opening of the diet in referring to the internal disorders in Russia spreading to the Russian possessions in eastern Asia. The premier declared that the situation in Russia was causing him the greatest measure of anxiety. "As the true friend of Russia," he said, "Japan earnestly hopes that country may successfully settle its difficulties without much further loss of time and establish a stable government."
Count Terauchi said also that Japan joined unreservedly with the allied powers in the determination not to sheathe the sword until an honorable peace is secured.—N. Y. Herald, 24/1.
SPAIN
Stoppage of Spanish Ships.—The holding up of the sailings of Spanish liners this week and the stoppage of export licenses covering shipments to Spain came not unexpectedly, because it had been suspected for a longtime in well-informed shipping circles that cordial relations with the kingdom could not consistently be maintained in view of certain conditions of which no secret was made before America entered the war, but which have since assumed a different aspect in so far, at any rate, as the attitude of this country is concerned. To the credit of Spain, it is to be said that the personal efforts of King Alfonso on behalf of a multitude of war prisoners and families dispersed as a result of invasion by armed forces, have endeared him to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the civilized world. But in a constitutional monarchy, such as Spain is supposed to be, the acts of the sovereign, meritorious or otherwise, have but little bearing upon the external relations of the country, and the acts of Spanish statesmen during the war have been responsible for the suspicion with which Spain is now regarded by the Allies. This suspicion is based partly upon positive, and partly upon negative, evidence. The positive evidence against Spain is based upon the fact that the peninsular has been for some two years the headquarters of the German propaganda in Europe and that the tons of pamphlets which have been distributed throughout Latin-America for the purpose of extolling the acts of the Huns in war, were written and printed in Spain and shipped thenceforth. Furthermore, Spain has taken very little trouble to prevent imports certified for local consumption to leave the kingdom, and before the system of licenses was inaugurated in this country the crews of Spanish ships were in the habit of purchasing huge quantities of fittings and engineer stores which could have been used for no other purpose than that of supplying submarines. The recent escape of a U-boat that was supposed to have been interned in a Spanish harbor is still too recent an episode to warrant repetition and there is in the possession of the Allies conclusive evidence that some of the Spanish ships regularly engaged in transatlantic service supplied U-boats in Spanish territorial waters.—Shipping, 2/2.
Spain Protests Sinking.—King Alfonso Presides Over Cabinet as Reparation for the "Giralda" is Asked of Germany.—The cabinet met yesterday under the presidency of King Alfonso and decided to send a strong protest to Germany, demanding reparation to Spain for the sinking of the steamship Giralda. The note will not be sent through Prince von Ratibor, the German ambassador, but will be telegraphed to the Spanish ambassador in Berlin.
The Spanish steamer Giralda was sunk by a German submarine January 26 after the crew of the U-boat had pillaged the vessel. The crew of the Giralda, which measured 4400 tons was saved.—Washington Evening Star, 1/2.
UNITED STATES
Keel is Laid in Record Time for First Ford Patrol Boat.—Secretary Daniels announces that he has received a telegram from Henry Ford, of Detroit, stating that the keel for the first of the new type patrol boats to be built in the Ford plant was laid February 6, and the side frames are ready to go up. The Secretary authorizes the following statement regarding this new type:
"The contract for these boats was given on January 17, so the keel was laid in 20 days after the contract was made.
"Mr. Ford's letter offering to build naval vessels in his plant was dated December 22, 1917. In a few hours after it was received, December 24, a telegram was sent, asking Mr. Ford to come to Washington to discuss the matter. Mr. Ford and his staff arrived in Washington December 27 at 6 p. m. The next day was spent in consultation with Rear Admiral Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, Rear Admiral Griffin, Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, and other officers of the two bureaus. The Ford party then went to Philadelphia and other localities to look at shipyards and plants. They returned to Washington on December 31 for further consultation, and were given the preliminary plans and specifications of the boats to be built.
"The party returned to Detroit, and on January 8 the Navy Department wrote Mr. Ford that it was ready to hear further from him. Four days later more complete plans were delivered to representatives of the Ford Company.
"Mr. Ford telegraphed his proposition to the Navy Department on January 15. On the 17th the department telegraphed the award to the Ford Company of the contract for building a large number of the boats.
"Preparations for construction were begun at once. Rear Admiral C. W. Dyson, representing the Bureau of Steam Engineering, and Naval Constructor Robert Stocker, representing the Bureau of Construction and Repair, going to Detroit to assist the builders in laying out their plans. On February 7 the keel of the first boat was laid.
"When it was decided to build this new type of patrol boat, which possesses many of the advantages of destroyers and is as large as those of the older type, the naval constructors and engineers worked day and night and Sunday to perfect the plans, and the design was perfected in 10 days. The work was done in the Division of Design, Bureau of Construction and Repair, under the direction of Naval Constructor Stocker, and in the Bureau of Steam Engineering under the direction of Rear Admiral Dyson. A model was made and tested in the testing basin at the Washington navy yard, and all the details were completed in record time.
"The Ford Company is pushing construction at a rate that bids fair to exceed all previous records in the building of steel naval vessels."—Official Bulletin, 9/2.
Navy Powder Plant.—Plans have been completed by the Naval Bureau of Ordnance, under direction of Rear Admiral Ralph Earle, chief of that bureau, to increase the facilities of the smokeless powder factory at Indian Head, Md. It is estimated that the sum of $2,400,000 will be required for this purpose and Congress has been asked to appropriate that sum.
Under authority given by the President during the recess of Congress installation of additional facilities already is under way. The present capacity of the plant is 24,000 pounds of powder a day, which will be increased to 40,000 pounds by July 1 and 60,000 by November 1, with the hope of ultimate increase to 100,000 pounds.
The plant is in operation 24 hours a day and the annual aggregate output will be 18,000,000, which quantity was decided upon after conference between the naval authorities, the army officers, the war industries board and representatives of the French and British governments. The cost of production this year is less than ever before, due to improved methods and increased output per employee. The cost is about 40 cents per pound, or 13 cents less than the powder obtained under contract.—Washington Post, 17/2.
Ships Building.—Nothing may be said at this time about the progress of construction of the powerful additions to our main fleet which were authorized before we entered the war. It includes five super-dreadnoughts of 32,000 tons, mounting twelve 14-inch guns; four ships of 32,500 tons, carrying eight 16-inch, 45-caliber guns; and four super-dreadnoughts the biggest yet planned for any navy of over 40,000 tons, mounting twelve 16-inch, 50-caliber guns. In addition, the program includes six 35,000-ton, 35-knot battle-cruisers, and ten 7500-ton, 35-knot scouts.
We are much pleased to be able to state that the plans of the battle-cruisers have been recast so as to bring the whole of the boiler plant below the water-line. It has been found possible to do this, moreover, without adding to the length or displacement of the ships.
The expansion of the navy in general has been truly enormous. The total strength of the personnel, including the Marine Corps, on November 15, 1917 was 272,000 officers and men, and it is still growing. So far as material is concerned, the total number of vessels of all kinds has been trebled since the war began, the total number of ships now under construction being close upon 800, including every type from the submarine chaser to the super-dreadnought. For the fuller details of the expansion of our navy reference is made to our liberty war number of December 1, 1917.—Scientific American, 5/1.
Plans New Big Dry-dock.—Present Naval Structure at Norfolk to be Finished in October.—That the great dry-dock under construction at the Norfolk Navy Yard will be ready for occupancy before October, was the prediction to-day of Rear Admiral McLean, commandant of this naval district. The admiral also declared that plans are ready to begin work on an even larger one the moment the first is completed.
The admiral declared that the structural shops, depots, storehouses and other improvements would be completed ahead of schedules. The yard was being developed, he said, into the nation's greatest structural and industrial base, while Hampton Roads would be the navy's chief operating base.—Washington Post, 17/2.
Increase in Number of Assistant Secretaries of the Navy.—Secretary Daniels and Assistant Secretary Roosevelt differ radically as to the need of two more assistant secretaries of the navy, as contemplated by proposed legislation, and members of the naval committees, as a result, are in a quandary as to what recommendations to make on the subject.
Mr. Daniels does not believe that additional assistant secretaries are necessary. When he was before the House Naval Committee, he explained that there is no limit on the power of the Secretary of the Navy to detail any officer, active or in the reserve, to any duty in Washington or at any shore station. The greatly increased administrative labors have called for many more such details than would be required in ordinary times. Under the present laws, in the necessary absence of the secretary and assistant secretary, the chief of naval operations becomes acting secretary, so that on that score there is no necessity for an additional assistant.
He also stated that the administrative machine of the Navy Department is centralized and efficient, it has met the strain of war by natural and easy expanse, and, while such service as additional secretaries would relieve the secretary and assistant secretary of much arduous labor, he feels that the present system insures personal and centralized directions that might not be benefited by such division of responsibility as the creation of new offices might bring about.
A few days later, when Mr. Roosevelt appeared before the same committee, he argued with emphasis in favor of additional assistants, pointing out that one would be of value in connection with the bureau of supplies and accounts, another having to do with the personnel, and the first assistant secretary to be the "understudy" of the secretary. In this view, he was supported by Paymaster General Samuel McGowan.
Mr. Daniels also is opposed to a proposal, advanced at the Capitol, for the establishment of a new bureau in the Navy Department to look after target practice, the chief of the bureau, to be known as director of target practice, to have the rank of rear admiral. The secretary believes that the present organization is sufficient and efficient with the present office of director of target practice under the control of the chief of operations.—Washington Post, 17/2.
New Policy for Navy Yard Administration.—A new policy for separating the administration of navy yards from naval districts is announced by Secretary Daniels in orders directing changes in commanding personnel.
Rear Admiral Spencer S. Wood is designated to command the first naval district at Boston, relieving Captain William R. Rush, who remains as commandant of the Boston Navy Yard.
Rear Admiral John D. McDonald is assigned to command the New York navy yard, succeeding Rear Admiral Nathaniel R. Usher, who will continue as commandant of the third naval district at New York.
Rear Admiral James M. Helm is appointed commandant of the fourth naval district at Philadelphia, relieving Captain George Cooper, who will remain as chief of staff.
Rear Admiral Augustus F. Fechteler is ordered as commandant of the Norfolk navy yard, succeeding Rear Admiral Walter McLean, who will continue to command the fifth naval district at Norfolk.
"This division," said Secretary Daniels, "which is necessitated by the magnitude of the naval activities in the districts, has for its purpose the separation of the industrial feature of the district work, which will be handled by the navy yards, from the military and marine features, which will be administered by the district commanders."—Washington Evening Star, 1/2.
The War Cabinet.—Critics of the war activities of the United States in their anxiety to find grounds upon which to base complaints lose sight entirely of the fact that in everything this nation does there must be given full consideration at all times to the necessities and the plans of our allies. Inquirers ask impatiently, "Why is this done?" or "Why don't the War Department do this or that?" And without waiting for an answer or looking calmly into the facts they frequently make charges which might be serious if warranted. The fact that in the conduct of this great world war the United States is just one of a firm, one of the junior partners at the present time, when expenditures of men and munitions is considered, does not seem to have become impressed upon the minds of many American citizens. The acts of each of the partners, the allies, must of necessity be in accordance with some definite line of action, constructive or destructive, that has been determined upon as that which will draw nearer the day of victory.
It is not difficult, to perceive that the most vital feature of these activities at present is the maintenance of the forces that are at the front, supplying them with food, clothing and munitions, and training troops to send to the front just as rapidly as they are ready to go into the field. Plans to accomplish each of these objects cannot be worked out by the United States alone and every movement that is made must be a part of the necessary plans for cooperation. The activities of the War and Navy Departments are controlled by this purpose. The results following this cooperation have led to some criticism, but it may be safely said that nothing has been neglected that the departments had it in their power to do. That the defeat of the shipping bill two years ago is largely responsible for the shortage of transport tonnage cannot be denied and that measure was defeated by a Congress made up to a large extent of men who in the present Congress furnish some of the most severe critics of the War and Navy Departments.
There is much in the proposed war cabinet bill that sounds like the Board of Strategy which was formed in 1898 and some of the men in Congress are discussing giving the proposed new body similar powers to those held by that historic board, which won the special attention of "Mr. Dooley." These solons lose sight of the fact that in 1898 the United States was engaged in a war in which it had no allies and it had no problem of supplying anything to any other nation. They forget that any plan must have the approval of a general conference of the heads of the allied nations. There is an inclination among the critics to lose sight of the fact that representatives of the United States have met the representatives of our allies in Paris and much of the future activity of the war has already been mapped out. Future plans will be further considered in Paris or in London or in Rome. And while we shall do our part in the planning, Washington, several thousands of miles away, must be to some extent the place for the reception of orders and distribution of contracts by which the plans can be carried to final success.—Army and Navy Journal, 26/1.
U. S. Battleships.—[Extract from Assistant Secretary of the Navy's speech before Harvard students.] The British Navy has the same relative strength against the German as it had at the beginning of the war. Furthermore they have the active cooperation of French and American surface ships of heavy tonnage. We have, of course, many battleships on this coast that are little heard about.—N. Y. Times, 17/2.
Coordination in Shipping Adopted.—Coordinated direction of naval and army shipping to an extent seemingly impossible a short month ago became a reality January 30. As a result the overseas transportation of troops, supplies and the like will be greatly expedited.
All this as a result of the success which has followed the creation within the Navy Department of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, of which Commander Belknap is the director. The new service has demonstrated marked ability in getting its ships through the submarine danger zone, and as a result of this success its tonnage was practically doubled.
