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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aircraft and Submarines, by Willis J. Abbot
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Aircraft and Submarines
+       The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day
+       Uses of War's Newest Weapons
+
+Author: Willis J. Abbot
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2009 [EBook #30047]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Christine P.
+Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+has been maintained.
+
+{} are used to inclose superscript.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Fighting by Sea and Sky._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+
+
+
+AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES
+
+The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day Uses of
+War's Newest Weapons
+
+By
+
+WILLIS J. ABBOT
+
+Author of "The Story of Our Army," "The Story of Our Navy," "The
+Nations at War"
+
+
+_With Eight Color Plates and 100 Other Illustrations_
+
+
+
+
+  G. P. Putnam's Sons
+  New York and London
+  The Knickerbocker Press
+  1918
+
+  Copyright, 1918
+  By
+  WILLIS J. ABBOT
+
+  The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Not since gunpowder was first employed in warfare has so
+revolutionary a contribution to the science of slaughtering men been
+made as by the perfection of aircraft and submarines. The former
+have had their first employment in this world-wide war of the
+nations. The latter, though in the experimental stage as far back as
+the American Revolution, have in this bitter contest been for the
+first time brought to so practical a stage of development as to
+exert a really appreciable influence on the outcome of the struggle.
+
+Comparatively few people appreciate how the thought of navigating
+the air's dizziest heights and the sea's gloomiest depths has
+obsessed the minds of inventors. From the earliest days of history
+men have grappled with the problem, yet it is only within two
+hundred years for aircraft and one hundred for submarines that any
+really intelligent start has been made upon its solution. The men
+who really gave practical effect to the vague theories which others
+set up--in aircraft the Wrights, Santos-Dumont, and Count Zeppelin;
+in submarines Lake and Holland--are either still living, or have
+died so recently that their memory is still fresh in the minds of
+all.
+
+In this book the author has sketched swiftly the slow stages by
+which in each of these fields of activity success has been attained.
+He has collated from the immense mass of records of the activities
+of both submarines and aircraft enough interesting data to show the
+degree of perfection and practicability to which both have been
+brought. And he has outlined so far as possible from existing
+conditions the possibilities of future usefulness in fields other
+than those of war of these new devices.
+
+The most serious difficulty encountered in dealing with the present
+state and future development of aircraft is the rapidity with which
+that development proceeds. Before a Congressional Committee last
+January an official testified that grave delay in the manufacture of
+airplanes for the army had been caused by the fact that types
+adopted a scant three months before had become obsolete, because of
+experience on the European battlefields, and later inventions before
+the first machines could be completed. There may be exaggeration in
+the statement but it is largely true. Neither the machines nor the
+tactics employed at the beginning of the war were in use in its
+fourth year. The course of this evolution, with its reasons, are
+described in this volume.
+
+Opportunities for the peaceful use of airplanes are beginning to
+suggest themselves daily. After the main body of this book was in
+type the Postmaster-General of the United States called for bids for
+an aërial mail service between New York and Washington--an act urged
+upon the Government in this volume. That service contemplates a
+swift carriage of first-class mail at an enhanced price--the
+tentative schedule being three hours, and a postage fee of
+twenty-five cents an ounce. There can be no doubt of the success of
+the service, its value to the public, and its possibilities of
+revenue to the post-office. Once its usefulness is established it
+will be extended to routes of similar length, such as New York and
+Boston, New York and Buffalo, or New York and Pittsburgh. The mind
+suggests no limit to the extension of aërial service, both postal
+and passenger, in the years of industrial activity that shall follow
+the war.
+
+In the preparation of this book the author has made use of many
+records of personal experiences of those who have dared the air's
+high altitudes and the sea's stilly depths. For permission to use
+certain of these he wishes to express his thanks to the Century Co.,
+for extracts from _My Airships_ by Santos-Dumont; to Doubleday, Page
+& Co., for extracts from _Flying for France_, by James R. McConnell;
+to Charles Scribner's Sons, for material drawn from _With the French
+Flying Corps_, by Carroll Dana Winslow; to _Collier's Weekly_, for
+certain extracts from interviews with Wilbur Wright; to _McClure's
+Magazine_, for the account of Mr. Ray Stannard Baker's trip in a
+Lake submarine; to Hearst's International Library, and to the
+_Scientific American_, for the use of several illustrations.
+
+                                                    W. J. A.
+
+NEW YORK, 1918.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                  Page
+    PREFACE                                                        iii
+
+  CHAPTER
+
+     I.--Introductory                                                3
+
+    II.--The Earliest Flying Men                                    14
+
+   III.--The Services of Santos-Dumont                              39
+
+    IV.--The Count von Zeppelin                                     59
+
+     V.--The Development of the Airplane                            82
+
+    VI.--The Training of the Aviator                               103
+
+   VII.--Some Methods of the War in the Air                        123
+
+  VIII.--Incidents of the War in the Air                           159
+
+    IX.--The United States at War                                  182
+
+     X.--Some Features of Aërial Warfare                           207
+
+    XI.--Beginnings of Submarine Invention                         235
+
+   XII.--The Coming of Steam and Electricity                       256
+
+  XIII.--John P. Holland and Simon Lake                            271
+
+   XIV.--The Modern Submarine                                      294
+
+    XV.--Aboard a Submarine                                        318
+
+   XVI.--Submarine Warfare                                         333
+
+  XVII.--The Future of the Submarine                               362
+
+         Index                                                     383
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                                  Page
+  Fighting by Sea and Sky                               _Frontispiece_
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  Dropping a Depth Bomb                                              4
+      Painting by Lieut. Farré
+
+  A Battle in Mid-air                                                8
+      Painting by Lieut. Farré
+
+  Victory in the Clouds                                             12
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  The Fall of the Boche                                             16
+      Painting by Lieut. Farré
+
+  Lana's Vacuum Balloon                                             18
+
+  Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon                                21
+
+  A Rescue at Sea                                                   24
+      Painting by Lieut. Farré
+
+  Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon                                   27
+
+  Charles's Balloon                                                 31
+
+  A French Observation Balloon on Fire                              32
+
+  Roberts Brothers' Dirigible                                       34
+
+  Giffard's Dirigible                                               37
+
+  A British Kite Balloon                                            40
+
+  British "Blimp"                                                   40
+      Photographed from Above.
+
+  A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship                     48
+
+  The Giant and the Pigmies                                         60
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A French "Sausage"                                                64
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  A British "Blimp"                                                 64
+
+  The Death of a Zeppelin                                           72
+      Photo by Paul Thompson
+
+  A German Dirigible, Hansa Type                                    76
+
+  A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika                                    76
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  British Aviators about to Ascend                                  80
+
+  Langley's Airplane                                                84
+
+  A French Airdrome near the Front                                  84
+
+  Lilienthal's Glider                                               86
+
+  A German War Zeppelin                                             88
+
+  French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines                     88
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  Chanute's Glider                                                  90
+
+  A German Taube Pursued by British Planes                          92
+
+  The First Wright Glider                                           93
+
+  Pilcher's Glider                                                  94
+
+  Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes at the Opening
+    of the War                                                      96
+
+  Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Dirigibles at the Opening
+    of the War                                                      96
+
+  The Wright Glider                                                 98
+
+  At a French Airplane Base                                        100
+      International Film Service
+
+  Stringfellow's Airplane                                          101
+
+  The "America"--Built to Cross the Atlantic                       104
+
+  A Wright Airplane in Flight                                      104
+
+  First Americans to Fly in France                                 108
+     The Lafayette Escadrille
+
+  Distinguishing Marks of American Planes                          116
+
+  What an Aviator must Watch                                       116
+
+  A Caproni Triplane                                               124
+
+  A Caproni Triplane Showing Propellers and Fuselage               124
+
+  The Terror that Flieth by Night                                  128
+      Painting by Wm. J. Wilson
+
+  A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship                           132
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  Launching a Hydroaëroplane                                       132
+
+  At a United States Training Camp                                 138
+
+  A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top                                138
+
+  Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a Balloon Struck by
+    Incendiary Shells                                              140
+
+  The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled                         140
+
+  German Air Raiders over England                                  144
+
+  One Aviator's Narrow Escape                                      148
+
+  Downed in the Enemy's Country                                    156
+
+  Position of Gunner in Early French Machine                       160
+
+  Later Type of French Scout                                       160
+      Photo by Kadel & Herbert
+
+  A French Scout Airplane                                          168
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  "Showing Off." A Nieuport Performing Aërial Acrobatics around a
+    Heavier Bombing Machine                                        168
+
+  An Air Raid on a Troop Train                                     174
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A Burning Balloon, Photographed from a Parachute by the Escaping
+    Balloonist                                                     176
+
+  A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth Building                184
+
+  Cruising at 2000 Feet. One Biplane Photographed from Another     184
+
+  An Air Battle in Progress                                        192
+
+  A Curtis Hydroaroplane                                           192
+
+  The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola                             208
+
+  Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to New York Flight         216
+
+  A French Aviator between Flights                                 216
+
+  A German "Gotha"--Their Favorite Type                            224
+
+  A French Monoplane                                               232
+
+  A German Scout Brought to Earth in France                        232
+
+  A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane                       240
+
+  A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb                                244
+
+  A Bomb-Dropping Taube                                            248
+
+  A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the Invalides              252
+
+  A British Seaplane with Folding Wings                            252
+
+  British Anti-Aircraft Guns                                       256
+
+  An Anti-Aircraft Outpost                                         264
+
+  A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun                                264
+
+  The Submarine's Perfect Work                                     270
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  Types of American Aircraft                                       272
+
+  For Anti-Aircraft Service                                        288
+
+  The Latest French Aircraft Guns                                  288
+
+  Modern German Airplane Types                                     296
+
+  A German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by the British            304
+
+  The Exterior of First German Submarine                           312
+
+  The Interior of First German Submarine, Showing Appliances for
+    Man-Power                                                      312
+
+  A Torpedo Designed by Fulton                                     320
+
+  The Method of Attack by Nautilus                                 320
+
+  The Capture of a U-Boat                                          324
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A British Submarine                                              336
+
+  Sectional View of the Nautilus                                   336
+
+  U. S. Submarine H-3 aground on California Coast                  344
+
+  Salvaging H-3. Views I, II, and III                              348
+
+  U. S. Submarine D-1 off Weehawken                                352
+
+  A Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal                356
+
+  A Critical Moment                                                360
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A Submarine Built for Chili Passing through Cape Cod Canal       364
+
+  A Submarine Entrapped by Nets                                    368
+
+  Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British     372
+
+  A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo                                374
+
+  A German Submarine in Three Positions                            376
+
+  Sectional View of a British Submarine                            380
+
+
+
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+It was at Mons in the third week of the Great War. The grey-green
+German hordes had overwhelmed the greater part of Belgium and were
+sweeping down into France whose people and military establishment
+were all unprepared for attack from that quarter. For days the
+little British army of perhaps 100,000 men, that forlorn hope which
+the Germans scornfully called "contemptible," but which man for man
+probably numbered more veteran fighters than any similar unit on
+either side, had been stoutly holding back the enemy's right wing
+and fighting for the delay that alone could save Paris. At Mons they
+had halted, hoping that here was the spot to administer to von
+Kluck, beating upon their front, the final check. The hope was
+futile. Looking back upon the day with knowledge of what General
+French's army faced--a knowledge largely denied to him--it seems
+that the British escape from annihilation was miraculous. And indeed
+it was due to a modern miracle--the conquest of the air by man in
+the development of the airplane.
+
+General French was outnumbered and in danger of being flanked on his
+left flank. His right he thought safe, for it was in contact with
+the French line which extended eastward along the bank of the Somme
+to where the dark fortress of Namur frowned on the steeps formed by
+the junction of that river with the Meuse. At that point the French
+line bent to the south following the course of the latter river.
+
+Namur was expected to hold out for weeks. Its defence lasted but
+three days! As a matter of fact it did not delay the oncoming
+Germans a day, for they invested it and drove past in their fierce
+assault upon Joffre's lines. Enormously outnumbered, the French were
+broken and forced to retreat. They left General French's right flank
+in the air, exposed to envelopment by von Kluck who was already
+reaching around the left flank. The German troops were ample in
+number to surround the British, cut them off from all support, and
+crush or capture them all. This indeed they were preparing to do
+while General French, owing to some mischance never yet explained,
+was holding his ground utterly without knowledge that his allies had
+already retired leaving his flank without protection.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Peter A. Juley.
+
+_Dropping a Depth Bomb._
+
+_From the Painting by Lieutenant Farré._]
+
+When that fatal information arrived belatedly at the British
+headquarters it seemed like a death warrant. The right of the line
+had already been exposed for more than half-a-day. It was
+inexplicable that it had not already been attacked. It was
+unbelievable that the attack would not fall the next moment. But how
+would it be delivered and where, and what force would the enemy
+bring to it? Was von Kluck lulling the British into a false sense
+of security by leaving the exposed flank unmenaced while he gained
+their rear and cut off their retreat? Questions such as these
+demanded immediate answer. Ten years before the most dashing scouts
+would have clattered off to the front and would have required a day,
+perhaps more, to complete the necessary reconnaissance. But though
+of all nations, except of course the utterly negligent United
+States, Great Britain had least developed her aviation corps, there
+were attached to General French's headquarters enough airmen to meet
+this need. In a few minutes after the disquieting news arrived the
+beat of the propellers rose above the din of the battlefield and the
+airplanes appeared above the enemy's lines. An hour or two sufficed
+to gather the necessary facts, the fliers returned to headquarters,
+and immediately the retreat was begun.
+
+It was a beaten army that plodded back to the line of the Marne. Its
+retreat at times narrowly approached a rout. But the army was not
+crushed, annihilated. It remained a coherent, serviceable part of
+the allied line in the successful action speedily fought along the
+Marne. But had it not been for the presence of the airmen the
+British expeditionary force would have been wiped out then and
+there.
+
+The battle of Mons gave the soldiers a legend which still
+persists--that of the ghostly English bowmen of the time of Edward
+the Black Prince who came back from their graves to save that field
+for England and for France. Thousands of simple souls believe that
+legend to-day. But it is no whit more unbelievable than the story of
+an army saved by a handful of men flying thousands of feet above the
+field would have been had it been told of a battle in our Civil War.
+The world has believed in ghosts for centuries and the Archers of
+Mons are the legitimate successors of the Great Twin Brethren at the
+Battle of Lake Regillus. But Cæsar, Napoleon, perhaps the elder von
+Moltke himself would have scoffed at the idea that men could turn
+themselves into birds to spy out the enemy's dispositions and save a
+sorely menaced army.
+
+When this war has passed into history it will be recognized that its
+greatest contributions to military science have been the development
+and the use of aircraft and submarines. There have, of course, been
+other features in the method of waging war which have been novel
+either in themselves, or in the gigantic scale upon which they have
+been employed. There is, for example, nothing new about trench
+warfare. The American who desires to satisfy himself about that need
+only to visit the Military Park at Vicksburg, or the country about
+Petersburg or Richmond, to recognize that even fifty years ago our
+soldiers understood the art of sheltering themselves from bullet and
+shrapnel in the bosom of Mother Earth. The trench warfare in
+Flanders, the Argonne, and around Verdun has been novel only in the
+degree to which it has been developed and perfected. Concrete-lined
+trenches, with spacious and well-furnished bomb-proofs, with
+phonographs, printing presses, and occasional dramatic performances
+for lightening the soldiers' lot present an impressive elaboration
+of the muddy ditches of Virginia and Mississippi. Yet after all the
+boys of Grant and Lee had the essentials of trench warfare well in
+mind half a century before Germany, France, and England came to
+grips on the long line from the North Sea to the Vosges.
+
+Asphyxiating gas, whether liberated from a shell, or released along
+a trench front to roll slowly down before a wind upon its
+defenders, was a novelty of this war. But in some degree it was
+merely a development of the "stinkpot" which the Chinese have
+employed for years. So too the tear-bomb, or lachrymatory bomb,
+which painfully irritated the eyes of all in its neighbourhood when
+it burst, filling them with tears and making the soldiers
+practically helpless in the presence of a swift attack. These two
+weapons of offence, and particularly the first, because of the
+frightful and long-continuing agony it inflicts upon its victims,
+fascinated the observer, and awakened the bitter protests of those
+who held that an issue at war might be determined by civilized
+nations without recourse to engines of death and anguish more
+barbaric than any known to the red Indians, or the most savage
+tribes of Asia. Neither of these devices, nor for that matter the
+cognate one of fire spurted like a liquid from a hose upon a
+shrinking enemy, can be shown to have had any appreciable effect
+upon the fortunes of any great battle. Each, as soon as employed by
+any one belligerent, was quickly seized by the adversary, and the
+respiratory mask followed fast upon the appearance of the chlorine
+gas. Whatever the outcome of the gigantic conflict may be, no one
+will claim that any of these devices had contributed greatly to the
+result.
+
+But the airplane revolutionized warfare on land. The submarine has
+made an almost equal revolution in naval warfare.
+
+Had the airplane been known in the days of our Civil War some of its
+most picturesque figures would have never risen to eminence or at
+least would have had to win their places in history by efforts of an
+entirely different sort. There is no place left in modern military
+tactics for the dashing cavalry scout of the type of Sheridan,
+Custer, Fitz Lee, or Forrest. The airplane, soaring high above the
+lines of the enemy, brings back to headquarters in a few hours
+information that in the old times took a detachment of cavalry days
+to gather. The "screen of cavalry" that in bygone campaigns
+commanders used to mask their movements no longer screens nor masks.
+A general moves with perfect knowledge that his enemy's aircraft
+will report to their headquarters his roads, his strength, and his
+probable destination as soon as his vanguard is off. During the
+Federal advance upon Richmond, Stonewall Jackson, most brilliant of
+the generals of that war, repeatedly slipped away from the Federal
+front, away from the spot where the Federal commanders confidently
+supposed him to be, and was found days later in the Valley of the
+Shenandoah, threatening Washington or menacing the Union rear and
+its communications. The war was definitely prolonged by this
+Confederate dash and elusiveness--none of which would have been
+possible had the Union forces possessed an aviation corps.
+
+[Illustration: _A Battle in Mid-air._
+
+(_Note rifleman on wing of airplane._)
+
+_From the painting by Lieutenant Farré._
+
+Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
+
+It is yet to be shown conclusively that as offensive engines
+aircraft have any great value. The tendency of the military
+authorities of every side to minimize the damage they have suffered
+makes any positive conclusion on this subject difficult and
+dangerous at this moment. The airplane by day or the Zeppelin by
+night appears swiftly and mysteriously, drops its bombs from a
+height of several thousand feet, and takes its certain flight
+through the boundless sky to safety. The aggressor cannot tell
+whether his bombs have found a fitting target. He reports flaming
+buildings left behind him, but whether they are munition factories,
+theatres, or primary schools filled with little children he cannot
+tell. Nor does he know how quickly the flames were extinguished, or
+the amount of damage done. The British boast of successful air raids
+upon Cuxhaven, Zeebrugge, Essen, and Friedrichshaven. But if we take
+German official reports we must be convinced that the damage done
+was negligible in its relation to the progress of the war. In their
+turn the Germans brag mightily of the deeds of their Zeppelins over
+London, and smaller British towns. But the sum and substance of
+their accomplishment, according to the British reports, has been the
+slaughter and mutilation of a number of civilians--mostly women and
+children--and the bloody destruction of many humble working-class
+homes.
+
+At this writing, December, 1917, it is not recorded that any
+battleship, munition factory, any headquarters, great government
+building, or fortress has been destroyed or seriously injured by the
+activities of aircraft of either type. This lack of precise
+information may be due to the censor rather than to any lack of
+great deeds on the part of airmen. We do know of successful attacks
+on submarines, though the military authorities are chary about
+giving out the facts. But as scouts, messengers, and guides for
+hidden batteries attacking unseen targets, aviators have compelled
+the rewriting of the rules of military strategy. About this time,
+however, it became apparent that the belligerents intended to
+develop the battleplanes. Particularly was this true of the Allies.
+The great measure of success won by the German submarines and the
+apparent impossibility of coping adequately with those weapons of
+death once they had reached the open sea, led the British and the
+Americans to consider the possibility of destroying them in their
+bases and destroying the bases as well. But Kiel and Wilhelmshaven
+were too heavily defended to make an attack by sea seem at all
+practicable. The lesser ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend had been
+successfully raided from the air and made practically useless as
+submarine bases. Discussion therefore was strong of making like
+raids with heavier machines carrying heavier guns and dropping more
+destructive bombs upon the two chief lurking places of the
+submarines. While no conclusion had been reached as to this strategy
+at the time of the publication of this book, both nations were busy
+building larger aircraft probably for use in such an attack.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+The submarine has exerted upon the progress of the war an influence
+even more dominant than that of aircraft. It has been a positive
+force both offensive and defensive. It has been Germany's only
+potent weapon for bringing home to the British the privations and
+want which war entails upon a civilian population, and at the same
+time guarding the German people from the fullest result of the
+British blockade. It is no overstatement to declare that but for the
+German submarines the war would have ended in the victory of the
+Allies in 1916.
+
+We may hark back to our own Civil War for an illustration of the
+crushing power of a superior navy not qualified by any serviceable
+weapon in the hands of the weaker power.
+
+Historians have very generally failed to ascribe to the Federal
+blockade of Confederate ports its proportionate influence on the
+outcome of that war. The Confederates had no navy. Their few naval
+vessels were mere commerce destroyers, fleeing the ships of the
+United States navy and preying upon unarmed merchantmen. With what
+was rapidly developed into the most powerful navy the world had ever
+seen, the United States Government from the very beginning of the
+war locked the Confederate States in a wall of iron. None might pass
+going in or out, except by stealth and at the peril of property and
+life. Outside the harbour of every seaport in the control of the
+Confederates the blockading men-of-war lurked awaiting the blockade
+runners. Their vigilance was often eluded, of course, yet
+nevertheless the number of cargoes that slipped through was
+painfully inadequate to meet the needs of the fenced-in States.
+Clothing, medicines, articles of necessary household use were denied
+to civilians. Cannon, rifles, saltpetre, and other munitions of war
+were withheld from the Confederate armies. While the ports of the
+North were bustling with foreign trade, grass grew on the
+cobble-stoned streets along the waterfronts of Charleston and
+Savannah. Slow starvation aided the constant pounding of the
+Northern armies in reducing the South to subjection.
+
+Had the Confederacy possessed but a few submarines of modern type
+this situation could not have persisted. Then, as to-day, neutral
+nations were eager to trade with both belligerents. There were then
+more neutrals whose interests would have compelled the observance of
+the laws of blockade, which in the present war are flagrantly
+violated by all belligerents with impunity. A submarine raid which
+would have sunk or driven away the blockading fleet at the entrance
+to a single harbour would have resulted in opening that harbour to
+the unrestricted uses of neutral ships until the blockade could be
+re-established and formal notice given to all powers--a formality
+which in those days, prior to the existence of cables, would have
+entailed weeks, perhaps months, of delay.
+
+How serious such an interruption to the blockade was then considered
+was shown by the trepidation of the Union naval authorities over the
+first victories of the _Merrimac_ prior to the providential arrival
+of the _Monitor_ in Hampton Roads. It was then thought that the
+Confederate ram would go straight to Wilmington, Charleston, and
+Savannah, destroy or drive away the blockaders, and open the
+Confederacy to the trade of the world.
+
+Even then men dreamed of submarines, as indeed they have since the
+days of the American Revolution. Of the slow development of that
+engine of war to its present effectiveness we shall speak more fully
+in later chapters. Enough now to say that had the Confederacy
+possessed boats of the U-53 type the story of our Civil War might
+have had a different ending. The device which the Allies have
+adopted to-day of blockading a port or ports by posting their ships
+several hundred miles away would have found no toleration among
+neutrals none too friendly to the United States, and vastly stronger
+in proportion to the power of this nation than all the neutrals
+to-day are to the strength of the Allies.
+
+[Illustration: _Victory in the Clouds._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+From the beginning of the Great War in Europe the fleets of the
+Teutonic alliance were locked up in port by the superior floating
+forces of the Entente. Such sporadic dashes into the arena of
+conflict as the one made by the German High Fleet, bringing on the
+Battle of Jutland, had but little bearing on the progress of the
+war. But the steady, persistent malignant activity of the German
+submarines had everything to do with it. They mitigated the
+rigidity of the British blockade by keeping the blockaders far from
+the ports they sought to seal. They preyed on the British fleets by
+sinking dreadnoughts, battleships, and cruisers in nearly all of the
+belligerent seas. If the British navy justified its costly power by
+keeping the German fleet practically imprisoned in its fortified
+harbours, the German submarines no less won credit and glory by
+keeping even that overwhelming naval force restricted in its
+movements, ever on guard, ever in a certain sense on the defensive.
+And meanwhile these underwater craft so preyed upon British
+foodships that in the days of the greatest submarine activity
+England was reduced to husbanding her stores of food with almost as
+great thrift and by precisely the same methods as did Germany
+suffering from the British blockade.
+
+Aircraft and submarines! Twin terrors of the world's greatest war!
+The development, though by no means the final development, of dreams
+that men of many nations have dreamed throughout the centuries! They
+are two of the outstanding features of the war; two of its legacies
+to mankind. How much the legacy may be worth in peaceful times is
+yet to be determined. The airplane and the dirigible at any rate
+seem already to promise useful service to peaceful man. Already the
+flier is almost as common a spectacle in certain sections of our
+country as the automobile was fifteen years ago. The submarine, for
+economic reasons, promises less for the future in the way of
+peaceful service, notwithstanding the exploits of the _Deutschland_
+in the ocean-carrying trade. But perhaps it too will find its place
+in industry when awakened man shall be willing to spend as much
+treasure, as much genius, as much intelligent effort, and as much
+heroic self-sacrifice in organizing for the social good as in the
+last four years he has expended in its destruction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EARLIEST FLYING MEN
+
+
+The conquest of the air has been the dream of mankind for uncounted
+centuries. As far back as we have historic records we find stories
+of the attempts of men to fly. The earliest Greek mythology is full
+of aeronautical legends, and the disaster which befell Icarus and
+his wings of wax when exposed to the glare of the midsummer sun in
+Greece, is part of the schoolboy's task in Ovid. We find like
+traditions in the legendary lore of the Peruvians, the East Indians,
+the Babylonians, even the savage races of darkest Africa. In the
+Hebrew scriptures the chief badge of sanctity conferred on God's
+angels was wings, and the ability to fly. If we come down to the
+mythology of more recent times we find our pious ancestors in New
+England thoroughly convinced that the witches they flogged and
+hanged were perfectly able to navigate the air on a broomstick--thus
+antedating the Wrights' experiments with heavier-than-air machines
+by more than 250 years.
+
+It is an interesting fact, stimulating to philosophical reflection,
+that in the last decade more has been done toward the conquest of
+the air, than in the twenty centuries preceding it, though during
+all that period men had been dreaming, planning, and experimenting
+upon contrivances for flight. Moreover when success came--or such
+measure of success as has been won--it came by the application of an
+entirely novel principle hardly dreamed of before the nineteenth
+century.
+
+Some of the earlier efforts to master gravity and navigate the air
+are worthy of brief mention if only to show how persistent were the
+efforts from the earliest historic ages to accomplish this end.
+Passing over the legends of the time of mythology we find that
+many-sided genius, Leonardo da Vinci, early in the sixteenth
+century, not content with being a painter, architect, sculptor,
+engineer and designer of forts, offering drawings and specifications
+of wings which, fitted to men, he thought would enable them to fly.
+The sketches are still preserved in a museum at Paris. He modelled
+his wings on those of a bat and worked them with ropes passing over
+pulleys, the aviator lying prone, face downward, and kicking with
+both arms and legs with the vigour of a frog. There is, unhappily,
+no record that the proposition ever advanced beyond the literary
+stage--certainly none that Da Vinci himself thus risked his life.
+History records no one who kicked his way aloft with the Da Vinci
+device. But the manuscript which the projector left shows that he
+recognized the modern aviator's maxim, "There's safety in altitude."
+He says, in somewhat confused diction:
+
+     The bird should with the aid of the wind raise itself to a great
+     height, and this will be its safety; because although the
+     revolutions mentioned may happen there is time for it to recover
+     its equilibrium, provided its various parts are capable of strong
+     resistance so that they may safely withstand the fury and impetus
+     of the descent.
+
+[Illustration: _The Fall of the Boche._
+
+_From the painting by Lieutenant Farré._
+
+Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
+
+The fallacy that a man could, by the rapid flapping of wings of any
+sort, overcome the force of gravity persisted up to a very recent
+day, despite the complete mathematical demonstration by von
+Helmholtz in 1878 that man could not possibly by his own muscular
+exertions raise his own weight into the air and keep it suspended.
+Time after time the "flapping wings" were resorted to by ambitious
+aviators with results akin to those attained by Darius Green. One of
+the earliest was a French locksmith named Besnier, who had four
+collapsible planes on two rods balanced across his shoulders. These
+he vigorously moved up and down with his hands and feet, the planes
+opening like covers of a book as they came down, and closing as they
+came up. Besnier made no attempt to raise himself from the ground,
+but believed that once launched in the air from an elevation he
+could maintain himself, and glide gradually to earth at a
+considerable distance. It is said that he and one or two of his
+students did in a way accomplish this. Others, however,
+experimenting with the same method came to sorry disaster. Among
+these was an Italian friar whom King James IV. of Scotland had made
+Prior of Tongland. Equipped with a pair of large feather wings
+operated on the Besnier principle, he launched himself from the
+battlements of Stirling Castle in the presence of King James and
+his court. But gravity was too much for his apparatus, and turning
+over and over in mid-air he finally landed ingloriously on a manure
+heap--at that period of nascent culture a very common feature of the
+pleasure grounds of a palace. He had a soul above his fate however,
+for he ascribed his fall not to vulgar mechanical causes, but wholly
+to the fact that he had overlooked the proper dignity of flight by
+pluming his wings with the feathers of common barn-yard fowl instead
+of with plumes plucked from the wings of eagles!
+
+In sharp competition with the aspiring souls who sought to fly with
+wings--the forerunners of the airplane devotees of to-day--were
+those who tried to find some direct lifting device for a car which
+should contain the aviators. Some of their ideas were curiously
+logical and at the same time comic. There was, for example, a
+priest, Le Père Galien of Avignon. He observed that the rarified air
+at the summit of the Alps was vastly lighter than that in the
+valleys below. What then was to hinder carrying up empty sacks of
+cotton or oiled silk to the mountain tops, opening them to the
+lighter air of the upper ranges, and sealing them hermetically when
+filled by it. When brought down into the valleys they would have
+lifting power enough to carry tons up to the summits again. The good
+Father's education in physics was not sufficiently advanced to warn
+him that the effort to drag the balloons down into the valley would
+exact precisely the force they would exert in lifting any load out
+of the valley--if indeed they possessed any lifting power
+whatsoever, which is exceedingly doubtful.
+
+Another project, which sounded logical enough, was based on the
+irrefutable truth that as air has some weight--to be exact 14.70
+pounds for a column one inch square and the height of the earth's
+atmosphere--a vacuum must be lighter, as it contains nothing, not
+even air. Accordingly in the seventeenth century, one Francisco
+Lana, another priest, proposed to build an airship supported by four
+globes of copper, very thin and light, from which all the air had
+been pumped. The globes were to be twenty feet in diameter, and were
+estimated to have a lifting force of 2650 pounds. The weight of the
+copper shells was put at 1030 pounds, leaving a margin of possible
+weight for the car and its contents of 1620 pounds. It seemed at
+first glance a perfectly reasonable and logical plan. Unhappily one
+factor in the problem had been ignored. The atmospheric pressure on
+each of the globes would be about 1800 tons. Something more than a
+thin copper shell would be needed to resist this crushing force and
+an adequate increase in the strength of the shells would so enhance
+their weight as to destroy their lifting power.
+
+[Illustration: Lana's Vacuum Balloon.]
+
+To tell at length the stories of attempt and failure of the earliest
+dabblers in aeronautics would be unprofitable and uninteresting. Not
+until the eighteenth century did the experimenters with
+lighter-than-air devices show any practical results. Not until the
+twentieth century did the advocates of the heavier-than-air machines
+show the value of their fundamental idea. The former had to discover
+a gaseous substance actually lighter, and much lighter, than the
+surrounding atmosphere before they could make headway. The latter
+were compelled to abandon wholly the effort to imitate the flapping
+of a bird's wings, and study rather the method by which the bird
+adjusts the surface of its wings to the wind and soars without
+apparent effort, before they could show the world any promising
+results.
+
+Nearly every step forward in applied science is accomplished because
+of the observation by some thoughtful mind of some common phenomenon
+of nature, and the later application of those observations to some
+useful purpose.
+
+It seems a far cry from an ancient Greek philosopher reposing
+peacefully in his bath to a modern Zeppelin, but the connection is
+direct. Every schoolboy knows the story of the sudden dash of
+Archimedes, stark and dripping from his tub, with the triumphant cry
+of "Eureka!"--"I have found it!" What he had found was the rule
+which governed the partial flotation of his body in water. Most of
+us observe it, but the philosophical mind alone inquired "Why?"
+Archimedes' answer was this rule which has become a fundamental of
+physics: "A body plunged into a fluid is subjected by this fluid to
+a pressure from below to above equal to the weight of the fluid
+displaced by the body." A balloon is plunged in the air--a fluid. If
+it is filled with air there is no upward pressure from below, but if
+it is filled with a gas lighter than air there is a pressure upward
+equal to the difference between the weight of that gas and that of
+an equal quantity of air. Upon that fact rests the whole theory and
+practice of ballooning.
+
+The illustration of James Watt watching the steam rattle the cover
+of a teapot and from it getting the rudimentary idea of the steam
+engine is another case in point. Sometimes however the application
+of the hints of nature to the needs of man is rather ludicrously
+indirect. Charles Lamb gravely averred that because an early
+Chinaman discovered that the flesh of a pet pig, accidentally
+roasted in the destruction by fire of his owner's house, proved
+delicious to the palate, the Chinese for years made a practice of
+burning down their houses to get roast pig with "crackling." Early
+experimenters in aviation observed that birds flapped their wings
+and flew. Accordingly they believed that man to fly must have wings
+and flap them likewise. Not for hundreds of years did they observe
+that most birds flapped their wings only to get headway, or
+altitude, thereafter soaring to great heights and distances merely
+by adjusting the angle of their wings to the various currents of air
+they encountered.
+
+In a similar way the earliest experimenters with balloons observed
+that smoke always ascended. "Let us fill a light envelope with
+smoke," said they, "and it will rise into the air bearing a burden
+with it." All of which was true enough, and some of the first
+balloonists cast upon their fires substances like sulphur and pitch
+in order to produce a thicker smoke, which they believed had greater
+lifting power than ordinary hot air.
+
+In the race for actual accomplishment the balloonists, the advocates
+of lighter-than-air machines, took the lead at first. It is
+customary and reasonable to discard as fanciful the various devices
+and theories put forward by the experimenters in the Middle Ages and
+fix the beginning of practical aeronautical devices with the
+invention of hot-air balloons by the Montgolfiers, of Paris, in
+1783.
+
+The Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Jacques, were paper-makers of
+Paris. The family had long been famous for its development of the
+paper trade, and the many ingenious uses to which they put its
+staple. Just as the tanners of the fabled town in the Middle Ages
+thought there was "nothing like leather" with which to build its
+walls and gates, thereby giving a useful phrase to literature, so
+the Montgolfiers thought of everything in terms of paper. Sitting by
+their big open fireplace one night, so runs the story, they noticed
+the smoke rushing up the chimney. "Why not fill a big paper bag with
+smoke and make it lift objects into the air?" cried one. The
+experiment was tried next day with a small bag and proved a complete
+success. A neighbouring housewife looked in, and saw the bag bumping
+about the ceiling, but rapidly losing its buoyancy as the smoke
+escaped.
+
+[Illustration: Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon.]
+
+"Why not fasten a pan below the mouth of the bag," said she, "and
+put your fire in that? Its weight will keep the bag upright, and
+when it rises will carry the smoke and the pan up with it."
+
+Acting upon the hint the brothers fixed up a small bag which sailed
+up into the air beyond recapture. After various experiments a bag of
+mixed paper and linen thirty-five feet in diameter was inflated and
+released. It soared to a height of six thousand feet, and drifted
+before the wind a mile or more before descending. The ascent took
+place at Avonay, the home at the time of the Montgolfiers, and as
+every sort of publicity was given in advance, a huge assemblage
+including many officials of high estate gathered to witness it. A
+roaring fire was built in a pit over the mouth of which eight men
+held the great sack, which rolled, and beat about before the wind as
+it filled and took the form of a huge ball. The crowd was
+unbelieving and cynical, inclined to scoff at the idea that mere
+smoke would carry so huge a construction up into the sky. But when
+the signal was given to cast off, the balloon rose with a swiftness
+and majesty that at first struck the crowd dumb, then moved it to
+cheers of amazement and admiration. It went up six thousand feet and
+the Montgolfiers were at once elevated to almost an equal height of
+fame. The crowd which watched the experiment was wild with
+enthusiasm; the Montgolfiers elated with the first considerable
+victory over the force of gravity. They had demonstrated a principle
+and made their names immortal. What remained was to develop that
+principle and apply it to practical ends. That development, however,
+proceeded for something more than a century before anything like a
+practical airship was constructed.
+
+But for the moment the attack on the forces which had kept the air
+virgin territory to man was not allowed to lag. In Paris public
+subscriptions were opened to defray the cost of a new and greater
+balloon. By this time it was known that hydrogen gas, or
+"inflammable air" as it was then called, was lighter than air. But
+its manufacture was then expensive and public aid was needed for the
+new experiment which would call at the outset for a thousand pounds
+of iron filings and 498 pounds of sulphuric acid wherewith to
+manufacture the gas.
+
+The first experiment had been made in the provinces. This one was
+set for Paris, and in an era when the French capital was
+intellectually more alert, more eager for novelty, more interested
+in the advancement of physical science and in new inventions than
+ever in its long history of hospitality to the new idea. They began
+to fill the bag August 23, 1783 in the _Place des Victoires_, but
+the populace so thronged that square that two days later it was
+moved half filled to Paris's most historic point, the _Champ de
+Mars_. The transfer was made at midnight through the narrow dark
+streets of mediæval Paris. Eyewitnesses have left descriptions of
+the scene. Torch-bearers lighted on its way the cortège the central
+feature of which was the great bag, half filled with gas, flabby,
+shapeless, monstrous, mysterious, borne along by men clutching at
+its formless bulk. The state had recognized the importance of the
+new device and cuirassiers in glittering breastplates on horseback,
+and halbardiers in buff leather on foot guarded it in its transit
+through the sleeping city. But Paris was not all asleep. An escort
+of the sensation-loving rabble kept pace with the guards. The cries
+of the quarters rose above the tramp of the armed men. Observers
+have recorded that the passing cab drivers were so affected by
+wonder that they clambered down from their boxes and with doffed
+hats knelt in the highway while the procession passed.
+
+The ascension, which occurred two days later, was another moving
+spectacle. In the centre of the great square which has seen so many
+historic pageants, rose the swaying, quivering balloon, now filled
+to its full capacity of twenty-two thousand feet. Whether from the
+art instinct indigenous to the French, or some superstitious idea
+like that which impels the Chinese to paint eyes on their junks, the
+balloon was lavishly decorated in water colours, with views of
+rising suns, whirling planets, and other solar bodies amongst which
+it was expected to mingle.
+
+Ranks of soldiers kept the populace at a distance, while within the
+sacred precincts strolled the King and the ladies and cavaliers of
+his court treading all unconsciously on the brink of that red terror
+soon to engulf the monarchy. The gas in the reeling bag was no more
+inflammable than the air of Paris in those days just before the
+Revolution. With a salvo of cannon the guy-ropes were released and
+the balloon vanished in the clouds.
+
+Benjamin Franklin, at the moment representing in France the American
+colonies then struggling for liberty, witnessed this ascension! "Of
+what use is a new-born child?" he remarked sententiously as the
+balloon vanished. 'Twas a saying worthy of a cautious philosopher.
+Had Franklin been in Paris in 1914 he would have found the child,
+grown to lusty manhood, a strong factor in the city's defence. It is
+worth noting by the way that so alert was the American mind at that
+period that when the news of the Montgolfiers' achievement reached
+Philadelphia it found David Rittenhouse and other members of the
+Philosophical Society already experimenting with balloons.
+
+[Illustration: _A Rescue at Sea._
+
+_From the painting by Lieutenant Farré._
+
+Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
+
+A curious sequel attended the descent of the Montgolfier craft which
+took place in a field fifteen miles from Paris. Long before the days
+of newspapers, the peasants had never heard of balloons, and this
+mysterious object, dropping from high heaven into their peaceful
+carrot patch affrighted them. Some fled. Others approached timidly,
+armed with the normal bucolic weapons--scythes and pitchforks.
+Attacked with these the fainting monster, which many took for a
+dragon, responded with loud hisses and emitted a gas of unfamiliar
+but most pestiferous odour. It suggested brimstone, which to the
+devout in turn implied the presence of Satan. With guns, flails, and
+all obtainable weapons they fell upon the emissary of the Evil One,
+beat him to the ground, crushed out of him the vile-smelling breath
+of his nostrils, and finally hitched horses to him and dragged him
+about the fields until torn to tatters and shreds.
+
+When the public-spirited M. Charles who had contributed largely to
+the cost of this experiment came in a day or two to seek his balloon
+he found nothing but some shreds of cloth, and some lively legends
+of the prowess of the peasants in demolishing the devil's own
+dragon.
+
+The government, far-sightedly, recognizing that there would be more
+balloons and useful ones, thereupon issued this proclamation for the
+discouragement of such bucolic valour:
+
+     A discovery has been made which the government deems it wise to
+     make known so that alarm may not be occasioned to the people. On
+     calculating the different weights of inflammable and common air
+     it has been found that a balloon filled with inflammable air will
+     rise toward heaven until it is in equilibrium with the
+     surrounding air; which may not happen till it has attained to a
+     great height. Anyone who should see such a globe,
+     resembling the moon in an eclipse, should be aware that far from
+     being an alarming phenomenon it is only a machine made of
+     taffetas, or light canvas covered with paper, that cannot
+     possibly cause any harm and which will some day prove serviceable
+     to the wants of society.
+
+Came now the next great step in the progress of aeronautics. It had
+been demonstrated that balloons could lift themselves. They had even
+been made to lift dumb animals and restore them to earth unhurt. But
+if the conquest of the air was to amount to anything, men must go
+aloft in these new machines. Lives must be risked to demonstrate a
+theory, or to justify a calculation. Aeronautics is no science for
+laboratory or library prosecution. Its battles must be fought in the
+sky, and its devotees must be willing to offer their lives to the
+cause. In that respect the science of aviation has been different
+from almost any subject of inquiry that has ever engaged the
+restless intellect of man, unless perhaps submarine navigation, or
+the invention of explosives. It cannot be prosecuted except with a
+perfect willingness to risk life. No doubt this is one of the
+reasons why practical results seemed so long in the coming. Nor have
+men been niggardly in this enforced sacrifice. Though no records of
+assured accuracy are available, the names of forty-eight aeronauts
+who gave up their lives in the century following the Montgolfiers'
+invention are recorded. That record ended in 1890. How many have
+since perished, particularly on the battlefields of Europe where
+aircraft are as commonplace as cannon, it is too early yet to
+estimate.
+
+[Illustration: Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon.]
+
+After the success of the ascension from the _Champ de Mars_, the
+demand at once arose for an ascension by a human being. It was a
+case of calling for volunteers. The experiments already made showed
+clearly enough that the balloon would rise high in air. Who would
+risk his life soaring one thousand feet or more above the earth, in
+a flimsy bag, filled with hot air, or inflammable gas, without means
+of directing its course or bringing it with certainty and safety
+back to a landing place? It was a hard question, and it is
+interesting to note that it was answered not by a soldier or sailor,
+not by an adventurer, or devil-may-care spirit, but by a grave and
+learned professor of physical science, Pilatre de Rozier. Presently
+he was joined in his enterprise by a young man of the fashionable
+world and sporting tastes, the Marquis d'Arlandes. Aristocratic
+Paris took up aviation in the last days of the eighteenth century,
+precisely as the American leisure class is taking it up in the first
+days of the twentieth.
+
+The balloon for this adventure was bigger than its predecessors and
+for the first time a departure was taken from the spherical
+variety--the gas bag being seventy-four feet high, and forty-eight
+feet in diameter. Like the first Montgolfier balloons it was to be
+inflated with hot air, and the car was well packed with bundles of
+fuel with which the two aeronauts were to fill the iron brazier when
+its fires went down. The instinct for art and decoration, so strong
+in the French mind, had been given full play by the constructors of
+this balloon and it was painted with something of the gorgeousness
+of a circus poster.
+
+A tremendous crowd packed the park near Paris whence the ascent was
+made. Always the spectacle of human lives in danger has a morbid
+attraction for curiosity seekers, and we have seen in our own days
+throngs attracted to aviation congresses quite as much in the
+expectation of witnessing some fatal disaster, as to observe the
+progress made in man's latest conquest over nature. But in this
+instance the occasion justified the widest interest. It was an
+historic moment--more epoch-making than those who gathered in that
+field in the environs of Paris could have possibly imagined. For in
+the clumsy, gaudy bag, rolling and tossing above a smoky fire lay
+the fundamentals of those great airships that, perfected by the
+persistence of Count Zeppelin, have crossed angry seas, breasted
+fierce winds, defied alike the blackest nights and the thickest fogs
+to rain their messages of death on the capital of a foe.
+
+Contemporary accounts of this first ascension are but few, and those
+that have survived have come down to us in but fragmentary form. It
+was thought needful for two to make the ascent, for the car, or
+basket, which held the fire hung below the open mouth of the bag,
+and the weight of a man on one side would disturb the perfect
+equilibrium which it was believed would be essential to a successful
+flight. The Marquis d'Arlandes in a published account of the brief
+flight, which sounds rather as if the two explorers of an unknown
+element were not free from nervousness, writes:
+
+"Our departure was at fifty-four minutes past one, and occasioned
+little stir among the spectators. Thinking they might be frightened
+and stand in need of encouragement I waved my arm."
+
+This solicitude for the fears of the spectators, standing safely on
+solid earth while the first aeronauts sailed skywards, is
+characteristically Gallic. The Marquis continues:
+
+     M. de Rozier cried: "You are doing nothing, and we are not
+     rising." I stirred the fire and then began to scan the river,
+     but Pilatre again cried: "See the river. We are dropping into
+     it!" We again urged the fire, but still clung to the river bed.
+     Presently I heard a noise in the upper part of the balloon,
+     which gave a shock as though it had burst. I called to my
+     companion: "Are you dancing?" The balloon by this time had many
+     holes burnt in it and using my sponge I cried that we must
+     descend. My companion however explained that we were over Paris
+     and must now cross it; therefore raising the fire once more we
+     turned south till we passed the Luxembourg, when,
+     extinguishing the flames, the balloon came down spent and
+     empty.
+
+If poor Pilatre played the part of a rather nervous man in this
+narrative he had the nerve still to go on with his aeronautical
+experiments to the point of death. In 1785 he essayed the crossing
+of the English Channel in a balloon of his own design, in which he
+sought to combine the principles of the gas and hot-air balloons. It
+appears to have been something like an effort to combine
+nitro-glycerine with an electric spark. At any rate the dense crowds
+that thronged the coast near Boulogne to see the start of the
+"Charles--Montgolfier"--as the balloon was named after the
+originators of the rival systems--saw it, after half an hour's drift
+out to sea, suddenly explode in a burst of flame. De Rozier and a
+friend who accompanied him were killed. A monument still recalls
+their fate, which however is more picturesquely recorded in the
+signs of sundry inns and cafés of the neighbourhood which offer
+refreshment in the name of _Les Aviateurs Perdus_.
+
+Thereafter experimenters with balloons multiplied amazingly. The
+world thought the solution of the problem of flight had been found
+in the gas bag. Within two months a balloon capable of lifting
+eighteen tons and carrying seven passengers ascended three thousand
+feet at Lyons, and, though sustaining a huge rent in the envelope,
+because of the expansion of the gas at that height, returned to
+earth in safety. The fever ran from France to England and in 1784,
+only a year after the first Montgolfier experiments, Lunardi, an
+Italian aeronaut made an ascension from London which was viewed by
+King George III. and his ministers, among them William Pitt. But the
+early enthusiasm for ballooning quickly died down to mere curiosity.
+It became apparent to all that merely to rise into the air, there to
+be the helpless plaything of the wind, was but a useless and futile
+accomplishment. Pleasure seekers and mountebanks used balloons for
+their own purposes, but serious experimenters at once saw that if
+the invention of the balloon was to be of the slightest practical
+value some method must be devised for controlling and directing its
+flight. To this end some of the brightest intellects of the world
+directed their efforts, but it is hardly overstating the case to say
+that more than a century passed without any considerable progress
+toward the development of a dirigible balloon.
+
+[Illustration: Charles's Balloon.]
+
+But even at the earlier time it was evident enough that the Quaker
+philosopher, from the American Colonies, not yet the United States,
+whose shrewd and inquiring disposition made him intellectually one
+of the foremost figures of his day, foresaw clearly the great
+possibilities of this new invention. In letters to Sir Joseph Banks,
+then President of the Royal Society of London, Franklin gave a
+lively account of the first three ascensions, together with some
+comments, at once suggestive and humorous, which are worth quoting:
+
+     Some think [he wrote of the balloon] Progressive Motion on the
+     Earth may be advanc'd by it, and that a Running Footman or a
+     Horse slung and suspended under such a Globe so as to have no
+     more of Weight pressing the Earth with their Feet than Perhaps
+     8 or 10 Pounds, might with a fair Wind run in a straight Line
+     across Countries as fast as that Wind, and over Hedges, Ditches
+     and even Waters. It has been even fancied that in time People
+     will keep such Globes anchored in the Air to which by Pullies
+     they may draw up Game to be preserved in the Cool and Water to
+     be frozen when Ice is wanted. And that to get Money it will be
+     contriv'd, by running them up in an Elbow Chair a Mile high for
+     a guinea, etc., etc.
+
+With his New England lineage Franklin could hardly have failed of
+this comparison: "A few Months since the Idea of Witches riding
+through the Air upon a broomstick, and that of Philosophers upon a
+Bag of Smoke would have appeared equally impossible and ridiculous."
+
+To-day when aircraft are the eyes of the armies in the greatest war
+of history, and when it appears that, with the return of peace, the
+conquest of the air for the ordinary uses of man will be swiftly
+completed, Franklin's good-humoured plea for the fullest
+experimentation is worth recalling. And the touch of piety with
+which he concludes his argument is a delightful example of the
+whimsical fashion in which he often undertook to bolster up a
+mundane theory with a reference to things supernatural.
+
+[Illustration: _A French Observation Balloon on Fire._
+
+© U. & U.]
+
+     I am sorry this Experiment is totally neglected in England, where
+     mechanic Genius is so strong. I wish I could see the same
+     Emulation between the two Nations as I see between the two
+     Parties here. Your Philosophy seems to be too bashful. In this
+     Country we are not so much afraid of being laught at. If we do a
+     foolish thing, we are the first to laugh at it ourselves, and are
+     almost as much pleased with a _Bon Mot_ or a _Chanson_, that
+     ridicules well the Disappointment of a Project, as we might have
+     been with its success. It does not seem to me a good reason to
+     decline prosecuting a new Experiment which apparently increases
+     the power of Man over Matter, till we can see to what Use that
+     Power may be applied. When we have learnt to manage it, we may
+     hope some time or other to find Uses for it, as men have done for
+     Magnetism and Electricity, of which the first Experiments were
+     mere Matters of Amusement.
+
+     This Experience is by no means a trifling one. It may be attended
+     with important Consequences that no one can foresee. We should
+     not suffer Pride to prevent our progress in Science.
+
+     Beings of a Rank and Nature far superior to ours have not
+     disdained to amuse themselves with making and launching Balloons,
+     otherwise we should never have enjoyed the Light of those
+     glorious objects that rule our Day & Night, nor have had the
+     Pleasure of riding round the Sun ourselves upon the Balloon we
+     now inhabit.
+
+                                                B. FRANKLIN.
+
+The earliest experimenters thought that oars might be employed to
+propel and direct a balloon. The immediate failure of all endeavours
+of this sort, led them, still pursuing the analogy between a balloon
+and a ship at sea, to try to navigate the air with sails. This again
+proved futile. It is impossible for a balloon, or airship to "tack"
+or manoeuvre in any way by sail power. It is in fact a monster sail
+itself, needing some other power than the wind to make headway or
+steerage way against the wind. The sail device was tested only to be
+abandoned. Only when a trail rope dragging along the ground or sea
+is employed does the sail offer sufficient resistance to the wind to
+sway the balloon's course this way or that. And a trailer is
+impracticable when navigating great heights.
+
+[Illustration: Roberts Brothers' Dirigible.]
+
+For these reasons the development of the balloon lagged, until Count
+Zeppelin and M. Santos-Dumont consecrated their fortunes, their
+inventive minds, and their amazing courage to the task of perfecting
+a dirigible. In a book, necessarily packed with information
+concerning the rapid development of aircraft which began in the last
+decade of the nineteenth century and was enormously stimulated
+during the war of all the world, the long series of early
+experiments with balloons must be passed over hastily. Though
+interesting historically these experiments were futile. Beyond
+having discovered what could _not_ be done with a balloon the
+practitioners of that form of aeronautics were little further along
+in 1898 when Count Zeppelin came along with the first plan for a
+rigid dirigible than they were when Blanchard in 1786, seizing a
+favourable gale drifted across the English Channel to the French
+shore, together with Dr. Jefferies, an American. It was just 124
+years later that Bleriot, a Frenchman, made the crossing in an
+airplane independently of favouring winds. It had taken a century
+and a quarter to attain this independence.
+
+In a vague way the earliest balloonists recognized that power,
+independent of wind, was necessary to give balloons steerage way and
+direction. Steam was in its infancy during the early days of
+ballooning, but the efforts to devise some sort of an engine light
+enough to be carried into the air were untiring. Within a year after
+the experiments of the Montgolfier brothers, the suggestion was made
+that the explosion of small quantities of gun-cotton and the
+expulsion of the resulting gases might be utilized in some fashion
+to operate propelling machinery. Though the suggestion was not
+developed to any useful point it was of interest as forecasting the
+fundamental idea of the gas engines of to-day which have made
+aviation possible--that is, the creation of power by a series of
+explosions within the motor.
+
+In the effort to make balloons dirigible one of the first steps was
+to change the form from the spherical or pear-shaped bag to a
+cylindrical, or cigar-shape. This device was adopted by the brothers
+Robert in France as early as 1784. Their balloon further had a
+double skin or envelope, its purpose being partly to save the gas
+which percolated through the inner skin, partly to maintain the
+rigidity of the structure. As gas escapes from an ordinary balloon
+it becomes flabby, and can be driven through the air only with
+extreme difficulty. In the balloon of the Robert brothers air could
+from time to time be pumped into the space between the two skins,
+keeping the outer envelope always fully distended and rigid. In
+later years this idea has been modified by incorporating in the
+envelope one large or a number of smaller balloons or "balloonets,"
+into which air may be pumped as needed.
+
+The shape too has come to approximate that of a fish rather than a
+bird, in the case of balloons at least. "The head of a cod and the
+tail of a mackerel," was the way Marey-Monge, the French aeronaut
+described it. Though most apparent in dirigible balloons, this will
+be seen to be the favourite design for airplanes if the wings be
+stripped off, and the body and tail alone considered. Complete,
+these machines are not unlike a flying fish.
+
+In England, Sir George Cayley, as early as 1810 studied and wrote
+largely on the subject of dirigibles but, though the English call
+him the "father of British aeronautics," his work seems to have been
+rather theoretical than practical. He did indeed demonstrate
+mathematically that no lifting power existed that would support the
+cumbrous steam-engine of that date, and tried to solve this dilemma
+by devising a gas engine, and an explosive engine. With one of the
+latter, driven by a series of explosions of gunpowder, each in a
+separate cell set off by a detonator, he equipped a flying machine
+which attained a sufficient height to frighten Cayley's coachman,
+whom he had persuaded to act as pilot. The rather unwilling aviator,
+fearing a loftier flight, jumped out and broke his leg. Though by
+virtue of this martyrdom his name should surely have descended to
+fame with that of Cayley it has been lost, together with all record
+of any later performances of the machine, which unquestionably
+embodied some of the basic principles of our modern aircraft, though
+it antedated the first of these by nearly a century.
+
+[Illustration: Giffard's Dirigible.]
+
+We may pass over hastily some of the later experiments with dirigibles
+that failed. In 1834 the Count de Lennox built an airship 130 feet
+long to be driven by oars worked by man power. When the crowd that
+gathered to watch the ascent found that the machine was too heavy to
+ascend even without the men, they expressed their lively contempt for
+the inventor by tearing his clothes to tatters and smashing his
+luckless airship. In 1852, another Frenchman, Henry Giffard, built a
+cigar-shaped balloon 150 feet long by 40 feet in diameter, driven by
+steam. The engine weighed three hundred pounds and generated about 3
+H.-P.--about 1/200 as much power as a gas engine of equal weight would
+produce. Even with this slender power, however, Giffard attained a
+speed, independent of the wind, of from five to seven miles an
+hour--enough at least for steerage way. This was really the first
+practical demonstration of the possibilities of the mechanical
+propulsion of balloons. Several adaptations of the Giffard idea
+followed, and in 1883 Renard and Krebs, in a fusiform ship, driven by
+an electric motor, attained a speed of fifteen miles an hour. By this
+time inventive genius in all countries--save the United States which
+lagged in interest in dirigibles--was stimulated. Germany and France
+became the great protagonists in the struggle for precedence and in
+the struggle two figures stand out with commanding prominence--the
+Count von Zeppelin and Santos-Dumont, a young Brazilian resident in
+Paris who without official countenance consecrated his fortune to, and
+risked his life in, the service of aviation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE SERVICES OF SANTOS-DUMONT
+
+
+In his book _My Airships_ the distinguished aviator A. Santos-Dumont
+tells this story of the ambition of his youth and its realization in
+later days:
+
+     I cannot say at what age I made my first kites, but I remember
+     how my comrades used to tease me at our game of "pigeon flies."
+     All the children gather round a table and the leader calls out
+     "Pigeon Flies! Hen flies! Crow flies! Bee flies!" and so on; and
+     at each call we were supposed to raise our fingers. Sometimes,
+     however, he would call out "Dog flies! Fox flies!" or some other
+     like impossibility to catch us. If any one raised a finger then
+     he was made to pay a forfeit. Now my playmates never failed to
+     wink and smile mockingly at me when one of them called "Man
+     flies!" for at the word I would always raise my finger very high,
+     as a sign of absolute conviction, and I refused with energy to
+     pay the forfeit. The more they laughed at me the happier I was,
+     hoping that some day the laugh would be on my side.
+
+     Among the thousands of letters which I received after winning the
+     Deutsch prize (a prize offered in 1901 for sailing around the
+     Eiffel Tower) there was one that gave me peculiar pleasure. I
+     quote from it as a matter of curiosity:
+
+     "Do you remember, my dear Alberto, when we played together
+     'Pigeon Flies!'? It came back to me suddenly when the news of
+     your success reached Rio. 'Man flies!' old fellow! You were right
+     to raise your finger, and you have just proved it by flying round
+     the Eiffel Tower.
+
+      "They play the old game now more than ever at home; but the
+     name has been changed, and the rules modified since October 19,
+     1901. They call it now 'Man flies!' and he who does not raise his
+     finger at the word pays the forfeit."
+
+The story of Santos-Dumont affords a curious instance of a boy being
+obsessed by an idea which as a man he carried to its successful
+fruition. It offers also evidence of the service that may accrue to
+society from the devotion of a dilettante to what people may call a
+"fad," but what is in fact the germ of a great idea needing only an
+enthusiast with enthusiasm, brains, and money for its development.
+Because the efforts of Santos-Dumont always smacked of the amateur
+he has been denied his real place in the history of aeronautics,
+which is that of a fearless innovator, and a devoted worker in the
+cause.
+
+Born on one of those great coffee plantations of Brazil, where all
+is done by machinery that possibly can be, Santos-Dumont early
+developed a passion for mechanics. In childhood he made toy
+airplanes. He confesses that his favourite author was Jules Verne,
+that literary idol of boyhood, who while writing books as wildly
+imaginative as any dime tale of redskins, or nickel novel of the
+doings of "Nick Carter" had none the less the spirit of prophecy
+that led him to forecast the submarine, the automobile, and the
+navigation of the air. At fifteen Santos-Dumont saw his first
+balloon and marked the day with red.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A British Kite Balloon._
+
+(_The open sack at the lower end catches the breeze and keeps the
+balloon steady._)]
+
+     I too desired to go ballooning [he writes]. In the long
+     sun-bathed Brazilian afternoons, when the hum of insects,
+     punctuated by the far-off cry of some bird lulled me, I would lie
+     in the shade of the veranda and gaze into the fair sky of Brazil
+     where the birds fly so high and soar with such ease on their
+     great outstretched wings; where the clouds mount so gaily in the
+     pure light of day, and you have only to raise your eyes to fall
+     in love with space and freedom. So, musing on the exploration of
+     the aërial ocean, I, too, devised airships and flying-machines in
+     my imagination.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A British "Blimp" Photographed from Above._]
+
+From dreaming, the boy's ambitions rapidly developed into actions.
+Good South Americans, whatever the practice of their northern
+neighbours, do not wait to die before going to Paris. At the age of
+eighteen the youth found himself in the capital of the world. To his
+amazement he found that the science of aeronautics, such as it was,
+had stopped with Giffard's work in 1852. No dirigible was to be
+heard of in all Paris. The antiquated gas ball was the only way to
+approach the upper air. When the boy tried to arrange for an
+ascension the balloonist he consulted put so unconscionable a price
+on one ascent that he bought an automobile instead--one of the first
+made, for this was in 1891--and with it returned to Brazil. It was
+not until six years later that, his ambition newly fired by reading
+of Andrée's plans for reaching the Pole in a balloon, Santos-Dumont
+took up anew his ambition to become an aviator. His own account of
+his first ascent does not bear precisely the hall-mark of the
+enthusiast too rapt in ecstasy to think of common things. "I had
+brought up," he notes gravely, "a substantial lunch of hard-boiled
+eggs, cold roast beef and chicken, cheese, ice cream, fruits and
+cakes, champagne, coffee, and chartreuse!"
+
+The balloon with its intrepid voyagers nevertheless returned to
+earth in safety.
+
+A picturesque figure, an habitué of the clubs and an eager
+sportsman, Santos-Dumont at once won the liking of the French
+people, and attracted attention wherever people gave thought to
+aviation. Liberal in expenditure of money, and utterly fearless in
+exposing his life, he pushed his experiments for the development of
+a true dirigible tirelessly. Perhaps his major fault was that he
+learned but slowly from the experiences of others. He clung to the
+spherical balloon long after the impossibility of controlling it in
+the air was accepted as unavoidable by aeronauts. But in 1898 having
+become infatuated with the performances of a little sixty-six pound
+tricycle motor he determined to build a cigar-shaped airship to fit
+it, and with that determination won success.
+
+Amateur he may have been, was indeed throughout the greater part of
+his career as an airman. Nevertheless Santos-Dumont has to his
+credit two very notable achievements.
+
+He was the first constructor and pilot of a dirigible balloon that
+made a round trip, that is to say returned to its starting place
+after rounding a stake at some distance--in this instance the Eiffel
+Tower, 3-1/2 miles from St. Cloud whence Santos-Dumont started and
+whither he returned within half an hour, the time prescribed.
+
+This was not, indeed, the first occasion on which a round trip,
+necessitating operation against the wind on at least one course, had
+been made. In 1884 Captain Renard had accomplished this feat for the
+first time with the fish-shaped balloon _La France_, driven by an
+electric motor of nine horse-power. But though thus antedated in his
+exploit, Santos-Dumont did in fact accomplish more for the
+advancement and development of dirigible balloons. To begin with he
+was able to use a new and efficient form of motor destined to become
+popular, and capable, as the automobile manufacturers later showed,
+of almost illimitable development in the direction of power and
+lightness. Except for the gasoline engine, developed by the makers
+of motor cars, aviation to-day would be where it was a quarter of a
+century ago.
+
+Moreover by his personal qualities, no less than by his successful
+demonstration of the possibilities inherent in the dirigible,
+Santos-Dumont persuaded the French Government to take up aeronautics
+again, after abandoning the subject as the mere fad of a number of
+visionaries.
+
+Turning from balloons to airplanes the Brazilian was the first
+aviator to make a flight with a heavier-than-air machine before a
+body of judges. This triumph was mainly technical. The Wrights had
+made an equally notable flight almost a year before but not under
+conditions that made it a matter of scientific record.
+
+But setting aside for the time the work done by Santos-Dumont with
+machines heavier than air, let us consider his triumphs with
+balloons at the opening of his career. He had come to France about
+forty years after Henry Giffard had demonstrated the practicability
+of navigating a balloon 144 feet long and 34 feet in diameter with a
+three-horse-power steam-engine. But no material success attended
+this demonstration, important as it was, and the inventor turned his
+attention to captive balloons, operating one at the Paris Exposition
+of 1878 that took up forty passengers at a time. There followed
+Captain Renard to whose achievement we have already referred. He had
+laid down as the fundamentals of a dirigible balloon these
+specifications:
+
+     A cigar, or fishlike shape.
+
+     An internal sack or ballonet into which air might be pumped to
+     replace any lost gas, and maintain the shape of the balloon.
+
+     A keel, or other longitudinal brace, to maintain the longitudinal
+     stability of the balloon and from which the car containing the
+     motor might be hung.
+
+     A propeller driven by a motor, the size and power of both to be
+     as great as permitted by the lifting power of the balloon.
+
+     A rudder capable of controlling the course of the ship.
+
+Santos-Dumont adopted all of these specifications, but added to them
+certain improvements which gave his airships--he built five of them
+before taking his first prize--notable superiority over that of
+Renard. To begin with he had the inestimable advantage of having the
+gasoline motor. He further lightened his craft by having the
+envelope made of Japanese silk, in flat defiance of all the builders
+of balloons who assured him that the substance was too light and its
+use would be suicidal. "All right," said the innovator to his
+favourite constructor, who refused to build him a balloon of that
+material, "I'll build it myself." In the face of this threat the
+builder capitulated. The balloon was built, and the silk proved to
+be the best fabric available at that time for the purpose. A keel
+made of strips of pine banded together with aluminum wire formed the
+backbone of the Santos-Dumont craft, and from it depended the car
+about one quarter of the length of the balloon and hung squarely
+amidships. The idea of this keel occurred to the inventor while
+pleasuring at Nice. Later it saved his life.
+
+One novel and exceedingly simple device bore witness to the
+ingenuity of the inventor. He had noticed in his days of free
+ballooning that to rise the aeronaut had to throw out sand-ballast;
+to descend he had to open the valves and let out gas. As his supply
+of both gas and sand was limited it was clear that the time of his
+flight was necessarily curtailed every time he ascended or
+descended. Santos-Dumont thought to husband his supplies of lifting
+force and of ballast, and make the motor raise and lower the ship.
+It was obvious that the craft would go whichever way the bow might
+be pointed, whether up or down. But how to shift the bow? The
+solution seems so simple that one wonders it ever perplexed
+aviators. From the peak of the bow and stern of his craft
+Santos-Dumont hung long ropes caught in the centre by lighter ropes
+by which they could be dragged into the car. In the car was carried
+a heavy bag of sand, which so long as it was there held the ship in
+a horizontal plane. Was it needful to depress the bow? Then the bow
+rope was hauled in, the bag attached, and swung out to a position
+where it would pull the forward tip of the delicately adjusted gas
+bag toward the earth. If only a gentle inclination was desired the
+bag was not allowed to hang directly under the bow, but was held at
+a point somewhere between the car and the bow so that the pull would
+be diagonal and the great cylinder would be diverted but little from
+the horizontal. If it were desired to ascend, a like manipulation of
+the ballast on the stern rope would depress the stern and point the
+bow upwards. For slight changes in direction it was not necessary
+even to attach the sand bag. Merely drawing the rope into the car
+and thus changing the line of its "pull" was sufficient.
+
+The Deutsch prize which stimulated Santos-Dumont to his greatest
+achievements with dirigibles was a purse of twenty thousand dollars,
+offered by Mr. Henry Deutsch, a wealthy patron of the art of
+aviation. Not himself an aviator, M. Deutsch greatly aided the
+progress of the air's conquest. Convinced that the true solution of
+the problem lay in development of the gasoline engine, he expended
+large sums in developing and perfecting it. When he believed it was
+sufficiently developed to solve the problem of directing the flight
+of balloons he offered his prize for the circuit of the Eiffel
+Tower. The conditions of the contest were not easy. The competitor
+had to sail from the Aero Club at St. Cloud, pass twice over the
+Seine which at that point makes an abrupt bend, sail over the Bois
+de Boulogne, circle the Tower, and return to the stopping place
+within a half an hour. The distance was about seven miles, and it is
+noteworthy that in his own comment on the test Santos-Dumont
+complains that that required an average speed of fifteen miles an
+hour of which he could not be sure with his balloon. To-day
+dirigibles make sixty miles an hour, and airplanes not infrequently
+reach 130 miles. Moreover there could be no picking of a day on
+which atmospheric conditions were especially good. Mr. Deutsch had
+stipulated that the test must be made in the presence of a
+Scientific Commission whose members must be notified twenty-four
+hours in advance. None could tell twenty-four hours ahead what the
+air might be like, and as for utilizing the aviator's most
+favourable hour, the calm of the dawn, M. Santos-Dumont remarked:
+"The duellist may call out his friends at that sacred hour, but not
+the airship captain."
+
+The craft with which the Brazilian first strove to win the Deutsch
+prize he called _Santos-Dumont No. V._ It was a cylinder, sharp at
+both ends, 109 feet long and driven by a 12-horse-power motor. A new
+feature was the use of piano wire for the support of the car, thus
+greatly reducing the resistance of the air which in the case of the
+old cord suspensions was almost as great as that of the balloon
+itself. Another novel feature was water ballast tanks forward and
+aft on the balloon itself and holding together twelve gallons. By
+pulling steel wires in the car the aviator could open the
+stop-cocks. The layman scarcely appreciates the very slight shift in
+ballast which will affect the stability of a dirigible. The shifting
+of a rope a few feet from its normal position, the dropping of two
+handfuls of sand, or release of a cup of water will do it. A
+humorous writer describing a lunch with Santos-Dumont in the air
+says: "Nothing must be thrown overboard, be it a bottle, an empty
+box or a chicken bone without the pilot's permission."
+
+After unofficial tests of his "No. 5" in one of which he circled the
+Tower without difficulty, Santos-Dumont summoned the Scientific
+Commission for a test. In ten minutes he had turned the Tower, and
+started back against a fierce head-wind, which made him ten minutes
+late in reaching the time-keepers. Just as he did so his engine
+failed, and after drifting for a time his ship perched in the top of
+a chestnut tree on the estate of M. Edmond Rothschild. Philosophical
+as ever the aeronaut clung to his craft, dispatched an excellent
+lunch which the Princess Isabel, Comtesse d'Eu, daughter of Dom
+Pedro, the deposed Emperor of Brazil, sent to his eyrie in the
+branches, and finally extricated himself and his balloon--neither
+much the worse for the accident. He had failed but his determination
+to win was only whetted.
+
+The second trial for the Deutsch prize like the first ended in
+failure, but that failure was so much more dramatic even than the
+success which attended the third effort that it is worth telling and
+can best be told in M. Santos-Dumont's own words. The quotation is
+from his memoir, _My Airships_:
+
+     And now I come to a terrible day--8th of August, 1901. At 6:30
+     A.M. in presence of the Scientific Commission of the Aero Club, I
+     started again for the Eiffel Tower.
+
+     I turned the tower at the end of nine minutes and took my way
+     back to St. Cloud; but my balloon was losing hydrogen through one
+     of its two automatic gas valves whose spring had been
+     accidentally weakened.
+
+     I had perceived the beginning of this loss of gas even before
+     reaching the Eiffel Tower, and ordinarily, in such an event, I
+     should have come at once to earth to examine the lesion. But here
+     I was competing for a prize of great honour and my speed had been
+     good. Therefore I risked going on.
+
+     The balloon now shrunk visibly. By the time I had got back to the
+     fortifications of Paris, near La Muette, it caused the suspension
+     wires to sag so much that those nearest to the screw-propeller
+     caught in it as it revolved.
+
+     I saw the propeller cutting and tearing at the wires. I stopped
+     the motor instantly. Then, as a consequence, the airship was at
+     once driven back toward the tower by the wind which was strong.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service Co.
+
+_A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship._]
+
+     At the same time I was falling. The balloon had lost much gas. I
+     might have thrown out ballast and greatly diminished the fall,
+     but then the wind would have time to blow me back on the Eiffel
+     Tower. I therefore preferred to let the airship go down as it was
+     going. It may have seemed a terrific fall to those who watched it
+     from the ground but to me the worst detail was the airship's lack
+     of equilibrium. The half-empty balloon, fluttering its empty end
+     as an elephant waves his trunk, caused the airship's stern to
+     point upward at an alarming angle. What I most feared therefore
+     was that the unequal strain on the suspension wires would break
+     them one by one and so precipitate me to the ground.
+
+     Why was the balloon fluttering an empty end causing all this
+     extra danger? How was it that the rotary ventilator was not
+     fulfilling its purpose in feeding the interior air balloon and in
+     this manner swelling out the gas balloon around it? The answer
+     must be looked for in the nature of the accident. The rotary
+     ventilator stopped working when the motor itself stopped, and I
+     had been obliged to stop the motor to prevent the propeller from
+     tearing the suspension wires near it when the balloon first began
+     to sag from loss of gas. It is true that the ventilator which was
+     working at that moment had not proved sufficient to prevent the
+     first sagging. It may have been that the interior balloon refused
+     to fill out properly. The day after the accident when my balloon
+     constructor's man came to me for the plans of a "No. 6" balloon
+     envelope I gathered from something he said that the interior
+     balloon of "No. 5," not having been given time for its varnish to
+     dry before being adjusted, might have stuck together or stuck to
+     the sides or bottom of the outer balloon. Such are the rewards of
+     haste.
+
+     I was falling. At the same time the wind was carrying me toward
+     the Eiffel Tower. It had already carried me so far that I was
+     expecting to land on the Seine embankment beyond the Trocadero.
+     My basket and the whole of the keel had already passed the
+     Trocadero hotels, and had my balloon been a spherical one it
+     would have cleared the building. But now at the last critical
+     moment, the end of the long balloon that was still full of gas
+     came slapping down on the roof just before clearing it. It
+     exploded with a great noise; struck after being blown up. This
+     was the terrific explosion described in the newspaper of the day.
+
+     I had made a mistake in my estimate of the wind's force, by a few
+     yards. Instead of being carried on to fall on the Seine
+     embankment, I now found myself hanging in my wicker basket high
+     up in the courtyard of the Trocadero hotels, supported by my
+     airship's keel, that stood braced at an angle of about forty-five
+     degrees between the courtyard wall above and the roof of a lower
+     construction farther down. The keel, in spite of my weight, that
+     of the motor and machinery, and the shock it had received in
+     falling, resisted wonderfully. The thin pine scantlings and piano
+     wires of Nice (the town where the idea of a keel first suggested
+     itself) had saved my life!
