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Show NEW WAR MACHINE. it Mr. Francis Bowles, president of the Fore River Ship Building company, recently chief constructor of the United States navy, relates a good story, showing the humorous side of the daily life of the head of a big ship building concern. A perfectly normal-looking man recently called on Mr. Bowles at his office and explained at some length that he was an inventor possessing an invention in-vention which would revolutionize modern warfare. Thinking that the easiest way to be rid of his un- welcome guest would be to hear him cut, Mr. Bowles ordered the gentleman to be brief. The inventor in-ventor then proceeded to outline this modem en- gine of war as a torpedo whose course and speed ! were to be arranged, directed and controlled from the firing ship at a distance of several miles, so that said torpedo would navigate itself nicely into j the middle of an enemy's formation. On arriving j at this point, a key touched on the firing ship ! would detonate the high explosive contained in this j new torpedo, causing a hole in the sea of 500 feet I depth and proportionate diameter. Into this "hole" the enemy's fleet wa3 to drop i accommodatingly. The closing of the waters would j form a wave of a hundred feet in height, which j would swamp any opponent so fortunate as to avoid being dropped "in the hole." The inventor did not ! mention the effect of said wave on the "home tal- j ent" anxiously awaiting the outcome on the firing ship. Upon the lack of a proper show of enthusiasm enthusi-asm by Mr. Bowles the caller regarded him disap- ' provingly, but brightened considerably as he was 1 about to leave by offering the chief a thirty-day ! option on h'is invention. j 1 ! |