The War Department announced it would turn over to the Overseas Service upwards of 2,000,000 tons of shipping which heretofore has been operated exclusively under the direction of the Quartermaster's Department. Many of these vessels are manned by civilian crews and have been under civilian masters.
The Bureau of Navigation will henceforth supply crews from the Naval Reserve, and the command of these ships will go to naval men. To all intents and purposes the vessels will be naval craft, although still performing their work for the army. And the change will mean that their efficiency will be doubled right from the start.
It was because he knew that this change was impending that Secretary of War Baker was willing to let it be known to the Senate Military Affairs Committee that the army in France was to be materially added to within a short time. With shipping coordinated and the army and navy cooperating through vessels manned by disciplined naval men, high efficiency in overseas transport is possible. Under the old rule, with alien crews and civilian commanders, this could not have been done.
The taking over of this great amount of shipping by the navy and the manning of ships with crews from the Naval Reserve forces is considered in shipping circles one of the greatest steps toward making the United States merchant marine the equal of any in the world after the war. It means the Americanizing of all United States shipping.
In the past all ships have been manned by crews made up of aliens as well as Americans, but to become a member of the Naval Reserve the first requisite is that a member must be a naturalized citizen of the United States.
It is pointed out by those in charge of the work of taking over this merchant fleet that the crews will be thoroughly trained and disciplined according to the high standards of the navy, and that when the war is over and the ships revert to their owners, they will be returned with a full complement of men who will be given their discharge from the Naval Reserve.
Further, it is planned by Rear Admiral Leigh Palmer, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, that where ships in course of construction are turned over to the Navy Department for operation to organize the crew in advance and have the men thoroughly trained under their future officers and ready to man the vessel immediately upon it being placed in commission.—Baltimore Star, 30/1.
Big Building for Navy.—The new structure to be built for the United States Navy Department on the Bush Terminal property in South Brooklyn will, it is said, be the largest business structure in the city of New York. It will be 700 by 1280 feet and eight stories in height. It will be of reinforced concrete and practically fireproof, and will cost $10,000,000. It will have a floor space of 7,168,000 square feet, or over 165 acres.
This building will be used for the storage of naval supplies and for the manufacturing, packing and shipping of goods for United States war vessels.—Washington Evening Star, 9/2.
Naval Base at Cape May to be Greatly Extended.—The Hotel Cape May, which cost its builders $1,350,000 in 1909, and which is now practically owned by Nelson Z. Graves, of Philadelphia, and George E. Matthius, of Seymore, Conn., has been leased by the War Department for hospital purposes at an annual rental of $99,000. It has 600 rooms and is the handsomest hotel south of Atlantic City. The hotel is within two miles of the Henry Ford farm, on which is located the Wissahickon Barracks, where about 3000 Naval Reserve men are being trained, and within a mile of the Navy Department's aeronautic training station and the submarine protector base at Sewells Point.
General George W. Goethals has also ordered the State Road Commission to build a hard surface road from Keys Landing to Cape May, to have ready access to the War and Naval Department bases.
The Cape May barracks, which were built last summer, are now being doubled in capacity, so that by late spring there will be more than 10,000 men in training there.
Including the dredging of the entrance to the Cape May harbor, which embraces 500 acres, the government has expended already about $3,000,000 at Cape May, as it is the only landlocked harbor between Sandy Hook and Norfolk. The Surgeon General's Department has reported that the Cape May cantonment is one of the healthiest training places the government has established.—Baltimore American, 28/1.
For Large Increase in Navy.—Flans for Extensive Enlargement of Existing Training Stations.—In connection with Secretary Daniels' renewed recommendation for a large increase in both temporary and permanent enlisted personnel of the navy, it is stated that the department plans extensive enlargement of several existing training stations. Plans already have been approved for enlarging the Pelham Bay, N. Y., and Norfolk, Va., stations. Five thousand men are now at Pelham Bay and 16,000 at Norfolk.
The navy has 95,000 men under instruction, and, with the recommended increase, will have men enough to supply crews not only for the entire naval construction program as now contemplated, but also for the hundreds of merchant ships which are to be placed under its supervision.—Evening Star, 1/2.
Naval Crews for U. S. Transports.—It is announced at Washington that an arrangement has been come to between the Navy Department and the Shipping Board whereby all vessels used for transporting men or supplies to the American forces in France will be under the command of naval officers, and have crews of naval reservists or regular enlisted men. Up to the present, only the troop transports have been manned on this system, the horse transport and supply ships chartered for the American forces being operated by the Quartermaster's Department of the War Department, which employed merchant crews. Owing to the shortage of men in the American mercantile marine, it was not always possible to obtain a full crew of competent hands for every chartered ship, and it sometimes happened that a fast steamer could not realize her normal speed while in the submarine area, owing to unskillful stoking. Moreover, there was a dearth of trained men for lookout duty in the war zone. The new arrangement is therefore expected to add very materially to the safety of the transports and supply ships on the Atlantic route, as all these vessels will be operated by officers and men with naval training and accustomed to the high service standard of efficiency and discipline. This step has been found practicable in consequence of the great expansion of the navy's personnel since the declaration of war, so many volunteers having enrolled that, after assigning full complements to all warships and auxiliaries, complete and building, there will he a large surplus available for duty in the transport service.—The Engineer, 18/1.
A compromise seems to have been reached between the Navy Department and the Shipping Board regarding the personnel of the new merchant marine that is coming into being. Unlike most compromises, the plan hit upon gives promise of accomplishment, to some degree; but, like all compromises, it fails of the object ultimately to be sought. Under the terms of announcement made on December 12 the Navy Department and the Shipping Board will exercise a joint jurisdiction as follows: "The bulk of vessels under the American flag, whether engaged in the transatlantic or elsewhere, so long as they retain their character as merchantmen, will continue to be manned by merchant sailors. Troopships and vessels carrying whole cargoes of munitions or supplies for the army and navy, however, for military reasons, will be manned by naval crews."—Navy and Merchant Marine, January.
Navy Personnel—A Caution.—In all plans for the irresistible extensions demanded in the commissioned and warranted personnel of the navy the conditions and the resultant reductions in the naval establishment that must be faced after peace is declared should be kept clearly in mind. When the navy was reorganized and slowly starved almost to death after the close of the Civil War gross injustices were inflicted on the regular officers and serious harm was done to the service simply because no forethought had been exhibited.
Although less than 60 volunteer officers were, as the result of examinations open to all these gallant men, taken over, this and the yearly demotions forced by Congress blocked promotions until despair settled on the service in all grades below commander. It was the rule, not the exception, in those sad days for graduates of Annapolis to be kept in the rank of ensign for 12 years or more and for lieutenants to be held kicking their heels without any advancement for periods varying between 20 and 22 years. In the late 80's a lieutenant less than 40 years of age was a curiosity.
At the beginning of the "present emergency," as Congressional acts euphemize this state of war, a number of reserve officers were granted temporary commissions as lieutenant commanders and lieutenants, and this before their mettle could be tested. It is recognized that the sudden and tremendous extensions in the lists of officers had to be met, and, as a consequence, in the early days haste rather than complete wisdom settled the problem. Without attempting to abridge for one moment the value of the work already performed and promised by temporary officers, who in the main have responded to the "great call" from a sense of unquestionable patriotism, it is now time for prudence to enter. Various bills are before Congress and others must follow, but previous to their enactment such safeguards should be provided that the cruel experiences following the close of the Civil War, and for many succeeding years, shall not be repeated.—N. Y. Herald, 8/2.
Reserve Officers' Class.—Secretary of the Navy Daniels visited Annapolis for the purpose of addressing the members of the second reserve officers' class of the navy upon the occasion of their completion of their 15 weeks' intensive training in the more practical branches of the activities of a naval officer.
Requests for assignments to particular ships or particular types of duty have apparently carried little weight with the navy authorities. Eight of the men will be kept at the Academy as duty officers for the third class of reservists, members of which are to be sent to New London for a four or five months' course on submarines; 60 have been ordered to torpedo-boat destroyers, about half of whom will go across in the near future; 60 will go to cruisers, gunboats or transports, and 87 will go to the Atlantic fleet's various ships. The remaining 27 will be held at the Academy for the academic board's action on their work.
The work done by the young citizen officers has been highly satisfactory to the authorities. The average mark for the entire class for the three months' work was about 79.1 per cent.—Baltimore American, 29/1.
Senator Tillman Wants 10,000 Aviators in Navy.—Senator Tillman, chairman of the Senate Naval Committee, to-day introduced a bill to increase the number of naval aviators from 350 to 10,000 and raise the enlisted personnel of the navy to 180,000.
The President would be authorized to appoint temporary officers not higher than the rank of lieutenant commander in the navy and major in the Marine Corps.—N.Y. Herald, 29/1.
Enrolling Undergraduates in the Navy.—Instructions have been issued by the Bureau of Navigation to the commandants of the several naval districts regarding the enrollment of undergraduate students of technical universities in the naval reserve force. In order to insure the future engineering men of the navy that bureau states that it desires the enrollment of such students in the reserve. Any undergraduate between 18 and 21 years of age, who is actually taking a technical course at a technical university and who is physically qualified, may be enrolled as a seaman, second class, in class four of the naval reserve force for general service. These students will not be called to active duty until they have graduated, except in case of great emergency, which emergency the bureau does not at present foresee. No promise of commission will be given these undergraduates; and when they are graduated and called to active service they will be examined and rerated according to their ability and the requirements of the service. While they are on the inactive list pursuing their studies they will be carried in the initial rating of seaman, second class. Enrolling and recruiting officers of the navy and naval reserve force have been instructed to get in touch with the technical universities.—Army and Navy Register, 9/2.
Coast Guard Personnel.—Temporary increased rank and pay for certain officers of the coast guard while operating as a part of the navy has been recommended by the Secretary of the Navy, and bills now are pending which contemplate such legislation.
It is proposed to put the coast guard officers on the same footing as officers of the navy. Alost of those that would be benefited by the legislation now are on duty with the naval forces operating in foreign waters and they are performing hazardous duty of the same general nature as that performed by navy officers. It is believed that the coast guard officers not only are entitled to this recognition of their services, but also that the proposed legislation will facilitate command at sea, where there is bound to be contact between officers of the two services doing similar work.—Washington Post, 17/2.
Training of Naval Reservists.—The next class of naval reservists to be trained at the officers' school at Annapolis will number 450, which is the limit of the accommodations there. The results of the previous training, when two classes have been graduated of about the same aggregate strength, have been most satisfactory. Reports received from Vice Admiral Sims are most complimentary in regard to the 50 men sent from the school trained for service with the destroyers. The candidates are confined to enlisted reservists, selected from the naval districts, and the competition is keen on account of the opportunities afforded for service and promotion. Many of the students are college men who entered the service for the war. Numerous inquiries have come in regard to the instruction from the U. S. S. Harvard, which is in the war zone and which is manned by a set of young students from the Cambridge University who belong to the same fraternity and who want to be kept together. The naval authorities, and particularly Rear Admiral L. C. Palmer, chief of the Bureau of Navigation. believe this, as that officer stated to the House Naval Committee recently. to be "a very bad idea," because it was not desirable to encourage this inclination for non-separation.—Army and Navy Register, 9/2.
Believes 6,000,000 Tons of Shipping "Possible."—Rear Admiral Frederick R. Harris, manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation after Rear Admiral Capps left that office, told the Senate committee investigating the shipping situation he believes the estimate of 6,000,000 tons dead weight as the production for the year 1918, made by the shipping board, is "possible."
He qualified this statement by saying that it would be possible only under the most favorable conditions, in which the resources of the country were coordinated.
The estimate of only 3,000,000 tons given the committee by practical ship builders he declared to be "pessimistic."
In the end, he said, the success of the project depended upon labor, and every effort should be made to get and use all the available labor for shipbuilding and to educate the labor up to the understanding that it was as important to build ships as to fight in the trenches or on war vessels to win the war.
Admiral Harris refused to criticize the present organization of the Emergency Fleet Corporation and the shipping board, though urged to do so by members of the committee.
"I don't believe in criticism that is not constructive," he said.
As for his own experience with the organization, he frankly said he could not work with it when Chairman Hurley called upon his. Admiral Harris', subordinates to report in person to the chairman without notifying Admiral Harris of the fact. He explained he had been used to the military and naval way of having the subordinate officials responsible to the officer above them, and that officer to the man above him.
He said that Rear Admiral Bowles. Rear Admiral Rousseau and others, all subordinate to him, had been instructed to report to Chairman Hurley every day about what had been done and that they, not Mr. Hurley, had informed him of these orders.
Admiral Harris said Charles Piez the present manager of the fleet corporation, and while Admiral Harris held that office a kind of executive head acting for Mr. Hurley, had explained that such a proceeding was the "difference between naval methods and business methods."
Admiral Harris said he understood when he became manager that Mr. Piez was his superior and that Mr. Hurley was superior to all. He said he had no fault to find with that and that he and Mr. Piez had gotten along well together.
He denied that he had attempted to make contracts involving $12,000,000 for housing facilities at the shipyards on his own authority, as was published at the time he left office. He said he was convinced of the need of such an expenditure, but that he had laid the matter before his superiors.
Admiral Harris defended the fabricated ships, saying he believed when once they had begun to be turned out they would expedite the maximum output of ships.—Washington Evening Star, 6/2.