+
+     After what seemed tedious waiting, I saw a rope being lowered to
+     me from the roof above. I held to it and was hauled up, when I
+     perceived my rescuers to be the brave firemen of Paris. From
+     their station at Passy they had been watching the flight of the
+     airship. They had seen my fall and immediately hastened to the
+     spot. Then, having rescued me, they proceeded to rescue the
+     airship.
+
+     The operation was painful. The remains of the balloon envelope
+     and the suspension wires hung lamentably; and it was impossible
+     to disengage them except in strips and fragments!
+
+The later balloon "No. VI." with which Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch
+prize may fairly be taken as his conception of the finished type of
+dirigible for one man. In fact his aspirations never soared as high
+as those of Count Zeppelin, and the largest airship he ever
+planned--called "the _Omnibus_"--carried only four men. It is
+probable that the diversion of his interest from dirigibles to
+airplanes had most to do with his failure to carry his development
+further than he did. "No. VI." was 108 feet long, and 20 feet in
+diameter with an eighteen-horse-power gasoline engine which could
+drive it at about nineteen miles an hour. Naturally the aeronaut's
+first thought in his new construction was of the valves. The memory
+of the anxious minutes spent perched on the window-sill of the
+Trocadero Hotel or dangling like a spider at the end of the
+firemen's rope were still fresh. The ballonet which had failed him
+in "No. V." was perfected in its successor. Notwithstanding the care
+with which she was constructed the prize-winner turned out to be a
+rather unlucky ship. On her trial voyage she ran into a tree and was
+damaged, and even on the day of her greatest conquest she behaved
+badly. The test was made on October 1, 1901. The aeronaut had
+rounded the Tower finely and was making for home when the motor
+began to miss and threatened to stop altogether. While Santos-Dumont
+was tinkering with the engine, leaving the steering wheel to itself,
+the balloon drifted over the Bois de Boulogne. As usual the cool air
+from the wood caused the hydrogen in the balloon to contract and the
+craft dropped until it appeared the voyage would end in the tree
+tops. Hastily shifting his weights the aeronaut forced the prow of
+the ship upwards to a sharp angle with the earth. Just at this
+moment the reluctant engine started up again with such vigour that
+for a moment the ship threatened to assume a perpendicular position,
+pointing straight up in the sky. A cry went up from the spectators
+below who feared a dire catastrophe was about to end a voyage which
+promised success. But with incomparable _sang-froid_ the young
+Brazilian manipulated the weights, restored the ship to the
+horizontal again without stopping the engines, and reached the
+finishing stake in time to win the prize. Soon after it was awarded
+him the Brazilian Government presented him with another substantial
+prize, together with a gold medal bearing the words: _Por ceos nunca
+d'antes navegados_ ("Through heavens hitherto unsailed").
+
+In a sense the reference to the heavens is a trifle over-rhetorical.
+Santos-Dumont differed from all aviators (or pilots of airplanes)
+and most navigators of dirigibles in always advocating the strategy
+of staying near the ground. In his flights he barely topped the
+roofs of the houses, and in his writings he repeatedly refers to the
+sense of safety that came to him when he knew he was close to the
+tree tops of a forest. This may have been due to the fact that in
+his very first flight in a dirigible he narrowly escaped a fatal
+accident due to flying too high. As he descended, the gas which had
+expanded now contracted. The balloon began to collapse in the
+middle. Cords subjected to unusual stress began to snap. The air
+pump, which should have pumped the ballonet full of air to keep the
+balloon rigid failed to work. Seeing that he was about to fall into
+a field in which his drag rope was already trailing the imperilled
+airman had a happy thought. Some boys were there flying kites. He
+shouted to them to seize his rope and run against the wind. The
+balloon responded to the new force like a kite. The rapidity of its
+fall was checked, and its pilot landed with only a serious shaking.
+
+But thereafter Santos-Dumont preached the maxim--rare among
+airmen--"Keep near the ground. That way lies safety!" Most aviators
+however, prefer the heights of the atmosphere, as the sailor prefers
+the wide and open sea to a course near land.
+
+After winning the Deutsch prize, Santos-Dumont continued for a time
+to amuse himself with dirigibles. I say "amuse" purposely, for never
+did serious aeronaut get so much fun out of a rather perilous
+pastime as he. In his "No. IX." he built the smallest dirigible
+ever known. The balloon had just power enough to raise her pilot and
+sixty-six pounds more beside a three-horse-power motor. But she
+attained a speed of twelve miles an hour, was readily handled, and
+it was her owner's dearest delight to use her for a taxicab, calling
+for lunch at the cafés in the Bois, and paying visits to friends
+upon whom he looked in, literally, at their second-story windows. He
+ran her in and out of her hangar as one would a motor-car from its
+garage. One day he sailed down the Avenue des Champs Élysées at the
+level of the second-and third-story windows of the palaces that line
+that stately street. Coming to his own house he descended, made
+fast, and went in to _déjeuner_, leaving his aërial cab without. In
+the city streets he steered mainly by aid of a guide rope trailing
+behind him. With this he turned sharp corners, went round the Arc de
+Triomphe, and said: "I might have guide-roped under it had I thought
+myself worthy." On occasion he picked up children in the streets and
+gave them a ride.
+
+Though before losing his interest in dirigibles Santos-Dumont
+carried the number of his construction up to ten, he cannot be said
+to have devised any new and useful improvements after his "No. VI."
+The largest of his ships was "No. X.," which had a capacity of
+eighty thousand cubic feet--about ten times the size of the little
+runabout with which he played pranks in Paris streets. In this
+balloon he placed partitions to prevent the gas shifting to one part
+of the envelope, and to guard against losing it all in the event of
+a tear. The same principle was fundamental in Count Zeppelin's
+airships. In 1904 he brought a dirigible to the United States
+expecting to compete for a prize at the St. Louis Exposition. But
+while suffering exasperating delay from the red-tape which
+enveloped the exposition authorities, he discovered one morning that
+his craft had been mutilated almost beyond repair in its storage
+place. In high dudgeon he left at once for Paris. The explanation of
+the malicious act has never been made clear, though many Americans
+had an uneasy feeling that the gallant and sportsman-like Brazilian
+had been badly treated in our land. On his return to Paris he at
+once began experimenting with heavier-than-air machines. Of his work
+with them we shall give some account later.
+
+Despite his great personal popularity the airship built by
+Santos-Dumont never appealed to the French military authorities.
+Probably this was largely due to the fact that he never built one of
+a sufficient size to meet military tests. The amateur in him was
+unconquerable. While von Zeppelin's first ship was big enough to
+take the air in actual war the Frenchman went on building craft for
+one or two men--good models for others to seize and build upon, but
+nothing which a war office could actually adopt. But he served his
+country well by stimulating the creation of great companies who
+built largely upon the foundations he had laid.
+
+First and greatest of these was the company formed by the Lebaudy
+Brothers, wealthy sugar manufacturers. Their model was semi-rigid,
+that is, provided with an inflexible keel or floor to the gas bag,
+which was cigar shaped. The most successful of the earlier ships was
+190 feet long, with a car suspended by cables ten feet below the
+balloon and carrying the twin motors, together with passengers and
+supplies. Although it made many voyages without accident, it finally
+encountered what seems to be the chief peril of dirigible balloons,
+being torn from its moorings at Châlons and dashed against trees to
+the complete demolition of its envelope. Repaired in eleven weeks
+she was taken over by the French Department of War, and was in
+active service at the beginning of the war. Her two successors on
+the company's building ways were less fortunate. _La Patrie_, after
+many successful trips, and manoeuvres with the troops, was
+insecurely moored at Verdun, the famous fortress where she was to
+have been permanently stationed. Came up a heavy gale. Her anchors
+began to drag. The bugles sounded and the soldiers by hundreds
+rushed from the fort to aid. Hurled along by the wind she dragged
+the soldiers after her. Fearing disaster to the men the commandant
+reluctantly ordered them to let go. The ship leaped into the black
+upper air and disappeared. All across France, across that very
+country where in 1916 the trenches cut their ugly zigzags from the
+Channel to the Vosges, she drifted unseen. By morning she was flying
+over England and Wales. Ireland caught a glimpse of her and days
+thereafter sailors coming into port told of a curious yellow mass,
+seemingly flabby and disintegrating like the carcass of a whale,
+floating far out at sea.
+
+Her partner ship _La République_ had a like tragic end. She too made
+many successful trips, and proved her stability and worth. But one
+day while manoeuvring near Paris one of her propellers broke and
+tore a great rent in her envelope. As the _Titanic_, her hull ripped
+open by an iceberg, sunk with more than a thousand of her people, so
+this airship, wounded in a more unstable element, fell to the ground
+killing all on board.
+
+Two airships were built in France for England in 1909. One, the
+_Clement-Bayard II._, was of the rigid type and built for the
+government; the other, a _Lebaudy_, was non-rigid and paid for by
+popular subscriptions raised in England by the _Morning Post_. Both
+were safely delivered near London having made their voyages of
+approximately 242 miles each at a speed exceeding forty miles an
+hour. These were the first airships acquired for British use.
+
+In the United States the only serious effort to develop the
+dirigible prior to the war, and to apply it to some definite
+purpose, was made not by the government but by an individual. Mr.
+Walter Wellman, a distinguished journalist, fired by the effort of
+Andrée to reach the North Pole in a drifting balloon, undertook a
+similar expedition with a dirigible in 1907. A balloon was built 184
+feet in length and 52 feet in diameter, and was driven by a
+seventy-to eighty-horse-power motor. A curious feature of this craft
+was the guide rope or, as Wellman called it, the equilibrator, which
+was made of steel, jointed and hollow. At the lower end were four
+steel cylinders carrying wheels and so arranged that they would
+float on water or trundle along over the roughest ice. The idea was
+that the equilibrator would serve like a guide rope, trailing on the
+water or ice when the balloon hung low, and increasing the power of
+its drag if the balloon, rising higher, lifted a greater part of its
+length into the air. Wellman had every possible appliance to
+contribute to the safety of the airship, and many believe that had
+fortune favoured him the glory of the discovery of the Pole would
+have been his. Unhappily he encountered only ill luck. One season he
+spent at Dane's Island, near Spitzenberg whence Andrée had set sail,
+waiting vainly for favourable weather conditions. The following
+summer, just as he was about to start, a fierce storm destroyed his
+balloon shed and injured the balloon. Before necessary repairs could
+be accomplished Admiral Peary discovered the Pole and the purpose
+of the expedition was at an end. Wellman, however, had become deeply
+interested in aeronautics and, balked in one ambition, set out to
+accomplish another. With the same balloon somewhat remodelled he
+tried to cross the Atlantic, setting sail from Atlantic City, N. J.,
+October 16, 1911. But the device on which the aeronaut most prided
+himself proved his undoing. The equilibrator, relied upon both for
+storage room and as a regulator of the altitude of the ship, proved
+a fatal attachment. In even moderate weather it bumped over the
+waves and racked the structure of the balloon with its savage
+tugging until the machinery broke down and the adventurers were at
+the mercy of the elements. Luckily for them after they had been
+adrift for seventy-two hours, and travelled several hundred miles
+they were rescued by the British steamer _Trent_. Not long after
+Wellman's chief engineer Vanniman sought to cross the Atlantic in a
+similar craft but from some unexplained cause she blew up in mid-air
+and all aboard were lost.
+
+Neither Great Britain nor the United States has reason to be proud
+of the attitude of its government towards the inventors who were
+struggling to subdue the air to the uses of man. Nor has either
+reason to boast much of its action in utterly ignoring up to the
+very day war broke that aid to military service of which Lord
+Kitchener said, "One aviator is worth a corps of cavalry." It will
+be noted that to get its first effective dirigible Great Britain had
+to rely upon popular subscriptions drummed up by a newspaper. That
+was in 1909. To-day, in 1917, the United States has only one
+dirigible of a type to be considered effective in the light of
+modern standards, though our entrance upon the war has caused the
+beginning of a considerable fleet. In aviation no less than in
+aerostatics the record of the United States is negligible. Our
+country did indeed produce the Wright Brothers, pioneers and true
+conquerors of the air with airplanes. But even they were forced to
+go to France for support and indeed for respectful attention.
+
+So far as the development of dirigible balloons is concerned there
+is no more need to devote space to what was done in England and the
+United States than there was for the famous chapter on Snakes in
+Iceland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE COUNT VON ZEPPELIN
+
+
+The year that witnessed the first triumphs of Santos-Dumont saw also
+the beginning of the success of his great German rival, the Count
+von Zeppelin. These two daring spirits, struggling to attain the
+same end, were alike in their enthusiasm, their pertinacity, and
+their devotion to the same cause. Both were animated by the highest
+patriotism. Santos-Dumont offered his fleet to France to be used
+against any nation except those of the two Americas. He said: "It is
+in France that I have met with all my encouragement; in France and
+with French material I have made all my experiments. I excepted the
+two Americas because I am an American."
+
+Count Zeppelin for his part, when bowed down in apparent defeat and
+crushed beneath the burden of virtual bankruptcy, steadily refused
+to deal with agents of other nations than Germany--which at that
+time was turning upon him the cold shoulder. He declared that his
+genius had been exerted for his own country alone, and that his
+invention should be kept a secret from all but German authorities. A
+secret it would be to-day, except that accident and the fortunes of
+war revealed the intricacies of the Zeppelin construction to both
+France and England.
+
+Santos-Dumont had the fire, enthusiasm, and resiliency of youth;
+Zeppelin, upon whom age had begun to press when first he took up
+aeronautics, had the dogged pertinacity of the Teuton. Both were
+rich at the outset, but Zeppelin's capital melted away under the
+demands of his experimental workshops, while the ancestral coffee
+lands of the Brazilian never failed him.
+
+Of the two Zeppelin had the more obstinacy, for he held to his plan
+of a rigid dirigible balloon even in face of its virtual failure in
+the supreme test of war. Santos-Dumont was the more alert
+intellectually for he was still in the flood tide of successful
+demonstration with his balloons when he saw and grasped the promise
+of the airplane and shifted his activities to that new field in
+which he won new laurels.
+
+Zeppelin won perhaps the wider measure of immediate fame, but
+whether enduring or not is yet to be determined. His airships
+impressive, even majestic as they are, have failed to prove their
+worth in war, and are yet to be fully tested in peace. That they
+remain a unique type, one which no other individual nor any other
+nation has sought to copy, cannot be attributed wholly to the
+jealousy of possible rivals. If the monster ship, of rigid frame,
+were indeed the ideal form of dirigible it would be imitated on
+every hand. The inventions of the Wrights have been seized upon,
+adapted, improved perhaps by half a hundred airplane designers of
+every nation. But nobody has been imitating the Zeppelins.
+
+[Illustration: _The Giant and the Pigmies._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+That, however, is a mere passing reflection. If the Zeppelin has not
+done all in war that the sanguine German people expected of it,
+nevertheless it is not yet to be pronounced an entire failure. And
+even though a failure in war, the chief service for which its
+stout-hearted inventor designed it, there is still hope that it may
+ultimately prove better adapted to many ends of peace than the
+airplanes which for the time seem to have outdone it.
+
+Stout-hearted indeed the old _Luftgraaf_--"Air Scout"--as the
+Germans call him, was. His was a Bismarckian nature, reminiscent of
+the Iron Chancellor alike physically and mentally. In appearance he
+recalls irresistibly the heroic figure of Bismarck, jack-booted and
+cuirassed at the Congress of Vienna, painted by von Werner. Heir to
+an old land-owning family, ennobled and entitled to bear the title
+_Landgraf_, Count von Zeppelin was a type of the German aristocrat.
+But for his title and aristocratic rank he could never have won his
+long fight for recognition by the bureaucrats who control the German
+army. In youth he was anti-Prussian in sentiment, and indeed some of
+his most interesting army experiences were in service with the army
+of South Germany against Prussia and her allied states. But all that
+was forgotten in the national unity that followed the defeat of
+France in 1872.
+
+Before that, however, the young count--he was born in 1838--had
+served with gallantry, if not distinction, in the Union Army in our
+Civil War, had made a balloon ascension on the fighting line, had
+swum in the Niagara River below the falls, being rescued with
+difficulty, and together with two Russian officers and some Indian
+guides had almost starved in trying to discover the source of the
+Mississippi River--a spot which can now be visited without
+undergoing more serious hardships than the upper berth in a Pullman
+car.
+
+It was at the siege of Paris that Zeppelin's mind first became
+engaged with the problem of aërial navigation. From his post in the
+besieging trenches he saw the almost daily ascent of balloons in
+which mail was sent out, and persons who could pay the price sought
+to escape from the beleaguered city. As a colonel of cavalry, he
+had been employed mainly in scouting duty throughout the war. He was
+impressed now with the conviction that those globes, rising silently
+into the air, above the enemy's cannon shot and drifting away to
+safety would be the ideal scouts could they but return with their
+intelligence. Was there no way of guiding these ships in the air, as
+a ship in the ocean is guided? The young soldier was hardly home
+from the war when he began to study the problem. He studied it
+indeed so much to the exclusion of other military matters that in
+1890 the General Staff abruptly dismissed him from his command. They
+saw no reason why a major-general of cavalry should be mooning
+around with balloons and kites like a schoolboy.
+
+The dismissal hurt him, but deterred him in no way from the purpose
+of his life. Indeed the fruit of his many years' study of aeronautic
+conditions was ready for the gathering at this very moment. On the
+surface of the picturesque Lake Constance, on the border line
+between Germany and Switzerland, floated a huge shed, open to the
+water and more than five hundred feet long. In it, nearing
+completion, floated the first Zeppelin airship.
+
+In the long patient study which the Count had given to his problem
+he had reached the fixed conclusion that the basis of a practical
+dirigible balloon must be a rigid frame over which the envelope
+should be stretched. His experiments were made at the same time as
+those of Santos-Dumont, and he could not be ignorant of the measure
+of success which the younger man was attaining with the non-rigid
+balloon. But it was a fact that all the serious accidents which
+befell Santos-Dumont and most of the threatened accidents which he
+narrowly escaped were fundamentally caused by the lack of rigidity
+in his balloon. The immediate cause may have been a leaky valve
+permitting the gas to escape, or a faulty air-pump which made prompt
+filling of the ballonet impossible. But the effect of these flaws
+was to deprive the balloon of its rigidity, cause it to buckle,
+throwing the cordage out of gear, shifting stresses and strains,
+and resulting in ultimate breakdown.
+
+Whether he observed the vicissitudes of his rival or not, Count
+Zeppelin determined that the advantages of a rigid frame counted for
+more than the disadvantage of its weight. Moreover that disadvantage
+could be compensated for by increasing the size, and therefore the
+lifting power of the balloon. In determining upon a rigid frame the
+Count was not a pioneer even in his own country. While his
+experiments were still under way, a rival, David Schwartz, who had
+begun, without completing, an airship in St. Petersburg, secured in
+some way aid from the German Government, which was at the moment
+coldly repulsing Zeppelin. He planned and built an aluminum airship
+but died before its completion. His widow continued the work amidst
+constant opposition from the builders. The end was one of the many
+tragedies of invention. Nobody but the widow ever believed the ship
+would rise from its moorings. It was in charge of a man who had
+never made an ascent. To his amazement and to the amazement of the
+spectators the engine was hardly started when the ship mounted and
+made headway against a stiff breeze. On the ground the spectators
+shouted in wonder; the widow, overwhelmed by this reward for her
+faith in her husband's genius, burst into tears of joy. But the
+amateur pilot was no match for the situation. Affrighted to find
+himself in mid-air, too dazed to know what to do, he pulled the
+wrong levers and the machine crashed to earth. The pilot escaped,
+but the airship which had taken four years to build was
+irretrievably wrecked. The widow's hopes were blasted, and the way
+was left free for the Count von Zeppelin.
+
+Freed, though unwillingly, from the routine duties of his military
+rank, Zeppelin thereafter devoted himself wholly to his airships. He
+was fifty-three years old, adding one more to the long list of men
+who found their real life's work after middle age. With him was
+associated his brother Eberhard, the two forming a partnership in
+aeronautical work as inseparable as that of Wilbur and Orville
+Wright. Like Wilbur Wright, Eberhard von Zeppelin did not live to
+witness the fullest fruition of the work, though he did see the
+soundness of its principles thoroughly established and in practical
+application. There is a picturesque story that when Eberhard lay on
+his death-bed his brother, instead of watching by his side, took the
+then completed airship from its hangar, and drove it over and around
+the house that the last sounds to reach the ears of his faithful
+ally might be the roar of the propellers in the air--the grand pæan
+of victory.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A French "Sausage"._]
+
+Though Count von Zeppelin had begun his experiments in 1873 it was
+not until 1890 that he actually began the construction of his first
+airship. The intervening years had been spent in constructing and
+testing models, in abstruse calculations of the resistance of the
+air, the lifting power of hydrogen, the comparative rigidity and
+weight of different woods and various metals, the power and weight
+of the different makes of motors. In these studies he spent both his
+time and his money lavishly, with the result that when he had built
+a model on the lines of which he was willing to risk the
+construction of an airship of operative size, his private fortune
+was gone. It is the common lot of inventors. For a time the Count
+suffered all the mortification and ignominy which the beggar, even
+in a most worthy cause, must always experience. Hat in hand he
+approached every possible patron with his story of certain success
+if only supplied with funds with which to complete his ship. A
+stock company with a capital of $225,000 of which he contributed one
+half, soon found its resources exhausted and retired from the
+speculation. Appeals to the Emperor met with only cold indifference.
+An American millionaire newspaper owner, resident in Europe, sent
+contemptuous word by his secretary that he "had no time to bother
+with crazy inventors." That was indeed the attitude of the business
+classes at the moment when the inventors of dirigibles were on the
+very point of conquering the obstacles in the way of making the
+navigation of air a practical art. A governmental commission at
+Berlin rejected with contempt the plans which Zeppelin presented in
+his appeal for support. Members of that commission were forced to an
+about-face later and became some of the inventor's sturdiest
+champions. But in his darkest hour the government failed him, and
+the one friendly hand stretched out in aid was that of the German
+Engineers' Society which, somewhat doubtfully, advanced some funds
+to keep the work in operation.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A British "Blimp"._]
+
+With this the construction of the first Zeppelin craft was begun.
+Though there had been built up to the opening of the war twenty-five
+"Zeps"--nobody knows how many since--the fundamental type was not
+materially altered in the later ones, and a description of the first
+will stand for all. In connection with this description may be noted
+the criticisms of experts some of which proved only too well
+founded.
+
+The first Zeppelin was polygonal, 450 feet long, 78 broad, and 66
+feet high. This colossal bulk, equivalent to that of a 7500-ton
+ship necessary to supply lifting power for the metallic frame,
+naturally made her unwieldy to handle, unsafe to leave at rest,
+outside of a sheltering shed, and a particularly attractive target
+for artillery in time of war. Actual action indeed proved that to be
+safe from the shells of anti-aircraft guns, the Zeppelins were
+forced to fly so high that their own bombs could not be dropped with
+any degree of accuracy upon a desired target.
+
+The balloon's frame is made of aluminum, the lightest of metals, but
+not the least costly. A curious disadvantage of this construction
+was made apparent in the accident which destroyed _Zeppelin IV._
+That was the first of the airships to be equipped with a full
+wireless outfit which was used freely on its flight. It appeared
+that the aluminum frame absorbed much of the electricity generated
+for the purpose of the wireless. The effect of this was two-fold. It
+limited the radius of operation of the wireless to 150 miles or
+less, and it made the metal frame a perilous storehouse of
+electricity. When _Zeppelin IV._ met with a disaster by a storm
+which dragged it from its moorings, the stored electricity in her
+frame was suddenly released by contact with the trees and set fire
+to the envelope, utterly destroying the ship.
+
+The balloon frame was divided into seventeen compartments, each of
+which held a ballonet filled with hydrogen gas. The purpose of this
+was similar to the practice of dividing a ship's hulls into
+compartments. If one or more of the ballonets, for any reason, were
+injured the remainder would keep the ship afloat. The space between
+the ballonets and the outer skin was pumped full of air to keep the
+latter taut and rigid. Moreover it helped to prevent the radiation
+of heat to the gas bags from the outer envelope whose huge expanse,
+presented to the sun, absorbed an immense amount of heat rays.
+
+Two cars were suspended from the frame of the Zeppelin, forward and
+aft, and a corridor connected them. A sliding weight was employed
+to raise or depress the bow. In each car of the first Zeppelin was
+a sixteen-horse-power gasoline motor, each working two screws, with
+four foot blades, revolving one thousand times a minute. The engines
+were reversible, thus making it possible to work the propellers
+against each other and aid materially in steering the ship. Rudders
+at bow and stern completed the navigating equipment.
+
+In the first Zeppelins, the corridor connecting the two cars was
+wholly outside the frame and envelope of the car. Later the perilous
+experiment was tried of putting it within the envelope. This
+resulted in one of the most shocking of the many Zeppelin disasters.
+In the case of the ship _L-II._, built in 1912, the corridor became
+filled with gas that had oozed out of the ballonets. At one end or
+the other of the corridor this gas, then mixed with air, came in
+contact with fire,--perhaps the exhaust of the engines,--a violent
+explosion followed while the ship was some nine hundred feet aloft,
+and the mass of twisted and broken metal, with the flaming envelope,
+fell to the ground carrying twenty-eight men, including members of
+the Admiralty Board, to a horrible death.
+
+But to return to the first Zeppelin. Her trial was set for July 2,
+1900, and though the immediate vicinity of the floating hangar was
+barred to the public by the military authorities, the shores and
+surface of the lake were black with people eager to witness the
+test. Boats pulled out of the wide portal the huge cigar-shaped
+structure, floating on small rafts, its polished surface of pegamoid
+glittering in the sun. As large as a fair-sized ocean steamship, it
+looked, on that little lake dotted with pleasure craft, like a
+leviathan. Men were busy in the cars, fore and aft. The mooring
+ropes were cast off as the vessel gained an offing, and ballast
+being thrown out she began to rise slowly. The propellers began to
+whir, and the great craft swung around breasting the breeze and
+moved slowly up the lake. The crowd cheered. Count von Zeppelin,
+tense with excitement, alert for every sign of weakness watched his
+monster creation with mingled pride and apprehension. Two points
+were set at rest in the first two minutes--the lifting power was
+great enough to carry the heaviest load ever imposed upon a balloon
+and the motive power was sufficient to propel her against an
+ordinary breeze. But she was hardly in mid-air when defects became
+apparent. The apparatus for controlling the balancing weight got out
+of order. The steering lines became entangled so that the ship was
+first obliged to stop, then by reversing the engines to proceed
+backwards. This was, however, a favourable evidence of her handiness
+under untoward circumstances. After she had been in the air nearly
+an hour and had covered four or five miles, a landing was ordered
+and she dropped to the surface of the lake with perfect ease. Before
+reaching her shed, however, she collided with a pile--an accident in
+no way attributable to her design--and seriously bent her frame.
+
+The story told thus baldly does not sound like a record of glorious
+success. Nevertheless not Count Zeppelin alone but all Germany was
+wild with jubilation. _Zeppelin I._ had demonstrated a principle;
+all that remained was to develop and apply this principle and
+Germany would have a fleet of aërial dreadnoughts that would force
+any hostile nation to subjection. There was little or no discussion
+of the application of the principle to the ends of peace. It was as
+an engine of war alone that the airship appealed to the popular
+fancy.
+
+But at the time that fancy proved fickle. With a few repairs the
+airship was brought out for another test. In the air it did all that
+was asked for it, but it came to earth--or rather to the surface of
+the lake--with a shock that put it out of commission. When Count
+Zeppelin's company estimated the cost of further repairs it gave a
+sigh and abandoned the wreck. Thereupon the pertinacious inventor
+laid aside his tools, got into his old uniform, and went out again
+on the dreary task of begging for further funds.
+
+It was two years before he could take up again the work of
+construction. He lectured, wrote magazine articles, begged, cajoled,
+and pleaded for money. At last he made an impression upon the
+Emperor who, indeed, with a keen eye for all that makes for military
+advantage, should have given heed to his efforts long before. Merely
+a letter of approval from the all-powerful Kaiser was needed to turn
+the scale and in 1902 this was forthcoming. The factories of the
+empire agreed to furnish materials at cost price, and sufficient
+money was soon forthcoming to build a second ship. This ship took
+more than two years to build, was tested in January, 1906, made a
+creditable flight, and was dashed to pieces by a gale the same
+night!
+
+The wearisome work of begging began again. But this time the
+Kaiser's aid was even more effectively given and in nine months
+_Zeppelin III._ was in the air. More powerful than its predecessors
+it met with a greater measure of success. On one of its trials a
+propeller blade flew off and penetrated the envelope, but the ship
+returned to earth in safety. In October, 1906, the Minister of War
+reported that the airship was extremely stable, responded readily to
+her helm, had carried eleven persons sixty-seven miles in two hours
+and seventeen minutes, and had made its landing in ease and safety.
+Accepted by the government "No. III." passed into military service
+and Zeppelin, now the idol of the German people, began the
+construction of "No. IV."
+
+That ship was larger than her predecessors and carried a third
+cabin for passengers suspended amidships. Marked increase in the
+size of the steering and stabling planes characterized the
+appearance of the ship when compared with earlier types. She was at
+the outset a lucky ship. She cruised through Alpine passes into
+Switzerland, and made a circular voyage carrying eleven passengers
+and flying from Friedrichshaven to Mayence and back via Basle,
+Strassburg, Mannheim, and Stuttgart. The voyage occupied twenty-one
+hours--a world's record. The performance of the ship on both voyages
+was perfection. Even in the tortuous Alpine passes which she was
+forced to navigate on her trip to Lucerne she moved with the
+steadiness and certainty of a great ship at sea. The rarification of
+the air at high altitudes, the extreme and sudden variations in
+temperature, the gusts of wind that poured from the ice-bound peaks
+down through the narrow canyons affected her not at all. When to
+this experience was added the triumphant tour of the six German
+cities, Count von Zeppelin might well have thought his triumph was
+complete.
+
+But once again the cup of victory was dashed from his lips. After
+his landing a violent wind beat upon the ship. An army of men strove
+to hold her fast, while an effort was made to reduce her bulk by
+deflation. That effort, which would have been entirely successful in
+the case of a non-rigid balloon, was obviously futile in that of a
+Zeppelin. Not the gas in the ballonets, but the great rigid frame
+covered with water-proofed cloth constituted the huge bulk that made
+her the plaything of the winds. In a trice she was snatched from the
+hands of her crew and hurled against the trees in a neighbouring
+grove. There was a sudden and utterly unexpected explosion and the
+whole fabric was in flames. The precise cause of the explosion will
+always be in doubt, but, as already pointed out, many scientists
+believe that the great volume of electricity accumulated in the
+metallic frame was suddenly released in a mighty spark which set
+fire to the stores of gasoline on board.
+
+With this disaster the iron nerve of the inventor was for the first
+time broken. It followed so fast upon what appeared to be a complete
+triumph that the shock was peculiarly hard to bear. It is said that
+he broke down and wept, and that but for the loving courage and
+earnest entreaties of his wife and daughter he would then have
+abandoned the hope and ambition of his life. But after all it was
+but that darkest hour which comes just before the dawn. The
+demolition of "No. IV." had been no accident which reflected at all
+upon the plan or construction of the craft--unless the great bulk of
+the ship be considered a fundamental defect. What it did demonstrate
+was that the Zeppelin, like the one-thousand-foot ocean liner, must
+have adequate harbour and docking facilities wherever it is to land.
+The one cannot safely drop down in any convenient meadow, any more
+than the other can put into any little fishing port. Germany has
+learned this lesson well enough and since the opening of the Great
+War her territory is plentifully provided with Zeppelin shelters at
+all strategic points.
+
+[Illustration: _The Death of a Zeppelin._
+
+Photo by Paul Thompson.]
+
+Fortunately for the Count the German people judged his latest
+reverse more justly than he did. They saw the completeness of the
+triumph which had preceded the disaster and recognized that the
+latter was one easily guarded against in future. Enthusiasm ran high
+all over the land. Begging was no longer necessary. The Emperor,
+who had heretofore expressed rather guarded approval of the
+enterprise, now flung himself into it with that enthusiasm for which
+he is notable. He bestowed upon the Count the Order of the Black
+Eagle, embraced him in public three times, and called aloud that all
+might hear, "Long life to his Excellency, Count Zeppelin, the
+Conqueror of the Air." He never wearied of assuring his hearers that
+the Count was the "greatest German of the century." With such august
+patronage the Count became the rage. Next to the Kaiser's the face
+best known to the people of Germany, through pictures and statues,
+was that of the inventor of the Zeppelin. The pleasing practice of
+showing affection for a public man by driving nails into his wooden
+effigy had not then been invented by the poetic Teutons, else von
+Zeppelin would have outdone von Hindenburg in weight of metal.
+
+The story that Zeppelin had refused repeated offers from other
+governments was widely published and evoked patriotic enthusiasm.
+With it went shrewd hints that in these powerful aircraft lay the
+way to overcome the hated English navy, and even to carry war to the
+very soil of England. It was then eight years before the greatest
+war of history was to break out, but even at that date hatred of
+England was being sedulously cultivated among the German people by
+those in authority.
+
+As a result of this national attitude Count Zeppelin's enterprise
+was speedily put on a sound financial footing. Though "No. IV." had
+been destroyed by an accident it had been the purpose of the
+government to buy her, and $125,000 of the purchase price was now
+put at the disposal of the Count von Zeppelin. A popular Zeppelin
+fund of $1,500,000 was raised and expended in building great works.
+Thenceforward there was no lack of money for furthering what had
+truly become a great national interest.
+
+But the progress of the construction of Zeppelins for the next few
+years was curiously compounded of success and failure. Fate seemed
+to have decreed to every Zeppelin triumph a disaster. Each mischance
+was attributed to exceptional conditions which never could happen
+again, but either they did occur, or some new but equally effective
+accident did. Outside of Germany, where the public mind had become
+set in an almost idolatrous confidence in Zeppelin, the great
+airships were becoming a jest and a byword notwithstanding their
+unquestioned accomplishments. Indeed when the record was made up
+just before the declaration of war in 1914 it was found that of
+twenty-five Zeppelins thus far constructed only twelve were
+available. Thirteen had been destroyed by accident--two of them
+modern naval airships only completed in 1913. The record was not one
+to inspire confidence.
+
+In 1909, during a voyage in which he made nine hundred miles in
+thirty-eight hours, the rumour was spread that von Zeppelin would
+continue it to Berlin. Some joker sent a forged telegram to the
+Kaiser to that effect signed "Zeppelin." It was expected to be the
+first appearance of one of the great ships at the capital, and the
+Emperor hastened to prepare a suitable welcome. A great crowd
+assembled at the Templehoff Parade Ground. The Berlin Airship
+Battalion was under orders to assist in the landing. The Kaiser
+himself was ready to hasten to the spot should the ship be sighted.
+But she never appeared. If von Zeppelin knew of the exploit which
+rumour had assigned to him--which is doubtful--he could not have
+carried it out. His ship collided with a tree--an accident
+singularly frequent in the Zeppelin records--so disabling it that
+it could only limp home under half power. A rather curt telegram
+from his Imperial master is said to have been Count von Zeppelin's
+first intimation that he had broken an engagement.
+
+However, he kept it two months later, flying to Berlin, a distance
+of 475 miles. He was greeted with mad enthusiasm and among the crowd
+to welcome him was Orville Wright the American aviator. It is a
+curious coincidence that on the day the writer pens these words the
+New York newspapers contain accounts of Mr. Wright's proffer of his
+services, and aeronautical facilities, to the President in case an
+existing diplomatic break with Germany should reach the point of
+actual war. Mr. Wright accompanied his proffer by an appeal for a
+tremendous aviation force, "but," said he, "I strongly advise
+against spending any money whatsoever on dirigible balloons of any
+sort."
+
+Thereafter the progress of Count von Zeppelin was without
+interruption for any lack of financial strength. His great works at
+Friedrichshaven expanded until they were capable of putting out a
+complete ship in eight weeks. He was building, of course, primarily
+for war, and never concealed the fact that the enemy he expected to
+be the target of his bomb throwers was England. What the airships
+accomplished in this direction, how greatly they were developed, and
+the strength and weakness of the German air fleet, will be dwelt
+upon in another chapter.
+
+But, though building primarily for military purposes, Zeppelin did
+not wholly neglect the possibilities of his ship for non-military
+service. He built one which made more than thirty trips between
+Munich and Berlin, carrying passengers who paid a heavy fee for the
+privilege of enjoying this novel form of travel. The car was fitted
+up like our most up-to-date Pullmans, with comfortable seats, bright
+lights, and a kitchen from which excellent meals were served to
+the passengers. The service was not continued long enough to
+determine whether it could ever be made commercially profitable,
+but as an aid to firing the Teutonic heart and an assistance in
+selling stock it was well worth while. The spectacle of one of these
+great cars, six hundred or more feet long, floating grandly on even
+keel and with a steady course above one of the compact little towns
+of South Germany, was one to thrill the pulses.
+
+But the ill luck which pursued Count von Zeppelin even in what
+seemed to be his moments of assured success was remorseless. In 1912
+he produced the monster _L-I_, 525 feet long, 50 feet in diameter,
+of 776,900 cubic feet capacity, and equipped with three sets of
+motors, giving it a speed of fifty-two miles an hour. This ship was
+designed for naval use and after several successful cross-country
+voyages she was ordered to Heligoland, to participate in naval
+manoeuvres with the fleet there stationed. One day, caught by a
+sudden gust of wind such as are common enough on the North Sea, she
+proved utterly helpless. Why no man could tell, her commander being
+drowned, but in the face of the gale she lost all control, was
+buffeted by the elements at their will, and dropped into the sea
+where she was a total loss. Fifteen of her twenty-two officers and
+men were drowned. The accident was the more inexplicable because the
+craft had been flying steadily overland for nearly twelve months and
+had covered more miles than any ship of Zeppelin construction. It
+was reported that her captain had said she was overloaded and that
+he feared that she would be helpless in a gale. But after the
+disaster his mouth was stopped by the waters of the North Sea.
+
+[Illustration: _A German Dirigible, Hansa Type._
+
+© U.& U.]
+
+This calamity was not permitted long to stand alone. Indeed one of
+the most curious facts about the Zeppelin record is the regular,
+periodical recurrence of fatal accidents at almost equal intervals
+and apparently wholly unaffected by the growing perfection of the
+airships. While _L-I_ was making her successful cross-country
+flights, _L-II_ was reaching completion at Friedrichshaven. She was
+shorter but bulkier than her immediate predecessor and carried
+engines giving her nine hundred horse power, or four hundred more
+than _L-I._ On its first official trip this ship exploded a thousand
+feet in air, killing twenty-eight officers and men aboard, including
+all the officials who were conducting the trials. The calamity, as
+explained on an earlier page, was due to the accumulation of gas in
+the communicating passage between the three cars.
+
+[Illustration: _A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika._
+
+Photo by Press Illustrating Service.]
+
+This new disaster left the faith and loyalty of the German people
+unshaken. But it did decidedly estrange the scientific world from
+Count von Zeppelin and all his works. It was pointed out, with
+truth, that the accident paralleled precisely one which had
+demolished the _Severo Pax_ airship ten years earlier, and which had
+caused French inventors to establish a hard and fast rule against
+incorporating in an airship's design any inclosed space in which
+waste gas might gather. This rule and its reason were known to Count
+von Zeppelin and by ignoring both he lent new colour to the charge,
+already current in scientific circles, that he was loath to profit
+by the experiences of other inventors.
+
+Whether this feeling spread to the German Government it is
+impossible to say. Nor it is easy to estimate how much official
+confidence was shaken by it. The government, even before the war,
+was singularly reticent about the Zeppelins, their numbers and
+plans. It is certain that orders were not withheld from the Count.
+Great numbers of his machines were built, especially after the war
+was entered upon. But he was not permitted longer to have a monopoly
+of government aid for manufacturers of dirigibles. Other types
+sprung up, notably the Schutte-Lanz, the Gross, and the Parseval.
+But being first in the field the Zeppelin came to give its name to
+all the dirigibles of German make and many of the famous--or
+infamous--exploits credited to it during the war may in fact have
+been performed by one of its rivals.
+
+It would be futile to attempt to enumerate all these rivals here.
+Among them are the semi-rigid Parseval and Gross types which found
+great favour among the military authorities during the war. The
+latter is merely an adaptation of the highly successful French ship
+the _Lebaudy_, but the Parseval is the result of a slow evolution
+from an ordinary balloon. It is wholly German, in conception and
+development, and it is reported that the Kaiser, secretly disgusted
+that the Zeppelins, to the advancement of which he had given such
+powerful aid, should have recorded so many disasters, quietly
+transferred his interest to the new and simpler model. Despite the
+hope of a more efficient craft, however, both the Gross and the
+Parseval failed in their first official trials, though later they
+made good.
+
+The latter ship was absolutely without any wooden or metallic
+structure to give her rigidity. Two air ballonets were contained in
+the envelope at bow and stern and the ascent and descent of the
+ship was regulated by the quantity of air pumped into these. A most
+curious device was the utilization of heavy cloth for the propeller
+blades. Limp and flaccid when at rest, heavy weights in the hem of
+the cloth caused these blades to stand out stiff and rigid as the
+result of the centrifugal force created by their rapid revolution.
+One great military advantage of the Parseval was that she could be
+quickly deflated in the presence of danger at her moorings, and
+wholly knocked down and packed in small compass for shipment by rail
+in case of need. To neither of these models did there ever come such
+a succession of disasters as befell the earlier Zeppelins. It is
+fair to say however that prior to the war not many of them had been
+built, and that both their builders and navigators had opportunity
+to learn from Count von Zeppelin's errors.
+
+Among the chief German rivals to the Zeppelin is the Schutte-Lanz,
+of the rigid type, broader but not so long as the Zeppelin, framed
+of wood bound with wire and planned to carry a load of five or six
+tons, or as many as thirty passengers. No. I of this type met its
+fate as did so many Zeppelins by encountering a storm while
+improperly moored. Called to earth to replenish its supply of gas it
+was moored to an anchor sunk six feet in the ground, and as an
+additional precaution three hundred soldiers were called from a
+neighbouring barracks to handle it. It seems to have been one of the
+advantages of Germany as a place in which to manoeuvre dirigibles,
+that, even in time of peace, there were always several hundred
+soldiers available wherever a ship might land. But this force was
+inadequate. A violent gust tore the ship from their hands. One poor
+fellow instinctively clung to his rope until one thousand feet in
+the air when he let go. The ship itself hovered over the town for an
+hour or more, then descended and was dashed to pieces against trees
+and stone walls.
+
+The danger which was always attached to the landing of airships has
+led some to suggest that they should never be brought to earth, but
+moored in mid-air as large ships anchor in midstream. It is
+suggested that tall towers be built to the top of which the ship be
+attached by a cable, so arranged that she will always float to the
+leeward of the tower. The passengers would be landed by gangplanks,
+and taken up and down the towers in elevators. Kipling suggests this
+expedient in his prophetic sketch _With the Night Mail_. The airship
+would only return to earth--as a ship goes into dry dock--when in
+need of repairs.
+
+A curious mishap that threatened for a time to wreck the peace of
+the world, occurred in April, 1913, when a German Zeppelin was
+forced out of its course and over French territory. The right of
+alien machines to pass over their territory is jealously guarded by
+European nations, and during the progress of the Great War the Dutch
+repeatedly protested against the violation of their atmosphere by
+German aviators. At the time of this mischance, however, France and
+Germany were at peace--or as nearly so as racial and historic
+antipathies would permit. Accordingly when officers of a brigade of
+French cavalry engaged in manoeuvring near the great fortress of
+Luneville saw a shadow moving across the field and looking up saw a
+huge Zeppelin betwixt themselves and the sun they were astonished
+and alarmed. Signs and faint shouts from the aeronauts appeared to
+indicate that their errand was at least friendly, if not
+involuntary. The soldiers stopped their drill; the townspeople
+trooped out to the Champs de Mars where the phenomenon was exhibited
+and began excitedly discussing this suspicious invasion. Word was
+speedily sent to military headquarters asking whether to welcome or
+to repel the foe.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_British Aviators about to Ascend._
+
+_Note position of gunner on lower seat._]
+
+Meantime the great ship was drifting perilously near the housetops,
+and the uniformed officers in the cars began making signals to the
+soldiers below. Ropes were thrown out, seized by willing hands and
+made fast. The crew of Germans descended to find themselves
+prisoners. The international law was clear enough. The ship was a
+military engine of the German army. Its officers, all in uniform,
+had deliberately steered her into the very heart of a French
+fortress. Though the countries were at peace the act was technically
+one of war--an armed invasion by the enemy. Diplomacy of course
+settled the issue peacefully but not before the French had made
+careful drawings of all the essential features of the Zeppelin, and
+taken copies of its log. As Germany had theretofore kept a rigid
+secrecy about all the details of Zeppelin construction and operation
+this angered the military authorities beyond measure. The unlucky
+officers who had shared in the accident were savagely told that they
+should have blown the ship up in mid-air and perished with it rather
+than to have weakly submitted it to French inspection. They suffered
+court-martial but escaped with severe reprimands.
+
+The story of the dirigibles of France and Germany is practically the
+whole story of the development to a reasonable degree of perfection
+of the lighter-than-air machine. Other nations experimented
+somewhat, but in the main lagged behind these pioneers. Out of Spain
+indeed came a most efficient craft--the Astra-Torres, of which the
+British Government had the best example prior to the war, while both
+France and Russia placed large orders with the builders. How many
+finally went into service and what may have been their record are
+facts veiled in the secrecy of wartime. Belgium and Italy both
+produced dirigibles of distinctive character. The United States is
+alone at the present moment in having contributed nothing to the
+improvement of the dirigible balloon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIRPLANE
+
+
+The story of the development of the heavier-than-air machine--which
+were called aëroplanes at first, but have been given the simpler
+name of airplanes--is far shorter than that of the balloons. It is
+really a record of achievement made since 1903 when the plane built
+by Professor Langley of the Smithsonian Institution came to utter
+disaster on the Potomac. In 1917, at the time of writing this book,
+there are probably thirty distinct types of airplanes being
+manufactured for commercial and military use, and not less than
+fifty thousand are being used daily over the battlefields of Europe.
+No invention save possibly the telephone and the automobile ever
+attained so prodigious a development in so brief a time. Wise
+observers hold that the demand for these machines is yet in its
+infancy, and that when the end of the war shall lead manufacturers
+and designers to turn their attention to the commercial value of the
+airplane the flying craft will be as common in the air as the
+automobiles at least on our country roads.
+
+The idea of flying like a bird with wings, the idea basicly
+underlying the airplane theory, is old enough--almost as old as the
+first conception of the balloon, before hydrogen gas was discovered.
+In an earlier chapter some account is given of early experiments
+with wings. No progress was made along this line until the
+hallucination that man could make any headway whatsoever against
+gravity by flapping artificial wings was definitely abandoned. There
+was more promise in the experiments made by Sir George Cayley, and
+he was followed in the first half of the nineteenth century by half
+a dozen British experimenters who were convinced that a series of
+planes, presenting a fixed angle to the breeze and driven against it
+by a sufficiently powerful motor, would develop a considerable
+lifting power. This was demonstrated by Henson, in 1842,
+Stringfellow, in 1847, Wenham, who arranged his planes like slats in
+a Venetian blind and first applied the modern term "aeroplane" to
+his invention, and Sir Hiram Maxim, who built in 1890 the most
+complicated and impressive looking 'plane the world has yet seen.
+But though each of these inventors proved the theorem that a
+heavier-than-air machine could be made to fly, all failed to get
+practical results because no motor had then been invented which
+combined the necessary lightness with the generation of the required
+power.
+
+In America we like to think of the brothers Wright as being the true
+inventors of the airplane. And indeed they did first bring it to the
+point of usefulness, and alone among the many pioneers lived to see
+the adoption of their device by many nations for serious practical
+use. But it would be unjust to claim for them entire priority in the
+field of the glider and the heavier-than-air machine. Professor
+Langley preceded them with an airplane which, dismissed with
+ridicule as a failure in his day, was long after his death equipped
+with a lighter motor and flown by Glenn Curtis, who declared that
+the scientist had solved the problem, had only the explosive engine
+been perfected in his time.
+
+Despite, however, the early period of the successful experiments of
+the Wrights and Professor Langley, it would be unjust for America to
+arrogate to herself entire priority in airplane invention. Any story
+of that achievement which leaves out Lilienthal, the German, and
+Pilcher, the Englishman, is a record in which the truth is
+subordinated to national pride.
+
+[Illustration: Langley's Airplane.]
+
+Otto Lilienthal and his brother Gustav--the two like the Wrights
+were always associated in their aviation work--had been studying
+long the problem of flight when in 1889 they jointly published their
+book _Bird Flight as the Basis of the Flying Art_. Their
+investigations were wholly into the problem of flight without a
+motor. At the outset they even harked back to the long-abandoned
+theory that man could raise himself by mere muscular effort, and
+Otto spent many hours suspended at the end of a rope flapping
+frantically a pair of wings before he abandoned this effort as
+futile. Convinced that the soaring or gliding of the birds was the
+feat to emulate, he made himself a pair of fixed, bat-like wings
+formed of a light fabric stretched over a willow frame. A tail
+composed of one vertical and one horizontal plane extended to the
+rear, and in the middle the aviator hung by his armpits, in an erect
+position. With this device he made some experimental glides, leaping
+from slight eminences. With his body, which swung at will from its
+cushioned supports, he could balance, and even steer the fabric
+which supported him, and accomplished long glides against the wind.
+Not infrequently, running into the teeth of the breeze down a gentle
+slope he would find himself gently wafted into the air and would
+make flights of as much as three hundred yards, steering to either
+side, or rising and falling at will. He was even able to make a
+circuitous flight and return to his starting place--a feat that was
+not accomplished with a motor-driven airplane until years later.
+Lilienthal achieved it with no mechanical aid, except the wings. He
+became passionately devoted to the art, made more than two thousand
+flights, and at the time of his death had just completed a
+motor-driven airplane, which he was never able to test. His earlier
+gliding wings he developed into a form of biplane, with which he
+made several successful flights, but met his death in 1896 by the
+collapse of this machine, of the bad condition of which he had been
+warned.
+
+[Illustration: © Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_French Airdrome near the Front._]
+
+Lilienthal was more of a factor in the conquest of the air than his
+actual accomplishments would imply. His persistent experiments, his
+voluminous writings, and above all his friendly and intelligent
+interest in the work of other and younger men won him a host of
+disciples in other lands who took up the work that dropped from his
+lifeless hands.
+
+[Illustration: Lilienthal's Glider.]
+
+In England Percy S. Pilcher emulated the Lilienthal glides, and was
+at work on a motor-propelled machine when he was killed by the
+breakage of a seemingly unimportant part of his machine. He was on
+the edge of the greater success, not to that moment attained by
+anyone, of building a true airplane propelled by motor. Many
+historians think that to Lilienthal and Pilcher is justly due the
+title "the first flying men." But Le Bris, a French sailor, utterly
+without scientific or technical equipment, as far back as 1854 had
+accomplished a wonderful feat in that line. While on a cruise he had
+watched an albatross that followed his ship day after day apparently
+without rest and equally without fatigue. His imagination was fired
+by the spectacle and probably having never heard of the punishment
+that befell the Ancient Mariner, he shot the albatross. "I took the
+wing," he wrote later, "and exposed it to the breeze, and lo, in
+spite of me, it drew forward into the wind; notwithstanding my
+resistance it tended to rise. Thus I had discovered the secret of
+the bird. I comprehend the whole mystery of flight."
+
+A trifle too sanguine was sailor Le Bris, but he had just the
+qualities of imagination and confidence essential to one who sets
+forth to conquer the air. Had he possessed the accurate mind, the
+patience, and the pertinacity of the Wrights he might have beaten
+them by half a century. As it was he accomplished a remarkable feat,
+though it ended in somewhat laughable failure. He built an
+artificial bird, on the general plan of his albatross. The wings
+were not to flap, but their angles to the wind were controlled by a
+system of levers controlled by Le Bris, who stood up in the basket
+in the centre. To rise he required something like the flying start
+which the airplanes of to-day get on their bicycle wheels before
+leaving the ground. As Le Bris had no motor this method of
+propulsion was denied him, so he loaded the apparatus in a cart, and
+fastened it to the rail by a rope knotted in a slip knot which a
+jerk from him would release. As they started men walked beside the
+cart holding the wings, which extended for twenty-five feet on
+either side. As the horses speeded up these assistants released
+their hold. Feeling the car try to rise under his feet Le Bris cast
+off the rope, tilted the front end of the machine, and to his joy
+began to rise steadily into the air. The spectators below cheered
+madly, but a note of alarm mingled with their cheers, and the
+untried aviator noticed a strange and inexplicable jerking of his
+machine. Peering down he discovered, to his amaze, a man kicking
+and crying aloud in deadly fear. It was evident that the rope he had
+detached from the cart had caught up the driver, who had thus
+become, to his intense dismay, a partner in the inventor's triumph.
+Indeed it is most possible that he contributed to that triumph for
+the ease and steadiness with which the machine rose to a height
+estimated at three hundred feet suggests that he may have furnished
+needed ballast--acted in fact as the tail to the kite. Humanity
+naturally impelled Le Bris to descend at once, which he did
+skilfully without injuring his involuntary passenger, and only
+slightly breaking one of the wings.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A German War Zeppelin._]
+
+Had Le Bris won this success twenty years later his fame and fortune
+would have been secure. But in 1854 the time was not ripe for aeronautics.
+Le Bris was poor. The public responded but grudgingly to his appeals
+for aid. His next experiment was less successful--perhaps for lack of
+the carter--and he ultimately disappeared from aviation to become an
+excellent soldier of France.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines._]
+
+Perhaps had they not met with early and violent deaths, the
+Lilienthals and Pilcher might have carried their experiments in the
+art of gliding into the broader domain of power flight. This however
+was left to the two Americans, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who have
+done more to advance the art of navigating the air than all the
+other experimenters whose names we have used. The story of the
+Wright brothers is one of boyhood interest gradually developed into
+the passion of a lifetime. It parallels to some degree the story of
+Santos-Dumont who insisting as a child that "man flies" finally made
+it a fact. The interest of the Wrights was first stimulated when, in
+1878, their father brought home a small toy, called a "helicopter,"
+which when tossed in the air rose up instead of falling. Every child
+had them at that time, but curiously this one was like the seed
+which fell upon fertile soil. The boys went mad, as boys will, on
+the subject of flying. But unlike most boys they nurtured and
+cultivated the passion and it stayed with them to manhood. From
+helicopters they passed to kites, and from kites to gliders. By
+calling they were makers and repairers of bicycles, but their spare
+time was for years devoted to solving the problem of flight. In time
+it became their sole occupation and by it they won a fortune and
+world-wide fame. Their story forms a remarkable testimony to the
+part of imagination, pertinacity, and courage in winning success.
+After years of tests with models, and with kites controlled from the
+ground, the brothers had worked out a type of glider which they
+believed, in a wind of from eighteen to twenty miles an hour, would
+lift and carry a man. But they had to find a testing ground. The
+fields near their home in Ohio were too level, and their firm
+unyielding surface was not attractive as a cushion on which to light
+in the event of disaster. Moreover the people round about were
+getting inquisitive about these grown men "fooling around" with
+kites and flying toys. To the last the Wrights were noted for their
+dislike of publicity, and it is entirely probable that the sneering
+criticisms of their "level headed" and "practical" neighbours had a
+good deal to do with rooting them in this distaste.
+
+Low steep hills down the sides of which they could run and at the
+proper moment throw themselves upon their glider; a sandy soil which
+would at least lessen the shock of a tumble; and a vicinage in which
+winds of eighteen miles an hour or more is the normal atmospheric
+state were the conditions they sought. These they found at a little
+hamlet called Kitty-Hawk on the coast of North Carolina. There for
+uncounted centuries the tossing Atlantic had been throwing up its
+snowy sand upon the shore, and the steady wind had caught it up,
+piled it in windrows, rolled it up into towering hills, or carried
+it over into the dunes which extended far inland. It was a lonely
+spot, and there secure from observation the Wrights pitched their
+camp. For them it was a midsummer's holiday. Not at first did they
+decide to make aviation not a sport but a profession. To their camp
+came visitors interested in the same study, among them Chanute, a
+well-known experimenter, and some of his associates. They had
+thought to give hours at a time to actual flight. When they closed
+their first season, they found that all their time spent in actual
+flight footed up less than an hour. Lilienthal, despite all he
+accomplished, estimated that he, up to a short time before his
+death, spent only about five hours actually in the air. In that
+early day of experimentation a glide covering one hundred feet, and
+consuming eight or ten seconds, was counted a triumph.
+
+[Illustration: Chanute's Glider.]
+
+But the season was by no means wasted. Indeed such was the estimate
+that the Wrights put upon it that they folded their tents determined
+that when they returned the year following it would be as
+professionals, not amateurs. They were confident of their ability to
+build machines that would fly, though up to that time they had never
+mounted a motor on their aircraft.
+
+In the clear hot air of a North Carolina midsummer the Wrights used
+to lie on their backs studying through glasses the methods of flight
+of the great buzzards--filthy scavenger birds which none the less
+soaring high aloft against a blue sky are pictures of dignity and
+grace.
+
+     Bald eagles, ospreys, hawks, and buzzards give us daily
+     exhibitions of their powers [wrote Wilbur Wright]. The buzzards
+     were the most numerous, and were the most persistent soarers.
+     They apparently never flapped except when it was absolutely
+     necessary, while the eagles and hawks usually soared only when
+     they were at leisure. Two methods of soaring were employed. When
+     the weather was cold and damp and the wind strong the buzzards
+     would be seen soaring back and forth along the hills or at the
+     edge of a clump of trees. They were evidently taking advantage of
+     the current of air flowing upward over these obstructions. On
+     such days they were often utterly unable to soar, except in these
+     special places. But on warm clear days when the wind was light
+     they would be seen high in the air soaring in great circles.
+     Usually, however, it seemed to be necessary to reach a height of
+     several hundred feet by flapping before this style of soaring
+     became possible. Frequently a great number of them would begin
+     circling in one spot, rising together higher and higher till
+     finally they would disperse, each gliding off in whatever
+     direction it wished to go. At such times other buzzards only a
+     short distance away found it necessary to flap frequently in
+     order to maintain themselves. But when they reached a point
+     beneath the circling flock they began to rise on motionless
+     wings. This seemed to indicate that rising columns of air do not
+     exist everywhere, but that the birds must find them. They
+     evidently watch each other and when one finds a rising current
+     the others quickly make their way to it. One day when scarce a
+     breath of wind was stirring on the ground we noticed two bald
+     eagles sailing in circling sweeps at a height of probably five
+     hundred feet. After a time our attention was attracted to the
+     flashing of some object considerably lower down. Examination with
+     a field-glass proved it to be a feather which one of the birds
+     had evidently cast. As it seemed apparent that it would come to
+     earth only a short distance away, some of our party started to
+     get it. But in a little while it was noted that the feather was
+     no longer falling, but on the contrary was rising rapidly. It
+     finally went out of sight upward. It apparently was drawn into
+     the same current in which the eagles were soaring and was carried
+     up like the birds.
+
+It was by such painstaking methods as these, coupled with the
+mathematical reduction of the fruits of such observations to terms
+of angles and supporting planes, that the Wrights gradually
+perfected their machine. The first airplane to which they fitted a
+motor and which actually flew has been widely exhibited in the
+United States, and is to find final repose in some public museum.
+Study it as you will you can find little resemblance in those
+rectangular rigid planes to the wings of a bird. But it was built
+according to deductions drawn from natural flight.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Paul Thompson.
+
+_A German Taube Pursued by British Planes._]
+
+The method of progress in these preliminary experiments was, by
+repeated tests, to determine what form of airplane, and of what
+proportions, would best support a man. It was evident that for free
+and continuous flight it must be able to carry not only the pilot,
+but an engine and a store of fuel as well. Having, as they thought,
+determined these conditions the Wrights essayed their first flight
+at their home near Dayton, Ohio. It was a cold December day in 1903.
+The first flight, with motor and all, lasted twelve seconds; the
+fourth fifty-nine seconds. The handful of people who came out to
+witness the marvel went home jeering. In the spring of the next year
+a new flight was announced near Dayton. The newspapers had been
+asked to send reporters. A crowd of perhaps fifty persons had
+gathered. Again fate was hostile. The engine worked badly and the
+airplane refused to rise. The crowd dispersed and the newspapermen,
+returning the next day, met only with another disappointment.
+
+[Illustration: The First Wright Glider.]
+
+These repeated failures in public exhibitions resulted in creating
+general indifference to the real progress that the Wrights were
+making in solving the flight problem. While the gliding experiments
+at Kitty-Hawk were furnishing the data for the plans on which the
+tens of thousands of airplanes used in the European war were
+afterwards built, no American newspaper was sufficiently interested
+to send representatives to the spot. The people of the United States
+were supremely indifferent. Perhaps this was due to the fact that
+superficially regarded the machine the Wrights were trying to
+perfect gave promise of usefulness only in war or in sport. We are
+not either a warlike or a sporting people. Ready enough to adopt a
+new device which seems adapted for utilitarian purposes, as is shown
+by the rapid multiplication of automobiles, we leave sport to our
+professional ball players, and our military equipment to luck.
+
+[Illustration: Pilcher's Glider.]
+
+So after continued experimental flights in the open fields near
+Dayton had convinced them that the practical weaknesses in their
+machine had been eliminated, the Wrights packed up their flyer and
+went to France. Before so doing they tried to get encouragement from
+the United States Government, but failed. Neither the government nor
+any rich American was willing to share the cost of further
+experiments. All that had been done was at their own cost, both in
+time and money. In France, whither they went in 1908, they had no
+coldness to complain of. It was then the golden day of aviation in
+the land which always afforded to the Knights of the Air their
+warmest welcome and their most liberal support. Two years had
+elapsed since Santos-Dumont, turning from dirigibles to 'planes, had
+made a flight of 238 yards. This the Wrights had at the time
+excelled at home but without attracting attention. France on the
+contrary went mad with enthusiasm, and claimed for the Brazilian the
+honour of first demonstrating the possibility of flight in a
+heavier-than-air machine. England, like the United States, was cold,
+clinging to the balloon long after all other nations had abandoned
+it. But France welcomed the Wrights with enthusiasm. They found
+rivals a-plenty in their field of effort. Santos-Dumont, Bleriot,
+Farman, Latham were all flying with airplanes, but with models
+radically different from that of the American brothers. Nevertheless
+the latter made an instant success.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes at the
+Opening of the War._
+
+_The French Army had at least 500 aëroplanes. England had about 250
+aëroplanes of all types Russia had 50 aëroplanes--Austria had at
+least 50 aëroplanes Germany is about the equal of France, having 500
+flyers._]
+
+From the moment they found that they had hit upon the secret of
+raising, supporting, and propelling an airplane, the Wrights made of
+their profession a matter of cold business. In many ways this was
+the best contribution they could possibly have made to the science
+of aviation, though their keen eye to the main chance did bring down
+on them a certain amount of ridicule. Europe laughed long at the
+_sang-froid_ with which Wilbur Wright, having won the Michelin prize
+of eight hundred pounds, gave no heed to the applause which the
+assembled throng gave him as the money was transferred to him with a
+neat presentation speech. Without a word he divided the notes into
+two packets, handed one to his brother Orville, and thrust the other
+into his own pocket. For the glory which attended his achievement he
+cared nothing. It was all in the day's work. Later in the course of
+trials of a machine for the United States Government at Fort Myer,
+just across the Potomac from Washington, the Wrights seriously
+offended a certain sort of public sentiment in a way which
+undoubtedly set back the encouragement of aviation by the United
+States Government very seriously.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Dirigibles at the
+Opening of the War._
+
+_France must be credited with at least eighteen airships of various
+types--England had only seven--Russia had probably not more than
+three airships available--Belgium had one airship Austria had not
+less than three, not more than five airships available--Germany had
+twenty three airships of the rigid, semi-rigid, and non-rigid
+type._]
+
+In 1909, they had received a contract from the government for a
+machine for the use of the Signal Service. The price was fixed at
+$25,000, but a bonus of $2500 was to be paid for every mile above
+forty miles an hour made by the machine on its trial trip. That
+bonus looked big to the Wrights, but it cost the cause of aviation
+many times its face value in the congressional disfavour it caused.
+Aviation was then in its infancy in the United States. Every man in
+Congress wanted to see the flights. But Fort Myer, whose parade was
+to be the testing ground, was fully fourteen miles from the Capitol,
+and reached only most inconveniently from Washington by trolley, or
+most expensively by carriage or automobile. Day after day members
+of the House and Senate made the long journey across the Potomac.
+Time and again they journeyed back without even a sight of the
+flyer in the hangar. One after another little flaws discovered in
+the machine led the aviators to postpone their flight. Investigating
+statesmen who thought that their position justified them in seeking
+special privileges were brusquely turned away by the military guard.
+The dusk of many a summer's night saw thousands of disappointed
+sightseers tramping the long road back to Washington. The climax
+came when on a clear but breezy day Wilbur Wright announced that the
+machine was in perfect condition and could meet its tests readily,
+but that in order to win a bigger bonus, he would postpone the
+flight for a day with less wind. All over Washington the threat was
+heard that night that Congress would vote no more money for
+aviation, and whether or not the incident was the cause, the
+sequence was that the American Congress was, until the menace of war
+with Germany in 1916, the most niggardly of all legislative bodies
+in its treatment of the flying corps. When the Wrights did finally
+fly they made a triumphant flight before twelve thousand spectators.
+The test involved crossing the Potomac, going down its north side to
+Alexandria, and then back to Fort Myer. Ringing cheers and the
+crashing strains of the military band greeted the return of the
+aviator, but oblivious to the enthusiasm Wilbur Wright stood beside
+his machine with pencil and pad computing his bonus. It figured up
+to five thousand dollars, and the reporters chronicled that the
+Wrights knew well the difference between solid coin and the bubble
+of reputation.
+
+[Illustration: Wright Glider.]
+
+But this seemingly cold indifference to fame and single-minded
+concentration on the business of flying on the part of the Wrights
+was in fact of the utmost value to aviation as an art and a science.
+They were pioneers and successful ones. Their example was heeded by
+others in the business. In every way they sought to discourage that
+wild reaching after public favour and notoriety that led aviators to
+attempt reckless feats, and often sacrifice their lives in a foolish
+effort to astonish an audience. No one ever heard of either of the
+Wright brothers "looping-the-loop," doing a "demon glide," or in any
+other fashion reducing the profession of aviation to the level of a
+circus. In a time when brave and skilful aviators, with a mistaken
+idea of the ethics of their calling, were appealing to sensation
+lovers by the practice of dare-devil feats, the Wrights with
+admirable common sense and dignity stood sturdily against any such
+degradation of the aviator's art. In this position they were joined
+by Glenn Curtis, and the influence of the three was beginning to be
+shown in the reduced number of lives sacrificed in these follies
+when the Great War broke upon the world and gave to aviation its
+greatest opportunity. The world will hope nevertheless that after
+that war shall end the effort to adapt the airplane to the ends of
+peace will be no less earnest and persistent than have been the
+methods by which it has been made a most serviceable auxiliary of
+war.
+
+In July, 1915, _Collier's Weekly_ published an interview with
+Orville Wright in which that man, ordinarily of few words, set up
+some interesting theories upon the future of airplanes.
+
+     "The greatest use of the airplane to date," said Mr. Wright, "has
+     been as a tremendously big factor of modern warfare. But--
+
+     "The greatest use of the airplane eventually will be to prevent
+     war.
+
+     "Some day there will be neither war nor rumours of war, and the
+     reason may be flying machines.
+
+     "It sounds paradoxical. We are building airplanes to use in time
+     of war, and will continue to build them for war. We think of war
+     and we think of airplanes. Later on, perhaps, we shall think of
+     airplanes in connection with the wisdom of keeping out of war.
+
+     "The airplane will prevent war by making it too expensive, too
+     slow, too difficult, too long drawn out--in brief, by making the
+     cost prohibitive.
+
+     "Did you ever stop to think," inquires Wright, "that there is a
+     very definite reason why the present war in Europe has dragged
+     along for a year with neither side gaining much advantage over
+     the other? The reason as I figure it out is airplanes. In
+     consequence of the scouting work done by the flying machines each
+     side knows exactly what the opposing forces are doing.
+
+     "There is little chance for one army to take another by surprise.
+     Napoleon won his wars by massing his troops at unexpected places.
+     The airplane has made that impossible. It has equalized
+     information. Each side has such complete knowledge of the other's
+     movements that both sides are obliged to crawl into trenches and
+     fight by means of slow, tedious routine, rather than by quick,
+     spectacular dashes.
+
+     "My impression is that before the present war started the army
+     experts expected it to be a matter of a few weeks, or at the
+     most, a few months. To-day it looks as if it might run into years
+     before one side can dictate terms. Now, a nation that may be
+     willing to undertake a war lasting a few months may well hesitate
+     about engaging in one that will occupy years. The daily cost of a
+     great war is of course stupendous. When this cost runs on for
+     years the total is likely to be so great that the side which wins
+     nevertheless loses. War will become prohibitively expensive. The
+     scouting work in flying machines will be the predominating
+     factor, as it seems to me, in bringing this about. I like to
+     think so anyhow."
+
+     "What, in your opinion, has the present war demonstrated
+     regarding the relative advantages of airplanes and Zeppelin
+     airships?" the inventor was asked.
+
+     "The airplane seems to have been of the more practical use,"
+     replied Wright. "In the first place, dirigible airships of the
+     Zeppelin type are so expensive to build, costing somewhere around
+     a half million dollars each, that it is distinctly
+     disadvantageous to the nation operating them to have one
+     destroyed. But what is more important is the fact that the
+     Zeppelin is so large that it furnishes an excellent target,
+     unless it sails considerably higher than is comparatively safe
+     for an airplane. And when the Zeppelin is at a safe height it is
+     too far above the ground for your scout to make accurate
+     observations. Similarly, when the Zeppelin is used for dropping
+     bombs, it must be too high for the bomb thrower to show much
+     accuracy."
+
+     "You think that the use of flying machines for scouting purposes
+     will be of considerably more importance than their use as a means
+     of attack?" was another question.
+
+     "That has been decidedly true so far," replied Wright. "About all
+     that has been accomplished by either side from bomb dropping has
+     been to kill a few non-combatants and that will have no bearing
+     on the result of the war.
+
+[Illustration: _At a French Airplane Base._ © International Pilot
+Service.]
+
+     "English newspapers have long talked of the danger of Zeppelin
+     attacks or airplane attacks, but it was all for a purpose,
+     because they did not believe the country was sufficiently
+     prepared for war and sought to arouse the people and the War
+     Department to action by means of the airship bogy. [Later history
+     showed Mr. Wright sadly in error on this point.]
+
+     "Aside from the use of the machines for war purposes the war will
+     give a great boost to aviation generally. It has led more men to
+     learn to fly, and with a higher degree of skill than ever before.
+     It has awakened people to aviation possibilities.
+
+[Illustration: Stringfellow's Airplane.]
+
+     "Just like the automobile, it will become more and more
+     fool-proof, easier to handle and safer. There is no reason why it
+     should not take the place of special trains where there is urgent
+     need of great speed.
+
+     "The airplane has never really come into its own as a sporting
+     proposition. Of late years the tendency has been to develop a
+     high rate of speed rather than to build machines that may be
+     operated safely at a comparatively low speed. You see, a machine
+     adapted to make from seventy to one hundred miles an hour cannot
+     run at all except at a pretty rapid clip, and this means
+     difficulty in getting down. One must have a good, smooth piece of
+     ground to land on and plenty of it. When we get an airplane that
+     will fly along at twenty miles an hour, one can land almost any
+     place,--on a roof, if necessary,--and then people will begin to
+     take an interest in owning an airplane for the enjoyment of
+     flying."
+
+     "Is it true that you and your brother had a compact not to fly
+     together?"
+
+     "Yes, we felt that until the records of our work could be made
+     complete it was a wise precaution not to take a chance on both of
+     us getting killed at the same time. We never flew together but
+     once. From 1900 to 1908 the total time in the air for both Wilbur
+     and myself, all put together, was only about four hours."
+
+Mr. Wright's statement of the brevity of the time spent in actual
+flying in order to learn the art will astonish many people. Few
+novices would be so rash as to undertake to steer an automobile
+alone after only four hours' practice, and despite the fact that the
+aviator always has plenty of space to himself the airplane can
+hardly yet be regarded as simple a machine to handle as the
+automobile. Nevertheless the ease with which the method of its
+actual manipulation is acquired is surprising. More work is done in
+the classroom and on the ground to make the fighting pilot than in
+the air. As we have traced the development of both dirigible and
+airplane from the first nascent germ of their creation to the point
+at which they were sufficiently developed to play a large part in
+the greatest of all wars, let us now consider how hosts of young
+men, boys in truth, were trained to fly like eagles and to give
+battle in mid-air to foes no less well trained and desperate than
+they.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE TRAINING OF THE AVIATOR
+
+
+The Great War, opening in Europe in 1914 and before its end
+involving practically the whole world, including our own nation, has
+had more to do with the rapid development of aircraft, both
+dirigible balloons and airplanes, than any other agency up to the
+present time. It tested widely and discarded all but the most
+efficient. It established the relative value of the dirigible and
+the airplane, so relegating the former to the rear that it is said
+that the death of Count Zeppelin, March 8, 1917, was in a measure
+due to his chagrin and disappointment. It stimulated at once the
+inventiveness of the constructors and the skill and daring of the
+pilots. When it opened there were a few thousand machines and
+trained pilots in all the armies of Europe. Before the war had been
+in progress three years there were more flying men over the
+battlefields of the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa,
+than there were at that time soldiers of all classes enlisted in the
+regular army of the United States. Before that war the three arms of
+the armed service had been infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The
+experience of war added a new arm--the aviation corps--and there is
+to-day some doubt whether in importance it should not be ranked
+above the cavalry.
+
+[Illustration: "_America"--Built to Cross the Atlantic Ocean._ © U.
+& U.]
+
+When war was declared none of the belligerent nations had its aërial
+fleet properly organized, nor was the aviation department in any of
+them equal in preparedness to the rest of the army. The two great
+antagonists did not differ greatly in the strength of their flying
+forces. Germany possessed about 1000 airplanes, exclusive of about
+450 in private hands, of all which it is estimated about 700 were
+ready for immediate service. Fourteen Zeppelins were in commission,
+and other large dirigibles of different types brought the number of
+the craft of this sort available up to forty.
+
+[Illustration: _Wright Airplane in Flight._]
+
+France was stronger in airplanes but weaker in dirigibles. Of the
+former she had about 1500; of the latter not more than twenty-five.
