UNITED STATES Mr. Hoover’s Address
Washington Post, November 12.—Millions of individuals here and abroad will be encouraged when they read the Armistice Day speech of the President of the United States. They will draw comfort from the fact that the head of the strongest nation in the world is striving with might and main to find a way to prevent wars. Americans will applaud his sentiments as expressing the true spirit of America, while foreigners cannot but feel that the United States may be depended upon to take a leading part in effective steps to maintain peace.
Mr. Hoover does not indulge in the daydream of a blissful peace accomplished by mere example. He does not advocate the scrapping of ships and arms by this country as a means of inducing other countries to follow suit. Indeed, he recognizes the massive fact, always ignored or distorted by pacifists, that lack of defense is provocative of war. The world is under arms; with 10,000,000 more active and reserve soldiers than before the late war. Combatant ships have been decreased somewhat, but aircraft and other war weapons are more potent than before the war. The President reminds the country that experience gives warning that wars are to be expected. At the same time, the world is more genuinely inclined toward peace than ever before. The almost universal adherence to the Kellogg pact is a most significant proof of this progress.
The danger to peace lies in controversies which cannot be prevented from arising, because of commercial rivalries, the pressure of peoples for self-government, boundary disputes, and competition in armaments. The problem is to set up methods whereby controversies can be settled by peaceful means, and to eliminate competition in armaments. Mr. Hoover significantly suggests that the United States has need “under proper reservations” to support the World Court. As for the method adopted by the League of Nations, that of using combined international force to compel nations to “be reasonable,” Mr. Hoover bluntly states that “we have refused to travel this road.” He holds that in the Western Hemisphere, at least, public opinion may be so organized as to check violence. If European nations will ponder this statement they will perceive that the secret of peace lies in adoption of the rule that government shall be based upon the consent of the governed.
Although Mr. Hoover admits that future wars are more than probable, he very briefly dismisses the problem of freedom of the seas by suggesting that it will become an academic question if the nations succeed in establishing peaceful methods of settling controversies. Undoubtedly, denial of freedom of the seas to neutrals in time of war is itself a cause of war, and has driven the United States into two wars. This problem should be tackled and settled while there is peace, for when war occurs abroad the United States may have no other recourse than to make war in defense of its right to use the seas for peaceful and neutral commerce.
The novel suggestion is made by Mr. Hoover that food ships be made free of any interference in time of war. He would place them on the same footing as hospital ships. Nations which are dependent upon food from abroad are compelled to provide naval protection as a safeguard against national starvation in time of war. The humane instinct of every one supports the idea that women and children should not be starved because of war. Mr. Hoover answers doubts as to the practicability of the idea by citing the experience of the Belgian Relief Commission, which delivered more than 2,000 shiploads of food through two rings of blockade and did it under neutral guarantees continuously during the war.
Again, unfortunately, the immunizing of food ships during war clashes with the very purposes of modern war. Nations now fight with all their resources. Everything is contraband if destined to the enemy, and food most of all. The effect of a rule immunizing food ships carrying relief to women and children would be as much as one belligerent saying to another: “We propose to destroy only your male population of fighting age, but we are willing that your nation should have means of carrying on the war to destroy us. You can have food, but you must not give it to your soldiers or sailors.” This arrangement would require that each belligerent should have supervision over the distribution of food in the enemy country—a preposterous situation.
Many British authorities contend that the blockade of Germany was the real force that gained victory for the allies. The protests from Germany during the war indicate that the starvation blockade helped mightily to bring Germany to terms. It can not be expected that a nation fighting for its life will permit food to go to the enemy if it has power to prevent it. The suggestion for immunizing food ships, like that for abolishing gas, submarines, and other war weapons, may be applauded in theory as making war more humane, but war cannot be made humane. As Mr. Hoover himself observes, the implements of war are now more deadly than ever before.
The proper role of the greatest nation in the world, seeing that it is peace-loving and nonaggressive, is to be and remain so strongly armed that it can compel others to leave it alone. As civilization advances, governments will come more and more under the control of their own peoples. The greatest contribution to the cause of peace in the world was the establishment of the Republic of the United States. Other nations please copy.
GREAT BRITAIN The Singapore Base
London Times, November 14.—Mr. Alexander, First Lord of the Treasury (Sheffield, Hillsborough), replying to Sir A. Sinclair (Caithness and Sutherland, L.) and Sir N. Grattan-Doyle (Newcastle-on-Tyne, N., U.), said that his Majesty’s government gave attention to the question of the new naval base at Singapore as soon as they came into office. In 1924 the previous Labor administration decided not to proceed with the proposed naval base. Since that date, however, the action of the late government had altered the situation very materially. A floating dock had been provided at heavy expense, and in September, 1928, a contract was signed for the building of a large graving dock at a cost of approximately £4,000,000. Moreover, the bulk of the expenditure up to the present time had, they found, been met by contributions from Hongkong, the Federated Malay States, and New Zealand, their total contributions to the end of the present financial year being £2,113,000, together with the free gift of the site by the Straits Settlements. The house was aware that a naval conference had now been arranged, the decisions of which might affect the question of the use of this base, and in all the circumstances the government had decided that the work already contracted for at Singapore should be slowed down as much as possible, that all work that could be suspended should be suspended, and that no new work should be embarked on pending the results of the work of the Five-Power Conference.
Replying to supplementary questions, Mr. Alexander said that notification to the Dominions had been made on more than one occasion, and there was no reason to suppose that the nature of the answer he had given was out of harmony with their immediate view. But he would like to let that matter wait for a little longer before he gave a definite answer.
New Cruisers
London Times, October 28.—It is officially announced at Portsmouth that the new cruisers due for completion in 1930 are to join the Atlantic Fleet in relief of ships of war design. The York, the anticipated date of completion of which is March, will replace the Canterbury; the Norfolk, due for completion in May, the Comus; and the Dorsetshire, which should be ready in September, the Frobisher. All these ships to be relieved are in the Second Cruiser Squadron. The drafting of new cruisers into a squadron in home waters is in the nature of a return to pre-war practice. Since the Armistice such vessels have been sent abroad. The later “D” class ships went to China, the “E” class to the East Indies, the Kent class to China, and the London class to the Mediterranean.
New Sloops
London Times, October 18.—The two sloops of the 1929 program which it has been decided to name the Shoreham and the Fowey are being laid down this autumn at Chatham and Devonport instead of in the spring of 1930. This is partly to compensate for the loss of work involved in the stoppage of the cruisers Surrey and Northumberland, but the relief can only be temporary and incomplete, since the cruisers would have involved work to the value of about four millions sterling, whereas the sloops, less than one-tenth as large can be built for a quarter of a million. These postwar sloops all take the names of minor seaports of the country. The Bridgewater and Sandzvich were authorized in 1927 and are now serving in China. Four more were ordered in 1928, the Penzance and Hastings at Devonport and the Folkestone and Scarborough from Messrs. Swan Hunter and Company, Wallsend-on-Tyne. The 1929 program includes six more, but only the Shoreham and Fowey are at present being begun, in advance of the regular program to prevent some of the discharges from the dockyards which would otherwise be necessary.
ITALY
Proposed Abolition of Submarines
London Times, November 9.—In view of the belief that Italy is now reconsidering her previous attitude of uncompromising hostility towards the abolition of submarines, special interest attaches to a recent article by “Sirius” in the Mattino of Naples. The Mattino, especially since its recent change of ownership, is now a strongly authoritative organ, and it is obvious that an article such as the one in question would not be published without the previous consultation and consent of the authorities.
After briefly reviewing the history of submarine operations during the war, the writer proceeds to examine what would be the position of France and Italy in the event of their abolition. France, he says, clearly cannot favor such a proposal. Were France at war with one of the two greater naval powers she would be blockaded whether submarines existed or not. But if submarines did exist she could at any rate hope to undertake considerable reprisals. If France were at war with Italy she would have little to fear from the comparatively few Italian submarines, especially in the Atlantic, whereas she could exercise a strict blockade against Italy by employing all her submarines in the Mediterranean. Consequently France has every interest to maintain the right to use submarines and even to oppose any reduction.
The case of Italy, the writer proceeds, is less easily disposed of. If Italy were at war with England she would be closely blockaded, and all Italy could hope to do would be to exert vigorous but limited reprisals in the Mediterranean, which, though a most important waterway for the British empire, is not absolutely vital, since it can be avoided by more roundabout routes. If France were the adversary, Italy would be blockaded without the possibility of exerting corresponding retaliation owing to her geographical and strategical situation.
On the other hand, if submarines did not exist, the Italian surface fleet, if intelligently and actively employed, could render a French blockade a risky proceeding, and consequently Italy’s chances of receiving raw materials and of resisting would be greatly increased.