Building and Launchings.—From reports received by the Shipping Board it is revealed that 901,223 gross tons of merchant ships were built in United States shipyards during 1917, being nearly double the figure of 1916. No official figures of construction in other countries during last year have as yet been received, but it is believed that we led the world in the output of new tonnage. In this connection it is of interest to note that 41 freight steamers and tankers aggregating 327,152 tons dead weight, which were commandeered by the Shipping Board last October, are expected to be put in service during this month and February and that the shipyards are making far better progress on this work than had been anticipated. Some 18 of these vessels will be commissioned this month.—Marine Journal, 26/1.
America to Get Japanese Ships for War Service.—The Shipping Board and representatives of the Japanese Government have about closed an agreement by which the United States will exchange one ton of steel for every two tons of shipping delivered to it by the Japanese Government and it is expected that the details of the agreement will be perfected in the near future.
Now that the United States has been pledged openly by the Secretary of War to land 500,000 men in France by next spring, it is imperative that the cargo ships of the United States be increased as rapidly as possible and that all tonnage suitable for transatlantic traffic be put into that service immediately. The negotiations with the Japanese have been dragging for weeks.
It has been known in semi-official circles for several months that the United States intended to take a much more active part in the military operations in France than was generally supposed, and it was common knowledge that the available tonnage under the control of the Shipping Board was wholly inadequate to the task of transporting supplies for the troops that were to be sent abroad. In spite of these circumstances little progress has been made in acquiring neutral or friendly tonnage.—Evening Star, 8/2.
For Charter of Swedish Ships.—Preliminary Agreement Entered Into Between the United States and Sweden.—A preliminary agreement has been reached between the United States and Sweden, according to official dispatches from London, providing for the charter of Swedish ships to the United States to be used principally in the South American trade.
Some of the ships of the Swedish fleet now in American waters will be allowed to sail with their cargoes while others, it is understood, will be unloaded and put in the service of the United States. Negotiations are proceeding in a satisfactory manner and a final agreement is looked for shortly.
It has been decided to grant Sweden the privilege of purchasing and transporting oil cake, phosphates, kerosene oil and certain other commodities, but the chief point in discussion, the shipment of cereals and other food stuffs, has not been definitely settled.—Baltimore American, 29/1.
Will Charter Dutch Steamers.—Charter to the United States Government of all Dutch steamers now being held in American ports has been decided upon by the Dutch Government in a provisional agreement just signed in London.
The agreement provides charter for one round trip for upward of 80 vessels now in American ports. The vessels are not to go into the war zones, but five of the steamers will carry material for Switzerland and two will take cargo for the Netherlands Overseas Trust.
It is part of the agreement that the ships shall carry 150,000 tons of food for the relief of the Belgians, and may be used for other voyages later in American coastwise trade or elsewhere, possibly to Java for sugar.—Nautical Gazette, 24/1.
Labor for Shipyards.—Seeing that the passage of the administration's bill is assured authorizing the Shipping Board to expend $50,000,000 from the funds at its command in providing housing accommodations for shipyard workers, the Emergency Fleet Corporation has now started a nationwide campaign to enlist a voluntary reserve army of 250,000 mechanics to insure the success of its shipbuilding program. This recruiting drive is being especially directed at skilled and semi-skilled workmen in industries not essential to the carrying on of the war, and labor at present employed on government contracts is not to be interfered with. On account of the curtailment in building, which is expected to last for the period of the war, the building trade is relied upon to furnish a large percentage of the required labor reserve. The automobile industry is also counted upon to supply a very considerable proportion. It has been even calculated that one-third of the workmen now engaged in garages and automobile repair shops could be easily spared for work in the shipyards. The authorities intend to have each state furnish a certain quota of the reservists needed, with the understanding that men will be employed within their home state as far as possible. Nevertheless, volunteers for the new force will be expected to pledge themselves to proceed, if so directed, to any part of the country where a demand for their services exists. What will certainly help the carrying out of the plans adopted is the likelihood of men of draft age, enlisting in the reserve, being called upon for service in the shipyards rather than in our army and navy units. To be able to render just as important a service to the nation as the men who go to the front, without having to submit to the rigors of military discipline, will doubtless appeal to many of our better-trained mechanics.—Nautical Gazette, 24/1.
Navigation School Resumes.—The navigation school the United States Shipping Board is conducting in the custom house at Baltimore to furnish junior officers for the big fleet of American ships that will go into commission this year has resumed sessions under the direction of Professor Lindau. Two sessions of the school are held daily. Young men who complete the course will be placed on ships to gain experience that will enable them to pass their examinations before the board of steamboat inspectors for this district in order to be granted licenses to take officers' berths on American ships.—Evening Star, 21/1.
Engineers to Study in Factories.—Chief engineers training for service on cargo ships of the United States Shipping Board are to be sent to factories to follow the construction of the engines from the very beginning until their actual installation in the vessels to which the men will be assigned. The details of the plans are being worked out by the director of recruiting of the Shipping Board.—Evening Star, 21/1.
Training to Dodge U-Boats.—Twenty-Five Liner Captains Will Enter School Off New London.—New London, Conn., January 21.—Twenty-five captains of ocean liners were due to arrive here to-day for intensive training in methods for avoiding U-boats. This training will be under direction of United States naval authorities. Three naval officers have been detailed as instructors, and the converted yacht 0-We-Ra has been assigned as school ship.
Every captain has a rating that would enable him to take command of the largest of ocean-going liners. The course will last all this week in relays of three days' duration, two days of which will be occupied with lectures and the third day to actual practice in steering the yacht in a course designed to frustrate an attack by a submarine.
An American submarine will go out into the sound and maneuver, showing the periscope, and give the captains a chance to avoid an opportunity to torpedo the ship. The Fulton is to act as mother ship for the school.—N. Y. Times, 22/1.
Radio Men for Merchant Ships.—About 3000 men of the navy are in training at Cambridge, Mass., for duty as radio operators, with a view to meeting the demands for such men for naval vessels and for transports and cargo ships.
Correspondence has been exchanged between the Navy Department and the Shipping Board in regard to placing under naval control the radio men of the merchant service. This is considered necessary on those ships that have naval gun crews, and it is contemplated that the ships traversing the war zone have regular naval radio men. So far there has been little difficulty in obtaining men for this service.—Washington Post, 17/2.
Torpedo Plant Blast not Caused by Enemy.—Enemy plotting was absolved of blame for the explosion in the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, R. L, January 26, in a statement by Rear Admiral Earle, Chief of Ordnance, to-day.
"Every man in the drying room was killed," Rear Admiral Earle said, "so there is no reason to suspect the work of an enemy."
The dry house mentioned by Rear Admiral Earle was located in the former bombproof in which 25,000 detonators which were being dried exploded. The total weight of the amount of fulminate mercury destroyed was 125 pounds.
Sympathy to the families of the men "who lost their lives in the performance of their national duty" was extended by the Ordnance Bureau here to-day in a letter to the inspector of the torpedo station.—Baltimore Evening Star, 31/1.
Oil Reserves for Navy.—In the annual report of the Director of the Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, just made public, attention is called to the creation of two naval oil reserves in Colorado and Utah.
The survey has been investigating the oil shales of the United States that give the most promise of yielding a commercial supply of oil and has explored large areas in Colorado and Utah that contain immense deposits of such shales, some of which carry 30 to 50 gallons of oil to the ton. This potential resource is estimated by the survey in terms of billions of barrels of oil, which it is believed can be economically extracted from the shales, possibly in competition with petroleum at present prices.
The Colorado reserve created for the navy contains 45,440 acres, and the one in Utah 86,584 acres.—Official Bulletin, 28/12.
Orders Ten Concrete Ships.—Contracts for ten 3500-ton concrete ships were let to-day by the Shipping Board to the Ferror Concrete Shipbuilding Corporation of Redondo Beach, Cal. The first vessel is to be delivered within six months and the other nine within a year.
The building company will use a new plan of construction, recently patented, by which it can build the vessels more rapidly than under old methods of working concrete.—N. Y. Times, 3/2.
Asks Systematic Survey of Entire Pacific Coast.—Although it will take 20 years to complete the surveys of the entire Pacific coast proposed by the coast and geodetic survey in a bulletin issued, benefits would be available within a year after the work was begun, the survey says.
For 21 years no systematic survey of water areas adjacent to California, Oregon and Washington has been made, says the bulletin. The cost for a vessel to do the work and 20 years' operation is estimated at $2,300,000.
Not only consideration for lives and property, but the need of preparing for maritime expansion dictates the necessity for beginning the survey immediately. in the opinion of the survey. The bulletin concludes:
"The end of the present world conflict will see the merchant fleet which we are now building released from the restrictions imposed by our need tor transatlantic transport, sailing the seven seas in a struggle to regain the pre-eminence which was ours in the old days of the clipper ships."—Washington Evening Star, 24/1.
Fire Kills Two Men Aboard Destroyer.—An oil fire in the engine room of a destroyer, resulting in the death of two water tenders, Martin O. Callaghan, of Columbus, Ohio, and Charles E. Bourke, of Worcester, Mass., was announced by the Navy Department. No details were published, published.
The department also announced that Hector N. Menard, seaman, of Bridgeport, Conn., had been killed by a heavy sea dashing over the transport Hancock during a recent storm.—N. Y. Herald, 24/1.
Tells of Finding Emery Powder in Gyroscope.—Emery powder was found in a bearing cup of a gyroscope ready for shipment to the United States Navy to be used in a torpedo, according to the testimony of Charles Teitelbaum, government inspector at the E. W. Bliss Company's plant, when the trial of Paul Hennig on a charge of treason was resumed before Judge Chatfield in United States Court, in Brooklyn, yesterday.
Under cross-examination by Arthur K. Wing, Teitelbaum said that following the discovery on November 12 last he had approached Hennig and asked the latter to disassemble that gyroscope and that Hennig had sent him to a workman. He admitted that 10 days before Hennig had brought back a bearing passed in inspection and had shown that it was soft.
Ensign Joseph A. Flynn, of the Arkansas, told of the workings of gyroscopes in torpedoes. The trial will be continued to-day.—N. Y. Herald, 30/1.
American Airmen Bombard Germany; All Return Safely.—Four Aviators Unable to Determine Extent of Damage They Did Owing to Heavy Fogs.—With the American Army in France, Sunday (Delayed).—Four American aviators attached to a French squadron have participated in a daylight bombing raid over Germany. All returned safely.
Because the weather was foggy the aviators were unable to determine just what damage was done, but as they flew fairly low over the targets it is believed the results were good. After recrossing the lines the bombers were fired upon vigorously by enemy anti-aircraft guns. They then ran into still heavier fog, and some of the airmen were forced to land before reaching their hangars.—N. Y. Herald, 29/1.
May Call Filipinos Into Service.—Authority to call into the United States service Philippine military organizations is given the President in a House bill passed yesterday by the Senate and sent to the White House. Evening Star, 19/1.
Training Camp for Porto Ricans.—Secretary Baker to-day announced the establishment of a second officers' training camp in Porto Rico, for 400 selected Porto Ricans. The camp will open February 1 and run three months.—Evening Star, 9/1.
Teach War Photography.—Columbia Announces the Opening of a New Department.—Columbia University announced the organization of a School of Military Cinematography for the United States Government to train war photographers. The school, the only one in the country, will enroll 100 students and will be under military regulations. It is assumed that the students will be drafted men who have had experience in photography. A faculty of seven military men will give instruction.
The men will be quartered at the university, sentries will be posted and no student may leave the school without a military pass.—N. Y. Times, 9/1.
The United States Army in France will total 500,000 early this year. Pershing has taken over a section of the front in Lorraine, where the American troops have been engaged in the usual trench raids and have shown up well in the fighting. The artillery is reported to be doing excellent work.
Mexican Service Badge.—Officers and enlisted men who participated in the Vera Cruz expedition under the late General Funston, the punitive expedition into Mexico under General Pershing, or who have under certain conditions served on the Mexican border patrol will be eligible to wear a new service badge with ribbon, which has been authorized by the Secretary of War, with the approval of President Wilson. The following general order issued by the War Department states who will be permitted to wear the new badge:
"1. By authority of the President, a service badge with ribbon, to be known as the Mexican Service Badge, will be issued to all officers and enlisted men who are now, or may hereafter be, in the military service of the United States and whose service has been under the following conditions:
"(a) In Mexico, afloat or ashore, as members of the Vera Cruz expedition, between April 24, 1914, and November 26, 1914.
"(b) In Mexico as members of the punitive or other authorized expeditions between March 14, 1916, and February 7, 1917.
"(c) Those who were actually present and participated in an engagement against Mexicans between April 12, 1911, and February 7, 1917, in which there were casualties on the side of the United States troops.
"(d) Those who were present as members of the Mexican border patrol, between April 12, 1911, and February 7, 1917, in proximity to an engagement between Mexicans which resulted in casualties among their own company, troop, battery, or detachment.
"2. The distribution of this badge will be governed by the provisions of Article VIII, Compilation of General Orders. Circulars and Bulletins, War Department, 1881-1915. No individual will be entitled to more than one Mexican Service Badge.
"3. Persons not now in the Army of the United Sates, who, if they had remained in the service would be entitled to this badge, and whose separation from the service has been honorable, may apply to the Adjutant General of the Army for authority to purchase and wear the Mexican Service Badge.''
The badge will be of bronze, one and one-fourth inches in diameter. On one side will be the Mexican yucca plant in flower, with mountains in the background as suggestive of Mexico. Above the yucca plant are the words "Mexican Service," in the upper half and the lower half "1911-1917" arranged in a circle. The reverse side is the same as the Indian war badge. The ribbon is of silk and shows these colors in the order named, green, yellow, blue, green.—N. Y. Times, 15/1.
