Inventions in the Century

by William Henry Doolittle

A great warship as she lies in some one of the vast modern ship-yards of the world, resting securely on her long steel backbone, from which great ribs of steel rise and curve on either side and far overhead, like a monstrous skeleton of some huge animal that the sea alone can produce, clothed with a skin, also of steel; her huge interior, lined at bottom with an armoured deck that stretches across the entire breadth of the vessel, and built upon this deck, capacious steel compartments enclosing the engines and boilers, the coal, the magazines, the electric plant for supplying power to various motors for lighting the ship and for furnishing the current to powerful search-lights; having compartments for the sick, the apothecary shop, and the surgeon’s hospital, the men’s and the officers’ quarters; above these the conning tower and the armoured pilot-house, then the great guns interspersed among these various parts, looking like the sunken eyes, or protruding like the bony prominences of some awful sea monster, is a structure that gives one an idea of the immense departure which has occurred during the last half century, not only from the wooden walls of the navies of all the past, but from all its mechanical arts.

What a great ocean liner contains and what the contributions are to modern ship-building from other modern arts is set forth in the following extract from McClure’s Magazine for September, 1900, in describing the Deutschland. “The Deutschland, for instance has a complete refrigerating plant, four hospitals, a safety deposit vault for the immense quantities of gold and silver which pass between the banks of Europe and America, eight kitchens, a complete post-office with German and American clerks, thirty electrical motors, thirty-six pumps, most of them of American and English make, no fewer than seventy-two steam engines, a complete drug store, a complete fire department, with pumps, hose and other fire-fighting machinery, a library, 2600 electric lights, two barber shops, room for an orchestra and brass band, a telegraph system, a telephone system, a complete printing establishment, a photographic dark room, a cigar store, an electric fire-alarm system, and a special refrigerator for flowers.”

We have seen, in treating of safes and locks, how burglars keep pace with the latest inventions to protect property by the use of dynamite and nitro-glycerine explosions. The reverse of this practice prevails when those policemen of the seas, the torpedo boats, guard the treasures of the shore. It is there the defenders are armed with the irresistible explosives. These explosives are either planted in harbours and discharged by electricity from the shore, or carried by very swift armoured boats, or by boats capable of being submerged, directed, and propelled by mechanisms contained there and controlled from the shore, or from another vessel; or by boats containing all instrumentalities, crew, and commander, and capable of submerging and raising itself, and of attacking and exploding the torpedo when and where desired. The latter are now considered as the most formidable and efficient class of destroyers.

No matter how staunch, sound and grand in dimensions man may build his ships, old Neptune can still toss them. But Franklin, a century and a half ago, called attention to his experiments of oiling his locks when in a tempestuous mood, and thus rendering the temper of the Old Man of the Sea as placid as a summer pond. Ships that had become unmanageable were thus enabled, by spreading oil on the waves from the windward side, to be brought under control, and dangerous surfs subdued, so that boats could land. Franklin’s idea of pouring oil on the troubled waters has been revived during the last quarter of the century and various means for doing it vigorously patented. The means have varied in many instances, but chiefly consist of bags and other receptacles to hold and distribute the oil upon the surrounding water with economy and uniformity.

At the close of the century the world was still waiting for the successful Air-ship.

A few successful experiments in balloon navigation by the aid of small engines of different forms have been made since 1855. Some believe that Count Zeppelin, an officer of the German army has solved the great problem, especially since the ascent of his ship made on July 2, 1900, at Lake Constance.

It has been asserted that no vessel has yet been made to successfully fly unless made on the balloon principle, and Count Zeppelin’s boat is on that principle. According to the description of Eugen Wolf, an aeronaut who took part in the ascent referred to and who published an account of the same in the November number of McClure’s, 1900, it is not composed of one balloon, but of a row of them, and these are not exposed when inflated to every breeze that blows, but enclosed and combined in an enormous cylindrical shell, 420 feet in length, about 38 feet in diameter, with a volume of 14,780 cubic yards and with ends pointed like a cigar. This shell is a framework made up of aluminium trellis work, and divided into seventeen compartments, each having its own gas bag. The frame is further strengthened and the balloons stayed by a network of aluminium wire, and the entire frame covered with a soft ramie fibre. Over this is placed a water-tight covering of pegamoid, and the lower part covered with light silk. An air space of two feet is left between the cover and the balloons. Beneath the balloons extends a walking bridge 226 feet long, and from this bridge is suspended two aluminium cars, at front and rear of the centre, adapted to hold all the operative machinery and the operator and other passengers.

The balloons, provided with proper valves, served to lift the structure; large four-winged screws, one on each side of the ship, their shafts mounted on a light framework extending from the body of the ship, and driven backward and forward by two light benzine engines, one on each car, constituted the propelling force. Dirigibility (steering) was provided for by an apparatus consisting of a double pair of rudders, one pair forward and one aft, reaching out like great fins, and controlled by light metal cords from the cars. A ballast of water was carried in a compartment under each car. To give the ship an upward or a downward movement the plane on which the ship rests was provided with a weight adapted to slip back and forth on a cable underneath the balloon shell. When the weight was far aft the tip of the ship was upward and the movement was upward, when at the forward end the movement was downward, and when at the centre the ship was poised and travelled in a horizontal plane. The trip was made over the lake on a quiet evening. A distance of three and three-quarter miles, at a height of 1300 feet, was made in seventeen minutes. Evolutions from a straight course were accomplished. The ship was lowered to the lake, on which it settled easily and rode smoothly.

The other great plan of air navigation receiving the attention of scientists and aeronauts is the aeroplane system. Although the cohesive force of the air is so exceedingly small that it cannot be relied upon as a sufficient resisting medium through which propulsion may be accomplished alone by a counter-resisting agent like propeller blades, yet it is known what weight the air has and it has been ascertained what expanse of a thin plane is necessary without other means to support the weight of a man in the air.

To this idea must be added the means of flight, of starting and maintaining a stable flight and of directing its course. Careful observation of the manner of the flight of large heavy birds, especially in starting, has led to some successful experiments. They do not rise at once, but require an initiative force for soaring which they obtain by running on the ground before spreading their wings. The action of the wings in folding and unfolding for maintaining the flight and controlling its direction, is then to be noted.