Twentieth Century Inventions: A Forecast

by George Sutherland

Smoke-producing shells and other forms of projected cover, designed to mask the advance of cavalry and infantry, will greatly assist in the work of rendering this task of crossing the fire-zone less dangerous, notwithstanding any possible improvement that may be effected in the magazine-rifle. Already it has been observed that much of the surprise and confusion which terrifies those who have no bayonets, when subjected to a cannonade and at the same time brought face to face with a bayonet charge, arises from the fact that they cannot see to shoot straight, owing to the haze produced by the smoke and its blinding effects upon the eyes.

Special smoke-producing shells, made for the express purpose of covering a charge, will soon be evolved from the laboratory of the chemist in pursuance of this clue. In addition to shells and other missiles, small pieces of steel-piping will be projected by mortars into the fire-swept zone, in order to supplement the defects of natural cover which, of course, are nearly always as great as possible, seeing that the ground has generally been selected by the side against which the attack is being directed.

The task of enabling a rifleman to shoot straight has been taken up with extraordinary zeal and ability compared with the amount of skill and effort devoted to the corresponding or opposing object of spoiling his aim and preventing him from getting a shot in. When this latter has been to some extent accomplished, mainly by the agency of artillery, the bayonet and other weapons for use at close quarters will once more be in the ascendant. Thin shields of hard steel will be affixed to the rifles of the attacking party, so as to deflect the bullets wherever possible.

This baffling of the rifleman by the artillery supporting the cavalry and bayonet charge will produce momentous changes, not only in the future of war, but also in that of international relations. Anything which tends to discount the value of personal bravery and to elevate the tactics of the ambuscade and the sharp-shooting expedition gives, pro tanto, an advantage to the meaner-spirited races of mankind, and places them more or less in a position of mastery over those who hold higher racial traditions. The man who will face the risk of being shot in the open generally belongs to a higher type of humanity than he who only shoots from behind cover.

Moreover, the nations which have the skill and ingenuity to manufacture new weapons of self-defence belong to a higher class than those which only acquire advanced warlike munitions by purchase. One of the early international movements of the twentieth century will be directed towards the prohibition of the sale of such weapons as magazine-rifles, quick-firing field guns, and torpedoes to any savage or barbarous race. It will be accounted as treason to civilisation for any member of the international family to permit its manufacturers to sell the latest patterns of weapons to races whose ascendency might possibly become a menace to civilisation. As factors in determining the survival of the fittest, the elements of high character, bravery, and intellectual development must be conserved in their maximum efficiency at all hazards.

Another potent element in the safeguards of civilisation may be seen in the increased effectiveness of weapons for coastal defence. The hideous nightmare of a barbarian irruption, such as those which almost erased culture and intellect from the face of Europe during the dark ages of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, may occasionally be seen exercising its influence in the pessimistic writings which are from time to time issued from the Press predicting the coming ascendency of the yellow man.

However the case may be in regard to nations which are accessible by land to the encroachments of the Asiatic, there is no doubt that those countries which are divided off by the sea have been rendered much more secure through the rapid advances which have been made in the modern appliances for defending coasts and harbours. In naval tactics, also, it will be more and more clearly seen that to possess and defend the harbours where coaling can be carried out is practically to possess and defend the trade of the high seas; and the essence of good maritime policy will be to so locate the defended harbours that they may afford the greatest amount of protection, having in view the harm that may be done by an enemy's harbours in the vicinity.

The most effective naval weapon in the future will undoubtedly be the torpedo, but, like the bayonet, it requires to be in the hands of brave men before its value as the ultimate arbiter of naval conflict can be demonstrated. Much fallacious teaching has arisen from what has been called the lessons of certain naval wars which occurred on the coasts of South America and China—international embroilments in which mercenaries, or only half-trained seamen and engineers, were engaged. On similar fallacious grounds it was argued that the magazine-rifle had put the bayonet out of the court of military arbitrament, and the South African war has proved conclusively how erroneous was that idea. The use of the torpedo-boat and of the weapons which it carries must always demand, like that of the bayonet, men of the strongest nerve, and of the greatest devotion to their duty and to their country.

Fifty miles an hour is a rate which is already in sight as the speed of the future torpedo-boat, the first turbine steamer of the British Navy having achieved forty-three miles an hour before the end of the nineteenth century. It should be distinctly understood, however, that such a speed cannot be kept up for any great length of time and that long voyages are out of the question. The rôle of the turbine torpedo-boat will be to "get home" with its weapon in the shortest practicable time. Hence its great value for the defence of harbours by striking at distances of perhaps two or three hours' steaming.

On the high seas the battle-ships, which will virtually be the cruisers of the future, will be provided with turbine torpedo-boats, carried slung in convenient positions and ready at short notice to be let slip like greyhounds. During the hazardous run of the torpedo-boat towards the enemy, various devices will be employed for the purpose of baffling his aim, such for instance as the emission of volumes of smoke from the bows and the erection of broad network blinds covering the sight of the little craft, but capable of being shifted from side to side, so that the enemy's marksmen may never know exactly what part of the object in sight is to be aimed at. The torpedo will be carried on a mast, which at the right moment can be lowered to form a projecting spar like a bowsprit; and the explosion that will take place on its impact with the enemy's hull will be enough to blow a fatal breach in any warship afloat.