+The land was swept for planes in the hands of private owners and, as
+the French people had from the first taken a lively interest in
+aviation, more than 500 were thus obtained. The French furthermore
+at the very outset imperilled their immediate strength in the air
+for the sake of the future by adopting four or five machines as army
+types and throwing out all of other makes. More than 550 machines
+were thus discarded, and their services lost during the first weeks
+of the war. The reason for this action was the determination of the
+French to equip their aviation corps with standardized machines of a
+few types only. Thus interchangeable parts could always be kept in
+readiness in case of an emergency, and the aviation corps was
+obliged to familiarize itself with the workings of only a few
+machines. The objection to the system is the fact that it
+practically stopped all development of any machines in France except
+the favoured few. Moreover it threw out of the service at a stroke,
+or remanded for further instruction, not less than four hundred
+pilots who had been trained on the rejected machines. The order was
+received with great public dissatisfaction, and for a time
+threatened serious trouble in the Chamber of Deputies where
+criticisms of the direction of the flying service even menaced the
+continuance of the ministry in power.
+
+At the outset of the war Great Britain lagged far behind the other
+chief belligerents in the extent of her preparations for war in the
+air. As has been pointed out the people of that nation had never
+taken the general interest in aviation which was manifested in
+France, and there was no persistent Count von Zeppelin to stir
+government and citizens into action. The situation was rather
+anomalous. Protected from invasion by its ring of surrounding
+waters, England had long concentrated its defensive efforts upon its
+navy. But while the danger of invasion by the air was second only to
+that by sea the British contemplated with indifference the feverish
+building of Zeppelins by Germany, and the multiplication of aircraft
+of every sort in all the nations of the continent. The manufacture
+of aircraft was left to private builders, and not until the war was
+well under way did the government undertake its systematic
+supervision. The Royal Aërial Factory, then established, became the
+chief manufacturer of machines for army and navy use, and acted also
+as the agent for the inspection and testing of machines built by
+private firms. Control of the Royal Flying Corps is vested in the
+Admiralty, the government holding that the strategy of airships was
+distinctly naval.
+
+In the use of seaplanes the British were early far in the lead of
+other nations, as we shall see in a later chapter. And in the prompt
+and efficient employment of such aircraft as she possessed at the
+opening of the war she far outclassed Germany which in point of
+numbers was her superior. At that moment Great Britain possessed
+about five hundred machines, of which two hundred were seaplanes,
+and fifteen dirigibles. Despite this puny force, however, British
+aviators flew across the channel in such numbers to the headquarters
+in France that when the Expeditionary Army arrived on the scene it
+found ready to its hand a scouting force vastly superior to anything
+the Germans could put in the air. It is no exaggeration to say that
+the Royal Flying Corps saved Sir John French's army in his long and
+gallant fight against the overwhelming numbers of the foe.
+
+Russia before the war had hidden her aeronautic activities behind
+the dreary curtain of miles of steppe and marsh that shut her off
+from the watchfulness of Western Europe. Professional aviators,
+indeed, had gone thither to make exhibition flights for enormous
+purses and had brought back word of huge airplanes in course of
+construction and an eager public interest in the subject of flying.
+But the secrecy which all the governments so soon to be plunged in
+war sought to throw about their production of aircraft was
+especially easy for Russia in her isolation. When the storm burst
+her air fleet was not less than eight hundred airplanes, and at
+least twenty-five dirigibles.
+
+A competent authority estimates that at the outbreak of the war the
+various Powers possessed a total of 4980 aircraft of all sorts. This
+sounds like a colossal fleet, but by 1917 it was probably multiplied
+more than tenfold. Of the increase of aircraft we can judge only by
+guesswork. The belligerents keep their output an inviolable secret.
+It was known that many factories with a capacity of from thirty to
+fifty 'planes a week were working in the chief belligerent lands,
+that the United States was shipping aircraft in parts to avoid
+violation of neutrality laws before their entrance upon the war, and
+that American capital operated factories in Canada whence the
+completed craft could be shipped regardless of such laws. How great
+was the loss to be offset against this new construction is a subject
+on which no authoritative figures are available.
+
+It was estimated early in the war that the life of an airplane in
+active service seldom exceeded three weeks. In passing it may be
+mentioned that by some misapprehension on the part of the public,
+this estimate of the duration of a machine was thought to cover also
+the average life of the aviators in service. Happily this was far
+from true. The mortality among the machines was not altogether due
+to wounds sustained in combat, but largely to general wear and tear,
+rough usage, and constant service. The slightest sign of weakness in
+a machine led to its instant condemnation and destruction, for if it
+should develop in mid-air into a serious fault it might cost the
+life of the aviator and even a serious disaster to the army which he
+was serving. As the war went on the period of service of a machine
+became even briefer, for with the growing demand for faster and more
+quickly controllable machines everything was sacrificed to lightness
+and speed. The factor of safety which early in the war was six to
+eight was reduced to three and a half, and instances were known in
+all services of machines simply collapsing and going to pieces under
+their own weight without wound or shock.
+
+About the extent to which the belligerent governments developed
+their air forces after the outbreak of war there was during the
+continuance of that conflict great reticence maintained by all of
+them. At the outset there was little employment of the flyers except
+on scouting reconnaissance work, or in directing artillery fire. The
+raids of Zeppelins upon England, of seaplanes on Kiel and Cuxhaven,
+of airplanes on Friedrichshaven, Essen, and Venice came later. It
+has been noted by military authorities that, while Germany was
+provided at first with the largest aviation force of all the
+belligerents, she either underestimated its value at the outset, or
+did not know how to employ it, for she blundered into and through
+Belgium using her traditional Uhlans for scouts, to the virtual
+exclusion of airmen. The effectiveness of the Belgian fight for
+delay is ascribed largely to the intelligent and effective use its
+strategists made of the few aircraft they possessed.
+
+Wellington was wont to say that the thing he yearned for most in
+battle was to "see the other side of that hill."
+
+Napoleon wrote:
+
+     Nothing is more contradictory, nothing more bewildering than the
+     multitude of reports of spies, or of officers sent out to
+     reconnoitre. Some locate army corps where they have seen only
+     detachments; others see only detachments where they ought to have
+     seen army corps.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_The Lafayette Escadrille--First Americans to Fly in France._
+(_Lufbery on left, Thaw on right._)]
+
+So the two great protagonists of the opening years of the
+nineteenth century deplored their military blindness. In the opening
+years of the twentieth it was healed. All that Wellington strove to
+see, all that the cavalry failed to find for Napoleon is to-day
+brought to headquarters by airmen, neatly set forth in maps,
+supported by photographs of the enemy's positions taken from the
+sky.
+
+Before describing the exploits of the airmen in actual campaign let
+us consider some account of how they were trained for their arduous
+and novel duties.
+
+To the non-professional an amazing thing about the employment of
+aircraft in war has been the rapidity with which pilots are trained.
+The average layman would think that to learn the art of manoeuvring
+an airplane with such swiftness as to evade the attacks of an enemy,
+and to detect precisely the proper moment and method of attacking
+him in turn, would require long and arduous practice in the air. But
+as we have seen in earlier chapters, inventors like the Wrights,
+Bleriot, and Farman learned to fly with but a few hours spent in the
+air, with flights lasting less than ten minutes each. So too the
+army aviators spent but little time aloft, though their course of
+instruction covered in all a period of about four months.
+
+Some account of the method of instruction as reported by several out
+of the hundred or more American boys who went to fly for France may
+be interesting.
+
+As a rule the aviators were from twenty to twenty-five years of age.
+"Below twenty boys are too rash; above twenty-five they are too
+prudent," said a sententious French aviator. A slight knowledge of
+motors such as would be obtained from familiarity with automobiles
+was a marked advantage at the start, for the first task of the
+novice was to make himself familiar with every type of airplane
+engine. The army pilot in all the armies was the aristocrat of the
+service. Mechanics kept his motor in shape, and helpers housed,
+cleaned, and brought forth his machine for action. But while all but
+the actual piloting and fighting was spared him, there was always
+the possibility of his making an untimely landing back of the
+enemy's lines with an engine that would not work. To prepare for
+such an emergency he was taught all the intricacies of motor
+construction, so that he might speedily correct any minor fault.
+
+In our army, and indeed in all others, applicants for appointment to
+the aviation corps were subjected to scientific tests of their
+nerves, and their mental and physical alertness. How they would
+react to the sudden explosion of a shell near their ears, how long
+it took the candidate to respond to a sudden call for action, how
+swiftly he reacted to a sensation of touch were all tested and
+measured by delicate electric apparatus. A standard was fixed,
+failing to attain which, the applicant was rejected. The practical
+effect might be to determine how long after suddenly discovering a
+masked machine gun a given candidate would take before taking the
+action necessary to avoid its fire. Or how quickly would he pull the
+lever necessary to guard against a sudden gust of wind. To the
+layman it would appear that problems of this sort could only be
+solved in the presence of the actual attack, but science, which
+enables artillerists to destroy a little village beyond the hills
+which they never see, was able to devise instruments to answer these
+questions in the quiet of the laboratory.
+
+One of the best known flying schools of the French army was at Pau,
+where on broad level plains were, in 1917, four separate camps for
+aviators, each with its group of hangars for the machines, its
+repair shops, and with a tall wireless tower upstanding in the
+midst for the daily war news from Paris. On these plains the Wright
+Brothers had made some of their earliest French flights. A little
+red barn which they had made their workshop was still standing there
+when war suddenly turned the spot into a flying school often with as
+many as five thousand pupils in attendance. "To-day that little red
+barn," writes Carroll Dana Winslow, one of the Americans who went to
+fly for France, "stands as a monument to American stupidity, for
+when we allowed the Wrights to go abroad to perfect their ideas
+instead of aiding them to carry on their work at home we lost a
+golden opportunity. Now the United States which gave to the world
+the first practical airplane is the least advanced in this
+all-important science."
+
+Arrived at the school the tyro studies the fundamentals of flying in
+the classroom and on the field for two months before he is allowed
+to go up--to receive as they express it, his _baptême de l'air_. He
+picks motors to pieces, and puts them together, he learns the
+principles of airplane construction, and can discourse on such
+topics as the angle of attack of the cellule, the incidence of the
+wings, and the carrying power of the tail-plane. More than any other
+science aviation has a vocabulary of its own, and a peculiarly
+cosmopolitan one drawn from all tongues, but with the French
+predominating. America gave the airplane to France, but France has
+given the science its terminology.
+
+The maps of the battlefields of this war are the marvels of military
+science. Made from the air they show every road and watercourse,
+every ditch and gully, every patch of woodland, every farmhouse,
+church, or stonewall. Much of the early work of the aviator is in
+learning to make such maps, both by sketches and by the employment
+of the camera. It is no easy task. From an airplane one thousand
+feet up the earth seems to be all a dead level. Slight hills, gentle
+elevations, offer no contrast to the general plain. A road is not
+easy to tell from a trench. All these things the aviator must first
+learn to see with accuracy, and then to depict on his map with
+precision. He must learn furthermore to read the maps of his
+fellows--a task presupposing some knowledge of how they had been
+made. He must learn to fly by a map, to recognize objects by the
+technical signs upon it, to estimate his drift before the wind
+because of which the machine moves sidewise _en crabe_--or like a
+crab as the French phrase it.
+
+His first flight the novice makes in a machine especially fitted for
+instruction. The levers are fitted with double handles so that both
+learner and tutor may hold them at once. If the greenhorn pushes
+when he should pull the veteran's grip is hard on the handle to
+correct the error before it can cost two lives--for in the air there
+is little time to experiment. Either set of controls will steer the
+machine. The pupil grasps his levers, and puts his feet on the
+pedals. At first the instructor will do the steering, the pupil
+following with hands and feet as the motions made by the instructor
+are communicated to him by the moving levers. For a time the two
+work together. Then as the instructor senses that the student
+himself is doing the right thing he gradually lessens his own
+activity, until after a few days' practice the student finds that he
+is flying with a passenger and directing the machine himself. In
+France, at any rate, they teach in brief lessons. Each flight for
+instruction is limited to about five minutes. At first the student
+operates in a "penguin"--a machine which will run swiftly along the
+ground but cannot rise. It is no easy trick at first, to control the
+"penguin" and keep its course direct. Then he will try the "jumps"
+in a machine that leaps into the air and descends automatically
+after a twenty to forty yards' flight. As Darius Green expressed it
+so long ago, the trouble about flying comes when you want to alight.
+That holds as true to-day with the most perfect airplanes, as in
+boyhood days when one jumped from the barn in perfect confidence
+that the family umbrella would serve as a parachute. To alight
+with an airplane the pilot--supposing his descent to be voluntary
+and not compelled by accident or otherwise--surveys the country
+about him for a level field, big and clear enough for the machine to
+run off its momentum in a run of perhaps two hundred yards on its
+wheels. Then he gets up a good rate of speed, points the nose of the
+'plane down at a sharp angle to the ground, cuts off the engine, and
+glides. The angle of the fall must be great enough for the force of
+gravity to keep up the speed. There is a minimum speed at which an
+airplane will remain subject to control. Loss of speed--"_perte de
+vitesse_," as the French call it--is the aviator's most common peril
+in landing. If it occurs after his engine is cut off and he has not
+the time to start it again, the machine tilts and slides down
+sideways. If it occurs higher up a _vrille_ is the probable result.
+In this the plane plunges toward the ground spinning round and round
+with the corner of one wing as a pivot. In either case a serious
+accident is almost inevitable.
+
+In fact the land is almost as dangerous to the navigator of the air
+as it is to him of the sea. To make good landings is an art only
+perfected by constant practice. To shut off the engine at precisely
+the right moment, to choose an angle of descent that will secure the
+greatest speed and at the same moment bring you to your landing
+place, to change at the most favourable time from this angle to one
+that will bring you to the ground at the most gentle of obtuse
+angles, and to let your machine, weighing perhaps a ton, drop as
+lightly as a bird and run along the earth for several hundred feet
+before coming to a full stop, are all features of making a landing
+which the aviator has to master.
+
+In full air there are but few perils to encounter. All airmen unite
+in declaring that even to the novice in an airplane there is none of
+that sense of dizziness or vertigo which so many people experience
+in looking down from high places. The flyer has no sense of motion.
+A speed of forty miles an hour and of one hundred miles are the
+same to him. As he looks down the earth seems to be slipping away
+from him, and moving by, tailwards, like an old-fashioned panorama
+being unwound.
+
+Everything about the control of an airplane has to be learned
+mechanically. Once learned the aviator applies his knowledge
+intuitively. He "senses" the position and progress of the craft by
+the feel of the controls, as the man at the yacht's tiller tells
+mysteriously how she is responding to the breeze by "the feel." Even
+before the 'plane responds to some sudden gust of wind, or drops
+into a hole in the air, the trained aviator will foresee precisely
+what is about to happen. He reads it in some little thrill of his
+lever, a quiver in the frame, as the trained boxer reads in his
+antagonist's eyes the sort of blow that is coming. This instinctive
+control of his machine is absolutely essential for the fighting
+pilot who must keep his eyes on the movements of his enemy, watch
+out for possible aircraft guns below, and all the time be striving
+to get an advantageous position whence he can turn his machine gun
+loose. A row of gauges, dials, a compass, and a map on the frame of
+the car in which he sits will engage his attention in any moments of
+leisure. It is needless to remark that the successful pilot must
+have a quick eye and steady nerves.
+
+Nerve and rapidity of thought save the aviator in many a ticklish
+position. It is perhaps a tribute to the growing perfection of the
+airplanes that in certain moments of peril the machine is best left
+wholly to itself. Its stability is such that if freed from control
+it will often right itself and glide safely to earth. This not
+infrequently occurs in the moment of the dreaded _perte de vitesse_,
+to which reference has been made. In his book, _With the French
+Flying Corps_, Mr. Carroll Dana Winslow, a daring American aviator,
+tells of two such experiences, the one under his observation, the
+other happening to himself:
+
+     The modern airplane is naturally so stable [he says] that if not
+     interfered with it will always attempt to right itself before the
+     dreaded _vrille_ occurs, and fall _en feuille morte_. Like a leaf
+     dropping in an autumn breeze is what this means, and no other
+     words explain the meaning better.
+
+     A curious instance of this happened one day as I was watching the
+     flights and waiting for my turn. I was particularly interested in
+     a machine that had just risen from the "Grande Piste." It was
+     acting very peculiarly. Suddenly its motor was heard to stop.
+     Instead of diving it commenced to wabble, indicating a _perte de
+     vitesse_. It slipped off on the wing and then dove. I watched it
+     intently, expecting it to turn into the dreaded spiral. Instead
+     it began to climb. Then it went off on the wing, righted itself,
+     again slipped off on the wing, volplaned, and went off once more.
+     This extraordinary performance was repeated several times, while
+     each time the machine approached nearer and nearer to the ground.
+     I thought that the pilot would surely be killed. Luck was with
+     him, however, for his slip ceased just as he made contact with
+     the ground and he settled in a neighbouring field. It was a very
+     bumpy landing but the airplane was undamaged.
+
+     The officers rushed to the spot to find out what was the matter.
+     They found the pilot unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. Later in
+     the hospital he explained that the altitude had affected his
+     heart and that he had fainted. As he felt himself going he
+     remembered his instructions and relinquished the controls, at the
+     same time stopping his motor. His presence of mind and his luck
+     had saved his life--his luck I say, for had the machine not
+     righted itself at the moment of touching the ground it would have
+     been inevitably wrecked.
+
+The spectacle, though terrifying, proved valuable as an education to
+young Winslow who a few days later was ordered to a test of
+ascension of two thousand feet. This is his story:
+
+     I had a narrow escape. I had received orders to make a flight
+     during a snow-storm. I rose to the prescribed height and then
+     prepared to make my descent. A whirling squall caught me in the
+     act of making a spiral. I felt the tail of my machine go down and
+     the nose point up. I had a classical _perte de vitesse_. I looked
+     out and saw that I was less than eight hundred feet above the
+     ground and approaching it at an alarming rate of speed. I had
+     already shut off the motor for the spiral, and turning it on, I
+     knew, would not help me in the least. Suddenly I remembered the
+     pilot who fainted. I let go of everything, and with a sickening
+     feeling I looked down at the up-rushing ground. At that instant I
+     felt the machine give a lurch and right itself. I grabbed the
+     controls, turned on the motor, and resumed my line of flight only
+     two hundred feet in the air. All this happened in a few seconds,
+     but my helplessness seemed to have lasted for hours. I had had a
+     very close call--not as close as the man who fainted, but
+     sufficiently so for me.
+
+[Illustration: _Distinguishing Marks of American Planes._]
+
+We have said that the process of training a flyer is remarkably
+expeditious. So far as the fundamentals of his profession are
+concerned it is. But his education in fact never ends. In the mere
+matter of reconnaissance, for example, experience is everything. One
+might imagine that ten thousand men marching on a road would look
+alike in numbers whatever the nationality. Not so. To the untrained
+eye five thousand or six thousand French troops will look as
+numerous as ten thousand British or Germans. Why? Because the French
+march in much more extended order. Into their democratic military
+methods the precision and mechanical exactitude of German drill do
+not enter. With the same number of troops they will extend further
+along the road by at least a third than would a detachment of either
+of the other armies.
+
+[Illustration: _What an Aviator must Watch._
+
+   1 _Watch_
+   2 _Altimeter-registering height_
+   3 _Compass_
+   4 _Pressure gauges for two gasoline tanks_
+   5 _Dial registering engine revolutions_
+   6 _Inclinometer, registering level fore and aft_
+   7 _Oil pulsator_
+   8 _Control stick, with thumb switch_
+   9 _Switches, two magnetos_
+  10 _Air speed indicator_
+  11 _Gasolene supply pipe_]
+
+And again. Great skill has been developed in the course of the war
+in the art of concealing positions and particularly in disguising
+cannon. The art has given a new word to the world--_camouflage_.
+Correspondents have repeatedly told of their amazement in suddenly
+coming across a battery of 75's, or a great siege gun so cunningly
+hidden in the edge of a thicket they would be almost upon it before
+detecting it. From an airplane 2500 feet or more in the air it
+requires sharp eyes to penetrate artillery disguises. A French poilu
+in a little book of reminiscences tells with glee how a German
+observation aviator deceived his batteries. A considerable body of
+French troops being halted in an open field, out of sight of the
+enemy batteries, found the glare of the sun oppressive, and having
+some time to wait threw down their equipment and betook themselves
+to the cool shadows of a neighbouring wood. Along came an enemy
+aviator. From his lofty height the haversacks, blanket-rolls, and
+other pieces of dark equipment lying upon the grass looked like a
+body of troops resting. After sailing over and around the field
+twice as though to make assurance doubly sure he sailed swiftly
+away. In a very few minutes shells from a concealed battery began
+dropping into that field at the rate of several a minute. Every foot
+of it was torn up, and the French soldiers from their retreat in the
+woods saw their equipment being blown to pieces in every direction.
+The spectacle was harrowing, but the reflection that the aviator
+undoubtedly thought that he had turned his guns on a field full of
+men was cheering to them in their safety.
+
+An art which the fighting aviator must master early in his career is
+that of high diving. Many of us have seen a hawk, soaring high in
+air, suddenly fold his pinions and drop like a plummet full on the
+back of some luckless pigeon flapping along ungainly scores of feet
+below, or a fishhawk drop like a meteor from the sky with a
+resounding splash upon the bosom of some placid stream and rise
+again carrying a flapping fish to his eyrie in the distant pines.
+The hunting methods of the hawk are the fighting methods of the
+airman. But his dives exceed in height and daring anything known to
+the feathered warriors of the air.
+
+Boelke, most famous of all the German airmen--or for that matter of
+all aërial fighters of his day--who in 1917 held the record for the
+number of enemy flyers brought down, was famed for his savage dives.
+He would fly at a great height, fifteen thousand or more feet, thus
+assuring himself that there was no enemy above him. When he sighted
+his prey he would make an absolutely vertical nose dive, dropping at
+the rate of 150 miles an hour or more and spattering shots from his
+machine gun as he fell. Six hundred shots a minute and the sight of
+this charging demon were enough to test the nerve of any threatened
+aviator. In some fashion Boelke was enabled to give a slight spiral
+form to his dive so that his victim was enveloped in a ring of
+bullets that blocked his retreat whichever way he might turn for
+safety.
+
+Personality in fighting counted much for success. Boelke's method,
+its audacity and fierceness, placed him first in the list of airmen
+with killing records. Captain Immelman, also a German, who rolled up
+a score of thirty enemies put out of action before he himself was
+slain, followed entirely different tactics. His battle manoeuvre
+savoured much of the circus, including as it did complete
+loop-the-loop. For instead of approaching his adversary from the
+side, or as would be said in the sea navy, on the beam, he followed
+squarely behind him. His study was to get the nose of his machine
+almost on the tail of the aircraft he was pursuing. This gave him,
+to begin with, what used to be called in the navy a raking position,
+for his shots would rake the whole body of the enemy airplane from
+tail to nose with a fair chance of hitting either the fuel tank,
+the engine, or the pilot. Failing to secure the position he most
+coveted, this daring German would surrender it with apparent
+unconcern to the enemy who usually fell into the trap. For just as
+the foeman's machine came up to the tail of Immelman's craft the
+latter would suddenly turn his nose straight to earth, drop like a
+stone, execute a backward loop, and come up behind his surprised
+adversary who thus found the tables suddenly turned.
+
+These two German aviators long held the record for execution done in
+single combat. Boelke was killed before the air duel vanished to be
+replaced by the battle of scores of planes high in air. Immelman
+survived longer, but with the incoming of the pitched battle his
+personal prowess counted for less and his fame waned.
+
+In July, 1917, arrangements were complete in the United States for
+the immediate training in the fundamentals of aviation of ten
+thousand young Americans. The expectation was that long before the
+end of the year facilities would be provided for the training of
+many more. Both France and Great Britain sent over squads of their
+best aviators, some of them so incapacitated from wounds as to be
+disqualified for further fighting, but still vigorous enough for the
+work of an instructor. The aërial service took hold upon the
+imagination and the patriotism of young America as did no other. The
+flock of volunteers was far beyond the capacity of the government to
+care for, and many drifted over into private aviation schools which
+were established in great numbers. The need for the young students
+was admittedly great. More and more the impression had grown in both
+Great Britain and France that the airplane was to be the final
+arbiter in the war. It was hailed at once as the most dangerous
+enemy of the submarine and the most efficient ally of troops in the
+field. No number seemed too great for the needs of the entente
+allies, and their eagerness to increase their flying force was
+strengthened by the knowledge of the fact that Germany was building
+feverishly in order that its fleet in the air might not be
+eclipsed.
+
+Perhaps the best description of an idealized aviator was given by
+Lieutenant Lufbery, of the Lafayette Escadrille, who came to the
+United States to assist in training the new corps of American flying
+men. Lufbery himself was a most successful air fighter--an "ace"
+several times over. Though French by lineage, he was an American
+citizen and had been a soldier in the United States Army. In October
+of 1917 his record was thirteen Boches brought down within the
+allied lines. In the allied air service one gets no credit for the
+defeated enemy plane if it falls within the enemy lines.
+
+While young Americans were being drilled into shape for service in
+the flying corps, Lufbery gave this outline of the type of men the
+service would demand:
+
+     It will take the cream of the American youth between the ages of
+     eighteen and twenty-six to man America's thousands of airplanes,
+     and the double cream of youth to qualify as chasers in the
+     Republic's new aërial army.
+
+     Intensive and scientific training must be given this cream of
+     youth upon which America's welfare in the war must rest.
+     Experience has shown that for best results the fighting aviator
+     should be not over twenty-six years old or under eighteen. The
+     youth under eighteen has shown himself to be bold, but he lacks
+     judgment. Men over twenty-six are too cautious.
+
+     The best air fighters, especially a man handling a chaser, must
+     be of perfect physique. He must have the coolest nerve and be of
+     a temperament that longs for a fight. He must have a sense of
+     absolute duty and fearlessness, the keenest sense of action, and
+     perfect sight to gain the absolute "feel" of his machine.
+
+     He must be entirely familiar with aërial acrobatics. The latter
+     frequently means life or death.
+
+     Fighting twenty-two thousand feet in the air produces a heavy
+     strain on the heart. It is vital therefore that this organ show
+     not the slightest evidence of weakness. Such weakness would
+     decrease the aviator's fighting efficiency.
+
+     The American boys who come over to France for this work will be
+     subject to rapid and frequent variations in altitude. It is a
+     common occurrence to dive vertically from six thousand to ten
+     thousand feet with the motor pulling hard.
+
+     Sharpness of vision is imperative. Otherwise the enemy may escape
+     or the aviator himself will be surprised or mistake a friendly
+     machine for a hostile craft. The differences are often merely
+     insignificant colours and details.
+
+     America's aviators must be men who will be absolute masters of
+     themselves under fire, thinking out their attacks as their fight
+     progresses.
+
+     Experience has shown that the chaser men should weigh under 180
+     pounds. Americans from the ranks of sport, youth who have played
+     baseball, polo, football, or have shot and participated in other
+     sports will make the best fighting aviators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SOME METHODS OF THE WAR IN THE AIR
+
+
+The fighting tactics of the airmen with the various armies were
+developed as the war ran its course. As happens so often in the
+utilization of a new device, either of war or peace, the manner of
+its use was by no means what was expected at the outset. For the
+first year of the war the activities of the airmen fell far short of
+realizing Tennyson's conception of
+
+  The nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue.
+
+The grappling was only incidental. The flyers seemed destined to be
+scouts and rangefinders, rather than fighters. Such pitched combats
+as there were took rather the form of duels, conducted with
+something of the formality of the days of chivalry. The aviator
+intent upon a fight would take his machine over the enemy's line and
+in various ways convey a challenge to a rival--often a hostile
+aviator of fame for his daring and skill in combat. If the duel was
+to the death it would be watched usually from the ground by the
+comrades of the two duellists, and if the one who fell left his body
+in the enemy's lines, the victor would gather up his identification
+disk and other personal belongings and drop them the next day in the
+camp of the dead man's comrades with a note of polite regret.
+
+It was all very daring and chivalric, but it was not war according
+to twentieth century standards and was not long continued.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A Caproni Triplane._]
+
+When at first the aviators of one side flew over the enemy's
+territory diligently mapping out his trenches, observing the
+movements of his troops, or indicating, by dropping bunches of
+tinsel for the sun to shine upon or breaking smoke bombs, the
+position of his hidden battery, the foe thus menaced sought to drive
+them away with anti-aircraft guns. These proved to be ineffective
+and it may be said here that throughout the war the swift airplanes
+proved themselves more than a match for the best anti-aircraft
+artillery that had been devised. They could complete their
+reconnaissances or give their signals at a height out of range of
+these guns, or at least so great that the chances of their being hit
+were but slight. It was amazing the manner in which an airplane
+could navigate a stretch of air full of bursting shrapnel and yet
+escape serious injury. The mere puncture, even the repeated
+puncture, of the wings did no damage. Only lucky shots that might
+pierce the fuel tank, hit the engine, touch an aileron or an
+important stay or strut, could affect the machine, while in due
+course of time a light armour on the bottom of the fusillage or body
+of the machine in which the pilot sat, protected the operator to
+some degree. Other considerations, however, finally led to the
+rejection of armour.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A Caproni Triplane_ (_Showing Propellers and Fuselage_).]
+
+Accordingly it soon became the custom of the commanders who saw
+their works being spied out by an enemy soaring above to send up one
+or more aircraft to challenge the invader and drive him away. This
+led to the second step in the development in aërial strategy. It was
+perfectly evident that a man could not observe critically a position
+and draw maps of it, or seek out the hiding place of massed
+batteries and indicate them to his own artillerists, and at the same
+time protect himself from assaults. Accordingly the flying corps of
+every army gradually became differentiated into observation machines
+and fighting machines--or _avions de réglage_, _avions de
+bombardement_, and _avions de chasse_, as the French call them. In
+their order these titles were applied to heavy slow-moving machines
+used for taking photographs and directing artillery fire, more
+heavily armed machines of greater weight used in raids and bombing
+attacks, and the swift fighting machines, quick to rise high, and
+swift to manoeuvre which would protect the former from the enemy, or
+drive away the enemy's observation machines as the case might be. In
+the form which the belligerents finally adopted as most
+advantageous the fighting airplanes were mainly biplanes equipped
+with powerful motors seldom of less than 140 horse-power, and
+carrying often but one man who is not merely the pilot, but the
+operator of the machine gun with which each was equipped. Still
+planes carrying two men, and even three of whom one was the pilot,
+the other two the operators of the machine guns were widely adopted.
+They had indeed their disadvantages. They were slower to rise and
+clumsier in the turns. The added weight of the two gunmen cut down
+the amount of fuel that could be carried and limited the radius of
+action. But one curious disadvantage which would not at first
+suggest itself to the lay mind was the fact that the roar of the
+propeller was so great that no possible communication could pass
+between the pilot and the gunner. Their co-operation must be
+entirely instinctive or there could be no unity of action--and in
+practice it was found that there was little indeed. The smaller
+machine, carrying but one man, was quicker in the get-away and could
+rise higher in less time--a most vital consideration, for in the
+tactics of aërial warfare it is as desirable to get above your enemy
+as in the days of the old line of battleships it was advantageous to
+secure a position off the stern of your enemy so that you might rake
+him fore and aft.
+
+The machines ultimately found to best meet the needs of aërial
+fighting were for the Germans always the Fokker, and the Taube--so
+called from its resemblance to a flying dove, though it was far from
+being the dove of peace. The wings are shaped like those of a bird
+and the tail adds to the resemblance. The Allies after testing the
+Taube design contemptuously rejected it, and indeed the Germans
+themselves substituted the Fokker for it in the war's later days.
+
+The English used the "Vickers Scout," built of aluminum and steel
+and until late in the war usually designed to carry two aviators.
+This machine unlike most of the others has the propeller at the
+stern, called a "pusher" in contradistinction to the "tractor,"
+acting as the screw of a ship and avoiding the interference with the
+rifle fire which the pulling, or tractor propeller mounted before
+the pilot to a certain degree presents. The Vickers machine is
+lightly armoured. The English also use what was known as the "D. H.
+5," a machine carrying a motor of very high horse-power, while the
+Sopwith and Bristol biplane were popular as fighting craft.
+
+The French pinned their faith mainly to the Farman, the Caudron, the
+Voisin, and the Moraine-Saulnier machines. The Bleriot and the
+Nieuport, which were for some reason ruled out at the beginning of
+the war, were afterwards re-adopted and employed in great numbers.
+
+It would be gratifying to an American author to be able to describe,
+or at least to mention, the favourite machine of the American
+aviators who flocked to France immediately upon the declaration of
+war, but the mortifying fact is that having no airplanes of our own,
+our gallant volunteer soldiers of the air had to be equipped
+throughout by the French with machines of their favourite types.
+After we entered the war we adopted a 'plane of American design to
+which was given the name "Liberty plane."
+
+It may be worth while to revert for a moment to the distinction
+drawn in a preceding paragraph between the pusher propeller and the
+tractor which revolved in front of the aviator and of his machine
+gun. It would seem almost incredible that two heavy blades of hard
+wood revolving at a speed not less that twelve hundred times a
+minute, a speed so rapid that their passage in front of the eyes of
+the aviator interfered in no way with his vision, should not have
+blocked a stream of bullets falling from a gun at the rate of more
+than six hundred a minute. Nevertheless it was claimed during the
+earlier days of the war that these bullets were not appreciably
+diverted by the whirling propellers nor were the latter apparently
+injured by the missiles. The latter assertion, however, must have
+been to some extent disproved because it came about that the
+propellers of the later machines were rimmed with a thin coating of
+steel lest the blades be cut by the bullets. But the amazing ability
+of modern science to cope with what seemed to be an insoluble
+problem was demonstrated by the invention of a device light and
+compact enough to be carried in an airplane, which applied to the
+machine gun and timed in accordance with the revolutions of the
+propeller so synchronized the shots with those revolutions that the
+stream of lead passed between the whirling blades never once
+striking. The machine was entirely automatic, requiring no attention
+on the part of the operator after the gun was once started on its
+discharge. This device was originally used by the Germans who
+applied it to their Fokker machines. It was claimed for it that by
+doing away with the wastage caused by the diversion of the course of
+bullets, which struck the revolving propellers, it actually saved
+for effective use about thirty per cent. of the ammunition employed.
+As the amount of ammunition which can be carried by an airplane is
+rigidly limited this gave to the appliance a positive value.
+
+[Illustration: _The Terror that Flieth by Night._
+
+_Painting by William J. Wilson._]
+
+Reference has been made to the extraordinary immunity of flying
+airplanes to the attacks of anti-aircraft guns. The number of wounds
+they could sustain without being brought to earth was amazing.
+Grahame-White tells of a comparison made in one of the airdromes of
+the wounds sustained by the machines after a day's hard scouting and
+fighting. One was found to have been hit no less than thirty-seven
+times. Curiously enough the man who navigated it escaped unscathed.
+Wounds in the wings are harmless. But the puncture of the fuel tank
+almost certainly means an explosion and the death of the aviator in
+the flame thousands of feet in the air. During an air battle before
+Arras, a British aviator encountered this fate. When his tank was
+struck and the fusillage, or body, of his machine burst into flames,
+he knew that he was lost. By no possibility could he reach the
+ground before he should be burned to death. A neighbouring aviator
+flying not far from him told the story afterwards:
+
+     Jack was not in the thick of this fight [said he]. He was rather
+     on the outskirts striving to get in when I suddenly saw his whole
+     machine enveloped in a sheet of flame. Instantly he turned
+     towards the nearest German and made at him with the obvious
+     intention of running him down and carrying him to earth in the
+     same cloud of fire. The man thus threatened, twisted and turned
+     in a vain effort to escape the red terror bearing down upon him.
+     But suffering acutely as he must have been, Jack followed his
+     every move until the two machines crashed, and whirling over and
+     over each other like two birds in an aërial combat fell to earth
+     and to destruction. They landed inside the German lines so we
+     heard no more about them. But we could see the smoke from the
+     burning débris for some time.
+
+As the range of anti-aircraft guns increased the flyers were driven
+higher and higher into the air to escape their missiles. At one time
+4500 feet was looked upon as a reasonably safe height, but when the
+war had been under way about two years the weapons designed to
+combat aircraft were so improved that they could send their shots
+effectively 10,000 feet into the air. If the aircraft had been
+forced to operate at that height their usefulness would have been
+largely destroyed, for it is obvious that for observation purposes
+the atmospheric haze at such a height would obscure the view and
+make accurate mapping of the enemy's position impossible. For
+offensive purposes too the airplanes at so great an elevation would
+be heavily handicapped, if not indeed rendered impotent. As we shall
+see later, dropping a bomb from a swiftly moving airplane upon a
+target is no easy task. It never falls direct but partakes of the
+motion of the plane. It is estimated that for every thousand feet of
+elevation a bomb will advance four hundred feet in the direction
+that the aircraft is moving, provided its speed is not in excess of
+sixty miles an hour. As a result marksmanship at a height of more
+than five thousand feet is practically impossible.
+
+In the main this situation is met, as all situations in war in which
+efficiency can only be attained at the expense of great personal
+danger are met, namely, by braving the danger. When the aviators
+have an attack in contemplation they fly low and snap their fingers
+at the puff balls of death as the shrapnel from their appearance
+when bursting may well be called. Naturally, efforts were made early
+in the war to lessen the danger by armouring the body of the machine
+sufficiently to protect the aviator and his engine--for if the
+aviator escaped a shot which found the engine, his plight would be
+almost as bad as if the missile had struck him.
+
+The main difficulty with armouring the machines grew out of the
+added weight. The more efficient the armour, the less fuel could be
+carried and the less ammunition. If too heavily loaded the speed of
+the machine would be reduced and its ability to climb rapidly upon
+which the safety of the aviator usually depends, either in
+reconnaissance or fighting, would be seriously impeded. The first
+essays in protective armour took the form of the installation of a
+thin sheet of steel along the bottom of the body of the craft. This
+turned aside missiles from below provided the plane were not so near
+the ground as to receive them at the moment of their highest
+velocity. But it was only an unsatisfactory makeshift. At the higher
+altitudes it was unnecessary and in conflict with other airplanes it
+proved worthless, because in a battle in the air the shots of the
+enemy are more likely to come from above or at least from levels in
+the same plane. The armoured airplane was quickly found to have less
+chance of mounting above its enemy, because of the weight it
+carried, and before long the principle of protecting an airplane as
+a battleship is protected was abandoned, except in the case of the
+heavier machines intended to operate as scouts or guides to
+artillery, holding their flights near the earth and protected from
+attack from above by their attendant fleet of swift fighting
+machines. Of these the Vickers machine used mainly by the British is
+a common type. It is built throughout of steel and aluminum, and the
+entire fusillage is clothed with steel plating which assures
+protection to the two occupants from either upward or lateral fire.
+The sides of the body are carried up so that only the heads of the
+aviators are visible. But to accomplish this measure of protection
+for the pilot and the gunner who operates the machine gun from a
+seat forward of the pilot, the weight of the craft is so greatly
+increased that it is but little esteemed for any save the most
+sluggish manoeuvre.
+
+Indeed just as aircraft, as a factor in war, have come to be more
+like the cavalry in the army, or the destroyers and scout cruisers
+in the navy, so the tendency has been to discard everything in their
+design that might by any possibility interfere with their speed and
+their ability to turn and twist, and change direction and elevation
+with the utmost celerity under the most difficult of conditions. It
+is possible that should this war run into the indefinite future we
+may see aircraft built on ponderous lines and heavily armoured, and
+performing in the air some of the functions that the British "tanks"
+have discharged on the battlefields. But at the end of three years
+of war, and at the moment when aërial hostilities seemed to be
+engaging more fully than even before the inventive genius of the
+nations, and the dash and skill of the fighting flyers, the tendency
+is all toward the light and swift machine.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship._]
+
+The attitude of the fighting airmen is somewhat reminiscent of that
+of America's greatest sea-fighter, Admiral Farragut. Always opposed
+to ironclads, the hero of Mobile Bay used to say that when he went
+to sea he did not want to go in an iron coffin, and that when a
+shell had made its way through one side of his ship he didn't want
+any obstacle presented to impede its passing out of the other side.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_Launching a Hydroaëroplane._]
+
+The all important and even vital necessity for speed also detracted
+much from the value of aircraft in offensive operations. It was
+found early that you could not mount on a flying machine guns of
+sufficient calibre to be of material use in attacking fortified
+positions. If it was necessary for the planes to proceed any
+material distance before reaching their objective, the weight of
+the necessary fuel would preclude the carriage of heavy artillery.
+In the case of seaplanes which might be carried on the deck of a
+battleship to a point reasonably contiguous to the object to be
+attacked, this difficulty was not so serious. This was demonstrated
+to some extent by the British raids on the German naval bases of
+Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven, but even in these instances it was bombs
+dropped by aviators, not gunfire that injured the enemy's works. But
+for the airplane proper this added weight was so positive a handicap
+as to practically destroy its usefulness as an assailant of
+fortified positions.
+
+The heavier weapons of offence which could be carried by the
+airplane even of the highest development were the bombs. These once
+landed might cause the greatest destruction, but the difficulty of
+depositing them directly upon a desired target was not to be
+overcome. The dirigible balloon enjoyed a great advantage over the
+airplane in this respect, for it was able to hover over the spot
+which it desired to hit and to discharge its bombs in a direct
+perpendicular line with enough initial velocity from a spring gun to
+overcome largely any tendency to deviate from the perpendicular. But
+an airplane cannot stop. When it stops it must descend. If it is
+moving at the moderate speed of sixty miles an hour when it drops
+its missile, the bomb itself will move forward at the rate of sixty
+miles an hour until gravity has overcome the initial forward force.
+Years before the war broke out, tests were held in Germany and
+France of the ability of aviators to drop a missile upon a target
+marked out upon the ground. One such test in France required the
+dropping of bombs from a height of 2400 feet upon a target 170 feet
+long by 40 broad--or about the dimensions of a small and rather
+stubby ship. The results were uniformly disappointing. The most
+creditable record was made by an American aviator, Lieutenant Scott,
+formerly of the United States Army. His first three shots missed
+altogether, but thereafter he landed eight within the limits. In
+Germany the same year the test was to drop bombs upon two targets,
+one resembling a captive Zeppelin, the other a military camp 330
+feet square. The altitude limit was set at 660 feet. This, though a
+comparatively easy test, was virtually a failure. Only two
+competitors succeeded in dropping a bomb into the square at all,
+while the balloon was hit but once.
+
+The character and size of the bombs employed by aircraft naturally
+differed very widely, particularly as to size, between those carried
+by dirigibles and those used by airplanes. The Zeppelin shell varied
+in weight between two hundred and two hundred and fifty pounds. It
+was about forty-seven inches long by eight and a half inches in
+diameter. Its charge varied according to the use to which it was to
+be put. If it was hoped that it would drop in a crowded spot and
+inflict the greatest amount of damage to human life and limb it
+would carry a bursting charge, shrapnel, and bits of iron, all of
+which on the impact of the missile upon the earth would be hurled in
+every direction to a radius exceeding forty yards. If damage to
+buildings, on the other hand, was desired, some high explosive such
+as picric acid would be used which would totally wreck any
+moderate-sized building upon which the shell might fall. In many
+instances, particularly in raids upon cities such as London,
+incendiary shells were used charged with some form of liquid fire,
+which rapidly spread the conflagration, and which itself was
+practically inextinguishable.
+
+Shells or bombs of these varying types were dropped from airplanes
+as well as from the larger and steadier Zeppelins. The difference
+was entirely in the size. It was said that a Zeppelin might drop a
+bomb of a ton's weight. But so far as attainable records are
+concerned it is impossible to cite any instance of this being done.
+The effect on the great gas bag of the sudden release of a load so
+great would certainly cause a sudden upward flight which might be so
+quick and so powerful as to affect the very structure of the ship.
+So far as known 250 pounds was the topmost limit of Zeppelin bombs,
+while most of them were of much smaller dimensions. The airplane
+bombs were seldom more than sixty pounds in weight, although in the
+larger British machines a record of ninety-five pounds has been
+attained. The most common form of bomb used in the heavier-than-air
+machines was pear-shaped, with a whirling tail to keep the missile
+upright as it falls. Steel balls within, a little larger than
+ordinary shrapnel, are held in place by a device which releases them
+during the fall. On striking the ground they fall on the explosive
+charge within and the shell bursts, scattering the two or three
+hundred steel bullets which it carries over a wide radius. Bombs of
+this character weigh in the neighbourhood of six pounds and an
+ordinary airplane can carry a very considerable number. Their
+exploding device is very delicate so that it will operate upon
+impact with water, very soft earth, or even the covering of an
+airship. Other bombs commonly used in airplanes were shaped like
+darts, winged like an arrow so that they would fall perpendicularly
+and explode by a pusher at the point which was driven into the body
+of the bomb upon its impact with any hard substance.
+
+It seems curious to read of the devices sometimes quite complicated
+and at all times the result of the greatest care and thought, used
+for dropping these bombs. In the trenches men pitched explosive
+missiles about with little more care than if they had been so many
+baseballs, but only seldom was a bomb from aloft actually delivered
+by hand. In the case of the heavier bombs used by the dirigibles
+this is understandable. They could not be handled by a single man
+without the aid of mechanical devices. Some are dropped from a
+cradle which is tilted into a vertical position after the shell has
+been inserted. Others are fired from a tube not unlike the torpedo
+tube of a submarine, but which imparts only slight initial velocity
+to the missile. Its chief force is derived from gravity, and to be
+assured of its explosion the aviator must discharge it from a height
+proportionate to its size.
+
+In the airplane the aviator's methods are more simple. Sometimes the
+bombs are carried in a rack beneath the body of the machine, and
+released by means of a lever at the side. A more primitive method
+often in use is merely to attach the bomb to a string and lower it
+to a point at which the aviator is certain that in falling it will
+not touch any part of the craft, and then cut the string. Half a
+dozen devices by which the aviator can hold the bomb at arm's length
+and drop it with the certainty of a perpendicular fall are in use in
+the different air navies. It will be evident to the most casual
+consideration that with any one of these devices employed by an
+aviator in a machine going at a speed of sixty miles an hour or more
+the matter of hitting the target is one in which luck has a very
+great share.
+
+There is good reason for the pains taken by the aviators to see that
+their bombs fall swift and true, and clear of all the outlying parts
+of their machines. The grenadier in the trenches has a clear field
+for his explosive missile and he may toss it about with what appears
+to be desperate carelessness--though instances have been known in
+which a bomb thrower, throwing back his arm preparatory to launching
+his canned volcano, has struck the back of his own trench with
+disastrous results. But the aviator must be even more careful. His
+bombs must not hit any of the wires below his machine in
+falling--else there will be a dire fall for him. And above all they
+must not get entangled in stays or braces. In such case landing will
+bring a most unpleasant surprise.
+
+A striking case was that of a bomber who had been out over the
+German trenches. He had a two-man machine, had made a successful
+flight and had dropped, effectively as he supposed, all his bombs.
+Returning in serene consciousness of a day's duty well done, he was
+about to spiral down to the landing place when his passenger looked
+over the side of the car to see if everything was in good order.
+Emphatically it was not. To his horror he discovered that two of the
+bombs had not fallen, but had caught in the running gear of his
+machine. To attempt a landing with the bombs in this position would
+have been suicidal. The bombs would have instantly exploded, and
+annihilated both machine and aviators. But to get out of the car,
+climb down on the wires, and try to unhook the bombs seemed more
+desperate still. Stabilizers, and other devices, now in common use,
+had not then been invented and to go out on the wing of a biplane,
+or to disturb its delicate balance, was unheard of. Nevertheless it
+was a moment for desperate remedies. The pilot clung to his
+controls, and sought to meet the shifting strains, while the
+passenger climbed out on the wing and then upon the running gear. To
+trust yourself two thousand feet in mid-air with your feet on one
+piano wire, and one hand clutching another, while with the other
+hand you grope blindly for a bomb charged with high explosive, is an
+experience for which few men would yearn. But in this case it was
+successful. The bombs fell--nobody cared where--and the two
+imperilled aviators came to ground safely.
+
+A form of offensive weapon which for some reason seems peculiarly
+horrible to the human mind is the fléchette. These are steel darts a
+little larger than a heavy lead pencil and with the upper two thirds
+of the stem deeply grooved so that the greater weight of the lower
+part will cause them to fall perpendicularly. These are used in
+attacks upon dense bodies of troops. Particularly have they proved
+effective in assailing cavalry, for the nature of the wounds they
+produce invariably maddens the horses who suffer from them and
+causes confusion that will often bring grave disaster to a
+transport or artillery train. Though very light, these arrows when
+dropped from any considerable height inflict most extraordinary
+wounds. They have been known to penetrate a soldier's steel helmet,
+to pass through his body and that of the horse he bestrode, and bury
+themselves in the earth. In the airplane they are carried in boxes
+of one hundred each, placed over an orifice in the floor. A touch of
+the aviator's foot and all are discharged. The speed of the machine
+causes them to fall at first in a somewhat confused fashion, with
+the result that before all have finally assumed their perpendicular
+position they have been scattered over a very considerable extent of
+air. Once fairly pointed downward they fall with unerring directness
+points downward to their mark.
+
+[Illustration: _At a United States Training Camp._ © U. & U.]
+
+It is a curious fact that not long after these arrows first made
+their appearance in the French machines, they were imitated by the
+Germans, but the German darts had stamped upon them the words: "Made
+in Germany, but invented by the French."
+
+[Illustration: _A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top._ © U. & U.]
+
+One of the duties of the fighting airmen is to destroy the
+observation balloons which float in great numbers over both the
+lines tugging lazily at the ropes by which they are held captive
+while the observers perched in their baskets communicate the results
+of their observations by telephone to staff officers at a
+considerable distance. These balloons are usually anchored far
+enough back of their own lines to be safe from the ordinary
+artillery fire of their enemies. They were therefore fair game for
+the mosquitoes of the air. But they were not readily destroyed by
+such artillery as could be mounted on an ordinary airplane. Bullets
+from the machine-guns were too small to make any rents in the
+envelope that would affect its stability. Even if incendiary they
+could not carry a sufficiently heavy charge to affect so large a
+body. The skin of the "sausages," as the balloons were commonly
+called from their shape, was too soft to offer sufficient resistance
+to explode a shell of any size. The war was pretty well under way
+before the precise weapon needed for their destruction was
+discovered. This proved to be a large rocket of which eight were
+carried on an airplane, four on each side. They were discharged by
+powerful springs and a mechanism started which ignited them as soon
+as they had left the airplane behind. The head of each rocket was of
+pointed steel, very sharp and heavy enough to pierce the balloon
+skin. Winslow was fortunate enough to be present when the first test
+of this weapon was made. In his book, _With the French Flying
+Corps_, he thus tells the story:
+
+     Swinging lazily above the field was a captive balloon. At one end
+     of Le Bourget was a line of waiting airplanes. "This is the
+     second; they have already brought down one balloon," remarked the
+     man at my elbow. The hum of a motor caused me to look up. A
+     wide-winged double motor, Caudron, had left the ground and was
+     mounting gracefully above us. Up and up it went, describing a
+     great circle, until it faced the balloon. Everyone caught his
+     breath. The Caudron was rushing straight at the balloon, diving
+     for the attack.
+
+     "Now!" cried the crowd. There was a loud crack, a flash, and
+     eight long rockets darted forth leaving behind a fiery trail. The
+     aviator's aim however was wide, and to the disappointment of
+     everyone the darts fell harmlessly to the ground.
+
+     Another motor roared far down the field, and a tiny _appareil de
+     chasse_ shot upward like a swallow. "A Nieuport," shouted the
+     crowd as one voice. Eager to atone for his _copain's_ failure,
+     and impatient at his delay in getting out of the way, the tiny
+     biplane tossed and tumbled about in the air like a clown in the
+     circus ring.
+
+     "Look! he's looping! he falls! he slips! no, he rights again!"
+     cried a hundred voices as the skilful pilot kept our nerves on
+     edge.
+
+     Suddenly he darted into position and for a second hovered
+     uncertain. Then with a dive like that of a dragon-fly, he rushed
+     down to the attack. Again a sheet of flame and a shower of
+     sparks. This time the balloon sagged. The flames crept slowly
+     around its silken envelope. "_Touchez!_" cried the multitude.
+     Then the balloon burst and fell to the ground a mass of flames.
+     High above the little Nieuport saucily continued its pranks, as
+     though contemptuous of such easy prey.
+
+[Illustration: _Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a Balloon
+Struck by Incendiary Shells._ © U. & U.]
+
+It may be properly noted at this point that the captive balloons or
+kite balloons have proved of the greatest value for observations in
+this war. Lacking of course the mobility of the swiftly moving
+airplanes, they have the advantage over the latter of being at all
+times in direct communication by telephone with the ground and being
+able to carry quite heavy scientific instruments for the more
+accurate mapping out of such territory as comes within their sphere
+of observation. They are not easy to destroy by artillery fire, for
+the continual swaying of the balloon before the wind perplexes
+gunners in their aim. At a height of six hundred feet, a normal
+observation post, the horizon is nearly thirty miles from the
+observer. In flat countries like Flanders, or at sea where the
+balloon may be sent up from the deck of a ship, this gives an
+outlook of the greatest advantage to the army or fleet relying upon
+the balloon for its observations of the enemy's dispositions.
+
+[Illustration: _The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled._ © U. &
+U.]
+
+Most of the British and French observation balloons have been of the
+old-fashioned spherical form which officers in those services find
+sufficiently effective. The Germans, however, claimed that a balloon
+might be devised which would not be so very unstable in gusty
+weather. Out of this belief grew the Parseval-Siegfeld balloon which
+from its form took the name of the Sausage. In fact its appearance
+far from being terrifying suggests not only that particular edible,
+but a large dill pickle floating awkwardly in the air. In order to
+keep the balloon always pointed into the teeth of the wind there is
+attached to one end of it a large surrounding bag hanging from the
+lower half of the main envelope. One end of this, the end facing
+forward, is left open and into this the wind blows, steadying the
+whole structure after the fashion of the tail of a kite. The effect
+is somewhat grotesque as anyone who has studied the numerous
+pictures of balloons of this type employed during the war must have
+observed. It looks not unlike some form of tumor growing from a
+healthy structure.
+
+Captive or kite balloons are especially effective as coast guards.
+Posted fifty miles apart along a threatened coast they can keep a
+steady watch over the sea for more than twenty-five miles toward the
+horizon. With their telephonic connections they can notify airplanes
+in waiting, or for that matter swift destroyers, of any suspicious
+sight in the distance, and secure an immediate investigation which
+will perhaps result in the defeat of some attempted raid. Requiring
+little power for raising and lowering them and few men for their
+operation, they form a method of standing sentry guard at a nation's
+front door which can probably be equalled by no other device. The
+United States at the moment of the preparation of this book is
+virtually without any balloons of this type--the first one of any
+pretensions having been tested in the summer of 1917.
+
+As late as the third year of the war it could not be said that the
+possibilities of aërial offense had been thoroughly developed by any
+nation. The Germans indeed had done more than any of the
+belligerents in this direction with their raids on the British coast
+and on London. But, as already pointed out, these raids as serious
+attacks on strategic positions were mere failures. Advocates of the
+increased employment of aircraft in this fashion insist that the
+military value to Germany of the raids lay not so much in the
+possibility of doing damage of military importance but rather in the
+fact that the possibility of repeated and more effective raids
+compelled Great Britain to keep at home a force of thirty thousand
+to fifty thousand men constantly on guard, who but for this menace
+would have been employed on the battlefields of France. In this
+argument there is a measure of plausibility. Indeed between January,
+1915, and June 13, 1917, the Germans made twenty-three disastrous
+raids upon England, killing more than seven hundred persons and
+injuring nearly twice as many. The amount of damage to property has
+never been reported nor is it possible to estimate the extent of
+injury inflicted upon works of a military character. The extreme
+secrecy with which Great Britain, in common with the other
+belligerents, has enveloped operations of this character makes it
+impossible at this early day to estimate the military value of these
+exploits. Merely to inflict anguish and death upon a great number of
+civilians, and those largely women and children, is obviously of no
+military service. But if such suffering is inflicted in the course
+of an attack which promises the destruction or even the crippling of
+works of military character like arsenals, munition plants, or naval
+stores, it must be accepted as an incident of legitimate warfare.
+The limited information obtainable in wartime seems to indicate that
+the German raids had no legitimate objective in view but were
+undertaken for the mere purpose of frightfulness.
+
+The methods of defence employed in Great Britain, where all attacks
+must come from the sea, were mainly naval. What might be called the
+outer, or flying, defences consisted of fast armed fighting
+seaplanes and dirigibles. Stationed on the coast and ready on the
+receipt of a wireless warning from scouts, either aërial or naval,
+that an enemy air flotilla was approaching the coast, they could at
+once fly forth and give it battle. A thorough defence of the British
+territory demanded that the enemy should be driven back before
+reaching the land. Once over British territory the projectiles
+discharged whether by friend or foe did equal harm to the people on
+the ground below. Accordingly every endeavour was made to meet and
+beat the raiders before they had passed the barrier of sea. Beside
+the flying defences there were the floating defences. Anti-aircraft
+guns were mounted on different types of ships stationed far out
+from the shore and ever on the watch. But these latter were of
+comparatively little avail, for flying over the Channel or the North
+Sea the invaders naturally flew at a great height. They had no
+targets there to seek, steered by their compasses, and were entirely
+indifferent to the prospect beneath them. Moreover anti-aircraft
+guns, hard to train effectively from an immovable mount, were
+particularly untrustworthy when fired from the deck of a rolling and
+tossing ship in the turbulent Channel.
+
+Third in the list of defences of the British coast, or of any other
+coast which may at any time be threatened with an aërial raid, are
+defensive stations equipped not only with anti-aircraft guns and
+searchlights but with batteries of strange new scientific
+instruments like the "listening towers," equipped with huge
+microphones to magnify the sound of the motors of approaching
+aircraft so that they would be heard long before they could be seen,
+range finders, and other devices for the purpose of gauging the
+distance and fixing the direction of an approaching enemy.
+
+Some brief attention may here be given to the various types of
+anti-aircraft guns. These differ very materially in type and weight
+in the different belligerent armies and navies. They have but one
+quality in common, namely that they are most disappointing in the
+results attained. Mr. F. W. Lancaster, the foremost British
+authority on aircraft, says on this subject:
+
+"Anti-aircraft firing is very inaccurate, hence numbers of guns are
+employed to compensate."
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+_German Air Raiders over England._
+
+_In the foreground three British planes are advancing to the
+attack._]
+
+That is to say that one or two guns can be little relied upon to put
+a flyer _hors du combat_. The method adopted is to have large
+batteries which fairly fill that portion of the air through which
+the adventurous airman is making his way with shells fired rather at
+the section than at the swiftly moving target.
+
+"Archibald," the British airmen call, for some mysterious reason, the
+anti-aircraft guns employed by their enemies, sometimes referring to a
+big howitzer which made its appearance late in the war as "Cuthbert."
+The names sound a little effeminate, redolent somehow of high teas and
+the dancing floor, rather than the field of battle. Perhaps this was
+why the British soldiers adopted them as an expression of contempt for
+the enemy's batteries. But contempt was hardly justifiable in face of
+the difficulty of the problem. A gun firing a twenty-pound shrapnel
+shell is not pointed on an object with the celerity with which a
+practised revolver shot can throw his weapon into position. The gunner
+on the ground seeing an airplane flying five thousand feet above
+him--almost a mile up in the air--hurries to get his piece into
+position for a shot. But while he is aiming the flyer, if a high-speed
+machine, will be changing its position at a rate of perhaps 120 miles
+an hour. Nor does it fly straight ahead. The gunner cannot point his
+weapon some distance in advance as he would were he a sportsman intent
+on cutting off a flight of wild geese. The aviator makes quick
+turns--zigzags--employs every artifice to defeat the aim of his enemy
+below. Small wonder that in the majority of cases they have been
+successful. The attitude of the airmen toward the "Archies" is one of
+calm contempt.
+
+The German mind being distinctly scientific invented early in the
+war a method of fixing the range and position of an enemy airplane
+which would be most effective if the target were not continually in
+erratic motion. The method was to arrange anti-aircraft guns in a
+triangle, all in telephonic connection with a central observer. When
+a flyer enters the territory which these guns are guarding, the
+gunner at one of the apexes of the triangle fires a shell which
+gives out a red cloud of smoke. Perhaps it falls short. The central
+observer notes the result and orders a second gun to fire. Instantly
+a gunner at another apex fires again, this time a shell giving
+forth black smoke. This shell discharged with the warning given by
+the earlier one is likely to come nearer the target, but at any rate
+marks another point at which it has been missed. Between the two a
+third gunner instantly corrects his aim by the results of the first
+two shots. His shell gives out a yellow smoke. The observer then
+figures from the positions of the three guns the lines of a
+triangular cone at the apex of which the target should be. Sometimes
+science wins, often enough for the Germans to cling to the system.
+But more often the shrewd aviator defeats science by his swift and
+eccentric changes of his line of flight.
+
+At the beginning of the war Germany was very much better equipped
+with anti-aircraft guns than any of her enemies. This was due to the
+remarkable foresight of the great munition makers, Krupp and
+Ehrhardt, who began experimenting with anti-aircraft guns before the
+aircraft themselves were much more than experiments. The problem was
+no easy one. The gun had to be light, mobile, and often mounted on
+an automobile so as to be swiftly transferred from place to place in
+pursuit of raiders. It was vital that it should be so mounted as to
+be speedily trained to any position vertical or horizontal. As a
+result the type determined upon was mounted on a pedestal fixed to
+the chassis of an automobile or to the deck of a ship in case it was
+to be used in naval warfare. The heaviest gun manufactured in
+Germany was of 4-1/4-inch calibre, throwing a shell of forty pounds
+weight. This could be mounted directly over the rear axle of a heavy
+motor truck. To protect the structure of the car from the shock of
+the recoil these guns are of course equipped with hydraulic or other
+appliances for taking it up. They are manufactured also in the
+3-inch size. Germany, France, and England vied with each other in
+devising armored motor cars equipped with guns of this type--the
+British using the makes of Vickers and Hotchkiss, and the French
+their favourite Creusot. The trucks are always armoured, the guns
+mounted in turrets so that the effect is not unlike that of a small
+battleship dashing madly down a country road and firing repeatedly
+at some object directly overhead. But the record has not shown that
+the success of these picturesque and ponderous engines of war has
+been great. They cannot manoeuvre with enough swiftness to keep up
+with the gyrations of an airplane. They offer as good a target for a
+bomb from above as the aircraft does to their shots from below.
+Indeed they so thoroughly demonstrated their inefficiency that
+before the war had passed its third year they were either abandoned
+or their guns employed only when the car was stationary. Shots fired
+at full speed were seldom effective.
+
+The real measure of the effectiveness of anti-aircraft guns may be
+judged by the comparative immunity that attended the aviators
+engaged on the two early British raids on Friedrichshaven, the seat
+of the great Zeppelin works on Lake Constance, and on the German
+naval base at Cuxhaven. The first was undertaken by three machines.
+From Belfort in France, the aviators turned into Germany and flew
+for 120 miles across hostile territory. The flight was made by day
+though indeed the adventurous aviators were favoured by a slight
+mist. Small single seated "avro" machines were used, loaded heavily
+with bombs as well as with the large amount of fuel necessary for a
+flight which before its completion would extend over 250 miles. Not
+only at the frontier, but at many fortified positions over which
+they passed, they must have exposed themselves to the fire of
+artillery, but until they actually reached the neighbourhood of the
+Zeppelin works they encountered no fire whatsoever. There the attack
+on them was savage and well maintained. On the roofs of the
+gigantic factory, on neighbouring hillocks and points of vantage
+there were anti-aircraft guns busily discharging shrapnel at the
+invaders. It is claimed by the British that fearing this attack the
+Germans had called from the front in Flanders their best marksmen,
+for at that time the comparative worthlessness of the Zeppelin had
+not been demonstrated and the protection of the works was regarded
+as a prime duty of the army.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_One Aviator's Narrow Escape._]
+
+The invading machines flew low above the factory roofs. The
+adventurers had come far on an errand which they knew would awaken
+the utmost enthusiasm among their fellows at home and they were
+determined to so perform their task that no charge of having left
+anything undone could possibly lie. Commander Briggs, the first of
+the aviators to reach the scene, flew as low as one hundred feet
+above the roofs, dropping his bombs with deadly accuracy. But he
+paid for his temerity with the loss of his machine and his liberty.
+A bullet pierced his petrol tank and there was nothing for him to do
+save to glide to earth and surrender. The two aviators who
+accompanied him although their machines were repeatedly hit were
+nevertheless able to drop all their bombs and to fly safely back to
+Belfort whence they had taken their departure some hours before. The
+measure of actual damage done in the raid has never been precisely
+known. Germany always denied that it was serious, while the British
+ascribe to it the greatest importance--a clash of opinion common in
+the war and which will for some years greatly perplex the student of
+its history.
+
+The second raid, that upon Cuxhaven, was made by seaplanes so far as
+the air fighting was concerned, but in it not only destroyers but
+submarines also took part. It presented the unique phenomenon of a
+battle fought at once above, upon, and below the surface of the sea.
+It is with the aërial feature of the battle alone that we have to
+do.
+
+Christmas morning, 1915, seven seaplanes were quietly lowered to the
+surface of the water of the North Sea from their mother ships a
+little before daybreak. The spot was within a few miles of Cuxhaven
+and the mouth of the River Elbe. As the aircraft rose from the
+surface of the water and out of the light mist that lay upon it,
+they could see in the harbour which they threatened, a small group
+of German warships. Almost at the same moment their presence was
+detected. The alarms of the bugles rang out from the hitherto quiet
+craft and in a moment with the smoke pouring from their funnels
+destroyers and torpedo boats moved out to meet the attack. Two
+Zeppelins rose high in the air surrounded by a number of the smaller
+airplanes, eager for the conflict. The latter proceeded at once to
+the attack upon the raiding air fleet, while the destroyers, the
+heavier Zeppelins, and a number of submarines sped out to sea to
+attack the British ships. The mist, which grew thicker, turned the
+combat from a battle into a mere disorderly raid, but out of it the
+seaplanes emerged unhurt. All made their way safely back to the
+fleet, after having dropped their bombs with a degree of damage
+never precisely known. The weakness of the seaplane is that on
+returning to its parent ship it cannot usually alight upon her deck,
+even though a landing platform has been provided. It must, as a
+rule, drop to the surface of the ocean, and if this be at all rough
+the machine very speedily goes to pieces. This was the case with
+four of the seven seaplanes which took part in the raid on Cuxhaven.
+All however delivered their pilots safely to the awaiting fleet and
+none fell a victim to the German anti-aircraft guns.
+
+In May of 1917, the British Royal Naval Air Service undertook the
+mapping of the coast of Belgium north from Nieuport, the most
+northerly seaport held by the British, to the southern boundary of
+Holland. This section of coast was held by the Germans and in it
+were included the two submarine bases of Zeebrugge and Ostend. At
+the latter point the long line of German trenches extending to the
+boundary of Switzerland rested its right flank on the sea. The whole
+coast north of that was lined with German batteries, snugly
+concealed in the rolling sand dunes and masked by the waving grasses
+of a barren coast. From British ships thirty miles out at sea, for
+the waters there are shallow and large vessels can only at great
+peril approach the shore, the seaplanes were launched. Just south of
+Nieuport a land base was established as a rendezvous for both
+air-and seaplanes when their day's work was done. From fleet and
+station the aërial observers took their way daily to the enemy's
+coast. Every mile of it was photographed. The hidden batteries were
+detected and the inexorable record of their presence imprinted on
+the films. The work in progress at Ostend and Zeebrugge, the active
+construction of basins, locks, and quays, the progress of the great
+mole building at the latter port, the activities of submarines and
+destroyers within the harbour, the locations of guns and the
+positions of barracks were all indelibly set down. These films
+developed at leisure were made into coherent wholes, placed in
+projecting machines, and displayed like moving pictures in the ward
+rooms of the ships hovering off shore, so that the naval forces
+preparing for the assault had a very accurate idea of the nature of
+the defences they were about to encounter.
+
+This was not done of course without considerable savage fighting in
+mid-air. The Germans had no idea of allowing their defences and the
+works of their submarine bases to be pictured for the guidance of
+their foes. Their anti-aircraft guns barked from dawn to dark
+whenever a British plane was seen within range. Their own aërial
+fighters were continually busy, and along that desolate wave-washed
+coast many a lost lad in leather clothing and goggles, crumpled up
+in the ruins of his machine after a fall of thousands of feet, lay
+as a memorial to the prowess of the defenders of the coast and the
+audacity of those who sought to invade it. But during the long weeks
+of this extended reconnaissance hardly a spadeful of dirt could be
+moved, a square yard of concrete placed in position, or a submarine
+or torpedo boat manoeuvred without its record being entered upon the
+detailed charts the British were so painstakingly preparing against
+the day of assault. When peace shall finally permit the publication
+of the records of the war, now held secret for military reasons,
+such maps as those prepared by the British air service on the
+Belgian coast will prove most convincing evidence of the military
+value of the aërial scouts.
+
+What the lads engaged in making these records had to brave in the
+way of physical danger is strikingly shown by the description of a
+combat included in one of the coldly matter-of-fact official
+reports. The battle was fought at about twelve thousand feet above
+mother earth. We quote the official description accompanied by some
+explanatory comments added by one who was an eye-witness and who
+conversed with the triumphant young airman on his return to the
+safety of the soil.
+
+     "While exposing six plates," says the official report of this
+     youthful recording angel, "I observed five H. A.'s cruising."
+
+     "H. A." stands for "hostile aeroplane."
+
+     "Not having seen the escort since returning inland, the pilot
+     prepared to return. The enemy separated, one taking up a position
+     above the tail and one ahead. The other three glided toward us
+     on the port side, firing as they came. The two diving machines
+     fired over 100 rounds, hitting the pilot in the shoulder."
+
+     As a matter of fact, the bullet entered his shoulder from above,
+     behind, breaking his left collarbone, and emerged just above his
+     heart, tearing a jagged rent down his breast. Both his feet,
+     furthermore, were pierced by bullets; but the observer is not
+     concerned with petty detail.
+
+     The observer held his fire until H. A., diving on tail, was
+     within five yards.
+
+     Here it might be mentioned that the machines were hurtling
+     through space at a speed in the region of one hundred miles an
+     hour.
+
+     The pilot of H. A., having swooped to within speaking distance,
+     pushed up his goggles, and laughed triumphantly as he took sight
+     for the shot that was to end the fight. But the observer, had his
+     own idea how the fight should end.
+
+     "I then shot one tray into the enemy pilot's face," he says, with
+     curt relish, "and watched him sideslip and go spinning earthward
+     in a train of smoke."
+
+     He then turned his attention to his own pilot. The British
+     machine was barely under control, but as the observer rose in his
+     seat to investigate the foremost gun was fired, and the aggressor
+     ahead went out of control and dived nose first in helpless
+     spirals.
+
+     Suspecting that his mate was badly wounded in spite of this
+     achievement, the observer swung one leg over the side of the
+     fusillage and climbed on to the wing--figure for a minute the air
+     pressure on his body during this gymnastic feat--until he was
+     beside the pilot, faint and drenched with blood, who had
+     nevertheless got his machine back into complete control.
+
+     "Get back, you ass!" he said through white lips in response to
+     inquiries how he felt. So the ass got back the way he came, and
+     looked around for the remainder of the H. A.'s. These, however,
+     appeared to have lost stomach for further fighting and fled.
+
+     The riddled machine returned home at one hundred knots while the
+     observer, having nothing better to do, continued to take
+     photographs.
+
+     "The pilot, though wounded, made a perfect landing"--thus the
+     report concludes.
+
+When the time came for the assault upon Zeebrugge the value of these
+painstaking preparations was made evident. The attack was made from
+sea and air alike. Out in the North Sea the great British
+battleships steamed in as near the coast as the shallowness of the
+water would permit. From the forward deck of each rose grandly a
+seaplane until the air was darkened by their wings, and they looked
+like a monstrous flock of the gulls which passengers on ocean-going
+liners watch wheeling and soaring around the ship as it ploughs its
+way through the ocean. These gulls though were birds of prey. They
+were planes of the larger type, biplanes or triplanes carrying two
+men, usually equipped with two motors and heavily laden with high
+explosive bombs. As they made their way toward the land they were
+accompanied by a fleet of light draft monitors especially built for
+this service, each mounting two heavy guns and able to manoeuvre in
+shallow water. With them advanced a swarm of swift, low-lying,
+dark-painted destroyers ready to watch out for enemy torpedo boats
+or submarines. They mounted anti-aircraft guns too and were prepared
+to defend the monitors against assaults from the heavens above as
+well as from the sinister attack of the underwater boats. Up from
+the land base at Nieuport came a great fleet of airplanes to
+co-operate with their naval brethren. Soon upon the German works,
+sheltering squadrons of the sinister undersea boats, there rained a
+hell of exploding projectiles from sea and sky. Every gunner had
+absolute knowledge of the precise position and range of the target
+to which he was assigned. The great guns of the monitors roared
+steadily and their twelve and fourteen-inch projectiles rent in
+pieces the bomb proofs of the Germans, driving the Boches to cover
+and reducing their works to mere heaps of battered concrete. Back
+and forth above flew seaplanes and airplanes, giving battle to the
+aircraft which the Germans sent up in the forlorn hope of heading
+off that attack and dropping their bombs on points carefully mapped
+long in advance. It is true that the aim of the aviators was
+necessarily inaccurate. That is the chief weakness of a bombardment
+from the sky. But what was lacking in individual accuracy was made
+up by the numbers of the bombing craft. One might miss a lock or a
+shelter, but twenty concentrating their fire on the same target
+could not all fail. This has become the accepted principle of aërial
+offensive warfare. The inaccuracy of the individual must be
+corrected by the multiplication of the number of the assailants.
+
+The attack on Zeebrugge was wholly successful. Though the Germans
+assiduously strove to conceal the damage done, the later
+observations of the ruined port by British airmen left no doubt that
+as a submarine base it had been put out of commission for months to
+come. The success of the attack led to serious discussion, in which
+a determination has not yet been reached, of the feasibility of a
+similar assault upon Heligoland, Kiel, or Cuxhaven, the three great
+naval bases in which the German fleet has lurked in avoidance of
+battle with the British fleet. Many able naval strategists declared
+that it was time for the British to abandon the policy of a mere
+blockade and carry out the somewhat rash promise made by Winston
+Churchill when First Lord of the Admiralty, to "dig the rats out of
+their holes." Such an attack it was urged should be made mainly from
+the air, as the land batteries and sunken mines made the waters
+adjacent to these harbours almost impassable to attacking ships.
+Rear-Admiral Fiske, of the United States Navy, strongly urging such
+an attack, wrote in an open letter:
+
+     The German Naval General Staff realizes the value of
+     concentration of power and mobility in as large units as
+     possible. The torpedo plane embodies a greater concentration of
+     power and mobility than does any other mechanism. For its cost,
+     the torpedo plane is the most powerful and mobile weapon which
+     exists at the present day.
+
+     An attack by allied torpedo planes, armed with guns to defend
+     themselves from fighting airplanes, would be a powerful menace to
+     the German fleet and, if made in sufficient numbers, would give
+     the Allies such unrestricted command of the North Sea, even of
+     the shallow parts near the German coast, that German submarines
+     would be prevented from coming from a German port, the submarine
+     menace abolished, and all chance of German success wiped out.
+
+     I beg also to point out that an inspection of the map of Europe
+     shows that in the air raids over land the strategical advantage
+     lies with Germany, because her most important towns, like Berlin,
+     are farther inland than the most important towns of the Allies,
+     like London, so that aëroplanes of the Allies, in order to reach
+     Berlin, would have to fly over greater distances, while exposed
+     to the fire of other aëroplanes, than do aëroplanes of the
+     Germans in going to London for raids on naval vessels.
