New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 2, 1915, Page 12

on United Sinm Dreadnought Wyoming. Bluejacket scanning the horizon, &—L'noof United States Dreadnoughts, Wy- the navy. mflhough!. 7~Admiral Dewey. «:New York. ion the condition of t; aptly expressed the country for its nayy. # well 'be proud of force. upon the ocean. i1 thts of the United lave: among the . most pow- in the world. The, h ready and efficient ;call the nation could pon it'in the hour .of r of ships and men this country stands third the navies of the great Great Britain ranking it'of Germany second. of. the list of Uncle oughts come the battle- States Army Has Big ‘Major General Hugh has - devated: the to getting ex- e of war and the He has the con- en; his officers.and ‘the known that in a nation- - Scott could succes: assigned to the cavalry He eamoaunod against the Sioux “and several Pnorthwest. He fought the il they admired him, and ted peace to them they i3 . trained to war, be- it ' peacemaker the known came about 4 to learn. ‘When 2.—~Rushing the 4,—Josephus Daniels, hting one pounders on'top of Heavy 8.~—Fourteen inoch guns 'uhipg New York and Texas, each of 27,000 tans . and 28,100 horsepower. These mighty terrors of the sea are considered the last word in ‘warship construction and are popularly refer- red to as.super-. -Dheadnoughts. Ranking next-are thé Arkansas, '26,- 000 . tons, . 28,100 horsepower, - twelve twelve-inch guns; ' Wyoming, ' 26,000 tons, 34,956 horsepower, twelve twelve- inch ‘guns; Florida,: 21,825 tons, 28,000 horsepower, ten twelve-inch guns; Utah, ' 21,326 tons, 28,000 horsepawer, tén twelve-inch guns; Delaware 20,000 tons, 25,000 horsepower,. ten twelve- inch guns; North Dakota, 20,000 tons, 26,000 horsepower, ten twelve-inch giuis. Also there| are eight battleships of 16,000 tons and 16,600 horsepower of the class of the Connecticut and 'the. Louisian These “all carry from four placefl on the frontier Scott wanted to learn something, so he learned Indian languages. A half dozen tribes adopt- ed him, and they would not fight him. Scott was a major when the war with Spain 'began. . He served in Cuba through the war and became adjutant to Major 'General Wood when military governor of Cuba. After leaving Cuba Scott was detailed to the Sulu islands, where he was military governor. There he continued his peaceful methods and became known as father! of iall the Moros, ., From. the Sulus Scott was made chancellor of West Point.” When the troubles broke' out on'the Mexican frontier Scott was placed on the bor- der patrol. ' 5 Recently . Scott was’ made ' major general and chief of staff, ‘of hls first duties as chief of ‘staft s to the Mexican border and 'M.!r' the: nemcum “to -hoot u each other 'The Pennayivania, keel .laid.in 1912, Men at Its Head uatad Liam_ tba umpe Statas Milita \ R to: staht ‘twelvacinch suns and bats ies of eight inch guns. The/néw, mper-Dmdnouxhu noy coyrae of, construction or authorized | congress will carry fourteen inch 3. will hay Truly a leviathan' of t*hadeop in sense of the expression! | Of ' these mnew !ourleen inch 3 Josephus Daniels, sécretary ° of. navy, has said that they ‘will ghoo farther, shoot straightsr and hit ha: er than any gun now in use or khown to be designed by a foreign country." ) ] mm tub have larger batteries of then any other ship in the world 1 Eagh has an armament of ten &B;tb'n-!ndi heavy - firers placed in five turrets, two, forward ahd three in 4 four submemd torpedo ty-five of their guns are eh rppid fire rifles ' to protect from torpedo boats. A w system in hull’ design makes " | the: New York and Texas practically mgfifikgble, there beéing ' three hulls one vlthln the other and all be- é'nle protective’ deck. ' These hulls are fesighed to save the vessel from fl‘fl.’r\)ctlon by ‘torpedoes, and naval of- S purpose ' against. submarine attack. It is'believed that had the Lusitania been -s0 constructed she would still be afloat and more than a hundred Amer- icans would not have gone down with her thousand victims to. a German tor- pedo. . Also the. ill. fated Titanic could have withstood the impact with the icebérg and still have reached port. No type of naval craft has figured so prominently in ‘the present great con- flict in Eurdpe as has the submarine. Some of the little underwater fighters of the Atlantic submarine flotilla, un- der Commander Yates Stirling, Jr., sailed more than 1,200 miles under their own power in order to appear in flcer! believe that they will serve their = m(tmy in 1879 and has all-the facts ot‘lu the ngtional guard regiments at hie finger ends. In the case of a war the positiog held by General Mills would ‘'be ope ‘of the most important ‘@hi onerous; He is virtual chief of the Qm»qry forces of the country. Apdther important head of the Unit- ¥ on general, who recently recelved an’ offer of a $50,000 a year sélary to go to Servia to fight the plague, - Gegeral Gorgas is head of the army medical corps, and probably’ no ‘|othe# man in the world knows so much -~y man of theiways of fighting off the diseases wl ie’h are gs deadly as the bullets of ‘the enemy tp the soldiers in the fleld. Next in importance may be consider - ed Major General Leonard Wood, com- nt of the eastern department. Stationed at Governors island, New ‘: York, 'General Wood is responsible for the ‘defense .of the thronging popula- 1| tion and engrmous wealth in the com- stead of shooting across the bordcr line and killing Ameri¢an citizens in Arizona. Major General Scott’s principal aids are: Brigadier General Tasker H. Bliss, | assistant chief ,of the staff; Brigadler General Albert L. Mills, chief of divi- sion of militia affairs, and ‘Brigadier General Erasmus M. Weaver, chief of coast artillery. Brigadier General'Bliss is one 'of ‘the most learned and widely experiericed, men in the dervice.! Since His gradua- tion from West Point in 1876 ‘he.has acted in- many- important capacities. In 1909-10 he.was a member of.jthe Joint army and navy board. ® Brigadier ; General - Mills 'is charged with the responsibility for the inépr- poration of the militia of the Unjted States ‘into. the' fighting forcés of jthe An ‘time, of -war.. He. was - v mercial metpopolis of the country and in other important cities in his vast district. Genmeral Wood, who is a keen advocate foF a bigger army, began his career in tha service of his country as 4n armmy suggeon. He commanded the Roosevelt ropgh riders in the Spanish- Ameri¢an war and is every inch a sol- of whom the nation can be proud. BOYS FOUGHT IN CIVIL WAR. "The Amerjcan civil war has often been ‘called the “war of youth,” on ac- Jcount of the age of> the soldiers upon enlistments. In this connection an in- teresting table is given in “The Ameri- can Army, unjor Geneéral Willlam H. Cur 's récent book. Of a total of 4 meh enlisted in the Union army durln' the war, less than one- 'fourth ' were more than twenty-one 1d. , Phe table of ages at enlist- follows; years and younger Those # years and under 2 yearg and under. years and under, { yeary and under. years and under Betwgen 2 and 45 years. More ‘than 45 years old. 16,071 The .multlcs relating to very young General Carter says, bave often queutloned, but,’ he adds,: it must | ’b n!fiembared that the .enlistment of mere childrén as grummers and fifers formerly was authorized in our army. General Carter was only twelve and one-half years old when he enlisted. as a moupted dispatch messenger in 1864. Almpst all'of the mén in the last two | glasien of the table were officers, mak- {ng the gengral yank ‘and file of the arpy- dlmosg all beardless bnys when they enlisted, , | similarity ends. the recent presidential review, a feat Torpedo and Shrapnel War’s Deadliest Weapons 1 N their grim effects, making them the deadliest weapons of war, the , torpedo and shrapnel shell re- semble each other. But there the The modern torpedo.is known as the “automobile torpedo” and is virtually a locomotive mine, a mine ¢ontaining not merely’ blind explosive, ‘but machinery so delicate and wonderful that it is al- most human. ‘Opce started on its mis- sion of death, this instrument clings to its purpose as surely as if still guided by man. Almost ships in themselves are the German torpedoes such as sank the | Lusitania. They are nineteen feet in | length, twenty-two inches in diameter, weigh half a ton and cost more than $5,000 each. They can travel six miles, and do the first half of that distance at ' a speed of forty-five knots, the rate of an express train. =The warhead carries | 300 pounds of guncotton, which is ex- ploded on impact by .means of an in- | genlous pistol, the tigger of which pro- trudes. The next compartment to the head is the air chamber. This is a cylinder about one-third of an inch thick, bored out of an ingot of the finest quality high tensile steel. It will stand a pres- sure varying, according to the torpedo, from 1,350 pounds per square inch to 2,260 pounds. The third compartment is the balance chaimber. Inside this is the mechan- ism-which