OCR Text |
Show HOW DEWEY DID IT Naval l:ihih t at (irashs Wl,,.n Measnre Kxplains th Feat, Omaha, August 21. Sines tl,e come Dews of Admiral Dewey', rt. markable victory at Manila on the in of May, it lias been a matter for vcO0. dcr everywhere, that the American gunners were able tod'-stroy a Spanish squadron in a Spanish harhor wiu,0yt the loss of a single American life When history repeated itself a. Santiago two months later the wonj.r ' was intensified. In the Government lJuilding at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition inane, hibit which in a measure explains the mystery. This is a naval range finder, the invention of a United States naval officer. Cp to date no one outside o) Uncle Sam's service has been able U, discover how it is operated. In showing the enormous advantage, derived from the use of this instrument instru-ment one of the naval officers in charge of the exhibit says: "It is a fact that no other navy has any means of finding the range that does not involve a mathematical calculation. calcu-lation. This implies a good deal of time lost, and in most cases they End it quicker to get the range by actual experiment. The Spaniards, for instance, in-stance, have to fire several shots before be-fore they can get the range of one of Lncle Sam's ships. If their first shot fulls short they try again and then they are apt to overshoot, and by that time the position of the vessels ma? have been altered and they are still at sea. Meanwhile the officer in the conning con-ning tower of the American ship has located them almost exactly with this instrument and reported the range by telephone to the various gun captains. This has only consumed a few seconds, and while the Spaniards are still trying try-ing to get their range the shells from the American guns are sweeping their decks. "The peculiar thing about the instrument, in-strument, is that w hile it is one of tU simplest things in the world to anyone any-one w ho knows its secret, the mosi expert mechanic or inventor might examine it as long as he wanted to and still be unable to discover h.jw i; works. This is why representatives of other navies have been e 'tr.p'.ete'.y baf.'.ed ir. their efforts to End it cut. They have range finders of their ova. but none that gi ve the same instantaneous instantane-ous and accurate results. And as long as they can l-o kept in the dark ne will be able to oufshoot any nation on earth, even if there w as no di fferer.ee in the skill of the gunners." |