+
+     However, the strategical advantage over water lies with the
+     British, because their control of the deep parts of the North Sea
+     enables them to establish a temporary aeronautical base of mother
+     ships sufficiently close to the German fleet to enable the
+     British to launch a torpedo-plane attack from it on the German
+     fleets in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, while the Germans could not
+     possibly establish an aeronautical base sufficiently close to the
+     British fleet.
+
+[Illustration: © Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_Downed in the Enemy's Country._]
+
+     This gives the Allies the greatest advantage of the offensive. It
+     would seem possible, provided a distinct effort is made, for the
+     Allies to send a large number of aeroplane mother ships to a
+     point, say, fifty miles west of Heligoland, and for a large force
+     of fighting aëroplanes and torpedo planes to start from this
+     place about two hours before dawn, reach Kiel Bay and
+     Wilhelmshaven about dawn, attack the German fleets there and sink
+     the German ships.
+
+     The distance from Heligoland to Kiel is about ninety land miles,
+     and to Wilhelmshaven about forty-five.
+
+The torpedo planes referred to are an invention of Admiral Fiske's
+which, in accordance with what seems to be a fixed and fatal
+precedent in the United States, has been ignored by our own
+authorities but eagerly adopted by the naval services of practically
+all the belligerents. One weakness of the aërial attack upon ships
+of war is that the bombs dropped from the air, even if they strike
+the target, strike upon the protective deck which in most warships
+above the gunboat class is strong enough to resist, or at least to
+minimize, the effect of any bomb capable of being carried by an
+airplane. The real vulnerable part of a ship of war is the thin skin
+of its hull below water and below the armor belt. This is the point
+at which the torpedo strikes. Admiral Fiske's device permits an
+airplane to carry two torpedoes of the regular Whitehead class and
+to launch them with such an impetus and at such an angle that they
+will take the water and continue their course thereunder exactly as
+though launched from a naval torpedo tube. His idea was adopted both
+by Great Britain and Germany. British torpedo planes thus equipped
+sank four Turkish ships in the Sea of Marmora, a field of action
+which no British ship could have reached after the disastrous
+failure to force the Dardanelles. The Germans by employment of the
+same device sank at least two Russian ships in the Baltic and one
+British vessel in the North Sea. The blindness of the United States
+naval authorities to the merits of this invention was a matter
+arousing at once curiosity and indignation among observers during
+the early days of our entrance upon the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+INCIDENTS OF THE WAR IN THE AIR
+
+
+In time, no doubt, volumes will be written on the work of the airmen
+in the Great War. Except the submarine, no such novel and effective
+device was introduced into the conduct of this colossal struggle as
+the scouting airplane. The development of the service was steady
+from the first day when the Belgian flyers proved their worth at
+Liège. From mere observation trips there sprang up the air duels,
+from the duels developed skirmishes, and from these in time pitched
+battles in which several hundred machines would be engaged on each
+side. To this extent of development aërial tactics had proceeded by
+midsummer of 1917. Their further development must be left to some
+future chronicler to record. It must be noted, however, that at that
+early day the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,
+pleading for a larger measure of preparation for the perils of war,
+asserted that the time was not far distant when this country would
+have to prepare to repel invading fleets of aircraft from European
+shores. This may have been an exaggeration. At that moment no
+aircraft had crossed the Atlantic and no effort to make the passage
+had been made save those of Wellman and Vanniman. When the guns
+began to roar on the Belgian frontier there was floating on Keuka
+Lake, New York, a huge hydro-airplane with which it was planned to
+make the trans-Atlantic voyage. The project had been financed by Mr.
+Rodman Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, and the tests of the ship under
+the supervision of a young British army officer who was to make the
+voyage were progressing most promisingly. But the event that plunged
+the world into war put a sudden end to experiments like this for the
+commercial development of the airplane. There is every reason to
+believe, however, that such a flight is practicable and that it will
+ultimately be made not long after the world shall have returned to
+peace and sanity.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_Later Type of French Scout._
+
+_The gun mounted on the upper wing is aimed by pointing the machine
+and is fired by the pilot._]
+
+Airmen are not, as a rule, of a romantic or a literary temperament.
+Pursuing what seems to the onlooker to be the most adventurous and
+exhilarating of all forms of military service, they have been chary
+of telling their experiences and singularly set upon treating them
+as all in the day's work and eliminating all that is picturesque
+from their narratives. Sergeant James R. McConnell, one of the
+Americans in the French flying corps, afterwards killed, tells of a
+day's service in his most readable book, _Flying for France_, in a
+way that gives some idea of the daily routine of an operator of an
+_avion de chasse_. He is starting just as the sky at dawn is showing
+a faint pink toward the eastern horizon, for the aviator's work is
+best done in early morning when, as a rule, the sky is clear and the
+wind light:
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_Position of Gunner in Early French Machines._]
+
+     Drawing forward out of line, you put on full power, race across
+     the grass, and take the air. The ground drops as the hood slants
+     up before you and you seem to be going more and more slowly as
+     you rise. At a great height you hardly realize you are moving.
+     You glance at the clock to note the time of your departure, and
+     at the oil gauge to see its throb. The altimeter registers 650
+     feet. You turn and look back at the field below and see others
+     leaving.
+
+     In three minutes you are at about four thousand feet. You have
+     been making wide circles over the field and watching the other
+     machines. At forty-five hundred feet you throttle down and wait
+     on that level for your companions to catch up. Soon the
+     escadrille is bunched and off for the lines. You begin climbing
+     again, gulping to clear your ears in the changing pressure.
+     Surveying the other machines, you recognize the pilot of each by
+     the marks on its side--or by the way he flies.
+
+     The country below has changed into a flat surface of varicoloured
+     figures. Woods are irregular blocks of dark green, like daubs of
+     ink spilled on a table; fields are geometrical designs of
+     different shades of green and brown, forming in composite an
+     ultra-cubist painting; roads are thin white lines, each with its
+     distinctive windings and crossings--from which you determine your
+     location. The higher you are the easier it is to read.
+
+     In about ten minutes you see the Meuse sparkling in the morning
+     light, and on either side the long line of sausage-shaped
+     observation balloons far below you. Red-roofed Verdun springs
+     into view just beyond. There are spots in it where no red shows
+     and you know what has happened there. In the green pasture land
+     bordering the town, round flecks of brown indicate the shell
+     holes. You cross the Meuse.
+
+     Immediately east and north of Verdun there lies a broad, brown
+     band. From the Woevre plain it runs westward to the "S" bend in
+     the Meuse, and on the left bank of that famous stream continues
+     on into the Argonne Forest. Peaceful fields and farms and
+     villages adorned that landscape a few months ago--when there was
+     no Battle of Verdun. Now there is only that sinister brown belt,
+     a strip of murdered Nature. It seems to belong to another world.
+     Every sign of humanity has been swept away. The woods and roads
+     have vanished like chalk wiped from a blackboard; of the villages
+     nothing remains but grey smears where stone walls have tumbled
+     together. The great forts of Douaumont and Vaux are outlined
+     faintly, like the tracings of a finger in wet sand. One cannot
+     distinguish any one shell crater, as one can on the pockmarked
+     fields on either side. On the brown band the indentations are so
+     closely interlocked that they blend into a confused mass of
+     troubled earth. Of the trenches only broken, half-obliterated
+     links are visible.
+
+     Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives
+     tear deeper into this ulcered area. During heavy bombardment and
+     attacks I have seen shells falling like rain. The countless
+     towers of smoke remind one of Gustave Doré's picture of the fiery
+     tombs of the arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky pall covers
+     the sector under fire, rising so high that at a height of one
+     thousand feet one is enveloped in its mist-like fumes. Now and
+     then monster projectiles hurtling through the air close by leave
+     one's plane rocking violently in their wake. Airplanes have been
+     cut in two by them.
+
+     For us the battle passes in silence, the noise of one's motor
+     deadening all other sounds. In the green patches behind the brown
+     belt myriads of tiny flashes tell where the guns are hidden; and
+     those flashes, and the smoke of bursting shells, are all we see
+     of the fighting. It is a weird combination of stillness and
+     havoc, the Verdun conflict viewed from the sky.
+
+     Far below us, the observation and range-finding planes circle
+     over the trenches like gliding gulls. At a feeble altitude they
+     follow the attacking infantrymen and flash back wireless reports
+     of the engagement. Only through them can communication be
+     maintained when, under the barrier fire, wires from the front
+     lines are cut. Sometimes it falls to our lot to guard these
+     machines from Germans eager to swoop down on their backs. Sailing
+     about high above a busy flock of them makes one feel like an old
+     mother hen protecting her chicks.
+
+     The pilot of an _avion de chasse_ must not concern himself with
+     the ground, which to him is useful only for learning his
+     whereabouts. The earth is all-important to the men in the
+     observation, artillery-regulating, and bombardment machines, but
+     the fighting aviator has an entirely different sphere. His domain
+     is the blue heavens, the glistening rolls of clouds below the
+     fleecy banks towering above the vague aërial horizon, and he must
+     watch it as carefully as a navigator watches the storm-tossed
+     sea.
+
+      On days when the clouds form almost a solid flooring, one feels
+     very much at sea, and wonders if one is in the navy instead of
+     aviation. The diminutive Nieuports skirt the white expanse like
+     torpedo boats in an arctic sea, and sometimes, far across the
+     cloud-waves, one sights an enemy escadrille, moving as a fleet.
+
+     Principally our work consists of keeping German airmen away from
+     our lines, and in attacking them when opportunity offers. We
+     traverse the brown band and enter enemy territory to the
+     accompaniment of an anti-aircraft cannonade. Most of the shots
+     are wild, however, and we pay little attention to them. When the
+     shrapnel comes uncomfortably close, one shifts position slightly
+     to evade the range. One glances up to see if there is another
+     machine higher than one's own. Low, and far within the German
+     lines, are several enemy planes, a dull white in appearance,
+     resembling sandflies against the mottled earth. High above them
+     one glimpses the mosquito-like forms of two Fokkers. Away off to
+     one side white shrapnel puffs are vaguely visible, perhaps
+     directed against a German crossing the lines. We approach the
+     enemy machines ahead, only to find them slanting at a rapid rate
+     into their own country. High above them lurks a protection plane.
+     The man doing the "ceiling work," as it is called, will look
+     after him for us.
+
+     Getting started is the hardest part of an attack. Once you have
+     begun diving you're all right. The pilot just ahead turns tail up
+     like a trout dropping back to water, and swoops down in irregular
+     curves and circles. You follow at an angle so steep your feet
+     seem to be holding you back in your seat. Now the black Maltese
+     crosses on the German's wings stand out clearly. You think of him
+     as some sort of a big bug. Then you hear the rapid tut-tut-tut of
+     his machine-gun. The man that dived ahead of you becomes mixed up
+     with the topmost German. He is so close it looks as if he had hit
+     the enemy machine. You hear the staccato barking of his
+     mitrailleuse and see him pass from under the German's tail.
+
+     The rattle of the gun that is aimed at you leaves you
+     undisturbed. Only when the bullets pierce the wings a few feet
+     off do you become uncomfortable. You see the gunner crouched
+     down behind his weapon, but you aim at where the pilot ought to
+     be--there are two men aboard the German craft--and press on the
+     release hard. Your mitrailleuse hammers out a stream of bullets
+     as you pass over and dive, nose down, to get out of range. Then,
+     hopefully, you redress and look back at the foe. He ought to be
+     dropping earthward at several miles a minute. As a matter of
+     fact, however, he is sailing serenely on. They have an annoying
+     habit of doing that, these Boches.
+
+Zeppelins as well as the stationary kite balloons and the swiftly
+flying airplanes often tempted the fighting aviators to attack. One
+of the most successful of the British champions of the air, though
+his own life was ended in the second year of the war, was
+sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, of the British Flying Corps. In
+his brief period of service Warneford won more laurels than any of
+the British aviators of the time. He was absolutely fearless, with a
+marvelous control of the fast Vickers scout which he employed, and
+fertile in every resource of the chase and of the flight. In an
+interview widely printed at the time, Lieutenant Warneford thus told
+the story of his casual meeting of a German Zeppelin high in air
+between Ghent and Brussels and his prompt and systematic destruction
+of the great balloon. The story as told in his own language reads
+like the recountal of an everyday event. That to meet an enemy more
+than a mile above the earth and demolish him was anything
+extraordinary does not seem to have occurred to the aviator.
+
+     I proceeded on my journey at an increased height [he says]. It
+     was just three o'clock in the morning when all of a sudden I
+     perceived on the horizon about midway between Ghent and Brussels
+     a Zeppelin flying fast at an altitude of about six thousand feet.
+     I immediately flew toward it and when I was almost over the
+     monster I descended about fifteen metres, and flung six bombs at
+     it. The sixth struck the envelope of the ship fair and square in
+     the middle. There was instantly a terrible explosion. The
+     displacement of the air round about me was so great that a
+     tornado seemed to have been produced. My machine tossed upward
+     and then flung absolutely upside down, I was forced to loop the
+     loop in spite of myself. I thought for a moment that the end of
+     everything had come. In the whirl I had the pleasure of seeing my
+     victim falling to the earth in a cloud of flames and smoke. Then
+     by some miracle my machine righted herself and I came to earth in
+     the enemy's country. I was not long on the ground you may be
+     sure. I speedily put myself and my machine into working order
+     again; then I set my engine going.
+
+This time the fortunate aviator returned safely to his own
+territory. He had then served only four months, had attained the age
+of twenty-three, and even in so brief a service had received the
+Cross of the Legion of Honour from France and the Victoria Cross
+from the British. Only one week after this courageous exploit he was
+killed while on a pleasure flight and with him a young American
+journalist, Henry Beach Needham, to whom he was showing the
+battlefield.
+
+During the early years of the war all of the governments were
+peculiarly secretive concerning all matters relative to their
+aviation services. This was probably due to the fact that the flying
+corps was a brand new branch of the service. No nation was
+adequately equipped with flyers. Each was afraid to let its enemies
+know how insufficient were its air guards, or what measures were
+being taken to bring the aërial fleet up to the necessary point of
+efficiency. Investigators were frowned upon and the aviators
+themselves were discouraged from much conversation about their work.
+
+About the beginning of 1916 the British suddenly awoke to the fact
+that even in war publicity has its value. It was necessary to arouse
+the enthusiastic support of the people for recruiting or for the
+conscription which ultimately was ordered. To do this graphic
+descriptions of what was doing at the front in the various branches
+of the service seemed necessary. The best writers in England were
+mobilized for this work. Kipling wrote of the submarines, Conan
+Doyle of the fighting on the fields of France. The Royal Flying
+Corps gave out a detailed story the authorship of which was not
+stated, but which describes most picturesquely the day of a flying
+man.
+
+In the United States it appeared in the _Sun_, of New York, and
+sections of it are reprinted here:
+
+     "The following bombing will be carried out by No.--Squadron at
+     night (10 P.M., 12 midnight, and 2 A.M.). At each of these times
+     three machines, each carrying eight twenty-pound bombs, will bomb
+     respectively P----, C----, H----."
+
+     Thus the operation order read one evening in France. Just an
+     ordinary order too, for bombing is carried out day and night
+     incessantly. Bombing by night is usually carried out on towns and
+     villages known to be resting places of the German troops, and it
+     is part of the work of the Royal Flying Corps to see that the Hun
+     never rests.
+
+     Fritz after a hard spell in the trenches is withdrawn to some
+     shell torn village behind his lines to rest. He enters the ruined
+     house, that forms his billet, and with a sigh of contentment at
+     reaching such luxury after the miseries of trench life prepares
+     to sleep in peace. He dreams of home, and then out of the night
+     comes the terror of the air.
+
+     A bomb falls in his billet, exploding with a terrific report and
+     doing more damage to the already ruined walls. Possibly a few of
+     his comrades are wounded or killed. Other explosions take place
+     close by and the whole village is in turmoil.
+
+     Fritz does not sleep again. His nerves are jangled and all
+     possibility of sleep is gone. The next day he is in a worse
+     condition than after a night in the trenches. This continues
+     night after night. The damage to German morale is enormous.
+
+     From the aërial point of view things are different. A pilot
+     warned for night flying takes it as he takes everything else,
+     with apparent unconcern. He realizes that he will have an
+     uninteresting ride in the dark; the danger from "Archie" will be
+     small, for an airplane is a difficult target to keep under
+     observation with a searchlight, and the danger from hostile
+     aircraft will be smaller still.
+
+     Over the trenches the star shells of the infantry may be seen,
+     occasionally the flash of a badly concealed gun glints in the
+     darkness or the exploding bombs of a trench raiding party cause
+     tiny sparks to glimmer far below. Probably the enemy, hearing the
+     sound of engines, will turn on his searchlights and sweep the sky
+     with long pencils of light. The pilot may be picked up for a
+     second, and a trifle later the angry bang, bang, bang of "Archie"
+     may be heard, firing excitedly at the place where the aeroplane
+     ought to be but is not--the pilot has probably dipped and changed
+     his course since he was in the rays of the searchlight. He may be
+     caught again for an instant and the performance is repeated.
+
+     Before long the vicinity of the target is reached and he prepares
+     to drop his bombs, usually eight in number. A little before he is
+     over the spot the first bombs will be released, for the
+     trajectory of the bomb follows the course of the machine if the
+     latter keeps on a straight course and when it explodes the
+     airplane is still overhead. Down far below will be seen a tiny
+     burst of flame; possibly a large fire blazes up and the pilot
+     knows that his work is good. He then turns and repeats his
+     performance until all his bombs are exhausted, when he turns for
+     home.
+
+     Bombs are usually dropped from a low altitude at night in order
+     to be surer of getting the target. If during the performance any
+     local searchlights are turned on "Archie" gets busy and a merry
+     game of hide and seek in and out the beams takes place. If the
+     airplane is very low, and bombs are sometimes dropped from a
+     height of only a few hundred feet, it is highly probable that the
+     bursting shells do more damage than the airplane's bombs, and it
+     is almost impossible to wing an airplane by night.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A French Scout Airplane._]
+
+     Over the lines the pilot probably meets more searchlights, dodges
+     them, and gradually descends. Below him he sees the aerodromes of
+     the surrounding squadrons lighted up for landing purposes. Should
+     he be in doubt as to which is his own he fires a certain
+     combination of signal lights and is answered from below. He then
+     lands, hands his machine over to the mechanics, and turns in.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+"_Showing Off._"
+
+_A Nieuport performing aërial acrobatics around a heavier bombing
+machine._]
+
+     So much for night bombing. By day it is different. Though at
+     night it is the billets which usually form the target, by day
+     bombing is carried out for the purpose of damaging specific
+     objects. Railroads, dumps of stores and ammunition, and enemy
+     aerodromes are the favourite targets.
+
+     The raiding machines fly in formation and are surrounded by other
+     machines used solely for protective purposes. Generally a raid is
+     carried out by machines from two squadrons, the bomb carriers
+     belonging to a corps wing and the escorting machines to an army
+     wing.
+
+     All the machines meet at a prearranged rendezvous well on our
+     side of the line at a certain time and a given altitude. There
+     they manoeuvre into their correct formation. A flight commander
+     leads the raid and his machine is distinguished by streamers tied
+     to it.
+
+     Once over the target the fighters scatter and patrol the
+     neighbourhood while the bombers discharge their missiles on the
+     objective. Usually, unless anti-aircraft fire is very heavy, they
+     descend a few thousand feet to make surer of the target, and when
+     their work is completed rise again to the level of the escort.
+
+     Results can usually be fairly judged by day. An ammunition dump
+     quickly shows if it is hit and stores soon burst into flame.
+     Railway stations or junctions show clearly damage to buildings or
+     overturned trucks, but the damage to the track itself is hard to
+     estimate. Aerodromes may be bombed for the purpose of destroying
+     enemy machines in their hangars or merely in order to spoil the
+     landing by blowing holes all over the place. It is with great
+     delight that a pilot remarks in his report that a hostile
+     machine, surrounded by mechanics, was about to ascend, but that
+     instead he had descended to within a few hundred feet and
+     obtained a direct hit, with the result that the enemy machine,
+     including the surrounding men, seemed to be severely damaged.
+
+     One officer on a bomb raid saw his chance in this way, descended
+     to four hundred feet under intense rifle fire, successfully
+     bombed the enemy machine, which was just emerging from its
+     hangar, and then tried to make off. Unfortunately at this moment
+     his engine petered out, possibly on account of the enemy's fire,
+     and he had to descend.
+
+     By skillful planing he managed to descend about three quarters of
+     a mile away, in full view of the enemy. Instead of giving up the
+     ghost and at once firing his machine, this officer jumped out
+     and, utterly unperturbed by the German fire or by the Huns making
+     across country to take him prisoner, commenced to inspect the
+     engine. Luckily he found the cause of the trouble at once, put it
+     right,--it was only a trifling mishap,--adjusted the controls,
+     and swung the propeller.
+
+     The engine started, he jumped in, with the nearest Hun only a
+     hundred yards off, and opening the throttle raced over the ground
+     and into the air pursued by a futile fusillade of bullets. His
+     engine held out and he safely regained his aerodrome, after
+     having been reported missing by his comrades. For this escapade
+     he received the Military Cross--a well-earned reward.
+
+     When all the bombs have been dropped and the formation resumed
+     the machines head for home. It is on the homeward journey that
+     events may be expected, for time enough has elapsed for the Hun
+     to detail a squadron to intercept our returning machines and pick
+     off any stragglers that may fall behind.
+
+     It is a favourite Boche manoeuvre to detail some of his slow
+     machines to entice our fighters away from the main body, and when
+     this has been accomplished, to attack the remainder with Fokkers,
+     which dive from aloft onto the bombing machines. This trick is
+     now well-known and the fighters rarely leave their charges until
+     the latter are in comparative safety.
+
+     Sometimes a Hun of more sporting character than his brothers will
+     wait alone for the returning convoy, hiding himself thousands of
+     feet up in the clouds until he sees his moment. Then singling out
+     a machine he will dive at it, pouring out a stream of bullets as
+     he falls. Sometimes he achieves his object and a British machine
+     falls to earth, but whatever the result, the Hun does not alter
+     his tactics. He dives clean through the whole block of machines,
+     down many thousands of feet, only flattening out when close to
+     the ground.
+
+     The whole affair is so swift--just one lightning dive--that long
+     before a fighter can reach the Hun the latter is away thousands
+     of feet below and heading for home and safety. Every Fokker
+     pilot knows that once his surprise dive is over he has no chance
+     against another machine--the build of the Fokker only allows this
+     one method of attack--and he does not stop to argue about it. His
+     offensive dive becomes a defensive one--that is the sole
+     difference.
+
+     Sometimes a large squadron of German machines, composed of
+     various types of airplanes, intercepts a returning formation. If
+     it attacks a grand aërial battle ensues. The British fighting
+     machines spread out in a screen to allow the bombing machines a
+     chance of escape and then attack the Huns as they arrive. In one
+     place one British airplane will be defending itself from two or
+     three German machines; close by two or three of our busses will
+     be occupied in sending a Hun to his death; elsewhere more equal
+     combats rage and the whole sky becomes an aërial battlefield,
+     where machines perform marvellous evolutions, putting the best
+     trick flying of pre-war days very much in the shade. No sooner
+     has a pilot accounted for his foe, by killing him, forcing him to
+     descend, or making him think discretion the better part of
+     valour, than he turns to the help of a hard-pressed brother,
+     surprising the enemy by an attack from the rear or otherwise
+     creating a diversion.
+
+     A single shot in the petrol tank proves fatal; loss of pressure
+     ensues, the engine fails, and the pilot is forced to descend. He
+     can usually land safely, but should he be in enemy territory he
+     must fire his machine and prepare for a holiday in Germany.
+     Should he be fortunate enough to plane over our lines little
+     damage is done; the tank can be repaired and the machine made
+     serviceable again. But for the time being he is out of the fight.
+     Sometimes the escaping petrol may ignite and the pilot and
+     observer perish in the flames--the most terrible fate of all.
+
+     The aërial battle ends in one of two ways: one side is
+     outmanoeuvred, outnumbered, and has lost several machines and
+     flies to safety, or, the more usual ending, both sides exhaust
+     their ammunition, only a limited quantity perforce being carried,
+     and the fight is of necessity broken off. Meanwhile the bombing
+     machines have probably crossed the line in safety, and their duty
+     is finished. Should they be attacked by a stray machine they are
+     armed and quite capable of guarding themselves against any attack
+     except one in force.
+
+     During these bomb raids photographs of the target are frequently
+     obtained or should the staff require any district crossed on the
+     journey and taken they are generally secured by bombing machines.
+     It is wonderful what minute details may be seen in a photograph
+     taken at a height of from eight to twelve thousand feet, and our
+     prints, which are far superior to those taken by the Hun, have
+     revealed many useful points which would otherwise have remained
+     unknown.
+
+     When it is remembered that a single machine crossing the line is
+     heavily shelled it may be conceived what an immense concentration
+     of "Archies" is made on the raiders on their return. It is
+     remarkable what feeble results are obtained considering the
+     intensity of the bombardment, but rarely is a machine brought
+     down, though casualties naturally occur occasionally.
+
+     Lieutenant C., in company with other machines, had successfully
+     bombed his target and had meanwhile been heavily shelled, with
+     the result that his engine was not giving its full number of
+     revolutions and he lagged a little behind the rest of the
+     formation. No hostile aircraft appeared and all went well until
+     he was about to cross the lines, when a terrific bombardment was
+     opened on him.
+
+     He dodged and turned to the best of his ability, but a well-aimed
+     shell burst just above him and a piece of the "Archie" hit him on
+     the head, not seriously wounding him, but knocking him
+     unconscious. The machine, deprived of the guiding hand,
+     immediately got into a dive and commenced a rapid descent from
+     ten thousand feet, carrying the unconscious pilot with it, to be
+     dashed to pieces on the ground.
+
+     Whether the rush of air, the sudden increase of pressure, or the
+     passing off of the effect of the blow caused the disabled man to
+     come to his senses is not known, but when the machine was only a
+     few hundred feet from the ground, Lieutenant C. recovered his
+     senses sufficiently to realize his position and managed to pull
+     the machine up and make a landing. He then lapsed into
+     unconsciousness again. Had he remained in his state of collapse
+     half a minute longer, he would inevitably have been killed.
+
+     Another curious case of wounding was that of Lieutenant H., who
+     was also returning from a bomb raid. When passing through the
+     heavily shelled zone his machine was hit by a shell, which passed
+     through the floor by the pilot's seat and out at the top without
+     exploding. Lieutenant H. thought it must have been very close to
+     his leg, but he was so fully occupied with manoeuvring to dodge
+     other shells that he had no time to think of it.
+
+     He crossed the line and began to plane down when he was aware of
+     a feeling of faintness, but pulling himself together he landed
+     his machine, taxied up to the sheds, and attempted to get out. It
+     was only then that he realized that his leg was shot almost
+     completely off above the knee; the lower part was merely hanging
+     by a piece of skin.
+
+     Incredible as it may seem the shell which hit his machine also
+     tore through the leg--luckily without exploding--unknown to
+     Lieutenant H. Probably the force of the blow and excitement of
+     the moment caused it to pass unnoticed and the torn nature of the
+     wound helped to close the arteries and prevent his bleeding to
+     death. He recovered, and though no longer flying is still engaged
+     in doing his duty for the duration of the war.
+
+[Illustration: _Raid on a Troop Train by John E. Whiting._]
+
+The courage and dash of the American aviators, serving with the
+French Army, led the Allies to expect great things of our flying
+corps which should be organized immediately after our declaration of
+war. About the time of that declaration Major L. W. B. Rees, of the
+British Flying Corps, came to the United States for the purpose of
+giving to our authorities the benefit of British experience in
+raising and equipping aërial fleets and in the development of the
+most efficient tactics. Major Rees in an official statement set
+forth many facts of general interest concerning the various flying
+services of the belligerent armies. The British, he said, fly on
+three levels with three different kinds of machines. Nearest the
+ground, about six thousand feet up, are the artillery directors who
+hover about cutting big figure eights above the enemy trenches and
+flash back directions by wireless to the British artillerists. These
+observers are, of course, exposed to attack from anti-aircraft guns,
+the effective range of which had by the middle of war become as
+great as ten thousand feet. Yet, as has already been noted, the
+amount of execution done by these weapons was surprisingly small.
+The observers are protected from attack from above, first by the
+heavy fighting planes, flying at ten thousand feet, carrying two men
+to the plane and able to keep the air for four hours at a time at a
+speed of 110 miles an hour. They are supposed to use every possible
+vigilance to keep the enemy's fighters away from the slower and busy
+observing machines. In this they are seconded by the lighter one-man
+fighting machines which cruise about at a height of fifteen thousand
+feet at a speed of 130 miles an hour and able to make a straight
+upward dash at the rate of ten thousand feet in ten minutes. The
+aviators of these latter machines came to describe their task as
+"ceiling work," suggesting that they operated at the very top of the
+world's great room. They are able to keep the air only about two
+hours at a time.
+
+Americans, perhaps, gave exaggerated importance to the work of the
+Lafayette Escadrille which was manned wholly by American boys, and
+which, while in service from the very beginning of the war, was the
+first section of the French Army permitted to display the flag of
+the United States in battle after our declaration of war. It was
+made up, in the main, of young Americans of good family and
+independent means, most of them being college students who had laid
+down their books for the more exciting life of an airman. They paid
+heavily in the toll of death for their adventure and for the
+conviction which led them to take the side of democracy and right in
+the struggle against autocracy and barbarism months, even years,
+before their nation finally determined to join with them. In the
+first two and a half years of the war, seven of the aviators in this
+comparatively small body lost their lives.
+
+Harvard College was particularly well represented in the American
+Flying Corps--although this is a proper and pertinent place to say
+that the sympathy shown for the allied cause by the young collegians
+of the United States was a magnificent evidence of the lofty
+righteousness of their convictions and the spirit of democracy with
+which they looked out upon the world. When the leash was taken off
+by the declaration of war by the United States the college boys
+flocked to training camps and enlistment headquarters in a way that
+bade fair to leave those institutions of learning without students
+for some years to come.
+
+But to hark back to Harvard, it had in the Lafayette Escadrille five
+men in 1916; three of these, Kiffen Rockwell, Norman Prince, and
+Victor Chapman, were killed in that year. A letter published in
+_Harvard Volunteers in Europe_ tells of the way these young
+gladiators started the day's work:
+
+     Rockwell called me up at three: "Fine day, fine day, get up!" It
+     was very clear. We hung around at Billy's [Lieutenant Thaw] and
+     took chocolate made by his ordonnance. Hall and the Lieutenant
+     were guards on the field; but Thaw, Rockwell, and I thought we
+     would take _a tour chez les Boches_. Being the first time the
+     _mechanaux_ were not there and the machine gun rolls not ready.
+     However it looked misty in the Vosges, so we were not hurried.
+     "Rendezvous over the field at a thousand metres," shouted Kiffen.
+     I nodded, for the motor was turning; and we sped over the field
+     and up.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A Burning Balloon, Photographed from a Parachute by the Escaping
+Balloonist._]
+
+     In my little cockpit from which my shoulders just protrude I have
+     several diversions besides flying. The compass, of course, and
+     the map I keep tucked in a tiny closet over the reservoir before
+     my knees, a small clock and one altimetre. But most important is
+     the contour, showing revolutions of the motor which one is
+     constantly regarding as he moves the manettes of gasoline and gas
+     back and forth. To husband one's fuel and tease the motor to
+     round eleven takes attention, for the carburetor changes with the
+     weather and the altitude.... The earth seemed hidden under a fine
+     web such as the Lady of Shalott wove. Soft purple in the west,
+     changing to shimmering white in the east. Under me on the left
+     the Vosges like rounded sand dunes cushioned up with velvety
+     light and dark masses (really forests), but to the south standing
+     firmly above the purple cloth like icebergs shone the Alps. My!
+     they look steep and jagged. The sharp blue shadows on their
+     western slopes emphasized the effect. One mighty group standing
+     aloof to the west--Mount Blanc perhaps. Ah, there are quantities
+     of worm-eaten fields my friends the trenches--and that town with
+     the canal going through it must be M----. Right beside the capote
+     of my engine, showing through the white cloth a silver snake--the
+     Rhine!
+
+     What, not a quarter to six, and I left the field at five!
+     Thirty-two hundred metres. Let's go north and have a look at the
+     map.
+
+     While thus engaged a black puff of smoke appeared behind my tail
+     and I had the impression of hearing a piece of iron hiss by.
+     "Must have got my range first shot!" I surmised, and making a
+     steep bank piqued heavily. "There, I have lost them now." The
+     whole art of avoiding shells is to pay no attention till they get
+     your range and then dodge away, change altitude, and generally
+     avoid going in a straight line. In point of fact, I could see
+     bunches of exploding shells up over my right shoulder not a
+     kilometre off. They continued to shell that section for some
+     time; the little balls of smoke thinning out and merging as they
+     crossed the lines.
+
+In the earlier days of the war, when the American aviators were
+still few, their deeds were widely recounted in their home country,
+and their deaths were deplored as though a personal loss to many of
+their countrymen. Later they went faster and were lost in the daily
+reports. Among those who had early fixed his personality in the
+minds of those who followed the fortunes of the little band of
+Americans flying in France was Kiffen Rockwell, mentioned in an
+earlier paragraph, and one of the first to join the American
+escadrille. Rockwell was in the war from sincere conviction of the
+righteousness of the Allies' cause.
+
+"I pay my part for Lafayette, and Rochambeau," he said proudly, when
+asked what he was doing in a French uniform flying for France. And
+pay he did though not before making the Germans pay heavily for
+their part. Once, flying alone over Thann, he came upon a German
+scout. Without hesitation the battle was on. Rockwell's machine was
+the higher, had the better position. As aërial tactics demanded he
+dived for the foe, opening fire as soon as he came within thirty or
+forty yards. At his fourth shot the enemy pilot fell forward in his
+seat and his machine fell heavily to earth. He lighted behind the
+German lines much to the victor's disgust, for it was counted a
+higher achievement to bring your foe to earth in your own territory.
+But Rockwell was able to pursue his victim far enough to see the
+wreck burst into flames.
+
+Though often wounded, Rockwell scorned danger. He would go into
+action so bandaged that he seemed fitter to go to an hospital. He
+was always on the attack--"shoved his gun into the enemy's face" as
+his fellows in the escadrille expressed it. So in September, 1916,
+he went out after a big German machine, he saw flying in French
+territory. He had but little difficulty in climbing above it, and
+then dashed down in his usual impetuous manner, his machine gun
+blazing as he came on. But the German was of heavier metal mounting
+two machine guns. Just as to onlookers it seemed that the two
+machines would crash together, the wings of one side of Rockwell's
+plane suddenly collapsed and he fell like a stone between the lines.
+The Germans turned their guns on the pile of wreckage where he lay,
+but French gunners ran out and brought his body in. His breast was
+all blown to pieces with an explosive bullet--criminal, of course,
+barbarous and uncivilized, but an everyday practice of the Germans.
+
+Rockwell was given an impressive funeral. All the British pilots,
+and five hundred of their men marched, and the bier was followed by
+a battalion of French troops. Over and around the little French
+graveyard aviators flew dropping flowers. In later days less
+ceremony attended the last scene of an American aviator's career.
+
+Another American aviator, also a Harvard man, who met death in the
+air, was Victor Chapman of New York, a youth of unusual charm, high
+ideals, and indomitable courage. At the very outbreak of the war he
+enlisted in the French Foreign Legion--a rough entourage for a
+college-bred man. Into the Foreign Legion drifted everything that
+was doubtful, and many that were criminal. No questions were asked
+of those who sought its hospitable ranks, and readers of Ouida's
+novel _Under Two Flags_ will recall that it enveloped in its
+convenient obscurity British lordlings and the lowest of Catalonian
+thieves. But in time of actual war its personnel was less mixed, and
+Chapman's letters showed him serving there contentedly as pointer of
+a mitrailleuse. But not for long. Most of the spirited young
+Americans who entered the French Army aspired to serve in the
+aviation corps, and Chapman soon was transferred to that field.
+There he developed into a most daring flyer. On one occasion, with a
+bad scalp wound, after a brush with four German machines, he made
+his landing with his machine so badly wrecked that he had to hold
+together the broken ends of a severed control with one hand, while
+he steered with the other. Instead of laying up for the day he had
+his mechanician repair his machine while a surgeon repaired him,
+then, patched up together, man and machine took the air again in
+search for the Boches.
+
+In June, 1916, though still suffering from a wound in the head, he
+started in his machine to carry some oranges to a comrade lying
+desperately wounded in a hospital some miles away. On the way he saw
+in the distance behind the German lines two French airmen set upon
+by an overwhelming force of Germans. Instantly he was off to the
+assistance of his friends, plunging into so unequal a fight that
+even his coming left the other Americans outnumbered. But he had
+scarce a chance to strike a blow. Some chance shot from a German gun
+put him out of action. All that the other two Americans, Lufbery and
+Prince, knew was that they saw a French machine come flying to their
+aid, and suddenly tip and fall away to earth. Until nightfall came
+and Chapman failed to return none was sure that he was the victim.
+
+The part played by young Americans as volunteers for France before
+the United States entered upon the war was gallant and stimulating
+to national pride. It showed to the world--and to our own countrymen
+who needed the lesson as much as any--that we had among our youth
+scores who, moved by high ideals, stood ready to risk their lives
+for a sentiment--stood ready to brave the myriad discomforts of the
+trenches, the bursting shrapnel, the mutilating liquid fire, the
+torturing gas that German autocracy should be balked of its purpose
+of dominating the world.
+
+And the service of these boys aided far more than they knew. The
+fact that our countrymen in numbers were flying for France kept ever
+before the American people the vision of that war in the air of
+which poets and philosophers had dreamed for ages. It brought home
+to our people the importance of aviation before our statesmen could
+begin to see it. It set our boys to reading of aircraft, building
+model planes, haunting the few aviation fields which at the time our
+country possessed. And it finally so filled the consciousness of our
+people with conviction of the supreme importance of aviation as an
+arm of the national armed service that long before the declaration
+of war the government was embarrassed by the flood of volunteers
+seeking to be enrolled in the flying forces of the nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE UNITED STATES AT WAR
+
+
+The entrance of the United States upon the war was the signal for a
+most active agitation of the question of overwhelming the enemy with
+illimitable fleets of aircraft. Though the agitation was most
+vociferous in this country whence it was hoped the enormous new
+fleets of aircraft would come, it was fomented and earnestly pressed
+by our Allies. France sent a deputation of her leading flyers over
+to supervise the instruction of our new pilots. England contributed
+experts to advise as to the construction of our machines. The most
+comprehensive plans were urged upon Congress and the Administration
+for the creation of a navy of the air. A bill for an initial
+appropriation of $640,000,000, for aircraft purposes alone, was
+passed and one for a Department of Aeronautics to be established,
+co-ordinate with those of War and the Navy, its secretary holding a
+seat in the cabinet, was introduced in Congress. Many of the most
+eminent retired officers of the navy joined in their support.
+Retired officers only because officers in active service were
+estopped from political agitation.
+
+There was every possible reason for this great interest in the
+United States in wartime aviation. The nation had long been
+shamefaced because the development of the heavier-than-air machines,
+having their origin undoubtedly in the inventive genius of Professor
+Langley and the Wrights, had been taken away from us by the more
+alert governments of France and Germany. The people were ready to
+buy back something of our lost prestige by building the greatest of
+air fleets at the moment when it should exercise the most
+determinative influence upon the war.
+
+But more. We entered upon the war in our chronic state of
+unpreparedness. We were without an army and without equipment for
+one. To raise, equip, and drill an army of a million, the least
+number that would have any appreciable effect upon the outcome of
+the war, would take months. When completed we would have added only
+to the numerical superiority of the Allies on the Western Front. The
+quality of a novel and decisive contribution to the war would be
+lacking.
+
+So too it was with our navy. The British Navy was amply adequate to
+deal with the German fleet should the latter ever leave its prudent
+retreat behind Helgoland and in the bases of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.
+True it was not capable of crushing out altogether the submarine
+menace, but it did hold the German underwater boats down to a fixed
+average of ships destroyed, which was far less than half of what the
+Germans had anticipated. In this work our ships, especially our
+destroyers, took a notable part.
+
+The argument for a monster fleet of fighting aircraft, thus came to
+the people of the United States in a moment of depression and
+perplexity. By land the Germans had dug themselves in, holding all
+of Belgium and the thousands of square miles of France they had won
+in their first dash to the Marne. What they had won swiftly and
+cheaply could only be regained slowly and at heavy cost. True, the
+Allies were, day by day, driving them back from their position, but
+the cost was disheartening and the progress but slow.
+
+By sea the Germans refused to bring their fleet to battle with their
+foes. But from every harbour of Belgium, and from Wilhelmshaven and
+Kiel, they sent out their sinister submarines to prey upon the
+commerce of the world--neutral as well as belligerent. Against them
+the navies of the world were impotent. To the threat that by them
+Germany would starve England into cowering surrender, the only
+answer was the despairing effort to build new ships faster than the
+submarines could sink those afloat--even though half a million tons
+a month were sent to the bottom in wasteful destruction.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Levick.
+
+_A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth Building._]
+
+Faced by these disheartening conditions, wondering what they might
+do that could be done quickly and aid materially in bringing the war
+to a triumphant conclusion, the American people listened eagerly to
+the appeals and arguments of the advocates of a monster aërial
+fleet.
+
+[Illustration: © International Film Service.
+
+_Cruising at 2000 Feet._
+
+_One Biplane photographed from another._]
+
+     Listen [said these advocates], we show you a way to spring full
+     panoplied into the war, and to make your force felt with your
+     first stroke. We are not preaching dreadnoughts that take four
+     years to build. We are not asking for a million men taking nearly
+     a year to gather, equip, drill, and transport to France, in
+     imminent danger of destruction by the enemy's submarines every
+     mile of the way.
+
+     We ask you for a cheap, simple device of wood, wire, and cloth,
+     with an engine to drive it. All its parts are standardized. In a
+     few weeks the nation can be equipped to turn out 2000 of them
+     weekly. We want within the year 100,000 of them. We do not ask
+     for a million men. We want 10,000 bright, active, hardy, plucky
+     American boys between 20 and 25 years of age. We want to give
+     them four months' intensive training before sending them into the
+     air above the enemy's lines. In time we shall want 25,000 to
+     35,000 but the smaller number will well do to open the campaign.
+
+     And what will they effect?
+
+     Do you know that to-day the eyes of an army are its airplanes?
+     Cavalry has disappeared practically. If a general wishes to pick
+     out a weak point in his enemy's line to assault he sends out
+     airmen to find it. If he is annoyed by the fire of some distant
+     unseen battery over the hills and far away he sends a man in an
+     airplane who brings back its location, its distance, and perhaps
+     a photograph of it in action. If he suspects that his foe is
+     abandoning his trenches, or getting ready for an attack, the
+     ready airmen bring in the facts.
+
+     And of course the enemy's airmen serve their side in the same
+     manner. They spy out what their foe is doing, and so far as their
+     power permits prevent him from seeing what they are doing.
+
+     Now suppose one side has an enormous preponderance of
+     aircraft--six to one, let us say. It is not believed, for
+     example, that at this moment Germany has more than 10,000
+     aircraft on the whole western front. Let us imagine that through
+     the enterprise of the United States our Allies were provided with
+     25,000 on one sector which we intended to make the scene of an
+     attack on the foe. Say the neighbourhood of Arras and Lille. For
+     days, weeks perhaps, we would be drawing troops toward this
+     sector from every part of the line. Through the reports of spies
+     the enemy's suspicions would be aroused. It is the business of an
+     efficient general to be suspicious. He would send out his
+     airplanes to report on the activities of the other side. Few
+     would come back. None would bring a useful report. For every
+     German plane that showed above the lines three Allied planes
+     would be ready to attack and destroy it or beat it back. The air
+     would be full of Allied airmen--the great bombing planes flying
+     low and inundating the trenches with bombs, and the troops on
+     march with the deadly fléchettes. Over every German battery would
+     soar the observation plane indicating by tinsel or smoke bombs
+     the location of the guns, or even telegraphing it back by
+     wireless to the Allied batteries safe in positions which the
+     blinded enemy could never hope to find. Above all in myriads
+     would be soaring the swift fighting scouts, the Bleriots,
+     Nieuports, Moranes or perhaps some new American machine to-day
+     unknown. Let the wing of a Boche but show above the smoke and
+     they would be upon him in hordes, beating him to the ground,
+     enveloping him in flames, annihilating him before he had a chance
+     to observe, much less to report.
+
+     What think you would be the result on that sector of the battle
+     line? Why the foe would be cut to pieces, demolished,
+     obliterated. Blinded, he would be unrelentingly punished by an
+     adversary all eyes. Writhing under the concentrated fire of a
+     thousand guns he could make no response, for his own guns could
+     not find the attacking batteries. Did he think to flee? His
+     retreating columns would be marked down by the relentless scouts
+     in the air, and the deadly curtain of fire from well-coached
+     batteries miles away would sweep every road with death. If in
+     desperation he sought to attack he would do so ignorant whether
+     he were not hurling his regiments against the strongest part of
+     the Allied line, and with full knowledge of the fact that though
+     he was blinded they had complete information of his strength and
+     dispositions.
+
+The argument impressed itself strongly upon the mind of the country.
+There appeared indeed no public sentiment hostile to it nor any
+organized opposition to the proposition for an enormous
+appropriation for purposes of aviation. The customary inertia of
+Congress delayed the actual appropriation for some months. But the
+President espoused its cause and the Secretaries both of War and the
+Navy warmly recommended it, although they united in opposing the
+proposition to establish a distinct department of aeronautics with a
+seat in the Cabinet. Being human neither one desired to let his
+share of this great new gift of power slip out of his hands. Leading
+in the fight for this legislation was Rear-Admiral Robert E. Peary,
+U. S. N., retired, the discoverer of the North Pole. Admiral Peary
+from the very outbreak of the war consecrated his time and his
+abilities to pushing the development of aeronautics in the United
+States. He was continually before Congressional committees urging
+the fullest appropriations for this purpose. In his first statement
+before the Senate Committee he declared that "in the immediate
+future the air service will be more important than the army and navy
+combined," and supported that statement by reference to utterances
+made by such British authorities as Mr. Balfour, Lord Charles
+Beresford, Lord Northcliffe, and Lord Montague. In an article
+published shortly after his appearance before the Senate Committee,
+the Admiral summarized in a popular way his views as to the
+possibility of meeting the submarine menace with aircraft, and what
+the United States might do in that respect. He wrote:
+
+     We are receiving agreeable reports as to the efficiency of the
+     American destroyer flotilla now operating against submarines in
+     the North Sea. An unknown naval officer, according to the
+     newspapers of May 30th, calls for the immediate construction of
+     from 100 to 200 additional American destroyers.
+
+     By all means let us have this force--when it can be made
+     ready--but it would take at least two years to construct, equip,
+     and deliver such a heavy additional naval tonnage, while 200
+     fighting seaplanes, with a full complement of machine guns,
+     bombs, microphones, and aërial cameras, could be put in active
+     service in the North Sea within six months.
+
+     Seaplanes, small dirigibles on the order of the English "blimp"
+     type, and kite balloons have already shown themselves to be more
+     effective in detecting submarines than are submarine chasers or
+     armed liners.
+
+     Not only have the British, French, German, and Turkish forces
+     destroyed trawlers, patrol boats, and transports by aircraft,
+     but successful experiments in airplane submarine hunting have
+     also been made in this country.
+
+     In September, 1916, our first Aërial Coast Patrol Unit, in acting
+     as an auxiliary to the Mosquito Squadron in the annual manoeuvres
+     of the Atlantic fleet, detected objects smaller than the latest
+     type of German submarines from fifteen to twenty feet below the
+     surface.
+
+     A more complete aërial submarine hunt took place on March 26th of
+     this year. This was the real thing, because the fliers were
+     looking for German U-boats. Inasmuch as the Navy Department is
+     still waiting before establishing its first and only aeronautical
+     base on the Atlantic seaboard, the honour of having conducted the
+     first aërial hunt of the enemy submarines in American history
+     went to the civilian aviators who are soon to be a part of the
+     Aërial Reserve Squadron at Governor's Island and to the civilian
+     instructors and aërial reservists connected with the Army
+     Aviation School at Mineola, Long Island.
+
+     These hawks of the air darted up and down the coast in search of
+     the enemy, often flying as far as eleven miles out to sea. The
+     inlets and bays were searched, vessels plotted, compass direction
+     and time when located were given.
+
+     No enemy submarines were found. It developed that the supposed
+     submarines were two patrol motor-boats returning from a trial
+     trip. Nevertheless the incident is illuminating, and the official
+     statement of the Navy Department closed with the words: "This
+     incident emphasizes the need of hydroaëroplanes for naval
+     scouting purposes."
+
+     It is also interesting to note what happened when Lawrence Sperry
+     went out to sea one day last summer in his hydroplane and failed
+     to return. Two seaplanes and three naval destroyers were sent in
+     search of him. In forty minutes the seaplanes returned with the
+     news that they had located Sperry floating safely on the water.
+     At the end of the day, after several hours of search, the
+     destroyers came back without having seen Sperry at all.
+
+     Those who may still believe that we Americans cannot build
+     aircraft and that all the exploits we read so much about in the
+     newspapers taking place on the other side are being done in
+     foreign aircraft will be surprised to know that a large number of
+     the big flying boats now in use in the English navy, harbour, and
+     coast defence work are Curtiss machines, designed and built in
+     this country by Americans, with American material and American
+     engines.
+
+     Great Britain wants all the machines of this type that it can
+     get, and sees no reason why we cannot do the same thing in
+     protecting our own Atlantic seaboard. I quote from C. G. Grey,
+     editor of _The London Aeroplane_:
+
+     "Curiously enough, these big flying boats originated in America,
+     and, if America is seriously perturbed about the fate of American
+     shipping and American citizens travelling by sea in the vicinity
+     of Europe, it should not be a difficult matter for America to rig
+     up in a very small space of time quite a fleet of seaplane
+     carriers suitable for the handling of these big seaplanes. If
+     each seaplane ship were armed with guns having a range of five to
+     ten miles, and if the gunners were practised in co-operating with
+     airplane spotters, such ships ought to be the very best possible
+     insurance for American lives and goods on the high seas."
+
+     I quote from _The Associated Press_ report from Paris on May 14th
+     to show the relative importance of aëroplanes in submarine
+     attacks:
+
+     "During the last three months French patrol boats have had twelve
+     engagements with submarines, French hydroaëroplanes have fought
+     them thirteen times, and there have been sixteen engagements
+     between armed merchantmen and submarines."
+
+     Henry Woodhouse, one of the most distinguished authorities on
+     aeronautics in the United States, in his standard _Textbook on
+     Naval Aeronautics_, published by the Century Company, has
+     assembled the following data on submarine and aeroplane combats:
+
+     "On May 4, 1915, the German Admiralty reported an engagement
+     between a German dirigible and several British submarines in the
+     North Sea. The submarines fired on the dirigible without success,
+     whereas bombs from the dirigible sank one submarine.
+
+     "On May 31, 1915, the German Admiralty announced the sinking of a
+     Russian submarine by bombs dropped by German naval aviators near
+     Gotland.
+
+     "On July 1, 1915, the Austrian submarine U-11 was destroyed in
+     the Adriatic by a French aeroplane, which swooped suddenly and
+     dropped three bombs directly on the deck of the submarine. The
+     craft was destroyed and the entire crew of twenty-five were lost.
+
+     "On July 27, 1915, a German submarine in the Dardanelles was
+     about to launch a torpedo at a British transport filled with
+     troops and ammunition, when British aviators gave the alarm to
+     the transport, and immediately began dropping bombs at the
+     submarine, which had to submerge and escape hurriedly, without
+     launching its torpedo.
+
+     "On August 19, 1915, the Turkish War Office stated that an Allied
+     submarine had been sunk in the Dardanelles by a Turkish
+     aeroplane.
+
+     "On August 26, the Secretary of the British Admiralty announced
+     that Squadron Commander Arthur W. Bigsworth in a single-handed
+     attack bombed and destroyed a German submarine off Ostend.
+
+     "Lieutenant Viney received the Victoria Cross and Lieutenant de
+     Sincay was recommended for the Legion of Honour for having flown
+     over a German submarine and destroyed it with bombs off the
+     Belgian coast on November 18, 1915.
+
+     "Early in 1916 an Austrian seaplane sank the French submarine
+     _Foucault_ in the southern Adriatic. Lieutenant Calezeny was the
+     pilot and the observer was Lieutenant von Klinburg. After
+     crippling the submarine they then performed the remarkable feat
+     of calling another Austrian seaplane and rescuing the entire
+     French crew, two officers and twenty seven men, in spite of the
+     fact that a high sea was running at the time."
+
+It will be noted that Admiral Peary lays great stress on the supreme
+value of aircraft as foes of the submarine. This was due to the fact
+that at about the time of his appearance before the Senate Committee
+the world was fairly panic-stricken by the vigour and effect of the
+German submarine campaign and its possible bearing upon the outcome
+of the war. Of that campaign I shall have more to say in the section
+of this book dealing with submarines. But the subject of the
+undersea boat in war became at this time inextricably interwoven
+with that of the aërial fleets, and the sudden development of the
+latter, together with the marked interest taken in it by our people,
+cannot be understood without some description of the way in which
+the two became related.
+
+From the very beginning of the war the Germans had prosecuted a
+desultory submarine warfare on the shipping of Great Britain and had
+extended it gradually until neutral shipping also was largely
+involved. All the established principles of international law, or
+principles that had been supposed to be established, were set at
+naught. In bygone days enemy merchant ships were subject to
+destruction only after their crews had been given an opportunity to
+take to the boats. Neutral ships bearing neutral goods, even if
+bound to an enemy port, were liable to destruction only if found
+upon visit to be carrying goods that were contraband of war. The
+list of contraband had been from time immemorial rigidly limited,
+and confined almost wholly to munitions of war, or to raw material
+used in their construction. But international law went by the board
+early in the war. Each belligerent was able to ascribe plausible
+reasons for its amendment out of recognizable form. Great Britain
+established blockades two hundred miles away from the blockaded
+ports because the submarines made the old practice of watching at
+the entrance of the port too perilous. The list of contraband of war
+was extended by both belligerents until it comprehended almost every
+useful article grown, mined, or manufactured. But the amendment to
+international law which acted as new fuel for the flames of war,
+which aroused the utmost world-wide indignation, and which finally
+dragged the United States into the conflict, was that by which
+Germany sought to relieve her submarine commanders of the duty of
+visiting and searching a vessel, or of giving its people time to
+provide for their safety, before sinking it.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_An Air Battle in Progress._]
+
+The German argument was that the submarine was unknown when the code
+of international law then in force was formulated. It was a
+peculiarly delicate naval weapon. Its strength lay in its ability to
+keep itself concealed while delivering its attack. If exposed on the
+surface a shot from a small calibred gun striking in a vital point
+would instantly send it to the bottom. If rammed it was lost. Should
+a submarine rise to the surface, send an officer aboard a ship it
+had halted, and await the result of his search, it would be exposed
+all the time to destruction at the hands of enemy vessels coming up
+to her aid. Indeed if the merchantman happened to carry one gun a
+single shot might put the assailant out of business. Accordingly the
+practice grew up among the Germans of launching their torpedoes
+without a word of warning at their helpless victim. The wound
+inflicted by a torpedo is such that the ship will go down in but a
+few minutes carrying with it most of the people aboard. The most
+glaring, inexcusable, and criminal instance of this sort of warfare
+was the sinking without warning of the great passenger liner,
+_Lusitania_, by which more than eleven hundred people were drowned,
+one hundred and fourteen of them American citizens.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by U. & U.
+
+_A Curtis Hydroaëroplane._]
+
+Against this policy--or piracy--the United States protested, and
+people of this country waxed very weary as month after month through
+the years 1915 and 1916 Germany met the protests with polite letters
+of evasion and excuse continuing the while the very practice
+complained of. But late in January, 1917, her government announced
+that there would be no longer any pretence of complying with
+international law, but that with the coming month a campaign of
+unlimited submarine ruthlessness would be begun and ships sunk
+without warning and irrespective of their nationality if they
+appeared in certain prohibited zones. Within twenty-four hours the
+United States sent the German Ambassador from the country and within
+two months we were at war.
+
+At once the submarine was seen to be the great problem confronting
+us. Its attack was not so much upon the United States, for we are a
+self-contained nation able to raise all that we need within our own
+borders for our own support. But England is a nation that has to be
+fed from without. Seldom are her stores of food great enough to
+avert starvation for more than six weeks should the steady flow of
+supply ships from America and Australia to her ports be interrupted.
+This interruption the Germans proposed to effect by means of their
+underwater boats. Von Tirpitz and other leaders in the German
+administration promised the people that within six weeks England
+would be starved and begging for peace at any price. The output of
+submarines from German navy yards was greatly increased. Their
+activity became terrifying. The Germans estimated that if they could
+sink 1,000,000 tons of shipping monthly they would put England out
+of action in two or three months. For some weeks the destruction
+accomplished by their boats narrowly approached this estimate, but
+gradually fell off. At the same time there was no period in 1917 up
+to the time of Admiral Peary's statement, or indeed up to that of
+the preparation of this book, when it was not felt that the cause of
+the Allies was in danger because of the swarms of German submarines.
+
+It was that feeling, coupled with the wide-spread belief that
+aircraft furnished the best means of combating the submarine, that
+caused an irresistible demand in the United States for the
+construction of colossal fleets of these flying crafts. Congress
+enacted in midsummer the law appropriating $640,000,000 for the
+construction of aircraft and the maintenance of the aërial service.
+The Secretaries of War and the Navy each appealed for heavy
+additional appropriations for aërial service. The arguments which
+have already been set forth as supporting the use of aircraft in
+military service were paralleled by those who urge its unlimited use
+in naval service.
+
+     Consider [said they] the primary need for attacking these vipers
+     of the sea in their nests. Once out on the broad Atlantic their
+     chances of roaming about undetected by destroyers or other patrol
+     boats are almost unlimited. But we know where they come from,
+     from Kiel, Antwerp, Wilhelmshaven, Ostend, and Zeebrugge. Catch
+     them there and you will destroy them as boys destroy hornets by
+     smoking out their nests. But against this the Germans have
+     provided by blocking every avenue of approach save one. The
+     channels are obstructed and mined, and guarded from the shore by
+     heavy batteries. No hostile ships dare run that gauntlet. Even
+     the much-boasted British navy in the three years of the war has
+     not ventured to attack a single naval base. You could not even
+     seek out the submarines thus sheltered by other submarines
+     because running below the surface our boats could not detect
+     either mines or nets and would be doomed to destruction. The
+     enemy boats come out on the surface protected by the batteries
+     and naval craft. But the air cannot be blocked by any fixed
+     defences. Give us more and more powerful aircraft than the
+     Germans possess and we will darken the sky above the German bases
+     with the wings of our airplanes, and rain explosive shells upon
+     the submarines that have taken shelter there until none survive.
+
+     The one essential is that our flyers shall be in overwhelming
+     numbers. We must be able not only to take care of any flying
+     force that the Germans may send against us, but also to have
+     enough of our aircraft not engaged in the aërial battle to devote
+     their entire attention to the destruction of the enemy forces
+     below.
+
+From every country allied with us came approval of this policy. At
+the time the debate was pending in Congress our Allies one after
+another were sending to us official commissions to consult upon the
+conduct of the war, to give us the benefit of their long and bitter
+experience in it, and to assist in any way our preparations for
+taking a decisive part in that combat. The subject of the part to be
+played by aircraft was one frequently discussed with them. With the
+French commission came two members of the staff of General Joffre,
+Major Tulasne and Lieutenant de la Grange, experts in aviation
+service. A formal interview given out by these gentlemen expressed
+so clearly the point of view on aviation and its possibilities held
+in France where it has reached its highest development that some
+extracts from it will be of interest here:
+
+     "At the beginning of the war the Germans were the only ones who
+     had realized the great importance of aviation from a military
+     point of view," said these officers.
+
+     "France had looked upon aviation as a sport, Germany as a
+     powerful weapon in war. This is illustrated by the fact that
+     even in August, 1914, German artillery fire was directed by
+     airplanes.
+
+     "It was only after the retreat from Belgium and the battle of the
+     Marne that the Allies realized the great importance of aviation.
+     Between August 15 and 25 the French General Staff thought that
+     the greater part of the German army was concentrated in Alsace
+     and that only a few army corps were coming through Belgium. It
+     was only through the reports of the aviators that they realized
+     that this was a mistake and that almost the whole of the German
+     army was invading Belgium.
+
+     "Immediately after the battle of the Marne the greatest efforts
+     were made in France to develop the aviation corps in every
+     possible way. The English army, then in process of formation,
+     profited by the experience of the French. Since that time the
+     allied as well as the German aviation corps has grown constantly.
+
+     "A modern army is incomplete if it has not a strong aviation
+     corps. All the different services are obliged to turn to the
+     aviation corps for help in their work. An army without airplanes
+     is like a soldier without eyes. An army which has the superiority
+     in aviation over its adversary will have the following
+     advantages:
+
+     "It will have constantly the latest information on the movements
+     of the enemy. In this way, no concentration of troops will be
+     ignored and no surprise attack will be possible. The attack
+     against the enemy positions will be rendered easier because all
+     the details of these positions will be thoroughly known
+     beforehand. The artillery fire will be much more accurate. Many
+     enemy machines will be brought down by the superior fighting
+     machines and the result will be to strengthen the morale both of
+     the aviators and of the army."
+
+     The next question put to the French experts was: "Why do we need
+     to make a great effort to obtain the superiority in the air?"
+     They answered with much interesting detail:
+
+     "Because the Germans have understood the importance of aviation
+     from a military point of view and have concentrated all their
+     forces to develop this service.
+
+     "Owing to the large number of scientists and technicians they
+     possess they are able constantly to perfect motors and planes.
+     Owing to their great industrial organization they are able to
+     produce an enormous number of the best machines.
+
+     "The German aviation service is now fully as strong as that of
+     the Allies as far as numbers are concerned. The superiority in
+     the air can only remain in the hands of the Allies because of the
+     spirit of self-sacrifice of their aviators and their greater
+     skill.
+
+     "Germany feels that the decisive phase of the war is imminent and
+     the efforts she will make next year will be infinitely greater
+     than any she has made before. She will try in every way to regain
+     the supremacy of the air. Realizing what a formidable enemy
+     America can be in the air, she will strengthen her aviation
+     forces in consequence.
+
+     "The aeroplane is by far the most powerful of all the modern
+     weapons. If the Allies have the supremacy of the air the German
+     artillery will lose its accuracy of aim. It is impossible,
+     because of the long range, for modern guns to fire without the
+     help of airplanes. The accuracy of artillery fire depends
+     entirely on its being directed by an airplane.
+
+     "This was clearly illustrated during the battle of the Somme in
+     1916. The French at that time had concentrated such a large
+     number of fighting machines that no German machine was allowed to
+     fly over the lines. On the other hand, the Allies' reconnaissance
+     machines were so numerous that each French battery could have its
+     fire directed by an airplane.
+
+     "The destruction of the enemy positions was in consequence
+     carried out very effectively and very rapidly, while the Germans
+     were obliged to fire blindly and scatter their shells over large
+     areas, incapable as they were of locating our battery
+     emplacements and the positions of our troops. Unluckily, a few
+     weeks later the Germans had called from the different parts of
+     the line a good many of their squadrons, and were able to carry
+     out their work under better conditions.
+
+     "We need such a superiority that it will be impossible for any
+     German airplane to fly anywhere near the lines.
+
+     "Every German kite balloon, every airplane would immediately be
+     attacked by a number of allied machines. In this way the German
+     aviation will not only be dominated but will be entirely crushed.
+
+     "If we can prevent the Germans from seeing, through their
+     airplanes, what we are preparing we will be very near the end of
+     the war. It will require a huge effort to carry out this plan.
+     Neither the English nor the French are able to do so by their own
+     means.
+
+     "As far as France is concerned, she is able to keep on building
+     machines rapidly enough to increase her aviation corps at about
+     the same rate as Germany is increasing hers. If she wanted to
+     double or triple her production of machines she could do so, but
+     she would have to call back from the trenches a certain number of
+     skilled workmen, and this would weaken her fighting power. She
+     needs in the trenches all the men who are able to carry a rifle.
+
+     "If the Allies are to have the absolute supremacy of the air
+     which we have been describing it will be the privilege of America
+     to give it to them. We want three or four or even five allied
+     machines for one German. America only has the possibilities of
+     production which would allow her to build an enormous number of
+     machines in a very short time.
+
+     "The airplane is a great engine of destruction. It tells the
+     artillery where to fire, it drops bombs, it gives the enemy all
+     the information he needs to plan murderous attacks. Drive the
+     German airplanes down and you will save the lives of thousands
+     of men in our trenches. As Ulysses in the cavern put out the eye
+     of the Cyclops, so the eyes of the beast must be put out before
+     you can attempt to kill it."
+
+     Major Tulasne and Lieutenant de la Grange then outlined what the
+     aviation programme of the United States should be, saying:
+
+     "American industry must be enabled to begin building at once. No
+     time must be lost in experiments. America must profit by the
+     experience of the Allies. She must choose the best planes and
+     build thousands of them.
+
+     "She must build reconnoissance machines which she will need for
+     her army; she must build a large number of fighting machines
+     because it is these machines that will destroy German planes; she
+     must also build squadrons of powerful bombing machines which will
+     go behind the German lines to destroy the railway junctions and
+     bomb the enemy cantonments, so as to give the soldiers no rest
+     even when they have left the trenches.
+
+     "Bombing done by a few machines gives poor results. The same
+     cannot be said of this operation carried out by a large number of
+     machines which can go to the same places and bomb continually.
+
+     "Besides the number of men that are actually killed in these
+     raids, great disturbance is caused in the enemy's communication
+     lines, thereby hindering the operations. For example, since the
+     British Admiralty has increased the number of its bombing
+     squadrons in northern France and has decided to attack constantly
+     the two harbours of Ostend and Zeebrugge and the locks, bridges,
+     and canals leading to them they have greatly interfered with the
+     activity of these two German bases.
+
+     "It is certain that shortly, owing to this, these two ports will
+     no more be used by German torpedo boats and submarines. What the
+     English Royal Naval Air Service has been able to accomplish with
+     100 machines the Flying Corps of the United States with 1000
+     machines must be able to carry out on other parts of the front.
+
+     "The work of the bombing machines is rendered difficult now by
+     the fact that the actual lines are far from Germany. But it is
+     hoped that soon fighting will be carried on near the enemy
+     frontier and then a wonderful field will be opened to the bombing
+     machines.
+
+     "All the big ammunition factories which are in the Rhine and Ruhr
+     valleys, like Krupp's, will be wonderful targets for the American
+     bombing machines. If these machines are of the proper type--that
+     is to say, sufficiently fast and well armed and able to carry a
+     great weight of bombs--nothing will prevent them from destroying
+     any of these important factories.
+
+     "As Germany at the present time is only able to continue the war
+     because of her great stock of war material the destruction of her
+     sources of production would be the end of her resistance. For
+     this also the Allies must turn to America. Such a large number of
+     machines is required to produce results that America must be
+     relied on to manufacture them.
+
+     "Every man in this country must know that it is in the power of
+     the United States, no matter what can be done in other fields, to
+     bring the war to an end simply by concentrating all its energies
+     on producing an enormous amount of material for aviation, and to
+     enlist a corresponding number of pilots. But this will not be
+     done without great effort. In order to be ready for the great
+     1918 offensive work must be begun at once."
+
+The extreme secrecy which in this war has characterized the
+operation of the governments--our own most of all--makes it
+impossible to state the amount of progress made in 1917 in the
+construction of our aërial fleet. During the debate in Congress
+orators were very outspoken in their prophecies that we should
+outnumber the Kaiser's flying fleet two or three to one. The press
+of the nation was so very explicit in its descriptions of the way in
+which we were to blind the Germans and drive them from the air that
+it is no wonder the Kaiser's government took alarm, and set about
+building additional aircraft with feverish zeal. In this it was
+imitated by France and England. It seemed, all at once about the
+middle of 1917, that the whole belligerent world suddenly recognized
+the air as the final battlefield and began preparations for its
+conquest.
+
+All statistical estimates in war time are subject to doubt as to
+their accuracy--and particularly those having to do in any way with
+the activities of an enemy country. But competent estimators--or at
+any rate shrewd guessers--think that Germany's facilities for
+constructing airplanes equal those of France and England together.
+If then all three nations build to the very limit of their abilities
+there will be a tie, which the contribution of aircraft from the
+United States will settle overwhelmingly in favour of the Allies.
+How great that contribution may be cannot be foretold with certainty
+at this moment. The building of aircraft was a decidedly infant
+industry in this country when war began. In the eight years prior to
+1916 the government had given orders for just fifty-nine
+aircraft--scarcely enough to justify manufacturers in keeping their
+shops open. Orders from foreign governments, however, stimulated
+production after the war began so that when the United States
+belatedly took her place as national honour and national safety
+demanded among the Entente Allies, Mr. Howard E. Coffin, Chairman of
+the Aircraft Section of the Council of National Defence was able to
+report eight companies capable of turning out about 14,000 machines
+in six months--a better showing than British manufacturers could
+have made when Great Britain, first entered the war.
+
+A feature in the situation which impressed both Congress and the
+American people was the exposure by various military experts of the
+defenceless condition of New York City against an air raid by a
+hostile foreign power. At the moment, of course, there was no
+danger. The only hostile foreign power with any considerable naval
+or aërial force was Germany and her fleet was securely bottled up in
+her own harbours by the overpowering fleet of Great Britain. Yet if
+one could imagine the British fleet reduced to inefficiency, let us
+say by a futile, suicidal attack upon Kiel or Heligoland which would
+leave it crippled, and free the Germans, or if we could conceive
+that the German threat to reduce Great Britain to subjection by the
+submarine campaign, proved effective, the peril of New York would
+then be very real and very immediate. For, although the harbour
+defences are declared by military authorities to be practically
+impregnable against attack by sea, they would not be effective
+against an attack from the air. A hostile fleet carrying a number of
+seaplanes could round-to out of range of our shore batteries and
+loose their flyers who could within less than an hour be dropping
+bombs on the most congested section of Manhattan Island. It is true
+that our own navy would have to be evaded in such case, but the
+attack might be made from points more distant from New York and at
+which no scouts would ever dream of looking for an enemy.
+
+The development in later months of the big heavily armed cruising
+machines makes the menace to any seaport city like New York still
+greater. The Germans have built great biplanes with two fuselages,
+or bodies, armoured, carrying two machine guns and one automatic
+rifle to each body. They have twin engines of three hundred and
+forty horse power and carry a crew of six men. They are able in an
+emergency to keep the air for not less than three days. It is
+obvious that a small fleet of such machines launched from the deck
+of a hostile squadron, let us say in the neighbourhood of Block
+Island, could menace equally Boston or New York, or by flying up the
+Sound could work ruin and desolation upon all the defenceless cities
+bordering that body of water.
+
+Nor are the Germans alone in possessing machines of this type. The
+giant Sikorsky machines of Russia, mentioned in an earlier chapter,
+have during the war been developed into types capable of carrying
+crews of twenty-five men with guns and ammunition. The French, after
+having brought down one of the big German machines with the double
+bodies, instantly began building aircraft of their own of an even
+superior type. Some of these are driven by four motors and carry
+eleven persons, besides guns and ammunition. The Caproni machines of
+Italy are even bigger--capable of carrying nine guns and thirty-five
+men. The Congressional Committee was much impressed by consideration
+of what might be done by a small fleet of aircraft of this type
+launched from a hostile squadron off the Capes of Chesapeake Bay and
+operating against Washington. It is not likely that any foreign foe
+advancing by land could repeat the exploit of the British who burned
+the capitol in 1812. But in our present defenceless state a dozen
+aircraft of the largest type might reduce the national capitol to
+ruins.
+
+If an enemy well provided with aërial force possesses such power of
+offence an equal power of defence is given to the nation at all well
+provided with flying craft. In imitation, or perhaps rather in
+modification, of the English plan for guarding the coasts of Great
+Britain, a well matured system of defending the American coasts has
+been worked out and submitted to the national authorities. It
+involves the division of the coasts of the United States into
+thirteen aeronautical districts, each with aeronautical stations
+established at suitable points and all in communication with each
+other. Eight of these districts would be laid out on the Atlantic
+Coast extending from the northern boundary of Maine to the Rio
+Grande River.
+
+Just what the purpose and value of these districts would be may be
+explained by taking the case, not of a typical one, but of the most
+important one of all, the third district including the coast line
+from New London, Conn., to Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey. This of
+course includes New York and adjacent commercial centres and the
+entrance to Long Island Sound with its long line of thriving cities
+and the ports of the places from which come our chief supplies of
+munitions of war. It includes the part of the United States which an
+enemy would most covet. The part which at once would furnish the
+richest plunder, and possession of which by a foe would most cripple
+this nation. To-day it is defended by stationary guns in land
+fortresses and in time of attack would be further guarded by a
+fringe of cruising naval vessels. Apparently up to the middle of
+1917 the government thought no aërial watch was needed.
+
+But if we were to follow the methods which all the belligerent
+nations of Europe are employing on their sea coasts we would
+establish in this district ten aeronautical stations. This would be
+no match for the British system which has one such station to every
+twenty miles of coast. Ours would be farther apart, but as the Sound
+could be guarded at its entrance the stations need only be
+maintained along the south shore of Long Island and down the Jersey
+coast. Each station would be provided with patrol, fighting, and
+observation airplanes. It would have the mechanical equipment of
+microphones, searchlights, and other devices for detecting the
+approach of an enemy now employed successfully abroad. Its
+patrolling airplanes would cruise constantly far out to sea, not
+less than eighty miles, keeping ever in touch with their station. As
+the horizon visible from a soaring airplane is not less than fifty
+miles distant from the observer, this would mean that no enemy fleet
+could approach within 130 miles of our coast without detection and
+report. The Montauk Point station would be charged with guarding the
+entrance to Long Island Sound and, the waters of Nantucket shoals
+and Block Island Sound where the German submarine U-53 did its
+deadly work in 1916. The Sandy Hook station would of course be the
+most important of all, guarding New York sea-going commerce and
+protecting the ship channel by a constant patrol of aircraft over
+it.
+
+The modern airplane has a speed of from eighty to one hundred and
+sixty miles an hour--the latter rate being attained only by the
+light scouts. Thus it is apparent that if an alarm were raised at
+any one of these stations between New London and Barnegat three
+hours at most would suffice to bring the fighting equipment of all
+the stations to the point threatened. There would be thus
+concentrated a fleet of several hundred swift scouts, heavy fighting
+machines, the torpedo planes of the type designed by Admiral Fiske,
+hydroaëroplanes capable of carrying heavy guns and in brief every
+form of aërial fighter. Moreover, by use of the wireless, every ship
+of the Navy within a radius of several hundred miles would be
+notified of the menace. They could not reach the scene of action so
+swiftly as the flying men but the former would be able to hold the
+foe in action until the heavier ships should arrive.