FRANCE
The "Surcouf”
Naval and Military Record, October 30. —The Surcouf submarine is to be launched at Cherbourg on November 18. This sous-marin de croisiere, as she is officially called, belongs to the 1926 program, and is thus rather belated. She is inspired from the British X-l. Her designing, very carefully performed, required two years of preliminary studies and experiments, Paris well knowing from past experience how much it costs to leave anything to chance in submarine construction. She is credited with 3,257 tons when on the surface and with 4,304 tons when in the submerged position, being thus larger than the X-l by some 1,000 tons, or nearly one-third, which means in practice very much for underwater craft. She is also much bigger than the latest American submersibles of the “V” series although American specialists are known to have prepared plans for still larger underwater cruisers than the Surcouf. The largest Italian submarine building does not exceed 1,800 tons in submerged displacement, which is rather high for vessels intended exclusively for Mediterranean use. As to the Surcouf, she is, of course, essentially an ocean ship, with a radius of action of over 13,000 miles at twelve knots, intended to act in the twofold capacity of cruiser and of submarine. Her length, that is believed to approximate 120 meters, and the great height of her upperworks above her keel (some thirteen meters) will make it dangerous for her to carry out evolutions in coastal sectors, and she will only on the high sea obtain her full freedom of movement, all the more so as her hull has been made abnormally robust with a view to diving with impunity at great depths, at over 130 meters and probably much deeper. No doubt is entertained as to her being a success from a navigating standpoint, although her freeboard (when on the surface) will not be substantially greater than that of the British X-l.
As her cost is relatively tremendous, and she will need a crew of 150 men, she is considered generally as representing too many eggs in one basket. Her loss would be a great blow, as she will be alone in the service for her special duties, her projected sister-ship not being likely to be built. She is too large and too cumbrous for fleet work; for such a purpose the small but handy and reliable sousmarins de defense cotiere of the Sirene type are better than she could be. To act single handed on the ocean is her raison d’etre; and she would eventually be the French ultima ratio of colonial defense, being capable of reaching at one stretch Madagascar by the round-the-Cape route. She would be most formidable when fighting underwater, for her massed tubes forward and on the sides are designed for the salvo discharge of torpedoes, of which she will probably carry over thirty. For surface work, despite the armour carapace with which she is credited, and her armament of 140 mil. guns (155 mil. have also been mentioned), she will never be quite capable of meeting small cruisers of corresponding displacement on an equal footing, for her battery, even raised in towers (as in the X-l), will be too low, deprived of the necessary command, inferior also for number of guns and rate of fire; and, worse than all, penetrating hits of possibly no great consequence, for an ordinary surface cruiser might be deadly for her, making it impossible for her to seek refuge under water. Still, when everything has been said as to the defects inherent to the large submarine types that have consistently been opposed by Constructor Laubeuf on that very score, the Surcouf will be a formidable dreadnought of the sea, endowed with unlimited capabilities for surprise missions, given a fearless and professionally able commander and a well-trained long-service crew, and her career will be watched with interest. Her trials are likely to be protracted to judge from what is taking place at Cherbourg with the Redoubtable and Vengeur, prototypes of the 1,560-2,080- ton series of sousmarins de primiere class (of which no fewer than nineteen are ready or building).
It is unnecessary to say, although being named after a famed Breton corsary of the Napoleonic era, the Surcouf is not primarily intended for guerre de course. Enemy warships are to be her quarry, and she has been built and lightly armored for that. To hold her own in the give-and-take game (like the British X-l, her prototype) is her raison d’etre in the mind of those who designed her. Enemy cruisers bound for French colonies, and escorting troop convoys, might unexpectedly find her across their route, for her surface speed has been designed for that very work, and it is high enough to enable her to catch at sea an enemy convoy. But it is unnecessary to add that if our German neighbors (with whom, happily, friendly relations have been restored) were, as in 1914, to declare war on France, grabbing hold of France’s belongings on land, nothing could prevent ships like the Surcouf meting out similar treatment to Germany’s belongings happening to float on the water. To the simple French mind, property on land and lives on land ought to be just as sacred as property and lives at sea.
Building Program
New York Times, November 17.—During the coming year France will build one 10,000-ton cruiser, six destroyers, six first- class submarines, one submarine mine layer, one surface mine layer, two small scout craft, and one net layer, according to provisions of a bill submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by the Ministry of Marine in connection with the budget. This building program will be slightly less than was accomplished during the current year and will be in fulfillment of a building program laid down in 1926.
The cruiser will be of the same type as the Tourville. The six destroyers will have a slightly larger displacement than those built formerly.
The building program, by which it is sought to replace the pre-war fleet of 350,000 tons which still is in service and the 50,000 tons recovered from Germany, is six months behind. One of the causes has been the increased cost of building. This year’s program will entail an expenditure of 1,267,000,000 francs ($50,680,000), which will be spread out over the years 1930 to 1934.
The net layer is designed to protect ships at anchor close to port waters against submarines. For years French naval authorities have been conducting elaborate experiments in net defense at Toulon, which are said to have proved very satisfactory.
GERMANY
New Cruisers
The Engineer, October 25.—With the launch of the Leipzig, which took place at Wilhelmshaven on October 18, all five cruisers of the German replacement program are now afloat. The Emden was launched in January, 1925, the Konigsberg in March, 1927, the Karlsruhe in the following August, and the Koln, last May. All these ships have the maximum displacement of 6,000 tons sanctioned by the Versailles Treaty. The Emden is of what may be termed orthodox design. She has turbines of 45,000 s.h.p. for twenty-nine knots, and is armed with eight 5.9-inch guns, at present mounted singly on the center line and broadside, but eventually to be remounted in pairs on the center line alone. In the Konigsberg and the other three ships many innovations have been introduced. They have welded hulls, turbine engines of 65,000 to 72,000 s.h.p., and an auxiliary oil engine plant for propulsion at cruising speeds. The Konigsberg can steam at thirty-two knots, but the Leipzig, with increased engine power, is expected to reach thirty-four knots. The three “K” ships and the Leipzig have a uniform armament of nine 5.9-inch guns, four 3.4- inch A.A. guns, and twelve torpedo tubes in groups of three. The 5.9-inch guns are in triple turrets, one forward and two aft. Considering the tonnage of the ships, this is an exceptionally powerful armament, while the high speed and wide radius of action are other good points in the design. The stem below water is bulb-shaped, this form of bow being similar to that of the liners Bremen and Euro pa. It is said to have a favorable effect on speed, and also to reduce pitching movements, besides providing extra space for the stowage of oil fuel. The power trials of the cruisers so far tested are reported to have been very satisfactory. Germany may justly be proud of her new squadron of five cruisers, the design and workmanship of which appear to be considerably above the average. No further cruisers are projected at present, but a 10,000-ton “armored ship,” Ersatz Preussen, is on the stocks at Kiel, and it is proposed to build three sister-vessels in due course.
Details of the "Leipzig”
The Engineer, November 15—We are now able to publish more complete data of the Leipzig, the fifth and last cruiser of Germany’s post-war program, which was launched at Wilhelmshaven on October 18. Although of the same general design, this vessel differs in many important respects from the preceding ships Konigsberg, Karlsruhe, and Koln. She has a length on the water line of 544.5 feet, a breadth of fifty- three feet four inches, and at normal displacement, i.e., 6,000 tons, draws fifteen and one-half feet. She is therefore shorter and broader than the earlier cruisers, and has appreciably less draught. Photographs taken at the launch show her to have pronounced bulges, which, besides affording protection against underwater attack, are fitted up as reserve oil bunkers. There are three propeller shafts, the outer two being driven by steam turbines and the middle shaft by an internal combustion plant, which, although installed primarily for cruising purposes, will also be in operation when the ship is running under full power. This plant, built in the M.A.N. shops at Augsburg, is of exceptionally light construction, and is designed to produce 12,000 b.h.p. The turbine machinery, taking steam from six old-burning water-tube boilers, develops 60,000 s.h.p. Consequently, the total output of the propelling machinery is 72,000 h.p., and a speed of thirty-two knots is expected. With the oil engine alone in action the ship will have a speed of eighteen knots and a radius of 2,500 miles. By reducing the speed to fourteen and five-tenths knots the radius would be increased to 3,800 miles. Using the turbine engines alone the ship could steam 3,200 miles. The cruising endurance of the Leipzig is, therefore, 7,000 miles. If, however, the emergency side bunkers were full, the ship could cover a considerably greater distance at economical speed. The main armament of nine 6-inch guns is carried in triple turrets on the center line, one forward and two aft. In the Konigsberg and her two sisters, which have finer lines, the after turrets are en echelon, an arrangement necessitated by the limited space available for shell rooms and magazine; but the increase of breadth in the Leipzig has made it possible to revert to a center-line disposition. In appearance she differs markedly from her predecessors. All the boiler uptakes are led into a single but very large funnel casing, which stands well abaft the bridge. The Leipzig is of special interest as representing the latest development in German cruiser construction within the displacement limit of 6,000 tons specified by the Versailles Treaty.
