A MODERN ENGINE OF DESTRUCTION.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 731, 1 November 1870, Page 2

A MODERN ENGINE OF DESTRUCTION.

(The Broad Arrow)

With reference to the announcement in our last week's impression of a new method of attack invented by Captain Ericsson, of the United States, we hear that a far more powerful system of attack, the invention of an Engineer officer in the Eoyal Navy, is now under the consideration of the English War Office authorities. Without entering into detail, it may be briefly stated that this system of attack consists in the use of an elongated l shell-shaped self-propelling torpedo,! containing a bursting charge of from 400 to 10,000 pounds of gunpowder, gun-cotton, or other explosive. It] travels at, or 20 feet below, the surface of the water, as may be required, with a velocity of 140 to 500 or more feet per second, and will range in aqua from 700 to 1800 yards; and, paradoxical as it may appear, the striking, velocity at extreme range may be double the initial velocity. Thus, this " destroyer " may be so constructed as to have an initial of, say, 300 feet per second, the speed may then fall to 100 feet or 200 feet per second, at which it may remain uniform for 10 or 20 seconds; it may then increase in velocity to 500 or more feet per second, should such increase be found to be desirable. The great advantage of this invention is that it can be as effectively used by the slowest as by the fastest vessels, or even by fixed forts and batteries facing the sea. The method of manufacture and mode of construction are for the present kept secret. The great objection to this invention is that- it is absolutely and irresistibly destructive, as the combined fleets of the whole world could be destroyed in an hour by Mr Reed's ship "Devastation," now building at Portsmouth, if armed on the proposed system.

An old toper being requested to! define hard drinking said," It is sitting on a rock and sipping cold water." I

A gentleman lately complimented a lady on her improved appearance. " You are guilty of flattery," said the lady. " Not so," replied he, " for I vow you are a* plump as a partirJge.'' "At first " said the lady, "I thought you guilty of flattery only, but you are now actually making game of me." A leather medal having been offered for the worst possible conundrum, the prize|was unhesitatingly awarded to the following, selected from several hundreds sent in : —" Why is rascality like the breast of a fowl ?" " Because it is a " piece of chicane."

The other day in Holborn, an excited individual, with a carpet bag in one band, an umbrella in the other, and a shawl hanging over his arm, accosted one of-the street boys with the following question—" I say, boy, which is the quickest way for me to get to Charing Cross station ?" " Eun !" was the laconic response. If a man and his wife go to France together, what is the difference in their mode of travelling ? He goes " abroad" and she " a-long." A Trench soldier, on hio return from the scene of war, being asked by his friends what exploits he had done, replied that he had cut off one of the Prussian's legs ; and being told that it would have been more manly to have cut off his head, " Oh," said he, " that was cut off before."

"My son," said an affectionate and anxious mother to her reckless offspring, " whenever you go skating be sure to choose a pond that hasn't any water in it, and then you'll never be drowned."