632 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 407. 



telegraphy, the naval manoeuvres of 1901, the 

 naval budgets of great powers for 1902-3, and 

 on modern battle-ships, including particularly 

 the Vittorio Emanuele. The papers are all 

 written by experts in their several departments 

 and are as full of information as is an egg of 

 meat. 



Foreign naval powers are still increasing 

 the magnitude and the offensive and defen- 

 sive values of their battle-ships and cruisers 

 and the big British and French navies espe- 

 cially are making progress with their 'subma- 

 rines' and their 'submersibles.' Both report 

 favorably on the types already constructed and 

 indicate steady improvement. The former is 

 testing the Holland craft. ' No. 1 ' is afloat 

 and performs well. She can travel four hun- 

 dred miles unexposed to fire. A ' periscope ' 

 permits a lookout being kept when completely 

 submerged. The French Triton made a 

 twenty-four hour trial, largely siibmerged, and 

 during a part of the time in bad weather, and 

 worked well. Many torpedo-boat destroyers 

 are reported as attaining thirty knots on their 

 contract trials. These vessels seem to be sub- 

 ject to large risk of accident. 



In ordnance the tendency continues toward 

 larger sizes of quick-firing guns and toward 

 greater length for all classes of ordnance. In 

 armor, the progress reported is in the direction 

 of more efficient hardening and of a reduction 

 in the thickness demanded to resist a stated 

 impact of shot. In small arms, the small 

 calibers persist and the ' automatic ' system of 

 continuous self-operation is being steadily 

 perfected. A smokeless powder is now adapted 

 for each class of ordnance, large and small, 

 and this kind of explosive has become stand- 

 ard. The chemist is still seeking new and still 

 more manageable and powerful compositions. 

 Capped projectiles for heavy ordnance are suc- 

 cessful, and a new device permits the produc- 

 tion of a dense smoke at the point of explosion 

 of the shell to confuse the enemy and discon- 

 cert his batteries. Torpedoes are still holding 

 an important place in the field of investiga- 

 tion as well as in warfare, and there are no 

 indications of the abandonment of this 

 weapon. 



Water-tube boilers, high steam-pressures 



(fifteen to twenty atmospheres and upward), 

 with triple and quadruple expansion engines, 

 are the rule and triple screws are gaining 

 ground under the stimulus of the example set 

 by our own navy and the arguments of its 

 Engineer-in-Chief, Admiral Melville. The 

 steam-turbine is being steadily developed 

 and reduced to useful service on a large 

 scale in both the naval and the merchant ser- 

 vice. Liquid fuels are being exploited, and 

 coal-handling devices, for use at sea as well 

 as in port, are being brought into practicable 

 forms. 



There has been ' a striking extension ' of 

 the use of electricity in the internal minor 

 services of the naval vessels of all nations, for 

 the distribution of light and in the operation 

 of guns and of machinery generally. The 

 alternating current does not seem as yet suc- 

 cessful. Voltages are usually low, but with a 

 tendency toward elevation above the usual 

 standard, which is about 80 volts minimum. 

 Voltages of 120 and upward have been em- 

 ployed with a tendency toward 200 as a maxi- 

 mum limit. 



Wireless telegraphy has progressed wonder- 

 fully, particularly in its range of action. 

 The system is still imperfect, but is constantly 

 being brought into practicable and useful 

 form. All nations are experimenting with 

 one or another of five best-known systems. 



Comparison of the type-ships' of existing 

 navies seems to be favorable to the naval engi- 

 neering and architecture of the United States, 

 as illustrated in its latest constructions; but 

 it is evident that competition is developing 

 sharply in all leading navies, and the outcome 

 among those of the greater powers seems likely 

 to prove to be almost as largely dependent upon 

 the liberality permitted by the legislative de- 

 partment as upon the genius of engineers, 

 constructors and combatant ofiicers. 



R. H. Thurston. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The closing (October) number of volume 

 3 of the Transactions of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society contains the following papers : 

 'On the groups of order p", which contain 

 operators of order p"'~,' by G. A. Mil- 



