SCIENCE AND WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5134, 6 September 1877, Page 3

SCIENCE AND WAR.

(From “Nature.”) Eecent wars have had particular interest for the man of science. If we go back some fifteen or twenty years and consider the different wars which have unfortunately. occurred since that time, we shall find connected with each one of them ‘certain features which undoubtedly mark progress in the art of killing and wounding. Some argue—and on very good grounds, no doubt—that the more sharp aud terrible warfare is made the more speedily must it come to an end, and hence look with favor upon the means taken every day, to render weapons more destructive and the soldier more cunning in his dangerous trade. We do not propose to discuss this argument, nor to enter at all into any comparison between the wars of our forefathers and those of to-day, but at a crisis like the present we need hardly apologise for bringing before our readers some points illustrating the marked influence of science upon modern warfare. Starting from the close of the Crimean war, the first in which the electric telegraph was employed, we find ample examples of the assistance furnished to the soldier by scientific research. One instance taken from the war. of 1853 is especially interesting. The Austrians held Venice at the time, it may be remembered, aud to protect the harbor, torpedoes were laid down. The torpedoes were fired by electricity, and contained gun-cotton, this being the first instance on record of the employment of electric torpedoes and of the newly-invented nitro-compounds. Nor was this all. The torpedo-system devised at Venice by the Austrian engineers had yet another point of scientific Interest. A camera obsoura was built overlooking the harbor, and upon the white table of this instrument were reflected the waters of Venice. As the torpedoes were sunk one by one a sentinel iu the camera noted the place of their disappearance with a pencil, giving each torpedo a consecutive number. A row-boat. in the harbor described a circle around the sunken torpedo indicating the zone of its destructive power, and the sentinel again, with his pencil, made a corresponding ring upon the camera table. .In the end, therefore, while,the harbor itself was apparently free from all obstruction, a very effective means of torpedo defence was established, the key of which was only to be found in the camera obscura. The sentinel here had wires in connection with every torpedo, and was in a position to fire any one as soon as he observed—by means of the camera —the presence of a hostile vessel within the limits of any of the circles marked upon his white table. In the American war of 1860, the electric torpedo, invented but two years before, played a most conspicuous role, and formed indeed, with the use of big guns and monitor ironclads, one of the most important features of the struggle, at anyrate from a scientific paint of view. The war of 1866, when the Austrians suffered such a terrible defeat at the hands of the Prussians, will long be remembered as a combat between the old muzzle-loading rifle aud the breech-loader, in which the latter was victorious. The Franco-German struggle of 1870 again, though marked by ■ the„ employment of no special arm, if we, except the mitrailleuse, was assisted by important applications of science, to wit, the reproduction, by means of photo-lithography, of the French ordnance maps and plans, which were distributed iu thousands throughout the German army, and the establishment in France of la paste atriervne to communicate with the besieged garrison of Paris. The regularity with which the mails left Paris par ballon monti, must still be fresh in the memories of our readers, the publication of correspondence from the French capital being maintained in our journals during the whole period of the investment. From September 23 to January 28, when Paris was practically cut off from the rest of the. republic, uo less than 64 balloons left the city with passengers, mails, and pigeons, and of these only three were lost, while five were captured. The return-post by “ homing pigeons” was hardly so regular, but neverthelesshalf the number of despatches given iu by correspondents at Tours and elsewhere, or in other words 100,OOOmessages, were by the unflagging energy of the postal authorities carried into the beleagured capital. • The despatches, moat of them as brief as telegrams, were distinctly printed in broad sheets and photographed by the aid of a micro-camera ; impressions upon the transparent films were then taken and rolled in a quill attached to the tail of the winged messenger which was to hear them into Paris. Arrived at their destination, the tiny photographic films were enlarged by the camera, and the despatches being once more legible, were distributed to the various addresses. The present Eusso-Turkish war cannot well be less interesting than those that have so recently preceded it, and we may especially point out two directions in which fresh examples of scientific warfare will probably manifest themselves—in connection, viz., with the cavalry pioneer and the Whitehead torpedo. Both of these will probably be seen in warfare for the first time, and before many days are past we may hear of theirdoings in action. The cavalry pioneer must not be confounded with the Prussian Uhlan who played so conspicuous a part in the lust war. The übiquitous Uhlan, terrible as he was, did not work the injury which some of the Cossacks will have it in their power to inflict if accoutred as pioneers. These are selected from the smartest and most daring troopers, lightly armed and well mounted. In a belt round their waists they carry a few pounds of guncotton or dynamite, and with this highly destructive explosive they may work incalculable harm. A sMall charge of gun-cotton placed simply upon a rail and fired with a fuze .suffices to . blow several feet of the iron to a distance of many yards 1 , thus rendering the railway unserviceable oil the instant. A trooper may dismount, place a charge at the base of a telegraph pole, fire it, and be in his saddle again, within sixty seconds. Wires may thus be cut and communication stopped in the heart of an enemy’s country by fearless riders, who have but to draw rein for an instant to effect the mischief, while lines of railway in the neighborhood are entirely at their mercy. Even light bridges and well-built stockades may be thrown down by the violent detonation of compressed guncotton, and forest roads considerably obstructed by trees thrown across, which are never so rapidly felled as when a small charge of this explosive is fired at their roots. The influence of the Whitehead torpedo, of which we have heard so much of late, will likewise be felt for the first time during the present war. An implement so ingenious in its character that, as Lord Charles Beresford the other day happily remarked, it can do almost anything but talk, is in the possession of both belligerents, and will doubtless be heard of ere long on the Danube and in the Black Sea. These torpedoes are manufactured at Fiume on the Mediterranean, and, like Krupp guns, are to be purchased by any one who chooses to pay for them. The British Government manufactures its own Whitehead torpedoes in this country] having paid several thousands of pounds for the privilege. The machinery inside this torpedo is still a secret, which is strictly maintained by our Government, but the principle of the invention is well known. It is a.long cigar-shaped machine measuring a dozen feet and upwards. In the head is a charge of some violent explosive, such as gun-cotton or dynamite, which explodes as soon as the tor.

pedo strikes an obstacle. The-motive-power is compressed air, which is forced Unto, the machine by powerful air-pumps, immediately before the torpedo is discharged into the sea, no less than 6001bs. on the square inch being the pressure exerted.' The Whitehead is shot from a tube, and moves through the water as straight as a dart, the compressed air working upon a screw in the tail of the machine. The .delicate machinery permits the .torpedo to swim at any depth below the surface that rnay be desirable, and it : flies straight in the direction it is aimed, at a speed of something dike twenty miles an hour. If it fails to strike the foe, then the intelligent apparatus nt once rises to the surface, becoming innocuous as it does so, and may in this condition be captured without difficulty. A torpedo of this sort striking the sides of an ironclad would almost infallibly send her to the bottom, and although it has been proved that a network or crinoline around | the ship is capable of retarding the progress of a “ fish” of this nature, and exploding the same harmlessly in its toils', it is obviously a very difficult matter thus to protect one’s craft. Against heavy torpedoes, indeed, there seems ho way of defence at all (the Whitehead generally carries a charge of 701 b. or 801 b., but moored torpedoes may contain a 5001 b. charge), and therefore Turkish vessels will have to give Eussian ports a wide berth. All must remember how the magnificent fleet of the French was kept at bay by the torpedoes of the Germans in the North Sea in 1870, and the Black Sea ports are nq doubt similarly protected. So demoralizing is the dread of the torpedo with sailors apparently; that they will dare anything rather than venture into waters which conceal these cruel foes.