+
+The enormous advantage of such a system of guarding our coasts needs
+no further explanation. It is not even experimental, for France on
+her limited coast has 150 such stations. England, which started the
+war with 18, had 114 in 1917 and was still building. We at that time
+had none, although the extent of our sea coast and the great
+multiplicity of practicable harbours make us more vulnerable than
+any other nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SOME FEATURES OF AËRIAL WARFARE
+
+
+As devices to translate German hate for England into deeds of bloody
+malignancy and cowardly murder the German aircraft have ranked
+supreme. The ruthless submarine war has indeed done something toward
+working off this peculiar passion, but it lacked the spectacular
+qualities which German wrath demanded. As the war proceeded, and it
+became apparent that the participation of Great Britain--at first
+wholly unexpected by the Kaiser's advisers--was certain to defeat
+the German aims, the authorities carefully inculcated in the minds
+of the people the most malignant hatred for that power. As
+Lissauer's famous hymn of hate had it--
+
+  French and Russians it matters not,
+  A blow for a blow, and a shot for a shot.
+  .................................
+  We have one foe and one alone--
+          England!
+
+By way of at once gratifying this hatred and still further
+stimulating it the German military authorities began early in the
+war a series of air raids upon English towns. They were of more than
+doubtful military value. They damaged no military or naval works.
+They aroused the savage ire of the British people who saw their
+children slain in schools and their wounded in hospitals by bombs
+dropped from the sky and straightway rushed off to enlist against so
+callous and barbaric a foe. But the raids served their political
+purpose by making the German people believe that the British were
+suffering all the horrors of war on their own soil, while the iron
+line of trenches drawn across France by the German troops kept the
+invader and war's agonies far from the soil of the Fatherland.
+
+[Illustration: ©International Film Service.
+
+_The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola._]
+
+The first German air raids were by Zeppelins on little English
+seaside towns--Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Harwich. Except in so
+far as they inflicted mutilation and death upon many non-combatants,
+mostly women and children, and misery upon their relatives and
+friends they were without effect. But early in 1915 began a
+systematic series of raids upon London, which, by October of 1917,
+had totalled thirty-four, with a toll of 865 persons killed, and
+2500 wounded. It seems fair to say that for these raids there was
+more plausible excuse than for those on the peaceful little seaside
+bathing resorts and fishing villages. London is full of military
+and naval centres, arsenals and navy yards, executive offices and
+centres of warlike activity. An incendiary bomb dropped into the
+Bank of England, or the Admiralty, might paralyze the finances of
+the Empire, or throw the naval organization into a state of anarchy.
+But as a matter of fact the German bombs did nothing of the sort.
+They fell in the congested districts of London, "the crowded warrens
+of the poor." They spread wounds and death among peaceable theatre
+audiences. One dropped on a 'bus loaded with passengers homeward
+bound, and obliterated it and them from the face of the earth. But
+no building of the least military importance sustained any injury.
+It is true, however, that the persistent raiding has compelled
+England to withhold from the fighting lines in France several
+thousand men and several hundred guns in order to be in readiness to
+meet air raids in which Germany has never employed more than fifty
+machines and at most two hundred men, including both aviators and
+mechanics.
+
+It is entirely probable that the failure of the Germans to strike
+targets of military importance and the slaughter they wrought among
+peaceful civilians were due to no intent or purpose on their part.
+Hitting a chosen target from the air is no matter of certainty. The
+bomb intended for the railway station is quite as likely to hit the
+adjacent public school or hospital. If the world ever recurs to that
+moderate degree of sanity and civilization which shall permit wars,
+but strive to regulate them in the interest of humanity this
+untrustworthiness of the aircraft's aim will compel some form of
+international regulation, just as the vulnerability of the submarine
+will force the amendment of the doctrine of visitation and search.
+But neither problem can be logically and reasonably solved in the
+middle of a war. And so, while the German violation of existing
+international law had the uncomfortable result for Germany of
+bringing the United States into the war, the barbarous raids upon
+London caused the British at last to turn aside from their
+commendable abstention from air raids on unfortified and
+non-military towns and prepare for reprisals in kind.
+
+From the beginning of the war the British had abstained from bombing
+peaceful and non-military towns. They had not indeed been weak in
+the employment of their air forces. General Smuts speaking in
+October, 1917, said that the British had, in the month previous,
+dropped 207 tons of bombs behind the lines of the enemy. But the
+targets were airdromes, military camps, arsenals and munitions
+camps--not hospitals or kindergartens. The time had now come when
+this purely military campaign no longer satisfied an enraged British
+people who demanded the enforcement of the Mosaic law of an eye for
+an eye and a tooth for a tooth, against a people whom General Smuts
+described as "an enemy who apparently recognizes no laws, human or
+divine; who knows no pity or restraint, who sung Te Deums over the
+sinking of the _Lusitania_, and to whom the maiming and slaughter of
+women and children appear legitimate means of warfare."
+
+And Premier Lloyd George, speaking to an audience of poor people in
+one of the congested districts which had suffered sorely from the
+aërial activities of the Hun, said:
+
+"We will give it all back to them, and we will give it soon. We
+shall bomb Germany with compound interest."
+
+But whether undertaken as part of a general programme of
+frightfulness or as reprisals for cruel and indefensible outrages
+air raids upon defenceless towns, killing peaceable citizens in
+their beds, and children in their kindergartens, are not incidents
+to add glory to aviation. The mind turns with relief from such
+examples of the cruel misuse of aircraft to the hosts of individual
+instances in which the airman and his machine remind one of the
+doughty Sir Knight and his charger in the most gallant days of
+chivalry. There were hosts of such incidents--men who fought
+gallantly and who always fought fair, men who hung about the
+outskirts of an aërial battle waiting for some individual champion
+of their own choosing to show himself and join in battle to death in
+the high ranges of the sky. Some of these have been mentioned in
+this book already. To discuss all who even as early as 1917 had made
+their names memorable would require a volume in itself. A few may
+well be mentioned below.
+
+There, for example, was Captain Georges Guynemer, "King of the
+French Aces." An "ace" is an aviator who has brought down five enemy
+aircraft. Guynemer had fifty-three to his credit. Still a youth,
+only twenty-three years of age at the time of his death, and only
+flying for twenty-one months, he had lived out several life times in
+the mad excitement of combat in mid-air. Within three weeks after
+getting his aviator's license he had become an "Ace." Before his
+first year's service had expired he was decorated and promoted for
+gallantry in rushing to the aid of a comrade attacked by five enemy
+machines. He entered the combat at the height of ten thousand feet,
+and inside of two minutes had dropped two of the enemy. The others
+fled. He pursued hotly keeping up a steady fire with his machine
+gun. One Boche wavered and fell, but just then an enemy shell from
+an "Archie" far below exploded under Guynemer, tearing away one wing
+of his machine. Let him tell the rest of that story:
+
+     I felt myself dropping [he said later]. It was ten thousand feet
+     to the earth, and, like a flash, I saw my funeral with my
+     saddened comrades marching behind the gun carriage to the
+     cemetery. But I pulled and pushed every lever I had, but nothing
+     would check my terrific descent.
+
+     Five thousand feet from the earth, the wrecked machine began to
+     turn somersaults, but I was strapped into the seat. I do not know
+     what it was, but something happened and I felt the speed descent
+     lessen. But suddenly there was a tremendous crash and when I
+     recovered my senses I had been taken from the wreckage and was
+     all right.
+
+Two records Guynemer made which have not yet been surpassed--the
+first, the one described above of dropping three Fokkers in two
+minutes and thirty seconds, and rounding off the adventure by
+himself dropping ten thousand feet. The second was in shooting down
+four enemy machines in one day. His methods were of the simplest. He
+was always alone in his machine, which was the lightest available.
+He would rather carry more gasoline and ammunition than take along a
+gunner. The machine gun was mounted on the plane above his head,
+pointing dead ahead, and aimed by aiming the whole airplane. Once
+started the gun continued firing automatically and Guynemer's task
+was to follow his enemy pitilessly keeping that lead-spitting muzzle
+steadily bearing upon him. In September, 1917, he went up to attack
+five enemy machines--no odds however appalling seemed to terrify
+him--but was caught in a fleet of nearly forty Boches and fell to
+earth in the enemy's country.
+
+One of the last of the air duels to be fought under the practices
+which made early air service so vividly recall the age of chivalry,
+was that in which Captain Immelman, "The Falcon," of the German
+army, met Captain Ball of the British Royal Flying Corps. Immelman
+had a record of fifty-one British airplanes downed. Captain Ball was
+desirous of wiping out this record and the audacious German at the
+same time, and so flying over the German lines he dropped this
+letter:
+
+     CAPTAIN IMMELMAN:
+
+     I challenge you to a man-to-man fight to take place this
+     afternoon at two o'clock. I will meet you over the German lines.
+     Have your anti-air craft guns withhold their fire, while we
+     decide which is the better man. The British guns will be silent.
+
+                                                       BALL.
+
+Presently thereafter this answer was dropped from a German airplane:
+
+     CAPTAIN BALL:
+
+     Your challenge is accepted. The guns will not interfere. I will
+     meet you promptly at two.
+
+                                                   IMMELMAN.
+
+The word spread far and wide along the trenches on both sides.
+Tacitly all firing stopped as though the bugles had sung truce. Men
+left cover and clambered up on the top to watch the duel. Punctually
+both flyers rose from their lines and made their way down No Man's
+Land. Let an eye witness tell the story:
+
+     From our trenches there were wild cheers for Ball. The Germans
+     yelled just as vigorously for Immelman.
+
+     The cheers from the trenches continued; the Germans increased in
+     volume; ours changed into cries of alarm.
+
+     Ball, thousands of feet above us and only a speck in the sky, was
+     doing the craziest things imaginable. He was below Immelman and
+     was apparently making no effort to get above him, thus gaining
+     the advantage of position. Rather he was swinging around, this
+     way and that, attempting, it seemed, to postpone the inevitable.
+
+     We saw the German's machine dip over preparatory to starting the
+     nose dive.
+
+     "He's gone now," sobbed a young soldier, at my side, for he knew
+     Immelman's gun would start its raking fire once it was being
+     driven straight down.
+
+     Then in a fraction of a second the tables were turned. Before
+     Immelman's plane could get into firing position, Ball drove his
+     machine into a loop, getting above his adversary and cutting
+     loose with his gun and smashing Immelman by a hail of bullets as
+     he swept by.
+
+     Immelman's airplane burst into flames and dropped. Ball, from
+     above, followed for a few hundred feet and then straightened out
+     and raced for home. He settled down, rose again, hurried back,
+     and released a huge wreath of flowers, almost directly over the
+     spot where Immelman's charred body was being lifted from a
+     tangled mass of metal.
+
+     Four days later Ball too was killed.
+
+But the Germans, too, had their champion airmen, mighty fliers,
+skillful at control and with the machine gun, in whose triumphs they
+took the same pride that our boys in France did in those of Chapman,
+Rockwell or Thaw, the British in Warneford, or the French in
+Guynemer. Chief of these was Captain Boelke, who came to his death
+in the latter part of 1917, after putting to his credit over sixty
+Allied planes brought down. A German account of one of his duels as
+watched from the trenches, will be of interest:
+
+     For quite a long time an Englishman had been making circles
+     before our eyes--calmly and deliberately.... My men on duty
+     clenched their fists in impotent wrath. "The dog--!" Shooting
+     would do no good.
+
+     Then suddenly from the rear a harsh, deep singing and buzzing
+     cuts the air. It sounds like a German flyer. But he is not yet
+     visible. Only the buzz of an approaching motor is heard in the
+     clouds in the direction of the Englishman. More than a hundred
+     eyes scanned the horizon. There! Far away and high among the
+     clouds is a small black humming bird--a German battle aeroplane.
+     Its course is laid directly for the hostile biplane and it flies
+     like an arrow shot with a clear eye and steady hand. My men crawl
+     out of the shelters. I adjust my field glasses. A lump rises in
+     our throats as if we are awaiting something new and wonderful.
+
+     So far the other does not seem to have noticed or recognized the
+     black flyer that already is poised as a hawk above him. All at
+     once there is a mighty swoop through the air like the drop of a
+     bird of prey, and in no time the black flyer is immediately over
+     the Englishman and the air is filled with the furious crackling
+     of a machine gun, followed by the rapid ta-ta-ta of two or three
+     more, all operated at the highest speed just as during a charge.
+     The Englishman drops a little, makes a circle and tries to escape
+     toward the rear. The other circles and attacks him in front, and
+     again we hear the exciting ta-ta-ta! Now the Englishman tries to
+     slip from under his opponent, but the German makes a circle and
+     the effort fails. Then the enemy describes a great circle and
+     attempts to rise above the German. The latter ascends in sharp
+     half circles and again swoops down upon the biplane, driving it
+     toward the German trenches.
+
+     Will the Englishman yield so soon? Scattered shouts of joy are
+     already heard in our ranks. Suddenly he drops a hundred yards and
+     more through the air and makes a skillful loop toward the rear.
+     Our warrior of the air swoops after him, tackles him once more
+     and again we hear the wild defiant rattle of the machine guns
+     over our heads. Now they are quite close to our trenches. The
+     French infantry and artillery begin firing in a last desperate
+     hope. Neither of them is touched. Sticking close above and behind
+     him the German drives the Englishman along some six hundred yards
+     over our heads and then just above the housetops of St. A. Once
+     more we hear a distant ta-ta-ta a little slower and more
+     scattered and then as they drop both disappear from our view.
+
+     Scarcely five minutes pass before the telephone brings up this
+     news: Lieutenant Boelke has just brought down his seventh flyer.
+
+Methods of air-fighting were succinctly described in a hearing
+before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, in June, 1917. The
+officers testifying were young Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille
+of the French army. To the civilian the testimony is interesting for
+the clear idea it gives of military aviation. The extracts following
+are from the official record:
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Senator, there are about four kinds of machines
+     used abroad on the western front to-day. The machines that Adjt.
+     Rumsey and myself are looking after are called the battle
+     machines. Then there are the photography machines, machines that
+     go up to enable the taking of photographs of the German
+     batteries, go back of the line and take views of the country
+     behind their lines and find out what their next line of attack
+     will be, or, if they retreat from the present line, then
+     everything in that way. Probably we have, where we are, in my
+     group alone, a hundred and fifty photographers who do nothing all
+     day long except develop pictures, and you can get pictures of any
+     part of the country that you want. When the Germans retreated
+     from the old line where they used to be, by Peronne and Chaulnes,
+     we had absolute pictures of all the Hindenburg line from where
+     they are now right down to St. Quentin, down to the line the
+     French are on. We had photographs of it all.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: When they started on the retreat?
+
+[Illustration: © Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to New York Flight._]
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Yes, sir. So we knew exactly where their stand
+     would be made. Then, besides that, those photograph machines do a
+     lot of scouting. They have a pilot and a photographer aboard. He
+     has not only a camera, but quite often he has a Lewis gun with
+     him in order to ward off any hostile airmen if they should get
+     through the battle planes that are above him; in other words,
+     should get through us in order to fight him. They do a great deal
+     of the scouting, because they fly at a lower level. The battle
+     planes go up to protect photography machines, or to go
+     man-hunting, as it is called; in other words, to fight the
+     Germans. We fly all day, like to-day, as high as we can go, or as
+     high as the French go as a rule, about 5500 metres, about 17,000
+     to 18,000 feet.
+
+[Illustration: © International Film Service.
+
+_A French Aviator between Flights._]
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: I think 5500 metres is about 19,000 feet. Some go
+     up 6000 metres, which makes about 20,000 feet.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: We go up there, and we have a certain sector of
+     the front to look after. If we are only man-hunting, we go
+     backward and forward like a policeman to prevent the Germans from
+     getting over our own lines. We usually fly by fours, if we can,
+     and the four go out together, so as not to be alone. We are
+     usually fighting inside of the German lines, because the morale
+     of the French and English is better than that of the Germans
+     to-day; and every fight I have had--I have never been lucky
+     enough to have one inside of my own lines--they have all been
+     inside of the German lines.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: What is the equipment of a battle plane such as
+     you use?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: I use the 180 horse-power machine. It is called a
+     "S. P. A. D.," which has a Spanish motor. But a great many of the
+     motors to-day are being built here in America.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: How many men do you carry?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: We go up alone in these machines. We did have two
+     guns. We had the Lewis gun on our upper wing and the Vickers down
+     below, that shoots through the propeller as the propeller turns
+     around. Then we gave up the Lewis above. It added more weight,
+     and we did not need it so much. The trouble with the Lewis gun is
+     that it has only ninety-seven cartridges, while the Vickers has
+     five hundred, and you can do just as much damage with the Vickers
+     as you could with them both.
+
+     _Senator Sutherland_: You drive and fight at the same time?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Yes, sir.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: The machine gun is fixed.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: It is absolutely fixed on the machine, and if I
+     should want to adjust it to shoot you, I would adjust my machine
+     on you.
+
+The witness then took up the nature and work of some of the heavier
+machines. He testified:
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Then comes the artillery regulating machine. That
+     machine goes up, and it may be a Farman or a bi-motor, or some
+     other kind of heavier machine, a machine that goes slowly. They
+     go over a certain spot. They have a driver, who is a pilot, like
+     ourselves; then they have an artillery officer on board, whose
+     sole duty it is to send back word, mostly by Marconi, to his
+     battery where the shots are landing. He will say: "Too far," "Too
+     short," "Right," or "Left," and he stays there over this battery
+     until the work done by the French guns has been absolutely
+     controlled, and above him he has some of these battle planes
+     keeping him from being attacked from above by German airmen. Of
+     course, they may be shot at by anti-aircraft guns, which you can
+     not help. That is artillery regulating.
+
+     _The Chairman_: Are you always attacked from above?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: By airplanes; yes, sir. It is always much safer
+     to attack from above.
+
+     Then you have the bomb-dropping machines, which carry a lot of
+     weight. They go out sometimes in the daytime, but mostly at
+     night, and they have these new sights by which they can stay up
+     quite high in the air and still know the spot they are going at.
+     They know the wind speed, they know their height, and they can
+     figure out by this new arrangement they have exactly when the
+     time is to let go their bombs.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: Something in the nature of a range-finder?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: A sort of range-finder.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: It is a sort of telescope that looks down between
+     your legs, and you have to regulate yourself, observing your
+     speed, and when you see the spot, you have to touch a button and
+     off go these things.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: In a raid my brother went on there were
+     sixty-eight machines that left; the French heavy machines, the
+     English heavy machines, and then the English sort of
+     half-fighting machine and half-bombing machine. They call it a
+     Sopwith, and it is a very good machine. They went over there, and
+     the first ones over were the Frenchmen, and they dropped bombs on
+     these Mauser works, and the only thing that the English saw was a
+     big cloud of smoke and dust, and they could not see the works so
+     they just dropped into them. Out of that raid the fighting
+     machines got eight Germans and dropped them, and the Germans got
+     eight Frenchmen. So, out of sixty-eight they lost eight, but we
+     also got eight Germans and dropped six tons of this stuff, which
+     is twenty times as strong as the melinite. We do not know what
+     the name of the powder is. The fighting machines on that trip
+     only carried gasolene for two hours, and the other ones carried
+     it for something like six hours, so we escorted them out for an
+     hour, came back to our lines, filled up with gasolene, went out
+     and met them and brought them back over the danger zone.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Near the trenches is where the danger zone is,
+     because there the German fighting machines are located.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: How far was it from your battle front that you
+     went?
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: I think it was about 500 miles, 250 there and 250
+     back; it was between 200 and 250 miles there.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: Beyond the battle front?
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: Yes; or, to be more accurate, I think it was
+     nearer 200 than 250.
+
+     _The Chairman_: What do you think of the function of the airplane
+     as a determining factor?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: There is no doubt that if we could send over in
+     huge waves a great number of these bomb-dropping machines, and
+     simply lay the country waste--for instance, the big cities like
+     Strassburg, Freiburg, and others--not only would the damage done
+     be great, but I guess the popular opinion in Germany, everything
+     being laid waste, would work very strongly in the minds of the
+     public toward having peace. I do not think you could destroy an
+     army, because you could not see them, but you could go to
+     different stations; you could go to Strassburg, to Brussels, and
+     places like that.
+
+     _The Chairman_: Then, sending them over in enormous numbers would
+     also put out of business their airplanes, and they would be
+     helpless, would they not?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Absolutely. You not only have on the front a
+     large number of bomb-dropping machines, but a large number of
+     fighting machines. When the Somme battle was started in the
+     morning the Germans knew, naturally, that the French and British
+     were going to start the Somme drive, and they had up these
+     Drachens, these observation balloons, and the first eighteen
+     minutes that the battle started the French and the English, I
+     think, got twenty-one "saucisse"; in other words, for the next
+     five days there was not a single German who came anywhere near
+     the lines, but the French and English could go ahead as they-felt
+     like.
+
+     _Admiral Peary_: Have you any idea as to how many airplanes there
+     are along that western front on the German side?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: There must be about 3000 on that line in actual
+     commission.
+
+     _Admiral Peary_: That means, then, about 10,000 in all, at least?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: I should think so; I should say the French have
+     about 2000 and the English possibly 1000, or we have about 2500.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: If they have 3000 we have 4000; that is, right on
+     the line.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: We have about 1000 more than they have, and we
+     are up all the time. The day before I left the front I was called
+     to go out five times, and I went out five times, and spent two
+     hours every time I went out.
+
+It would be gratifying to author and to reader alike if it were
+possible to give some account of the progress in aërial equipment
+made by the United States, since its declaration of war. But at the
+present moment (February, 1918), the government is chary of
+furnishing information concerning the advance made in the creation
+of an aërial fleet. Perhaps precise information, if available, would
+be discouraging to the many who believe that the war will be won in
+the air. For it is known in a broad general way that the activities
+of the Administration have been centred upon the construction of
+training camps and aviation stations. Orders for the actual
+construction of airplanes have been limited, so that a chorus of
+criticism arose from manufacturers who declared that they might have
+to close their works for lack of employment. The apparent check was
+discouraging to American airmen, and to our Allies who had expected
+marvellous things from the United States in the way of swift and
+wholesale preparation for winning battles in the air. The response
+of the government to all criticism was that it was laying broad
+foundations in order that construction once begun would proceed with
+unabated activity, and that when aircraft began to be turned out by
+the thousands a week there would be aviators and trained mechanics
+a-plenty to handle them. In this situation the advocates of a
+special cabinet department of aeronautics found new reason to
+criticize the Administration and Congress for having ignored or
+antagonized their appeals. For responsibility for the delay and
+indifference--if indifference there was--rested equally upon the
+Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. Each had his measure
+of control over the enormous sum voted in a lump for aviation, each
+had the further millions especially voted to his department to
+account for. But no single individual could be officially asked what
+had been done with the almost one billion dollars voted for
+aeronautics in 1917.
+
+But if the authorities seemed to lag, the inventors were busy.
+Mention has already been made of the new "Liberty" motor, which
+report had it was the fruit of the imprisonment of two mechanical
+experts in a hotel room with orders that they should not be freed
+until they had produced a motor which met all criticisms upon those
+now in use. Their product is said to have met this test, and the
+happy result caused a general wish that the Secretaries of War and
+of the Navy might be similarly incarcerated and only liberated upon
+producing plans for the immediate creation of an aërial fleet suited
+to the nation's needs. If, however, the Liberty motor shall prove
+the complete success which at the moment the government believes it
+to be, it will be such a spur to the development of the airplane in
+peace and war, as could not otherwise be applied. For the motor is
+the true life of the airplane--its heart, lungs, and nerve centre.
+The few people who still doubt the wide adoption of aircraft for
+peaceful purposes after the war base their skepticism on the
+treachery of motors still in use. They repudiate all comparisons
+with automobiles. They say:
+
+     It is perfectly true that a man can run his car repeatedly from
+     New York to Boston without motor trouble. But the trouble is
+     inevitable sooner or later. When it comes to an automobile it is
+     trifling. The driver gets out and makes his repairs by the
+     roadside. But if it comes to the aviator it brings the
+     possibility of death with it every time. If his motor stops he
+     must descend. But to alight he must find a long level field, with
+     at least two hundred yards in which to run off his momentum. If,
+     when he discovers the failure of his motor, he is flying at the
+     height of a mile he must find his landing place within a space of
+     eight miles, for in gliding to earth the ratio of forward
+     movement to height is as eight to one. But how often in rugged
+     and densely populated New England, or Pennsylvania is there a
+     vacant level field half a mile in length? The aviator who made a
+     practice of daily flight between New York and Boston would
+     inevitably meet death in the end.
+
+The criticism is a shrewd and searching one. But it is based on the
+airplane and the motor of to-day without allowance for the
+development and improvement which are proceeding apace. It
+contemplates a craft which has but one motor, but the more modern
+machines have sufficient lifting power to carry two motors, and can
+be navigated successfully with one of these out of service.
+Experiments furthermore are being made with a device after the type
+of the helicopter which with the steady lightening of the aircraft
+motor, may be installed on airplanes with a special motor for its
+operation. This device, it is believed, will enable the airplane
+so equipped to stop dead in its course with both propellers out of
+action, to hover over a given spot or to rise or to descend gently
+in a perpendicular line without the necessity of soaring. It is
+obvious that if this device prove successful the chief force of the
+objections to aërial navigation outlined above will be nullified.
+
+The menace of infrequent landing places will quickly remedy itself
+on busy lines of aërial traffic. The average railroad doing business
+in a densely populated section has stations once every eight or ten
+miles which with their sidings, buildings, water tanks, etc., cost
+far more than the field half a mile long with a few hangars that the
+fliers will need as a place of refuge. Indeed, although for its size
+and apparent simplicity of construction an airplane is phenomenally
+costly, in the grand total of cost an aërial line would cost a tithe
+of the ordinary railway. It has neither right of way, road bed,
+rails, nor telegraph system to maintain, and if the average flyer
+seems to cost amazingly it still foots up less than one fifth the
+cost of a modern locomotive though its period of service is much
+shorter.
+
+Just at the present time aircraft costs are high, based on
+artificial conditions in the market. Their construction is a new
+industry; its processes not yet standardized; its materials still
+experimental in many ways and not yet systematically produced. A
+light sporting monoplane which superficially seems to have about
+$250 worth of materials in it--exclusive of the engine--will cost
+about $3000. A fighting biplane will touch $10,000. Yet the latter
+seems to the lay observer to contain no costly materials to justify
+so great a charge. The wings are a light wooden framework, usually
+of spruce, across which a fine grade of linen cloth is stretched.
+The materials are simple enough, but every bit of wood, every screw,
+every strand of wire is selected with the utmost care, and the
+workmanship of their assemblage is as painstaking as the setting of
+the most precious stones.
+
+[Illustration: © International Film Service.
+
+_A German "Gotha"--their Favorite Type._]
+
+"REMEMBER THE LEAST NEGLIGENCE MAY COST A LIFE!" is a sign
+frequently seen hanging over the work benches in an airplane
+factory.
+
+When stretched over the framework, the cloth of the wings is
+treated to a dressing down of a preparation of collodion, which in
+the jargon of the shop is called "dope." This substance has a
+peculiar effect upon the cloth, causing it to shrink, and thus
+making it more taut and rigid than it could be by the most careful
+stretching. Though the layman would not suspect it, this wash alone
+costs about $150 a machine. The seaplanes too--or hydroaëroplanes as
+purists call them--present a curious illustration of unexpected and,
+it would seem, unexplainable expense. Where the flyer over land has
+two bicycle wheels on which to land, the flyer over the sea has two
+flat-bottomed boats or pontoons. These cost from $1000 to $1200 and
+look as though they should cost not over $100. But the necessity of
+combining maximum strength with minimum weight sends the price
+soaring as the machine itself soars. Moreover there is not yet the
+demand for either air-or seaplanes that would result in the division
+of labour, standardization of parts, and other manufacturing
+economies which reduce the cost of products.
+
+To the high cost of aircraft their comparative fragility is added as
+a reason for their unfitness for commercial uses. The engines cost
+from $2000 to $5000 each, are very delicate and usually must be
+taken out of the plane and overhauled after about 100 hours of
+active service. The strain on them is prodigious for it is estimated
+that the number of revolutions of an airplane's engine during an
+hour's flight is equal to the number of revolutions of an
+automobile's wheels during active service of a whole month.
+
+It is believed that the superior lightness and durability of the
+Liberty motor will obviate some of these objections to the
+commercial availability of aircraft in times of peace. And it is
+certain that with the cessation of the war, the retirement of the
+governments of the world from the purchasing field and the reduction
+of the demand for aircraft to such as are needed for pleasure and
+industrial uses the prices which we have cited will be cut in half.
+In such event what will be the future of aircraft; what their part
+in the social and industrial organization of the world?
+
+Ten or a dozen years ago Rudyard Kipling entertained the English
+reading public of the world with a vivacious sketch of aërial
+navigation in the year 2000 A.D. He used the license of a poet in
+avoiding too precise descriptions of what is to come--dealing
+rather with broad and picturesque generalizations. Now the year 2000
+is still far enough away for pretty much anything to be invented,
+and to become commonplace before that era arrives. Airships of the
+sort Mr. Kipling pictured may by that period have come and
+gone--have been relegated to the museums along with the
+stage-coaches of yesterday and the locomotives of to-day. For that
+matter before that millennial period shall arrive men may have
+learned to dispense with material transportation altogether, and be
+able to project their consciousness or even their astral bodies to
+any desired point on psychic waves. If a poet is going to prophecy
+he might as well be audacious and even revolutionary in his
+predictions.
+
+Mr. Kipling tried so hard to be reasonable that he made himself
+recognizably wrong so far as the present tendency of aircraft
+development would indicate. _With the Night Mail_, is the story of a
+trip by night across the Atlantic from England to America. It is
+made in a monster dirigible--though the present tendency is to
+reject the dirigible for the swifter, less costly, and more
+airworthy (leave "seaworthy" to the plodding ships on old ocean's
+breast) airplanes. If, however, we condone this glaring
+improbability we find Mr. Kipling's tale full of action and
+imaginary incident that give it an air of truth. His ship is not
+docked on the ground at the tempest's mercy, but is moored high in
+air to the top of a tall tower up which passengers and freight are
+conveyed in elevators. His lighthouses send their beams straight up
+into the sky instead of projecting them horizontally as do those
+which now guard our coasts. Just why lighthouses are needed,
+however, he does not explain. There are no reefs on which a packet
+of the air may run, no lee shores which they must avoid. On overland
+voyages guiding lights by night may be useful, as great white
+direction strips laid out on the ground are even now suggested as
+guides for daylight flying. But the main reliance of the airman must
+be his compass. Crossing the broad oceans no lighted path is
+possible, and even in a voyage from New York to Chicago, or from
+London to Rome good airmanship will dictate flight at a height that
+will make reliance upon natural objects as a guide perilous. The
+airman has the advantage over the sailor in that he may lay his
+course on leaving his port, or flying field, and pursue it straight
+as an arrow to his destination. No rocks or other obstacles bar his
+path, no tortuous channels must be navigated. All that can divert
+him from his chosen course is a steady wind on the beam, and that
+is instantly detected by his instruments and allowance made for it.
+On the other hand the sailor has a certain advantage over the airman
+in that his more leisurely progress allows time for the
+rectification of errors in course arising from contrary currents or
+winds. An error of a point, or even two, amounts to but little in a
+day's steaming of perhaps four hundred miles. It can readily be
+remedied, unless the ship is too near shore. But when the whole
+three thousand miles of Atlantic are covered in twenty hours in the
+air, the course must be right from the start and exactly adhered to,
+else the passenger for New York may be set down in Florida.
+
+It is not improbable that even before the war is over the crossing
+of the Atlantic by plane will be accomplished. Certainly it will be
+one of the first tasks undertaken by airmen on the return of peace.
+But it is probable that the adaptation of aircraft to commercial
+uses will be begun with undertakings of smaller proportions. Already
+the United States maintains an aërial mail route in Alaska, while
+Italy has military mail routes served by airplanes in the Alps.
+These have been undertaken because of the physical obstacles to
+travel on the surface, presented in those rugged neighbourhoods. But
+in the more densely populated regions of the United States
+considerations of financial profit will almost certainly result in
+the early establishment of mail and passenger air service. Air
+service will cut down the time between any two given points at least
+one half, and ultimately two thirds. Letters could be sent from New
+York to Boston, or even to Buffalo, and an answer received the same
+day. The carrying plane could take on each trip five tons of mail.
+Philadelphia would be brought within forty-five minutes of New York;
+Washington within two hours instead of the present five. Is there
+any doubt of the creation of an aërial passenger service under such
+conditions? Already a Caproni triplane will carry thirty-five
+passengers beside guns--say, fifty passengers if all other load be
+excluded, and has flown with a lighter load from Newport News to New
+York. It is easily imaginable that by 1920 the airplane capable of
+carrying eighty persons--or the normal number now accommodated on an
+inter-urban trolley car--will be an accomplished fact.
+
+The lines that will thus spring up will need no rails, no right of
+way, no expensive power plant. Their physical property will be
+confined to the airplanes themselves and to the fields from which
+the craft rise and on which they alight, with the necessary hangars.
+These indeed will involve heavy expenditure. For a busy line, with
+frequent sailings, of high speed machines a field will need to be in
+the neighbourhood of a mile square. A plane swooping down for its
+landing is not to be held up at the switch like a train while room
+is made for it. It is an imperative guest, and cannot be gainsaid.
+Accordingly the fields must be large enough to accommodate scores of
+planes at once and give each new arrival a long straight course on
+which to run off its momentum. It is obvious therefore that the
+union stations for aircraft routes cannot be in the hearts of our
+cities as are the railroad stations of to-day, but must be fairly
+well out in the suburbs.
+
+A form of machine which the professional airmen say has yet to be
+developed is the small monoplane, carrying two passengers at most,
+and of low speed--not more than twenty miles an hour at most. In
+this age of speed mania the idea of deliberately planning a
+conveyance or vehicle that shall not exceed a low limit seems out of
+accord with public desire. But the low speed airplane has the
+advantage of needing no extended field in which to alight. It
+reaches the ground with but little momentum to be taken up and can
+be brought up standing on the roof of a house or the deck of a ship.
+Small machines of this sort are likely to serve as the runabouts of
+the air, to succeed the trim little automobile roadsters as pleasure
+craft.
+
+[Illustration: © International Film Service.
+
+_A French Monoplane._]
+
+The beginning of the fourth year of the war brought a notable change
+in aërial tactics. For three years everything had been sacrificed to
+speed. Such aërial duels as have been described were encouraged by
+the fact that aircraft were reduced to the proportions needful for
+carrying one man and a machine gun. The gallant flyers went up in
+the air and killed each other. That was about all there was to it.
+While as scouts, range finders, guides for the artillery, they
+exerted some influence on the course of the war, as a fighting arm
+in its earlier years, they were without efficiency. The bombing
+forays were harassing but little more, because the craft engaged
+were of too small capacity to carry enough bombs to work really
+serious damage, while the ever increasing range of the "Archies"
+compels the airmen to deliver their fire from so great a height as
+to make accurate aim impossible.
+
+[Illustration: Photo Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A German Scout Brought to Earth in France._]
+
+But Kiel, Wilhelmshaven and Zeebrugge are likely to change all this.
+The constant contemplation of those nests for the sanctuary of
+pestiferous submarines, effectively guarded against attack by either
+land or water, has stirred up the determination of the Allies to
+seek their destruction from above. Heavy bombing planes are being
+built in all the Allied workshops for this purpose, and furthermore
+to give effect to the British determination to take vengeance upon
+Germany, for her raids upon London. It is reported that the United
+States, by agreement with its Allies, is to specialize in building
+the light, swift scout planes, but in other shops the heavy
+triplane, the dreadnought of the air is expected to be the feature
+of 1918. With it will come an entirely novel strategic use of
+aircraft in war, and with it too, which is perhaps the more
+permanently important, will come the development of aircraft of the
+sort that will be readily adaptable to the purposes of peace when
+the war shall end.
+
+
+
+
+THE SUBMARINE BOAT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BEGINNINGS OF SUBMARINE INVENTION
+
+
+In September, 1914 the British Fleet in the North Sea had settled
+down to the monotonous task of holding the coasts of Germany and the
+channels leading to them in a state of blockade. The work was dismal
+enough. The ships tossing from day to day on the always unquiet
+waters of the North Sea were crowded with Jackies all of whom prayed
+each day that the German would come from hiding and give battle. Not
+far from the Hook of Holland engaged in this monotonous work were
+three cruisers of about 12,000 tons, each carrying 755 men and
+officers. They were the _Cressy_, _Aboukir_, and _Hogue_--not
+vessels of the first rank but still important factors in the British
+blockade. They were well within the torpedo belt and it may be
+believed that unceasing vigilance was observed on every ship.
+Nevertheless without warning the other two suddenly saw the
+_Aboukir_ overwhelmed by a flash of fire, a pillar of smoke and a
+great geyser of water that rose from the sea and fell heavily upon
+her deck. Instantly followed a thundering explosion as the magazines
+of the doomed ship went off. Within a very few minutes, too little
+time to use their guns against the enemy had they been able to see
+him, or to lower their boats, the _Aboukir_ sank leaving the crew
+floundering in the water.
+
+In the distance lay the German submarine U-9--one of the earliest of
+her class in service. From her conning tower Captain Weddigen had
+viewed the tragedy. Now seeing the two sister ships speeding to the
+rescue he quickly submerged. It may be noted that as a result of
+what followed, orders were given by the British Admiralty that in
+the event of the destruction of a ship by a submarine others in the
+same squadron should not come to the rescue of the victim, but
+scatter as widely as possible to avoid a like fate. In this instance
+the _Hogue_ and the _Cressy_ hurried to the spot whence the
+_Aboukir_ had vanished and began lowering their boats. Hardly had
+they begun the work of mercy when a torpedo from the now unseen foe
+struck the _Hogue_ and in twenty minutes she too had vanished. While
+she was sinking the _Cressy_, with all guns ready for action and her
+gunners scanning the sea in every direction for this deadly enemy,
+suddenly felt the shock of a torpedo and, her magazines having been
+set off, followed her sister ships to the ocean's bed.
+
+In little more than half an hour thirty-six thousand tons of
+up-to-date British fighting machinery, and more than 1200 gallant
+blue jackets had been sent to the depths of the North Sea by a
+little boat of 450 tons carrying a crew of twenty-six men.
+
+The world stood aghast. With the feeling of horror at the swift
+death of so many caused by so few, there was mingled a feeling of
+amazement at the scientific perfection of the submarine, its power,
+and its deadly work. Men said it was the end of dreadnoughts,
+battleships, and cruisers, but the history of the war has shown
+singularly few of these destroyed by submarines since the first
+novelty of the attack wore off. The world at the moment seemed to
+think that the submarine was an entirely new idea and invention.
+But like almost everything else it was merely the ultimate reduction
+to practical use of an idea that had been germinating in the mind of
+man from the earliest days of history.
+
+We need not trouble ourselves with the speculations of Alexander the
+Great, Aristotle, and Pliny concerning "underwater" activities.
+Their active minds gave consideration to the problem, but mainly as
+to the employment of divers. Not until the first part of the
+sixteenth century do we find any very specific reference to actual
+underwater boats. That appears in a book of travels by Olaus Magnus,
+Archbishop of Upsala in Sweden. Notwithstanding the gentleman's
+reverend quality, one must question somewhat the veracity of the
+chapter which he heads:
+
+"Of the Leather Ships Made of Hides Used by the Pyrats of
+Greenland."
+
+He professed to have seen two of these "ships," more probably boats,
+hanging in a cathedral church in Greenland. With these singular
+vessels, according to his veracious reports the people of that
+country could navigate under water and attack stranger ships from
+beneath. "For the Inhabitants of that Countrey are wont to get small
+profits by the spoils of others," he wrote, "by these and the like
+treacherous Arts, who by their thieving wit, and by boring a hole
+privately in the sides of the ships beneath (as I said) have let in
+the water and presently caused them to sink."
+
+Leaving the tale of the Archbishop where we think it must belong in
+the realm of fiction, we may note that it was not until the
+beginning of the seventeenth century that the first submarine boat
+was actually built and navigated. A Hollander, Cornelius Drebel, or
+Van Drebel, born in 1572, in the town of Alkmaar, had come to
+London during the reign of James I., who became his patron and
+friend. Drebel seems to have been a serious student of science and
+in many ways far ahead of his times. Moreover, he had the talent of
+getting next to royalty. In 1620 he first conceived the idea of
+building a submarine. Fairly detailed descriptions of his boats--he
+built three from 1620-1624--and of their actual use, have been
+handed down to us by men whose accuracy and truthfulness cannot be
+doubted. The Honorable Robert Boyle, a scientist of unquestioned
+seriousness, tells in his _New Experiments, Physico-Mechanical
+touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects_ about Drebel's work
+in the quaint language of his time:
+
+     But yet on occasion of this opinion of Paracelsus, perhaps it
+     will not be impertinent if, before I proceed, I acquaint your
+     Lordship with a conceit of that deservedly famous mechanician and
+     Chymist, Cornelius Drebel, who, among other strange things that
+     he perform'd, is affirm'd, by more than a few credible persons,
+     to have contrived for the late learned King James, a vessel to go
+     under water; of which, trial was made in the Thames, with admired
+     success, the vessel carrying twelve rowers, besides passengers;
+     one which is yet alive, and related it to an excellent
+     Mathematician that informed me of it. Now that for which I
+     mention this story is, that having had the curiosity and
+     opportunity to make particular inquiries among the relations of
+     Drebel, and especially of an ingenious physician that married his
+     daughter, concerning the grounds upon which he conceived it
+     feasible to make men unaccustomed to continue so long under water
+     without suffocation, or (as the lately mentioned person that went
+     in the vessel affirms) without inconvenience; I was answered,
+     that Drebel conceived, that it is not the whole body of the air,
+     but a certain quintessence (as Chymists speak) or spirituous part
+     of it, that makes it fit for respiration; which being spent, the
+     remaining grosser body, or carcase, if I may so call it, of the
+     air, is unable to cherish the vital flame residing in the heart;
+     so that, for aught I could gather, besides the mechanical
+     contrivances of his vessel, he had a chymical liquor, which he
+     accounted the chief secret of his submarine navigation. For when,
+     from time to time, he conceived that the finer and purer part of
+     the air was consumed, or over-clogged by the respiration and
+     steam of those that went in his ship, he would by unstopping a
+     vessel full of this liquor, speedily restore to the troubled air
+     such a proportion of vital parts, as would make it again, for a
+     good while, fit for respiration whether by dissipating, or
+     precipitating the grosser exhalations, or by some other
+     intelligible way, I must not now stay to examine, contenting
+     myself to add, that having had the opportunity to do some service
+     to those of his relations that were most intimate with him, and
+     having made it my business to learn what this strange liquor
+     might be, they constantly affirmed that Drebel would never
+     disclose the liquor unto any, nor so much as tell the nature
+     whereof he had made it, to above one person, who himself assured
+     me what it was.
+
+This most curious narrative suggests that in some way Drebel, who
+died in London in 1634, had discovered the art of compressing oxygen
+and conceived the idea of making it serviceable for freshening the
+air in a boat, or other place, contaminated by the respiration of a
+number of men for a long time. Indeed the reference made to the
+substance by which Drebel purified the atmosphere in his submarine
+as "a liquor" suggests that he may possibly have hit upon the secret
+of liquid air which late in the nineteenth century caused such a
+stir in the United States. Of his possession of some such secret
+there can be no doubt whatsoever, for Samuel Pepys refers in his
+famous diary to a lawsuit, brought in the King's Courts by the heirs
+of Drebel, to secure the secret for their own use. What was the
+outcome of the suit or the subsequent history of Drebel's invention
+history does not record.
+
+Throughout the next 150 years a large number of inventors and
+near-inventors occupied themselves with the problem of the
+submarine. Some of these men went no further than to draw plans and
+to write out descriptions of what appeared to them to be feasible
+submarine boats. Others took one step further, by taking out
+patents, but only very few of the submarine engineers of this period
+had either the means or the courage to test their inventions in the
+only practicable way, by building an experimental boat and using it.
+
+In spite of this apparent lack of faith on the part of the men who
+worked on the submarine problem, it would not be fair to condemn
+them as fakirs. Experimental workers, in those times, had to face
+many difficulties which were removed in later times. The study of
+science and the examination of the forces of nature were not only
+not as popular as they became later, but frequently were looked upon
+as blasphemous, savouring of sorcery, or as a sign of an unbalanced
+mind.
+
+[Illustration: © Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane._]
+
+England and France supplied most of the men who occupied themselves
+with the submarine problem between 1610 and 1760. Of the
+Englishmen, the following left records of one kind or another
+concerning their labours in this direction. Richard Norwood, in
+1632, was granted a patent for a contrivance which was apparently
+little more than a diving apparatus. In 1648, Bishop Wilkins
+published a book, _Mathematical Magick_, which was full of rather
+grotesque projects and which contained one chapter on the
+possibility "of framing an ark for submarine navigation." In 1691,
+patents were granted on engines connected with submarine navigation
+to John Holland--curious forerunner of a name destined to be famous
+two hundred years later--and on a submarine boat to Sir Stephen
+Evance.
+
+In Prance, two priests, Fathers Mersenne and Fournier, published in
+1634 a small book called _Questions Théologiques, Physiques, Morales
+et Mathématiques_, which contained a detailed description of a
+submarine boat. They suggested that the hull of submarines ought to
+be of metal and not of wood, and that their shape ought to be as
+nearly fishlike as possible. Nearly three hundred years have hardly
+altered these opinions. Ancient French records also tell us that six
+years later, in 1640, the King of France had granted a patent to
+Jean Barrié, permitting him during the next twelve years to fish at
+the bottom of the sea with his boat. Unluckily Barrié's fish stories
+have expired with his permit. In 1654, a French engineer, De Son, is
+said to have built at Rotterdam a submarine boat. Little is known
+concerning this vessel except that it was reported to have been
+seventy-two feet long, twelve feet high, and eight feet broad, and
+to have been propelled by a paddlewheel instead of oars.
+
+Borelli, about whom very little seems to be known, is credited with
+having invented in 1680 a submarine boat, whose descent and ascent
+were regulated by a series of leather bottles placed in the hull of
+the boat with their mouths open to the surrounding water. The
+English magazine, _Graphic_, published a picture which is considered
+the oldest known illustration of any submarine boat. This picture
+matches in all details the description of Borelli's boat, but it is
+credited to a man called Symons.
+
+Twenty-seven years later, in 1774, another Englishman, J. Day, built
+a small submarine boat, and after fairly extensive experiments,
+descended in his boat in Plymouth harbour. This descent is of
+special interest because we have a more detailed record of it than
+of any previous submarine exploit, and because Day is the first
+submarine inventor who lost his life in the attempt to prove the
+feasibility of his invention. The _Annual Register_ of 1774 gives a
+narration in detail of Day's experiments and death and inasmuch as
+this is the first ungarbled report of a submarine descent, it may be
+quoted at length.
+
+     _Authentic account of a late unfortunate transaction, with
+     respect to a diving machine at Plymouth._
+
+
+     Mr. Day (the sole projector of the scheme, and, as matters have
+     turned out, the unhappy sacrifice to his own ingenuity) employed
+     his thoughts for some years past in planning a method of sinking
+     a vessel under water, with a man in it, who should live therein
+     for a certain time, and then by his own means only, bring himself
+     up to the surface. After much study he conceived that his plan
+     could be reduced into practice. He communicated his idea in the
+     part of the country where he lived, and had the most sanguine
+     hopes of success. He went so far as to try his project in the
+     Broads near Yarmouth. He fitted a Norwich market-boat for his
+     purpose, sunk himself thirty feet under water, where he continued
+     during the space of twenty-four hours, and executed his design to
+     his own entire satisfaction. Elated with this success, he then
+     wanted to avail himself of his invention. He conversed with his
+     friends, convinced them that he had brought his undertaking to a
+     certainty; but how to reap the advantage of it was the difficulty
+     that remained. The person in whom he confided suggested to him,
+     that, if he acquainted the sporting Gentlemen with the discovery,
+     and the certainty of the performance, considerable betts would
+     take place, as soon as the project would be mentioned in company.
+     The Sporting Kalendar was immediately looked into, and the name
+     of Blake soon occurred; that gentleman was fixed upon as the
+     person to whom Mr. Day ought to address himself. Accordingly, Mr.
+     Blake, in the month of November last, received the following
+     letter:
+
+     "SIR,
+
+     "I found out an affair by which many thousands may be won; it is
+     of a paradoxical nature, but can be performed with ease;
+     therefore, sir, if you chuse to be informed of it, and give me
+     one hundred pounds of every thousand you shall win by it, I will
+      very readily wait upon you and inform you of it. I am myself
+     but a poor mechanic and not able to make anything by it without
+     your  assistance.
+
+                              "Your's, etc.
+
+                                                   "J. DAY."
+
+     Mr. Blake had no conception of Mr. Day's design, nor was he sure
+     that the letter was serious. To clear the matter up, he returned
+     for answer, that, if Mr. Day would come to town, and explain
+     himself, Mr. Blake would consider of the proposal. If he approved
+     of it, Mr. Day should have the recompence he desired; if, on the
+     other hand, the plan should be rejected, Mr. Blake would make him
+     a present to defray the expences of his journey. In a short time
+     after Mr. Day came to town; Mr. Blake saw him and desired to know
+     what secret he was possessed of. The man replied, "that he could
+     sink a ship 100 feet deep in the sea with himself in it, and
+     remain therein for the space of 24 hours, without communication
+     with anything above; and at the expiration of the time, rise up
+     again in the vessel." The proposal, in all its parts, was new to
+     Mr. Blake. He took down the particulars, and, after considering
+     the matter, desired some kind of proof of the practicability. The
+     man added that if Mr. Blake would furnish him with the materials
+     necessary, he would give him an occular demonstration. A model of
+     the vessel, with which he was to perform the experiment, was then
+     required, and in three or four weeks accomplished, so as to give
+     a perfect idea of the principle upon which the scheme was to be
+     executed, and, in time, a very plausible promise of success, not
+     to Mr. Blake only, but many other gentlemen who were consulted
+     upon the occasion. The consequence was, that Mr. Blake, agreeably
+     to the man's desire, advanced money for the construction of a
+     vessel fit for that purpose. Mr. Day, thus assisted, went to
+     Plymouth with his model, and set a man in that place to work upon
+     it. The pressure of the water at 100 feet deep was a circumstance
+     of which Mr. Blake was advised, and touching that article he gave
+     the strongest precautions to Mr. Day, telling him, at any
+     expence, to fortify the chamber in which he was to subsist,
+     against the weight of such a body of water. Mr. Day set off in
+     great spirits for Plymouth, and seemed so confident, that Mr.
+     Blake made a bett that the project would succeed, reducing,
+     however, the depth of water from 100 yards to 100 feet, and the
+     time from 24 to 12 hours. By the terms of the wager, the
+     experiment was to be made within three months from the date; but
+     so much time was necessary for due preparation, that on the
+     appointed day things were not in readiness and Mr. Blake lost the
+     bett.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+_A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb._]
+
+     In some short time afterwards the vessel was finished, and Mr.
+     Day still continued eager for the carrying of his plan into
+     execution; he was uneasy at the idea of dropping the scheme and
+     wished for an opportunity to convince Mr. Blake that he could
+     perform what he had undertaken. He wrote from Plymouth that
+     everything was in readiness and should be executed the moment Mr.
+     Blake arrived. Induced by this promise, Mr. Blake set out for
+     Plymouth; upon his arrival a trial was made in Cat-water, where
+     Mr. Day lay, during the flow of tide, six hours, and six more
+     during the tide of ebb; confined all the time in the room
+     appropriated for his use. A day for the final determination was
+     fixed; the vessel was towed to the place agreed upon; Mr. Day
+     provided himself with whatever he thought necessary; he went into
+     the vessel, let the water into her and with great composure
+     retired to the room constructed for him, and shut up the valve.
+     The ship went gradually down in 22 fathoms of water at 2 o'clock
+     on Tuesday, June 28, in the afternoon, being to return at 2 the
+     next morning. He had three buoys or messengers, which he could
+     send to the surface at option, to announce his situation below;
+     but, none appearing, Mr. Blake, who was near at hand in a barge,
+     began to entertain some suspicion. He kept a strict lookout, and
+     at the time appointed, neither the buoys nor the vessel coming
+     up, he applied to the _Orpheus_ frigate, which lay just off the
+     barge, for assistance. The captain with the most ready
+     benevolence supplied them with everything in his power to seek
+     for the ship. Mr. Blake, in this alarming situation was not
+     content with the help of the _Orpheus_ only; he made immediate
+     application to Lord Sandwich (who happened to be at Plymouth) for
+     further relief. His Lordship with great humanity ordered a number
+     of hands from the dock-yard, who went with the utmost alacrity
+     and tried every effort to regain the ship, but unhappily without
+     effect.
+
+     Thus ended this unfortunate affair. Mr. Blake had not experience
+     enough to judge of all possible contingencies, and he had now
+     only to lament the credulity with which he listened to a
+     projector, fond of his own scheme but certainly not possessed of
+     skill enough to guard against the variety of accidents to which
+     he was liable. The poor man has unfortunately shortened his days;
+     he was not however tempted or influenced by anybody; he confided
+     in his own judgment, and put his life to the hazard upon his own
+     mistaken notions.
+
+     Many and various have been the opinions on this strange, useless,
+     and fatal experiment, though the more reasonable part of mankind
+     seemed to give it up as wholly impracticable. It is well-known,
+     that pent-up air, when overcharged with the vapours emitted out
+     of animal bodies, becomes unfit for respiration; for which
+     reason, those confined in the diving-bell, after continuing some
+     time under water are obliged to come up, and take in fresh air,
+     or by some such means recruit it. That any man should be able
+     after having sunk a vessel to so great a depth, to make that
+     vessel at pressure, so much more specifically lighter than water,
+     as thereby to enable it to force its way to the surface, through
+     the depressure of so great a weight, is a matter not hastily to
+     be credited. Even cork, when sunk to a certain depth will, by the
+     great weight of the fluid upon it, be prevented from rising.
+
+The English of the _Annual Register_ leaves much to be desired in
+clarity. It makes reasonably clear, however, that the unfortunate
+Mr. Day's knowledge of submarine conditions was, by no means, equal
+to Mr. Blake's sporting spirit. Even to-day one hundred feet is an
+unusual depth of submersion for the largest submarines.
+
+The credit for using a submarine boat for the first time in actual
+warfare belongs to a Yankee, David Bushnell. He was born in
+Saybrook, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale with the class of
+1775. While still in college he was interested in science and as far
+as his means and opportunities allowed, he devoted a great deal of
+his time and energy to experimental work. The problem which
+attracted his special attention was how to explode powder under
+water, and before very long he succeeded in solving this to his own
+satisfaction as well as to that of a number of prominent people
+amongst whom were the Governor of Connecticut and his Council.
+Bushnell's experiments, of course, fell in the period during which
+the Revolutionary War was fought, and when he had completed his
+invention, there naturally presented itself to him a further
+problem. How could his device be used for the benefit of his country
+and against the British ships which were then threatening New York
+City? As a means to this end, Bushnell planned and built a submarine
+boat which on account of its shape is usually called the _Turtle_.
+
+General Washington thought very highly of Bushnell, whom he called
+in a letter to Thomas Jefferson "a man of great mechanical powers,
+fertile in inventions and master of execution." In regard to
+Bushnell's submarine boat the same letter, written after its
+failure, says: "I thought and still think that it was an effort of
+genius, but that too many things were necessary to be combined to
+expect much against an enemy who are always on guard."
+
+During the whole period of the building of the _Turtle_ Bushnell was
+in ill health. Otherwise he would have navigated it on its trial
+trip himself for he was a man of undoubted courage and wrapped up
+alike in the merits of his invention and in the possibility of
+utilizing it to free New York from the constant ignominy of the
+presence of British ships in its harbour. But his health made this
+out of the question. Accordingly he taught his brother the method of
+navigating the craft, but at the moment for action the brother too
+fell ill. It became necessary to hire an operator. This was by no
+means easy as volunteers to go below the water in a submarine boat
+of a type hitherto undreamed of, and to attach an explosive to the
+hull of a British man-of-war, the sentries upon which were
+presumably especially vigilant, being in a hostile harbour, was an
+adventure likely to attract only the most daring and reckless
+spirits. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, other portions of which we
+shall have occasion to quote later, Bushnell refers to this
+difficulty in finding a suitable operator and tells briefly and with
+evident chagrin the story of the failure of the attempts made to
+utilize successfully his submarine:
+
+[Illustration: Photo by U. & U.
+
+_A Bomb-Dropping Taube._]
+
+     After various attempts to find an operator to my wish, I sent one
+     who appeared more expert than the rest from New York to a 50-gun
+     ship lying not far from Governor's Island. He went under the ship
+     and attempted to fix the wooden screw into her bottom, but
+     struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron which passes from the
+     rudder hinge, and is spiked under the ship's quarter. Had he
+     moved a few inches, which he might have done without rowing, I
+     have no doubt but he would have found wood where he might have
+     fixed the screw, or if the ship were sheathed with copper he
+     might easily have pierced it; but, not being well skilled in the
+     management of the vessel, in attempting to move to another place
+     he lost the ship. After seeking her in vain for some time, he
+     rowed some distance and rose to the surface of the water, but
+     found daylight had advanced so far that he durst not renew the
+     attempt. He says that he could easily have fastened the magazine
+     under the stem of the ship above water, as he rowed up to the
+     stern and touched it before he descended. Had he fastened it
+     there the explosion of 150 lbs. of powder (the quantity contained
+     in the magazine) must have been fatal to the ship. In his return
+     from the ship to New York he passed near Governor's Island, and
+     thought he was discovered by the enemy on the island. Being in
+     haste to avoid the danger he feared, he cast off the magazine, as
+     he imagined it retarded him in the swell, which was very
+     considerable. After the magazine had been cast off one hour, the
+     time the internal apparatus was set to run, it blew up with great
+     violence.
+
+     Afterwards there were two attempts made in Hudson's River, above
+     the city, but they effected nothing. One of them was by the
+     aforementioned person. In going towards the ship he lost sight
+     of her, and went a great distance beyond her. When he at length
+     found her the tide ran so strong that, as he descended under
+     water for the ship's bottom, it swept him away. Soon after this
+     the enemy went up the river and pursued the boat which had the
+     submarine vessel on board and sunk it with their shot. Though I
+     afterwards recovered the vessel, I found it impossible at that
+     time to prosecute the design any farther.
+
+The operator to whom Bushnell had entrusted his submarine boat was a
+typical Yankee, Ezra Lee of Lyme, Connecticut. His story of the
+adventure differs but little from that of Bushnell, but it is told
+with a calm indifference to danger and a seeming lack of any notion
+of the extraordinary in what he had done that gives an idea of the
+man. "When I rode under the stern of the ship [the _Eagle_] I could
+see the men on deck and hear them talk," he wrote. "I then shut down
+all the doors, sunk down, and came up under the bottom of the ship."
+
+This means that he hermetically sealed himself inside of a craft,
+shaped like two upper turtle shells joined together--hence the name
+of the _Turtle_. He had entered through the orifice at the top,
+whence the head of the turtle usually protrudes. This before sinking
+he had covered and made water-tight by screwing down upon it a brass
+crown or top like that to a flask. Within he had enough air to
+support him thirty minutes. The vessel stood upright, not flat as a
+turtle carries himself. It was maintained in this position by lead
+ballast. Within the operator occupied an upright position, half
+sitting, half standing. To sink water was admitted, which gathered
+in the lower part of the boat, while to rise again this was
+expelled by a force pump. There were ventilators and portholes for
+the admission of light and air when operating on the surface, but
+once the cap was screwed down the operator was in darkness.
+
+In this craft, which suggests more than anything else a curiously
+shaped submarine coffin, Lee drifted along by the side of the ship,
+navigating with difficulty with his single oar and seeking vainly to
+find some spot to which he might affix his magazine. A fact which
+might have disquieted a more nervous man was that the clockwork of
+this machine was running and had been set to go off in an hour from
+the time the voyage was undertaken. As to almost anyone in that
+position minutes would seem hours, the calmness of sailor Lee's
+nerves seems to be something beyond the ordinary.
+
+When he finally abandoned the attempt on the _Eagle_ he started up
+the bay. Off Governor's Island he narrowly escaped capture.
+
+     When I was abreast of the Fort on the Island three hundred or
+     four hundred men got upon the parapet to observe me; at length a
+     number came down to the shore, shoved off a twelve oar'd barge
+     with five or six sitters and pulled for me. I eyed them, and when
+     they had got within fifty or sixty yards of me I let loose the
+     magazine in hopes that if they should take me they would likewise
+     pick up the magazine and then we should all be blown up together.
+     But as kind providence would have it they took fright and
+     returned to the Island to my infinite joy.... The magazine after
+     getting a little past the Island went off with a tremendous
+     explosion, throwing up large bodies of water to an immense
+     height.
+
+During the last quarter of the eighteenth and during the first half
+of the nineteenth century France was the chief centre for the
+activities of submarine inventors. However, very few of the many
+plans put forward in this period were executed. The few exceptions
+resulted in little else than trial boats which usually did not live
+up to the expectations of their inventors or their financial backers
+and were, therefore, discarded in quick order. In spite of this lack
+of actual results this particular period was of considerable
+importance to the later development of the submarine. Almost every
+one of the many boats then projected or built contained some
+innovation and in this way some of the many obstacles were gradually
+overcome. Strictly speaking the net result of the experimental work
+done during these seventy-five years by a score or more of men, most
+of whom were French, though a few were English, was the creation of
+a more sane and sound basis on which, before long, other men began
+to build with greater success.
+
+The one notable accomplishment of interest, especially to Americans,
+was the submarine built in 1800-01 by Robert Fulton. Fulton, of
+course, is far better known by his work in connection with the
+discovery and development of steam navigation. Born in Pennsylvania
+in 1765, he early showed marked mechanical genius. In 1787 he went
+to England with the purpose of studying art under the famous painter
+West, but soon began to devote most of his time and energy to
+mechanical problems. Not finding in England as much encouragement as
+he had hoped, he went, in 1797, to Paris and, for the next seven
+years, lived there in the house of the American Minister, Joel
+Barlow.
+
+As soon as he had settled down in France, he offered his plans of a
+submarine boat which he called the _Nautilus_ to the French
+Government. Though a special commission reported favourably on this
+boat, the opposition of the French Minister of the Marine was too
+strong to be overcome, even after another commission had approved a
+model built by Fulton. In 1800, however, he was successful in
+gaining the moral and financial support of Napoleon Bonaparte, then
+First Consul of the French Republic.
+
+Fulton immediately proceeded to build the _Nautilus_ and completed
+the boat in May, 1801. It was cigar-shaped, about seven feet in
+diameter and over twenty-one feet in length. The hull was of copper
+strengthened by iron ribs. The most noticeable features were a
+collapsible mast and sail and a small conning tower at the forward
+end. The boat was propelled by a wheel affixed to the centre of the
+stern and worked by a hand-winch. A rudder was used for steering,
+and increased stability was gained by a keel which ran the whole
+length of the hull.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the Invalides._]
+
+Soon after completion the boat was taken out for a number of trial
+trips all of which were carried out with signal success and finally
+culminated, on June 26, 1801, in the successful blowing up of an old
+ship furnished by the French Government. Although the _Nautilus_
+created a great sensation, popular as well as official interest
+began soon to flag. Fulton received no further encouragement and
+finally gave up his submarine experiments.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A British Seaplane with Folding Wings._]
+
+In 1806 he returned to America. By 1814 he had built another
+submarine boat which he called the _Mute_. It was, comparatively
+speaking, of immense size, being over eighty feet long, twenty-one
+feet wide, and fourteen feet deep and accommodating a hundred men.
+It was iron-plated on top and derived its peculiar name from the
+fact that it was propelled by a noiseless engine. Before its trials
+could be completed, Fulton died on February 24, 1815, and no one
+seemed to have sufficient interest or faith in his new boat to
+continue his work.
+
+In the middle of the nineteenth century for the first time a German
+became seriously interested in submarines. His name was Wilhelm
+Bauer. He was born in 1822 in a small town in Bavaria and, though a
+turner by trade, joined the army in 1842. Bauer was even in his
+youth of a highly inventive turn of mind. He possessed an
+indomitable will and an unlimited supply of enthusiasm. Step by step
+he acquired, in what little time he could spare from his military
+duties, the necessary mechanical knowledge, and finally, supported
+financially by a few loyal friends and patrons, he built his first
+submarine at Kiel at a cost of about $2750. It sank to the bottom on
+its first trial trip, fortunately without anyone on board. Undaunted
+he continued his efforts.
+
+When he found that his support at Kiel was weakening, he promptly
+went to Austria. In spite of glowing promises, opposition on the
+part of some officials deprived Bauer of the promised assistance. He
+went then to England and succeeded in enlisting the interest of the
+Prince Consort. A boat was built according to Bauer's plans, which,
+however, he was forced by the interference of politicians to change
+to such an extent that it sank on its first trial with considerable
+loss of life.
+
+Still full of faith in his ability to produce a successful
+submarine, Bauer now went to Russia. In 1855, he built a boat at St.
+Petersburg and had it accepted by the Russian Government. It was
+called _Le Diable Marin_ and looked very much like a dolphin. Its
+length was fifty-two feet, its beam twelve feet five inches, and its
+depth eleven feet. Its hull was of iron. A propeller, worked by four
+wheels, furnished motive power. Submersion and stability were
+regulated by four cylinders into which water could be pumped at
+will.
+
+The first trial of the boat was made on May 26, 1856, and was
+entirely successful. In later trials as many as fourteen men at a
+time descended in _Le Diable Marin_. It is said that Bauer made a
+total of 134 trips on his boat. All but two were carried out
+successfully. At one time, however, the propeller was caught in some
+seaweed and it was only by the quickest action that all the water
+was pumped out and the bow of the boat allowed to rise out of the
+water, so that the occupants managed to escape by means of the
+hatchway. Like Fulton in France, Bauer now experienced in Russia a
+sudden decrease of official interest. When he finally lost his boat,
+about four weeks later, he also lost his courage, and in 1858 he
+returned to Germany where he later died in comparative poverty.
+
+Contemporary with Bauer's submarines and immediately following them
+were a large number of other boats. Some of these were little more
+than freaks. Others failed in certain respects but added new
+features to the sum-total of submarine inventions. As early as 1854,
+M. Marié-Davy, Professor of Chemistry at Montpellier University,
+suggested an electro-magnetic engine as motive power. In 1855 a
+well-known engineer, J. Nasmith, suggested a submerged motor, driven
+by a steam engine. None of the boats of this period proved
+successful enough, however, to receive more than passing notice, and
+very few, indeed, ever reached the trial stage. But before long the
+rapid development of internal-combustion engines and the immense
+progress made in the study of electricity was to advance the
+development of submarines by leaps and bounds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE COMING OF STEAM AND ELECTRICITY
+
+
+In the fall of 1863, the Federal fleet was blockading the harbour of
+Charleston, S. C. Included among the many ships was one of the
+marvels of that period, the United States battleship _Ironsides_.
+Armour-plated and possessing what was then considered a wonderful
+equipment of high calibred guns and a remarkably trained crew, she
+was the terror of the Confederates. None of their ships could hope
+to compete with her and the land batteries of the Southern harbour
+were powerless to reach her.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A British Anti-Aircraft Gun._]
+
+During the night of October 5, 1863, the officer of the watch on
+board the _Ironsides_, Ensign Howard, suddenly observed a small
+object looking somewhat like a pleasure boat, floating close to his
+own ship. Before Ensign Howard's order to fire at it could be
+executed, the _Ironsides_ was shaken from bow to stern, an immense
+column of water was thrown up and flooded her deck and engine room,
+and Ensign Howard fell, mortally wounded. The little floating object
+was responsible for all this. It was a Confederate submersible boat,
+only fifty feet long and nine feet in diameter, carrying a
+fifteen-foot spar-torpedo. She had been named _David_ and the
+Confederate authorities hoped to do away by means of her with the
+Goliaths of the Federal navy. Manned only by five men, under the
+command of Lieutenant W. T. Glassel, driven by a small engine and
+propeller, she had managed to come up unobserved within striking
+distance of the big battleship.
+
+The attack, however, was unsuccessful. The _Ironsides_ was
+undamaged. On the other hand the plucky little _David_ had been
+disabled to such an extent that her crew had to abandon her and take
+to the water, allowing their boat to drift without motive power.
+Four of them were later picked up. According to an account in
+Barnes, _Torpedoes and Torpedo Warfare_, the engineer, after having
+been in the water for some time, found himself near her and
+succeeded in getting on board. He relighted her fires and navigated
+his little boat safely back to Charleston. There she remained,
+making occasional unsuccessful sallies against the Federal fleet,
+and when Charleston was finally occupied by the Federal forces, she
+was found there.
+
+In spite of this failure the Confederates continued their attempts
+to break the blockade of their most important port by submarine
+devices. A new and somewhat improved _David_ was ordered and built
+at another port. News of this somehow reached the Federal Navy
+Department and was immediately communicated to Vice-Admiral
+Dahlgren, in command of the blockading fleet. Despite this warning
+and instructions to all the officers of the fleet, the second
+_David_ succeeded in crossing Charleston bar.
+
+This new boat was a real diving submarine boat and though frequently
+called _David_ had been christened the _Hundley_. It had been built
+in the shipyards of McClintock & Hundley at Mobile, Alabama, and had
+been brought to Charleston by rail. On her trial she proved very
+clumsy and difficult to manage. For her first trip a crew of nine
+men volunteered. Not having any conning tower it was necessary that
+one of the hatchways should be left open while the boat travelled on
+the surface so that the steersman could find his bearings. While she
+was on her first trip, the swell from a passing boat engulfed her.
+Before the hatchway could be closed, she filled with water. Of
+course, she sank like a piece of lead and her entire crew, with the
+exception of the steersman, was drowned.
+
+In spite of this mishap the _Hundley_ was raised and again put in
+commission. Lieutenant Payne who had steered her on her first fatal
+trip had lost neither his courage nor faith and again assumed
+command of her. Soon after she started on her second trip a sudden
+squall arose. Before the hatchways could be closed, she again filled
+with water and sank, drowning all of her crew with the exception of
+Lieutenant Payne and two of his men.
+
+Undaunted he took her out on a third trip after she had again been
+raised. Ill luck still pursued her. Off Fort Sumter she was capsized
+and this time four of her crew were drowned.
+
+The difficulties encountered in sailing the _Hundley_ on the surface
+of the water apparently made no difference when it came to finding
+new crews for her. By this time, however, the powers that be had
+become anxious that their submarine boat should accomplish something
+against an enemy, instead of drowning only her own men and it was
+decided to use her on the next trip in a submerged state. Again
+Lieutenant Payne was entrusted with her guidance. Her hatches were
+closed, her water tanks filled, and she was off for her first dive.
+Something went wrong however; either too much water had been put in
+her tanks or else the steering gear refused to work. At any rate she
+hit the muddy bottom with such force that her nose became deeply
+imbedded and before she could work herself free her entire crew of
+eight was suffocated. Lieutenant Payne himself lost his life which
+he had risked so valiantly and frequently before.
+
+Once more she was raised and once more volunteers rushed to man her.
+On the fifth trip, however, the _Hundley_, while travelling
+underwater, became entangled in the anchor chains of a boat she
+passed and was held fast so long that her crew of nine were dead
+when she was finally disentangled and raised.
+
+Thirty-five lives had so far been lost without any actual results
+having been accomplished. In spite of this a new crew was found. Her
+commander, Lieutenant Dixon, was ordered to make an attack against
+the Federal fleet immediately, using, however, the boat as a
+submersible instead of a submarine.
+
+Admiral David Porter in his _Naval History of the Civil War_
+described the attack, which was directed against the U. S. S.
+_Housatonic_, one of the newest Federal battleships, as follows:
+
+     At about 8.45 P. M., the officer of the deck on board the
+     unfortunate vessel discovered something about one hundred yards
+     away, moving along the water. It came directly towards the ship,
+     and within two minutes of the time it was first sighted was
+     alongside. The cable was slipped, the engines backed, and all
+     hands called to quarters. But it was too late--the torpedo struck
+     the _Housatonic_ just forward of the mainmast, on the starboard
+     side, on a line with the magazine. The man who steered her (the
+     _Hundley_) knew where the vital spots of the steamer were and he
+     did his work well. When the explosion took place the ship
+     trembled all over as if by the shock of an earthquake, and seemed
+     to be lifted out of the water, and then sank stern foremost,
+     heeling to port as she went down.
+
+Only a part of the _Housatonic's_ complement was saved. Of the
+_Hundley_ no trace was discovered and she was believed to have
+escaped. Three years later, however, divers who had been sent down
+to examine the hull of the _Housatonic_ found the little submarine
+stuck in the hole made by her attack on the larger ship and inside
+of her the bodies of her entire crew.
+
+The submarines and near-submarines built in the United States during
+the Civil War were remarkable rather for what they actually
+accomplished than for what they contributed towards the development
+of submarine boats. Perhaps the greatest service which they rendered
+in the latter direction was that they proved to the satisfaction of
+many scientific men that submarine boats really held vast
+possibilities as instruments of naval warfare.
+
+France still retained its lead in furnishing new submarine
+projects. One of these put forward in 1861 by Olivier Riou deserves
+mention because it provided for two boats, one driven by steam and
+one by electricity. Both of these submarines were built, but
+inasmuch as nothing is known of the result of their trials, it is
+safe to conclude that neither of them proved of any practical value.
+
+Two years later, in 1863, two other Frenchmen, Captain Bourgeois and
+M. Brun, built at Rochefort a submarine 146 feet long and 12 feet in
+diameter which they called the _Plongeur_. They fitted it with a
+compressed-air engine of eighty horse-power. Extensive trials were
+made with this boat but resulted only in the discovery that, though
+it was possible to sink or rise with a boat of this type without
+great difficulty, it was impossible to keep her at an even keel for
+any length of time.
+
+During the next few years, undoubtedly as a result of the submarine
+activities during the Civil War, a number of projects were put
+forward in the United States, none of which, however, turned out
+successfully. One of them, for which a man by the name of Halstead
+was responsible, was a submarine built for the United States Navy in
+1865. It was not tried out until 1872 and it was not even successful
+in living up to its wonderful name, _The Intelligent Whale_. Its
+first trial almost resulted in loss of life and was never repeated.
+In spite of this, however, the boat was preserved and may still be
+seen at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
+
+In the meantime, an invention had been made by an Austrian artillery
+officer which before long was to exert a powerful influence on
+submarine development, though it was in no sense a submarine boat.
+The manner in which the submarines had attacked their opponents
+during the Civil War suggested to him the need of improvements in
+this direction. As a result he conceived a small launch which was to
+carry the explosive without any navigators. Before he could carry
+his plans very far he died. A brother officer in the navy continued
+his work and finally interested the manager of an English
+engineering firm located at Fiume, Mr. Whitehead. The result of the
+collaboration of these two men was the Whitehead torpedo. A series
+of experiments led to the construction of what was first called a
+"Submarine Locomotive" torpedo, which not only contained a
+sufficient quantity of explosives to destroy large boats, but was
+also enabled by mechanical means to propel itself and keep on its
+course after having been fired. The Austrian Government was the
+first one to adopt this new weapon. Whitehead, however, refused to
+grant a monopoly to the Austrians and in 1870 he sold his
+manufacturing rights and secret processes to the British Government
+for a consideration of $45,000.