Airplane Production.—Whatever may be the popular opinion of Fuel Administrator Garfield's order suspending business to relieve the coal situation, the wisdom of his rule exempting the airplane industry from the restrictions of his proclamation will be generally recognized. It would have been lamentable had the construction of aircraft been checked for a day, or even an hour.
We know now that we are not to have 100,000 planes in the air this year, nor anywhere near that number. In a recent statement Howard E. Coffin, Chairman of the Aircraft Production Board, exposed the futility of this hope, a hope based on the knowledge of America's industrial achievements of the past and the conviction that, in the building of weapons to strike Germany through the air, effort would be strained to the utmost.
The experience of our allies has shown that the maintenance of each machine at the front necessitates the employment of between 40 and 50 men in auxiliary branches of the service, or an army of more than 4,000,000 in the aviation service alone, were this hope to be realized.
But the shock to us of this enlightenment was probably no shock at all to those who have looked, and still look, to us for help in destroying, once and for all, Prussian militarism.—N. Y. Times, 20/1.
General Staff Reorganization.—The reorganization of the general staff, as announced in a bulletin from the War Department last week, was necessary, not only to meet the conditions of war, but also because the general staff had ceased to perform the functions originally intended to devolve upon it. It has departed so far from the object contemplated by Elihu Root, who was Secretary of War when it was created, as to have become a part of the executive machinery of the War Department.
In addition, it has intervened between the Secretary of War and the bureau, and has separated the experts of the staff corps in the War Department from the head of the department until the latter has come to depend almost entirely upon the chief of staff for his information of army conditions and needs. The result has been a Secretary of War that not always has possessed a knowledge of the military situation, save as it may have been imparted to him by general staff views or incorrectly obtained through an imperfect acquaintance of general staff members with the situation.
Further, the personnel of the general staff has changed to such an extent since commencement of the war, due to the natural desire of members to be relieved for duty in the field and with the line, that the permanence of membership, at one time regarded as so essential to successful administration, has been lacking.
The introduction of the war council into the War Department machinery has been bewildering, and this is not lessened by any of the War Department bulletins that have sought to explain the relationship between the general staff and the war council.—Washington Post, 17/2.
Enlargement of the Draft- Age Limits in Future Selective Service Acts are Discussed in General Crowder's Report.—Discussing the enlargement of the age limits for selective military service. Provost Marshal General Crowder says in his report to the Secretary of War:
Should the class of draftable persons in future drafts be enlarged or diminished, as to the ages to be included?
A pronounced majority of the boards favor some enlargement, but there is great diversity of opinion as to the proper age limit. Nineteen and 35 are perhaps the limits most frequently suggested; but some recommend 40 or 45 years as the upper limit. There is a distinctly stronger demand for raising the maximum age than for lowering the minimum.
The reason given for advocating this enlargement is the fact that there are many good men under and over the present limits who could more easily be spared than an equal number within the limits.
The following additional suggestions are made by a number of boards: (1) That young men who are under age should come within the law when they reach the minimum draft age; (2) that young men of 18 or 19 should be enrolled and trained, so as to be ready for active service immediately upon attaining draft age.
It is obvious that we are at the threshold of this problem in our further provision for the conduct of the war, and that a wise foresight should be employed in settling it.
The two most important preliminary inquiries are: What are the numbers of available men in the additional age-groups? Which groups can we least afford to draw from?
Available Numbers by Groups.—The available numbers are as follows:
Male population available 1918:
Males, 31-45 years, both inclusive (estimated) 10,683,249
Males, 21-30 years, both inclusive, not yet called 6,503,559
Males, 18-20 years, both inclusive (estimated) 3,087,063
Males arriving at age 21, between June, 1917, and June,
1918 (estimated) 1,000,000
Inasmuch as most (96 per cent) of the age 18-20 group are not married and most (77 per cent) of the age 31-45 are married, it will serve sufficiently the purpose to estimate the number of single persons available in each of these groups, and then to take the probable number of acceptances, as shown by the percentage of acceptances in the first draft. This estimate results as follows:
Probable acceptable men in age groups | Gross numbers | Probable acceptable (Per cent) | Net numbers |
Single males 31-45 years (estimated) | 3,525,472 | 39.41 | 1,389,388 |
Single males 21-30 years not yet called | 3,354,086 | 39.41 | 1,321,845 |
Single males 18-20 years (estimated) | 2,963,581 | 39.41 | 1,167,947 |
Single males arriving at age 21 (estimated) | 960,000 | 39.41 | 378,336 |
Total | 10,803,139 | ? | 4,257,516 |
These figures show us the respective sizes of the available reservoirs to be drawn from.
In considering the grounds of preferences for the two groups not now liable to service, conflicting considerations meet us. The younger men are generally deemed to make the soundest and most pliable military material. On the other hand, the older men are more likely to yield m large numbers the occupational skill so necessary in the varied composition of the modern army. Moreover, under the rational selective-service system, which seeks to distribute the burden equally among the willing and the unwilling, it is important, if not essential, to include the older men, because a smaller proportion of them are likely to enlist; i.e., to enter the army voluntarily without waiting for the call of the law. If the age limits were not enlarged to include the older men for raising the needed numbers, too large a proportion of the younger and more aggressively patriotic men would be withdrawn from civil life, thus unduly injuring the coming generation.
In view, however, of the considerable number of men already available under the law. the main reason for enlarging the age limits at this time is to distribute the burden more equally, in preparation for a later situation of need that may arise. From this point of view, the extension might well be both upward and downward, by way of a registration of all ages 19 to 21 and 31 to 45.
In any event, the greatest caution should be exercised not to interfere with the technical training of the younger group of men. The higher training should be protected from undue inroads; for it is there that the practical sciences are being developed. Both war and industry must be able to count upon a continuous and ample supply of trained young men. The experience of continental countries here has its lessons for us. The technical courses should not be allowed to be gutted. Already, by volunteering alone, many or most colleges have lost (on the average) 50 per cent of their students. The number at stake is not large in respect of the mere man power of the army, but it is potent in its possibilities for service if properly trained.
A wise expedient would be (if the age limits are lowered to 18 or 19). (1) to require every technical student in a recognized college to enter the enlisted reserve corps, and to relieve him from call by a local board during the completion of his course: (2) to require every such student to take a course of military instruction and drill for each of such years, or to enter an officers' training camp during the summer; (3) to appropriate the sums necessary to provide military instruction and drill at every college furnishing a unit of 100 men. By this means, the vital demand for educated young men could be filled, and at the same time their preparation for military service when needed could be insured.—Official Bulletin. 25/1.
ORDNANCE AND GUNNERY
Substitutes Wood for Cotton Explosives.—A discovery which may revolutionize the munition industry in this country was announced recently, when it was declared that wood cellulose had been used successfully for the first time in the United States as a substitute for cotton in the manufacture of explosives. W. E. Byron Baker, a chemist, of Lockhaven, Pa., announced the discovery in a paper read at the third annual convention of the American Paper and Pulp Association at the Waldorf-Astoria.
The importance of the discovery can be realized by the fact that if German scientists had not made a similar discovery soon after the war began the German nation probably would be without means of producing explosives in necessary quantities, as cotton imports have been shut off from that country for nearly two years.—N. Y. Herald, 7/2.
A Shell That Will Not Ricochet.—The "non-ricochet" shell, a missile as deadly as the depth charge, is the newest device perfected by the navy ordnance experts for use against German submarines.
The new shell dives when it strikes the surface of the water instead of bounding, as do the ordinary missiles used in either naval or coast defence artillery. In addition, through the use of a new fuse the charge can be made to explode on contact with a solid surface under the water or at a predetermined depth.
The value of the latest anti-submarine weapon lies in the fact that shots which fall slightly short will be of as much effect as those which register direct hits. Pursuing its course beneath the water, the shell will explode against the side of the submerged submarine. Similarly, when these shells are aimed at a periscope of a submarine headed bow-on, there is a material increase in the chances that an overshot will take effect somewhere along the hull.
The Navy Department has forbidden the publication of details of the invention, but it is known that the British and French admiralties also have adopted it.—N.Y. Times, 23/1.
Mine Sweeping Device.—A mine sweeping device, calculated to pick up and safely bring to surface any mines that may be in the path of vessels is now being attached to a number of ships proceeding through the waters of the war zone. It is attached to the bows and when let down a netted projection extends a dozen or more feet on either side of the ship. If a mine is encountered it is picked up and brought to the surface at a safe distance from the vessel.—Evening Capital, 12/2.
New Army Rifle.—Many favorable reports are being received with regard to the 1917 model United States shoulder rifle, which now is being produced at a greater rate than rifles ever were produced before in any country and in quantities sufficient for all troops that we may raise.
The rifle is modeled after the British Enfield, which used a rim cartridge of .302 caliber, but it represents many improvements over the British piece and is adapted to fire the caliber .30 rimless cartridge used in the Springfield rifle and in the machine guns used by the army, navy and marine corps.
Although those who have been instrumental in the design and the overcoming of the stupendous production problems incident to the turning out of the new rifles in quantities, are reluctant to speak of their accomplishments, they feel that they have done more than even they themselves expected, particularly in the rate of production that now has been reached.
Enough rifles are available for all troops in the service on duty that requires them. If there are any troops that have not been armed with the rifle, of either the Springfield or 1917 types, it is because of transportation difficulties, and not because the ordnance department has failed to have them ready in time. The new rifle will be ready in sufficient quantities for the men of the second draft by the time they require them.
Among other charges that have been made with respect to the new rifle is that the delays incident to the adoption of a new type have resulted in many troops being unarmed, it being stated that at some of the camps fully 50 per cent of the men had not received rifles. While it is not permitted to state exactly what proportion of troops are required to be armed with a shoulder rifle, although, of course, that is well known in the service, it should be remembered that every army has a large number of noncombatants who do not carry a rifle, and that many of the combatant classes are engaged in field artillery and other work in which they have no need for such a piece.
Considerable criticism also has been directed against the ordnance department because of its insistence that there should be a reasonable amount of standardization or interchangeability of parts of the rifle in order that replacements of those easily removed and apt to become injured or defective could be made readily. This policy was followed only to the extent absolutely necessary, that manufacture of the rifle might not be retarded any more than essential to the production of a proper arm.
As a matter of fact, there are only seven parts of the rifle, instead of 57 as has been charged, for which it is prescribed that there shall be no departure under any circumstances from such perfection as would permit interchangeability, although the specifications set out other parts for which interchangeability is desirable. Of course, any one that has no acquaintance at all with a small arm knows that a bayonet, for example, should be capable of being placed on any rifle and should not be such that it can be used only on the one with which it is issued ; and those that have handled a rifle at all know that the bolt of the breech mechanism and magazine, for example, should be capable of transfer from one rifle to another. As was anticipated by the ordnance experts, there is criticism now on the other side—that is, to the effect that interchangeability has not been carried far enough.
The favorable reports coming in from troops using the rifle confirm the ordnance experts in their belief that the United States in the 1917 piece has the best small arm in the world, with the exception, perhaps, of the Mauser type of rifles used by the Germans, and that our small arm is in every way equal to that of the Germans.
The policy has been adopted of placing a rifle expert of the commissioned ordnance personnel on duty at every camp to which the new rifle is sent, in order to aid troops in its use. Major Smith W. Brookhart, of the Ordnance Reserve Corps, who has been on such duty at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa, reports that unusually high scores have been made in practice with the piece.
In one colored regiment, for example, an average of 44 bull's-eyes out of a possible 50 was made at a range of 100 yards. This is thought to be due, among other things, to two factors: First, the placing of the rear sight on the bridge of the receiver, and thereby bringing it 10 inches nearer the eye than on the Springfield rifle, and increasing the sight radius or distance between the front and rear sights; and, second, the open peep-sight, whereby the soldier automatically centers his eye at the center of the rear sight.
While at Camp Dodge, Major Brookhart conducted instruction in the use of the new piece, which was attended by members of the personnel of all grades, from general officer to private.—Washington Post, 17/2.
Our New 16-Inch Naval Gun.—Admiral Earle states that a 16-inch 50-caliber test gun is practically completed at the Washington Navy Yard, and that it will be proved within the next two months. Twelve of these powerful pieces will form the armament of our new 42,000-ton 23-knot battleships. He also says that the bureau has ascertained that the life of the large-caliber gun has been underestimated, the 14-inch 45-caliber gun having been fired a number of rounds far in excess of that heretofore considered to be practicable. We presume these good results are largely due to our most excellent powder, which, being a pure nitrocellulose powder, has much less erosive action than those containing more or less nitroglycerin. This is a most valuable quality, for it will mean that the new 16-inch 50-caliber gun above mentioned can be given a velocity considerably greater than would be possible with some other powders, such for instance, as the English cordite. We do not know, of course, what this velocity will be; but it is conceivable that (thanks to our powder), we may be able to maintain a muzzle velocity of 2800 feet per second, and still get a reasonable accuracy-life out of the gun.