CHILE
The "Araucano”
Naval and Military Record.—The ceremony of launching the Araucano, the latest addition to Chile’s modern fleet, was gracefully performed by Madame Tila Urrutia de Escobar, the wife of the chief of the Chilean Naval Commission in London, at the Naval Construction Works of Messrs. Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., at Barrow-in-Furness, on Tuesday, in the presence of a large and distinguished gathering.
The Araucano is being constructed to provide the Chilean Navy with a vessel capable of efficiently maintaining six large submarines of the Capitan O’Brien class at sea, and affording that rest and recreation for the officers and crews of the submarines which is so important during prolonged service away from a land base.
The Araucano is a steel, single-crew, coalburning steamer, equal to Lloyd’s highest class for foreign-going vessels, and the principal dimensions are as follows: Length, b.p., 390 feet; breadth, moulded, 55 feet; depth, moulded to upper deck, 30 feet 3 inches; mean draft, loaded, 16 feet 6 inches; speed, thirteen knots.
Provision is made for all the necessary services to the submarines, including the supply of fuel, battery charging workshops for running repairs, spare torpedo body and head stowage, and accommodation for their officers and crews. In the double bottom ample capacity is provided for oil fuel and reserve feed water and fresh water. Special attention has been given to the lifting appliances for quickly transferring stores, torpedoes, and spare parts of machinery to and from the submarines when moored alongside the depot ship.
The captain, submarine commanders, and officers are each provided with a comfortably appointed cabin, and bathrooms and lavatories are provided in convenient positions. Separate dining-rooms are arranged for the captain, the commanders, and the officers, with a smokeroom and lecture-room adjacent. These rooms are neatly paneled and comfortably furnished. Accommodation is arranged for sixty-eight sub-officers in four-berth cabins, eighty petty officers in folding bunks, and 386 seamen and stokers, with the necessary bathrooms and lavatories. Ample storerooms are provided for provisions, etc., for prolonged service at sea.
The main propelling machinery consists of one set of Parsons compound turbines, driving the single four-bladed propeller through single reduction helical gearing, with Vickers-Bostock-Bramley “enveloping” tooth. The turbines comprise one impulse reaction high pressure and one all-reaction low pressure, working in series, and driving separate pinions engaging with the main gear wheel. Two astern turbines are fitted, comprising an impulse wheel in the H.P. ahead cylinder, working in series with an impulse reaction turbine embodies in the L.P. ahead cylinder casing. The total shaft horsepower developed is about 2,500, and the astern turbines have about 65 per cent of the full ahead power. Steam is supplied by three single-ended cylindrical boilers, arranged for coal-burning only under Howden’s system of hot forced draught. The total heating surface of the boilers is about 7,000 square feet. The condenser, of Weir’s regenerative type, is underslung from the L.P. turbines. All the usual auxiliaries, including steam-driven main and auxiliary circulating pumps, air pumps, feed, forced lubrication, and service pumps, are supplied of the latest practice. Two complete sets of evaporating and distilling plants are provided.
The workshops, which are situated forward of the machinery spaces, consist of the following: Heavy machine shop, light machine shop, pattern shop and foundry, carpenters’ shop and torpedo and electrical workshop. These workshops are equipped with all the necessary machines, the most efficient of their respective types, and facilities to enable any ordinary repair work to be carried out on board. Suitable stores are provided adjacent to the various shops.
The electrical equipment is comprehensive and in accordance with the latest naval practice. The electrical generating machinery consists of two turbo-dynamos for the ship’s general service and lighting purposes, and two turbo-dynamos for battery charging purposes. The lighting of the officers’ cabins, crew’s quarters, and workshops has been carefully considered, and special fittings are provided to avoid eye strain. Electric fires are fitted for the comfort of the captain and in the officers’ smokeroom.
In addition to the ordinary lighting and power requirements of the ship and submarines, the following facilities are provided, all of the most up-to-date type: Two large and two small searchlights, telephone and bell systems, gyro-compass equipment, electrical rudder indicator, underwater signaling system, echo depth-sounding machine, wireless equipment, and direction-finding equipment.
In the construction of the Araucano the builders have had the advantage of their experience in the construction of H.M.S. Medway and H.M.S. Resource, two vessels of similar type.
MERCHANT MARINE
Optimism in American Shipbuilding
By Homer L. Ferguson, President of the Society and President of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Nautical Gazette, November 23.—The history of this society shows many ups and downs. There have been many lean years. Our yards have been struggling along with such coastwise, lake, and river tonnage as has been offered, but it was barely sufficient to keep the proverbial wolf from the door. In fact, several once prosperous yards gave up the struggle and disbanded. We have needed government aid for our merchant marine, such as a number of other countries have had for many years, and now that this is an accomplished fact the outlook for shipbuilding is brighter than it has been for the past decade.
I referred in my address last year to the favorable loan provisions of the Jones- White Act. Since that time we have seen the influence of this act on shipbuilding. The quarter-billion-dollar construction loan fund established by this act has been available for little more than a year, yet the Shipping Board has granted loans for about one-fifth of the fund to rehabilitate our merchant marine by making possible the construction of modern passenger and cargo vessels in American shipyards for overseas trade. The loans granted so far amount to about $50,000,000, and will furnish three-fourths of the construction cost of eighteen ships. These consist mostly of modern, up-to-date, fast passenger and freight vessels. When obscurities in the language of the act relative to mail contracts are straightened out we may expect greater activity in the application for loans.
For the first time since our shipyards were filled to overflowing with the great government shipbuilding program during the war we are able to take an optimistic view of shipbuilding prospects. It is, therefore, very gratifying to be able to record an unusual number of contracts for vessels awarded during the past year. Fifteen passenger and freight vessels have been contracted for along with several freighters, revenue cutters, ferryboats, car ferries and carfloats, besides several hundred barges of various sizes. Americans are turning more and more to the water for pleasure, as is indicated by the contracts for twenty-one large steel yachts awarded in the past year. At the present time there are more than twenty passenger and freight vessels contemplated, besides numerous other smaller craft. Very little oil tanker tonnage has been built since the war, due to the large number constructed at that time by the Shipping Board which have had to be absorbed by the trade, but greater activity has been shown this year. Twenty contracts for tankers, totaling about 200,000 deadweight tons, have already been placed with the various yards, and about 75,000 tons more will probably be placed in the near future. The construction program of the United States Lines is by far the most important ever contemplated in this country. They have already asked for bids for two twenty- two-knot first cabin ships 705 feet long and propose two more of the same type in addition to two superliners to operate in conjunction with the Leviathan.
The Naval Disarmament Conference in 1921 limited the size of new fighting ships for a period of years to 10,000 tons displacement, and the new conference about to convene is likely, among other agreements, to limit the number of naval vessels of this and smaller types. In this connection I wish to call your attention to a fact of vital importance to this society, which is that as the number and size of armed naval vessels is decreased the importance of high-speed merchant shipping is increased. For several years this was apparently given little consideration by this country, as nothing was done by our government to aid our merchant marine until the enactment of the Jones-White Act. Other countries have realized this condition, as is evidenced by the number of high-speed passenger and freight vessels for overseas transportation which they have built. It will probably take many years before we, as a nation, reach a parity in this important respect.
The ’’Asama Maru”
Marine Engineer and Motorship Builder, November.—One of the most important motorships to be completed within recent months is the Asama Maru, the first of three large motor liners building in Japan for the San Francisco via Honolulu service of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. All three vessels, the Asama Maru, Tatsuta Maru, and Chi- chibit Maru, are nineteen-knot vessels, the two first mentioned being quadruple-screw Sulzer-engined craft, while the third is propelled by two Burmeister and Wain doubleacting four-stroke cycle engines.
The principal particulars of the Asama Maru, which has been built by the Mitsubishi Zosen Kaisha, Nagasaki, are as follows:
Length, between perpendiculars, 560 feet.
Beam, moulded, 72 feet.
Depth, moulded, 42 feet, 6 inches.
Deadweight capacity, about, 8,000 tons.
Gross tonnage, about, 16,500 tons.
Service speed, 19 knots.
Total power, about, 15,500 b.h.p.
First-class passengers, 200.
Second-class passengers, 100.
Third-class passengers, 500.
The vessel has three complete decks, and it is worthy of note that all the electrical auxiliaries are of British manufacture. Twelve Laurence Scott five-ton winches and four of three tons capacity are provided. The Wilson windlass is driven by a 140 b.h.p. Laurence Scott motor, and the four fifteen-ton and two five-ton Napier , capstans have motors of the same make.
