NATURE 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1S77 



ELECTRICITY IN WAR 



THE important role played by electricity in modern 

 warfare affords an excellent example of the influence 

 which science has of late exerted in naval and military 

 affairs. It is no isolated example of scientific warfare 

 that we have here to deal with, for the electric fluid has in 

 a great measure changed our whole practice of war, and 

 bids fair to revolutionise it still more in the future. Every 

 soldier or sailor^ if he desires to make his mark, must be 

 something of an electrician, for there seems to be no limit 

 to the useful applications of the galvanic spark in battle. 

 Broadly, we may divide these applications under three 

 heads ; namely, the employment of electricity for sig- 

 nalling, for the explosion of charges, and lastly, for illumi- 

 nation, both for the purposes of attack or defence, it 

 being a difficult matter to decide in which connection the 

 electric spark fulfils the most important duty. 



To begin with the telegraph. All will agree that it is well- 

 nigh impossible to overrate the advantages which this 

 rapid means of communication gives to the general, 

 in these days, when the line of battle sometimes extends 

 for a dozen miles. Let the commander occupy the most 

 central position, a long time must elapse before his aides- 

 de-camp can communicate with one wing or the other. 

 Assisted by the electric telegraph, however, the general is 

 as close to his subordinates as if he were within shouting 

 distance. Even a brigade of horse artillery, or a cavalry 

 division advancing at a gallop, can carry its telegraph 

 equipment with it, the operators accompanying a flying 

 column of this nature with but very little difficulty. The 

 wire drums are started off at a gallop, the cable being 

 unwound as the carts proceed, and a sergeant on horse- 

 back with a " sounder " to his ear, in connection with one 

 end of I he wire, receives the general's commands as soon 

 almost as they are spoken. The movement counter- 

 manded or a retreat ordered, the cable is again wound up 

 as readily as it was laid down, and the telegraphers make 

 good their return with the rest of the troops. Where 

 ordinary movements are executed, use is of course made 

 of the telegraph wagon, a comfortable little office on 

 wheels, furnished with all things necessary for the receipt 

 and despatch of messages, but this convenience is natu- 

 rally out of place where a rapid change of front, or some 

 speedy flank movement has to be executed. 



Coming next to the explosion of charges by means of 

 the electric spark, we enter upon a phase of war-science 

 which bids fair to grow to infinite proportions. Both 

 Franklin and Priestley suggested the employment of 

 electricity in this connection more than a hundred years 

 ago, but it is very recently indeed that we have been in a 

 position to make proper use of this valuable agent as a 

 means of firing charges at a distance. In fact, at the 

 present moment we have by no means exhausted research 

 in this direction, and we find scientific soldiers and 

 sailors still at variance with one another as to the best 

 plan of using the electric current for firing purposes. 

 One of the first applications made of the subtle fluid was 

 in the removal of the wreck of the Royal George, at Spit- 

 head, nearly fifty years ago, when the explosion of the 

 Vol. XVI. — No. 406 



charges was brought about by what is termed a' wire-fuse, 

 or in other words a short piece of platinum thread 

 stretched between two copper wires. The platinum 

 bridge having less conducting power than the copper 

 wires, presents a considerable amount of resistance to any 

 current of electricity that passes, and, in doing this, 

 becomes so heated, as to be capable of igniting any 

 particles of gunpowder in contact with it. A wire-fuse of 

 this description has simply to be placed in the middle of a 

 charge, and if then a current of electricity is passed from 

 a battery along the wire in connection with the fuse, 

 instantaneous ignition is the result. This simple method 

 of firing charges under water was a vast improvement 

 over the old one in use by our engineers, which consisted 

 in leading up a metal pipe from the charge to the surface 

 of the water ; the outlet of the pipe was placed as far as 

 possible from the charge beneath the water, and then a 

 ladle full of red hot shot was emptied down it, and so 

 reached the gunpowder below, which thereupon exploded 

 if the iron fragments had not become too cool in transit. 



But for many purposes the wire-fuse is ill-adapted to the 

 military and naval services. A voltaic battery is neces- 

 sary to evolve the low-tension electricity required to yield 

 sufficient resistance and heat, and such a battery made up 

 of metal plates, and involving the use of acids, is an 

 awkward apparatus to carry in the field. Already in 1853, 

 this fact seems to have occurred to a Spanish officer. Col. 

 Verdu, who determined to see what could be done in the 

 way of exploding gunpowder by a spark, or in other words, 

 by high tension electricity. Aided by a Ruhmkorff coil 

 he succeeded in firing half-a-dozen charges simultaneously, 

 and although the discharge was sometimes a matter of 

 considerable uncertainty, to Verdu certainly belongs the 

 credit of having been the first soldier to apply electricity 

 in this way to the firing of one or more mines. Wheat- 

 stone and Abel followed in Verdu's footsteps, and while 

 the former directed his attention to the construction of a 

 frictional apparatus of a portable nature, which should be 

 suitable for military use, the latter busied himself in the 

 preparation of a fuse inclosing a compound more deli- 

 cately explosive than gunpowder, a fuse, by the way, 

 which still retains an important place among our warlike 

 stores. 



It was in the China war of i S60 that we first find an 

 electric firing apparatus forming part of an army equip- 

 ment. In thir. case the outfit was of a somewhat clumsy 

 nature. A conveyance, in shape and size much resem- 

 bling a baker's barrow, contained a monster horse-shoe 

 magnet, and it was the sudden disruption of its armature 

 from this magnet which generated the spark to fire the 

 fuse. A few years afterwards, this ponderous convtyance 

 gave place to a neat little mahogany box about a foot 

 cube, which contained half a dozen small but powerful 

 magnets, in the field of which the armatures were made to 

 revolve with exceeding celerity ; and it is by means of 

 such an apparatus that to day we are enabled to fire a 

 score of charges at a time, the wires branching off from 

 the instrument to a distance of a hundred yards or more. 

 But, nevertheless, we have yet to devise, it seems, an 

 efficient exploding apparatus capable of igniting both low 

 and high tension electric fuses. 



As everybody knows, it is by reason of electricity being 

 employed to fire explosive charges that torpedo warfare has 



