644 



Popular Science Monthly 



disk is then ejected from the barrel by 

 highly compressed air or black powder which 

 pushes against the disk with a pressure of 

 nearly fifty thousand pounds. When the 

 idler disk is pulled down by a magnet, the 

 disk is shot out of the gun with the ones 

 beside it nearly 



vertically 



An electric 

 timing circuit 

 automatically 

 controls the fir- 

 ing. The mere 

 pressing of a but- 

 ton starts a con- 

 trol - clock turn- 

 ing, and the com- 

 pressed-air valves 

 and the idler-disk 

 release are elec- 

 trically operated 

 in their turn. As 

 soon as one disk 

 is fired, com- 

 pressed air brings 

 up another in its 

 place. The one clock is con- 

 nected with the controlling 

 mechanism of each gun in a 

 battery. A veritable sheet of 

 heavy whirling disks is shot 

 into the water as the guns 

 are fired simultaneously. 



Torpedoes can be sighted 

 when from one to two thou- 

 sand feet from a ship. The 

 time consumed in the tor- 

 pedo's travel makes it a 

 simple matter to aim a bat- 

 tery of my guns in its 

 path. The steady stream of 

 disks ten times two feet wide, 

 is as easily fired in the path of 

 the torpedo as if it were a 

 stream of water from a hose. 

 The rapid whirling of the disks 

 at high speed prevents them 

 from turning out of the initial, practically 

 vertical, plane. Therefore they begin to 

 sink in the water in their vertical direction, 

 and the buoyancy of the disks caused by 

 their hollow interior prevents their sinking 

 fast. A great sheet of rotating disks is 

 formed in the water which is as formidable 

 as if it were a steel wall. Striking one of 

 the disks, the torpedo will burst. That 

 will be all. The twenty-five feet of ocean 

 between it and the vessel will serve as a 

 cushion, so the vessel will not be harmed. 



rveping World Daily mogdzine 



Waiting for His Contribution f*> i h ca. 



Drawing Uncle Sam, the Figure that 

 Makes or Breaks a Cartoonist 



THE ambition of every newspaper car- 

 toonist is to win praise for his figure of 

 Uncle Sam. Indeed, some cartoonists may 

 be said to hold their jobs because of their 



inimitable char- 

 acterizations of 

 this venerable 

 and virile gentle- 

 man. 



Who would not 

 recognize an 

 Uncle Sam by 

 Robert Carter, of 

 the Evening Sun, 

 of New York, or 

 an Uncle Sam by 

 John T. Mc- 

 Cutcheon, of the 

 Chicago Tribune, 

 or the same figure 

 by Oscar Cesare, 

 now of the New 

 York Evening 

 Post? If these 

 three cartoonists 

 drew nothing but 

 Uncle Sams they 

 would still have 

 the wide follow- 

 ing that they now 

 have. Although 

 the three figures 

 are as different as 

 the cartoonists 

 themselves, they 

 represent in body 

 contour and fa- 

 cial expression all 

 that is distinctly 

 American. 



The name of 

 John Cassel, of 

 the New York 

 W'orld, should be 

 linked with the 

 three cartoonists mentioned above. His 

 Uncle Sam is a striking characterization, 

 and not, as one editor remarked, "a hayseed 

 in a gentleman's clothes." The illustration 

 above shows how Mr. Cassel draws his 

 figure from a plaster cast, in order to 

 obtain an accurate representation. The 

 cast was molded from an original cartoon of 

 Uncle Sam by Mr. Cassel, and by drawing 

 direct from it he can not fail to get the 

 expression and atmosphere that belong 

 to his productions alone. 



At top: John Cassel, the editorial car- 

 toonist of the New York World, draws 

 his Uncle Sam from a cast molded by 

 himself. Below: The finished cartoon 