The propelling machinery consists of four eight-cylinder two-stroke cycle single-acting heavy-oil engines of the Sulzer type. Each engine is capable of developing 3,875 b.h.p. at about 115 r.p.m., the cylinders having a diameter of 680 mm. and a piston stroke of 1,000 mm. The machinery has sea water cooled pistons, four motor-driven pumps being provided for this duty and also for circulating through the fresh water coolers —the cylinder jackets are fresh water cooled. Current for driving the scavenging air blowers, deck and engine-room auxiliaries, etc., is provided by four 450 kw. and one 100 kw. Diesel generating sets. Two oil-fired Scotch boilers are provided.
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The trials of the Asama Maru were in every way successful, a maximum speed of twenty-one knots being attained.
French Merchant Marine Ministry
Nautical Gazette, November 23.—That questions of maritime policy will receive particular attention from the government and that the development of the merchant marine will be energetically pursued are shown by the establishment of a Merchant Marine Ministry, which was decided upon by M. Tardieu, the new Premier, when he formed his Cabinet oh November 2.
M. Louis Rollin, deputy for Paris, has been placed at the head of this department, which will deal with all matters pertaining to the merchant marine, ports, and fisheries. These services were formerly directed by an under secretary of state, but the post , was elminated in 1926 by M. Poincare for reasons of economy. This solution proved detrimental to the interests of shipping, and the creation of a special department placed under the direct authority of a responsible minister had been urged for some time in Parliamentary circles as well as in shipping circles.
ENGINEERING AND RADIO
The Protection of Boiler Parts by Aluminium
The Shipbuilder, November.—The idea of coating metal subject to corrosion with some other metal which is not affected has been known for some time, and within the past year a new process of “aluminising” has been developed in Germany. One of its most useful applications is the production of heat-resisting coatings for boiler parts which are vitally exposed to the heat of the combustion gases. The process may be applied not only to iron and steel, but to other metals.
The protection is effected by spraying a coat of aluminium on the parts to be treated. A special coating is thus produced, which protects the parts against the influence of the air during the subsequent burning process, in which they are heated to 2,000° F. At this temperature the aluminium actually flows into the iron and the iron into the aluminium, so that a covering of an alloy is formed which has a depth of about 1/40 inches. This alloy, which has a melting point of about 2,200° F., oxidizes when exposed to the influence of heated air, but its oxides have the favorable property that their coefficient of expansion is the same as that of the alloy. There is, therefore, no tendency to form scale which may fall off when exposed to varying temperatures. This behavior is superior to that of iron oxides, which separate from the metal when being cooled down. The oxidation of the alloy surface ceases when this thin cover has been formed.
Extended investigations with aluminised iron and steel parts have proved that their endurance when exposed to the influence of heated gases at a temperature of 2,000° F. is increased ten times when compared with unprotected material; and at a temperature of 1,800° F. this increase amounts to more than twenty times. A special application of the aluminising process is to be found in the parts of boiler superheaters which are exposed on both sides to hot gases, such as the baffles and superheater fastenings.
Investigations were made some years ago at Messrs. Blohm and Voss’s yard in Hamburg to select the best heat-resisting materials for such parts, and aluminising most satisfactorily fulfilled the requirements. Later, the fastenings and baffles of the boilers of a 30,000-ton steamship were made of aluminised mild steel; and more recently similar parts of the boiler plants of the Bremen and Europa, the new Atlantic express liners of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, have been carried out in aluminised material. Altogether in these vessels about 80,000 square feet of boiler materials have been covered by the aluminising process. This process has also been employed on the complete superheaters for a large stationary boiler plant. The aluminised superheater parts of the first vessel in which this new process was employed have given very satisfactory results in two years’ practical service.
Trials have been made on the tubes of a large marine water-tube boiler. Three years ago ten aluminised tubes were put into the boiler, and at the same time a number of normal uncovered tubes were renewed. The new uncovered tubes in the lowest row, which were most exposed to the boiler gases, had partly to be renewed after three to four months’ service; while the aluminised tubes were, with the exception of one, still satisfactory after three years’ service. A careful investigation of the uncovered tubes which failed, showed that they were especially worn on the outside and that their wall thicknesses had been reduced from 4 to 2.5 mm. The wear and tear on the outside had been caused by the thermal, mechanical, and chemical influence of the gases and, as a consequence of this deterioration, the inner steam pressure had deformed the tubes. The scale then broke off, and stresses were set up in the material which caused corrosion grooves in the inside. This investigation showed that the outside protection of tubes under pressure also delays inner corrosion. The aluminising process applied to water tubes for boilers is, however, more complicated, as the coating must be capable of resisting bending in the cold state. Parts which are aluminised in the normal way will not withstand bending or rolling when cold. To overcome this difficulty, the process has been adopted for spraying the insides of curved tubes.
New Cathode Ray Tube
New York Times, November 24.—Television has taken another step nearer the home. The whirling disk heretofore utilized to scan the images has been eliminated from the circuit by Dr. Vladimir Zworykin, who has introduced the cathode ray tube to produce the beams of light that paint the images on the screen. Dr. Zworykin is an engineer associated with the research laboratories of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at Pittsburgh.
He has also dispensed with the neon tube and with all moving parts, thereby simplifying the television receiver, making it foolproof and more practical for use in the home.
Dr. Zworykin asserts that he is ready to discuss:
“the practical possibility of flashing radio images on motion-picture screens so that large audiences can view the television broadcasts of important events as sent out from a central station.”
Visual broadcasts in the future will be synchronized with sound. The cathode ray television receiver has no moving parts, making it more easily usable by the rank and file of the radio audience. It is quiet in operation and synchronization of transmitter and receiver is accomplished easily, even when using a single radio channel.
Another advantage is that, using a fluorescent screen, the persistence of the eye’s vision is aided and it is possible to reduce the number of pictures shown each second without noticeable flickering. This in turn allows a greater number of scanning lines and results in the picture being produced in greater detail without increasing the width of the radio channel.
The apparatus used for demonstration is not in commercial form. It is an experimental machine from the Westinghouse research laboratories.
The pictures or images formed by the cathode ray device measure about four by five inches. To employ the apparatus successfully for the broadcasting and reception of images Dr. Zworykin found it necessary to develop a new type of cathode ray tube, which is called the “kinescope.” A pencil of electrons from the cathode tube bombards a screen of fluorescent material, that is, a substance which becomes brilliant or fluorescent where the electrons strike the material. The pencil of electrons follows the movement of the scanning light beam in the transmitter while its intensity is regulated by the strength of the impulses received from the transmitter. The movements of the scanning beam, consequently of the cathode ray pencil, are so rapid that the eye receives a perfect impression of a continuous miniature motion picture. A reflecting mirror mounted on the receiver permits the picture to be observed by a number of spectators.
The transmitter consists of a motion-picture projector rebuilt so that the film passes the film gate downward at a constant speed. This movement is the vertical component of scanning.
The horizontal scanning is accomplished by sweeping the film crosswise with a point of light at a speed faster than the speed of downward movement, consequently the picture passing through the gate is scanned crosswise and from bottom to top by a series of horizontal lines. The light is supplied by an ordinary automobile bulb focused on a diaphragm. The latter in turn is focused on the film and the light which passes through is again refocused as a stationary spot on the photo cell. In this way the photo-cell current is independent of the surface sensitivity variations of the cell. The horizontal scanning is accomplished by deflecting the light beam by means of a vibrating mirror.
Mr. Zworykin sums up the advantages of the cathode tube in the television receiver as follows: The absence of moving mechanical parts, quietness of operation; simplicity of synchronization even on a single carrier channel; ample amount of light; the persistence of fluorescence of the screen which aids persistence of the vision of the eye and permits reduction of a number of pictures per second without noticeable flickering. This in turn allows a greater number of lines and consequently better details of the picture without increasing the width of the frequency band.
AVIATION
Analysis of Naval Aviation Accidents
The Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, October 23.—The Navy Department has recently completed a study of all accidents occurring in naval aviation during the past eight years, with the idea of learning from the underlying causes of the crashes how best to avoid or reduce repetitions. Two years were required to complete the report, but the result is the most comprehensive and authoritative analysis that has even been prepared on this subject, either in this country or abroad. It brings to light many highly interesting facts and should unquestionably mark a step forward in the crusade for increased safety. Coming, as it does, at the time when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is engaged in its study of methods of reducing accidents in the military and civil branches of aviation, the report would evoke great interest on the part of all those connected with aeronautical activities.
This study of all accidents occurring in naval aviation during the past eight years, incontrovertibly shows that the predominant responsibility for crashes rests on the pilot. This indicates two things: first, that manufacturers must continue to incorporate new elements of safety in their products in order further to reduce the demands made upon the necessarily fallible human element; second, it shows how necessary it is that pilots be selected only from the very best material, and that they be given the most careful and thorough training. That careful supervision be exercised over inexperienced pilots is of paramount necessity, for naval statistics show that the most dangerous period for the flyer is at about his 200-hour mark. It is at this time that he starts his involved maneuvers; he is flushed with overconfidence which far outweighs his experience, and the result is often fatal.