Not many people outside of ordnance circles understand what an intimate relation there is between the powder and the gun—that is to say, how greatly the efficiency of any weapon is tied up with the all-round efficiency of the powder. Evidence of this is seen in the fact that the new British 15-inch naval gun is only 40 calibers in length and has a muzzle velocity of not much over 2300 feet per second. This means that the British 18-inch gun is probably not over 40 calibers in length, and that its muzzle velocity is about the same. If this be so, it is evident that the question of erosion, which has always been a most serious one where cordite is used, has very largely controlled the design of the gun. High muzzle velocities, other things being equal, mean a high rate of erosion, and low velocities mean relatively light erosion; and if they are getting only about 2300 foot-seconds out of the new 18-inch gun it would indicate that the British powder still contains a certain percentage of nitroglycerin. Now if, as we hope, the Navy Department intends to secure 2800 foot-seconds with the new 50-caliber 16-inch piece, its shells, weighing probably about 2200 pounds, will have a penetrating power at all ranges at least equal to that of the English 18-inch piece, whose shells must weigh, surely, not less than 3000 pounds. The trajectory of our gun will be much flatter, and until the developments of the present war, this would have been considered a great advantage.
But due to the extreme ranges at which actions are now being fought, the angle of fall is so steep as to bring extreme-range attack within the category of "high-angle" or "plunging" fire, and, as we showed in an article in our issue of April 7, 1917, it is not so much the side as the deck of a ship that is vulnerable to such attack. The angle of fall of the lower-velocity shells of the 18-inch gun will, of course, be much steeper than that of the high velocity 16-inch shell of our guns. The danger space of our shells will be greater and more hits will be made; but the 18-inch shells that do hit will strike the lightly-armored deck rather than the heavily-armored side of the enemy—so there you are.
The range of our gun is probably greater, as is also the danger space; on the other hand, there is no question that a 3000-pound shell falling at an angle of say 25 to 28 degrees, if it hits, would endanger the flotation of a ship more than a 2200-pound shell striking at an angle of from 18 to 22 degrees, even though the latter carried a higher velocity.
This is an interesting question, and there is much to be said on both sides. Personally we prefer our battery of twelve 50-caliber 16-inch to one of eight 40-caliber 18-inch guns.—Scientific American, 19/1.
A French Big Bertha.—According to a correspondent of the Washington Post in France, the French have out built the German big Bertha of 42 centimeters caliber, and their artillery now includes the 52-centimeter mortar. He states that the length of the new gun is such as to render this piece practically a howitzer. The same authority states that one of these pieces was used in the Verdun surprise attack of last August, and also in the Chemin-des-Dames attack in the neighborhood of Laon, where its huge projectiles wrecked the entrances to the quarries and prevented the men inside from reinforcing the first-line troops engaged with the enemy. Two shells from the "52" sufficed to wreck Fort Malmaison.—Scientific American, 9/2.
NAVIGATION AND RADIO
An Efficient Instrument.—The Cummings log for passenger, cargo and battleships, torpedo and patrol boats, and for submarines and yachts, manufactured by the Cummings Ship Instrument Works, no High street, Boston, is illustrated on the opposite page. This instrument shows directly the total miles traveled by the ship. The "hundred miles" reading is given on the small dial at the left, the miles by the main hand on the large dial and tenths of miles on the small dial at the right. The log shown reads 58,266.5 miles. The course hand on the large dial indicates that the ship had traveled 41.2 miles since last set to zero. This hand, which is carried by friction on the shaft of the main hand, can be set back to zero at any time without altering the main reading.
On the bottom of the large dial are given the total average revolutions of the engines. The small dial at the top labeled Rev. per Knot is set to the number of revolutions of the propeller necessary to drive the ship one mile through the water. The removable key at the right is for altering this ratio as conditions change. A mere glance at the dial of a Cummings log enables the navigator to secure accurate results when running by dead reckoning. This device is not a continuous moving indicator, but moves up in steps, and the two zeros shown on the dial should always be added to the reading when determining total average revolutions on a 50-cycle log. This instrument steps up the distance the ship is forced through the water by 50 revolutions of the propellers, thus the reckoning is not disturbed when engines slow down or stop. The manufacturers have published a pamphlet which gives a complete technical description of this log, together with illustrations that they will gladly send to anyone interested.—Marine Journal, 2/2.
Time Zones at Sea.—There are several matters of time reform in the air (or on the carpet, as the French say), one of which, at least, will probably be realized in the not distant future, for the scheme is already well advanced. This is a proposal to extend the hourly zone-time system, generally used on land, to the ocean, and the suggestion is that time should be kept according to this system both on the vessels of the navy and of the mercantile marine. The scheme originated with our French allies, who have decided to adopt it in their navy, and it has been discussed at an official conference in England by representatives of many important interests. The actual proceedings at this conference have not been made public yet, but there can be no impropriety in giving the substance of a note which appeared in the Comptes Rendus of the Paris Academy for July 23.
On board ship there are timekeepers of two kinds. There are chronometers for the purpose of navigation, which naturally show Greenwich time, and there are the clocks in use for the every-day life of the ship, which are set day by day, more or less at the discretion of the captain, but, speaking generally, show the local time of the place where the ship happens to be. It is this latter class of instruments to which the reform is to apply. It is proposed that the clocks on board ship shall always show a time which differs an integral number of hours from Greenwich time. The clocks need not be altered immediately on entering a new time zone; but this will be left, as before, to be controlled by circumstances. These clocks, however, will always show the time of some hour-zone—preferably that in which the ship then is, and the number of the zone that the clock is then keeping is to be exhibited beside the clock; and in any entry of time made from the clock, in the ship's log or elsewhere, the number of the zone is to be entered. The numeration of the zones was discussed at the conference, and it has been decided that they should be + 1, + 2, + 3…West from Greenwich, — 1, — 2, — 3…Eastward. All this may seem rather unimportant, but the result of the change will be that Greenwich time can be deduced from the clock time quite easily; and it has been decided that in the case of wireless messages the time of sending shall always be given in Greenwich time, which illustrates the purpose of the new scheme.
The other reforms referred to above emanate from this. It is proposed in the first place that the astronomical day shall be made to agree with the civil day; or, in other words, that in the National Ephemerides the day shall begin at midnight, which is to be hours, and the hours are to be numbered from o to 23. The alteration of the astronomical day is a very debatable matter, and the Astronomer Royal and Professor Turner are the joint signatories of a letter in the Observatory Magazine of this month, which asks for the opinion of astronomers on the point. More than 20 years ago this same question was under discussion, but nothing materialized. The cognate question of numbering the hours of the civil day from 0 to 23, which was also discussed at the earlier date, will probably again arise.—Scientific American, 5/1.
Daily Wireless Service Between Italy and U. S.—Direct radio communication between an Italian Government station in Rome and the Arlington station of the United States Navy here has been successfully established, and daily use is being made for communications passing between the two governments.
The daily statements of the Italian war office will be received by radio from Rome and issued here for publication in the United States.—Evening Star, 22/1.
U. S. Radio Station in France.—The Navy Department is erecting a high-power radio station in France at a cost of $2,250,000, which will be ready for operation in August next. The French Government will take it off our hands after the war is over. It will be used in connection with the great station fast nearing completion at Annapolis, which will be three times as powerful as the one at Arlington, Va. The present French stations are not powerful enough to get communication across the Atlantic Ocean, being of about the same power as the station at Arlington. All of the equipment and structural parts are being made in this country for the foreign station. A station is also being built in Porto Rico. The British are establishing a high-powered station in the Azores, which will be valuable as a relay station. At present about 30,000 words a day are possible by wireless, and the new station at Annapolis will add 50,000 words per day. The greater part of the communication at the present time is by cable. If the cables are cut, it is estimated that the Annapolis station and Sayville and Tuckerton would probably be able to take care of all absolutely necessary military business. There is but little necessity for the use of the Pacific coast stations at this time, as practically all of the naval operations are on the Atlantic coast.—Army and Navy Journal. 2/2.
ENGINEERING
Liberty Motor a Brilliant Success.—One of the latest and most insidious efforts of enemy propaganda to spread discouragement among the civilian population back of the fighting lines is seen in the persistent rumor that the Liberty motor is a failure, and that the output of airplanes is small and far behind the promised program.
We are in a position to state that not only is each of these statements a deliberate falsehood, but that the motor has exceeded the most optimistic forecast of its performance, both as to horsepower delivered and durability, and that the output of planes is keeping pace with the construction of motors. Both motors and planes are being built at a pace which ensures delivery in 1918 at the rate proposed when the appropriation of $640,000,000 was authorized for their construction.
The work of translating this vast sum, with the greatest possible speed, into a fleet of airplanes and enlisting and training the personnel, so that we may be prepared to launch a great aerial offensive against the enemy in the summer of 1918, is in the hands of the Aircraft Production Board under the chairmanship of Mr. Coffin, and the Signal Service Corps of the army under Brigadier General Squire. The enterprise has been greatly favored by the fact that, in the matter of organization, and in the personality of these two men, it is singularly free from that red tape and professional inertia which has proved so disastrous in some features of our military preparation. The public will be gratified to know that the whole of this vast work, entailing expenditures at the rate of $50,000,000 a month, is swinging along harmoniously and swiftly to its completion at the date assigned.
We have already emphasized the fact that, although the motor is American in type and design, it embodies the best of the accumulated experience of the British, French and Italian aeronautical experts. Our engineers had before them even the designs of the very latest German motors; something that was made possible by captures of enemy machines on the western front. For these reasons it is not surprising that we should have produced a motor which is a distinct advance upon anything as yet turned out on either side of the fighting front.
Since "time is the very essence of this contract," it was obviously desirable to design a standardized motor, which would lend itself to that quantity production which has made possible the enormous output of American factories, and particularly of those devoted to the automobile industry. And in spite of the widespread belief that the building of motors for military airplanes could be done only in such highly specialized individual plants as are found in Europe, the tests (severe and prolonged) to which the Liberty motor has been subjected prove that an equally fine product can be made by our quantity-production methods.
It has been urged that, in view of the rapid improvement in military aircraft, it was inexpedient to tie ourselves up to a single type which, however good at the date of its design, might be out built by the time our new fleet was completed. In answer to this it should be noted that the Liberty motor is to-day well in advance of current practice. Thus, the celebrated Rolls-Royce (according to Major Vincent), which weighs 950 pounds "has never authentically developed more than 360 horsepower"; whereas the Liberty motor develops more than 400 horsepower at 1625 revolutions, on a total weight of only 800 pounds.
In view of these facts, coupled with the severe tests to which it has been put, it is not surprising to learn that the allied governments have placed large orders in this country for the new motor.
Not only is the motor "ahead of the game" in respect of its output per weight and total output, but, at a recent meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers, it was stated by Charles M. Manly, vice-president of the society, that "the men who are in charge. of the government's aircraft program have made every possible provision for the improvement of the design with the least possible interference with production." In other words, it will be possible to introduce new features or improvements on later lot orders, "so that the government will never be tied up with a lot of obsolescent machines in process of manufacture."
Mr. Vincent states that the new motor is to be used on the machines of every type—speed scouts, battle-planes, observation and bombing machines and seaplanes: though these now being built are intended for heavy battle and bombing planes. There are two varieties: one for use at very high altitudes, another for seaplanes operating near sea level.
The tests of endurance have given the following results: The engine designed for altitudes of three or four miles have been run at sea level for eight consecutive hours without showing any weakness. On the other hand, the high-altitude engine has been tested in the vacuum chamber of the Bureau of Standards, Washington (where conditions of air pressure and temperature corresponding to an altitude of 35,000 feet can be obtained), for 50 consecutive hours.
At the same meeting Colonel V. F. Clark, head of the Section of Experiment and Design of the Army Aviation Service, asserted that if America obtained sufficient aerial superiority to send out a fleet of 500 bombing machines to destroy German lines of communication, there would not be much left of the war.
Undoubtedly; and when the full measure of our manufacturing capacity comes to be applied—as it ultimately will—we shall be in a position to send over the enemy terrain not one, but many raiding fleets of 500 machines each.—Scientific American, 26/1.
Carburetor with Spark Plug; a New Development for Vaporizing Kerosene.—Mention has previously been made in these columns of the kerosene carburetors which operate on a partial combustion principle in which a portion of the liquid was burned to make a gas of the remainder of the vapor passing through the mixing chamber. In view of the interest prevailing at the present time in the action of various devices intended to burn kerosene, and inasmuch as there is apt to be shortage of gasoline as the result of the abnormal demands of war time conditions, particular interest is evidenced now in various types of kerosene vaporizers. In the form illustrated in the accompanying diagram, it will be evident that heating the mixture and securing heat to vaporize the heavy fuel is obtained by utilizing a portion of the carburetor as a fire box and putting a spark plug in this portion in order to secure the kindling of the gas when it is desired to start the engine after it has been standing for a time. This does not correspond to or is it a part of the mixing chamber, but is located below it, so that the heated air and mixture from the preheating chamber rises through a stand pipe to go directly past the throttle. Since the heat is provided in the carburetor itself, there is no need of a hot air pipe from the exhaust manifold, nor is it necessary to jacket the carburetor. Gasoline is used for securing an easy start and priming so there is incorporated with the carburetor a gasoline supply reservoir above the float chamber through which the kerosene passes, so that the gasoline can be allowed to drip into the mixing chamber for starting purposes. The novel feature of using a spark plug in the carburetor is not a radically new one, inasmuch as it is covered by an English patent issued several years ago. A special form of spark plug is used, having but one electrode, this registering with a corresponding electrode screwed into the fire box body.