+
+Before very long, special boats were built for the purpose of
+carrying and firing these torpedoes and gradually every great power
+developed a separate torpedo flotilla. Hand in hand with this
+development a large number of improvements were made on the original
+torpedo and some of these devices proved of great usefulness in the
+development of submarine boats.
+
+The public interest in submarines grew rapidly at this time. Every
+man who was a boy in 1873, or who had the spirit of boyhood in him
+then,--or perhaps now,--will remember the extraordinary piece of
+literary and imaginative prophecy achieved by Jules Verne in his
+novel _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_. Little about the
+_Nautilus_ that held all readers entranced throughout his story is
+lacking in the submarines of to-day except indeed its extreme
+comfort, even luxury. With those qualities our submarine navigators
+have to dispense. But the electric light, as we know it, was unknown
+in Verne's time yet he installed it in the boat of his fancy. Our
+modern internal-combustion engines were barely dreamed of, yet they
+drove his boat. His fancy even enabled him to foresee one of the
+most amazing features of the Lake boat of to-day, namely the
+compressed air chamber which opened to the sea still holds the water
+back, and enables the submarine navigator clad in a diver's suit to
+step into the wall of water and prosecute his labors on the bed of
+the ocean. Jules Verne even foresaw the callous and inhuman
+character of the men who command the German submarines to-day. His
+Captain Nemo had taken a vow of hate against the world and
+relentlessly drove the prow of his steel boat into the hulls of
+crowded passenger ships, finding his greatest joy in sinking slowly
+beside them with the bright glare of his submarine electric lights
+turned full upon the hapless women and children over whose
+sufferings he gloated as they sank. The man who sank the _Lusitania_
+could do no more.
+
+More and more determined became the attempts to build submarine
+boats that could sink and rise easily, navigate safely and quickly,
+and sustain human beings under the surface of the water for a
+considerable length of time. Steam, compressed air, and electricity
+were called upon to do their share in accomplishing this desired
+result. Engineers in every part of the world began to interest
+themselves in the submarine problem and as a result submarine boats
+in numbers were either projected or built between 1875 and 1900.
+
+One of the most persistent workers in this period was a well-known
+Swedish inventor, Nordenfeldt, who had established for himself a
+reputation by inventing a gun which even to-day has lost nothing of
+its fame. In 1881 he became interested in the work which had been
+done by an English clergyman named Garret. The latter had built a
+submarine boat which he called the _Resurgam_ (I shall rise)--thus
+neatly combining a sacred promise with a profane purpose. In 1879
+another boat was built by him driven by a steam engine. Nordenfeldt
+used the fundamental ideas upon which these two boats were based,
+added to them some improvements of his own as well as some devices
+which had been used by Bushnell, and finally launched in 1886 his
+first submarine boat. The government of Greece bought it after some
+successful trials. Not to be outdone, Greece's old rival, Turkey,
+immediately ordered two boats for her own navy. Both of these were
+much larger than the Greek boat and by 1887 they had reached
+Constantinople in sections where they were to be put together. Only
+one of them, however, was ever completed. Characteristic Turkish
+delay intervened. The most typical feature of this boat was the fact
+that it carried a torpedo tube for Whitehead torpedoes. On the
+surface of the water this boat proved very efficient, but as an
+underwater boat it was a dismal failure. More than in any other
+craft that had ever been built and accepted, the lack of stability
+was a cause of trouble in the _Nordenfeldt II._ As soon as any
+member of the crew moved from one part of the boat to another, she
+would dip in the direction in which he was moving, and everybody,
+who could not in time take hold of some part of the boat, came
+sliding and rolling in the same direction. When finally such a
+tangle was straightened out, only a few minutes elapsed before
+somebody else, moving a few steps, would bring about the same
+deplorable state of affairs. The _Nordenfeldt II._ acted more like a
+bucking bronco than a self-respecting submarine boat and as a result
+it became impossible to find a crew willing to risk their lives in
+manning her. Before very long she had rusted and rotted to pieces.
+In spite of this lack of success, Nordenfeldt built a fourth boat
+which displayed almost as many unfortunate features as her
+predecessors and soon was discarded and forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Bain News Service.
+
+_An Anti-Aircraft Outpost._]
+
+In the latter part of the nineteenth century the French Government,
+which for so many years had shown a strong and continuous interest
+in the submarine problem, was particularly active. Three different
+types of boats built in this period under the auspices and with the
+assistance of the French Government deserve particular attention.
+The first of these was the _Gymnote_, planned originally by a
+well-known French engineer, Dupuy de Lome, whose alert mind also
+planned an airship and made him a figure in the history of our
+Panama Canal. He died, however, before his project could be
+executed. M. Gustave Zédé, a marine engineer and his friend,
+continued his work after modifying some of his plans. The French
+Minister of Marine of this period, Admiral Aube who had long been
+strongly interested in submarines, immediately accepted M. Zédé's
+design and ordered the boat to be built. As the earliest of
+successful submarines she merits description:
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun._]
+
+The _Gymnote_ was built of steel in the shape of a cigar. She was 59
+feet long, 5 feet 9 inches beam, and 6 feet in diameter, just deep
+enough to allow a man to stand upright in the interior. The motive
+power was originally an electro-motor of 55 horse-power, driven from
+564 accumulators. It was of extraordinary lightness, weighing only
+4410 pounds, and drove the screw at the rate of two thousand
+revolutions a minute, giving a speed of six knots an hour, its
+radius of action at this speed being thirty-five miles.
+
+Immersion was accomplished by the introduction of water into three
+reservoirs, placed one forward, one aft, and one centre. The water
+was expelled either by means of compressed air or by a rotary pump
+worked by an electro-motor. Two horizontal rudders steered the boat
+in the vertical plane and an ordinary rudder steered in the
+horizontal.
+
+The _Gymnote_ had her first trial on September 4, 1888, and the
+Paris _Temps_ described the result in the following enthusiastic
+language:
+
+     She steered like a fish both as regards direction and depth; she
+     mastered the desired depth with ease and exactness; at full power
+     she attained the anticipated speed of from nine to ten knots; the
+     lighting was excellent, there was no difficulty about heating. It
+     was a strange sight to see the vessel skimming along the top of
+     the water, suddenly give a downward plunge with its  snout, and
+     disappear with a shark-like wriggle of its stern, only to come up
+     again at a distance out and in an unlooked-for  direction. A few
+     small matters connected with the accumulators had to be seen to,
+     but they did not take a month.
+
+Following along the same lines as this boat another boat,
+considerably larger, was built. Before it was completed, M. Zédé
+died and it was decided to name the new boat in his honour. The
+_Gustave Zédé_ was launched at Toulon on June 1, 1893; she was 159
+feet in length, beam 12 feet 4 inches, and had a total displacement
+of 266 tons. Her shell was of "Roma" bronze, a non-magnetic metal,
+and one that could not be attacked by sea water.
+
+The motive power was furnished by two independent electro-motors of
+360 horse-power each and fed by accumulators. In order to endow the
+boat with a wide radius of action a storage battery was provided.
+
+The successive crews of the _Gustave Zédé_ suffered much from the
+poisonous fumes of the accumulators, and during the earlier trials
+all the men on board were ill.
+
+In the bows was a torpedo tube, and an arrangement was used whereby
+the water that entered the tube after the discharge of the torpedo
+was forced out by compressed air. Three Whitehead torpedoes were
+carried. In spite of the fact that a horizontal rudder placed at the
+stern had not proved serviceable on the _Gymnote_, such a rudder was
+fitted in the _Gustave Zédé_. With this rudder she usually plunged
+at an angle of about 5°, but on several occasions she behaved in a
+very erratic fashion, seesawing up and down, and once when the
+Committee of Experts were on board, she proved so capricious, going
+down at an angle of 30°-35°, often throwing the poor gentlemen on to
+the floor, that it was decided to fix a system of six rudders, three
+on each side.
+
+Four water tanks were carried, one at each end and two in the
+middle, and the water was expelled by four pumps worked by a little
+electro-motor; these pumps also furnished the air necessary for the
+crew and for the discharge of the torpedoes. For underwater vision,
+an optical tube and a periscope had been provided.
+
+On July 5, 1899, still another submarine boat was launched for the
+French Navy. She was called the _Morse_. She was 118 feet long, 9
+feet beam, displaced 146 tons, and was likewise made of "Roma"
+bronze. The motive power was electricity and in many other respects
+she was very similar to the _Gustave Zédé_, embodying, however, a
+number of improvements. M. Calmette, who accompanied the French
+Minister of War on the trial trip of the _Morse_, described his
+experience in the Paris _Figaro_ as follows:
+
+     General André, Dr. Vincent, a naval doctor, and I entered the
+     submarine boat _Morse_ through the narrow opening in the upper
+     surface of the boat. Our excursion was to begin immediately; in
+     two hours we came to the surface of the water again three miles
+     to the north to rejoin the _Narval_. Turning to the crew, every
+     man of which was at his post, the commandant gave his orders,
+     dwelling with emphasis on each word. A sailor repeated his orders
+     one by one, and all was silent. The _Morse_ had already started
+     on its mysterious voyage, but was skimming along the surface
+     until outside the port in order to avoid the numerous craft in
+     the Arsenal. To say that at this moment, which I had so keenly
+     anticipated, I did not have the tremor which comes from contact
+     with the unknown would be beside the truth. On the other hand,
+     calm and imperturbable, but keenly curious as to this novel form
+     of navigation, General André had already taken his place near
+     the commandant on a folding seat. There were no chairs in this
+     long tube in which we were imprisoned. Everything was arranged
+     for the crew alone, with an eye to serious action. Moreover, the
+     Minister of War was too tall to stand upright beneath the iron
+     ceiling, and in any case it would be impossible to walk about.
+
+     The only free space was a narrow passage, sixty centimetres
+     broad, less than two metres high, and thirty metres long, divided
+     into three equal sections. In the first, in the forefront of the
+     tube, reposed the torpedoes, with the machine for launching them,
+     which at a distance of from 500 to 600 metres were bound to sink,
+     with the present secret processes, the largest of ironclads. In
+     the second section were the electric accumulators which gave the
+     light and power. In the third, near the screw, was the electric
+     motor which transformed into movement the current of the
+     accumulators. Under all this, beneath the floor, from end to end,
+     were immense water ballasts, which were capable of being emptied
+     or filled in a few seconds by electric machines, in order to
+     carry the vessel up or down. Finally, in the centre of the tube,
+     dominating these three sections, which the electric light
+     inundated, and which no partition divided, the navigating
+     lieutenant stood on the lookout giving his orders.
+
+     There was but one thing which could destroy in a second all the
+     sources of authority, initiative, and responsibility in this
+     officer. That was the failure of the accumulators. Were the
+     electricity to fail everything would come to a stop. Darkness
+     would overtake the boat and imprison it for ever in the water. To
+     avoid any such disaster there have been arranged, it is true,
+     outside the tube and low down, a series of lead blades which were
+     capable of being removed from within to lighten the vessel. But
+     admitting that the plunger would return to the surface, the boat
+     would float hither and thither, and at all events lose all its
+     properties as a submarine vessel. To avoid any such disaster a
+     combination of motors have been in course of construction for
+     some months, so that the accumulators might be loaded afresh on
+     the spot, in case of their being used up.
+
+     The _Morse_, after skimming along the surface of the water until
+     outside the port, was now about to sink. The commandant's place
+     was no longer in the helmet or kiosque whence he could direct the
+     route along the surface of the sea. His place was henceforth in
+     the very centre of the tube, in the midst of all sort of electric
+     manipulators, his eyes continually fixed on a mysterious optical
+     apparatus, the periscope. The other extremity of this instrument
+     floated on the surface of the water, and whatever the depth of
+     the plunge it gave him a perfectly faithful and clear
+     representation, as in a camera, of everything occurring on the
+     water.
+
+     The most interesting moment of all now came. I hastened to the
+     little opening to get the impression of total immersion. The
+     lieutenant by the marine chart verified the depths. The casks of
+     water were filled and our supply of air was thereby renewed from
+     their stores of surplus air. In our tiny observatory, where
+     General André stationed himself above me, a most unexpected
+     spectacle presented itself as the boat was immersed.
+
+     The plunge was so gentle that in the perfect silence of the
+     waters one did not perceive the process of descent, and there was
+     only an instrument capable of indicating, by a needle, the depth
+     to which the _Morse_ was penetrating. The vessel was advancing
+     while at the same time it descended, but there was no sensation
+     of either advance or roll. As to respiration, it was as perfect
+     as in any room. M. de Lanessan, who since entering office has
+     ordered eight more submarine vessels, had concerned himself with
+     the question as a medical man also, and, thanks to the labours of
+     a commission formed by him, the difficulties of respiration were
+     entirely solved. The crew were able to remain under water sixteen
+     hours without the slightest strain. Our excursion on this
+     occasion lasted scarcely two hours. Towards noon, by means of
+     the mysterious periscope, which, always invisible, floated on the
+     surface and brought to the vessel below a reflection of all that
+     passed up above, the captain showed us the _Narval_, which had
+     just emerged with its two flags near the old battery
+     _Impregnable_. From the depths in which we were sailing we
+     watched its slightest manoeuvres until the admiral's flag, waving
+     on the top of a fort, reminded us that it was time to return.
+
+[Illustration: _The Submarine's Perfect Work._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+JOHN P. HOLLAND AND SIMON LAKE
+
+
+The Naval Committee of the House of Representatives of the United
+States in the early part of 1900 held a meeting for the purpose of
+hearing expert testimony upon the subject of submarines. Up to then
+the United States authorities had shown, as compared with the ruling
+powers of other navies, only a limited amount of interest in the
+submarine question. Increased appropriations for the construction of
+submarine boats which were then beginning to become more frequent in
+other countries acted, however, as a stimulus at this time.
+
+The committee meeting took place a few days after some of the
+members of the committee, together with a number of United States
+navy officers, had attended an exhibition of a new submarine boat,
+the _Holland No. 9_.
+
+The late Admiral Dewey gave the following opinion about this
+submarine to the committee, an opinion which since then has become
+rather famous:
+
+     Gentlemen: I saw the operation of the boat down off Mount Vernon
+     the other day. Several members of this committee were there. I
+     think we were very much impressed with its performance. My aid,
+     Lieutenant Caldwell, was on board. The boat did everything that
+     the owners proposed to do. I said then, and I have said it since,
+     that if they had two of those things at Manila, I could never
+     have held it with the squadron I had. The moral effect--to my
+     mind, it is infinitely superior to mines or torpedoes or anything
+     of the kind. With two of those in Galveston all the navies of the
+     world could not blockade the place.
+
+Admiral Dewey's approval of the _Holland No. 9_ undoubtedly exerted
+a considerable influence on the Naval Committee and as a result of
+its recommendations the United States Government finally purchased
+the boat on April 11, 1900, for $150,000. This amount was about
+$86,000 less than the cost of building to the manufacturers, the
+Holland Torpedo Boat Company. The latter, however, could well afford
+to take this loss because this first sale resulted a few months
+afterwards--on August 25th--in an order for six additional
+submarines. The British Government also contracted in the fall of
+the same year for five Hollands. The navy of almost every power
+interested in submarines soon followed the lead of the British
+Admiralty. Submarines of the Holland type were either ordered
+outright, or else arrangements were concluded permitting the use of
+the basic patents held by the Holland Company. It will be noted that
+the United States Government having discovered that it had a good
+thing benevolently shared it with the governments that might be
+expected to use it against us.
+
+[Illustration: Copyright by Munn & Co., Inc.
+
+From the _Scientific American._
+
+_Types of American Aircraft._]
+
+The _Holland No. 9_, as her very name indicates, was one of a long
+line of similar boats. As compared with other experimental submarine
+boats she was small. She was only fifty-three feet ten inches long,
+and ten feet seven inches deep. Although these proportions made her
+look rather thickset, they were the result of experimental work done
+by the builder during a period of twenty-five years. She was
+equipped both with a gasoline engine of fifty horse-power and an
+electric motor run by storage batteries. The latter was intended for
+use when the boat was submerged, the former when she was travelling
+on the surface of the water. She was capable of a maximum speed of
+seven knots an hour. Her cruising radius was 1500 miles and the
+combination of oil and electric motors proved so successful that
+from that time on every submarine built anywhere adopted this
+principle. Two horizontal rudders placed at the stern of the boat
+steered her downward whenever she wanted to dive and so
+accomplished a diver was this boat that a depth of twenty-eight feet
+could be reached by her in five seconds. Her conning tower was the
+only means of making observations. No periscopes had been provided
+because none of the instruments available at that time gave
+satisfaction. This meant that whenever she wished to aim at her
+target it was necessary for her to make a quick ascent to the
+surface. Her stability was one of her most satisfactory features. So
+carefully had her proportions been worked out that there was
+practically no pitching or rolling when the boat was submerged. Even
+the concussion caused by the discharge of a torpedo was hardly
+noticeable because arrangements had been made to take up the recoil
+caused by the firing and to maintain the balance of the boat by
+permitting a quantity of water equal to the weight of the discharged
+torpedo to enter special compartments at the very moment of the
+discharge.
+
+The _Holland No. 9_ was built at Lewis Nixon's shipyards at
+Elizabethport, New Jersey, and was launched early in 1898, just
+previous to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. Although
+numerous requests were made to the United States Government by her
+inventor and builder, John P. Holland, for permission to take her
+into Santiago harbour in an attempt to torpedo Cervera's fleet, the
+navy authorities at Washington refused this permission. Why?
+Presumably through navy hostility to the submarine idea. When the
+_Monitor_ whipped the _Merrimac_ in 1862 the former ship belonged to
+her inventor, not to the United States Government. It would have
+been interesting had Holland at his own expense destroyed the
+Spanish ships.
+
+John P. Holland at the time when he achieved his success was
+fifty-eight years old, Irish by birth and an early immigrant to the
+United States. He had been deeply interested for many years in
+mechanical problems and especially in those connected with
+navigation. The change from the old wooden battleships to the new
+ironclads and the rapidly increasing development of steam-engines
+acted as a strong stimulus to the young Irishman's experiments. It
+is claimed that his interest in submarine navigation was due
+primarily to his desire to find a weapon strong enough to destroy or
+at least dominate the British navy; for at that time Holland was
+strongly anti-British, because he, like many other educated Irishmen
+of that period, desired before everything else to free Ireland. His
+plans for doing this by supplying to the proposed Irish Republic a
+means for overcoming the British navy found little support and a
+great deal of ridicule on the part of his Irish friends. In spite of
+this he kept on with his work and in 1875 he built and launched his
+first submarine boat at Paterson. This boat was far from being very
+revolutionary. She was only sixteen feet long and two feet in
+diameter, shaped like a cigar but with both ends sharply pointed. In
+many respects except in appearance she was similar to Bushnell's
+_Turtle_. Room for only one operator was provided and the latter was
+to turn the propeller by means of pedals to be worked by his feet.
+She accomplished little beyond giving an opportunity to her inventor
+and builder to gather experience in actual underwater navigation.
+
+Two years later in 1877 the _Holland No. 2_ was built. In spite of
+the number of improvements represented by her she was not
+particularly successful. Her double hull, it is true, provided space
+for carrying water ballast. But the leaks from this ballast tank
+continuously threatened to drown the navigator sitting inside of the
+second hull. A small oil engine of four horse-power was soon
+discarded on account of its inefficiency.
+
+The experience gathered by Holland in building and navigating these
+two boats strengthened his determination to build a thoroughly
+successful submarine and increased his faith in his ability to do
+so. He opened negotiations with the Fenian Brotherhood. This was a
+secret society founded for the purpose of freeing Ireland from
+British rule and creating an Irish Republic. Holland finally
+succeeded in persuading his Fenian friends to order from him two
+submarine boats and to supply him with the necessary means to build
+them. Both of these boats were built. The lack of success of the
+first one was due primarily to the inefficiency of her engine. The
+second boat which was really the _Holland No. 4_ was built in 1881.
+It is usually known as the _Fenian Ram_, and is still in existence
+at New Haven, Connecticut, where a series of financial and political
+complications finally landed her.
+
+These two boats added vastly to Holland's knowledge concerning
+submarine navigation. A few others which he built with his own means
+increased this fund of knowledge and step by step he came nearer to
+his goal. By 1888 his reputation as a submarine engineer and
+navigator had grown to such an extent that Holland was asked by the
+famous Philadelphia shipbuilders, the Cramps, to submit to them
+designs for a submarine boat to be built by the United States
+Government. Only one other design was submitted and this was by the
+Scandinavian, Nordenfeldt.
+
+William C. Whitney, then Secretary of the United States Navy,
+accepted Holland's design. Month after month passed by wasted by the
+usual governmental red tape, and when all preliminary arrangements
+had been made and the contract for the actual building of an
+experimental boat was to be drawn up, a sudden change in the
+administration resulted in the dropping of the entire plan.
+
+Holland's faith in the future submarine and in his own ability was
+still unshaken, but this was not the case with his financial
+condition. None of the boats he had built so far had brought him any
+profits and on some he had lost everything that he had put into
+them. His financial support, for which he relied entirely upon
+relatives and friends, was practically exhausted. But fortunately on
+March 3, 1893, Congress appropriated a sum of money to defray the
+expenses of constructing an experimental submarine. Invitations to
+inventors were extended. So precarious was Holland's financial
+condition at that time that he found it necessary to borrow the
+small sum of money involved in making plans which he had to submit.
+It is claimed that he succeeded in doing this in a manner highly
+typical of his thoroughness.
+
+He needed only about $350.00 but even this comparatively small sum
+was more than he had. However, he happened to be lunching with a
+young lawyer just about this time and began to tell him about his
+financial difficulties. Holland told him that if he only had $347.19
+he could prepare the plans and pay the necessary fees. And that
+done, he was sure of being able to win the competition. His lawyer
+friend, of course, had been approached before by other people for
+loans. Invariably they had asked him for some round sum and
+Holland's request for $347.19 when he might just as well have asked
+for $350.00 aroused his interest. He asked the inventor what the
+nineteen cents were to be used for. Quick as a flash he was told
+that they were needed to pay for a particular type of ruler
+necessary to draw the required plans. So impressed was the lawyer
+with Holland's accuracy and honesty in asking not a cent more than
+he actually needed that he at once advanced the money. And a good
+investment it turned out to be. For in exchange he received a
+good-sized block of stock in the Holland Torpedo Boat Company which
+in later years made him a multi-millionaire.
+
+Holland's plans did win the competition just as he asserted that
+they would; but, of course, winning a prize, offered by a
+government, and getting that government to do something about it,
+are two different matters. So two years went by before the Holland
+Torpedo Boat Company at last was able to start with the construction
+of the new submarine which was to be called the _Plunger_.
+
+The principal feature of this new boat was that it was to have a
+steam engine for surface navigation and an electric motor for
+underwater navigation. This arrangement was not so much a new
+invention of Holland's as an adaptation of ideas which had been
+promulgated by others. Especially indebted was he in this respect to
+Commander Hovgaard of the Danish navy who, in 1887, had published an
+important book on the subject of double propulsion in submarines.
+Though Holland had made many improvements on these earlier theories,
+he soon found out that even at that there was going to be serious
+trouble with the _Plunger's_ engines. The boat had been launched in
+1897; but instead of finishing it, he persuaded the government to
+permit his company to build a new boat, and to return to the
+government all the money so far expended on the _Plunger_.
+
+The new boat, _Holland No. 8_, was started immediately and completed
+in record time but she, too, was unsatisfactory to the inventor. So
+without loss of time he went ahead and built another boat, the
+_Holland No. 9_, which, as we have said, became the first United
+States submarine.
+
+Two other men submitted plans for submarine boats in the competition
+which was won by the Holland boat, George C. Baker and Simon Lake.
+Neither of these was accepted. Mr. Baker made no further efforts to
+find out if his plans would result in a practicable submarine boat.
+But Simon Lake was not so easily discouraged.
+
+It is very interesting that the United States Navy Department at
+that time demanded that plans submitted for this competition should
+meet the following specifications:
+
+  1. Safety.
+  2. Facility and certainty of action when submerged.
+  3. Speed when running on the surface.
+  4. Speed when submerged.
+  5. Endurance, both submerged and on the surface.
+  6. Stability.
+  7. Visibility of object to be attacked.
+
+In spite of the many years that have passed since this competition
+and in spite of the tremendous progress that has been made in
+submarine construction these are still the essential requirements
+necessary to make a successful submarine boat.
+
+The designs submitted by Mr. Lake provided for a twin-screw vessel,
+80 feet long, 10 feet beam, and 115 tons displacement, with 400
+horse-power steam engines for surface propulsion and 70 horse-power
+motors for submerged work. The boat was to have a double hull, the
+spaces between the inner and the outer hulls forming water ballast
+tanks. There were to be four torpedo tubes, two forward and two aft.
+
+In an article published in 1915 in _International Marine
+Engineering_, Mr. Lake says about his 1893 design:
+
+     The new and novel feature which attracted the most attention and
+     skepticism regarding this design was (the author was later
+     informed by a member of the board) the claim made that the vessel
+     could readily navigate over the waterbed itself, and that while
+     navigating on the waterbed a door could be opened in the bottom
+     of a compartment and the water kept from entering the vessel by
+     means of compressed air, and that the crew could, by donning
+     diving suits, readily leave and enter the vessel while submerged.
+     Another novel feature was in the method of controlling the depth
+     of submergence when navigating between the surface and waterbed.
+     The vessel was designed to always submerge and navigate on a
+     level keel rather than to be inclined down or up by the back, to
+     "dive" or "rise." This maintenance of a level keel while
+     submerged was provided for by the installation of four depth
+     regulating vanes which I later termed "hydroplanes" to
+     distinguish them from the forward and aft levelling vanes or
+     horizontal rudders. These hydroplanes were located at equal
+     distances forward and aft of the center of gravity and buoyancy
+     of the vessel when in the submerged condition, so as not to
+     disturb the vessel when the planes were inclined down or up to
+     cause the vessel to submerge or rise when under way.
+
+     I also used, in conjunction with the hydroplanes, horizontal
+     rudders which I then called "levelling vanes," as their purpose
+     was just the opposite from that of the horizontal rudder used in
+     the diving type of vessel. They were operated by a pendulum
+     controlling device to be inclined so as to always maintain the
+     vessel on a level keel rather than to cause her to depart
+     therefrom. When I came to try this combination out in practice, I
+     found hand control of the horizontal rudders was sufficient. If
+     vessels with this system of control have a sufficient amount of
+     stability, you will run for hours and automatically maintain both
+     a constant depth and a level keel, without the depth control man
+     touching either the hydroplane or horizontal rudder control gear.
+     This automatic maintenance of depth without manipulating the
+     hydroplanes or rudders was a performance not anticipated, nor
+     claimed in my original patent on the above-mentioned
+     combination, and what caused these vessels to function in this
+     manner remained a mystery, which was unsolved until I built a
+     model tank in 1905 in Berlin, Germany, and conducted a series of
+     experiments on models of submarines. I then learned that a down
+     pull of a hydroplane at a given degree of inclination varied
+     according to its depth of submergence and that the deeper the
+     submergence, the less the down pull. This works out to give
+     automatic trim on a substantially level keel, and I have known of
+     vessels running for a period of two hours without variation of
+     depth of one foot and without once changing the inclination of
+     either the hydroplanes or the horizontal rudder.
+
+A great deal of skepticism was displayed for many years towards this
+new system of controlling the depth of submergence. But in recent
+years all the latest submarine boats have been built on this plan.
+
+Who, then, was this mechanical genius who was responsible for these
+far-going changes in submarine construction? Simon Lake was born at
+Pleasantville, New Jersey, September 4, 1866. He was educated at
+Clinton Liberal Institute, Fort Plain, New York, and Franklin
+Institute, Philadelphia. Early in life he displayed a marked
+interest in and genius for mechanical problems. His lack of success
+in the 1893 competition only spurred him on to further efforts. As
+long as the United States Government was unwilling to assist him in
+building his submarine boat, there was nothing left for him except
+to build it from his own means. In 1894, therefore, he set to work
+on an experimental boat, called the _Argonaut, Jr._ According to Mr.
+Lake's description as published in _International Marine
+Engineering_ in a series of articles from his pen the _Argonaut,
+Jr._, was
+
+     provided with three wheels, two on either side forward and one
+     aft, the latter acting as a steering wheel. When on the bottom
+     the wheels were rotated by hand by one or two men inside the
+     boat. Her displacement was about seven tons, yet she could be
+     propelled at a moderate walking gait when on the bottom. She was
+     also fitted with an air lock and diver's compartment, so arranged
+     that by putting an air pressure on the diver's compartment equal
+     to the water pressure outside, a bottom door could be opened and
+     no water would come into the vessel. Then by putting on a pair of
+     rubber boots the operator could walk around on the sea bottom and
+     push the boat along with him and pick up objects, such as clams,
+     oysters, etc. from the sea bottom.
+
+So much interest was aroused by this little wooden boat that Mr.
+Lake was enabled to finance the building of a larger boat, called
+the _Argonaut_. It was designed in 1895 and built in 1897 at
+Baltimore.
+
+Concerning the _Argonaut_ Mr. Lake says in the same article:
+
+     The _Argonaut_ as originally built was 36 feet long and 9 feet in
+     diameter. She was the first submarine to be fitted with an
+     internal-combustion engine. She was propelled with a thirty
+     horse-power gasoline (petrol) engine driving a screw propeller.
+     She was fitted with two toothed driving wheels forward which were
+     revolved by suitable gearing when navigating on the waterbed, or
+     they could be disconnected from this gearing and permitted to
+     revolve freely, propulsion being secured by the screw propeller.
+     A wheel in the rudder enabled her to be steered in any direction
+     when on the bottom. She also had a diving compartment to enable
+     divers to leave or enter the vessel when submerged, to operate on
+     wrecks or to permit inspection of the bottom or to recover
+     shellfish. She also had a lookout compartment in the extreme bow,
+     with a powerful searchlight to light up a pathway in front of her
+     as she moved along over the waterbed. This searchlight I later
+     found of little value except for night work in clear water. In
+     clear water the sunlight would permit of as good vision without
+     the use of the light as with it, while if the water was not
+     clear, no amount of light would permit of vision through it for
+     any considerable distance.
+
+     In January, 1898 [says Mr. Lake], while the _Argonaut_ was
+     submerged, telephone conversation was held from submerged
+     stations with Baltimore, Washington, and New York.
+
+     In 1898, also, the _Argonaut_ made the trip from Norfolk to New
+     York under her own power and unescorted. In her original form she
+     was a cigar-shaped craft with only a small percentage of reserve
+     buoyancy in her surface cruising condition. We were caught out in
+     the severe November northeast storm of 1898 in which over 200
+     vessels were lost and we did not succeed in reaching a harbour in
+     the "horseshoe" back of Sandy Hook until, of course, in the
+     morning. The seas were so rough they would break over her conning
+     tower in such masses I was obliged to lash myself fast to prevent
+     being swept overboard. It was freezing weather and I was soaked
+     and covered with ice on reaching harbour.
+
+     This experience caused me to apply to the _Argonaut_ a further
+     improvement for which I had already applied for a patent. This
+     was, doubled around the usual pressure resisting body of a
+     submarine, a ship-shape form of light plating which would give
+     greater seaworthiness, better surface speed, and make the vessel
+     more habitable for surface navigation. It would, in other words,
+     make a "sea-going submarine," which the usual form of
+     cigar-shaped vessel was not, as it would not have sufficient
+     surface buoyancy to enable it to rise with the seas and the seas
+     would sweep over it as they would sweep over a partly submerged
+     rock.
+
+     The _Argonaut_ was, therefore, taken to Brooklyn, twenty feet
+     added to her length, and a light water-tight buoyancy
+     superstructure of ship-shape form added. This superstructure was
+     opened to the sea when it was desired to submerge the vessel,
+     and water was permitted to enter the space between the light
+     plating of the ship-shaped form and the heavy plating of the
+     pressure resisting hull. This equalized pressure on the light
+     plates and prevented their becoming deformed due to pressure. The
+     superstructure increased her reserve of buoyancy in the surface
+     cruising condition from about 10 per cent. to over 40 per cent.
+     and lifted right up to the seas like any ordinary type of surface
+     vessel, instead of being buried by them in rough weather.
+
+     This feature of construction has been adopted by the Germans,
+     Italians, Russians, and in all the latest types of French boats.
+     It is the principal feature which distinguishes them in their
+     surface appearance from the earlier cigar-shaped boats of the
+     diving type. This ship-shaped form of hull is only suited to the
+     level keel submergence.
+
+In those days submarine boats were a much more unusual sight than
+they are to-day and simple fishermen who had never read or heard
+about submarines undoubtedly experienced disturbing sensations when
+they ran across their first underwater boat. Mr. Lake, a short time
+ago, while addressing a meeting of electrical engineers in Brooklyn,
+told the following experience which he had on one of his trips in
+the _Argonaut_:
+
+     On the first trip down the Chesapeake Bay, we had been running
+     along in forty feet of water and had been down about four hours.
+     Night was coming on, so we decided to come up to find out where
+     we were. I noticed one of those Chesapeake "Bug Eyes" lighting
+     just to leeward of us, and, as I opened the conning tower hatch,
+     called to the men aboard to find out where we were. As soon as I
+     did so, he turned his boat around and made straight for the
+     beach. I thought he was rather discourteous. He ran his boat up
+     on that beach and never stopped; the last I saw of him was when
+     he jumped ashore and started to run inland as hard as he and his
+     helper could go. Finally I learned we were just above the mouth
+     of the York or Rappahannock River and I found a sort of inland
+     harbour back of it. I decided to put up there for the night. Then
+     learning that there was a store nearby, we called after dark for
+     more provisions and I noticed a large crowd there. We got what we
+     wanted, and stepped outside the door. He asked us where we were
+     from. "We are down here in the submarine boat, _Argonaut_, making
+     an experimental trip down the bay." He then commenced to laugh.
+     "That explains it," he said; "just before nightfall, Captain
+     So-and-So and his mate came running up here to the store just as
+     hard as they could, and both dropped down exhausted, and when we
+     were able to get anything out of them, they told a very strange
+     story. That's why all these people are here." This is the story
+     the storekeeper told me: "The men were out dredging and all at
+     once they noticed a buoy with a red flag on it, and that buoy was
+     going against the tide, and they could not understand it. It came
+     up alongside, and they heard a 'puff, puff,' something like a
+     locomotive puffing, and then they smelt sulphur." (The "puff,
+     puff" was the exhaust of our engine and those fumes were what
+     they thought was sulphur.) "Just then the thing rose up out of
+     the water, then the smokestack appeared, and then the devil came
+     right out of that smokestack."
+
+In the January, 1899, issue of _McClure's Magazine_ there appeared a
+profusely illustrated article entitled "Voyaging under the Sea." The
+first part of it, "The Submarine Boat _Argonaut_ and her
+Achievements," was written by Simon Lake himself. In it he quotes
+as follows from the log book of the _Argonaut_ under date of July
+28, 1898.
+
+     Submerged at 8.20 A. M. in about thirty feet of water.
+     Temperature in living compartment, eighty-three degrees
+     Fahrenheit. Compass bearing west-north-west, one quarter west.
+     Quite a lively sea running on the surface, also strong current.
+     At 10.45 A. M. shut down engine; temperature, eighty-eight
+     degrees Fahrenheit.
+
+     After engine was shut down, we could hear the wind blowing past
+     our pipes extending above the surface; we could also tell by the
+     sound when any steamers were in the vicinity. We first allowed
+     the boat to settle gradually to the bottom, with the tide running
+     ebb; after a time the tide changed, and she would work slightly
+     sideways; we admitted about four hundred pounds of water
+     additional, but she still would move occasionally, so that a
+     pendulum nine inches long would sway one eighth of an inch
+     (thwartship). At 12 o'clock (noon) temperature was eighty-seven
+     degrees Fahrenheit; at 2.45 P. M. the temperature was still
+     eighty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. There were no signs of carbonic
+     acid gas at 2.45, although the engine had been closed down for
+     three hours and no fresh air had been admitted during the time.
+     Could hear the whistle of boats on the surface, and also their
+     propellers when running close, to the boat. At 3.30 the
+     temperature had dropped to eighty-five degrees. At 3.45 found a
+     little sign of carbonic acid gas, very slight, however, as a
+     candle would burn fairly bright in the pits. Thought we could
+     detect a smell of gasoline by comparing the fresh air which came
+     down the pipe (when hand blower was turned). Storage lamps were
+     burning during the five hours of submergence, while engine was
+     not running.
+
+     At 3.50 engine was again started, and went off nicely. Went into
+     diving compartment and opened door; came out through air-lock,
+     and left pressure there; found the wheels had buried about ten
+     inches or one foot, as the bottom had several inches of mud. We
+     had 500 pounds of air in the tanks, and it ran the pressure down
+     to 250 pounds to open the door in about thirty feet.
+
+     The temperature fell in the diving compartment to eighty-two
+     degrees after the compressed air was let in.
+
+     Cooked clam fritters and coffee for supper. The spirits of the
+     crew appeared to improve the longer we remained below; the time
+     was spent in catching clams, singing, trying to waltz, playing
+     cards, and writing letters to wives and sweethearts.
+
+     Our only visitors during the day were a couple of black bass that
+     came and looked in at the windows with a great deal of apparent
+     interest.
+
+     In future boats, it will be well to provide a smoking
+     compartment, as most of the crew had their smoking apparatus all
+     ready as soon as we came up.
+
+     Started pumps at 6.20, and arrived at the surface at 6.30. Down
+     altogether ten hours and fifteen minutes. People on pilot boat
+     _Calvert_ thought we were all hands drowned.
+
+The second part of this article was called "A Voyage on the Bottom
+of the Sea." It was written by Ray Stannard Baker, who had been
+fortunate enough to receive an invitation from Mr. Lake to accompany
+him on one of the trips of the _Argonaut_. Any one who has read
+Jules Verne's fascinating story _Twenty Thousand Leagues under the
+Sea_ must be struck immediately with the similarity between Mr.
+Baker's experiences and those of Captain Nemo's guests. It is not at
+all surprising, therefore, to have Mr. Baker tell us that during
+this trip Mr. Lake told him:
+
+     "When I was ten years old, I read Jules Verne's _Twenty Thousand
+     Leagues under the Sea_, and I have been working on submarine
+     boats ever since."
+
+Mr. Baker's record of what he saw and how he felt is not only a
+credit to his keen powers of observation, but also a proof of the
+fact that, in many ways, there was little difference between the
+_Argonaut_ of 1898 and the most up-to-date submarine of to-day. In
+part he says:
+
+     Simon Lake planned an excursion on the bottom of the sea for
+     October 12, 1898. His strange amphibian craft, the _Argonaut_,
+     about which we had been hearing so many marvels, lay off the pier
+     at Atlantic Highlands. Before we were near enough to make out her
+     hulk, we saw a great black letter A, framed of heavy gas-pipe,
+     rising forty feet above the water. A flag rippled from its
+     summit. As we drew nearer, we discovered that there really wasn't
+     any hulk to make out--only a small oblong deck shouldering deep
+     in the water and supporting a slightly higher platform, from
+     which rose what seemed to be a squatty funnel. A moment later we
+     saw that the funnel was provided with a cap somewhat resembling a
+     tall silk hat, the crown of which was represented by a brass
+     binnacle. This cap was tilted back, and as we ran alongside, a
+     man stuck his head up over the rim and sang out, "Ahoy there!"
+
+     A considerable sea was running, but I observed that the
+     _Argonaut_ was planted as firmly in the water as a stone pillar,
+     the big waves splitting over her without imparting any
+     perceptible motion.
+
+     We scrambled up on the little platform, and peered down through
+     the open conning-tower, which we had taken for a funnel, into the
+     depths of the ship below. Wilson had started his gasoline engine.
+
+     Mr. Lake had taken his place at the wheel, and we were going
+     ahead slowly, steering straight across the bay toward Sandy Hook
+     and deeper water. The _Argonaut_ makes about five knots an hour
+     on the surface, but when she gets deep down on the sea bottom,
+     where she belongs, she can spin along more rapidly.
+
+     The _Argonaut_ was slowly sinking under the water. We became
+     momentarily more impressed with the extreme smallness of the
+     craft to which we were trusting our lives. The little platform
+     around the conning-tower on which we stood--in reality the top of
+     the gasoline tank--was scarcely a half dozen feet across, and the
+     _Argonaut_ herself was only thirty-six feet long. Her sides had
+     already faded out of sight, but not before we had seen how
+     solidly they were built--all of steel, riveted and reinforced, so
+     that the wonder grew how such a tremendous weight, when
+     submerged, could ever again be raised.
+
+     I think we made some inquiries about the safety of submarine
+     boats in general. Other water compartments had been flooded, and
+     we had settled so far down that the waves dashed repeatedly over
+     the platform on which we stood--and the conning-tower was still
+     wide open, inviting a sudden engulfing rush of water. "You
+     mustn't confuse the _Argonaut_ with ordinary submarine boats,"
+     said Mr. Lake. "She is quite different and much safer."
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_For Anti-Aircraft Service._]
+
+     He explained that the _Argonaut_ was not only a submarine boat,
+     but much besides. She not only swims either on the surface or
+     beneath it, but she adds to this accomplishment the extraordinary
+     power of diving deep and rolling along the bottom of the sea on
+     wheels. No machine ever before did that. Indeed, the _Argonaut_
+     is more properly a "sea motorcycle" than a "boat." In its
+     invention Mr. Lake elaborated an idea which the United States
+     Patent Office has decided to be absolutely original.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Bain News Service.
+
+_The Latest French Aircraft Gun._]
+
+     We found ourselves in a long, narrow compartment, dimly
+     illuminated by yellowish-green light from the little round, glass
+     windows. The stern was filled with Wilson's gasoline engine and
+     the electric motor, and in front of us toward the bow we could
+     see through the heavy steel doorways of the diver's compartment
+     into the lookout room, where there was a single round eye of
+     light.
+
+     I climbed up the ladder of the conning-tower and looked out
+     through one of the glass ports. My eyes were just even with the
+     surface of the water. A wave came driving and foaming entirely
+     over the top of the vessel, and I could see the curiously
+     beautiful sheen of the bright summit of the water above us. It
+     was a most impressive sight. Mr. Lake told me that in very clear
+     water it was difficult to tell just where the air left off and
+     the water began; but in the muddy bay where we were going down
+     the surface looked like a peculiarly clear, greenish pane of
+     glass moving straight up and down, not forward, as the waves
+     appear to move when looked at from above.
+
+     Now we were entirely under water. The rippling noises that the
+     waves had made in beating against the upper structure of the boat
+     had ceased. As I looked through the thick glass port, the water
+     was only three inches from my eyes, and I could see thousands of
+     dainty, semi-translucent jellyfish floating about as lightly as
+     thistledown. They gathered in the eddy behind the conning-tower
+     in great numbers, bumping up sociably against one another and
+     darting up and down with each gentle movement of the water. And I
+     realized that we were in the domain of the fishes.
+
+     Jim brought the government chart, and Mr. Lake announced that we
+     were heading directly for Sandy Hook and the open ocean. But we
+     had not yet reached the bottom, and John was busily opening
+     valves and letting in more water. I went forward to the little
+     steel cuddy-hole in the extreme prow of the boat, and looked out
+     through the watch-port. The water had grown denser and yellower,
+     and I could not see much beyond the dim outlines of the ship's
+     spar reaching out forward. Jim said that he had often seen fishes
+     come swimming up wonderingly to gaze into the port. They would
+     remain quite motionless until he stirred his head, and then they
+     vanished instantly. Mr. Lake has a remarkable photograph which he
+     took of a visiting fish, and Wilson tells of nurturing a queer
+     flat crab for days in the crevice of one of the view-holes.
+
+     At that moment, I felt a faint jolt, and Mr. Lake said that we
+     were on the bottom of the sea.
+
+     Here we were running as comfortably along the bottom of Sandy
+     Hook Bay as we would ride in a Broadway car, and with quite as
+     much safety. Wilson, who was of a musical turn, was whistling
+     _Down Went McGinty_, and Mr. Lake, with his hands on the
+     pilot-wheel, put in an occasional word about his marvellous
+     invention. On the wall opposite there was a row of dials which
+     told automatically every fact about our condition that the most
+     nervous of men could wish to know. One of them shows the pressure
+     of air in the main compartment of the boat, another registers
+     vacuum, and when both are at zero, Mr. Lake knows that the
+     pressure of the air is normal, the same as it is on the surface,
+     and he tries to maintain it in this condition. There are also a
+     cyclometer, not unlike those used on bicycles, to show how far
+     the boat travels on the wheels; a depth gauge, which keeps us
+     accurately informed as to the depth of the boat in the water, and
+     a declension indicator. By the long finger of the declension dial
+     we could tell whether we were going up hill or down. Once while
+     we were out, there was a sudden, sharp shock, the pointer leaped
+     back, and then quivered steady again. Mr. Lake said that we had
+     probably struck a bit of wreckage or an embankment, but the
+     _Argonaut_ was running so lightly that she had leaped up jauntily
+     and slid over the obstruction.
+
+     We had been keeping our eyes on the depth dial, the most
+     fascinating and interesting of any of the number. It showed that
+     we were going down, down, down, literally down to the sea in a
+     ship. When we had been submerged far more than an hour, and there
+     was thirty feet of yellowish green ocean over our heads, Mr. Lake
+     suddenly ordered the machinery stopped. The clacking noises of
+     the dynamo ceased, and the electric lights blinked out, leaving
+     us at once in almost absolute darkness and silence. Before this,
+     we had found it hard to realize that we were on the bottom of the
+     ocean; now it came upon us suddenly and not without a touch of
+     awe. This absence of sound and light, this unchanging
+     motionlessness and coolness, this absolute negation--that was the
+     bottom of the sea. It lasted only a moment, but in that moment we
+     realized acutely the meaning and joy of sunshine and moving
+     winds, trees, and the world of men.
+
+     A minute light twinkled out like a star, and then another and
+     another, until the boat was bright again, and we knew that among
+     the other wonders of this most astonishing of inventions there
+     was storage electricity which would keep the boat illuminated for
+     hours, without so much as a single turn of the dynamo. With the
+     stopping of the engine, the air supply from above had ceased; but
+     Mr. Lake laid his hand on the steel wall above us, where he said
+     there was enough air compressed to last us all for two days,
+     should anything happen. The possibility of "something happening"
+     had been lurking in our minds ever since we started. "What if
+     your engine should break down, so that you couldn't pump the
+     water out of the water compartments?" I asked. "Here we have
+     hand-pumps," said Mr. Lake promptly; "and if those failed, a
+     single touch of this lever would release our iron keel, which
+     weighs 4000 pounds, and up we would go like a rocket."
+
+     I questioned further, only to find that every imaginable
+     contingency, and some that were not at all imaginable to the
+     uninitiated, had been absolutely provided against by the genius
+     of the inventor. And everything from the gasoline engine to the
+     hand-pump was as compact and ingenious as the mechanism of a
+     watch. Moreover, the boat was not crowded; we had plenty of room
+     to move around and to sleep, if we wished, to say nothing of
+     eating. As for eating, John had brought out the kerosene stove
+     and was making coffee, while Jim cut the pumpkin pie. "This isn't
+     Delmonico's," said Jim, "but we're serving a lunch that
+     Delmonico's couldn't serve--a submarine lunch."
+
+     By this time the novelty was wearing off and we sat there, at the
+     bottom of the sea, drinking our coffee with as much unconcern as
+     though we were in an up-town restaurant. For the first time since
+     we started, Mr. Lake sat down, and we had an opportunity of
+     talking with him at leisure. He is a stout-shouldered, powerfully
+     built man, in the prime of life--a man of cool common sense, a
+     practical man, who is also an inventor. And he talks frankly and
+     convincingly, and yet modestly, of his accomplishment.
+
+     Having finished our lunch, Mr. Lake prepared to show us something
+     about the practical operations of the _Argonaut_. It has been a
+     good deal of a mystery to us how workmen penned up in a submarine
+     boat could expect to recover gold from wrecks in the water
+     outside, or to place torpedoes, or to pick up cables. "We simply
+     open the door, and the diver steps out on the bottom of the sea,"
+     Mr. Lake said, quite as if he was conveying the most ordinary
+     information.
+
+     At first it seemed incredible, but Mr. Lake showed us the heavy,
+     riveted door in the bottom of the diver's compartment. Then he
+     invited us inside with Wilson, who, besides being an engineer, is
+     also an expert diver. The massive steel doors of the little room
+     were closed and barred, and then Mr. Lake turned a cock and the
+     air rushed in under high pressure. At once our ears began to
+     throb, and it seemed as if the drums would burst inward.
+
+     "Keep swallowing," said Wilson, the diver.
+
+     As soon as we applied this remedy, the pain was relieved, but the
+     general sensation of increased air pressure, while exhilarating,
+     was still most uncomfortable. The finger on the pressure dial
+     kept creeping up and up, until it showed that the air pressure
+     inside of the compartment was nearly equal to the water pressure
+     without. Then Wilson opened a cock in the door. Instantly the
+     water gushed in, and for a single instant we expected to be
+     drowned there like rats in a trap. "This is really very simple,"
+     Mr. Lake was saying calmly. "When the pressure within is the same
+     as that without, no water can enter."
+
+     With that, Wilson dropped the iron door, and there was the water
+     and the muddy bottom of the sea within touch of a man's hand. It
+     was all easy enough to understand, and yet it seemed impossible,
+     even as we saw it with our own eyes. Mr. Lake stooped down, and
+     picked up a wooden rod having a sharp hook at the end. This he
+     pulled along the bottom....
+
+     We were now rising again to the surface, after being submerged
+     for more than three hours. I climbed into the conning-tower and
+     watched for the first glimpse of the sunlight. There was a sudden
+     fluff of foam, the ragged edge of a wave, and then I saw, not
+     more than a hundred feet away, a smack bound toward New York
+     under full sail. Her rigging was full of men, gazing curiously in
+     our direction, no doubt wondering what strange monster of the sea
+     was coming forth for a breath of air.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MODERN SUBMARINE
+
+
+Holland and Lake must be considered the fathers of the modern
+submarine. This claim is not made in a spirit of patriotic
+boastfulness, though, of course it is true that the latter was an
+American by birth, and the former by choice, and that, therefore,
+we, as a nation, have a right to be proud of the accomplishments of
+these two fellow-citizens of ours. Without wishing to detract
+anything from the value of the work done by many men in many
+countries towards the development of the submarine after and
+contemporaneously with Holland and Lake, it still remains true that
+the work which these two did formed the foundation on which all
+others built. To-day, no submarine worthy of the name, no matter
+where it has been built and no matter where and how it is used, is
+without some features which are typical of either the Holland or
+Lake type. In many instances, and this is true especially of
+submarines of the highest type and the greatest development, the
+most significant characteristics of the Holland and Lake boats have
+been combined.
+
+During the years that followed the small beginnings of Holland and
+Lake, vast and highly efficient organizations have been built up to
+continue and elaborate their work. Death claimed Mr. Holland shortly
+after the outbreak of the great war, on August 12, 1914. Mr. Lake in
+1917 was still personally connected with and the guiding spirit of
+the extensive industrial establishments which have been created at
+Bridgeport, Conn., as a result of his inventions. He, too,
+surrounded himself with a corps of experts who in co-operation with
+him have brought the Lake submarines to a point of perfection which
+at the time of the _Argonaut's_ first trip would have appeared all
+but impossible.
+
+Roughly speaking, the beginning of the twentieth century may be called
+the turning point in the history of submarine invention and the
+beginning of the modern submarine. Although, as we have heard, various
+governments, especially those of France and the United States,
+interested themselves in the submarine question and appropriated
+small sums of money towards its solution previous to 1900, it was only
+after that year that governmental interest and influence were set to
+work with determination and purpose on behalf of submarine inventors.
+Quite naturally this resulted in increased popular interest.
+Experimental work on and with submarines no longer had to rely
+exclusively on private capital, frequently inconveniently timid and
+limited, but could count now on the vast financial resources of all
+the great nations of the world. This also made available the unlimited
+intellectual resources of serious scientists in every part of the
+universe. Mechanical and electrical engineers, naval designers and
+constructors, active men of finance and business, and quiet thinkers
+and investigators in laboratories began to interest themselves in the
+further development of the submarine.
+
+The United States for a number of years after its adoption of the
+Holland type remained true to its first choice. Between 1900, when
+the first Holland boat was bought by the United States Government,
+and 1911 all the United States submarine, boats were of the Holland
+type. In the latter year, however, it was decided to give the Lake
+boat a trial and since that time a number of boats of this type have
+been built. In all essential features both the Holland and Lake
+boats of later days were very similar to the original boats of these
+two types. In all the details, however, immense progress was made.
+Each new boat thus became greatly superior to its predecessors. This
+was especially true in regard to size and speed and the improvements
+made in these two respects naturally resulted in a corresponding
+increase in radius of activity. The passing years also brought a
+wonderful refinement of all the technical details of the submarine
+boats. Practically every feature was developed to a remarkable
+degree. There is, indeed, a great difference between the submarine
+boats of the early twentieth century which had to rely on their
+conning-tower for steering, and more recent boats with their
+wonderful periscopes and gyro compasses. Similar progress was made
+in the development of the means of propulsion. The engines used for
+surface travelling became more powerful and efficient. This was also
+true of the electric motors, batteries, and accumulators employed
+in the submerged state. The problem of ventilation likewise has been
+worked out to such an extent that in the most modern submarines most
+of the inconveniences experienced by the crews of earlier boats have
+been removed. This perfection of technical details which was thus
+gradually approached also permitted a very considerable increase in
+the fighting power of submarine boats. The number of torpedo tubes
+was increased and it became possible to carry a larger reserve stock
+of torpedoes. Submarines of to-day furthermore carry guns varying in
+calibre, attaining in some instances four inches, and when in later
+years it became evident that one of the most dangerous enemies of
+the submarine was the airplane, some of the boats were equipped even
+with anti-aircraft guns.
+
+[Illustration: Copyright by Munn & Co., Inc. From the _Scientific
+American_.
+
+_Modern German Airplane Types._]
+
+In the United States Navy the submarine has never been popular.
+Indeed it is by no means certain that in comparison with other
+navies of the world the United States was not better off in
+underwater boats in 1911 than she was three years later when the
+warcloud broke. The bulk of our naval opinion has always been for
+the dreadnoughts. A change of political administration at Washington
+in 1912 gave a temporary setback to naval development, and the
+submarines, being still a matter of controversy, languished. Few
+were built and of those few many showed such structural weakness
+that the reports of their manoeuvres were either suppressed, or
+issued in terms of such broad generality that the public could by no
+possibility suspect, what all the Navy knew to be the fact, that the
+submarine flotilla of the United States was weak to the point of
+impotence.
+
+Happily we had nearly three years in which to observe the progress
+of the war before becoming ourselves embroiled in it. During this
+period our submarine fleet was somewhat increased, and upon our
+actual entrance upon the struggle a feverish race was begun to put
+us on an equality with other nations in underwater boats. It would
+have been too late had any emergency arisen. But Germany had no
+ships afloat to be attacked by our submarines had we possessed them.
+Her own warfare upon our merchant shipping could not be met in kind,
+for submarines cannot fight submarines. We have, therefore, up to
+the present time, not suffered from the perilous neglect with which
+we long treated this form of naval weapon.
+
+Indeed the submarine fleet of the United States Navy at the
+beginning of the war was so inconsiderable that foreign writers on
+the subject ignored it. In 1900 we had purchased nine of the type of
+submarines then put out by the Holland Company. One of these, the
+first in actual service, known as the "Baby" Holland was kept in
+commission ten years and upon becoming obsolete was honoured by
+being taken in state to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and there
+mounted on a pedestal for the admiration of all comers. She was 59
+feet long and would make a striking exhibit placed next to one of
+the new German submersible cruisers which exceed 300 feet and have a
+displacement of 5000 tons. These first Holland ships which long
+constituted the entire underwater force of the United States were
+but trivial affairs compared with the modern vessel. Their
+displacement was but 122 tons, their engines for surface navigation
+were of 160 horse-power, gasoline, and for underwater navigation 70
+horse-power, electric. They carried but one torpedo tube and two
+extra torpedoes and had a radius of action of but 300 miles. At that
+time in fact the naval theory was that submarines were coast defence
+vessels altogether. After this war they are likely to form part of
+the first battle line of every navy. Yet these pioneer vessels
+established their seaworthiness well in 1911, when four of them
+accompanied by a parent ship to supply them with fresh stocks of
+fuel and to render assistance in case of need, crossed the Pacific
+Ocean under their own power to the Philippines. This exploit tended
+to popularize these craft in the Navy Department, and soon after
+larger vessels known as the "Viper" class were ordered. One of these
+was called the _Octopus_, the first submarine to be fitted with twin
+screws. In many ways she represented a distinct advance in the art
+of submarine construction. She was in fact the first vessel built
+with the distinct idea of being a cruising, as well as a harbour
+defence ship. Her type proved successful in this respect. The
+_Octopus_ further established a record for deep sea submergence in
+1907 when she descended to a depth of 205 feet off Boston, returning
+to the surface in entire safety.
+
+The ability to withstand the pressure of the water at great depths
+is a vital quality of a successful submarine. One American submarine
+narrowly escaped destruction because of structural weakness in this
+respect. She had by accident descended a few feet below the normal
+depth at which such boats navigate. The water pressure affected the
+valves which refused to work and the vessel slowly sank deeper and
+deeper. At a recorded depth of 123 feet the sinking of the vessel
+became so much more rapid that the crew with frantic endeavours
+sought at once to stop the leaks and pump out the water which had
+entered. At that depth there was a pressure of 153-1/2 pounds upon
+every square inch of the surface of the submarine. This the workers
+at the one hand pump had to overcome. It was a savage and a
+desperate struggle but the men finally won and the vessel regained
+the surface. As a result of this experience every navy prescribed
+submergence tests for its submarines before putting them into
+commission. How to make these tests was perplexing at first. A
+government did not want to send men down in a steel casket to see
+just how far they could go before it collapsed. But if no observer
+accompanied the ship it would be impossible to tell at what depth
+leakage and other signs of weakness became apparent. An Italian
+naval architect, Major Laurenti, whose submarines are now found in
+every navy of the world, invented a dock in which these tests can be
+made up to any desired pressure while the observers inside the
+submarine are in communication with those without and the pressure
+can be instantly removed if signs of danger appear. In the United
+States Navy boats to be accepted must stand a pressure equivalent to
+that encountered at 200 feet. In the German navy the depth
+prescribed is 170 feet. Under normal conditions submarines seldom
+travel at a depth of more than 100 feet although the "F-1" of the
+United States Navy accomplished the remarkable feat of making a
+six-hour cruise in San Francisco Bay at a depth of 283 feet. At this
+depth the skin of the ship has to withstand a pressure of no less
+than 123 pounds per square inch.
+
+Specific information as to the nature of submarine construction in
+the United States since the beginning of the war in 1914 is
+jealously guarded by the Navy Department. In broad general terms the
+number of ships under construction is revealed to the public, but
+all information as to the size of individual vessels, their armour
+or the qualities of novelty with which every one hopes and believes
+American inventive genius has invested them, are kept secret. The
+_Navy Year Book of 1916_ summarized our submarine strength at that
+time as follows:
+
+                                               _Displacement_
+
+  Submarines fit for action                42   15,722 Tons
+     "       under construction            33   21,093  "
+     "       authorized and appropriated
+             for                           30   22,590  "
+                                          ---   ------
+             Total                        105   59,405  "
+
+In addition thirty-seven more had been authorized by Congress
+without the appropriation of money for them. By this time however
+these appropriations have been made together with further heavy
+ones. While figures are refused at the Navy Department, it is
+declared that while the United States in 1914 was the last of the
+great powers in respect to submarine strength provided for, it is
+now well up to the foremost, even to Germany.
+
+Great Britain like the United States continued for many years to
+build submarines of the Holland type. Naturally all the recent
+improvements were incorporated in the British boats. Very little,
+however, is known concerning the details of the more recent
+additions to the British submarine flotilla because of the secrecy
+maintained by the British authorities in war time.
+
+At the beginning of the present war, the British navy possessed 82
+active submarines of 5 different classes. They were all of the
+Holland type, but in each class there were incorporated vast
+improvements over the preceding class. Displacement, size, motive
+power, speed, radius of action, and armament were gradually
+increased until the "E" class contained boats possessing the
+following features: Submerged displacement, 800 tons; length 176
+feet; beam 22-1/2 feet; heavy oil engines of 2000 H.-P.; electric
+engines of 800 H.-P.; surface speed 16 knots; submerged speed 10
+knots; cruising range 5000 miles; armament: 4 torpedo tubes, space
+for 6 torpedoes, and two 3-inch quick-firing, high-angle,
+disappearing guns; armoured conning-towers and decks; wireless
+equipment; 3 panoramic periscopes.
+
+At the same time 22 other submarines were said to be in course of
+construction. Some of these were of the "F" class (Holland type),
+similar to the "E" class except that every single characteristic had
+been greatly increased, in many instances even doubled. In addition
+to the "F" class Holland-type boats, there were also under
+construction a number of boats of different types designated
+respectively as "V," "W," and "S" class. The "V" class were of the
+Lake type, the "W" of the French "Laubeuf" type, and the "S" class
+of the Italian "F. I. A. T." or Laurenti type; both of the last
+named were adaptations of the Lake type.
+
+France, which was for many years the prodigal of the nations when it
+came to submarine building has continued this tendency. In a way
+this liberal expenditure of money did not pay particularly well.
+For, although it resulted in the creation of a comparatively large
+submarine fleet, this fleet contained boats of every kind and
+description. Quite a number of the boats were little more than
+experiments and possessed not a great deal of practical value. The
+manning and efficient handling of a fleet having so little
+homogeneity naturally was a difficult matter and seriously
+restricted its fighting efficiency.
+
+At the outbreak of the war France had 92 submarines in active
+service, belonging to 12 different classes. In addition there had
+also been built at various times 5 experimental boats which had been
+named: _Argonaute_, _Amiral Bourgeoise_, _Archimède_, _Mariotte_,
+and _Charles Brun_. The majority of the boats belonging to the
+various classes were of the Laubeuf type, an adaptation of the Lake
+type made for the French navy by M. Laubeuf, a marine engineer. In
+their various details these boats vary considerably. Their
+displacement ranges from 67 tons to 1000 tons, their length from 100
+feet to 240 feet, their beam from 12 feet to 20 feet, their surface
+speed from 8-1/2 knots to 17 1/2 knots, their submerged speed from 5
+knots to 12 knots, the horse-power of their heavy oil engines from
+1300 to 2000 and that of their electric motors from 350 to 900. Some
+of the boats, however, have steam engines, others gasoline motors,
+and still others steam turbines. The cruising range of the biggest
+and newest boats is 4000 miles. Armament varies with size, of
+course, the latest boats carrying 4 torpedo tubes for eight 18-inch
+torpedoes and two 14-pdr. quick-firing, high angle, disappearing
+guns.
+
+Nine more submarines were in course of construction at the outbreak
+of war, most of which were of the improved "Gustave Zédé" class.
+During the war French shipyards were chiefly occupied with capital
+navy ships and it is not thought the submarine strength has been
+much increased.
+
+Of the great naval powers, Germany was, strangely enough, the last to
+become interested in the building of a submarine fleet. This, however,
+was not due to any neglect on the part of the German naval
+authorities. It is quite evident from the few official records which
+are available that they watched and studied very carefully the
+development of the submarine and growth of the various submarine
+fleets. During the early years of the twentieth century, however, the
+Germans seemed to think that most of the boats that were being built
+then had not yet passed through the experimental stage and they also
+apparently decided that it would be just as well to wait until other
+nations had spent their money and efforts on these quasi experimental
+boats. Not until submarines had been built in the United States,
+England, and France which had proved beyond all doubt that they were
+practicable vessels of definite accomplishments, did the Germans
+seriously concern themselves with the creation of a German submarine
+fleet. When this period had been reached they went ahead with full
+power, and with the usual German thoroughness they adopted the best
+points from each of the various types developed by that time. The
+result of this attitude was a submarine boat built at first
+exclusively by Krupp and known as the "Germania" type. It was this
+type which formed the basis of the German submarine which has become
+known so extensively and disastrously during recent years. In most
+respects this type is perhaps more similar to the Lake type than to
+any other, although some features of the Holland type have been
+incorporated as well.
+
+At the beginning of the war Germany was credited with only thirty
+submarines. Six more were then rapidly approaching completion and
+the German naval law passed some time before provided for the
+building of seventy-two submarines by the end of 1917. It is
+believed in fact that by that time the Germans had not less than two
+hundred _Unterseeboots_.
+
+From the very beginning the Germans have designated their submarines
+by the letter "U" (standing for _Unterseeboot_) followed by numbers.
+The first boat was built in 1905 and was named "U-1." It was a
+comparatively small boat of 236 tons displacement. The motive power
+on the surface was a heavy-oil engine of 250 H.-P. Under water the
+boat was driven by electric motors of a little more than 100 H.-P.
+Submerged the "U-1" was capable of a speed of 7 knots only, which on
+the surface of the water could be increased to 10. Her radius of
+action was about 750 miles. Only one torpedo tube had been provided.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by the British._]
+
+From this boat to the modern German submarine was indeed a long step
+taken in a comparatively short time. Not very much is known
+regarding modern German submarines, but the latest boats completed
+before the war were vessels of 900 tons displacement with heavy-oil
+engines of 2000 H.-P. and electric motors of 900 H.-P., possessing a
+surface and submerged speed of 18 and 10 knots respectively and a
+cruising radius of 4000 miles. They had four torpedo tubes for eight
+torpedoes, two 14-pdr. quick-firing guns, and two 1-pdr. high-angle
+anti-aircraft guns. Naturally they were also equipped with all the
+latest improvements, such as wireless apparatus, panoramic
+periscopes, armoured conning-towers, and decks. Since the outbreak
+of the war the Germans have built even more powerful submarine boats
+whose perfections in regard to speed, radius of action and armament
+became known through their accomplishments. Of these we will hear
+more in a later chapter.
+
+At just what period of the war the Germans woke up to the vital
+importance to them of an enormous submarine fleet is not known. It
+may have been immediately upon the amazing exploit of Captain
+Weddigen in the North Sea. At any rate the war had not long
+progressed before the destruction caused by German submarine attacks
+began to awaken the apprehension of the Allies and neutral nations.
+Retaliation in kind was impossible. The Germans had neither
+merchant nor naval ships at sea to be sunk. The rapidity with which
+the volume of the loss inflicted upon merchant shipping grew
+indicated an equally rapid increase in the size of the German
+underwater fleet. Neutrals were enraged by the extension by the
+Germans of the areas of sea in which they claimed the right to sink
+neutral ships, and their growing disregard for the restraining
+principles of international law. How greatly they developed the
+submarine idea was shown by their construction in 1916 of vessels
+with a displacement of 2400 tons; a length of 279 feet, and a beam
+of 26 feet; a surface speed of 22 knots, cruising radius of 6500
+miles, mounting 4 to 8 guns and carrying a crew of from 40 to 60.
+But it was reported that two vessels designed primarily for surface
+cruising, but nevertheless submersible at will, had been laid down
+of 5000 tons, a length of 414 feet, and a radius of 18,000 to 20,000
+miles. These "submersible cruisers" as they were called, mounted 6
+to 8 guns, 30 torpedo tubes, and carried 90 torpedoes. What part
+vessels of this type shall play in war is still to be determined.
+
+Of the smaller naval powers, Italy comparatively early had become
+interested in the building of submarines. Most of her boats are of
+the Laurenti type--which is a very close adaptation of the Lake
+type. Russia and Japan, especially the latter, built up fairly
+efficient underwater fleets. The lesser countries, like Austria,
+Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Spain have concerned
+themselves seriously with the creation of submarine fleets. The
+submarine boats of all of these countries in most instances were
+either of the Lake or Holland type though frequently they were built
+from plans of English, French or German adaptations rather than in
+accordance with the original American plans.
+
+The exact number of submarines possessed now by the various navies
+of the world is a matter of rather indefinite knowledge. Great
+secrecy has been maintained by every country in this respect. From a
+variety of sources, however, it has been possible to compile the
+following list which at least gives an approximate idea of the
+respective strength of the various submarine fleets at the beginning
+of the war. The numbers assigned to each country are only
+approximate, however, and include both boats then in existence or
+ordered built: United States 57; Great Britain 104; France 92;
+Germany 36; Italy 28; Russia 40; Japan 15; Austria 12; Holland 13;
+Denmark 15; Sweden 13; Norway 4; Greece 2; Turkey 2; Brazil 3; Peru
+2.
+
+Having traced the development of the submarine from its earliest
+beginnings to recent times we are naturally now confronted with the
+question "What are the principal requirements and characteristics of
+the modern submarine?"
+
+The submarine boat of to-day, in order to do its work promptly and
+efficiently, must first of all possess seaworthiness. This means
+that no matter whether the sea is quiet or rough the submarine must
+be able to execute its operations with a fair degree of accuracy and
+promptness and must also be capable of making continuous headway.
+Surface and underwater navigation must be possible with equal
+facility and it is necessary that a state of submergence can be
+reached without loss of time and without any degree of danger to the
+boat's safety. At all times, travelling above water or below, the
+submarine must possess mechanical means which will make it possible
+to control its evolutions under all conditions. Furthermore, the
+ability of the submarine to find and to observe objects in its
+vicinity must not be greatly reduced when it is in a submerged
+position. In the latter it also becomes of extreme importance that
+the provisions for ventilation are such that the crew of the
+submarine should lose as little as possible in its efficiency and
+comfort. A fair amount of speed both on and below the surface of the
+water is essential and the maintenance of the speed for a fairly
+long period of time must be assured.
+
+In regard to their general outward appearance, submarines of various
+types to-day vary comparatively little. In many respects they
+resemble closely in shape, torpedo boats--the earlier submarines
+particularly. In size, of course, they differ in accordance with the
+purposes for which they have been designed. As compared with earlier
+submarines the most notable difference is that modern submarines
+possess more of a superstructure. Almost all of them are built now
+with double hulls. The space between the outer and the inner hull is
+utilized primarily for ballast tanks by means of which submergence
+is accomplished and stability maintained and regulated. Some of
+these tanks, however, are not used to carry water ballast, but serve
+as reservoirs for the fuel needed by the engines. The stability of
+the submarine and the facility with which it can submerge also
+depend greatly on the distribution of weight of its various parts.
+This problem has been worked out in such a way that to-day there is
+little room for improvement. Its details, however, are of too
+technical a nature to permit discussion in this place.
+
+Hydroplanes both fore and aft are now generally used to assist in
+regulating and controlling stability in the submerged state. The
+motive power of the modern submarine is invariably of a two-fold
+type. For travelling on the surface internal combustion engines are
+used. The gasoline engine of former years has been displaced by
+Diesel motors or adaptations of them. Although these represent a
+wonderful advance over the engines used in the past there is still a
+great deal of room for improvement. The opinions of engineers in
+this respect vary greatly, American opinion being generally
+unfavourable to the Diesel type, and whether the final solution of
+this problem will lie in the direction of a more highly developed
+motor of Diesel type, of an improved gasoline engine, or of some
+other engine not yet developed, only the future can tell. Simplicity
+of construction and reliability of operation are the two essential
+features which must be possessed by every part of the power plant of
+a submarine. For underwater travel electric motors and storage
+batteries are employed exclusively. These vary, of course, in
+detail. In principle, however, they are very much alike. Although
+this combination of electric and oil power is largely responsible
+for having made the submarine what it is to-day, it is far from
+perfect. Mechanical complications of many kinds and difficulties of
+varying degrees result from it. Up to comparatively recently these
+were considered insurmountable obstacles. But engineers all over the
+world are giving their most serious attention to the problem of
+devising a way to remove these obstacles and continuous progress is
+made by them.
+
+As an immediate result of the development of motive power in the
+submarine its speed both on and below the surface of the water as
+well as its radius of action has been materially increased. To-day
+submarines travel on the water with a speed which even a few years
+ago would have been thought quite respectable for the most powerful
+battleships or the swiftest passenger liners. And even under water,
+submarines attain a velocity which is far superior to that of which
+earlier submarines were capable on the surface of the water. How
+immensely extended the radius of action of the submarine has become
+in recent years, has impressed itself on the world especially in the
+last few years. Both English and French submarines have travelled
+without making any stops from their home ports to the Dardanelles
+and back again. And used to, and satiated as we are with mechanical
+wonders of all kinds the whole world was amazed when in 1916 German
+submarines made successful trips from their home ports to ports in
+the United States and returned with equal success. This meant a
+minimum radius of action of 3500 miles. In the case of the German
+U-boat which in 1916 appeared at Newport for a few hours, then
+attacked and sank some merchantmen off the United States coast and
+later was reported as having arrived safely in a German port, it has
+never been established whether the boat renewed its supplies of food
+and fuel on the way or carried enough to make the trip of some 7000
+miles.
+
+One other important feature without which submarines would have
+found it impossible to score such accomplishments is the periscope.
+In the beginning periscopes were rather crude appliances. They were
+very weak and sprung leaks frequently. Moisture, formed by
+condensation, made them practically useless. In certain positions
+the image of the object picked up by the periscope became inverted.
+Their radius of vision was limited, and in every way they proved
+unreliable and unsatisfactory. But, just as almost every feature of
+submarine construction was gradually developed and most every
+technical obstacle overcome, experts gradually concentrated their
+efforts on the improvement of periscopes. Modern periscopes are
+complicated optical instruments which have been developed to a very
+high point of efficiency. A combination of prisms and lenses makes
+it possible now to see true images clearly. Appliances have been
+developed to make the rotation of the periscope safe, prompt, and
+easy so that the horizon can be swept readily in every direction.
+Magnification can be established at will by special devices easily
+connected or disconnected with the regular instrument. The range of
+vision of the modern periscope is as remarkable as its other
+characteristics. It differs, of course, in proportion to the height
+to which the periscope is elevated above the surface of the water.
+In clear weather a submarine, having elevated its periscope to a
+height of 20 feet can pick up a large battleship at as great a
+distance as 6 miles, while observers on the latter, even if equipped
+with the most powerful optical instruments, are absolutely unable to
+detect the submarine. This great distance is reduced to about 4000
+yards if the periscope is only 3 feet above the surface of the water
+and to about 2200 yards if the elevation of the periscope is 1 foot.
+But even the highly developed periscope of to-day, usually called
+"panoramic periscope," has its limitations. The strain on the
+observer's eyes is very severe and can be borne only for short
+periods. In dirty weather the objectives become cloudy and the
+images are rendered obscure and indefinite, although this trouble
+has been corrected, at least in part, by forcing a strong blast
+through the rim surrounding the observation glass. At night, of
+course, the periscope is practically useless. Formerly a shot which
+cut off the periscope near the water's edge might sink the boat.
+This has been guarded against by cutting off the tube with a heavy
+plate of transparent glass which does not obstruct vision but shuts
+off the entrance of water.