actuates-the herizontal rud- ders at ‘the; taih mnd 46 keeps the tor- pedo at its correct depth,” which is set béfore the weapon is fired. Behifid the that is in itself a record breaker for vessels of their type. * At its various navy yards the United States gdvarnment < is bullding ' some more .big es ‘amid great se- crecy. They'are Known as the K class, and ; they are the. newest K and most powertul of -the lxnl"vnhr craft in our. waters. [l Of ‘four ; vessels in’ thl-fi-xll.nd K-2' each ‘cost $469,000, and K-5. and, K-6 cost $475,000 each. The command- ers of these four are Lisytenant Lucius C. Dunn, Lieutenant Radford: Moses, Lieutenant Holbrook Gibson and- Lieu- tenant. Joseph C.. Fisher.. There are eight K's in all. The super-Dreadnoughts Now York balance chamber is the engine:room with . compressed .air motors of 100 horse power. Then/ comes the buoyancy chamber with the gyroscope. If the torpedo al- ters its course to left or right the gyro- scope wheel remains steady and by means of connecting rods works the vertical rudders to bring the weapon back to its true course. The ‘last compartment is the tail, with its twin screws and the mechan- ism_for operating the rudders. The screws move ‘“clockwise” and “anti- clockwise,” so as to counterbalance any tendency of the torpedo to turn toright or left. The mechanism of a torpedo is so amazingly - perfect that it can be de- pended upon to strike within a yard or two of the spot aimed at. One shrapnel shell equals in deadli- ness at least 250 rifles. On the battle- fleld it is the most murderous weapon. Its wounds are more than twice as fa- tal as those caused by rifle bullets be- cause they are almost always infected. The first shrapnel shell, invented in' 1784 by - Lieutenant Shrapnel of the British army, “was"merely a cast iron ball - filled - with bullets and powder, which was exploded by a crude fuse screwed into the shell, Modern shrap- nel is similar in principle to its early predecessor, but is a marvel of mechan- ical ingenuity. The sudden motion of the shell at the time of firing causes a small plunger in the end of the fuse to fly back and strike a ‘cap which ignites the fuse, This fuse is composed of a slow burn- ing composition that is pressed into annular grooves. One of these grooves is in a stationary ring, and the other in a graduated movable ring. By turning the graduated ring the length of this fuse s varied so that the shell may be exploded: at ‘any time within a period of about twenty-one seconds. During this brief period.a three inch American ‘shrapnel will travel about 6,500 yards, or nearly three and three-quarter miles. Most fuses are so arranged that the shell will be exploded by concussion if it should strike before the ring of pow- der burns around to the exploding charge. 'rm- is effected by a second- and Texas cdit §10000,000 sach. The five new leviathans under constryction will co;til;‘bout ;fim.o‘oo -u;h. “ Admi Dewey, the entire navy, recertly ‘Wwrote of the Atlantic fleet: " “Not.only: s 1t com| ‘and mo#t cflc' nt "except I.l‘l.'."b’ du flm of any -— tion in.the woérld. Our ships and, guns are as good as.any in the world, our ofllcon;nucoo‘umynndwrdn- listed - men’ are superior in training, education, yhyitcd development and * devotion to -duty. fe sthose of any other And thn peopls um wtw him. of the finest M we' s 4 Abovo—CbM of o urp-do, showing interi rrangement; right, Ive: net down. of "~ construction of shrapnel ary plunger l'l the fuse head which flies forward the shell strikes and fires the . burs ‘charge simultane: ously. In principle all “ghrapnel shells are alfke, but each pation using thém has its own patent devices, varyink the ar- rangement of the fuses The héadils blawn off the bullets are “prajected forward a sheaf, spreading outward they go. The British ejghteen pol shell covers s space of ground some 300 yards long by 35 yards wide' with ity 366 heavy bullets. Of recent yuu - ‘shell which com- bines the action -of the #hrapnel an¢ the high explosive -:-u has been In- troduced, This is the uni shel] invented by Major Van m‘l of the Datch artfliery.” ‘It s a shiapnel, with: a detachable head fl'll‘ with high ex-, plosives, A i ‘When rburst during m.-m it acts M an ordinsry , and the bullets fly forward and sweep th¢ ground ih . front of it. At'the same time the head, with its explosive burster, flles forward, and acts as & small’ but efficient M explosive shell. ~ These ‘Drojectiles - Mu M mn., Y duced for_ howitgers and craft guns '-h’. . MRS oeh, )