Other interesting facts brought out in the analysis are shown below. In this study, as in all similar work, an aviation accident is defined as an occurrence which takes place while an aircraft is being operated as such, and as a result of which a person or persons are injured or killed, or the aircraft receives appreciable or marked damage through the forces of external contact or through fire.
While the pilot is responsible for less than one-half the non-injury accidents, he is responsible for three-fourths of the fatal ones. This is explained by the fact that an accident may prove unavoidable but the good pilot will avoid serious consequences through his greater skill and ability.
The infrequent flier is the most dangerous pilot. This is an unquestionable fact, of course, but the study even shows that if a pilot quadruples his frequency of flying he will almost halve his accident hazard even though he is in the air four times as much.
The seasoned flier has only one-third as many accidents as the recent graduate from a flying school.
The past records of pilots who eventually have a fatal accident, killing either themselves or others, show that they had almost two and one-half times as many accidents as those who never figured in such catastrophies.
The underlying causes of the mistakes that pilots make indicate that these mistakes too often result from a lack of appreciation of the definite limitations to which they must hold themselves.
The detailed causes of accidents are as follows:
Errors of pilot, 52 per cent.
Power-plant failures, 18 per cent.
Structural failures, 13 per cent.
Condition of airport, 9 per cent.
Weather, 2 per cent.
Supervising personnel, 2 per cent.
Miscellaneous, 4 per cent.
The detailed causes of errors of pilots are as follows:
Faulty flying technique, 63 per cent.
Faulty judgment, 19 per cent.
Carelessness, 14 per cent.
Violation of safety regulations, 4 per cent.
That two-thirds of these errors came under the heading of “faulty technique” is further proof that aircraft still requires too much of the pilot and indicates the necessity of still further improvement in this regard.
The detailed causes of power-plant failures are as follows:
Failures of the fuel system, 48 per cent
Failures of the ignition system, 13 per cent.
Failures of the lubrication system, 12 per cent.
Failures of the engine structure, 10 per cent.
Failures of the propeller, 6 per cent.
All other causes, 11 per cent.
From this it is evident that the design of aircraft engine fuel systems promises greatest improvement in engine reliability. Stopped strainers, broken gasoline lines, and failures of pumps are the leading causes. Stopped strainers usually represent both faulty maintenance and faulty design. It is an interesting fact to note that during the past eight years naval aviation history shows only one case where a fatal accident was traceable solely to engine failure. In all others at least a portion of the responsibility devolved upon the pilot.
More accidents occur on Thursdays than on any other day of the week. No satisfactory explanation can be given for this fact. Further study is being given to determine the exact reason therefor.
Almost one-half of the fatal accidents which occur come as a result of the dreaded tail spin. Of these almost all (94 per cent) occur without engine failure and the vast majority (80 per cent) from an altitude of 200 feet or less, where insufficient height remains for a proper recovery from this condition. The answer in military aviation where high maneuverability is essential is not immediately apparent. However, it would appear that in commercial aviation, unhampered by this particular requirement, the aircraft of the future must be so designed that it cannot be spun. When this is done, and present development indicates its possibility, fatal accidents will be tremendously reduced.
The safest type of aircraft which the Navy has is the training airplane; while the fighting plane with its high speed and required use of complicated and dangerous missions, such as aerial gunnery and tactical work, stands lowest.
During the period covered by this study, the safety of naval aviation has improved fivefold.
As a result of this study, the Navy Department has published a comprehensive treatise on the whole subject and circularized it to every naval aviator. Further, one naval aviator has been permanently assigned to keep accurate records of all commands and the individual pilots themselves. It will be this officer’s duty to keep all of those concerned with the administration of naval aviation constantly informed of the situation as regards aviation safety.
The ”ZRS-4”
The Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, October 23.—The actual erection of the first of the Navy’s new rigid airships was started at Akron, Ohio, on November 7. Until a name is assigned, this airship is designed ZRS-4.
The airship will be inflated with 6,500,000 cubic feet of helium gas which will give a gross lift of 180 tons. When completed the airship will be the largest in existence. The airship itself will weigh ninety-eight tons, leaving eighty-two tons as useful load, to include the crew of about forty-five, provisions, fuel, etc. Translated into speed and distance, the airship can cruise about 2,500 miles at her maximum speed of eighty-four miles per hour or over 10,000 miles at her normal cruising speed of sixty miles per hour.
The design for the airship is well on the road to completion. Production of the girders which comprise the main portion of the airship’s structure started several months ago. The large airship shed, which the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation has built at Akron, is practically finished and this fact now permits actual erection of the airship to commence. This is the justification for the “ring laying” ceremony at Akron on October 31, analogous to laying the keel of a surface vessel.
The future program in constructing the ZRS-4 is to erect a complete section of the airship and to subject it to various engineering tests in order to thoroughly prove every feature of the design. These tests will probably be completed in the spring of 1930. Erection of the remainder of the airship will occupy about another year, giving a date of about July, 1931, by which the airship should be ready for flight trials. The second of the two airships, ZRS-5, should be completed about the end of 1932.
These airships are intended for operation with the fleet and the expectation is that one will be based on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. When they are available, opportunity will be at hand for the Navy to investigate more completely than heretofore possible, the capabilities of this type of aircraft for cooperation with surface fleets and with airplanes.
Gyroscopic Control for Aircraft
New York Times, November 17, by T. J. C. Martyn.—The recent flight of an airplane piloted automatically by a gyroscope has served to focus anew aeronautical interest on the significance of a device which promises to revolutionize the art of aviation. (See ill. XXXII)
Gyroscopic control is not a new child of applied mechanics. It is in use today over the seven seas. Gyroscopic compasses, far more accurate than their magnetic brothers, attached to automatic steering devices, guide ships over long stretches of water with only infinitesimal error-far more accurately than the hand of man can control the helm. Gyroscopes can ride bicycles more gracefully and more safely than an acrobat. They keep a monorail car perfectly steady on its single rail. And they even can be made to rock a boat to keep it steady in a heavy sea. The gyroscope has been called the most perfect robot.
Neither is the use of gyroscopes in airplanes new. Lawrence Sperry won a prize in a plane fitted with this form of control in 1914. Development was greatly extended during the war, and, in combination with radio control, a plane was semi-successfully taken off the ground and landed without a human being inside. More recently a German made a successful flight from Berlin to Dessau, in which a human pilot touched the controls only in taking off and landing.
The gyroscopic stabilizer, as the latest aero-gyroscope is called, has brought automatic control to the threshold of practicability—a threshold, be it said, that bids fair to make it an indispensable unit of equipment in all long-distance passenger transport planes. For one thing, it is lighter than any similar device previously built and more compact. It weighs a mere fifty pounds and fits easily under the pilot’s seat. The method by which it masters the plane’s controls is, too, an important forward step.
Gyroscopes are, perhaps, the most perfect instruments for demonstrating the truth of Newton’s famous law of physics that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If a plane fitted with a gyroscopic stabilizer turns of its own volition to the right, the horizontal wheel immediately tends to assume a vertical position directly equal and opposite to the degree of the turn, although to the naked eye it does not appear so. The force thus set up actuates the rudder through an electro-magnetic medium, and the plane is brought back to its original course, not even a split fraction of a degree off it. Similarly, if the plane attempts to drop its nose, the vertical gyroscope attempts to achieve a horizontal position and the force is directed to the elevator to bring it back to a level keel.
Thus physicists say that a gyroscope utilizes the force of gravitational pull. They prove that it does, but they do not know why. Neither does any one else. And all a gyroscope is, as any one who has played with a toy one knows, is a wheel spinning at a high velocity and attached to an axis which is free to move in any direction. In the Sperry gyroscopic stabilizer there are two wheels, electrically operated, and each one is free to move in only one direction, horizontal or vertical. This insures perfect stability except for atmospheric drift, which must be checked up by a human operator.
To fly through fog is now quite possible without the use of a gyroscope. Lindbergh flew to Paris across the Atlantic without sometimes seeing a fixed point for considerable periods. More recently Doolittle flew “blind” in a plane and took off in it, steered a round course and landed it again. This kind of flying is done entirely by instruments supplemented by radio control. At best it is exhaustive and often it is far from accurate.
Even flying across country in the daytime in good or fairly good weather, there is a strain put upon the pilot that must always tend to make him less efficient. Crosscountry flying is likely to be tedious at best, even though the pilot’s attention is divided among innumerable cares. He has no time to spend—or certainly not enough of it— on avigation. This is why a second pilot or navigation officer is carried on almost all big planes. But with a gyroscope control is maintained automatically over the three axes about which a plane moves.
