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Show "" tTWiBalBSBWJSS ELECTBICAL DElESffwl An Eminent Expert Says Victory May Depend Upon It Some Startlinn Possibilities for the War with Spain. It la the opinion of B. II. Short, an eennent electrical expert that the re-Hit re-Hit of the war with Spain will depend ore upon which tide haa the beat electrician elec-trician than upon the question of the buret! ships and heaviest guns. 'The novel and ttartllnK use to shlfh electricity may be put In the text great naval war," say Mr. Rhort la the (lolden Penny, "are likely to elsy a decisive part In the druggie. "It I potslbl that direct verbal communication, without electrical con-section, con-section, may lie retabllthed between n fort or n flagship and a vessel tulles nut st sea A beam of light may be pressed Into service to tarry the worda of the admiral In default of a telephone cable The name commanding officer rsty equip a harbor or roadstead with as Invltlblo battery of magnate which hall selte a hostile ship nnd hold her rsotlonlees. In tplte of tho moil frantic effort of her crew, right under hi rum. He mny even sit In a dark mom, and by a camera and a mirror have her movement photographed on tbe mine chart In front of lilm. until, when tier miniature salt over the paper map, ,e shall by pressing n button explodo the mine which nt that moment mutt Infallibly be Immediately under the actual ac-tual ship herself These are only a few of the coup hi electrical expert may enable him to strike ' A fifty horse-power engine will gen-crate gen-crate electricity enough for n search-lliht search-lliht of 100.000 candle power No am h tremendou light would he necessary however, to enable the commander of two ship or tho commander of a thlp and a ahore fort, to talk to each other, If the experiment with selenium already al-ready worked out practically on land and on a tmall scale shall prove to fit the conditions of modern naval warfare war-fare Tbe scmltlvcnee of the metal eelenlum la inch that the Inttnnt a beam of light falla upon It aurfare the selenium give out a distinct electrical click Ha resistance has been changed. When the beam of light I remove! It retlitancn I once more changed, and the telenlum give out another click. ' The admiral who talk Into tho telephone tele-phone mouthpiece on the battleship or In the fort opina and dote by tho vibration vi-bration of ht voire the tilt In tho metal plate. livery word and tone the admiral utlera Into It will be carried by the vlbratlona of the beam of light ind reproduced exactly In the ear of a listener at tho telephone receiver. There would be telephoning along a beam of light Instead of along an electric elec-tric wire. "The destructive agency of high ex-ploilvee ex-ploilvee waa made effective tame lime ilncelnthe llutto-Turklthwar, and ha been more recently used In the Chilian ind Ilrailllan revolutions, nnd In the 'war between Chlm nnd Japan. The ! ffecta of audi an exploslun on or near I modrrn atect tlilp were lamentably ulilblted In the ruin of the Maine and the ataughter of hundreda of her men In Havana harbor The aatoundlng re-lulti re-lulti to bo uehlried by the alliance of ilectrlclty and high explosives are, however, yet to be only Imagined Ruch I combination holds the potential ruin it entire fleeta Aasursdty electricity may be made to work yet unthought of horrors In the next clash of Heel navies. na-vies. Indeed, I believe there will tie ao great difficulty In tending directly through salt water a current of electricity elec-tricity strong cnoujh to explodo n mine time distance aay, without the uto 3t wire to connect the mine to the ihore. "The mglne nf battleship are too well protected nnd aurrounded by ventilating sparea to be In danger of iplotlon from a curmnt of electricity traveyrd to them dire, tly through the would bo easy enough. If these wire fell on the metallic structuro of the vessel, resting In contact with It, and a five-thousand volt current were tent through them from shore, they would fuse to the ship nnd the current would be Bhort-clrciilted harmlessly. Hut If either of the wire should rest upon tomo non-mrUUIc portion of the ship, or object o. structure on deck, then alt person who came In contact with that wire would be Instantly killed, a their bodle would complete the circuit "If It were drtlrcd to slop and hold Immovable a hostile thlp aver a mine or In a rertaln petition peculiarly exposed ex-posed to fire from the rhore, that result re-sult could be readily arrompllihed A magnet excrtt a pressure of ISO pounds for every square Inch of the surface o It pole. An enormous magnet could be made very quickly by winding two big gun with wire and Joining their larger end In a hortcthoe shape by bolting on platca. A sufficient number of theso magneta to grip a atcel thlp nnd hold her rcinortelettly motionless at a moat dangerou point could cither be floated out to her like torpedoca or could bo anchored at the place de-aired, de-aired, water proofed, of courte.and connected con-nected by wires with a shore battery. The pressure of a button In tho battery would bo all that would be nrctiary to aroute the force of the magneta, whether wheth-er they were floated out or were anchored an-chored by chnlna to the bottom Nor could all tbe ahlp'a crew and officer and machinery release her. "The moil effcctlvo wnv to ute a mine for rnait or harbor defento that I can conceive of tnvolven the ute of a fixed camera, which should be act Into the wall of an obiervallun station or dark room on ahorr. Ita lena covering tho entire pauortima of the bay, but especially the surface uifder which the mine wou'd be placed There might lie a score of these mines, each connected con-nected with a key In the operator' keyboard, and numbered Tho operator opera-tor would have hi on dynamo right by him In the itutlon, and a protected cable would connect him with the mines, the ends of the win retting In the powder In the heart of the mine caies. Tbe points at which the wires entered the mine case could, of course, bo Inaulated with bushings. "In hla absolutely dark room, save for the light that would be admitted by the lens and te reflected down on hit table by a mirror properly adjusted to the lens, the officer would alt down with hla i hurt outtpnad before him. Ilveiy inovlrg object on the surface of the water nuuld le caught Instantly by the lent and reflected by the mirror down on to the chart On this chart the exact location of each n.lne In the HOW A SHIP PHOTOQH ArilS 1T3 OWN DOOM. water In which tho thlp la floating, although al-though such an explotlon I ooncelv-ibtrt ooncelv-ibtrt were a high explothe allowed to rest In direct contact with the tteel Ikbj of tb hlp. Nor could her electric i UghtlPC plant be destroyed from without with-out by electrical meant, but her deck I might be charged with electricity tMugh to kill all on board who com Uto coutact with It by some such de-the de-the a this! Prom a ttatlou on shore leslp-ped with a powerful electric plant I otjHar might bo mads to fir, two sol-H sol-H thoi over the hlp each shot hav-lag hav-lag a copper wire ati he I to It That bay would bo marked by a number. We will suppoae a battleship slowly (teaming (team-ing toward the spot where the mine It st She It moving cautiously through hostile water. A soon a the get anywhere near the mine her photograph photo-graph I throw n dow n no the chart At the move toward tb hidden peril, ao her photograph ruflve fattfully ovsr tbe ouart towari, Thm point where the mine's number appear. At lost the moving photograph on the chart coy. era up the mil) nUBber and preato' tbe operator prsssM P e Milton kud the ship Is blown up. I "A very tmall r o'or attaehed ta a captive balloon sent up from shipboard would enable the operator to steer lt In any detlred direction and lo detect at a great dlttanee with powerful glaeiea the approach of an enemy's aquadron, which Information he could telephone down to tbe commanding officer. of-ficer. He could even watch a battle In which hit own ship engaged with comparative safety, high up above tbe range of machine gunt." TKIXPIION1NO ALONO A IIHAM OP I.IOIIT. |
