AN INDIARUBBER MAN OF WAR.
Professor Loewenthal, a German, thinks that the coming war-ship will be made of Indiarubber. His idea is to make the entire hull of rubber one foot in thickness, strengthened below the water-line by a light steel frame. The vessel will be driven by an ordinary steam-engine and will have no masts. At the bow will be a projecting spar, to which torpedoes will be affixed, and the entire crew, including the helmsman, will be on the lower deck out of the range of shot. When a cannon ball strikes the indiarubber ship it will pass directly through it and above jtho heads of the crew, and the hole made by it will instantly close. Paying no attention to such futile attacks, the indiarubber vessel will steam towards her adversary and explode her torpedo. The doomed vessel will instantly sink, while her elastic destroyer will be driven hundreds of yards backwards by the recoil following the explosion. Such a vessel, says the inventor, could destroy all the navies of the world, and after her ■work was done she could be made as strong as ever with the aid of two or three bottles of cement.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 139, 14 August 1880, Page 4
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199AN INDIARUBBER MAN OF WAR. Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 139, 14 August 1880, Page 4
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