A gyroscopically controlled plane is armed against fog, gusts of wind, mist, snow, sleet and all the rest of the many factors that plague the avigator. It is also independent of the sun, moon, stars, earth, etc. Once the plane has been set on a given course and the gyroscopic stabilizer has been set to guide it on that course, not all the elements nor all the errors of men can combine to persuade it off that course, provided that the instrument is let alone. There is one exception and that is the wind. A steady wind carries a plane, no matter in what direction it is traveling, in its own direction.
That is what is meant by atmospheric drift. A plane may fly due west on a course that would normally take it to Chicago. But if the atmospheric drift were from north to south, the plane might conceivably end its flight at St. Louis, despite the fact that the course was due west. The drift would then have caused the whole body of the plane to move through the air, while the gyroscopic control kept the plane on its original compass course. To counteract this the avigator has constantly to check up on his drift and make the necessary corrections on the gyroscopic stabilizer.
True, there is room for human error to creep in. Time and wind direction have to be calculated by the human pilot or navigator. But with radio connection it should not be difficult to keep track of the wind speed and elapsed time of flight and, by triangulation, to check up on position, so that even in the densest fog a plane might be steered accurately above any given city. Perhaps the day will dawn when this stabilizer will be attached to a gyroscopic compass.
Development of Echo Altimeter
Aviation, October 26.—A sound wave frequency analyzer has been perfected by Professor Leo P. Delsasso, of the University of California at Los Angeles, for the purpose of analyzing the various sounds emanating from aircraft. Using this instrument, Professor Delsasso has made hundreds of test flights in all types of aircraft and has succeeded in charting all the noises common to modern aircraft. Now it is hoped that some sound wave may be found which will satisfactorily originate from an instrument on an airplane, travel to the nearest earth or solid obstruction, and echo back to an instrument in the pilot’s cockpit in order to register the true distance from ground or obstructions. The Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics has granted Professor Delsasso $2,000 to help develop an instrument of this type. Professor Delsasso is the inventor of the ocean depth sounding device now commonly used by the United States Navy. He seeks to adapt the same fundamental principles of his nautical instrument to the needs of avigation.
Instruments Used in Fog Flying Experiments
Aviation, October 12.-—A glance into the cockpit of Lieutenant Doolittle’s Consolidated training plane is afforded in the photograph below, which shows the instruments used by the Army flier in his recent blind-flying test in which fog landings and takeoffs were simulated. Beside the standard Pioneer panel, the four special instruments are shown as follows: 1—visual radio beacon, 2—Sperry gyroscopic artificial horizon, 3—Kollsman sensitive altimeter recording height above the earth within a dozen feet, and 4—extremely sensitive directional gyroscope.
The Clerget Diesel Aero Engine
Aviation, November 2.—The new heavy- oil aero engine recently produced by M. Clerget now has been flight-tested successfully. It is a 80-100 horsepower nine-cylinder air-cooled static radial. Its sponsor chose such a low power because he considered it urgent to provide school planes with an engine less liable to catch fire than the ordinary gasoline power plant. But the problem was much more difficult than is the case with engines of greater power. The engine represents seven years of research and experiment.
The Clerget is a four-stroke engine following the constant-volume cycle with a compression ratio high enough to provide self-ignition. One of the main difficulties encountered was to produce sufficient fuel atomization in the extremely short space of time devoted for the burning of each charge. Each cylinder possesses its independent fuel pump and atomizer, as well as a valve for pure air admission and another for exhaust. The valves are actuated by push-rods and rockers; in fact, the new Clerget static heavy-oil engine possesses an extraordinarily marked similarity to the pre-war rotary gasoline engines of the same make. Externally, the chief difference is the absence of spark plugs and inlet pipes. The new engine is really an assembly of nine independent cylinders around a common crankcase, as each cylinder operates quite independently of the others.
Despite a practically all-steel construction, the weight of the first experimental engine is not as large as might be supposed, taking into account the low power; it actually weighs little more than 4.5 pounds per horsepower, a result never achieved before for a heavy-oil engine of less than 100 horsepower.
The fuel used is ordinary gas-oil; there is no compressing-air device of any kind. The engine starts from cold with surprising ease by means of a mechanical starter. As regards flexibility, it is extremely good; its response to the lever (which acts on the fuel pumps control, of course) is remarkable at every speed from idling to maximum revolutions. The first engine is now engaged in exhaustive endurance tests.
Helium Production at Amarillo
Aviation, November 2—An average purity of 97.7 per cent was maintained in the production of helium at the Amarillo, Texas, plant during September, figures released by the United States Bureau of Commerce show. Of 847,840 cubic feet of gas obtained, 828,700 cubic feet were helium, or “contained helium,” as the pure product is called.
This plant, run by the government, showed operating costs of $14,609.31 for the month, or $17.63 per 1,000 cubic feet. The sale of the residue gas not kept by the Bureau of Mines amounted to $3,000.79, which amount will be returned to the United States Treasury from whence comes the money to operate the plant and gas field. Deducting this money from the expenditures for September reduces the production cost of the gas to $14.01 per 1,000 cubic feet of “contained helium.”
The September report confines the statements made by the Bureau of Mines before the Amarillo plant was built, to the effect that its operating costs would be much lower than those which prevailed at the government’s Fort Worth helium plant. The Fort Worth plant formerly supplied helium used by the Army and Navy but was closed in January, 1929, because of exhaustion of the gas field on which it depended for its helium-bearing natural gas. During the six months ending in December, 1925, when the Fort Worth plant was producing at the rate of cubic feet of helium per month, or approximately the same rate as the production from the Amarillo plant in September, 1929, the average operating costs were about $28,800 per month, or $34.70 per 1,000 cubic feet of contained helium produced. During the last six months of the operation of the Fort Worth plant, when the average production was only 407,000 cubic feet per month because of the approaching exhaustion of the plant’s supply of raw material, the average monthly operating costs were reduced to about $19,600 but the cost per unit of product rose to about $48.00 per cubic feet of contained helium. At the Fort Worth plant, the residue gas did not belong to the government; therefore, no return from it was received.
Although the average purity of 97.7 per cent shown by the September report is lower than purities that will be attained after the Amarillo plant is more completely adjusted, it is a marked improvement over the purity of the helium that was produced at Fort Worth. The average purity of the Fort Worth product was 94.6 per cent in 1926, 95.0 per cent in 1927 and 95.4 per cent in 1928. The highest monthly average purity recorded at the Fort Worth plant was 96.6 per cent in December, 1928.
Construction of the Amarillo Helium Plant was started about August 1, 1928. Operation of the machinery for testing and adjustments was commenced in January, 1929, and production of helium was started in April. Since April, the rate of production, purity of product and operating efficiency have increased steadily. Further improvements in purity and efficiency, and a further lowering of operating costs, are expected in the future.
Flying Boats and the Navy
The Army, Navy and Air Force Gazette, November 7.—Admiral Sir Richard Philli- more, in the course of a letter to The Times on “Naval Policy,” observes that “the flying boats, which will be the light cruisers of tomorrow, and whose work today is purely naval, do not belong to His Majesty’s Navy. How can this anomaly be explained or defended?” The Admiral comes of an old naval family, and is steeped in our sea traditions, so that it is natural he should regard as an anomaly what is accepted as the legitimate order of things by the powers that be. His question is really only a part of the larger question why any aircraft for naval or military purposes should be organized by a separate Ministry. This has been discussed and rediscussed times out of number since the Royal Air Force was separated from the Navy and Army in 1918, but the principle of a single Air Service has always been upheld. In 1923, when a sub-committee consisting of Lord Balfour, Lord Peel and Lord Weir considered the question of the control of Fleet air work, they recommended certain changes in the former system, but “they did not think it possible to sever complete the Air organization which does work for the Fleet from the Air organization responsible for Home Defense against attack, and for cooperating with the Army.” It was at this time that there came into being the Fleet Air Arm, under Admiralty control, in which the Navy provides 70 per cent of the pilots and 100 per cent of the observers. The flying boats, which have been developed since then, have nothing to do with the Fleet Air Arm because they do not operate from aircraft-carriers but from shore bases. They are air craft primarily and only sea craft incidentally; that is, they must be regarded as flying units rather than as boats, so that their work is not altogether “purely naval.” But though the flying boat squadrons do not come under the Admiralty, they are, as the official Navy List shows, reckoned among the R.A.F. units for naval cooperation and training.
The State and the Schneider Trophy
The Army, Navy and Air Force Gazette, November 7.—When the late M. Jacques Schneider first presented the trophy for international competition, he wished to assist in the development of an efficient seaplane which should be seaworthy as well as airworthy. The development of landplanes has always been in advance of that of seaplanes and M. Schneider felt that the latter needed special encouragement. The rules for the contest were prepared with care, but they were not sufficiently comprehensive to prevent the contest developing into a race in which high speed was the first essential. Thus in the passage of the years the contest has served to produce racing machines which are useless for any other purpose. That line of development would have been harmless were it not for the vast expenditure of time and money which has been necessary in the case of the post-war contests. The government has paid the bill and has supplied the skilled pilots who have flown to victory. That bill was quite large enough to alarm the economists, but, in addition, there must be taken into account the general disturbance of normal work which preparation for the race has produced in the Air Ministry. For months before the last contests certain departments of the Air Ministry devoted the major part of their time to matters connected with the race. Some officials were expected to devote themselves to Schneider Trophy work, but many others, inspired with enthusiasm, were diverted from their proper avocations. Thus the Schneider Trophy contest was expensive in official time.
