720 THE SUBMARINE BOAT. 



SKEPTICISM AS TO THE POLICY OF FRANCE CONCERNING SUBMARINES. 



The fact that France alone places great reliance in this particular 

 weapon can be viewed from two .standpoints. There are those who 

 will believe that her experts have made a great military discovery, 

 and that she has greatly augmented her naval strength for both offen- 

 sive and defensive work by building a great number of this small craft. 



There are others who will believe that the French Admiralty has 

 made a great mistake in giving encouragement to any form of naval 

 construction that will interfere with the building of battle ships and 

 cruisers. One does not have to read very far back into French history 

 to learn that in 1<S7<> the French military authorities believed that in 

 the possession of the mitrailleuse France had a field weapon which 

 would solve the question as to who would be the conqueror in case 

 she became involved in war with a neighbor. 



In the contemplation of her experience with the mitrailleuse France 

 may well ponder whether or not other nations are blind to the merits 

 of the submarine. A cursory reading of the French naval journals 

 shows that even her experts are still at work overcoming inherent diffi- 

 culties connected with the submarines. Even when the boats are used 

 for surface work there are questions of habitability and navigability 

 that do not seem fully solved. 



DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION SIMPLE IN CHARACTER. 



There is extreme fascination to many people in contemplating the 

 scope and operation of a weapon of war that can be used for either 

 surface or submerged work. The general public neither attempts 

 nor cares to solve the mystery. The whole subject is treated as one 

 of the wonders of the century, and the skeptic is classed with those 

 who ridiculed the work of Watt, Fulton, and Stephenson. 



There is no mystery in the submarine boat. The craft of to-day is 

 practically of the same design as that of a century ago. There is 

 increased efficiency and wider range of action, because we now pos- 

 sess materials of construction which are lighter and stronger and 

 which can be better manipulated than the material of a previous cen- 

 tury. The auxiliary and motor of to-day can be encompassed in a 

 fraction of the space that was required for one of the same power in 

 the days of Fulton. The machine tool has a capacity and capability 

 far surpassing that of its counterpart of fifty years ago. The advances 

 that have been made in making the submarine boat more efficient have 

 been almost altogether along engineering lines. It is because the 

 capabilities of the engineer are progressively increasing that still fur- 

 ther advance will be made in the development of the submarine boat. 

 There are hundreds of scientists investigating the possibilities of per- 

 fecting a storage battery that will be more compact and of greater 

 power. There are metallurgists who are conducting extended tests 