The fire box J is located at the bottom of the carburetor and contains an umbrella-shaped metal piece, K, known as the distilling table. The spark plug is connected in series with one of the plugs of the engine, so that with the four-cylinder engine there would be a spark plug in the fire box for every fourth spark in the engine. The fuel supply is directed to the float chamber in the conventional manner, the level therein being regulated by the usual float control mechanism. The gasoline supply is carried in a separate chamber above the float chamber. This chamber is filled through the action of a priming lever as the contents flow through the nozzle and into the air current by gravity. The current passes through the float chamber down through the nozzle and from there through four openings in the mixing chamber D, at the bottom, so that the fuel falls to the bottom opening into the curved surface R and falls from there to a baffle plate or supply screen H. Here it falls through the openings of a screen and drops to the top of the distilling table K and begins to float down the inclined surface of this table into the fire box, where it is ignited by the spark gap.
Only partial combustion occurs owing to there being an excess of fuel present and the resulting gas is drawn up through the fire box, through a vertical passage, back into the main stream of air from the mixing chamber and by the throttle which controls the amount of gas admitted to the engine. It is claimed that after three seconds running the fire box is well heated and that in six to eight seconds the intake manifold is sufficiently warm to maintain uniformity of mixture to the cylinders. The device is so well heated that kerosene can be used in cold weather as easily as under more favorable operating conditions. All of the air flows into the one opening at the side of the mixing chamber, this opening being so formed that a downward whirl or eddy is imparted to the air, which carries the kerosene from the spraying nozzle. Once through the bottom of chamber C this air laden with kerosene vapor and globules of liquid, divides, part of it going directly above the stand pipe and part going down into the fire box, the amount going into the fire box being a relatively small portion of the total. The air entering the fire box through E is relatively free of fuel, so it picks up the kerosene dripping from the distilling plate. The lighter kerosene particles are carried direct as indicated by the arrows, while the heavier fuel particles go into the fire box, and are gasified before passing to the engine. It is claimed that the temperature can be regulated by raising or lowering the distilling table for which an adjustment is provided, so that its relation to the fire screen may be varied. On checking the draft on the fuel and air the temperature will be reduced by allowing greater draft, the combustion will be more energetic and the temperature will be higher.
When first starting this carburetor all of the fuel passes through the fire box and as soon as the distilling table temperature increases the more volatile elements are distilled from the fuel and the vapor thus produced results in a resistance to the flow of other than the heaviest bodies through the holes in the fire screen and this produces an increase of temperature in the member. As soon as pipe G is also heated to a point where all the lighter particles of fuel are well vaporized the heavy residue flows into the fire box to be partially burned. Great flexibility is claimed for an engine equipped with this carburetor, as it is believed by its makers that the use of a fixed gas is of more value than the ordinary system of attempting to vaporize a mixture with heavy liquid particles in it by the ordinary hot plate or heated jacket manifold construction.—Scientific American, 17/11.
Largest Machine of Its Type.—A 200-ton floating crane, built by the Wellman, Seaver, Morgan Company. Cleveland, Ohio, for the Norfolk Navy Yard, and the largest machine of its type ever constructed in the United States, is shown herewith in one illustration. This crane is mounted on a pontoon 140 feet long, 85 feet wide and 15 feet deep; it has a lifting capacity of over 200 tons, a reach of 62 ½ feet over the side of the boat, or a radius of 105 feet. The test load required by the navy, and which was handled successfully, was over 400,000 pounds. This crane resembles generally the ordinary revolving derrick in which the jib is rotated to the point opposite the weight to be lifted when it is lowered until the hooks hang above the object. The latter are then lowered or raised by means of steel cables passing over sheaves built into the end of the jib. The main hoist consists of two hooks fixed on the jib. When raised to its maximum height the latter is over 200 feet above water level, or it would tower over the roof of an eighteen-story building. The crane rotates in a complete circle and this movement is controlled by two 60-horsepower motors. The boom luffs up and down from a practically vertical position to an angle of about 30 degrees in the horizontal in its lowest position and this movement is accomplished by two lo-inch screws, operated by two 60-horsepower motors.—Marine Journal, 26/1.
Air Pumps.—This rotary valveless air pump, designed to produce a high vacuum, consists of two main parts, the rotor and the drum, rotating on ball bearings in a specially designed casing. By a small modification the vacuum pump may be converted into an air compressor.
The rotor, Fig. 1, as applied for the vacuum pump, is a hollow member on the outer circumference of which deep double-thread screws are formed. A passage C runs between twin-screw threads A and B into the interior of the rotor. When the machine is producing a vacuum this passage acts as the inlet to the screw threads, but when air is being compressed it is the outlet. Similarly, the pipe F running from the interior of the rotor to the exterior of the machine is the inlet pipe in the vacuum pump and the outlet pipe in the compressor. The screw threads are joined by a large number of narrow partitions or blades D which are equally spaced around the periphery of the rotor. The outer and inner edges of these blades are respectively flush with the top of the screw threads and half-way down the depth of the threads.
The ring of water is in the first place set up by the action of these blades in conjunction with centrifugal force. Annular rings E, called shrouding blades, fitted to the sides of the rotor and reaching somewhat below the water level on the discharge side, prevent the exhausted or compressed air from returning along the screws when the thread ends leave the water seal.
The rotating drum is a hollow cylinder also running on massive ball bearings. The drum when rotating contains the ring of water and is set eccentrically to the rotor. The relative eccentricity of the rotor and the water ring produces what is called the "working space."—Engineering, January.
Inventor of Non-Sinkable Vessels Explains Device.—Buoyancy Boxes, Placed all Over Steamships. Will Render Ships Difficult Targets for Germans After They Are Equipped, Says William T. Donnelly.—William T. Donnelly, naval consulting engineer, of New York, and a member of the Committee on Ship Protection of the United States Shipping Board, recently explained his invention for rendering cargo vessels non-sinkable. His work on the problem, he said, antedated the war by several years, and began when he found that a 20,000-ton non-sinkable dry dock he had arranged for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad proved a practical success.
Mr. Donnelly said that his patents for a non-sinkable ship, filed in the Patent Office, first directed attention to the invention, and that after careful study the Committee on Ship Protection submitted a report which General Goethals unqualifiedly approved. General Goethals, Mr. Donnelly said, also had recommended the application of the invention to the ships which the Emergency Fleet Corporation is building.
Generally speaking, Mr. Donnelly's scheme involves the use of "hull buoyancy boxes" and "cargo buoyancy boxes," the former supplying the necessary support for the ship itself, and the latter for the cargo. His description of his invention is as follows:
"The boxes are approximately 3 feet long and 2 feet wide by 1 foot thick, and are placed between the frames on the sides of the ship, between deck beams under all decks, and also against each side of all bulkheads. All boxes are carefully secured in place against movement from the rolling of the ship, and protected from the cargo by the usual cargo battens. The total number of hull buoyancy boxes on the Lucia, a ship of 10,000 tons dead weight capacity, was between 9000 and 10,000.
"Entirely independent of the hull boxes there are approximately 3000 cargo buoyancy boxes on the Lucia. This buoyancy is sufficient to support 8600 tons of coal when submerged in water, which was the amount of cargo that would load the Lucia down to her maximum draft line.
"The cargo boxes do not necessarily interfere with or reduce the amount of cargo carried, or only in an amount represented by the actual weight of the boxes. In other words, if the Lucia without the cargo boxes had been loaded with a cargo of coal down to her maximum draft line there would have been approximately one-third of her cargo space left empty, and it is this waste space that the boxes were devised to fill. It is further to be understood that these cargo boxes were so disposed as to protect the stability of the ship when water-logged, and also in those parts of the interior of the ship in which it would be more difficult to introduce and remove cargo.
"In case of other cargoes, the buoyancy boxes would be used in proportion to the weight to be sustained. In other words, the loading of the vessel to make it non-sinkable is an art to be developed with the thorough knowledge of the specific gravity of the cargo. In case of a cotton cargo, no cargo buoyancy boxes whatever would have to be used. My investigations show that the deduction in cargo space because of the buoyancy boxes will average between 10 and 20 per cent.
"The cost of the installing of the buoyancy and cargo boxes in the Lucia was less than 10 per cent of the value of the vessel.
"Regarding time of installation, the Ship Protection Committee now has before it an offer from a reliable concern to supply buoyancy boxes at the rate of 10,000 to 11,000 a day, and I believe that they can make a complete application to a ship of the same dimensions as the Lucia in from two to four weeks.
"The degree of safety achieved by these boxes can be judged from the fact that 12,000 boxes are distributed over the hull of a ship 400 feet in length, and that the largest breach of a torpedo does not exceed a hole 25 feet in diameter, which would probably destroy from 50 to 100 boxes. The margin of safety is such that from 80 to 100 feet of the side of the vessel could be destroyed without causing the ship to sink.—N. Y. Herald. 15/2.
AERONAUTICS
Is This Monoplane Coming Back Again?—From France comes the report that the monoplane is again coming into favor in the French air service. The Morane parasol monoplane, in which the planes are placed some distance above the fuselage so as to give the pilot unhampered view, has been improved and is now being reintroduced. The Morane parasol was one of the three types of airplanes with which France entered the war. but after a few months of actual service it was dropped. In its present form this monoplane is said to be a wonderful climber and to possess a great speed.—Scientific American 2/2.
Smoke Camouflage for Airplanes.—It is reported that the Gotha airplanes which raid England from time to time, are equipped with apparatus for producing smoke clouds for purposes of concealment. The smoke cloud is usually emitted when the raiders are threatened by anti-aircraft artillery; and since it has the same color and formation as the fleecy clouds overhead, the task of the gunners below is made far more difficult.—Scientific American, 2/2.
Flight (London), December 6, 1917.—The Danger of Over-Standardization (Editorial).—We are glad to hear that the Air Board has addressed a communication to the Aircraft Production Board of the United States on the subject of the danger arising out of over-standardization of aircraft, a subject to which attention has frequently been directed in these pages. As to the usefulness of standardization within limits there can be no two opinions, but it is quite possible for the keenness for output to work to our great disadvantage. In considering the problems attending the construction of aircraft, we have to keep it well before us that the design of to-day is likely to be rendered hopelessly obsolete by that of to-morrow, and it is thus folly of the worst description to put all our eggs into the one basket. We are not implying that that is the policy which is being pursued in America, but we do think there is a danger that our allies' enthusiasm for manufacturing efficiency and huge outputs might tend to lead them a little astray. Evidently this view is shared to some extent by our own authorities, and hence the warning which is said to have been given. No undue importance need he attached to the fact that the Air Board has thought it necessary to give America what may really be called a friendly tip. There is certainly no divergence of opinion between us and our allies regarding the future of war in the air. All that has happened is that a little advice, born of our greater experience of war, has been tendered by the one and accepted by the other in the spirit of absolute friendship.—Rudder, 15/1.
Make Complete Liberty Engines in Ford Plant.—All available parts of the Detroit plant of the Ford Motor Company not now engaged in government war work soon will be devoted to high speed production of Liberty motors for America's airplane fleets. The Detroit factory has been turning out cylinders and other engine parts for several months, but the new program disclosed to-day provides for wholesale production of the completed engines. Recent tests of the Liberty motor indicate that a minimum of 400 horsepower can be expected from the new engines.—N. Y. Herald, 13/2.
New Propeller Shaping Machine.—"The Will to Win" has caused many ingenious machines to be designed for the purpose of speeding up the production of struts, propellers, and other pieces of airplane woodwork.
Extreme accuracy as to weight, balance and form is vital, and must be taken into consideration by the designer of any wood-working machine to make it a success on airplane parts. Especially is this true of the two-, three-, or four-blade air screws. For this reason many of the standard wood-working machines have proven altogether inadequate to these. Exacting needs.
One of the latest machines to be offered to the manufacturers of airplane woodwork is a special propeller shaping machine which will handle the three- or four-bladed screws, as well as the two-bladed ones. It is built by the C. Mattison Machine Works, Beloit, Wis.
The Mattison Company has thoroughly studied the requirements of a propeller lathe, and with the cooperation of some of the biggest manufacturers in the country has perfected a machine which bids fair to revolutionize the production of propellers, on account of greatly increasing capacity, as well as of much smoother cutting. This works so close to finished size that very little hand work is necessary after the machining operation. The manufacturer of this lathe will be pleased to supply to any one interested in the manufacture of propellers any detailed information regarding the construction and operation of the machine.—Aviation, 15/1.
Aeronautics (London), November 21, 1917.—A Zeppelin Surprise. By Jhadoo Jahaz.—The writer examines the conditions which the Zeppelin airships had to fulfill, during their last raid on the British Isles, in order to reach the extraordinary altitude from which they delivered their attack.
For this purpose the author had at his disposal the following table of estimated weights of the Zeppelin L-49, which had been prepared by Mr. Warner Allen:
Hull framework 12 tons
Outer cover and gas bags 5 tons
Planes 1 ton
Framework of cars 1 ton
Power plant 2 ½ tons
Fuel tanks 1 ½ tons
Armament, wireless ½ ton
Miscellaneous 1 ton
Total 24 ½ tons
The gross lift of the modern Zeppelin being assumed as 60 tons, it follows that 35 ½ tons remain available for "disposable weights," such as crew, fuel, bombs, and water ballast. Of this, 1 ½ tons are taken up by the crew, 5 ½ tons by the fuel supply, and 2 ½ tons by the bombs, so that the Zeppelin must carry in the neighborhood of 26 tons of ballast. The latter amount the Zeppelin fully needs for attaining the 20,000-foot level, provided allowance is made for additional dynamic lift.