Similar disturbance was caused in the factories of the firms constructing the airplanes, engines, and accessories of the machines entered. The benefit of all this activity is that the British aircraft industry has produced the fastest seaplanes in the world. Much has been learned during the contests which is of value.
The state has little money to spare in these post-war days and the Air Ministry is as much affected by the need for strict economy as is any other department. The Royal Air Force is in its infancy. It is developing swiftly, but not swiftly enough to satisfy its friends. It needs more squadrons, and before it can expand in strength it must have more stations to accommodate its new units. Stations cost money and much of it. The number of mechanics must be increased to cope with the extra work consequent on the formation of new units. This increase also means expenditure of money and time. If the money devoted to the Schneider Trophy contest were allocated to building and to aircraft construction the progress of the Royal Air Force would be accelerated. An extension of orders in the aircraft industry would not only assist the Royal Air Force directly but would give aircraft firms the funds with which to continue the development of aircraft and of engines. The aircraft industry should be a rich industry. It is not rich in these present times and a steady flow of orders is more valuable than is spasmodic spending on the production of racing machines—when that money comes from the government and must of necessity reduce the amount available for normal development.
There is no need to abandon for the future all attempts to win the Schneider Trophy. The government may have a restricted purse, but there are many rich men in the country. Great Britian produces the finest racing yachts in the world, its racing motor cars are in the first class, and its race horses are unequaled. In these matters progress has been due entirely to private enterprise and private expenditure. If one or two rich men desire fame they should order racing aircraft and enter them individually for great events, such as the Schneider Trophy. Such events would retain all their sporting virtues and the Schneider Trophy might cease to be a kind of private war between civilized nations.
MISCELLANEOUS
Hurdles For Five-Power Naval Conference
By Raymond Leslie Buell, Research Director, Foreign Policy Association, in New York Times, December 1.—
On January 21 a naval conference is scheduled to open in London which may prove to be of historic importance. Foreign offices and admiralties of five governments are now intensively studying the problems that will come before it in the hope of preventing a repetition of the Geneva fiasco of 1927. If the conference fails, it will not be because of lack of preparation.
The importance which President Hoover attaches to the forthcoming conference is shown by the size and caliber of the American delegation, the members of which were announced on November 20. The American delegation will be headed by Secretary of State Stimson. The other members are Secretary of the Navy Adams, Ambassadors Dawes, Gibson, and Morrow, and Senators Robinson and Reed. It is significant that all of the seven American delegates are civilians. The two encouraging developments, so far, are that France and Italy, both of whom declined to go to the Coolidge conference in 1927, have agreed to go to London, and that the negotiations between Britain and the United States, culminating in the visit of Prime Minister MacDonald to America, have nearly removed past differences over the cruiser question.
Nevertheless, uncertainty exists in many circles as to the outcome of the London Conference. The Washington Conference of 1921-22, which lasted almost four months, nearly foundered over the comparatively simple matters of battleships and aircraft carriers. The forthcoming conference is to tackle infinitely more complicated questions connected with various types of cruisers, destroyers and submarines. In the background will hover explosive political questions, involving naval bases, merchant shipping, freedom of the seas, and the relationship of the United States to the League of Nations. Little wonder that some prophets believe that, despite the elaborate conversations now in progress, the London Conference will last four or five months.
In reality two conferences are to be held in London this January. The first conference meets in accordance with Article XXI of the Washington Treaty of 1922, which provided that in eight years a conference should be held to determine what changes in battleship construction should be made in the light of “possible technical and scientific developments.” Under the Washington Treaty battleship replacements should start after 1931.
At present it costs about $37,000,000 to build a battleship, and as the Washington Treaty calls for the construction of fifteen such battleships each by the British Empire and the United States during the next few years, the financial burden imposed is heavy. All five governments appear to agree that steps should be taken to postpone construction of these costly vessels, or to reduce their size.
The real difficulties arise in connection with the second London Conference, whose purpose is to limit cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. In view of these difficulties, some observers hope that the matter of battleship replacement will be the last rather than the first matter to be discussed at London, in order to hold France and Italy in the conference until the end.
The four difficulties which have loomed upon the naval horizon are as follows: The Anglo-American difficulty over parity in auxiliary craft; the Japanese demand for a ratio of 70 per cent; the relation of the French to the Italian Navy; the relation of France to the naval question as a whole.
Thanks to the negotiations between Ambassador Dawes and the British government, the cruiser difficulty between the United States and the British Empire, which wrecked the Geneva Conference, is on the way to being solved. Both governments have accepted the principle of parity for every type of craft. What is of more importance, both governments seem to have worked out an acceptable definition of parity. Both governments agree that destroyers should be limited upon a basis of tonnage equality; both governments wish to bring about the abolition of the submarine.
So far as cruisers are concerned, both governments frankly recognize that their needs are different. It has therefore been agreed that the British Navy may possess a larger number of cruisers than the United States, but that the United States should have the right to maintain more 10,000-ton 8-inch gun cruisers than the British Empire. While uncertainty still exists as to the actual demands of the United States, it seems that the British desire to maintain a fleet of fifty cruisers of 339,000 tons, while the Americans wish a fleet of thirty-six cruisers having 315,000 tons. The United States, however, desires to maintain six more large cruisers than the British; the British desire to grant the United States a superiority of only three.
This is the one technical difference which now separates the two governments. It should be pointed out, however, that the Anglo-American settlement merely provides for the stabilizing of the British cruiser fleet at its present strength, rather than for any substantial reduction; and for the construction by the United States of from thirteen to eighteen new cruisers.
The failure of the United States and Great Britain to bring about any cruiser reduction naturally has stiffened the demands of other powers. And it is not certain, moreover, that the difference over the three large cruisers can be easily settled. Nevertheless, the success of the conference is of such great personal importance to President Hoover and Prime Minister MacDonald that it is inconceivable that this Anglo-American gap will not be bridged.
The second main difficulty concerns the Japanese demands. It is the policy of Japan to maintain a navy strong enough to prevent outside interference with her communications with the Asiatic mainland, upon which the food supply of Japan depends. About two-thirds of the destroyers and submarines in the Japanese Navy are too small to cross the Pacific. Japanese declare that the Japanese Navy has been constructed only with a view to maintaining control over the China and Yellow Seas. In order to insure such control the Japanese refuse to sign any naval treaty which does not allow them to maintain an auxiliary fleet of a ratio of 70 per cent to Great Britain or the United States.
While it is true that Japan accepted a 60 per cent ratio in battleships at the Washington Conference, this was only after the other governments had given Japan compensation in the form of a promise not to increase fortifications in the naval bases of the Pacific. Japan contends that a 10 per cent increase over the Washington ratio is too small to make the Japanese Navy a menace to the United States and the British Empire, but that it is large enough to remove the feeling of uncertainty as to the ability of the Japanese fleet to protect Japan from outside attack.
Since the Washington Conference of 1922 a number of events have occurred which have strengthened the attitude of Japan. First, the large 10,000-ton cruisers have come into existence; these cruisers are more of a potential menace to Japan than were the cruisers in existence in 1922. Second, the British Empire has begun the construction of the Singapore naval base, which can be aimed only at Japan. While on November 14 it was announced that the Labor Government would slow down work on this base, construction had already gone to the point where it had seriously aroused the Japanese people.
In the third place, the passage by the American Congress of the Japanese exclusion act of 1924 has not improved relations between the United States and Japan. Perhaps the strongest of all reasons why Japan may be expected to stand firm upon the 70 per cent ratio is because there does not seem to be any compensation which other powers may grant Japan in return for a reduction in the proposed ratio.
Until recently it was assumed that the Japanese merely demanded 70 per cent of the total auxiliary craft in the British and American Navies. But according to a dispatch from Tokio of November 4 the Japanese declare that they must have seven 10,- 000-ton cruisers for every ten in the American Navy, and that they wish the British and the Americans to reduce the number of such cruisers so as to give Japan this 70 per cent ratio without necessitating new Japanese construction. Now, upon the completion of its present cruiser program the United States will have twenty-one large cruisers. As 70 per cent of this number is about fifteen, it is seven more than the present number of 10,000-ton cruisers in the Japanese Navy.
As a result of the Anglo-American discussions it is probable that the British Empire will maintain only 70 per cent as many 10,000-ton cruisers as the United States. The Japanese demand for a ratio of 70 per cent to the United States therefore means a demand for equality in large cruisers with the British Empire. Consequently, it is not surprising to read that Prime Minister MacDonald has rejected the Japanese plea.