+
+Important as the periscope is both as a means of observing the
+surroundings of the submarine and as a guide in steering it, it is
+not the only means of accomplishing the latter purpose. To-day every
+submarine possesses the most reliable type of compass available. At
+night when the periscope is practically useless or in very rough
+weather, or in case the periscope has been damaged or destroyed,
+steering is done exclusively by means of the compass. The latest
+type in use now on submarines is called the gyroscope compass which
+is a highly efficient and reliable instrument.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Exterior of First German Submarine._]
+
+In the matter of ventilation the modern submarine also has reached a
+high state of perfection. The fresh air supply is provided and
+regulated in such a manner that most of the discomforts suffered by
+submarine crews in times past have been eliminated. The grave danger
+which formerly existed as a result of the poisonous fumes, emanating
+from the storage batteries and accumulators, has been reduced to a
+minimum. In every respect, except that of space, conditions of life
+in a submarine have been brought to a point where they can be
+favourably compared with those of boats navigated on the surface of
+the water. Of course, even at the best, living quarters in a
+submarine will always be cramped. However, it is so important that
+submarine crews should be continuously kept on a high plane of
+efficiency that they are supplied with every conceivable comfort
+permitted by the natural limitations of submarine construction.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Interior of First German Submarine. Showing Appliances for
+Man-Power._]
+
+Submarine boats so far have been used almost exclusively as
+instruments of warfare. One of their most important features,
+therefore, naturally is their armament. We have already heard
+something about the use of torpedoes by submarines. The early
+submarines had as a rule only one torpedo tube and were incapable of
+carrying more than two or three torpedoes. Gradually, however, both
+the number of torpedo tubes and of torpedoes was increased. The
+latest types have as many as eight or ten tubes and carry enough
+torpedoes to permit them to stay away from their base for several
+weeks. In recent years submarines have also been armed with guns.
+Naturally these have to be of light weight and small calibre. They
+are usually mounted so that they can be used at a high angle. This
+is done in order to make it possible for submarines to defend
+themselves against attacks from airships. The mountings of these
+guns are constructed in such a way that the guns themselves
+disappear immediately after discharge and are not visible while not
+in use. Though mounted on deck they are aimed and fired from below.
+As part of the armament of the submarine we must also consider the
+additional protection which they receive from having certain
+essential parts protected by armour plate.
+
+All these features have increased the safety of submarine navigation
+to a great extent. In spite of the popular impression that submarine
+navigation entailed a greater number of danger factors than
+navigation on the surface of the water, this is not altogether so.
+If we stop to consider this subject we can readily see why rather
+the opposite should be true. Navigation under the surface of the
+water greatly reduces the possibility of collision and also the
+dangers arising from rough weather. For the results of the latter
+are felt to a much lesser degree below than on the surface of the
+water. Many other factors are responsible for the comparatively high
+degree of safety inherent in submarines. Up to the outbreak of the
+present war only about two hundred and fifty lives had been lost as
+a result to accidents to modern submarines. Considering that up to
+1910 a great deal of submarine navigation was more or less
+experimental this is a record which can bear favourable comparison
+with similar records established by overwater navigation or by
+navigation in the air.
+
+To the average man the thought of imprisonment in a steel tube
+beneath the surface of the sea, and being suddenly deprived of all
+means of bringing it up to air and light is a terrifying and nerve
+shattering thing. It is probably the first consideration which
+suggests itself to one asked to make a submarine trip. Always the
+newspaper headlines dealing with a submarine disaster speak of those
+lost as "drowned like rats in a trap." Men will admit that the
+progress of invention has greatly lessened the danger of accident to
+submarines, but nevertheless sturdily insist that when the accident
+does happen the men inside have no chance of escape.
+
+As a matter of fact many devices have been applied to the modern
+submarine to meet exactly this contingency. Perhaps nothing is more
+effective than the so-called telephone buoy installed in our Navy
+and in some of those of Europe. This is a buoy lightly attached to
+the outer surface of the boat, containing a telephone transmitter
+and receiver connected by wire with a telephone within. In the event
+of an accident this buoy is released and rises at once to the
+surface. A flag attached attracts the attention of any craft that
+may be in the neighbourhood and makes immediate communication with
+those below possible. Arrangements can then be made for raising the
+boat or towing her to some point at which salvage is possible. An
+instance of the value of this device was given by the disaster to
+the German submarine "U-3" which was sunk at Kiel in 1910. Through
+the telephone the imprisoned crew notified those at the other end
+that they had oxygen enough for forty-eight hours but that the work
+of rescue must be completed in that time. A powerful floating
+derrick grappled the sunken submarine and lifted its bow above
+water. Twenty-seven of the imprisoned crew crept out through the
+torpedo tubes. The captain and two lieutenants conceived it their
+duty to stay with the ship until she was actually saved. In the
+course of the operations one of the ventilators was broken, the
+water rushed in and all three were drowned.
+
+In some of the Holland ships of late construction there is an
+ingenious, indeed an almost incredible device by which the ship
+takes charge of herself if the operators or crew are incapacitated.
+It has happened that the shock of a collision has so stunned the men
+cooped up in the narrow quarters of a submarine that they are for
+quite an appreciable time unable to attend to their duties. Such a
+collision would naturally cause the boat to leak and to sink. In
+these newer Holland ships an automatic device causes the ship, when
+she has sunk to a certain depth, registered of course by automatic
+machinery, to start certain apparatus which empties the ballast
+tanks and starts the pumps which will empty the interior of the ship
+if it has become flooded. The result is that after a few minutes of
+this automatic work, whether the crew has sufficiently recovered to
+take part in it or not, the boat will rise to the surface.
+
+This extraordinary invention is curiously reminiscent of the fact
+chronicled in earlier chapters of this book that the most modern
+airplanes are so built that should the aviator become insensible or
+incapacitated for his work, if he will but drop the controls, the
+machine will adjust itself and make its own landing in safety.
+Unaided the airplane drops lightly to earth; unaided the submarine
+rises buoyantly to the air.
+
+In recent years there have been developed special ships for the
+salvage of damaged or sunk submarines. At the same time the navies
+of the world have also produced special submarine tenders or mother
+ships. The purpose of these is to supply a base which can keep on
+the move with the same degree of facility which the submarine itself
+possesses. These tenders are equipped with air compressors by means
+of which the air tanks of submarines can be refilled. Electric
+generators make it possible to replenish the submarine storage
+batteries. Mechanical equipment permits the execution of repairs to
+the submarine's machinery and equipment. Extra fuel, substitute
+parts for the machinery, spare torpedoes are carried by these
+tenders. The most modern of them are even supplied with dry dock
+facilities, powerful cranes, and sufficiently strong armament to
+repel attacks from boats of the type most frequently encountered by
+submarines.
+
+There are, of course, many other special appliances which make up
+the sum total of a modern submarine's equipment. Electricity is used
+for illuminating all parts of the boat. Heat is supplied in the same
+manner; this is a very essential feature because the temperature of
+a submarine, after a certain period of submergence, becomes
+uncomfortably low. Electricity is also used for cooking purposes.
+
+Every submarine boat built to-day is equipped with wireless
+apparatus. Naturally it is only of limited range varying from one
+hundred and twenty to one hundred and eighty miles, but even at that
+it is possible for a submarine to send messages to its base or some
+other given point from a considerable distance by relay. If the
+submarine is running on the surface of the water the usual means of
+naval communication-flag signals, wig-wagging or the semaphore, can
+be employed. The submarine bell is another means for signalling. It
+is really a wireless telephone, operating through the water instead
+of the air. Up to the present, however, it has not been sufficiently
+developed to permit its use for any great distance. It is so
+constructed that it can also be used as a sound detector.
+
+Some submarines, besides being equipped with torpedo tubes, carry
+other tubes for laying mines. In most instances this is only a
+secondary function of the submarine. There are, however, special
+mine-laying submarines. Others, especially of the Lake type, have
+diving compartments which permit the employment of divers for the
+purpose of planting or taking up mines.
+
+Disappearing anchors, operated by electricity from within the boat,
+are carried. They are used for steadying the boat if it is desired
+to keep it for any length of time on the bottom of the sea in a
+current.
+
+From this necessarily brief description it can be seen readily that
+the modern submarine boat is a highly developed, but very
+complicated mechanism. Naturally it requires a highly trained,
+extremely efficient crew. The commanding officers must be men of
+strong personality, keen intellect, high mechanical efficiency, and
+quick judgment. The gradual increase in size has brought a
+corresponding increase in the number of a submarine's crew. A decade
+ago from 8 to 10 officers and men were sufficient but to-day we hear
+of submarine crews that number anywhere from 25 to 40.
+
+In spite of the marvellous advances which have been made in the
+construction, equipment, and handling of the submarine during the
+last ten years, perfection in many directions is still a long way
+off. How soon it will be reached, if ever, and by what means, are,
+of course, questions which only the future can answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ABOARD A SUBMARINE
+
+
+Submarines have been compared to all kinds of things, from a fish to
+a cigar. Life on them has been described in terms of the highest
+elation as well as of the deepest depression. Their operation and
+navigation, according to some claims, require a veritable
+combination of mechanical, electrical, and naval genius--not only on
+the part of the officers, but even on that of the simplest
+oiler--while others make it appear as if a submarine was at least as
+simple to handle as a small motor boat. The truth concerning all
+these matters lies somewhere between these various extremes.
+
+It is quite true that except on the very latest "submerged cruisers"
+built by the Germans, the space for the men operating a submarine is
+painfully straitened. They must hold to their positions almost like
+a row of peas in a pod. From this results the gravest strain upon
+the nerves so that it has been found in Germany that after a cruise
+a period of rest of equal duration is needed to restore the men to
+their normal condition. Before assignment to submarine duty, too, a
+special course of training is requisite. Submarine crews are not
+created in a day.
+
+What the interior of the new German submarines with a length of 280
+feet, and a beam of 26 feet may be, no man of the Anglo-Saxon race
+may know or tell. The few who have descended into those mysterious
+depths will have no chance to tell of them until the war is over.
+Nor is it possible during wartimes to secure descriptions even of
+our own underwater boats. But the interior of the typical submarine
+may be imagined as in size and shape something like an unusually
+long street car. Along the sides, where seats would normally be, are
+packed wheels, cylinders, motors, pumps, machinery of all imaginable
+kinds and some of it utterly unimaginable to the lay observer. The
+whole interior is painted white and bathed in electric light. The
+casual visitor from "above seas" is dazed by the array of machinery
+and shrinks as he walks the narrow aisle lest he become entangled in
+it.
+
+Running on the surface the submarine chamber is filled with a roar
+and clatter like a boiler shop in full operation. The Diesel engines
+are compact and powerful, but the racket they make more nearly
+corresponds to their power than to their size. On the surface too
+the boat rolls and pitches and the stranger passenger, unequipped
+with sea legs grabs for support as the subway rider reaches for a
+strap on the curves. But let the order come to submerge. The Diesels
+are stopped. The electric motors take up the task, spinning
+noiselessly in their jackets. In a moment or two all rolling ceases.
+One can hardly tell whether the ship is moving at all--it might for
+all its motion tells be resting quietly on the bottom. If you could
+disabuse your mind for a moment of the recollection that you were in
+a great steel cigar heavy laden with explosives, and deep under the
+surface of the sea you would find the experience no more exciting
+than a trip through the Pennsylvania tubes. But there is something
+uncanny about the silence.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_A Torpedo Designed by Fulton._]
+
+Go forward to the conical compartment at the very bow. There you
+will find the torpedo chamber for the submarine, like the cigar to
+which it is so often compared, carries its fire at its front tip.
+The most common type of boat will have two or four torpedo tubes in
+this chamber. The more modern ones will have a second torpedo
+chamber astern with the same number of tubes and carry other
+torpedoes on deck which by an ingenious device can be launched from
+their outside cradles by mechanism within the boat. In the torpedo
+chamber are twice as many spare torpedoes as there are tubes, made
+fast along the sides. Here too the anchor winch stands with the
+cable attached to the anchor outside the boat and an automatic knife
+which cuts the cable should the anchor be fouled.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Method of Attack by Nautilus._]
+
+Immediately aft of the torpedo chamber, cut off by a water-tight
+partition, is the battery compartment. It gets its name because of
+the fact, that beneath the deck which is full of traps readily
+raised are the electric storage batteries of anywhere from 60 to 260
+cells according to the size of the boat. This room is commonly used
+as the loafing place for the crew, being regarded as very spacious
+and empty. In it are nothing but the electric stove, the kitchen
+sink, the various lockers for food and all the housekeeping
+apparatus of the submarine. Mighty trim and compact they all are.
+The builder of twentieth century flats with his kitchenettes and his
+in-door beds might learn a good deal from a study of the smaller
+type of submarine. Next aft come the officers' staterooms, rather
+smaller than prison cells, each holding a bunk, a bureau, and a
+desk. Each holds also a good deal of moisture, for the greatest
+discomfort in submarine life comes from the fact that everything is
+dripping with the water resulting from the constant condensation of
+the air within.
+
+The great compartment amidships given over to machinery is a place
+to test the nerves. The aisle down the centre is scarcely two feet
+wide and on each side are whirling wheels, engines, and electric
+motors. Only the photographs can give a clear idea of the crowded
+appearance of this compartment. It contains steering wheels, the
+gyroscopic compass, huge valves, dials showing depth of submergence,
+Kingston levers, motor controllers, all polished and shining, each
+doing its work and each easily thrown out of gear by an ignorant
+touch.
+
+The author once spending the night on a United States man-of-war was
+shown by the captain to his own cabin, that officer occupying the
+admiral's cabin for the time. At the head of the bunk were two small
+electric push buttons absolutely identical in appearance and about
+two inches apart. "Push this button," said the captain genially, "if
+you want the Jap boy to bring you shaving water or anything else.
+But be sure to push the right one. If you push the other you will
+call the entire crew to quarters at whatever hour of night the bell
+may ring."
+
+The possibility of mistaking the button rested heavily on the
+writer's nerves all night. A somewhat similar feeling comes over one
+who walks the narrow path down the centre of the machinery
+compartment of a submarine. He seems hedged about by mysterious
+apparatus a touch of which, or even an accidental jostle may release
+powerful and even murderous forces.
+
+While the submarine is under way, submerged, the operator at every
+piece of individual machinery stands at its side ready for action.
+Here are the gunner's mates at the diving rudder. They watch
+steadily a big gauge on which a needle which shows how deep the boat
+is sinking. When the required depth is reached swift turns of two
+big brass wheels set the horizontal rudders that check the descent
+and keep the boat on an even keel. Other men stand at the levers of
+the Kingston valves which, when open, flood the ballast tanks with
+water and secure the submergence of the boat. Most of the underwater
+boats to-day sink rapidly on an even keel. The old method of
+depressing the nose of the boat so as to make a literal dive has
+been abandoned, partly because of the inconvenience it caused to the
+men within who suddenly found the floor on which they were standing
+tilted at a sharp angle, and partly because the diving position
+proved to be a dangerous one for the boat.
+
+In the early days of the submarines the quarters for the men were
+almost intolerable. The sleeping accommodations were cramped and
+there was no place for the men off duty to lounge and relax from the
+strain of constant attention to duty. Man cannot keep his body in a
+certain fixed position even though it be not rigid, for many hours.
+This is shown as well at the base ball grounds at the end of the
+sixth inning when "all stretch" as it was in the old time underwater
+boats. The crews now have space in which to loaf and even the strain
+of long silent watches under water is relieved by the use of talking
+machines and musical instruments. The efficiency of the boat of
+course is only that of her crew, and since more care and more
+scientific thought has been given to the comfort of the men, to the
+purity of the air they breathe, and even to their amusements, the
+effect upon the work done by the craft has been apparent. Ten years
+ago hot meals were unthought of on a submarine; now the electric
+cooker provides for quite an elaborate bill of fare. But ten years
+ago the submarine was only expected to cruise for a few hours off
+the harbour's mouth carrying a crew of twenty men or less. Now it
+stays at sea sometimes for as long as three months. Its crews number
+often as many as fifty and the day is in sight when accommodations
+will have to be made for the housing of at least eighty men in such
+comparative comfort that they can stand a six months' voyage without
+loss of morale or decrease in physical vigour.
+
+It is, of course, very rare that a civilian has the chance to be
+present on a submarine when the latter is making either a real or a
+feigned attack. Fred B. Pitney, a correspondent of the New York
+_Tribune_, was fortunate enough to have this experience, fortunate
+especially because it was all a game arranged for his special
+benefit by a French admiral. He writes of this interesting
+experience in the _Tribune_ of Sunday, May 27, 1917, and at the same
+time gives a vivid description of a French submarine.
+
+It appears that Mr. Pitney was on a small vessel put at his disposal
+by the French Ministry of Marine to view the defences of a French
+naval base. This boat was attacked by what seemed to be an enemy
+submarine, but later turned out to be a French one which was giving
+this special performance for Mr. Pitney's information. We read:
+
+     Our officers were experts at watching for submarines, and though
+     the little white wave made by the periscope disappeared, they
+     caught the white wake of the torpedo coming toward the port
+     quarter and sheered off to escape it. The torpedo passed
+     harmlessly by our stern, but the adventure was not ended, for
+     hardly a minute later we heard a shot from off the starboard
+     quarter and, turning in that direction, saw that the submarine
+     had come to the surface and was busily firing at us to bring us
+     to.
+
+     We stopped without any foolish waste of time in argument. I asked
+     if a boat would be sent to us, or if we would have to get out our
+     boat.
+
+     "They carry a small folding boat," said the officer to whom I had
+     been talking, "but we will have to send our boat."
+
+     While we were getting our boat over the side, the submarine
+     moved closer in, keeping her gun bearing on us all the time, most
+     uncomfortably. The gun stood uncovered on the deck, just abaft
+     the turret. It was thickly coated with grease to protect it when
+     the vessel submerged. It is only the very latest type of
+     submarines that have disappearing guns which go under cover when
+     the vessel submerges and are fired from within the ship, which
+     makes all the more surprising the speed with which a submarine
+     can come to the surface, the men get out on deck, fire the gun,
+     get in again and the vessel once more submerges.
+
+     I was in the first boatload that went over to the submarine. From
+     a distance it looked like nothing so much as a rather long piece
+     of 4×8 floating on the water, with another block set on top of it
+     and a length of lath nailed on the block. It lost none of these
+     characteristics as we neared it. It only gained a couple of ropes
+     along the sides of the 4×8, while men kept coming mysteriously
+     out of the block until a round dozen was waiting to receive us.
+     The really surprising thing was that the men turned out to be
+     perfectly good French sailors, with a most exceedingly polite
+     French lieutenant to help us aboard the little craft....
+
+[Illustration: _The Capture of a U-Boat._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+     The vessel we were in was a 500-ton cruising submarine. It had
+     just come from eight months' guarding the Channel, and showed all
+     the battering of eight months of a very rough and stormy career
+     with no time for a lie-up for repairs. It was interesting to see
+     the commander hand the depth gauge a wallop to start it working
+     and find out if the centre of the boat was really nine feet
+     higher than either end. We were fifty-four feet under water and
+     diving when the commander performed that little experiment and we
+     continued to dive while the gauge spun around and finally stopped
+     at a place which indicated approximately that our back was not
+     broken. I suppose that was one of the things my friend the
+     lieutenant referred to when he said life on a submarine was such
+     a sporting proposition.
+
+     We boarded the submarine over the tail end and balanced our way
+     up the long narrow block, like walking a tight rope, to the
+     turret, where we descended through a hole like the opening into a
+     gas main into a small round compartment about six feet in
+     diameter exactly in the midship section, which was the largest
+     compartment in the ship. Running each way from it the length of
+     the vessel were long corridors, some two feet wide. On each side
+     of the corridors were rows of tiny compartments, which were the
+     living and working rooms of the ship. Naturally, most of the
+     space was given up to the working rooms.
+
+     The officers' quarters consisted of four tiny compartments, two
+     on each side of the after corridor. The first two were the mess
+     room and chart room, and the second pair were the cabins of the
+     commander--a lieutenant--and his second in command, an ensign.
+     Behind them was an electric kitchen, and next came the engines,
+     first two sets of Diesel engines, one on each side of the
+     corridor, each of four hundred horse-power. These were for
+     running on the surface. Then came four bunks for the
+     quartermasters and last the electric motors for running under the
+     surface. The motors were run from storage batteries and were half
+     the power of the Diesel engines. The quarters of the crew were
+     along the sides of the forward corridor. The floors of the
+     corridor were an unbroken series of trap doors, covering the
+     storage tanks for drinking water, food, and the ship's supplies.
+     The torpedo tubes were forward of the men's quarters. Ten
+     torpedoes were carried. The ammunition for the deck gun was
+     stored immediately beneath the gun, which was mounted between the
+     turret and the first hatch, abaft the turret. Besides the turret
+     there were three hatches in the deck, one forward and two aft.
+
+     There were thirty-four men in the crew. The men are counted every
+     two hours, as there is great danger of men being lost overboard
+     when running on the surface, and in bad weather they are
+     sometimes counted as often as every half hour.
+
+     The turret was divided in two sections. In the after part was the
+     main hatch and behind it a stationary periscope, standing about
+     thirty inches above the surface of the water when the deck was
+     submerged and only the periscope showing. There was no opening in
+     the forward section of the turret, but the fighting periscope,
+     which could be drawn down into the interior or pushed up to ten
+     feet above the surface when the vessel was completely submerged,
+     extended through the top.
+
+     For two hours, turn and turn about, the commander and his second
+     stand watch on the iron grips in the turret, one eye on the
+     periscope, the other on the compass. And this goes on for weeks
+     on end. It is only when they lie for a few hours fifty to
+     seventy-five feet below the surface that they can get some rest.
+     And even then there is no real rest, for one or the other of them
+     must be constantly on duty, testing pipes and gauges, air
+     pressure, water pressure, and a thousand other things.
+
+     When we dropped through the hatch into the interior of the
+     submarine and the cover was clamped down over our heads the
+     commander at once ordered me back into the turret.
+
+     "Hurry, if you want to see her dive," he said.
+
+     I climbed into the after section of the turret and fastened my
+     eye to the periscope. Around the top of the turret was a circle
+     of bulls' eyes and I was conscious of the water dashing against
+     them while the spray washed over the glass of the periscope. The
+     little vessel rolled very slightly on the surface, though there
+     was quite a bit of sea running. I watched the horizon through the
+     periscope and watched for the dive, expecting a distinct
+     sensation, but the first thing I noticed was that even the slight
+     roll had ceased and I was surprised to see that the bulls' eyes
+     were completely under water. The next thing there was no more
+     horizon. The periscope also was covered and we were completely
+     beneath the surface.
+
+     "Did it make you sick?" the commander asked, when I climbed down
+     from the turret, and when I told him "no" he was surprised, for
+     he said most men were made sick by their first dive.
+
+     The thing most astonishing to me about that experience was how a
+     submerged submarine can thread its way through a mine field. For
+     though the water is luminous and translucent one can hardly make
+     out the black hull of the boat under the turret and a mine would
+     have to be on top of you before you could see it. The men who
+     watch for mines must have a sense for them as well as
+     particularly powerful sight.
+
+     We continued to dive until we were sixty-eight feet below the
+     surface, too deep to strike any mine, and there we ran tranquilly
+     on our electric engines, while the commander navigated the vessel
+     and the second in command opened champagne in the two by four
+     mess room. After half an hour of underwater work we came near
+     enough the surface for our fighting periscope to stick twenty
+     inches out of the water and searched the lonely horizon for a
+     ship to attack.
+
+     It was not long before we sighted a mine trawler, steaming for
+     the harbour, and speeded up to overtake her.
+
+     "Pikers!" said our commander, as we circled twice around the
+     trawler; "they can't find us."
+
+     Five men on the trawler were scanning the sea with glasses
+     looking for submarines. We could follow all their motions, could
+     tell when they thought they had found us and see their
+     disappointment at their mistakes, but though we were never more
+     than five hundred yards from them, I did not think they were
+     pikers because they did not find us. I had tried that hunt for
+     the tiny wave of a periscope.
+
+     "No use wasting a torpedo on those fellows," said our commander.
+     "We will use the gun on them."
+
+     "How far away can you use a torpedo?" I asked.
+
+     "Two hundred yards is the best distance," he said. "Never more
+     than five hundred. A torpedo is pure guesswork at more than five
+     hundred yards."
+
+     We crossed the bow of the trawler, circled around to her
+     starboard quarter and came to the surface, fired nine shots and
+     submerged again in forty-five seconds.
+
+     The prey secured, we ran submerged through the mine field and
+     past the net barrier to come to the surface well within the
+     harbour and proceed peacefully to our mooring under the shelter
+     of the guns of the land forts.
+
+Life and work on a German submarine is known to us, of course, only
+from descriptions in German publications. One of these appeared,
+previous to our entry in the war, in various journals and was
+translated and republished by the New York _Evening Post_. It reads
+partly as follows:
+
+     "U-47 will take provisions and clear for sea. Extreme economical
+     radius."
+
+     A first lieutenant, with acting rank of commander, takes the
+     order in the grey dawn of a February day. The hulk of an old
+     corvette with the Iron Cross of 1870 on her stubby foremast is
+     his quarters in port, and on the corvette's deck he is presently
+     saluted by his first engineer and the officer of the watch. On
+     the pier the crew of U-47 await him. At their feet the narrow
+     grey submarine lies alongside, straining a little at her cables.
+
+     "Well, we've our orders at last," begins the commander,
+     addressing his crew of thirty, and the crew grin. For this is
+     U-47's first experience of active service. She has done nothing
+     save trial trips hitherto, and has just been overhauled for her
+     first fighting cruise. Her commander snaps out a number of
+     orders. Provisions are to be taken in "up to the neck," fresh
+     water is to be put aboard, and engine-room supplies to be
+     supplemented.
+
+     A mere plank is the gangway to the little vessel. As the
+     commander, followed by his officers, comes aboard, a sailor hands
+     to each a ball of cotton-waste, the sign and symbol of a
+     submarine officer, which never leaves his hand. For the steel
+     walls of his craft, the doors, and the companion-ladder all
+     sweat oil, and at every touch the hands must be wiped dry. The
+     doorways are narrow round holes. Through one of the holes aft the
+     commander descends by a breakneck iron ladder into the black hole
+     lit by electric glow-lamps. The air is heavy with the smell of
+     oil, and to the unaccustomed longshoreman it is almost choking,
+     though the hatches are off. The submarine man breathes this air
+     as if it were the purest ozone. Here in the engine-room aft men
+     must live and strain every nerve even if for days at a time every
+     crack whereby the fresh air could get in is hermetically sealed.
+     On their tense watchfulness thirty lives depend.
+
+     Here, too, are slung some hammocks, and in them one watch tries,
+     and, what is more, succeeds in sleeping, though the men moving
+     about bump them with head and elbows at every turn, and the low
+     and narrow vault is full of the hum and purr of machinery. In
+     length the vault is about ten feet, but if a man of normal
+     stature stands in the middle and raises his arms to about half
+     shoulder height his hands will touch the cold, moist steel walls
+     on either side. A network of wires runs overhead, and there is a
+     juggler's outfit of handles, levers, and instruments. The
+     commander inspects everything minutely, then creeps through a
+     hole into the central control station, where the chief engineer
+     is at his post. With just about enough assistance to run a fairly
+     simple machine ashore the chief engineer of a submarine is
+     expected to control, correct, and, if necessary, repair at sea an
+     infinitely complex machinery which must not break down for an
+     instant if thirty men are to return alive to the hulk.
+
+     Forward is another narrow steel vault serving at once as
+     engine-room and crew's quarters. Next to it is a place like a
+     cupboard, where the cook has just room to stand in front of his
+     doll's house galley-stove. It is electrically heated, that the
+     already oppressive air may not be further vitiated by smoke or
+     fumes. A German submarine in any case smells perpetually of
+     coffee and cabbage. Two little cabins of the size of a decent
+     clothes-chest take the deck and engine-room officers, four of
+     them. Another box cabin is reserved for the commander--when he
+     has time to occupy it.
+
+     At daybreak the commander comes on deck in coat and trousers of
+     black leather lined with wool, a protection against oil, cold,
+     and sea-water. The crew at their stations await the command to
+     cast off.
+
+     "Machines clear," calls a voice from the control-station and
+     "Clear ship," snaps the order from the bridge. Then "Cast-off!"
+     The cables slap on to the landing-stage, the engines begin to
+     purr, and U-47 slides away into open water.
+
+     A few cable-lengths away another submarine appears homeward
+     bound. She is the U-20 returning from a long cruise in which she
+     succeeded in sinking a ship bound with a cargo of frozen mutton
+     for England.
+
+     "Good luck, old sheep-butcher," sings the commander of U-47 as
+     the sister-ship passes within hail.
+
+     The seas are heavier now, and U-47 rolls unpleasantly as she
+     makes the light-ship and answers the last salute from a friendly
+     hand. The two officers on the bridge turn once to look at the
+     light-ship already astern, then their eyes look seaward. It is
+     rough, stormy weather. If the egg-shell goes ahead two or three
+     days without a stop, the officers in charge will get no sleep for
+     just that long. If it gets any rougher they will be tied to the
+     bridge-rails to avoid being swept overboard. If they are hungry,
+     plates of soup will be brought to them on the bridge, and the
+     North Sea will attend to its salting for them.
+
+Frequently this "meal" is interrupted by some announcement from the
+watch, such as: "Smoke on the horizon off the port bow." Then--so we
+are told:
+
+     The commander drops his plate, shouts a short, crisp command,
+     and an electric alarm whirs inside the egg-shell. The ship buzzes
+     like a hive. Then water begins to gurgle into the ballast-tanks,
+     and U-47 sinks until only her periscope shows.
+
+     "The steamship is a Dutchman, sir," calls the watch officer. The
+     commander inspects her with the aid of a periscope. She has no
+     wireless and is bound for the Continent. So he can come up and is
+     glad, because moving under the water consumes electricity, and
+     the usefulness of a submarine is measured by her electric power.
+
+     After fifty-four hours of waking nerve tension, sleep becomes a
+     necessity. So the ballast-tanks are filled and the nutshell sinks
+     to the sandy bottom. This is the time for sleep aboard a
+     submarine, because a sleeping man consumes less of the precious
+     oxygen than one awake and busy. So a submarine man has three
+     principal lessons to learn--to keep every faculty at tension when
+     he is awake, to keep stern silence when he is ashore (there is a
+     warning against talkativeness in all the German railway-carriages
+     now), and to sleep instantly when he gets a legitimate
+     opportunity. His sleep and the economy of oxygen may save the
+     ship. However, the commander allows half an hour's grace for
+     music. There is a gramophone, of course, and the "ship's band"
+     performs on all manner of instruments. At worst, a comb with a
+     bit of tissue paper is pressed into service.
+
+Another American who suffered an enforced voyage on an
+_unterseeboot_ made public later some of his experiences. His
+captor's craft was a good sized one--about 250 feet long, with a
+crew of 35 men and mounting two 4-1/2 inch guns. She could make 18
+knots on the surface and 11 submerged and had a radius of 3200 miles
+of action. Her accommodations were not uncomfortable. Each officer
+had a separate cabin while the crew were bunked along either side of
+a narrow passage. The ventilation was excellent, and her officers
+declared that they could stand twenty-four hours continuous
+submergence without discomfort, after that for six hours it was
+uncomfortable, and thereafter intolerable because of the exudation
+of moisture--or sweating--from every part. At such times all below
+have to wear leather suits. The food was varied and cooked on an
+electric stove. The original stores included preserved pork and
+beef, vegetables, tinned soups, fruits, raisins, biscuits, butter,
+marmalade, milk, tea, and coffee. But the pleasures of the table
+depended greatly on the number of their prizes, for whenever
+possible they made every ship captured contribute heavily to their
+larder before sinking her. Of the tactics followed the observer
+writes:
+
+     It appears that 55 per cent., or more than half, of the torpedoes
+     fired miss their mark, and with this average they seem satisfied.
+     Once they let go at a ship two torpedoes at 3000 yards' range,
+     and both missed, the range being too long but they did not care
+     to come any nearer, as they believed the ship to be well armed.
+
+     They prefer to fire at 500 to 700 yards, which means that at this
+     range the track or "wake" of a projectile would be discernible
+     for, say, twenty-five to thirty seconds--not much time, indeed,
+     for any ship to get out of the way. At 100 yards' range or less
+     they do not care to fire unless compelled to, as the torpedo is
+     nearly always discharged when the submarine is lying ahead of the
+     object, _i. e._, to hit the ship coming up to it; it follows that
+     a gun forward is more useful than one aft, the gun aft being of
+     real service when a submarine starts shelling, which she will do
+     for choice from aft the ship rather than from forward of her,
+     where she would be in danger of being run over and rammed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SUBMARINE WARFARE
+
+
+At the moment of writing these words the outcome of the greatest war
+the world has ever known is believed by many to hang upon the
+success with which the Allies can meet and defeat the campaign of
+the German submarines. The German people believe this absolutely.
+The Allies and their sympathizers grudgingly admit that they are
+only too fearful that it may be true.
+
+To such a marvellous degree of military efficiency has the ingenuity
+of man brought these boats which so recently as our Civil War were
+still in the vaguest experimental stage and scarcely possessed of
+any offensive power whatsoever!
+
+Nevertheless these machines had reached a degree of development, and
+had demonstrated their dangerous character so early in the war that
+it was amazing that the British were so slow in comprehending the
+use that might be made of them in cutting off British commerce. It
+is true that the first submarine actions redounded in their results
+entirely to British credit. In September of 1914 a British submarine
+ran gallantly into Heligoland Bay and sank the German light cruiser
+_Hela_ at her moorings. Shortly after the Germans sought retaliation
+by attacking a British squadron, but the effort miscarried. The
+British cruiser _Birmingham_ caught a glimpse of her wake and with a
+well-aimed shot destroyed her periscope. The submarine dived, but
+shortly afterwards came up again making what was called a porpoise
+dive--that is to say, she came up just long enough for the officer
+in the conning tower to locate the enemy, then submerged again.
+Brief, however, as had been the appearance of the conning tower, the
+British put a shell into it and in a few minutes the submarine and
+most of her crew were at the bottom of the sea.
+
+Soon after followed the attack upon and sinking of the three
+cruisers by the submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander
+Otto von Weddigen, the narrative of which we have already told. But
+while after that attacks upon British armed ships were many,
+successes were few. There were no German ships at sea for the
+British to attack in turn, but some very gallant work was done by
+their submarines against Austrian and Turkish warships in the
+Mediterranean and the Dardanelles. All this time the Germans were
+preparing for that warfare upon the merchant shipping of all
+countries which at the end they came to believe would force the
+conclusion of the war. It seems curious that during this early
+period the Allies were able to devise no method of meeting this form
+of attack. When the United States entered the war more than three
+years later they looked to us for the instant invention of some
+effective anti-submarine weapon. If they were disappointed at our
+failure at once to produce one, they should have remembered at least
+that they too were baffled by the situation although it was
+presented to them long before it became part of our problems.
+
+About no feature of the war have the belligerents thrown more of
+mystery than about the circumstances attending submarine attacks
+upon battleships and armed transports and the method employed of
+meeting them. Even when later in the war the Germans apparently
+driven to frenzy made special efforts to sink hospital and Red Cross
+ships the facts were concealed by the censors, and accounts of the
+efforts made to balk such inhuman and unchristian practices
+diligently suppressed. In the end it seemed that the British, who of
+course led all naval activities, had reached the conclusion that
+only by the maintenance of an enormous fleet of patrol boats could
+the submarines be kept in check. This method they have applied
+unremittingly. Alfred Noyes in a publication authorized by the
+British government has thus picturesquely told some of the incidents
+connected with this service:
+
+     It is difficult to convey in words the wide sweep and subtle
+     co-ordination of this ocean hunting; for the beginning of any
+     tale may be known only to an admiral in a London office, the
+     middle of it only to a commander at Kirkwall, and the end of it
+     only to a trawler skipper off the coast of Ireland. But here and
+     there it is possible to piece the fragments together into a
+     complete adventure, as in the following record of a successful
+     chase, where the glorious facts outrun all the imaginations of
+     the wildest melodrama.
+
+     There were suspicious vessels at anchor, one moonless night, in a
+     small bay near the Mumbles. They lay there like shadows, but
+     before long they knew that the night was alive for a hundred
+     miles with silent talk about them. At dawn His Majesty's trawlers
+     _Golden Feather_ and _Peggy Nutten_ foamed up, but the shadows
+     had disappeared.
+
+     The trawlers were ordered to search the coast thoroughly for any
+     submarine stores that might have been left there. "Thoroughly" in
+     this war means a great deal. It means that even the bottom of the
+     sea must be searched. This was done by grapnels; but the bottom
+     was rocky and seemed unfit for a base. Nothing was found but a
+     battered old lobster pot, crammed with seaweed and little green
+     crabs.
+
+     Probably these appearances were more than usually deceitful; for
+     shortly afterward watchers on the coast reported a strange
+     fishing boat, with patched brown sails, heading for the suspected
+     bay. Before the patrols came up, however, she seemed to be
+     alarmed. The brown sails were suddenly taken in; the disguised
+     conning tower was revealed, and this innocent fishing boat,
+     gracefully submerging, left only the smiling and spotless April
+     seas to the bewildered eyes of the coast guard.
+
+     In the meantime signals were pulsing and flashing on land and
+     sea, and the U-boat had hardly dipped when, over the smooth green
+     swell, a great sea hawk came whirring up to join the hunt, a hawk
+     with light yellow wings and a body of service grey--the latest
+     type of seaplane. It was one of those oily seas in which a
+     watcher from the air may follow a submarine for miles, as an
+     olive green shadow under the lighter green. The U-boat doubled
+     twice; but it was half an hour before her sunken shadow was lost
+     to sight under choppy blue waters, and long before that time she
+     was evidently at ease in her mind and pursuing a steady course.
+     For the moment her trail was then lost, and the hawk, having
+     reported her course, dropped out of the tale.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by U. & U.
+
+_A British Submarine._]
+
+     The next morning in the direction indicated by that report
+     several patrol boats heard the sound of gunfire and overhauled a
+     steamer which had been attacked by a submarine. They gave chase
+     by "starring" to all the points of the compass, but could not
+     locate the enemy. A little later, however, another trawler
+     observed the wash of a submarine crossing her stern about two
+     hundred yards away. The trawler star-boarded, got into the wake
+     of the submarine and tried to ram her at full speed. She failed
+     to do this, as the U-boat was at too great a depth. The enemy
+     disappeared, and again the trawlers gathered and "starred."
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Sectional View of the Nautilus._]
+
+     In the meantime, certain nets had been shot, and, though the
+     inclosed waters were very wide, it was quite certain that the
+     submarine was contained within them. Some hours later another
+     trawler heard firing and rushed toward the sound. About sunset
+     she sighted a submarine which was just dipping. The trawler
+     opened fire at once without result. The light was very bad and it
+     was very difficult to trace the enemy, but the trawler continued
+     the search, and about midnight she observed a small light close
+     to the water. She steamed within a few yards of it and hailed,
+     thinking it was a small boat. There was a considerable amount of
+     wreckage about, which was afterward proved to be the remains of a
+     patrol vessel sunk by the submarine. There was no reply to the
+     hail, and the light instantly disappeared. For the third time the
+     patrols gathered and "starred" from this new point.
+
+     And here the tale was taken up by a sailor who was in command of
+     another trawler at the time. I give it, so far as possible, in
+     his own words.
+
+     "About 4 o'clock in the morning I was called by Deckhand William
+     Brown to come on deck and see if an object sighted was a
+     submarine. I did so, and saw a submarine about a mile distant on
+     the port bow. I gave the order, 'Hard a-starboard.' The ship was
+     turned until the gun was able to bear on the submarine, and it
+     was kept bearing. At the same time I ordered hands to station,
+     and about ten minutes afterward I gave the order to fire. The
+     submarine immediately altered her course from W. to N. N. W., and
+     went away from us very fast. I burned lights to attract the
+     attention of the drifters, and we followed at our utmost speed,
+     making about eight knots and shipping light sprays. We fired
+     another shot about two minutes later, but it was breaking dawn,
+     and we were unable to see the fall of the shots. After the second
+     shot the submarine submerged. I hoisted warning signals and about
+     half an hour later I saw a large steamer turning round, distant
+     between two and three miles on our starboard beam. I headed
+     toward her, keeping the gun trained on her, as I expected,
+     judging by her action, that she had smelt the submarine. When we
+     were about a mile and a half from the steamer I saw the submarine
+     half a mile astern of her. We opened fire again, and gave her
+     four shots, with about two minutes between 'em. The submarine
+     then dodged behind the off quarter of the steamer."
+
+     He paused to light his pipe, and added, quite gravely, "When she
+     had disappeared behind the steamer I gave the order 'Cease fire,'
+     to avoid hitting the larger vessel."
+
+     I made a mental note of his thoughtfulness; but, not for worlds
+     would I have shown any doubt of his power to blast his way, if
+     necessary, through all the wood and iron in the universe; and I
+     was glad that the blue clouds of our smoke mingled for a moment
+     between us.
+
+     "I saw two white boats off the port quarter," he continued. "But
+     I paid no attention to them. I ordered the helm to be
+     star-boarded a bit more, and told the gunner to train his gun on
+     the bow of the steamer; for I expected the submarine to show
+     there next. A few minutes later she did so, and when she drew
+     ahead I gave the order to fire. I should say we were about a mile
+     and a quarter away. We gave him two more shots and they dropped
+     very close, as the spray rose over his conning tower. He altered
+     his course directly away from us, and we continued to fire. The
+     third shot smothered his conning tower with spray. I did not see
+     the fourth and fifth shots pitch. There was no splash visible,
+     although it was then broad daylight; so I believe they must have
+     hit him. A few moments after this the submarine disappeared.
+
+     "I turned, then, toward the two white boats and hailed them. The
+     chief officer of the steamer was in charge of one. They were
+     returning to their ship, and told me that we had hit the
+     submarine. We escorted them through the nets and parted very good
+     friends."
+
+     "But how did you get the scalp of this U-boat?" I asked.
+
+     "We signalled to the admiral, and sent the Daffy to investigate.
+     She found the place, all right. It was a choppy sea, but there
+     was one smooth patch in it, just where we told 'em the submarine
+     had disappeared; a big patch of water like wavy satin, two or
+     three hundred yards of it, coloured like the stripes on mackerel,
+     all blue and green with oil. They took a specimen of the oil."
+
+     "Did it satisfy the Admiralty?"
+
+     "No. Nothing satisfies the Admiralty but certainties. They count
+     the minimum losses of the enemy, and the maximum of their own.
+     Very proper, too. Then you know where you are. But, mind you, I
+     don't believe we finished him off that morning. Oil don't prove
+     that. It only proves we hit him. I believe it was the 'Maggie and
+     Rose' that killed him, or the 'Hawthorn.' No; it wasn't either.
+     It was the 'Loch Awe.'"
+
+     "How was that?"
+
+     "Well, as Commander White was telling you, we'd shot out nets to
+     the north and south of him. There were two or three hundred
+     miles, perhaps, in which he might wriggle about; but he couldn't
+     get out of the trap, even if he knew where to look for the
+     danger. He tried to run for home, and that's what finished him.
+     They'll tell you all about that on the 'Loch Awe.'"
+
+     So the next day I heard the end of the yarn from a sandy-haired
+     skipper in a trawler whose old romantic name was dark with new
+     significance. He was terribly logical. In his cabin--a
+     comfortable room with a fine big stove--he had a picture of his
+     wife and daughters, all very rigid and uncomfortable. He also had
+     three books. They included neither Burns nor Scott. One was the
+     Bible, thumbed by his grandfather and his father till the paper
+     had worn yellow and thin at the sides. The second, I am sorry to
+     say, was called _The Beautiful White Devil_. The third was an odd
+     volume of Froude in the _Everyman_ edition. It dealt with the
+     Armada.
+
+     "I was towin' my nets wi' the rest o' my group," he said, "till
+     about 3 o'clock i' the mornin' on yon occasion. It was fine
+     weather wi' a kind o' haar. All at once, my ship gaed six points
+     aff her coorse, frae S. E. to E. N. E., and I jaloused that the
+     nets had been fouled by some muckle movin' body. I gave orders to
+     pit the wheel hard a-port, but she wouldna answer. Suddenly the
+     strain on the nets stoppit.
+
+     "I needna tell you what had happened. Of course, it was
+     preceesely what the Admiralty had arranged tae happen when
+     gentlemen in undersea boats try to cut their way through our
+     nets. Mind ye, thae nets are verra expensive."
+
+A different situation, however, has lately developed in the more
+unequal fight between submarines and merchant vessels. There the
+submarine unquestionably has gained and maintained supremacy. Two
+factors are primarily responsible for this: lack of speed and lack
+of armament on the part of the merchantman. Of course, recently the
+latter condition has been changed and apparently with good success.
+But even at best, an armed merchantman has a rather slim chance at
+escape. Neither space nor available equipment permits a general
+arming of merchantmen to a sufficient degree to make it possible for
+the latter to attack a submarine from any considerable distance.
+Then, too, what chance has a merchant vessel unprotected by patrol
+boats to escape the torpedo of a hidden submarine? How successfully
+this question will finally be solved, the future only will show. At
+present it bids fair to become one of the deciding factors in
+determining the final issue of this war.
+
+The first authentically known case of an attack without warning by a
+German submarine against an allied merchantman was the torpedoing of
+the French steamship _Amiral Ganteaume_ on October 26, 1914, in the
+English Channel. The steamer was sunk and thirty of its passengers
+and crew were lost. A number of other attacks followed during the
+remainder of 1914 and in January, 1915. Then came on February 3,
+1915, the now famous pronouncement of the German Government
+declaring "all the waters around Great Britain and Ireland,
+including the whole of the English Channel, a war zone," and
+announcing that on and after Feb. 18th, Germany "will attempt to
+destroy every enemy ship found in that war zone, without its being
+always possible to avoid the danger that will thus threaten neutral
+persons and ships." Germany gave warning that "it cannot be
+responsible hereafter for the safety of crews, passengers, and
+cargoes of such ships," and it furthermore "calls the attention of
+neutrals to the fact that it would be well for their ships to avoid
+entering this zone, for, although the German naval forces are
+instructed to avoid all violence to neutral ships, in so far as
+these can be recognized, the order given by the British Government
+to hoist neutral flags and the contingencies of naval warfare might
+be the cause of these ships becoming the victims of an attack
+directed against the vessels of the enemy."
+
+This was the beginning of the submarine controversy between Germany
+and the United States and resulted in a note from the United States
+Government in which it was stated that the latter viewed the
+possibilities created by the German note
+
+     with such grave concern, that it feels it to be its privilege,
+     and, indeed, its duty, in the circumstances to request the
+     Imperial German Government to consider before action is taken the
+     critical situation in respect of the relation between this
+     country and Germany which might arise were the German naval
+     forces, in carrying out the policy foreshadowed in the
+     Admiralty's proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the
+     United States or cause the death of American citizens:--To
+     declare and exercise a right to attack and destroy any vessel
+     entering a prescribed area of the high seas without first
+     certainly determining its belligerent nationality and the
+     contraband character of its cargo would be an act so
+     unprecedented in naval warfare that this Government is reluctant
+     to believe that the Imperial Government of Germany in this case
+     contemplates it as possible.
+
+After stating that the destruction of American ships or American
+lives on the high seas would be difficult to reconcile with the
+friendly relations existing between the two Governments, the note
+adds that the United States "would be constrained to hold the
+Imperial Government of Germany to a strict accountability for such
+acts of their naval authorities, and to take any steps it might feel
+necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to
+secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged
+rights on the high seas."
+
+It is not within the province of this book to go in detail into the
+diplomatic history of the submarine controversy between Germany and
+the United States. Suffice it to say, therefore, that from the very
+beginning the controversy held many possibilities of the disastrous
+ending which finally came to pass when diplomatic relations were
+broken off between the two countries on February 3, 1917, and a
+state of war was declared by President Wilson's proclamation of
+April 6, 1917.
+
+The period between Germany's first War Zone Declaration and the
+President's proclamation--two months and three days more than two
+years--was crowded with incidents in which submarines and submarine
+warfare held the centre of the stage. It would be impossible within
+the compass of this story to give a complete survey of all the
+boats that were sunk and of all the lives that were lost. Nor would
+it be possible to recount all the deeds of heroism which this new
+warfare occasioned. Belligerents and neutrals alike were affected.
+American ships suffered, perhaps, to a lesser degree, than those of
+other neutrals, partly because of the determined stand taken by the
+United States Government. On May 1, 1915, the first American
+steamer, the _Gulflight_, was sunk. Six days later the world was
+shocked by the news that the _Lusitania_, one of the biggest British
+passenger liners, had been torpedoed without warning on May 7, 1915
+and had been sunk with a loss of 1198 lives, of whom 124 were
+American citizens. Before this nation was goaded into war, more than
+200 Americans were slain.
+
+Notes were again exchanged between the two Governments. Though the
+German government at that time showed an inclination to abandon its
+position in the submarine controversy under certain conditions,
+sinkings of passenger and freight steamers without warning
+continued. All attempts on the part of the United States Government
+to come to an equitable understanding with Germany failed on account
+of the latter's refusal to give up submarine warfare, or at least
+those features of it which, though considered illegal and inhuman by
+the United States, seemed to be considered most essential by
+Germany.
+
+Then came the German note of January 31, 1917, stating that "from
+February 1, 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with every available
+weapon and without further notice" in certain minutely described
+"prohibited zones around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the
+Eastern Mediterranean."
+
+The total tonnage sunk by German submarines from the beginning of
+the war up to February 1, 1917, has been given by British sources as
+over three million tons, while German authorities claimed four
+million. The result of the German edict for unrestricted submarine
+warfare has been rather appalling, even if it fell far short of
+German prophesies and hopes. During the first two weeks of February
+a total of ninety-seven ships with a tonnage of about 210,000 tons
+were sent to the bottom of the sea. Since then the German submarines
+have taken an even heavier toll. It has, however, become next to
+impossible, due to the restrictions of censorship, to compute any
+accurate figures for later totals, though it has become known from
+time to time that the Allied as well as the neutral losses have been
+very much higher during the five months of February to July, 1917
+than during any other five months.
+
+[Illustration: © U. & U.
+
+_U. S. Submarine H-3 Aground on California Coast._]
+
+The figures of the losses of British merchantmen alone are shown by
+the following table:
+
+                                        Ships
+                              Over 1,600      Under 1,600
+  Week ending--                  Tons.           Tons.       Total.
+
+  March  4                         14              9           23
+  March 11                         13              4           17
+  March 18                         16              8           24
+  March 25                         18              7           25
+  April  1                         18             13           31
+  April  8                         17              2           19
+  April 15                         19              9           28
+  April 22                         40             15           55
+  April 29                         38             13           51
+  May    6                         24             22           46
+  May   13                         18              5           23
+  May   20                         18              9           27
+  May   27                         18              1           19
+  June   3                         15              3           18
+  June  10                         22             10           32
+  June  17                         27              5           32
+  June  24                         21              7           28
+  July   1                         15              5           20
+  July   8                         14              3           17
+  July  15                         14              4           18
+  July  22                         21              3           24
+  July  29                         18              3           21
+  Aug.   5                         21              2           23
+  Aug.  12                         14              2           16
+  Aug.  19                         15              3           18
+  Aug.  26                         18              5           23
+  Sept.  2                         20              3           23
+  Sept.  9                         12              6           18
+  Sept. 16                          8             20           28
+  Sept. 23                         13              2           15
+  Sept. 30                         11              2           13
+  Oct.   7                         14              2           16
+  Oct.  14                         12              6           18
+  Oct.  21                         17              8           25
+  Oct.  28                         14              4           18
+  Nov.   4                          8              4           12
+  Nov.  11                          1              5            6
+
+The table with its week by week report of the British losses is of
+importance because at the time it was taken as a barometer
+indicative of German success or failure. The German admiralty at the
+moment of declaring the ruthless submarine war promised the people
+of Germany that they would sink a million tons a month and by so
+doing would force England to abject surrender in the face of
+starvation within three months. During that period the whole
+civilized world looked eagerly for the weekly statement of British
+losses. Only at one time was the German estimate of a million tons
+monthly obtained. Most of the time the execution done by the
+undersea boats amounted to less than half that figure. So far from
+England being beaten in three months, at the end of ten she was
+still unshattered, though sorely disturbed by the loss of so much
+shipping. Her new crops had come on and her statesmen declared that
+so far as the food supply was concerned they were safe for another
+year.
+
+During this period of submarine activity the United States entered
+upon the war and its government immediately turned its attention to
+meeting the submarine menace. In the first four months literally
+nothing was accomplished toward this end. A few submarines were
+reported sunk by merchantmen, but in nearly every instance it was
+doubtful whether they were actually destroyed or merely submerged
+purposely in the face of a hostile fire. Americans were looked upon
+universally as a people of extraordinary inventive genius, and
+everywhere it was believed that by some sudden lucky thought an
+American would emerge from a laboratory equipped with a sovereign
+remedy for the submarine evil. Prominent inventors indeed declared
+their purpose of undertaking this search and went into retirement to
+study the problem. From that seclusion none had emerged with a
+solution at the end of ten months. When the submarine campaign was
+at its very height no one was able to suggest a better remedy for it
+than the building of cargo ships in such quantities that, sink as
+many as they might, the Germans would have to let enough slip
+through to sufficiently supply England with food and with the
+necessary munitions of war.
+
+Many cruel sufferings befell seafaring people during the period of
+German ruthlessness on the high seas. An open boat, overcrowded with
+refugees, hastily provisioned as the ship to which it belonged was
+careening to its fate, and tossing on the open sea two or three
+hundred miles from shore in the icy nights of midwinter was no place
+of safety or of comfort. Yet the Germans so construed it, holding
+that when they gave passengers and crew of a ship time to take to
+the boats, they had fully complied with the international law
+providing that in the event of sinking a ship its people must first
+be given an opportunity to assure their safety.
+
+There have been many harrowing stories of the experiences of
+survivors thus turned adrift. Under the auspices of the British
+government, Rudyard Kipling wrote a book detailing the agonies which
+the practice inflicted upon helpless human beings, including many
+women and children. Some of the survivors have told in graphic story
+the record of their actual experiences. Among these one of the most
+vivid is from the pen of a well-known American journalist, Floyd P.
+Gibbons, correspondent of the Chicago _Tribune_. He was saved from
+the British liner, _Laconia_, sunk by a German submarine, and thus
+tells the tale of his sufferings and final rescue:
+
+     I have serious doubts whether this is a real story. I am not
+     entirely certain that it is not all a dream and that in a few
+     minutes I will wake up back in stateroom B. 19 on the promenade
+     deck of the Cunarder _Laconia_ and hear my cockney steward
+     informing me with an abundance of "and sirs" that it is a fine
+     morning.
+
+     I am writing this within thirty minutes after stepping on the
+     dock here in Queenstown from the British mine sweeper which
+     picked up our open lifeboat after an eventful six hours of
+     drifting, and darkness and baling and pulling on the oars and of
+     straining aching eyes toward that empty, meaningless horizon in
+     search of help. But, dream or fact, here it is:
+
+     The first-cabin passengers were gathered in the lounge Sunday
+     evening, with the exception of the bridge fiends in the
+     smoking-room. _Poor Butterfly_ was dying wearily on the
+     talking-machine and several couples were dancing.
+
+     About the tables in the smoke-room the conversation was limited
+     to the announcement of bids and orders to the stewards. This
+     group had about exhausted available discussion when the ship gave
+     a sudden lurch sideways and forward. There was a muffled noise
+     like the slamming of some large door at a good distance away. The
+     slightness of the shock and the mildness of the report compared
+     with my imagination was disappointing. Every man in the room
+     was on his feet in an instant.
+
+     I looked at my watch. It was 10.30.
+
+     Then came five blasts on the whistle. We rushed down the corridor
+     leading from the smoking-room at the stern to the lounge, which
+     was amidships. We were running, but there was no panic. The
+     occupants of the lounge were just leaving by the forward doors as
+     we entered.
+
+     It was dark when we reached the lower deck. I rushed into my
+     stateroom, grabbed life preservers and overcoat and made my way
+     to the upper deck on that same dark landing.
+
+     I saw the chief steward opening an electric switch box in the
+     wall and turning on the switch. Instantly the boat decks were
+     illuminated. That illumination saved lives.
+
+     The torpedo had hit us well astern on the starboard side and had
+     missed the engines and the dynamos. I had not noticed the deck
+     lights before. Throughout the voyage our decks had remained dark
+     at night and all cabin portholes were clamped down and all
+     windows covered with opaque paint.
+
+     The illumination of the upper deck, on which I stood, made the
+     darkness of the water, sixty feet below, appear all the blacker
+     when I peered over the edge at my station boat, No. 10.
+
+     Already the boat was loading up and men and boys were busy with
+     the ropes. I started to help near a davit that seemed to be
+     giving trouble, but was stoutly ordered to get out of the way and
+     get into the boat. We were on the port side, practically opposite
+     the engine well. Up and down the deck passengers and crew were
+     donning lifebelts, throwing on overcoats, and taking positions in
+     the boats. There were a number of women, but only one appeared
+     hysterical....
+
+     The boat started downward with a jerk toward the seemingly hungry
+     rising and falling swells. Then we stopped and remained suspended
+     in mid-air while the men at the bow and the stern swore and
+     tusselled with the lowering ropes. The stern of the boat was
+     down, the bow up, leaving us at an angle of about forty-five
+     degrees. We clung to the seats to save ourselves from falling
+     out.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Salvaging H-3, View I._]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Salvaging H-3, View II._]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Salvaging H-3, View III._]
+
+     "Who's got a knife? A knife! a knife!" bawled a sweating seaman
+     in the bow.
+
+     "Great God! Give him a knife," bawled a half-dressed, gibbering
+     negro stoker who wrung his hands in the stern.
+
+     A hatchet was thrust into my hand, and I forwarded it to the bow.
+     There was a flash of sparks as it crashed down on the holding
+     pulley. Many feet and hands pushed the boat from the side of the
+     ship and we sagged down again, this time smacking squarely on the
+     billowy top of a rising swell.
+
+     As we pulled away from the side of the ship its receding terrace
+     of lights stretched upward. The ship was slowly turning over. We
+     were opposite that part occupied by the engine rooms. There was a
+     tangle of oars, spars and rigging on the seat and considerable
+     confusion before four of the big sweeps could be manned on either
+     side of the boat.
+
+     The gibbering bullet-headed negro was pulling directly behind me
+     and I turned to quiet him as his frantic reaches with his oar
+     were hitting me in the back.
+
+     "Get away from her, get away from her," he kept repeating. "When
+     the water hits her hot boilers she'll blow up, and there's just
+     tons and tons of shrapnel in the hold."
+
+     His excitement spread to other members of the crew in the boat.
+
+     It was the give-way of nerve tension. It was bedlam and
+     nightmare.
+
+     We rested on our oars, with all eyes on the still lighted
+     _Laconia_. The torpedo had struck at 10.30 P. M. It was thirty
+     minutes afterward that another dull thud, which was accompanied
+     by a noticeable drop in the hulk, told its story of the second
+     torpedo that the submarine had despatched through the engine room
+     and the boat's vitals from a distance of two hundred yards.
+
+     We watched silently during the next minute, as the tiers of
+     lights dimmed slowly from white to yellow, then a red, and
+     nothing was left but the murky mourning of the night, which hung
+     over all like a pall.
+
+     A mean, cheese-coloured crescent of a moon revealed one horn
+     above a ragged bundle of clouds low in the distance. A rim of
+     blackness settled around our little world, relieved only by
+     general leering stars in the zenith, and where the _Laconia's_
+     lights had shone there remained only the dim outlines of a
+     blacker hulk standing out above the water like a jagged headland,
+     silhouetted against the overcast sky.
+
+     The ship sank rapidly at the stern until at last its nose stood
+     straight in the air. Then it slid silently down and out of sight
+     like a piece of disappearing scenery in a panorama spectacle.
+
+     Boat No. 3 stood closest to the ship and rocked about in a
+     perilous sea of clashing spars and wreckage. As our boat's crew
+     steadied its head into the wind a black hulk, glistening wet and
+     standing about eight feet above the surface of the water,
+     approached slowly and came to a stop opposite the boat and not
+     six feet from the side of it.
+
+     "What ship was dot?" The correct words in throaty English with a
+     German accent came from the dark hulk, according to Chief Steward
+     Ballyn's statement to me later.
+
+     "The _Laconia_," Ballyn answered.
+
+     "Vot?"
+
+     "The _Laconia_, Cunard Line," responded the steward.
+
+     "Vot did she weigh?" was the next question from the submarine.
+
+     "Eighteen thousand tons."
+
+     "Any passengers?"
+
+     "Seventy-three," replied Ballyn, "men, women, and children, some
+     of them in this boat. She had over two hundred in the crew."
+
+     "Did she carry cargo?"
+
+     "Yes."
+
+     "Well, you'll be all right. The patrol will pick you up soon."
+     And without further sound save for the almost silent fixing of
+     the conning tower lid, the submarine moved off.
+
+     There was no assurance of an early pick-up, even tho the promise
+     were from a German source, for the rest of the boats, whose
+     occupants--if they felt and spoke like those in my boat--were
+     more than mildly anxious about their plight and the prospects of
+     rescue.
+
+     The fear of some of the boats crashing together produced a
+     general inclination toward further separation on the part of all
+     the little units of survivors, with the result that soon the
+     small craft stretched out for several miles, all of them
+     endeavouring to keep their heads in the wind.
+
+     And then we saw the first light--the first sign of help
+     coming--the first searching glow of white brilliance, deep down
+     on the sombre sides of the black pot of night that hung over us.
+
+     It was way over there--first a trembling quiver of silver against
+     the blackness; then, drawing closer, it defined itself as a
+     beckoning finger, altho still too far away yet to see our feeble
+     efforts to attract it....
+
+     We pulled, pulled, lustily forgetting the strain and pain of
+     innards torn and racked from pain, vomiting--oblivious of
+     blistered hands and wet, half frozen feet.
+
+     Then a nodding of that finger of light--a happy, snapping,
+     crap-shooting finger that seemed to say: "Come on, you men," like
+     a dice-player wooing the bones--led us to believe that our lights
+     had been seen. This was the fact, for immediately the coming
+     vessel flashed on its green and red side-lights and we saw it was
+     headed for our position.
+
+     "Come alongside port!" was megaphoned to us. And as fast as we
+     could we swung under the stern, while a dozen flashlights blinked
+     down to us and orders began to flow fast and thick.
+
+     A score of hands reached out, and we were suspended in the husky
+     tattooed arms of those doughty British jack tars, looking up into
+     the weather-beaten, youthful faces, mumbling thanks and
+     thankfulness and reading in the gold lettering on their pancake
+     hats the legend "H. M. S. Laburnum."
+
+Of course, the submarine fleets of the various navies paid a heavy
+toll too. It has become, however, increasingly difficult to get any
+accurate figures of these losses. The British navy, it is known, has
+lost during 1914, 1915, and 1916 twelve boats, some of which
+foundered, were wrecked or mined while others simply never returned.
+The loss of eight German submarines has also been definitely
+established. Others, however, are known to have been lost, and their
+number has been greatly increased since the arming of merchantmen.
+In 1917 it was estimated that the Germans lost one U-boat a week and
+built three.
+
+Just what sensations a man experiences in a submerged submarine that
+finds it impossible to rise again, is, of course, more or less of a
+mystery. For, though submarines, the entire crew of which perished,
+have been raised later, only one record has ever been known to have
+been made covering the period during which death by suffocation or
+drowning stared their occupants in the face. This heroic and
+pathetic record was written in form of a letter by the commander of
+a Japanese submarine, Lieutenant Takuma Faotomu, whose boat, with
+its entire crew, was lost on April 15, 1910, during manoeuvres in
+Hiroshima Bay. The letter reads in part as follows:
+
+[Illustration: © International Film Service, Inc.
+
+_U. S. Submarine D 1 off Weehawken._]
+
+     Although there is, indeed, no excuse to make for the sinking of
+     his Imperial Majesty's boat and for the doing away of
+     subordinates through my heedlessness, all on the boat have
+     discharged their duties well and in everything acted calmly until
+     death. Although we are departing in pursuance of our duty to the
+     State, the only regret we have is due to anxiety lest the men of
+     the world may misunderstand the matter, and that thereby a blow
+     may be given to the future development of submarines. While going
+     through gasoline submarine exercise, we submerged too far, and
+     when we attempted to shut the sluice-valve, the chain in the
+     meantime gave way. Then we tried to close the sluice-valve, by
+     hand, but it was too late, the rear part being full of water, and
+     the boat sank at an angle of about twenty-five degrees.
+
+     The switchboard being under water, the electric lights gave out.
+     Offensive gas developed and respiration became difficult. The
+     above has been written under the light of the conning-tower when
+     it was 11.45 o'clock. We are now soaked by the water that has
+     made its way in. Our clothes are very wet and we feel cold. I
+     have always expected death whenever I left my home, and therefore
+     my will is already in the drawer at Karasaki. I beg,
+     respectfully, to say to his Majesty that I respectfully request
+     that none of the families left by my subordinates shall suffer.
+     The only matter I am anxious about now is this. Atmospheric
+     pressure is increasing, and I feel as if my tympanum were
+     breaking. At 12.30 o'clock respiration is extraordinarily
+     difficult. I am breathing gasoline. I am intoxicated with
+     gasoline. It is 12.40 o'clock.
+
+Could there be a more touching record of the way in which a brave
+man met death?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+More interest in submarine warfare than ever before was aroused in
+this country when the German war submarine U-53 unexpectedly made
+its appearance in the harbour of Newport, R. I., during the
+afternoon of October 7, 1916. About three hours afterwards, without
+having taken on any supplies, and after explaining her presence by
+the desire of delivering a letter addressed to Count von Bernstorff,
+then German Ambassador at Washington, the U-53 left as suddenly and
+mysteriously as she had appeared.
+
+This was the first appearance of a foreign war submarine in an
+American port. It was claimed that the U-53 had made the trip from
+Wilhelmshaven in seventeen days. She was 213 feet long, equipped
+with two guns, four torpedo tubes, and an exceptionally strong
+wireless outfit. Besides her commander, Captain Rose, she was manned
+by three officers and thirty-three men.
+
+Early the next morning, October 8, it became evident what had
+brought the U-53 to this side of the Atlantic. At the break of day,
+she made her re-appearance southeast of Nantucket. The American
+steamer _Kansan_ of the American Hawaiian Company bound from New
+York by way of Boston to Genoa was stopped by her, but, after
+proving her nationality and neutral ownership was allowed to
+proceed. Five other steamships, three of them British, one Dutch,
+and one Norwegian were less fortunate. The British freighter
+_Strathend_, of 4321 tons was the first victim. Her crew were taken
+aboard the Nantucket shoals light-ship. Two other British
+freighters, _West Point_ and _Stephano_, followed in short order to
+the bottom of the ocean. The crews of both were saved by United
+States torpedo boat destroyers who had come from Newport as soon as
+news of the U-53's activities had been received there. This was also
+the case with the crews of the Dutch _Bloomersdijk_ and the
+Norwegian tanker, _Christian Knudsen_.
+
+Not often in recent years has there been put on American naval
+officers quite so disagreeable a restraint as duty enforced upon the
+commanders of the destroyers who watched the destruction of these
+friendly ships, almost within our own territorial waters, by an
+arrogant foreigner who gave himself no concern over the rescue of
+the crews of the sunken ships but seemed to think that the function
+of the American men of war. It was no secret at the time that
+sentiment in the Navy was strongly pro-Ally. Probably had it been
+wholly neutral the mind of any commander would have revolted at this
+spectacle of wanton destruction of property and callous indifference
+to human life. It is quite probable that had this event occurred
+before the invention of wireless telegraphy had robbed the navy
+commander at sea of all initiative, there might have happened off
+Nantucket something analogous to the famous action of Commodore
+Tatnall when with the cry, "Blood is thicker than water" he took a
+part of his crew to the aid of British vessels sorely pressed by the
+fire of certain Chinese forts on the Yellow River. As it was it is
+an open secret that one commander appealed by wireless to Washington
+for authority to intervene. He did not get it of course. No
+possible construction of international law could give us rights
+beyond the three-mile limit. He had at least however the
+satisfaction when the German commander asked him to move his ship to
+a point at which it would not interfere with the submarine's fire
+upon one of the doomed vessels, of telling him to move his own ship
+and accompanying the suggestion with certain phrases of elaboration
+thoroughly American.
+
+The rapid development of submarine warfare naturally made it
+necessary to find ways and means to combat this new weapon of naval
+warfare. Much difficulty was experienced, especially in the
+beginning, because there were no precedents and because for a
+considerable period everything that was tried had necessarily to be
+of an experimental nature.
+
+To protect harbours and bays was found comparatively easy. Nets were
+spread across their entrances. They were made of strong wire cables
+and to judge from the total absence of submarines within the
+harbours thus guarded they proved a successful deterrent. In most
+cases they were supported by extensive minefields. The danger of
+these to submarines, however, is rather a matter of doubt, for
+submarines can dive successfully under them and by careful
+navigating escape unharmed.
+
+The general idea of fighting submarines with nets was also adopted
+for areas of open water which were suspected of being infested with
+submarines. Recently, serious doubts have been raised concerning the
+future usefulness of nets. Reports have been published that German
+submarines have been fitted up with a wire and cable cutting
+appliance which would make it possible for them to break through
+nets at will, supposing, of course, that they had been caught by the
+nets in such a way that no vital parts of the underwater craft had
+been seriously damaged. A sketch of this wire cutting device was
+made by the captain of a merchantman, who, while in a small boat
+after his ship had been torpedoed, had come close enough to the
+attacking submarine to make the necessary observations. The sketch
+showed an arrangement consisting of a number of strands of heavy
+steel hawsers which were stretched from bow to stern, passing
+through the conning tower and to which were attached a series of
+heavy circular knives a foot in diameter and placed about a yard
+apart. Even as early as January, 1915, Mr. Simon Lake, the famous
+American submarine engineer and inventor, published an article in
+the _Scientific American_ in which he dwelt at length on means by
+which a submarine could escape mines and nets. One of the
+illustrations, accompanying this article, showed a device enabling
+submarines travelling on the bottom of the sea to lift a net with a
+pair of projecting arms and thus pass unharmed under it.
+
+[Illustration: © International Film Service, Inc.
+
+_Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal._]
+
+Many other devices to trap, sink or capture submarines have been
+invented. A large number of these, of course, have been found
+impracticable. Others, however, have been used with success. Few
+details of any of these have been allowed to become known.
+
+The most dangerous power of submarines, is their ability to approach
+very closely to their object of attack without making their presence
+known to their prey. This naturally suggested that a way be found to
+detect the presence of submarines early enough to make it possible
+to stave off an attack or even to assume the offensive against the
+underwater boat. A recent invention, the perfection of which is due
+to the work of Mr. William Dubilier, an American electrical
+engineer, and of Professor Tissot, a member of the French Academy of
+Science, is the microphone. Few details are known about this
+instrument except that it records sound waves at as great a distance
+as fifty-five miles. This would permit in most cases the calling of
+patrol boats or the use of other defensive means before the
+submarine would be able to execute an attack.
+
+At the present moment it would appear that the most dangerous enemy
+of the submarine yet discovered is the airplane or the dirigible.
+Some figures as to the mortality among submarines due to the efforts
+of aircraft have been published in an earlier chapter. The chief
+value of aircraft in this work is due to the fact that objects under
+the water are readily discernible at a considerable depth when
+viewed from a point directly over them. An illustration familiar to
+every boy is to be found in the fact that he can see fish at the
+bottom of a clear stream from a bridge, while from the shore the
+refraction of the water is such that he can see nothing. From the
+air the aviator can readily see a submarine at a depth of fifty feet
+unless the water is unusually rough or turbid. The higher he rises
+the wider is his sphere of vision. With the lurking craft thus
+located the airman can either signal to watching destroyers or may
+bide his time and follow the submarine until it rises to the
+surface, when a well placed bomb will destroy it. Both of these
+methods have been adopted with success. For a time the submarines
+were immune from this form of attack because of the difficulty of
+finding a bomb which would not explode on striking the surface of
+the water, thus allowing its force to be dissipated before it
+reached the submarine, or else would not have its velocity so
+greatly checked by the water that on reaching the submarine the
+shock of its impact would not be great enough to explode it at all.
+Both of these difficulties have been overcome. The new high
+explosives have such power, taken in connection with the fact that
+water transmits the force of an explosion undiminished to a great
+distance, that many of them exploding at the surface will put out of
+action a submarine at a considerable depth. Furthermore bombs have
+been invented, which being fired, not merely dropped from an
+airplane, will go through the water with almost undiminished
+momentum and explode on striking the target, or after a period fixed
+by the assailant. Other bombs known as "depth bombs" are fitted with
+flanges that revolve as they sink, causing an explosion at any
+desired depth.
+
+About the actual achievements of the airplane as a foe to submarines
+there hangs a haze of mystery. It has been the policy of the Allied
+governments to keep secret the record of submarines destroyed and
+particularly the methods of destruction. But we know that a few have
+met their fate from bolts dropped from the blue. In _The Outlook_
+Lawrence La Tourette Driggs, himself a flying man of no contemptible
+record, describes the method and result of such an attack. After
+recounting the steps by which a brother airman attained a position
+directly above a submerged submarine preparatory to dropping his
+bomb, he says:
+
+     Down shot his plummet of steel and neatly parted the waters ahead
+     of the labouring submarine. But it did not explode. I could see a
+     whirling metal propeller on the torpedo revolve as it sank. It
+     must have missed the craft by twenty feet.
+
+     Suddenly a column of water higher than my position in the air
+     stood straight up over the sea, then slipped noiselessly back. By
+     all that is wonderful how did that happen?
+
+     As we covered the spot again and again in our circling machines,
+     we were joined by two more pilots, and finally by a fast clipper
+     steam yacht. The surface of the water was literally covered with
+     oil, breaking up the ripple of the waves, and smoothing a huge
+     area into gleaming bronze. Here and there floated a cork belt,
+     odd bunches of cotton waste, a strip of carpet, and a wooden
+     three-legged stool. These fragments alone remained to testify to
+     the _corpus delicti_.
+
+     "Philip," I said half an hour later, as the hot coffee was
+     thawing out our insides, "what kind of a civilized bomb do you
+     call that?"
+
+     "That bears the simple little title of trinitrotoluol; call it T.
+     N. T. for short," replied Sergeant Pieron.
+
+     "But what made it hang fire so long?" I demanded.
+
+     "It's made to work that way. When the bomb begins sinking the
+     little propeller is turned as it is pulled down through the
+     water. It continues turning until it screws to the end. There it
+     touches the fuse-pin and that sets off the high explosive--at any
+     depth you arrange it for."
+
+     I regarded him steadfastly. Then I remarked, "But it did not
+     touch the submarine. I saw it miss."
+
+     "Yes, you can miss it fifty yards and still crush the submarine."
+     He took up an empty egg shell. "The submarine is hollow like
+     this. She is held rigidly on all her sides by the water. Water is
+     non-compressible like steel. Now when the T. N. T. explodes, even
+     some distance away, the violent expending concussion is
+     communicated to this hollow shell just as though a battering ram
+     struck it. The submarine can't give any because the  surrounding
+     water holds her in place. So she crumples up--like this."
+
+     Pieron opened his hand and the flakes of egg shell fluttered down
+     until they struck the floor.
+
+Gunfire undoubtedly is still the most reliable preventive against
+submarine attacks. Comparatively small calibred guns can cause
+serious damage to submarines even by one well directed shot.