It will be seen that these figures closely tally with those computed in the December 15 issue of Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering, although there is necessarily a certain variance between the two estimates of weights of the structural parts of the Zeppelin.—Aviation, 1/1.
Military Aircraft and Their Armament.—Tactical Maneuvers and Developments That Have Resulted.—By Jean Abel Lefranc—The technical elements to be considered in aerial combat are based upon the qualities of the aeroplanes engaged, such as armament, speed, facility in handling, altitude capability, etc. These tactical and technical elements may be divided into two sorts, which though very different are intimately connected.
The combat begins by a series of tactical maneuvers by means of which the assailant seeks to get as many initial advantages on his own side as possible, by surprise, by a greater altitude, by a group attack, by a rear attack, etc. It is ended by the actual contest between the machines, continued till one side or the other is destroyed or put to flight.
It is evident that the preliminary tactics can be executed only if the technical qualities of the avion make them possible. Freedom to choose between engaging in combat or avoiding it implies superiority of speed. If the machine possesses the four technical superiorities of the ideal airplane, speed, climbing, armament, ease of handling, then its pilot has all the tactical advantages on his side.
But an airplane may have a single one of these technical superiorities yet be unable to gain any tactical advantage therefrom. For example, the Voisin gun-airplane, with its 37-caliber rapid fire guns was superior in armament to most of the enemy airplanes of that period; but since it had no speed, was not easy to manage, and could not rise, in practice, above a height of 2500 meters (8125 feet), it was almost never able to profit by its advantage of armament. The enemy airplanes profited by their speed and facility of management to attack it without getting within its very limited range, their superiority in climbing enabling them to refuse combat by rising to a height of 5000 meters (16,250 feet). The technical elements are identical in all aeroplanes of the same type, but their employment in combat, i.e. their tactical application varies with the ability of the individual pilot in each particular case. The utilization of the tactical elements is so dependent upon their intelligent application by the pilot that it often occurs that airplanes technically inferior in all points obtain tactical advantages by reason of the courage and skill of their pilots, and even absolute victories, over advantages better armed, faster, and more easily handled, e.g. the old Farmans of 1915 over the Aviatiks of that year.
Our "Aces" in particular furnish an excellent example of good tactical handling of their machines. In general, however, it must be admitted that technical superiority is the surest method of achieving tactical superiority in the fight. Superiority of material equipment has been the chief basis of all German tactics in terrestrial combat.
The relative importance of each of the technical factors in air fighting varies according to the work required of the machine. For a fighting airplane the order of importance is as follows: speed, ease of handling, armament, and altitude. The German pilots who have been taken prisoner declare that the superiority of the Nieuport and the Spad over the "chaser" Albatross lies chiefly in their extreme ease of handling, the other factors being practically balanced.
Airplanes for artillery, photography, petty bombardment, or protection, which by reason if their specialization of function cannot be made fast enough to avoid combat, should be constructed with a view to technical superiority in defensive armament. Handling and speed are less important elements than for fighting machines.
The big airplane intended for bombardment by night demands entirely different technical qualities, such as capacity, radius of action, facility in landing, etc.
The present speed of French and German chasing airplanes varies between 180 and 200 kilometers per hour (no to 123 miles per hour); it might be much greater but for the fact that these machines are obliged to keep enough wing-area to enable them to raise their weight of a thousand kilograms (2200 pounds) to a height of 5000 or 6000 meters (roughly speaking, 16,000 to 20,000 feet), and to land on a chance terrain without being upset.
The present speed of airplane of artillery, photography, petty bombardment, and protection is from 125 to 150 kilometers per hour (cc. 75 to 90 miles), while that of airplanes for night use may easily remain as low as 90 to 120 km. per hour (cc. 50 to 65 miles), in case the exigencies of capacity demand it.
No limit is set to improvement in ease of handling, especially in machines specialized for combat. Knowledge of the formidable strains and pressures which come into play on surfaces of an extent of 25 square meters (the spread of the Albatross chaser) has arrived at such a point of precision that all sorts of aerial acrobatics are permissible, especially for chasing airplanes without any fear, normally, of ruptures or deformations.
If there are still numerous accidents due to ruptures they must be ascribed to inevitable imperfections caused by the necessity of producing large quantities of machines in a short time and of entrusting delicate bits of construction to mechanics too hastily trained.
Facility in maneuvering is a function of the judicious distribution of the strains to which the airplane is subjected; the ascensional strain, gravity, and the strains resulting from the use of the controls. But after all the armament remains the decisive factor in the combat, for it is this which destroys the power of the enemy.
I.—At the beginning of the war, when aviation had a relatively obscure role, and had not assumed the importance of a factor indispensable to victory, the necessity of the "mastery of the air" had not yet made itself felt, and aerial combat was a rare event. The airplanes went out armed with a carbine or rifle, and were generally careful to refrain from attacking. Then, little by little, each desiring to keep secret his own preparations, but seeking to know those of the enemy, combats became frequent. It became necessary hastily to mount machine guns with improvised supports which had to be perfected very rapidly. This was the first period of aerial combat, which had scarcely more than a single formula of armament. The airplanes, all two-seaters, were provided with a machine gun operated by the passenger.
The majority of the French airplanes, having the propeller at the rear, had behind them a considerably obstructed area or blind spot which favored surprise attacks. The machine gun, being generally placed on a pivot in the front of the nacelle, either to the right or to the left, made it difficult to defend the airplane on the sides (Fig. 1).
The German machines, having the propeller in front, had the machine gun at the rear. Their weapon was quickly mounted upon a pivoted turret which permitted it to be rapidly turned in order to fire to the right or the left. The obstructed area was in front and under the observation of the pilot (Fig. 2).
It was quite surprising to observe how often furious combats at a short distance had no practical results except for a few balls in the wings. In the first place the munitions were limited. Either a few belts of 25 cartridges each or a drum of 100. The functioning of the machine guns was delicate, the supports not very practical, and the precision of the fire incredibly defective. The causes of this inaccuracy were many, proceeding chiefly from errors of aim due to the relative speeds to the two combatants; but owing likewise to the very considerable vibration produced by these over-light machine guns, which prevented all accurate aim; also to the inconvenient positions the gunner was obliged to take in order to fire in the direction O as shown in Fig. 1; and finally to the difficulties in handling a heavy arm in a wind of 100 km. per hour (60 miles per hour).
Moreover, the trajectories of the shots fired, at the side, towards O (Fig. 3), were thrown out of line by new forces: the initial lateral speed, produced by the speed of the airplane (force V Fig. 3), the lateral wind pressure upon the projectile by this same speed (force L Fig. 3); two forces V and L which are compounded with the initial speed I of the hall and deform the trajectory.
The sight of the gun. moreover, ceases to give a precise indication for arms which fire almost vertically, above or below, and but rarely in a horizontal plane. The distance of the shots is generally less than 400 meters (1300 feet) and if we note this element of error it is merely to add it to the preceding causes to show the great difficulties involved in aerial firing.
II.—The second period comprises the organization of the armament on board airplanes of specialized missions. Three principal formulas have been adopted by our enemies as well as by us:
- Firing forward by a fixed machine gun shooting above the propeller or through it (one-man machines).
- Firing forward by fixed machine gun shooting like the preceding, but with the addition of a machine gun on a tourelle shooting towards the rear (two-seaters).
- Firing forward by a machine gun on a tourelle, towards the rear by a machine gun on a tourelle, and under the fuselage with the gun on a pivot (three-seaters).
A, lateral reel carrying a band of 250 cartridges; B, sack into which the shells are ejected; C, jointed fork; D, carriage revolving on the turret. Weight 12 kilograms (26 lbs.). With 250 cartridges and accessories 32 kg. (70.4 lbs.).
The constructors have been led to study the formula of fixed firing towards the front, either through the propeller or above it, in the first place to enable one man machines to become fighting machines, and next to avoid all the inconveniences indicated above in the case of movable guns on tourelles or pivots.
Evidently the first result of employing a fixed gun is to enable the pilot of a one-man machine to operate his own weapon. The gun fires in the axis of the airplane; the pilot aims at the object with his entire machine; the aim is accomplished by a sight strictly parallel to the gun. In the second place, since the gun is fixed and consequently forms a solid part of the whole mass of the airplane, all firing vibration is suppressed.
Other advantages result from this arrangement of the gun, the excellent position of the pilot gunner, no more deviation produced by lateral wind (force L Fig. 3) and by the initial speed of the airplane (force V): this force V is transformed into a supplement of the initial speed of the ball.
I. The first application of the fixed gun firing above the propeller dates from the appearance of the Nieuport chasing biplanes (Fig. 4). This machine gun was placed above the top plane, and fired above the propeller. The principal inconvenience of this position, outside the great resistance to forward movement, was the difficulty of loading the arm. To reload the gun the pilot turned it upside down in B, and was then able to remove the discharged disk and replace it with a new one containing 47 cartridges. These 47 shells were quickly fired at the rate of three or four hundred per minute.
It is easy to fancy the difficulties encountered by the pilot, who not only had to drive his machine, but fire and reload his weapon. In fact, if the pilots of our first Nieuports did not obtain a decisive result with the first disk, they were obliged to stop fighting. The second application of the fixed machine gun was the shooting through the propeller, first practiced by Garros. At first thought the principle of this seems extremely curious. The gun was fired in the normal manner. To keep the balls from striking and breaking the blades of the propeller two plates of extremely hard steel were fitted onto the blades at the point where the balls passed (Fig. 5). The balls which hit these plates were deflected and lost, but the others passed between the blades and continued their course towards the objective. The percentage of balls lost was negligible, being less than seven or eight per cent.
But a latent defect soon brought about the abandonment of this arrangement; this was a loss of speed on the part of the airplane of 20 km. per hour (65,000 feet or over 12 miles). As a result of its transformation the propeller lost a part of its tractive force, a reduced efficiency resulting from the tapering at A, a reduction of the pitch of the propeller being made to compensate the resistance of the steel plates, and thus maintain the motor in its normal action (Fig. 5).
This technical superiority of armament could not compensate in a chasing airplane for the tactical inferiority proceeding from a lack of speed.
The third application of this formula was invented by the Germans at the time their Fokker chasing single-seater appeared (Fig. 6). The fixed machine gun fires through the propeller, but it is governed by the motor, its action being synchronous with that of the motor. The propeller making 1400 revolutions per minute, and having two blades, it is obvious that the barrel of the gun is crossed by the blades 2800 times per minute, hence the regulation of the firing must be sufficiently precise to permit the balls to pass in these intervals (a 46th of a second).
The control of the machine gun by the motor is effected by suitable gearing (Fokker, Albatross, D. Halberstadt, etc.), or by flexible transmission (Albatross, C. Rumpler C). The pilot operates his weapon at will by pressing on the grip of a Bowden control.
This application of firing through the propeller by synchronization of the machine gun with the motor is the arrangement adopted on the majority of airplanes, whether belonging to the French, the allies, or the enemy. The gun as sheltered under the hood of the motor (Fig. 7), its feeding is easy, and likewise clearing it of empty magazines. The cartridge boxes (Fig. 8) are capable of holding belts of 800 to 1000 cartridges per weapon.
The chasing airplanes are usually one man machines, it being found preferable to omit the observer to obtain a machine which is speedier, easier handled and capable of going higher and farther.
The German series of Albatross D I, D III,Halberstadt Roland D, Ago D, Fokker D, have two fixed machine guns firing through the propeller, and each provided with 1000 cartridges (Fig. 10).
2. Another formula of armament (Fig. 9) exists for less rapid two-man airplanes, charged with the mission of directing artillery fire, taking photographs, or making petty bombardments. This series corresponds to the Albatross, Rumpler, Aviatik, L. V. G., the whole series of C, two-seaters, Flying only from 140 to 160 km. per hour (cc. 85 to 97 miles).
Their armament is defensive; a forward machine gun fires through the propeller, this being of special service when the defence of these machines requires them to attack, and a rear machine gun is mounted on a tourelle. We have likewise adopted the same arrangements for our airplanes of equivalent series.—La Nature (Paris), Scientific American. 8/12.
SUBMARINES
The Shipping Council of Great Britain is now considering a plan for the building of a number of towed submersible cargo carriers, which is backed by Prof. Vernon Boys, Prof. Hele-Shaw, and several leading shipbuilding firms and ship-owners. The main idea is to have submarine cargo boats that will be towed by tugs with their steam engines converted to the use of liquid fuel. That will avoid smoke, which indicates their presence to the enemy. They will be low-lying tugs, with not much top hamper, and will be armed and fitted with wireless. When a U-boat appears the tug would instantly slip its cable while the submarine cargo boat would sink to a depth already arranged. The tug would then be free to do its best, either to escape or to fight the enemy submarine with its own guns. The U-boat would probably know the tug had been towing a submarine cargo vessel, but would not know at what depth it was. or what had been its distance from the tug. Her torpedoes may have been set to 8 or 10 ft., so that her firing would be absolutely blind. But in the meantime the tug would have sent out a wireless message saying where she had dropped her cargo vessel. The message would be picked up by the nearest destroyer or aeroplane station, and help would soon be on the way. With regard to the cargo vessel itself, the inventors have taken out seven patents, the most important being one of Professor Boys, which regulates automatically the stabilizing of the submerged vessel at any pre-arranged depth. By another patent, after a certain number of prearranged hours two buoys will be released from the submarine cargo boat. One will be attached to the end of the cable that was dropped by the tug and the other will be attached to the boat itself. These buoys will show strong lights at night, so that after, say, 10 hours these buoys will indicate to the destroyers or aeroplanes the position of the dropped vessel. As the cargo boat will be much heavier than the U-boat. if the latter tries to search below the water for it the danger of a collision would be much greater to the enemy than to the submerged vessel. If the U-boat comes to the surface and tries to drag for it, that would be a long and tedious operation, during the course of which the enemy would probably be caught by destroyers or in danger of being spotted by aircraft carrying high explosive bombs. Some of the advantages claimed for the submarine cargo boats are its extreme simplicity and cheapness of construction, and the rapidity with which they can be turned out. Several shipbuilding firms have examined the matter, and have stated their readiness to at once start building directly government permission is obtained.—Shipping, 26/1.
