824 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 728 



combustion chamber is conducted to tur- 

 bines, or other engines or devices for pro- 

 pelling the torpedo through the water. By 

 means of this system of propulsion, the 

 range of the automobile torpedo can easily 

 be doubled, while at the same time its speed 

 can be increased fifty per cent. The heavy 

 air-flask will be done away with and will 

 be replaced by a shell merely strong enough 

 and heavy enough for structural rigidity. 

 This will enable the carrying of one hun- 

 dred and sixty pounds of motorite in place 

 of the one hundred and thirty pounds of 

 air now carried, and as each pound of 

 motorite will evaporate two pounds of 

 water, we have available four hundred and 

 eighty pounds of motive fluid; and as 

 steam and products of combustion of mo- 

 torite are much more efficient as a motive 

 fluid per unit of weight than compressed 

 air, it is safe to assume that we have avail- 

 able four times the energy now available 

 in the eighteen-inch torpedo. 



Instead of carrying but two hundred 

 pounds of wet gun-cotton— the present 

 charge— we should be able to carry three 

 hundred pounds of maximite, which is 

 practically twice as powerful per unit of 

 weight as gun-cotton, while its density is 

 fifty per cent, greater than that of gun- 

 cotton, so that we should have a warhead 

 easily three times as powerful as the pres- 

 ent war head. 



The thing most needed at the present 

 time is a torpedo-boat capable of passing 

 unscathed through the fire of quick-firing 

 guns of a battleship in order to get near 

 enough to reach her with certainty with 

 torpedoes carrying a sufficient quantity of 

 high explosives in the warhead to ensure 

 her destruction when hit. 



It is a recognized truism in the field of 

 invention that when there is a very strong 

 ■demand for anything against which there 

 is no physical law barring its accomplish- 



ment, it is sooner or later sure to be ac- 

 complished. 



There is an enormous demand for a sys- 

 tem for reaching and torpedoing battle- 

 ships with destructive quantities of high 

 explosives. I am strongly of the opinion 

 that the most effectual way of accomplish- 

 ing the result is to construct a torpedo-boat 

 in the following manner: 



Build the hull of the boat somewhat on 

 the lines of the cigar-shaped automobile 

 torpedo — even a perfect counterpart of the 

 torpedo in shape would serve the purpose 

 well; but I would suggest a little greater 

 vertical than longitudinal diameter. In 

 other words, I would build the boat a little 

 more fish-shaped than the torpedo, and I 

 would construct it so that it would be 

 adapted to travel both upon the surface 

 of the water and in a semi-submerged posi- 

 tion, or rather, in a nearly submerged 

 position. 



I would drive the boat with gasoline 

 engines under normal conditions, and when 

 going into action— that is to say, in making 

 the run of attack— the boat would be in its 

 nearly submerged position and would be 

 driven by the combined power of the gaso- 

 line engines and motorite. 



The gasoline engines will be provided 

 with a shift gear, something like that em- 

 ployed on automobiles, so that under nor- 

 mal conditions, that is to say, when the 

 boat is propelled along the surface of the 

 water by the gasoline engines alone, the 

 propellers will be driven at a slower speed, 

 and a speed adapted to the speed of the 

 boat thereby secured; but when going into 

 action in a submerged position and travel- 

 ing at possibly double the speed, the gear 

 will be shifted so that the propellers will 

 travel at a speed commensurate with the 

 higher speed of the torpedo-boat. 



The boat will be provided with a top 

 keel or fin a little thicker than a man's 