If the Japanese would limit their demands to 70 per cent of the total auxiliary tonnage of the United States, it is possible that the request might be granted. The chief difficulty here is Australia and New Zealand. Nevertheless, the Japanese apparently believe that sooner or later the British and American governments will make concessions, simply because it is essential to the success of the London conference that the Anglo-Saxon powers win Japanese support.
Important as are these Anglo-American and Japanese difficulties, they pale into insignificance in comparison with the problem raised by the relation of the French to the Italian Navy. In a note of October, 1928, the Italian government declared that it was willing to accept any reduction in armaments, however low such reduction might be, provided its Navy was not exceeded by that of any other continental European power. In other words, Italy demands parity with France.
Although France accepted parity in battleships with Italy at the Washington Conference, she now firmly declines to accept such parity in the case of auxiliary craft. Frenchmen point out that the interests of Italy are concentrated in the Mediterranean; but France not only must defend important interests in this area but must also safeguard its Atlantic coast, and possessions in tropical Africa, and in the Orient. To the French, naval equality with Italy would mean actual French inferiority.
These difficulties over the naval question are intensified by the existence of serious political disputes between France and Italy. The first dispute has arisen out of the activities of Italian emigres in France. Many of these emigres have been driven out of Italy by the Mussolini regime and have found refuge in France in accordance with the customs of asylum. Some emigres have abused this hospitality by plotting against the Fascist regime. And the Fascist press has been inclined to hold France responsible.
The latest incident was the attempted assassination in Brussels of the Italian Prince Humbert by an Italian student who had been living in Paris. This attack was denounced by the Italian paper, Giornale d’ltalia, on the ground that it emanated from an anti- Fascist organization in France whose activities were protected by the French government. France replies that while she makes every effort to prevent the organization of conspiracies, she cannot expel every Italian in France simply to please the Mussolini government.
Difficulties also have arisen over the Italian demand for colonies. Italy is confronted with a serious over-population problem. Italy under Fascism, at least, is extremely nationalistic, and discourages emigration to foreign countries. Instead, Fascism demands more territory under the Italian flag for its surplus population. The feelings of Italy on this subject are intensified by the fact that its present colonial empire is insignificant, in contrast with the vast empires of France and of Great Britain.
The Italian colonial campaign can succeed only at the expense of France. But France has no intention of making any important colonial concessions, and she does not intend to consider Italian naval demands in the Mediterranean until this feeling of colonial insecurity is removed. Although France has no allies having navies, Italy entered into an understanding with Spain in 1926 and with Turkey in 1928, which French strategists believe place the navies of these two latter powers at the disposition of Italy. The possibility of such alliances is another obstacle to a naval accord between France and Italy.
Nevertheless, at least three proposals have been made to compromise Italy’s demand for naval parity with France. First, it is suggested that especially in view of a difficult financial situation, Italy, in return for a declaration of theoretical equality between Italy and France embodying the formula of chiffres de prestige, would undertake not to increase its Navy beyond its present size. Second, it is proposed that in the event of failure to reach a concrete settlement, France and Italy agree to the suspension of naval construction for a term of years.
Third, a Mediterranean Locarno has been proposed, whereby France and Italy should agree to parity in the Mediterranean, but France should be allowed to maintain an additional fleet in Atlantic or in Asiatic waters, and Great Britain should guarantee that this additional fleet should not enter the Mediterranean. While Britain is in a strong position to enforce such a guarantee because of its strategic position at Gibraltar, Malta, and Suez, doubts have been expressed as to the willingness of the present Labor government to contract this type of engagement.
That both the French and Italian governments realize the necessity of settling their differences is evident from the events of the last few weeks. Immediately upon its receipt of the British invitation of October 6, the Italian government suggested to France the desirability of conversations. The French press also is pleading for a French- Italian rapprochement, so as to present a united front at London against the Anglo-Saxon powers. Although the relations between Italy and the Baldwin government were cordial, the MacDonald regime is viewed with coolness if not hostility by the Fascisti. The common dislike of France and Italy for the British Labor government may bring France and Italy together.
The final difficulty, and perhaps the greatest of all, is the French attitude toward the whole naval settlement as proposed by Great Britain and the United States. At the Washington Conference of 1922, France accepted the ratio of 1.67 to 5 in the case of battleships. Nevertheless, French sentiment seems to be unanimous in the belief that Britain and the United States unfairly jockeyed France into accepting this ratio; and France is determined that it shall not be applied in connection with auxiliary craft.
France has the second largest colonial empire of the world. She depends upon this empire not only for raw materials but also for troops. She does not intend that this empire shall be exposed to attack by a hostile naval force. So far as battleships are concerned, France cannot, for financial reasons, hope to equal the British fleet, but she wishes to offset this inferiority by a large submarine and destroyer tonnage.
The French naval program calls for a cruiser strength of 210,000 tons, which is about two-thirds of the proposed cruiser tonnage for the American Navy; it also calls for 180,000 tons of destroyers and for 96,- 000 tons of large submarines and about 35,- 000 tons of small coastal submarines. When this submarine program is completed, France will have many more submarines than any other navy in the world. It is certain that France will not accept the 1.67 ratio in regard to auxiliary craft, but will insist on the right to maintain a cruiser and submarine fleet which will to a certain extent be able to offset Anglo-Saxon predominance in capital vessels. Present French policy is to build four large submarines for every British battleship.
It is certain that France will not agree to the abolition of the submarine, and in this position she will probably be supported by Italy and Japan. It is equally certain that France will demand equality with Great Britain in submarines, while France may even refuse to entertain any proposal to limit small coastal submarines.
Remembering the attacks of the German submarines during the World War, it will be difficult for Britain to accord parity to France in submarines without an agreement whereby France would promise not to use such submarines against commercial vessels. But the French government has declined to ratify the convention to this effect drawn up at the Washington Conference. In view of the strained relations between England and France since The Hague reparation conference, and of the French belief that the United States is attempting to wean Britain from the Continent of Europe and from the League of Nations, it may prove extremely difficult to work out a submarine formula which will satisfy both the French and the British governments.
In order to prevent a naval settlement at London contrary to her wishes, France has so far insisted upon regarding the forthcoming conference as merely preliminary to a general disarmament conference to be held at Geneva, where land and naval armaments will be jointly discussed. There are two reasons for this position. At London, France will be in a minority against the Anglo-Saxon powers. At Geneva, France will be backed by her allies of Central Europe and by other governments fearful of the Anglo- Saxon naval supremacy. The second reason is that France wishes to bargain her present military supremacy against the naval supremacy of Britain and the United States, and this can only be done in case land and naval armaments are treated together.
In case France and Italy decline to sign a naval agreement in London, but insist on throwing the question back to the League, it is proposed that Britain, the United States, and Japan enter into a tripartite naval agreement, with the proviso that in case any outside power increases its navy the parties to the agreement may increase theirs in proportion.
While such an agreement would bring an end to naval rivalry between Britain and the United States, the French undoubtedly would regard it as final proof that these two powers have determined to cut loose from Europe. If Britain and the United States unnecessarily antagonize France at the London Conference and enter into a separate naval agreement, France in return may refuse to disarm upon land—and land disarmament is even more necessary than naval disarmament if peace is to be realized.
Apparently realizing that an Anglo-American threat against France will do more harm than good, Under-Secretary of State Cotton declared to the press on November IS that the London Conference would lead to a five-power agreement or to no agreement at all.
Nevertheless, the most serious danger confronting the London Conference is that it may lead to the establishment of two conflicting systems: Anglo-Saxon supremacy upon sea, and military dominance of France and her allies over the Continent of Europe. If these two conflicting systems come into existence, all hope for real disarmament and security will give way to a new set of suspicions.
The real task of the delegates of the forthcoming conference is to bridge the gap between the French and the Anglo-Saxon points of view. It is not impossible that this bridge will be found in the League of Nations. The Continent of Europe no longer expects the United States to join the League. Nevertheless, the whole attitude of Continental Europe toward the United States and the disarmament problem would be changed if the United States would give some indication of its willingness to cooperate with the League Council in the conciliation of disputes which threaten to lead to war, and thus bring moral aid to the quest for security. In the last analysis the success of the London Conference may depend upon a revision of the political attitude of the United States toward Europe.
Deepest Ocean Sounding
Tycos, October.—The deepest ocean sounding ever made is that of 34,210 feet, recently reported by the German Navy Department as having been made near the Philippine Islands by the German cruiser Emden. This is a depth of nearly six and one-half miles, or nearly a mile greater than the height of Mount Everest, tallest peak in the world. This means that the known range of variation in the level of the earth’s crust, from the greatest height above sea level to the greatest depth below, is 63,351 feet, or approximately twelve miles.