MERCHANT MARINE
Cast Steel Ship Construction.—By Mr. Myron F. Hill.—The demand for ocean tonnage is such that it calls for the most active co-operation of shipbuilders and of labor. Though the program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation may seem large, it is small in comparison with existing transportation requirements, and the continuous shrinkage taking place in the world's tonnage through submarine sinkings and through ordinary marine casualties. The great question before the country to-day is production or output of tonnage, which is being limited by the lack of skilled labor. As one means of overcoming this labor difficulty the cast steel ship has been designed. This type of vessel will be constructed by the Cast Steel Ship Company, and plans for suitable foundry plant and equipment are now being made. The cast steel ship will be cast in sections and welded together by the Wilson method of welding. This method of welding has been thoroughly tested, being the method used in the repairing of the recently owned German merchant vessels now in service under our flag.
The welding of sections together will eliminate rivets, brackets, angles, straps, laps, and other connection metal forming 10 to 20 per cent of the steel used in a ship. Part of this metal is transferred to the cast sections to make them thick enough for casting for the thinner portions of the ship. Welded joints are planned for strength, and will be 50 per cent greater than plates to provide safety at joints. These joints, free from molecular action due to the mass strength of welded metal, will have approximately a tensile strength of from 62,000 to 64,000 pounds per square inch. Welding with an arc of fixed heat and speed insures the perfect adhesion of welding to castings. By welding automatically, a ship can be sectionally welded every week under expert supervision by using electrical equipment and by having unskilled labor feed the welding wire. With a regular yard crane outfit a ship can be assembled, and within a week be made ready for installation of engines and equipment. The inner bottom and decks and bulkheads of rolled steel are welded to framework and to the cast steel shell.
The Cast Steel Ship Company will operate on the division of labor principle. Under competent supervision gangs will operate through the shops, making mould after mould with proper devices. On completion of mould forms, pouring will be performed by liquid metal being conveyed on modern travelling cranes over forms and run. Moulds will then stand 24 hours, gates and risers knocked off, and castings extracted and cleaned. On account of variations in shrinkage, castings will thereafter be assorted, the largest castings being placed in the middle and tapered off to fit. The sections will then be electrically welded.
The Isherwood system of vessel construction proves ideal for casting. Ribs in two directions keep the castings free from buckling in handling. Castings provide overhanging ribs and lugs upon shell and framework, where the edges meet, so that castings when placed are forced together, bringing shell and overhang into position.
No scaffolding is necessary when castings are located, the automatic welders being set to work under the supervision of a few skilled practical men.
The Cast Steel Ship Company's program depends upon new foundry equipment, as open-hearth furnaces are used for treating the pig. It will take a gang of workmen about six weeks to construct one furnace. Three mould outfits will supply castings for practically half of a ship's length. The bow and stern sections will be cast from separate moulds. It is estimated that with proper furnace and mould equipment, about 500,000 tons of ship shells or hulls can be cast per month with 10 ways for assembling and launching.
The drawings shown herewith indicate what the company contemplates doing, although the final forms are not given. The final forms contain features which will be published later. The plans of the cast steel ship have been reviewed by leading naval architects of this country who have warmly congratulated the designer on his plans. The success of the cast steel ship has been made possible through the development of the welding system which enables joints, as stated, to be made stronger than the shell itself at a minimum amount of labor and by the improvements made in the art of casting steel. These are due to the encouragement afforded by the railroads where cast steel is rapidly supplanting riveted structures, as it has proven more durable and reliable, and reduces the cost of maintenance.
The cast steel ship has a smooth hull, which helps to increase its speed, and is lighter than the riveted ship, so that its cargo capacity is augmented and its speed again aided. It is from 10 to 25 per cent stronger than a riveted ship in its different parts, and is correspondingly more durable. The cost of building hulls by this process, when done on a sufficiently large scale with machine moulding processes, is considerably reduced. The two great factors of value are the celerity with which vessels can be built and the small amount of labor—particularly of skilled labor—required to complete ships.—Nautical Gazette, 7/2.
The Concrete Ship.—The success of the concrete ship must result from slow development. Rear Admiral D. W. Taylor, chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair of the Navy Department, on January 21 before the House Naval Committee was asked concerning experiments with a non-sinkable concrete ship suggested by Maxim. He replied that several different devices had been submitted by Mr. Maxim, and certain tests and experiments had been made which, he thought, were satisfactory to him. He further said:
"The question of the concrete-ship protection, when it first came to us, did not come from Mr. Maxim. Certain people abroad have given a great deal of investigation to it, and a great many investigations and experiments have been made, and we know their results. I do not believe that any experiment that we would make would add very much to the information, although not familiar at the moment with Mr. Maxim's last development of the concrete ship. He started out with an entirely different device, not involving concrete, which we tested on a small scale. On one plan of using concrete to protect merchant ships it is associated with building an extension or bay window on each side of the ship—a blister, the technical English name is. That was suggested a number of years ago, and some ships have had these blisters applied, and in addition we have found that if you put a foot or two of concrete on the original hull of the ship the blister projects practically 10 feet out from the original hull—it is effective in preventing the explosion reaching the interior of the ship proper. The real difficulty with all these devices—there are any number of devices which can be applied to add to the protection of merchant ships—but the real difficulty in the case of this blister, for instance, is that it would not only reduce the speed materially, but it would require perhaps 20 per cent of the material of the original hull, and the effort to apply it to the merchant ship would be, say, 20 per cent of the effort involved in originally building the ship…Whenever these concrete people come to me I ask them: 'How does the weight of your ship compare with the weight on the ordinary system?' I have seen none who have looked into it carefully who will claim that a concrete ship will not weigh 15 or 20 per cent more than the ordinary type of vessel, and I have not seen any inventor who believes that the concrete ship can be built as light as the steel ship. There have been some small concrete ships built in Norway and an 80-foot tug. There is an enterprise on the Pacific coast, I believe, which is undertaking to build 5000-ton vessels of concrete, and there are various other people undertaking to build concrete ships…I feel if the concrete ship comes, it will have to come just as the iron ship came and the steel ship. The steel ships have been built by trying them out until we know pretty well now what we can do in strength of steel ships. It has never been just exactly determined, as in building a bridge, where you know what will be upon it. I believe the concrete ship will come, if it does come, step by step, advancing, say, from 80 to 120 feet and from that to 150, and so on…There is another factor in the concrete ship. Concrete has behaved very badly in a number of cases in sea water. The technical press has just been running a series of articles by a man from the Bureau of Standards, going particularly into the question of damage to reinforced concrete in sea water. We have had some troubles in the navy, at Boston particularly, with some piers we have built there."—Army and Navy Register, 2/2.
British Experience with Corrugated Steel Ships.—Consul General Skinner at London reports:
Considerable interest has been created in Great Britain in consequence of the recent public statement of Mr. Axel F. Ericsson, Chairman of the Ericsson Shipping Company and the Monitor Shipping Corporation, setting up the claim that the corrugated ships recently built by his concerns have proved to be extraordinarily successful in every respect.
The corrugated steel ship is produced from patented designs and is distinguished mainly by the fact that the necessary strength is obtained by deep corrugations instead of a structural framework.—Official Bulletin, 9/1.
First German Concrete Steamship Completed.—The first German freight motor vessel to be built entirely of reinforced concrete has just completed its trial trips at Hamburg. According; to the Fremdenblatt it is made of " a new kind of concrete which weighs only half as much as gravel concrete." The newspaper expresses the opinion that an epoch-making innovation in ship construction has been made by this new German invention, "which has a great future in the building of river boats, sea boats and large ships."—N. Y. Herald, 14/2.
"Torpedo- Proof" Vessel Proposed by Hudson Maxim.—Hudson Maxim, inventor, outlined to the Senate Ship Investigating Committee a scheme for ship construction which he said would minimize the effect on merchant vessels of explosion of torpedoes, by instantly disintegrating through a cooling process the gases formed by the explosions. He said he had sought in vain to interest the Emergency Fleet Corporation in his proposal and that he came to the committee in the hope that the government would conduct experiments to determine its worth.
His scheme, the inventor said, was to line the inside of the hulls of vessels with cylinders containing water with a steel screen behind them. When the torpedo exploded, the water tanks, he said, would be hurled against the screen, atomizing the water, which would disperse the heat and absorb the gases. A cargo such as apples, potatoes and similar produce containing a large percentage of water would serve just as effectively as the tanks, he said.
Mr. Maxim declared that the Ship Protection Executive Committee had made an "irrelevant and untrue" report on his scheme, asserting that it would be expensive and ineffective on vessels of less than 10,000 tons. He denied that the scheme would be costly and said it would operate on vessels of 3000 or 5000 tons practically as well as on larger vessels.
Concrete ships, the inventor said, offer a greater advantage in combating the submarine menace than steel or wooden vessels, as they give greater resistance and absorb heat better. A concrete hull, he said, would localize an explosion, and he strongly urged construction of concrete skins for steel vessels.
He said the nations fighting Germany either must stop the submarines from leaving their bases or build torpedo-proof vessels, as he did not think they should attempt to offset the submarine campaign by building new vessels.—N. Y. Herald, 17/1.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Deep Sea Diving Machine Progress.—Aside from other considerations, it is but natural to expect that the war with its attendant submarine and kindred activities has drawn attention to the hitherto limited scope of salvage operations where deep water sinkings are concerned, and has turned men's thoughts to the devising of means whereby present and past difficulties may be overcome and the sea be forced to yield back a moiety at least of the vessel treasure which is so ruthlessly, unceremoniously and continuously being committed to its keeping. Irrespective of the wonderful strides that have been made in the arts, crafts and manufactures during the past half century or less, it is a remarkable fact that in operations beneath the surface of the water, little progress is to be recorded. Vessels valuable in themselves and equally so as regards their cargoes strew the beds of the world's seas and of the Great Lakes of the North American continent
The method of raising ships employed to-day is familiar to most people, and it has been long enough operative to make them assume, if not believe, that it is the one and only way. In essence, it consists of a diver equipped with a rubber diving suit, copper helmet, and heavy leaden-soled shoes. Such an equipment makes it practically impossible for the man to work efficiently even in shallow water. Again, in depths greater than 300 feet the water pressure makes it impossible even for an individual of exceptional physique to do work of any kind.
Spasmodic attempts have, of course, been made by inventors, scientists and engineers to overcome the inefficiency noted, but the limited nature of the sphere of application and the problematical value of the monetary returns, have contributed materially to restrict and confine effort to the preparation of nothing more tangible than designs and the filing of patents. Times have changed, however, as a result of enemy submarine activity; in a word, the old adage that "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," is in process of being demonstrated, hence the appearance on the horizon of practicability, for the recovery of sunken ships, and such cargoes as are not destroyed by the action of sea water, as well as bullion, of the Sisson Deep Sea Diving Machine, by which name the apparatus is known.
The Sisson Deep Sea Diving Machine has been designed by W. D. Sisson of Alpena, Mich., and 115 Broadway, New York City, and consists of a hollow iron sphere 90 inches in diameter, within which are installed the necessary pumps, propellers and drills, the latter to perforate the sides of ships' hulls. There are also embraced a thrust arm with which to insert lifting hooks into the drilled holes and four electro magnets of some 2 ½ tons holding capacity, arranged to operate in pairs. The electro-magnet control admits of the diving machine creeping along the sides of a vessel to any desired location. An electric motor operates the various pumps, propellers, drills, etc.
The air supply system is arranged more or less on the lines adopted in submarines, an air tank being installed in the apparatus of two-men-supply capacity. Two propellers in the rear and bottom of the machine give navigation direction at will. Light is furnished by six 3000-candle power nitrogen lamps. Electric current and telephone communication are furnished by a cable between the tender and the machine. The pontoons employed as adjuncts are of corrugated steel, about 15 feet in diameter by 40 feet long.
Circumstances and location will, of course, determine many details of application and of the device in practice. In general, however, it may be said that having ascertained the approximate location of a sunken vessel, the machine is lowered overboard from the tender, following which, by means of its propellers, search is made in the immediate vicinity for the exact position of the wreck and determination of its physical status. These preliminary problems having been satisfactorily solved, the pontoons are next lowered into position. Drilling of the hull for holes in which to insert the lifting-hooks is the next operation. The pontoon number and capacity will vary with the weight and dimensions of the vessel to be raised. However, it is hardly possible to imagine a case of possible salvage where the requisite pontoon number and capacity would be inapplicable. It should be stated here that the pontoons are water-filled when being submerged, the water being emptied out by internally-contained motor pumps when the actual raising is in process.
One diving unit is reported to be some 95 per cent complete at the company's shops and arrangements are in progress with a view to having it employed for the recovery of sunken vessels this coming spring. The views accompanying this article and the data given above have been supplied by the American Salvage Co., 115 Broadway, New York.—Shipping, 2/2.