+Submarines have been sunk both by warships and merchantmen in this
+way and many more have been forced to desist from attacks. Not every
+merchantman, of course, can be equipped with the necessary guns and
+gunners. Neither equipment nor men can be spared in sufficient
+quantities. But the efficiency of gun protection has been proved
+beyond all doubt by many authentic reports of successful encounters
+between armed merchantmen and submarines in which the latter were
+defeated.
+
+Ramming, too, has been advocated and tried. It is, however, a
+procedure involving considerable danger to the attacking boat. For
+one thing all the submarine has to do is to dive quick and deep
+enough and it is out of harm's way. Then, too, the chances are that
+the submarine can launch a torpedo in time to reach the ramming
+vessel before the latter can do any damage.
+
+[Illustration: _A Critical Moment._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+There have been reports of submarine duels between Austrian and
+Italian submarines in the Adriatic in which it was claimed that in
+each at least one submarine was destroyed, and, at least, in one
+instance both the duellists were sunk. Generally speaking the fact
+has been established, however, that submarines cannot fight
+submarines with any degree of success, except in exceptional cases
+and under exceptional conditions.
+
+Since the outbreak of the war between the United States and Germany
+the question of combating the submarine has become more acute than
+ever. The latest development has been along negative rather than
+affirmative lines. It has apparently been decided that none of the
+devices, known at present and capable of destroying submarines, is
+sufficient either alone or in combinations to defeat the submarines
+decisively. The best means of balancing as much as possible the
+losses which German submarines are inflicting on the shipping
+facilities of the Allies at the present seems to be the unlimited
+and prompt building of large fleets of comparatively small ships. If
+this can be accomplished in time, the German submarines undoubtedly
+will find it impossible to destroy a tonnage sufficient to exert any
+great influence on the final outcome of the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FUTURE OF THE SUBMARINE
+
+
+The world will not always be at war. Interminable as the conflict by
+which it is now racked seems, and endless as appear the resources of
+the nations participating in it, the time must come when victory or
+sheer exhaustion shall compel peace. People talk of that peace being
+permanent. That is perhaps too sanguine a dream while human nature
+remains what it is, and nations can still be as covetous, ambitious,
+and heedless of others' rights as are individuals. But beyond doubt
+a prolonged period of peace awaits the world. What then is to be the
+future of the aircraft and the submarine which had to wait for war
+to secure any recognition from mankind of their prodigious
+possibilities?
+
+Of the future of the aircraft there can be no doubt. Its uses in
+peace will be innumerable. Poor old Count Zeppelin, who thought of
+his invention only as a weapon of war, nevertheless showed how it
+might be successfully adapted to the needs of peace merely as a
+byproduct. As for the airplane both for sport and business its
+opportunities are endless. Easy and inexpensive to build, simple to
+operate with but little training on the part of the aviator, it will
+be made the common carrier of all nations. Already the United States
+is maintaining an aërial mail service in Alaska. Already too, bi-
+and triplanes are built capable of carrying twenty-five to thirty
+men besides guns and ammunition. It is easy to foresee the use that
+can be made of machines of this character in times of peace. Needing
+no tracks or right of way, requiring no expensive signalling or
+operative system, asking only that at each end of the route there
+shall be a huge level field for rising and for landing, these
+machines will in time take to themselves the passenger business of
+the world.
+
+But the future of the submarine is more dubious. Always it will be a
+potent weapon of war. It may indeed force the relegation of
+dreadnoughts to the scrap heap. But of its peaceful services there
+is more doubt. That it can be made a cargo carrier is unquestionably
+true. But to what good? There is no intelligent reason for carrying
+cargoes slowly under water which might just as well be carried
+swiftly on the surface unless war compels concealment. Underwater
+navigation must always be slower and more expensive than surface
+navigation, nor does it seem probable that the underwater boats can
+ever equal in size ordinary ships, though undoubtedly their present
+proportions are going to be greatly increased.
+
+As a result of the German submarine campaign it is possible that the
+United States may develop a fleet of underwater merchantmen to
+circumvent the enemy while this war continues, though there has been
+but little discussion of it. But even so, commonsense would indicate
+that such a fleet would be abandoned on the restoration of peace. If
+anything is to be done toward making the submarine a vessel of
+ordinary everyday use the present double system of motors--the
+Diesels for surface navigation and the electric for submerged
+service--will have to be abandoned. Inventors however are diligently
+working on this problem to-day. Indeed so well known and successful
+a builder of submarines as Mr. Simon Lake seemed to have faith in
+their possibilities as merchant craft. As early as February, 1916,
+he announced that he had taken out a patent on a new form of
+cargo-carrying submarine which he described as made up of "nests of
+light-weight circular tanks of comparatively small diameter
+surrounded by a ship-shape form of hull." What advantage was to
+accrue from this type of vessel Mr. Lake has not explained. However
+the Germans who seemed to originate everything successfully
+demonstrated that the merchant submarine was a practicable and
+useful craft with which to beat the blockade.
+
+This was proved by the two successful trips made by the unarmed
+German merchant submarine _Deutschland_ between Germany and the
+United States in 1916. Loaded with a cargo of dyestuffs and
+chemicals she left Bremen on June 14, 1916, and arrived in Baltimore
+early in July. After a short stay, during which she took on a full
+return cargo, consisting chiefly of rubber and metal, she started on
+August 1, 1916, for her return trip to Bremen where she arrived
+safely soon after August 15, 1916. Once more, in October of the same
+year she made a successful round trip, docking this time in New
+London. There was considerable talk about additional trips by other
+German merchant submarines, but none of them were ever carried out.
+It has never become known whether this was due to the loss of these
+merchant submarines or to political relations between Germany and
+the United States which were then gradually assuming a less friendly
+form.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+_A Submarine Built for Chili, Passing through Cape Cod Canal._]
+
+Of course, it is true that such boats are blockade runners and in a
+way, therefore, part and parcel of warfare. But they are unarmed
+merchantmen just the same and their exclusively mercantile character
+has been officially acknowledged by the United States Government.
+Under conditions of peace, however, it is very doubtful whether
+submarine merchantmen would pay, nor does it seem as if they
+possessed any advantages at all over surface merchant vessels.
+Nevertheless they represent an entirely new development of submarine
+navigation and, therefore, deserve attention.
+
+During her stay in the United States, very few people were permitted
+to get more than a glance of the _Deutschland_. As a result,
+comparatively little became known regarding her mechanical details.
+The _Scientific American_, however, in its issue of July 22, 1916,
+gives a fairly detailed description of this first merchant
+submarine.
+
+From this account we learn that the _Deutschland_ conforms rather
+closely to the typical German naval U-boat. The hull proper consists
+of an internal cigar-shaped, cylindrical structure, which extends
+from stem to stern, and in its largest diameter measures about
+twenty feet. Enclosing this hull is a lighter false hull, which is
+perforated, to permit the entrance and exit of the sea-water, and is
+so shaped as to give the submarine a fairly good ship model for
+driving at high speed on the surface and at a much lesser speed
+submerged. The upper portion of the false hull does not present such
+a flat deck-like appearance as is noticeable in the naval U-boats.
+In fact, the whole modelling of the _Deutschland_, as compared with
+the naval boats, suggests that she has been fulled out somewhat,
+with a view to obtaining the necessary displacement for cargo
+carrying.
+
+     The interior cylindrical hull is divided by four transverse
+     bulkheads into five separate water-tight compartments.
+     Compartment No. 1, at the bow, contains the anchor cables and
+     electric winches for handling the anchor; also general ship
+     stores, and a certain amount of cargo. Compartment No. 2 is given
+     up entirely to cargo. Compartment No. 3, which is considerably
+     larger than any of the others, contains the living quarters of
+     the officers and crew. At the after end of this compartment, and
+     communicating with it, is the conning tower. Compartment No. 4 is
+     given up entirely to cargo. Compartment No. 5 contains the
+     propelling machinery, consisting of two heavy oil engines and two
+     electric motors. The storage batteries are carried in the bottom
+     of the boat, below the living compartment. For purposes of
+     communication, a gangway, 2 feet 6 inches wide by 6 feet high, is
+     built through each cargo compartment, thus rendering it possible
+     for the crew to pass entirely from one end of the boat to the
+     other.
+
+     The length of the _Deutschland_ is about 315 feet; beam 30 feet,
+     and draught 17 feet. For surface propulsion and for charging the
+     batteries, the boat carries two 4-cylinder, Diesel, heavy-oil
+     motors of about 600 H. P. each. The speed at the surface is from
+     12 to 13 knots; and submerged it is 7 knots. At the surface the
+     displacement of the boat is about 2000 tons, and she has a cargo
+     capacity of about 700 tons.
+
+     The freeboard to the main deck, which runs the full length of the
+     boat, but is only about 5-1/2 feet wide, is about 6 feet, and the
+     cockpit at the top of the conning tower is about 15 feet above
+     the water. This cockpit, by the way, is suggestive of the
+     protection afforded a chauffeur in an automobile, there being a
+     shield in front of the quartermaster, so shaped as to throw the
+     wind and spray upwards and clear of his face.
+
+     Two periscopes are provided; one at the forward end of the
+     conning tower, and the other, of larger diameter, being forward
+     and on the starboard of the conning tower. An interesting feature
+     is the two folding, steel, wireless masts, about 50 feet in
+     height, both of which fold aft into pockets built in the deck of
+     the ship. The forward one of these masts carries a crow's nest
+     for the lookout.
+
+The commander of the _Deutschland_, Captain Paul König, was before the
+war a popular captain of North German Lloyd liners. He has published a
+very vivid and interesting account of the _Deutschland's_ trip, the
+_Voyage of the Deutschland_. In this book, he tells us how he was
+offered this novel command while the plans were still being drawn and
+that he immediately accepted, making, however, the proviso "if the
+thing really comes off."
+
+The men, backing the venture, lost no time and, so Captain König
+tells us,
+
+     in less than two months a telegram called me to Berlin to an
+     important conference. Here I looked at sketches, plans, and
+     working drawings until my eyes swam. Four more months passed
+     which I utilized to the full. I then went to Kiel and saw a
+     remarkable framework of steel slowly take shape upon the stocks
+     across the way at Gaarden. Rotund, snug, and harmless the thing
+     lay there. Inside it were hidden all the countless, complicated,
+     and powerful features of those sketches and working drawings. I
+     cannot boast that the reality as executed in steel and brass was
+     any easier to grasp than the endless network of lines and circles
+     which had bewildered me when inspecting the blueprints.
+
+     Those of you who have seen illustrations and photographs of the
+     interior of the "central station" or the "turret" of a submarine,
+     will understand what I mean. And should you have entered a
+     submarine itself and felt yourself hopelessly confused by the
+     bewildering chaos of wheels, vents, screws, cocks, pipes,
+     conduits--above, below, and all about--not to speak of the
+     mysterious levers and weird mechanisms, each of which has some
+     important function to fulfill, you may find some consolation in
+     the thought that my own brains performed a devils' dance at the
+     sight.
+
+     But after this monster, with its tangle of tubes and pipes, had
+     been duly christened, and its huge grey-green body had slid
+     majestically into the water, it suddenly became a ship. It swam
+     in its element as though born to it--as though it had never known
+     another.
+
+     For the first time I trod the tiny deck and mounted the turret to
+     the navigation platform. From here I glanced down and was
+     surprised to see beneath me a long, slender craft--with gracious
+     lines and dainty contours. Only the sides, where the green body
+     vaulted massively above the water, gave an indication of the huge
+     size of the hull. I felt pride and rapture as my eye took in this
+     picture. The fabric swayed slightly beneath my feet--an
+     impressive combination of power and delicacy.
+
+     And now I know that what had at first seemed to me nothing more
+     than the product of some mad phantasy on the part of the
+     technicians was in reality a ship. It was a ship in which oceans
+     might be crossed, a real ship, to which the heart of an old
+     sailor like myself might safely attach itself.
+
+     Then came a short period of trial trips and diving tests, all of
+     which were carried off successfully, and at last the day of
+     departure arrived. As soon as the last escort had turned around a
+     final diving test was ordered.
+
+     Instantly the response came back from the turret and the central
+     station, and the men hurried to their posts. The oil engines were
+     still hammering away at a mad rate. I left the manhole of the
+     turret. The cover was battened down, the engines stopped at the
+     same moment.
+
+     We felt a slight pressure in our ears for a moment. We were cut
+     off from outside and silence reigned. But this silence was merely
+     an illusion--and was due to the change.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_A Submarine Entrapped by Nets._]
+
+     "Open the diving-valves! Submerge!"
+
+     The valves were flung open and the compressed air escaped hissing
+     from the tanks. At the same time a gigantic, intermittent
+     snorting ensued, like the blowing and belching of some
+     prehistoric monster. There was an uncomfortable pressure in our
+     ears, then the noise became more regular, followed by a buzzing
+     and a shrill hum. All the high notes of the engines in the
+     central station intermingled and made a bewildering noise. It was
+     like a mad diabolical singsong. And yet it was almost like
+     silence after the dull, heavy pounding of the oil-motors--only
+     more insistent and irritating. The penetrating hum in the various
+     vents announced the fact that the diving mechanism was in
+     operation. It moaned and sang lower and lower in the scale of
+     tones. These slowly diminishing and steadily deepening tones
+     give one the physical feeling of mighty volumes of water pouring
+     in and flooding full.
+
+     You have the sensation of growing heavier and sinking as the boat
+     grows heavier and sinks, even though you may not be able to see
+     through the turret window, or the periscope, how the bows are
+     gradually submerged and the water climbs higher and higher up the
+     turret until all things without are wrapped in the eerie twilight
+     of the depths.
+
+     The faithful lamps burned, however, and then a real silence
+     suddenly ensued. There was no sound but the gentle trembling
+     rhythm of the electric engines.
+
+     I then gave the order:
+
+     "Submerge to twenty meters!"
+
+     "Both engines half steam ahead!"
+
+     I was able to follow our submersion by means of the manometer.
+     Through flooding the tanks, the boat is given several tons
+     over-weight and the enclosed ship's space is made heavier than
+     the displaced quantity of water. The titanic fish, therefore,
+     began to sink downward in its element, that is to say, it began,
+     in a certain sense, to fall. At the same time the electric
+     engines are put into motion and the propulsive force of the
+     propellers acts upon the diving rudders and causes the sinking to
+     become a gliding. After the required depth has been
+     reached--something which may easily be read from the manometer
+     that records the depth--all further sinking may be stopped by
+     simply lightening the hull, which is done by forcing out some of
+     the water in the submarine's tanks. The furious growling of the
+     pump is always a sure sign that the required depth is being
+     approached. The noise ceased, only the electric motors continued
+     to purr, and the word came from the central station:
+
+     "Twenty meters--even keel!"
+
+     "Rudder set!"
+
+     So we forged ahead at a depth of twenty meters. Of course we are
+     "blind" under such conditions and can regulate our movements only
+     by means of the depth recorder and that precious little jewel of
+     the boat, our compass. No ray of light reached us any longer from
+     without, the periscope was submerged long ago and the steel
+     safety covers over the windows were closed. We had been
+     metamorphosed completely into a fish.[1]
+
+         [Footnote 1: ©]
+
+Orders were then given to rise again. The _Deutschland_ carried out
+this manoeuvre with the same facility with which she had taken the
+initial dive of her long voyage. In record time the ballast tanks
+were emptied and the change from electric motors to oil engines was
+completed without further loss of time. The boat was started at top
+surface speed towards her ultimate goal, the United States.
+
+On the following day the _Deutschland_ barely escaped running foul
+of a British submarine chaser, disguised as a neutral merchantman. A
+quick dive alone saved her. When she came up again a wild storm and
+a heavy sea were raging. Even before the change from the electric
+motors to the oil engines had been completed, another dangerous
+looking vessel appeared and before long was recognized as a hostile
+destroyer by Captain König. He tells us that he "Made one jump into
+the turret and slammed the cover fast."
+
+     "Alarm! Dive quickly! Flood!"
+
+     "Set diving rudder!"
+
+     "Twenty meters' depth!"
+
+     The commands were uttered in almost one breath. But the execution
+     of them!
+
+     To attempt to dive with such a sea running was sheer madness, as
+     experience has taught us. What was I to do? The destroyer might
+     have seen us already!
+
+     Well, we knew we must get under--and as quickly as possible.
+
+     The men in the central below me were working away in silent
+     haste. All the exhausts were opened wide, the compressed air
+     hissed from the tanks--the diving vents were chanting in all
+     possible keys.
+
+     I stood with my lips pressed together and stared out of the
+     turret window upon the tossing sea, and watched for the first
+     sign of our going down. But our deck remained still visible and
+     we were continually lifted into the air by some wave. There was
+     not a moment to be lost.
+
+     I ordered the diving rudder to be set still more sharply and both
+     engines to drive ahead with full power.
+
+     The whole vessel quivered and thrilled under the increased
+     pressure of the engines and made several leaps. She staggered
+     about in the furious seas--but still seemed loath to leave the
+     surface. Then she gave a jerk and her bows suddenly dipped and
+     cut into the flood. She began to sink into the depths at an
+     ever-increasing angle. The coming daylight vanished from the
+     windows of the turret, the manometer in rapid succession showed
+     2--3--6--10 meters' depth. But the angle of the boat also began
+     to increase.
+
+     We staggered about, leaned back, slipped off our feet. We then
+     lost our footing entirely--for the floor of the _Deutschland_
+     slanted sharply toward the front. I was just able to catch hold
+     of the ocular or eye-piece of the periscope. Down in the central
+     the men were hanging on to the hand-wheels of the diving rudder.
+     A few terrible seconds passed thus.
+
+     We had not yet seized the full significance of this new situation
+     when there came a severe shock. We were hurled to the floor and
+     everything that was not fastened down went flying in all
+     directions.
+
+     We found ourselves in the queerest attitudes--and stared into one
+     another's faces. There was a grim silence for a moment, then
+     First Officer Krapohl remarked dryly:
+
+     "Well, we seem to have arrived!"
+
+     This broke the ghastly tension.
+
+     We were all rather pale around the gills, but at once tried to
+     get our bearings.
+
+     What had happened?
+
+     What had caused this unnatural inclination of the boat? And why
+     were the engines above us raving at intervals in a way that made
+     the whole boat roar from stem to stern?
+
+     Before any of us had arrived at any solution of the mystery, our
+     Chief Engineer, little Klees, had jumped up from his crouching
+     position, and, swift as lightning, had swept the engine-signal
+     dial around to "Stop!"
+
+     And suddenly there was a deep silence.
+
+     We slowly assembled our proper legs and arms and thought hard
+     over what had happened.
+
+     The vessel had slanted down toward the bows at an angle of about
+     36 degrees. She was standing, so to speak, on her head. Our bow
+     was fast upon the bottom of the sea--our stern was still
+     oscillating up and down like a mighty pendulum. The manometer
+     showed a depth of about 15 meters.[2]
+
+         [Footnote 2: ©]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British._]
+
+However, the _Deutschland_ finally worked herself free and soon was
+again on the surface. Luck must have been with her, for she had
+suffered no damage and, in spite of the mountains of water which she
+must have thrown up, the hostile destroyer had not discovered her.
+Once more she was off on her way.
+
+So the days went by and before long the merchant submarine had
+passed, without having been detected, beyond the territory in which
+British patrol boats were operating. Then came a succession of
+uneventful days and fine weather. Practically every day diving tests
+were made. One of these the captain describes as follows:
+
+     During these experimental diving tests we were treated to a
+     spectacle of fairy-like loveliness.
+
+     I had set the rudder in such a way that the turret was travelling
+     about three yards under water. Overhead the sun shone brilliantly
+     and filled the deeps with a clear radiance. The pure water was
+     luminous with colour--close at hand it was of a light azure blue,
+     of fabulous clearness and transparent as glass. I could see the
+     entire boat from the turret windows. The shimmering pearls of the
+     air-bubbles which rise constantly from the body of the craft
+     played about the entire length of the vessel from deck to bows,
+     and every detail stood out in miraculous sharpness. Farther ahead
+     there was a multi-coloured twilight. It seemed as if the prow
+     kept pushing itself noiselessly into a wall of opalescent green
+     which parted, glistening, and grew to an ethereal, rainbow-like
+     translucency close at hand.
+
+     We were spell-bound by this vision of beauty. The fairy-like
+     effect was increased by medusæ which, poised in the transparent
+     blue, frequently became entangled in the wires of the mine-guards
+     or the railings and glowed like trembling fires of rose, pale
+     gold, and purple.[3]
+
+         [Footnote 3: ©]
+
+But less pleasant things were in store for the _Deutschland's_ crew.
+The nearer the boat came to the region of the Gulf Stream, the more
+violent the weather became. Though she still ran most of the time on
+the surface, it became necessary to keep all openings battened down.
+Even the manhole, leading to the turret, could be kept open only
+for short periods. Naturally the temperature was rising all the
+time. It was midsummer and the Gulf Stream contributed its share of
+warmth. No wonder, therefore, that Captain König compares conditions
+below decks to a "veritable hell," and then continues:
+
+     While in the Gulf Stream we had an outer temperature of 28°
+     Celsius. This was about the warmth of the surrounding water.
+     Fresh air no longer entered. In the engine-room two 6-cylinder
+     combustion motors kept hammering away in a maddening two-four
+     time. They hurled the power of their explosions into the whirling
+     crankshafts. The red-hot breath of the consumed gases went
+     crashing out through the exhausts, but the glow of these
+     incessant firings remained in the cylinders and communicated
+     itself to the entire oil-dripping environment of steel. A choking
+     cloud of heat and oily vapour streamed from the engines and
+     spread itself like a leaden pressure through the entire ship.
+
+     During these days the temperature mounted to 53° Celsius.
+
+     And yet men lived and worked in a hell such as this! The watch
+     off duty, naked to the skin, groaned and writhed in their bunks.
+     It was no longer possible to think of sleep. And when one of the
+     men fell into a dull stupor, then he would be aroused by the
+     sweat which ran incessantly over his forehead and into his eyes,
+     and would awake to new torment.
+
+     It was almost like a blessed deliverance when the eight hours of
+     rest were over, and a new watch was called to the central or the
+     engine-room.
+
+[Illustration: Redrawn from _The Sphere_. Permission of _Scientific
+American_.
+
+_A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo._]
+
+     But there the real martyrdom began. Clad only in an undershirt
+     and drawers, the men stood at their posts, a cloth wound about
+     their foreheads to keep the running sweat from streaming into
+     their eyes. Their blood hammered and raced in their temples.
+     Every vein boiled as with fever. It was only by the exertion of
+     the most tremendous willpower that it was possible to force the
+     dripping human body to perform its mechanical duty and to remain
+     upright during the four hours of the watch....
+
+     But how long would we be able to endure this?
+
+     I no longer kept a log during these days and I find merely this
+     one note: "Temperature must not rise any higher if the men are to
+     remain any longer in the engine-room."
+
+     But they did endure it. They remained erect like so many heroes,
+     they did their duty, exhausted, glowing hot, and bathed in sweat,
+     until the storm centre lay behind us, until the weather cleared,
+     until the sun broke through the clouds, and the diminishing seas
+     permitted us once more to open the hatches.[4]
+
+         [Footnote 4: ©]
+
+The _Deutschland_ was now near her goal. Without any trouble she
+entered Hampton Roads and was docked at Baltimore. There her cargo
+was discharged and her return cargo loaded. This latter operation
+involved many difficulties. During her stay a United States
+Government Commission made a detailed inspection of the
+_Deutschland_ to determine beyond all question her mercantile
+character. But at last the day of departure, August 1, had arrived.
+Properly escorted she made the trip down the Patapsco River and
+Chesapeake Bay. On her way down she made again diving trials which
+Captain König describes as follows:
+
+     In order to see that everything else was tight and in good order,
+     I gave the command to set the boat upon the sea bottom at a spot
+     which, according to the reading upon the chart, had a depth of
+     some 30 meters.
+
+     Once again everything grew silent. The daylight vanished the
+     well-known singing and boiling noise of the submerging vents
+     vibrated about us. In my turret I fixed my eyes upon the
+     manometer. Twenty meters were recorded, then twenty-five. The
+     water ballast was diminished--thirty meters appeared and I waited
+     the slight bump which was to announce the arrival of the boat at
+     the bottom.
+
+     Nothing of the sort happened.
+
+     Instead of this the indicator upon the dial pointed to 32--to
+     33--to 35 meters....
+
+     I knocked against the glass with my finger--correct--the arrow
+     was just pointing toward thirty-six.
+
+     "Great thunder! what's up?" I cried, and reached for the chart.
+     Everything tallied. Thirty meters were indicated at this spot and
+     our reckoning had been most exact.
+
+     And we continued to sink deeper and deeper.
+
+     The dial was now announcing 40 meters.
+
+     This was a bit too much for me. I called down to the central and
+     got back the comforting answer that the large manometer was also
+     indicating a depth of over forty meters!
+
+     The two manometers agreed.
+
+     This, however, did not prevent the boat from continuing to sink.
+
+     The men in the central began to look at one another....
+
+     Ugh! it gives one a creepy feeling to go slipping away into the
+     unknown amidst this infernal singing silence and to see nothing
+     but the climbing down of the confounded indicator upon the
+     white-faced dial....
+
+     There was nothing else to be seen in my turret. I glanced at the
+     chart and then at the manometer in a pretty helpless fashion.
+
+     In the meantime the boat sank deeper; forty-five meters were
+     passed--the pointer indicated forty-eight meters. I began to
+     think the depth of the Chesapeake Bay must have some limit; we
+     surely could not be heading for the bottomless pit? Then--the
+     boat halted at a depth of fifty meters without the slightest
+     shock.
+
+     I climbed down into the central and took counsel with Klees and
+     the two officers of the watch.
+
+     There could be only one explanation; we must have sunk into a
+     hole which had not been marked upon the chart.[5]
+
+         [Footnote 5: ©]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_A German Submarine in Three Positions._]
+
+When orders were now given to rise, it was found that the exhaust
+pumps refused to work. After a while, however, the chief engineer
+succeeded in getting them started. They reached the surface after
+about two hours of submergence.
+
+It was dark by the time the merchant submarine was approaching the
+three-mile limit. Outside of it hostile warships were lying in wait.
+That the _Deutschland_ escaped them well illustrates the fact that
+submarines may be kept by various means from entering a bay or a
+harbour, but that to blockade their exit is practically impossible.
+This is how Captain König speaks of his escape.
+
+     We knew that the most dangerous moment of our entire voyage was
+     now approaching. We once more marked our exact position, and then
+     proceeded to make all the preparations necessary for our breaking
+     through.
+
+     Then we dived and drove forward. All our senses were keyed to the
+     utmost, our nerves taut to the breaking-point with that cold
+     excitement which sends quivers through one's soul, the while
+     outwardly one remains quite serene, governed by that clear and
+     icy deliberation which is apt to possess a man who is fully
+     conscious of the unknown perils toward which he goes....
+
+     We knew our path. We had already been informed that fishermen had
+     been hired to spread their nets along certain stretches of the
+     three-mile limit; nets in which we were supposed to entangle
+     ourselves; nets into which devilish mines had very likely been
+     woven....
+
+     Possibly these nets were merely attached to buoys which we were
+     then supposed to drag along after us, thus betraying our
+     position....
+
+     We were prepared for all emergencies, so that in case of extreme
+     necessity we should be able to free ourselves of the nets. But
+     all went well.
+
+     It was a dark night. Quietly and peacefully the lighthouses upon
+     the two capes sent forth their light, the while a few miles
+     further out death lay lowering for us in every imaginable form.
+
+     But while the English ships were racing up and down, jerking
+     their searchlights across the waters and searching again and
+     again in every imaginable spot, they little surmised that, at
+     times within the radius of their own shadows, a periscope pursued
+     its silent way, and under this periscope the _U-Deutschland_.
+
+     That night at twelve o'clock, after hours of indescribable
+     tension, I gave the command to rise.
+
+     We Had Broken Through!
+
+     Slowly the _Deutschland_ rose to the surface, the tanks were
+     blown out and the Diesel engines flung into the gearing. At our
+     highest speed we now went rushing toward the free Atlantic.[6]
+
+         [Footnote 6: ©]
+
+The homeward voyage was completed without untoward incident and long
+before the month had ended, the first--and probably last--merchant
+submarine was again safe and snug in her home port.
+
+The cargo-carrying submarine, however, is by no means the only type
+of underwater vessel engaged in peaceful pursuits which has been
+suggested so far. Mr. Simon Lake, the American submarine engineer
+and inventor, has frequently pointed out the commercial
+possibilities of the submarine.
+
+In the early part of 1916 a series of articles from his pen appeared
+in _International Marine Engineering_. They contained a number of
+apparently feasible suggestions looking towards the commercial
+development of the submarine.
+
+First of all he tells of experiments made with submarines for
+navigation under ice. The proper development of this idea, of
+course, would be of immense commercial value. Many harbours in
+various parts of the world are inaccessible during the winter months
+for vessels navigating on the surface. Navigation on many important
+inland lakes likewise has to be stopped during that period.
+Submarines, built so that they can safely travel under the ice,
+would overcome these conditions and would make it possible to use
+most ice-bound ports throughout the entire year at least in Mr.
+Lake's view.
+
+Ever since Mr. Lake began inventing and building submarines he has
+been interested in the possibilities which submarines offer for the
+exploration of the sea-bottom and for the discovery of wrecks and
+recovery of their valuable cargoes. His first boat, the _Argonaut_,
+as we have heard, possessed a diving chamber for just such purposes.
+He has continued his investigations and experiments along this line,
+and in these articles he shows illustrations of submarine boats and
+devices adapted for such work. Properly financed and directed, the
+recovery of cargoes from wrecks undoubtedly would not only bring
+large financial returns to the backers of such a venture, but also
+do away with the immense waste which the total loss of sunken
+vessels and cargoes inflicts now on the world. Submarines in peace
+may yet recover for the use of man much of the wealth which
+submarines in war have sent to the bottom of the sea. Marine
+insurance, too, would be favourably affected by such an undertaking.
+
+Still one other commercial submarine boat is advocated by Mr. Lake.
+This is to be used for the location and collection of shellfish on a
+large scale. Of this vessel its inventor says:
+
+     The design of this submarine oyster-dredging vessel is such that
+     the vessel goes down to the bottom direct, and the water is
+     forced out of the centre raking compartment so that the oysters
+     may be seen by the operator in the control compartment. With only
+     a few inches of water over them, headway is then given to the
+     submarine and the oysters are automatically raked up, washed, and
+     delivered through pipes into the cargo-carrying chambers.
+     Centrifugal pumps are constantly delivering water from the cargo
+     compartments, which induces a flow of water through the pipes
+     leading from the "rake pans" with sufficient velocity to carry up
+     the oysters and deposit them into the cargo holds. In this manner
+     the bottom may be seen, and by "tracking" back and forth over the
+     bottom the ground may be "cleaned up" at one operation.
+
+     This boat has a capacity of gathering oysters from good ground at
+     the rate of five thousand bushels per hour. The use of the
+     submarine will make the collection of oysters more nearly like
+     the method of reaping a field of grain, where one "swathe"
+     systematically joins on to another, and the whole field is
+     "cleaned up" at one operation.
+
+Man's greediness for profit has already driven the salmon from the
+rivers of New England where once they swarmed. Mechanical devices
+for taking them by the hundreds of thousands threaten a like result
+in the now teeming rivers of Washington and British Columbia. Mr.
+Lake's invention has the demerit of giving conscienceless profiteers
+the opportunity to obliterate the oyster from our national waters.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Sectional View of a British Submarine._]
+
+It does not appear, however, that, except as an engine of war the
+submarine offers much prospect of future development or future
+usefulness. And as we of the United States entered this war, which
+now engages our energies and our thoughts, for the purpose of making
+it the last war the world shall ever know, speculation on the future
+of the submarine seems rather barren. That does not mean however
+that there will be a complete stoppage of submarine construction or
+submarine development. War is not going to be ended by complete
+international disarmament, any more than complete unpreparedness
+kept the United States out of the struggle. A reasonable armament
+for every nation, and the union of all nations against any one or
+two that threaten wantonly to break the peace is the most promising
+plan intelligent pacifism has yet suggested. In such an
+international system there will be room and plenty for submarines.
+
+Indeed it is into just such a plan that they intelligently fit.
+Though not wholly successful in their operations against capital
+ships, they have demonstrated enough power to make nations hesitate
+henceforth before putting a score of millions into ponderous
+dreadnoughts which have to retire from submarine-infested waters as
+the British did in their very hour of triumph at Jutland. They have
+not nullified, but greatly reduced the value of overwhelming sea
+power such as the British have possessed. A navy greater than those
+of any two other nations has indeed kept the German ships, naval and
+commercial, locked in port. But less than two hundred inexpensive
+submarines bid fair to sweep the seas of all merchant ships--neutral
+as well as British unless by feverish building the nations can build
+ships faster than submarines can sink them. Huge navies may
+henceforth be unknown.
+
+The submarine has been the David of the war. It is a pity that its
+courage and efficiency have been exerted mainly in the wrong cause
+and that the missiles from its sling have felled the wrong Goliath.
+
+Aircraft and submarine! It is still on the cards that when the
+definitive history of the war shall be written, its outcome may be
+ascribed to one or the other of these novel weapons--the creation of
+American inventive genius.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+  _Aboukir_, 235, 236
+
+  Aërial mail service, 362
+
+  Aërial instruction, 109-121
+
+  Aërial Coast Patrol Unit, 188
+
+  Aerodromes, 170
+
+  Airplane costs, 224, 225
+
+  American aviators in France, 109, 111, 174
+
+  American Flying Corps, 175
+
+  André, General, 267-269
+
+  Andrée, Polar expedition, 41, 56, 57
+
+  Anti-aircraft guns, 128, 129, 144-147, 150, 151, 169, 172, 173, 211,
+    230, 297, 305
+
+  Antwerp, 195
+
+  "Archies," _see_ anti-aircraft guns
+
+  Arlandes, Marquis, d', 29
+
+  Archimedes, 19
+
+  Army Aviation School, Mineola, 188
+
+  Arras, 185
+
+  Astra-Torres, 81
+
+  Austrian, submarine, U-11, 190;
+    seaplane, 191;
+    warships _vs._, British submarines, 334;
+    submarines, 261, 360;
+    submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Aviation, in England, 104, 105, 106;
+    in France, 104-106;
+    Germany, 104-106, 108;
+    Russia, 106;
+    United States, 182-190, 194, 202, 221
+
+  "Avro" machines, 148
+
+
+B
+
+  Baker, Ray Stannard, quoted, 287-293
+
+  Ball, Captain, 212-214
+
+  Baltic, 157
+
+  Bauer, Wilhelm, 253, 254
+
+  Belgium, 18, 108, 184, 196
+
+  Belgium, mapping coast of, 150
+
+  Berlin, 65, 74, 75, 156, 357
+
+  Besnier, wings, 16
+
+  Blanchard, aeronaut, 35
+
+  Bleriot, aviator, 35, 95, 109;
+    airplane, 186
+
+  Blockade, United States, 10
+
+  Boelke, Lieutenant, 118-120;
+    story of air duel of, 214-216
+
+  Brazil, submarine strength of, 307
+
+  Briggs, Commander, 148
+
+  Bristol, biplane, 126
+
+  British, 105, 147, 149, 151, 152, 164, 166, 171, 183, 188, 190, 334;
+    Admiralty, 236, 272;
+    Navy, 195, 274;
+    Royal Flying Corps, 105, 106, 164, 166, 167, 174, 212;
+    Royal Naval Air Service, 150, 200;
+    submarine strength, 301, 302
+
+  Brussels, 165
+
+  Bushnell, David, 246-249, 263
+
+
+C
+
+  Calmette, M., 267-270
+
+  Canada, airplane factories in, 107
+
+  Caproni, airplanes, 204, 228
+
+  Cayley, Sir George, 36, 83
+
+  Channel, English, 30, 35, 55, 144, 324, 340, 341
+
+  Chanute, 90
+
+  Chapman, Victor, 176, 179, 180, 214
+
+  Charles, M., 25;
+    balloon, 31
+
+  Churchill, Winston, 155
+
+  Civil War, 5, 7, 10, 61, 260, 261, 333
+
+  _Clement-Bayard II._, 56
+
+  Coffin, Howard E., 202
+
+  Congress of the United States, 182, 187, 194, 196, 201, 221, 276, 301
+
+  Congressional Committee, 204
+
+  _Cressy_, 235, 236
+
+  Curtis, Glenn, 83, 98
+
+  Cuxhaven, 8, 108, 132, 148, 149, 150, 155
+
+
+D
+
+  Dardanelles, 157, 190, 310, 334
+
+  Da Vinci, Leonardo, 15
+
+  Day, J., 242-246
+
+  "D. H. 5," 126
+
+  Denmark, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Department of Aeronautics, 182
+
+  Deutsch, Henry, prize for aviation, 39, 46-50
+
+  _Deutschland_, The, 13, 364-378
+
+  Dewey, Admiral, 271, 272
+
+  Diesel motor, 308, 309, 319, 325, 363, 366
+
+  Douaumont, 162
+
+  Drachens, 220
+
+  Drebel, Cornelius, 238-240
+
+  Driggs, Lawrence La Tourette, 358, 359
+
+  Dubilier, William, 357
+
+
+E
+
+  Eiffel Tower, 42, 46-49, 51. _See also_ Santos-Dumont
+
+  Emperor of Germany, 65, 69, 72
+
+  England, 73, 75, 95, 105, 108, 142, 147, 166, 182, 184, 194, 201,
+    202, 207, 209, 240, 251, 253, 303, 345
+
+  Essen, 8, 108
+
+  Expeditionary Army, 106
+
+
+F
+
+  Faotomu, Lieutenant Takuma, 352, 353
+
+  Farman, 95, 108, 218
+
+  Farragut, Admiral, 132
+
+  Fiske, Rear-Admiral, 155, 157, 206
+
+  Flanders, 6, 148
+
+  Fléchette, 138, 186
+
+  Fokker, 126, 128, 163, 170, 171, 212
+
+  Fort Myer, 96, 97
+
+  _Foucault_, submarine, 191
+
+  France, 59, 80, 81, 95, 104-106, 111, 120, 133, 142, 147, 167, 180,
+    182, 183, 195, 199, 200-202, 208, 209, 214, 240, 251, 254, 295,
+    303, 343
+
+  Franklin, Benjamin, views of balloons, 24;
+    letters, 32, 33
+
+  French, airplanes at Battle of Somme, 198;
+    Commission to United States, 196;
+    guns, 147;
+    improve on German airplane, 204;
+    inspection of captive Zeppelin, 81;
+    standardize their airplanes, 104;
+    submarine, 309;
+    submarine strength, 302, 303
+
+  French, General Sir John, 3-5, 106
+
+  Friedrichshaven, 8, 70, 75, 76, 108, 147
+
+  Fulton, Robert, 251, 252, 253
+
+
+G
+
+  George, Lloyd, 210
+
+  German, Admiralty, 190;
+    air champion, 214;
+    air raids on England, 207;
+    attempt to starve England, 194;
+    fleet, 183, 184;
+    submarine attacks on allied shipping, 305;
+    submarine destroyed by bombs, 191;
+    submarines _vs._ international law, 192;
+    submarine strength, 303-305
+
+  German U-boats, 188, 206, 236, 304, 310, 314, 333, 336, 338
+
+  Germany, 61, 62, 69, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 81, 97, 104, 105, 106, 108,
+    121, 133, 142, 146-149, 157, 171, 183-185, 193, 198, 200, 210, 235,
+    280, 297, 310, 341, 361, 364
+
+  Ghent, 165
+
+  Gibbons, Floyd P., 347-351
+
+  Giffard, dirigible, 37, 38, 41, 43
+
+  Grange, de la, Lieutenant, 196, 199
+
+  Great Britain, 57, 58, 105, 106, 120, 142, 143, 157, 191, 192, 202,
+    203, 204, 207, 310, 341, 343
+
+  Great War, 3, 12, 72, 80, 98, 103, 159
+
+  Greece, submarine strength of, 307
+
+  Grey, C. G., quoted, 189
+
+  Gross, dirigible, 77, 78
+
+  Guynemer, Captain Georges, 211, 212, 214
+
+  Gyroscope compass, 312
+
+
+H
+
+  Hartlepool, 208
+
+  Harvard University, 175, 176
+
+  Harwich, 208
+
+  Heligoland, 155-157, 202, 333
+
+  _Hogue_, 235, 236
+
+  Holland, 150, 235;
+    submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Holland, John P., 241, 274-277, 294;
+    submarine, 294-296, 298, 301, 302, 304, 306, 313
+
+  Holland Torpedo Boat Company, 272, 277, 298
+
+  Hotchkiss, 147
+
+  _Housatonic_, U. S. S., 259, 260
+
+  Hydro-airplane, 160, 189, 190, 206, 225
+
+  Hydroplane, 280, 308
+
+
+I
+
+  Icarus, 14
+
+  Immelman, Captain, 119, 212-214
+
+  Instruction, in aviation, 111-118;
+    of American aviators, 11
+
+  _Ironsides_, 256, 257, 295
+
+  Italy, 81, 343;
+    submarine strength of, 306
+
+  Italian submarines, 360
+
+
+J
+
+  Japan, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Japanese submarines, 352
+
+  Joffre, General, 4, 196
+
+  Jutland, battle of, 12, 381
+
+
+K
+
+  Kaiser, 78. _Also see_ Emperor of Germany
+
+  Kiel, 9, 108, 155-157, 183, 195, 202, 230, 253, 314, 367
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard, 80, 166, 226, 227, 346
+
+  Kitchener, Lord, 58
+
+  Kitty-Hawk, 89, 94
+
+  Kluck, General von, 3, 4
+
+  König, Captain Paul, 367-377
+
+  Krebs, 39
+
+
+L
+
+  Lafayette Escadrille, 121, 175, 176, 216
+
+  Lake Constance, 62, 148
+
+  Lake, Simon, 278-295, 356, 364, 378-380;
+    submarine, 294-296, 302, 304, 306, 317
+
+  Lana, Francisco, 17
+
+  Lancaster, F. W., 144
+
+  Langley, Professor Samuel, 82, 83, 84, 183
+
+  _La Patrie_, 55
+
+  _La République_, 55
+
+  Latham, 95
+
+  Laurenti, Major, 300;
+    submarine, 302, 306
+
+  Lebaudy Brothers, 54;
+    airplane, 56, 78
+
+  Le Bris, 86-88
+
+  Lee, Ezra, 249, 250
+
+  Lewis gun, 217
+
+  Liberty motor, 222, 226;
+    plane, 127
+
+  Liège, 159
+
+  Lilienthal, Gustav, 84
+
+  Lilienthal, Otto, 84-86, 90
+
+  Lilienthals, 88
+
+  Lille, 185
+
+  London, 9, 134, 142, 156, 208, 209, 230
+
+  Lufbery, Captain Raoul, 121, 180
+
+  Lunardi, aeronaut, 30
+
+  _Lusitania_, 193, 210, 263, 343
+
+
+M
+
+  McConnell, Sergeant James R., 160
+
+  Marne, battle of, 5, 183, 196
+
+  Maxim, Sir Hiram, 83
+
+  _Merrimac_, 12
+
+  Meuse river, 4, 161
+
+  _Monitor_, 12
+
+  Mons, battle of, 3, 5
+
+  Montgolfier Brothers, Jos. & Jacques, 20, 22;
+    balloon, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 30
+
+  Moranes, 186
+
+
+N
+
+  Namur, 4
+
+  Napoleon, 99, 108, 252
+
+  Naval Committee, House of Representatives, 271, 272
+
+  Navy Department of U. S., 188, 189, 278, 298, 300, 301
+
+  Navy Department, Civil War, 256, 257
+
+  Navy, Secretary of, 187, 194, 222
+
+  Needham, Henry Beach, 166
+
+  Nieuport, airplane, 140, 163, 186;
+    town of, 150, 151, 154
+
+  Nordenfeldt, Swedish inventor, 263, 264, 275
+
+  North Sea, 6, 76, 144, 149, 154, 156, 157, 187, 188, 190, 235, 236, 305
+
+  Norway, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Noyes, Alfred, quoted, 335-340
+
+
+O
+
+  Ostend, 9, 150, 151, 191, 194, 200
+
+
+P
+
+  Paris, 3, 23-25, 28, 48, 50-53, 61, 110
+
+  Parseval, dirigible, 77, 78
+
+  Parseval-Siegfeld, 141
+
+  Pau, 110
+
+  Père Galien, 17
+
+  Periscopes, 296, 305, 310, 311, 326-328, 333, 366
+
+  Petersburg, 6
+
+  Pilcher, Percy S., 84, 86, 88
+
+  Pitney, Fred B., quoted, 323-328
+
+  Porter, Admiral David, 259
+
+  Prince, Norman, 176, 180, 216-221
+
+
+R
+
+  Rees, Major L. W. B., 174
+
+  Renard, 38, 42, 43
+
+  Richmond, 6
+
+  Roberts Brothers' balloon, 34, 35
+
+  Rockwell, Kiffen, 176-179, 214
+
+  Royal Aërial Factory, 105
+
+  Rozier, Pilatre de, 27, 29;
+    death of, 30
+
+  Rumsey, Adjt., quoted, 217-220
+
+  Russia, 81, 106, 203, 254;
+    submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Russian ships sunk in Baltic, 157;
+    submarine sunk by bombs, 190
+
+
+S
+
+  Santos-Dumont, 34;
+    quoted, 38, 39-47, 48-50, 51-54, 59, 60, 62, 63, 88, 95
+
+  Scarborough, 208
+
+  Schutte-Lanz, dirigible, 77, 79
+
+  Schwartz, David, 63
+
+  Scott, Lieutenant, 133
+
+  Seaplanes, 105, 106, 108, 143, 149, 150, 154, 188, 191, 225, 236
+
+  _Severo Pax_, 77
+
+  Sikorsky, airplanes, 203
+
+  Sincay, Lieutenant de, 191
+
+  Sopwith, biplane, 126, 219
+
+  "S. P. A. D.," 217
+
+  Spain, 81;
+    submarine strength of, 306
+
+  St. Louis Exposition, 54
+
+  St. Petersburg, 63
+
+  Submarine, controversy between U. S. and Germany, 342;
+    cruise on, 323-331;
+    interior of, 318-323;
+    losses, 351-354;
+    tenders, 316;
+    strength of different countries, 306, 307;
+    ventilation, 239, 240, 307, 312;
+    war zones, 342, 343
+
+  Submarine warfare, allied losses, 344;
+    British losses, 344, 345;
+    neutral losses, 344
+
+  Submarines:
+    _Argonaut_, 282-295, 379
+    _David_, 256, 257
+    "E" class, 301
+    _Fenian Ram_, 275
+    "F-1," 300
+    "F" (Holland type), 301
+    German type, 304
+    _Gustave Zédé_, 266, 267
+    _Gymnote_, 265, 266
+    _Holland No. 2_, 275
+    _Holland No. 4_, 275
+    _Holland No. 8_, 278
+    _Holland No. 9_, 271-273, 278
+    _Hundley_, 258-260
+    _Intelligent Whale_, 261
+    _Le Diable Marin_, 254
+    Laurenti type, 306
+    _Morse_, 267-270
+    _Mute_, 253
+    _Narval_, 267, 270
+    _Nautilus_, 252
+    _Nordenfeldt II._, 264
+    _Octopus_, 299
+    _Plongeur_, 260
+    _Plunger_, 277, 278
+    _Resurgam_, 263
+    "S" class, 302 (Laurenti or "F. I. A. T." type)
+    _Turtle_, 247, 249, 275
+    "U-3," 314
+    "U-20," 330
+    "U-47," 328-331
+    "V" class (Lake type), 302
+    "W" class (Laubeuf type), 302
+    "Viper" class, 299
+
+  Submarines, aircraft as enemy of, 357, 358;
+    armament of, 312;
+    (general topic), 159, 188, 190-195, 209;
+    marksmanship, 322;
+    microphone, 357;
+    motives powers of, 308, 309;
+    precautions and devices against, 345, 346, 355, 361;
+    requirements of modern, 307-317
+
+  Sweden, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Switzerland, 150
+
+
+T
+
+  Taube, 126
+
+  Thaw, Lieutenant William, 214
+
+  Tissot, Professor, 357
+
+  Torpedo chamber, 320;
+    plane, 156, 157;
+    tubes, 298, 301, 303-306, 312, 315, 317, 320, 353
+
+  Trocadero, 49-51
+
+  Tulasne, Major, 196, 199
+
+  Turkey, submarine strength of, 307
+
+  Turkish, 177, 188, 334
+
+
+U
+
+  U-53, 12, 206, 353, 354
+
+  U-Boat attacks on, allied merchantmen;
+    _Amiral Ganteaume,_ 340;
+    _Gulflight_, 343;
+    _Lusitania_, 193, 210, 263, 343;
+    _Laconia_, 347-351;
+    _Strathend_, 354;
+    _West Point_, 354;
+    _Stephano_, 354;
+    _Bloomersdijk_, 354;
+    _Christian Knudsen_, 354;
+    in general, 346-354
+
+  United States, 56-58, 81, 91, 94-96, 103, 107, 111, 120, 142, 158,
+      166, 180, 182, 185, 187, 193, 194, 200, 202, 209, 221, 228, 230,
+      239, 260, 261, 271, 295, 297, 301, 303, 310, 334, 341, 343, 345,
+      361, 364, 365, 381;
+    government of, 96, 272, 273, 276, 296, 343;
+    declares war upon Germany, 342;
+    Navy, 297, 298, 300, 354;
+    submarine strength, 350
+
+
+V
+
+  Vanniman, 57, 159
+
+  Vaux, 162
+
+  Venice, 108
+
+  Verdun, 6, 55, 161, 162
+
+  Verne, Jules, 40, 262, 287
+
+  Vickers, gun, 217;
+    scout airplane, 126, 131, 147, 164
+
+  Vicksburg, 6
+
+  Viney, Lieutenant, 191
+
+  von Bernstorff, Count, 353
+
+
+W
+
+  Wanamaker, Rodman, 160
+
+  War, Department of, 101;
+    Secretary of, 187, 194, 222
+
+  War zones, 341, 342
+
+  Warneford, sub-Lieutenant R. A. J., 164, 165, 214
+
+  Washington, D. C., 96, 97, 204
+
+  Washington, General George, 247
+
+  Watt, James, 19
+
+  Weddigen, Captain, Otto von, 236, 305, 334
+
+  Wellington, 108
+
+  Wellman, Walter, 56, 57, 159
+
+  White, Claude Graham, 128
+
+  Whitehead torpedo, 261, 262, 264, 266
+
+  Wilhelmshaven, 132, 156, 157, 183, 195, 230, 353
+
+  Winslow, Carroll Dana, 111, 115, 116, 139
+
+  Woodhouse, Henry, 190
+
+  Wright Brothers, 14, 43, 58, 60, 64, 83, 84, 87, 89, 90-95, 97,
+    98, 109, 111, 183
+
+  Wright, Orville, 74, 75, 88, 99-102
+
+  Wright, Wilbur, 88, 91, 96, 97
+
+
+Z
+
+  Zédé, M. Gustav, 265, 266, 303
+
+  Zeebrugge, 8, 9, 150, 151, 153, 155, 195, 200, 230
+
+  Zeppelin, Count, von, 28, 34, 38, 50, 54, 59-65, 68-77, 79, 105, 362
+
+  Zeppelin, Eberhard, 64
+
+  Zeppelin disasters:
+    _Zeppelin I._, 66-69
+      _IV._, 66, 72
+      _L-I_, 76
+      _L-II_, 67
+
+  Zeppelin raids, 9, 208, 209
+
+  Zeppelins, 8, 60, 62, 65-81, 100, 101, 104, 105, 108, 133, 134,
+    148-150, 164, 165, 208
+
+
+
+
+_A Selection from the Catalogue of_
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+Complete Catalogues sent on application
+
+
+  THE MAKING OF A MODERN ARMY
+
+  And Its Operations in the Field
+
+  A Study Bated on the Experience of
+  Three Years on the French Front
+  1914-1917
+
+  René Radiguet
+  Général de Division, Army of France
+
+  Translated by
+  Henry P. du Bellet
+  Formerly American Consul at Rheims
+
+  _12{o}. 18 Illustrations and Diagrams. $1.50 net.
+  By mail, $1.65_
+
+The younger Americans who are now in training for active service in
+the field, and particularly those who have secured commissions as
+officers or who are preparing to compete for such commissions, will
+have a very direct interest in the instructions and suggestions
+presented by General Radiguet in regard to the organization of an
+army and the method of its operations in the field. General
+Radiguet's treatise is based upon a varied experience in the
+campaigns of the present war.
+
+The old text-books must be put to one side. The methods of
+organization and the methods of fighting have alike changed. It is
+only those who have had responsibilities as leaders in the present
+war whose instructions can be accepted as authoritative.
+
+
+
+
+  LIFE AT THE U. S. NAVAL ACADEMY
+
+  The Making of the American Navy Officer:
+  His Studies, Discipline, and Amusements
+
+  By
+
+  Ralph Earle
+  Rear-Admiral, U. S. N.
+  (Formerly Head of the Department of Ordnance and
+  Gunnery, U. S. Naval Academy)
+
+  With an Introduction by
+  Franklin Roosevelt
+  Assistant-Secretary of the Navy
+
+  _12{o}. 73 Illustrations and a Map. $2.00 net
+  By mail, $2.20_
+
+This book follows the boy's procedure in entering and his first
+summer's course, after which it takes the midshipman through the
+course, not by years, but by clear discussions of the various
+activities that make up his daily life. The recitations, drills,
+practice cruises, physical training, medical care, athletics,
+recreations, and the career that the Navy affords one after
+graduation are related in a manner that will make the midshipman's
+life easily understood by his parents and friends, and also show the
+boy intending to enter the Academy just what he may expect there.
+
+_At All Booksellers_
+
+
+
+
+  WEST POINT
+
+  An Intimate Picture of the National
+  Military Academy, and of the Life
+  of the Cadet
+
+  By
+
+  Robert C. Richardson, Jr.
+
+  Captain, 2d Cavalry, U. S. A.; Aide-de-Camp to Major-General
+  Thomas H. Barry
+
+  Foreword by
+
+  Major-General Hugh L. Scott
+  Chief-of-Staff, U. S. Army
+
+  _12{o}. 32 Illustrations, $2.00 net
+  By mail, $2.20_
+
+The book, while of interest to all who have attended the
+institution, is addressed primarily to the general public so that
+that public may become better acquainted with the aims and ideals of
+their National Military Academy. To the prospective cadet the book
+is invaluable as a foretaste of the duties, responsibilities, and
+privileges obtaining at West Point.
+
+
+
+
+  TACTICS AND DUTIES FOR TRENCH FIGHTING
+
+  By
+
+  Georges Bertrand
+  Capitaine, Chasseurs, de l'Armée de France
+
+  and
+
+  Oscar N. Solbert
+  Major, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.
+
+  _16{o}. 35 Diagrams. $1.50 net. By mail, $1.65_
+
+  000.7                (OD)              1st Ind.
+
+War Department, A. G. O., December 21, 1917--To Major O. N. Solbert,
+Corp of Engineers, Office of the Chief of Engineers.
+
+1. The manuscript forwarded with this letter has been examined in
+the War College Division and the opinion given that it has
+exceptional merit, presenting the principles governing trench
+warfare in such a clear and logical manner that the publication,
+with some changes and additions,[7] will be of considerable value to
+our Officers.
+
+         [Footnote 7: These changes have been made.]
+
+2. You are directed to confer with the Chief of the War College
+Division regarding the effecting of the changes desired.
+
+  By order of the Secretary of War
+                         (Signed) F. W. Lewis
+                                          Adjutant General.
+
+
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+
+New York London
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Aircraft and Submarines, by Willis J. Abbot
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aircraft and Submarines, by Willis J. Abbot
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Aircraft and Submarines
+       The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day
+              Uses of War's Newest Weapons
+
+Author: Willis J. Abbot
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2009 [EBook #30047]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Christine P.
+Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p class="tn">Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+has been maintained.</p>
+
+<a id="img001" name="img001"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="500" height="614" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>Fighting by Sea and Sky.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<h1>Aircraft and Submarines<br>
+<span class="smaller">The Story of the Invention, Development,<br>
+  and Present-Day Uses of War's<br>
+  Newest Weapons</span></h1>
+
+<p class="p2 center">By</p>
+
+<h2>Willis J. Abbot<br>
+<span class="smaller">Author of "The Story of Our Army," "The Story of Our Navy,"<br>
+  "The Nations at War"</span></h2>
+
+<p class="p4 center"><i>With Eight Color Plates and<br>
+  100 Other Illustrations</i></p>
+
+<p class="p4 center">G. P. Putnam's Sons<br>
+  New York and London<br>
+  The Knickerbocker Press<br>
+  1918</p>
+
+<p class="p4 center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1918</span><br>
+  By<br>
+  WILLIS J. ABBOT</p>
+
+<p class="p4 center">The Knickerbocker Press, New York</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiii" name="pageiii"></a>(p. iii)</span> PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>Not since gunpowder was first employed in warfare has so
+revolutionary a contribution to the science of slaughtering men been
+made as by the perfection of aircraft and submarines. The former
+have had their first employment in this world-wide war of the
+nations. The latter, though in the experimental stage as far back as
+the American Revolution, have in this bitter contest been for the
+first time brought to so practical a stage of development as to
+exert a really appreciable influence on the outcome of the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Comparatively few people appreciate how the thought of navigating
+the air's dizziest heights and the sea's gloomiest depths has
+obsessed the minds of inventors. From the earliest days of history
+men have grappled with the problem, yet it is only within two
+hundred years for aircraft and one hundred for submarines that any
+really intelligent start has been made upon its solution. The men
+who really gave practical effect to the vague theories which others
+set up&mdash;in aircraft the Wrights, Santos-Dumont, and Count Zeppelin;
+in submarines Lake and Holland&mdash;are either still living, or have
+died so recently that their memory is still fresh in the minds of
+all.</p>
+
+<p>In this book the author has sketched swiftly the slow stages by
+which in each of these fields of activity success has been attained.
+He has collated from the immense <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiv" name="pageiv"></a>(p. iv)</span> mass of records of the
+activities of both submarines and aircraft enough interesting data
+to show the degree of perfection and practicability to which both
+have been brought. And he has outlined so far as possible from
+existing conditions the possibilities of future usefulness in fields
+other than those of war of these new devices.</p>
+
+<p>The most serious difficulty encountered in dealing with the present
+state and future development of aircraft is the rapidity with which
+that development proceeds. Before a Congressional Committee last
+January an official testified that grave delay in the manufacture of
+airplanes for the army had been caused by the fact that types
+adopted a scant three months before had become obsolete, because of
+experience on the European battlefields, and later inventions before
+the first machines could be completed. There may be exaggeration in
+the statement but it is largely true. Neither the machines nor the
+tactics employed at the beginning of the war were in use in its
+fourth year. The course of this evolution, with its reasons, are
+described in this volume.</p>
+
+<p>Opportunities for the peaceful use of airplanes are beginning to
+suggest themselves daily. After the main body of this book was in
+type the Postmaster-General of the United States called for bids for
+an aërial mail service between New York and Washington&mdash;an act urged
+upon the Government in this volume. That service contemplates a
+swift carriage of first-class mail at an enhanced price&mdash;the
+tentative schedule being three hours, and a postage fee of
+twenty-five cents an ounce. There can be no doubt of the success of
+the service, its value to the public, and its possibilities of
+revenue to the post-office. Once its usefulness is established it
+will be extended to routes of similar length, such as New York
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span> and Boston, New York and Buffalo, or New York and
+Pittsburgh. The mind suggests no limit to the extension of aërial
+service, both postal and passenger, in the years of industrial
+activity that shall follow the war.</p>
+
+<p>In the preparation of this book the author has made use of many
+records of personal experiences of those who have dared the air's
+high altitudes and the sea's stilly depths. For permission to use
+certain of these he wishes to express his thanks to the Century Co.,
+for extracts from <i>My Airships</i> by Santos-Dumont; to Doubleday, Page
+&amp; Co., for extracts from <i>Flying for France</i>, by James R. McConnell;
+to Charles Scribner's Sons, for material drawn from <i>With the French
+Flying Corps</i>, by Carroll Dana Winslow; to <i>Collier's Weekly</i>, for
+certain extracts from interviews with Wilbur Wright; to <i>McClure's
+Magazine</i>, for the account of Mr. Ray Stannard Baker's trip in a
+Lake submarine; to Hearst's International Library, and to the
+<i>Scientific American</i>, for the use of several illustrations.</p>
+
+<p class="right10">W. J. A.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap">New York, 1918.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span> CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>&nbsp;<span class="ralign10 smcap small">page</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Preface</span>    <span class="ralign10"><a href="#pageiii">iii</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap small">chapter</span></li>
+</ul>
+<ul class="roman">
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Introductory</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page003">3</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Earliest Flying Men</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page014">14</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Services of Santos-Dumont</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page039">39</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Count von Zeppelin</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page059">59</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Development of the Airplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page082">82</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Training of the Aviator</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page103">103</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Some Methods of the War in the Air</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page123">123</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Incidents of the War in the Air</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page159">159</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The United States at War</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page182">182</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Some Features of Aërial Warfare</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page207">207</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Beginnings of Submarine Invention</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page235">235</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Coming of Steam and Electricity</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page256">256</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">John P. Holland and Simon Lake</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page271">271</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Modern Submarine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page294">294</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Aboard a Submarine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page318">318</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Submarine Warfare</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page333">333</a></span></li>
+
+<li>&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Future of the Submarine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page362">362</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+<ul class="none">
+<li><span class="smcap add4em">Index</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#page383">383</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>(p. ix)</span> ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<ul class="none toc">
+<li>&nbsp;<span class="ralign10 smcap">page</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Fighting by Sea and Sky</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img001"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Dropping a Depth Bomb</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img002">4</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by Lieut. Farré</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Battle in Mid-air</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img003">8</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by Lieut. Farré</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Victory in the Clouds</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img004">12</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Fall of the Boche</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img005">16</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by Lieut. Farré</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Lana's Vacuum Balloon</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img006">18</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img007">21</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Rescue at Sea</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img008">24</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by Lieut. Farré</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img009">27</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Charles's Balloon</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img010">31</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French Observation Balloon on Fire</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img011">32</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Roberts Brothers' Dirigible</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img012">34</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Giffard's Dirigible</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img013">37</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A British Kite Balloon</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img014">40</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">British "Blimp</span>"
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img015">40</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photographed from Above.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>(p. x)</span> <span class="smcap">A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img016">48</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Giant and the Pigmies</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img017">60</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French "Sausage</span>"
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img018">64</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Press Illustrating Co.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A British "Blimp"</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img019">64</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Death of a Zeppelin</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img020">72</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Paul Thompson</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German Dirigible, Hansa Type</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img021">76</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img022">76</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Press Illustrating Co.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">British Aviators about to Ascend</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img023">80</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Langley's Airplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img024">84</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French Airdrome near the Front</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img025">84</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Lilienthal's Glider</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img026">86</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German War Zeppelin</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img027">88</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img028">88</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Press Illustrating Co.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Chanute's Glider</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img029">90</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German Taube Pursued by British Planes</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img030">92</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The First Wright Glider</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img031">93</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Pilcher's Glider</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img032">94</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes
+  at the Opening of the War</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img033">96</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexi" name="pagexi"></a>(p. xi)</span> <span class="smcap">Comparative Strength of Belligerents in
+  Dirigibles at the Opening of the War</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img034">96</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Wright Glider</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img035">98</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">At a French Airplane Base</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img036">100</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">International Film Service</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Stringfellow's Airplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img037">101</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The "America"&mdash;Built to Cross the Atlantic</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img038">104</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Wright Airplane in Flight</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img039">104</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">First Americans to Fly in France</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img040">108</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">The Lafayette Escadrille</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Distinguishing Marks of American Planes</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img041">116</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">What an Aviator must Watch</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img042">116</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Caproni Triplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img043">124</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Caproni Triplane Showing Propellers and
+  Fuselage</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img044">124</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Terror that Flieth by Night</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img045">128</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by Wm. J. Wilson</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img046">132</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Press Illustrating Co.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Launching a Hydroaëroplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img047">132</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">At a United States Training Camp</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img048">138</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img049">138</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a
+  Balloon Struck by Incendiary Shells</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img050">140</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img051">140</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">German Air Raiders over England</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img052">144</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexii" name="pagexii"></a>(p. xii)</span> <span class="smcap">One Aviator's Narrow Escape</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img053">148</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Downed in the Enemy's Country</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img054">156</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Later Type of French Scout</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img055">160</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Kadel &amp; Herbert</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Position of Gunner in Early French Machine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img056">160</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French Scout Airplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img057">168</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Photo by Press Illustrating Co.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">"Showing Off." A Nieuport Performing Aërial
+  Acrobatics around a Heavier Bombing
+  Machine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img058">168</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">An Air Raid on a Troop Train</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img059">174</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Burning Balloon, Photographed from a
+  Parachute by the Escaping Balloonist</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img060">176</a></span><br></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth
+  Building</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img061">184</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Cruising at 2000 Feet. One Biplane Photographed
+  from Another</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img062">184</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">An Air Battle in Progress</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img063">192</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Curtis Hydroaroplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img064">192</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img065">208</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to
+  New York Flight</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img066">216</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French Aviator between Flights</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img067">216</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German "Gotha"&mdash;Their Favorite Type</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img068">224</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French Monoplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img069">232</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German Scout Brought to Earth in France</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img070">232</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiii" name="pagexiii"></a>(p. xiii)</span> <span class="smcap">A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img071">240</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img072">244</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Bomb-Dropping Taube</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img073">248</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the
+  Invalides</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img074">252</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A British Seaplane with Folding Wings</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img075">252</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">British Anti-Aircraft Guns</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img076">256</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">An Anti-Aircraft Outpost</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img077">264</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img078">264</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Submarine's Perfect Work</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img079">270</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Types of American Aircraft</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img080">272</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">For Anti-Aircraft Service</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img081">288</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Latest French Aircraft Guns</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img082">288</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Modern German Airplane Types</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img083">296</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by
+  the British</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img084">304</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Exterior of First German Submarine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img085">312</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Interior of First German Submarine, Showing
+  Appliances for Man-Power</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img086">312</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Torpedo Designed by Fulton</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img087">320</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Method of Attack by Nautilus</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img088">320</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Capture of a U-Boat</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img089">324</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A British Submarine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img090">336</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiv" name="pagexiv"></a>(p. xiv)</span> <span class="smcap">Sectional View of the Nautilus</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img091">336</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">U. S. Submarine H-3 aground on California Coast</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img092">344</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Salvaging H-3. Views I, II, and III</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img093">348</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">U. S. Submarine D-1 off Weehawken</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img096">352</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img097">356</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Critical Moment</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img098">360</a></span><br>
+    <span class="add2em">Painting by John E. Whiting</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Submarine Built for Chili Passing through Cape Cod Canal</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img099">364</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Submarine Entrapped by Nets</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img100">368</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer
+  Captured by British</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img101">372</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img102">374</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A German Submarine in Three Positions</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img103">376</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Sectional View of a British Submarine</span>
+<span class="ralign10"><a href="#img104">380</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span> THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR</h2>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span> CHAPTER I<br>
+<span class="smaller">INTRODUCTORY</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was at Mons in the third week of the Great War. The grey-green
+German hordes had overwhelmed the greater part of Belgium and were
+sweeping down into France whose people and military establishment
+were all unprepared for attack from that quarter. For days the
+little British army of perhaps 100,000 men, that forlorn hope which
+the Germans scornfully called "contemptible," but which man for man
+probably numbered more veteran fighters than any similar unit on
+either side, had been stoutly holding back the enemy's right wing
+and fighting for the delay that alone could save Paris. At Mons they
+had halted, hoping that here was the spot to administer to von
+Kluck, beating upon their front, the final check. The hope was
+futile. Looking back upon the day with knowledge of what General
+French's army faced&mdash;a knowledge largely denied to him&mdash;it seems
+that the British escape from annihilation was miraculous. And indeed
+it was due to a modern miracle&mdash;the conquest of the air by man in
+the development of the airplane.</p>
+
+<p>General French was outnumbered and in danger of being flanked on his
+left flank. His right he thought safe, for it was in contact with
+the French line which extended eastward along the bank of the Somme
+to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> where the dark fortress of Namur frowned on the steeps
+formed by the junction of that river with the Meuse. At that point
+the French line bent to the south following the course of the latter
+river.</p>
+
+<p>Namur was expected to hold out for weeks. Its defence lasted but
+three days! As a matter of fact it did not delay the oncoming
+Germans a day, for they invested it and drove past in their fierce
+assault upon Joffre's lines. Enormously outnumbered, the French were
+broken and forced to retreat. They left General French's right flank
+in the air, exposed to envelopment by von Kluck who was already
+reaching around the left flank. The German troops were ample in
+number to surround the British, cut them off from all support, and
+crush or capture them all. This indeed they were preparing to do
+while General French, owing to some mischance never yet explained,
+was holding his ground utterly without knowledge that his allies had
+already retired leaving his flank without protection.</p>
+
+<a id="img002" name="img002"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="600" height="444" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Peter A. Juley.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Dropping a Depth Bomb.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>From the Painting by Lieutenant Farré.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When that fatal information arrived belatedly at the British
+headquarters it seemed like a death warrant. The right of the line
+had already been exposed for more than half-a-day. It was
+inexplicable that it had not already been attacked. It was
+unbelievable that the attack would not fall the next moment. But how
+would it be delivered and where, and what force would the enemy
+bring to it? Was von Kluck lulling the British into a false sense of
+security by leaving the exposed flank unmenaced while he gained
+their rear and cut off their retreat? Questions such as these
+demanded immediate answer. Ten years before the most dashing scouts
+would have clattered off to the front and would have required a
+day, perhaps more, to complete the necessary reconnaissance. But
+though <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> of all nations, except of course the utterly
+negligent United States, Great Britain had least developed her
+aviation corps, there were attached to General French's headquarters
+enough airmen to meet this need. In a few minutes after the
+disquieting news arrived the beat of the propellers rose above the
+din of the battlefield and the airplanes appeared above the enemy's
+lines. An hour or two sufficed to gather the necessary facts, the
+fliers returned to headquarters, and immediately the retreat was
+begun.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beaten army that plodded back to the line of the Marne. Its
+retreat at times narrowly approached a rout. But the army was not
+crushed, annihilated. It remained a coherent, serviceable part of
+the allied line in the successful action speedily fought along the
+Marne. But had it not been for the presence of the airmen the
+British expeditionary force would have been wiped out then and
+there.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of Mons gave the soldiers a legend which still
+persists&mdash;that of the ghostly English bowmen of the time of Edward
+the Black Prince who came back from their graves to save that field
+for England and for France. Thousands of simple souls believe that
+legend to-day. But it is no whit more unbelievable than the story of
+an army saved by a handful of men flying thousands of feet above the
+field would have been had it been told of a battle in our Civil War.
+The world has believed in ghosts for centuries and the Archers of
+Mons are the legitimate successors of the Great Twin Brethren at the
+Battle of Lake Regillus. But Cæsar, Napoleon, perhaps the elder von
+Moltke himself would have scoffed at the idea that men could turn
+themselves into birds to spy out the enemy's dispositions and save a
+sorely menaced army.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> When this war has passed into history it will be
+recognized that its greatest contributions to military science have
+been the development and the use of aircraft and submarines. There
+have, of course, been other features in the method of waging war
+which have been novel either in themselves, or in the gigantic scale
+upon which they have been employed. There is, for example, nothing
+new about trench warfare. The American who desires to satisfy
+himself about that need only to visit the Military Park at
+Vicksburg, or the country about Petersburg or Richmond, to recognize
+that even fifty years ago our soldiers understood the art of
+sheltering themselves from bullet and shrapnel in the bosom of
+Mother Earth. The trench warfare in Flanders, the Argonne, and
+around Verdun has been novel only in the degree to which it has been
+developed and perfected. Concrete-lined trenches, with spacious and
+well-furnished bomb-proofs, with phonographs, printing presses, and
+occasional dramatic performances for lightening the soldiers' lot
+present an impressive elaboration of the muddy ditches of Virginia
+and Mississippi. Yet after all the boys of Grant and Lee had the
+essentials of trench warfare well in mind half a century before
+Germany, France, and England came to grips on the long line from the
+North Sea to the Vosges.</p>
+
+<p>Asphyxiating gas, whether liberated from a shell, or released along
+a trench front to roll slowly down before a wind upon its defenders,
+was a novelty of this war. But in some degree it was merely a
+development of the "stinkpot" which the Chinese have employed for
+years. So too the tear-bomb, or lachrymatory bomb, which painfully
+irritated the eyes of all in its neighbourhood when it burst,
+filling them with tears and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span> making the soldiers
+practically helpless in the presence of a swift attack. These two
+weapons of offence, and particularly the first, because of the
+frightful and long-continuing agony it inflicts upon its victims,
+fascinated the observer, and awakened the bitter protests of those
+who held that an issue at war might be determined by civilized
+nations without recourse to engines of death and anguish more
+barbaric than any known to the red Indians, or the most savage
+tribes of Asia. Neither of these devices, nor for that matter the
+cognate one of fire spurted like a liquid from a hose upon a
+shrinking enemy, can be shown to have had any appreciable effect
+upon the fortunes of any great battle. Each, as soon as employed by
+any one belligerent, was quickly seized by the adversary, and the
+respiratory mask followed fast upon the appearance of the chlorine
+gas. Whatever the outcome of the gigantic conflict may be, no one
+will claim that any of these devices had contributed greatly to the
+result.</p>
+
+<p>But the airplane revolutionized warfare on land. The submarine has
+made an almost equal revolution in naval warfare.</p>
+
+<p>Had the airplane been known in the days of our Civil War some of its
+most picturesque figures would have never risen to eminence or at
+least would have had to win their places in history by efforts of an
+entirely different sort. There is no place left in modern military
+tactics for the dashing cavalry scout of the type of Sheridan,
+Custer, Fitz Lee, or Forrest. The airplane, soaring high above the
+lines of the enemy, brings back to headquarters in a few hours
+information that in the old times took a detachment of cavalry days
+to gather. The "screen of cavalry" that in bygone campaigns
+commanders used to mask their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span> movements no longer screens
+nor masks. A general moves with perfect knowledge that his enemy's
+aircraft will report to their headquarters his roads, his strength,
+and his probable destination as soon as his vanguard is off. During
+the Federal advance upon Richmond, Stonewall Jackson, most brilliant
+of the generals of that war, repeatedly slipped away from the
+Federal front, away from the spot where the Federal commanders
+confidently supposed him to be, and was found days later in the
+Valley of the Shenandoah, threatening Washington or menacing the
+Union rear and its communications. The war was definitely prolonged
+by this Confederate dash and elusiveness&mdash;none of which would have
+been possible had the Union forces possessed an aviation corps.</p>
+
+<a id="img003" name="img003"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="600" height="400" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Peter A. Juley.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Battle in Mid-air.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller">(<i>Note rifleman on wing of airplane.</i>)<br>
+<i>From the painting by Lieutenant Farré.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is yet to be shown conclusively that as offensive engines
+aircraft have any great value. The tendency of the military
+authorities of every side to minimize the damage they have suffered
+makes any positive conclusion on this subject difficult and
+dangerous at this moment. The airplane by day or the Zeppelin by
+night appears swiftly and mysteriously, drops its bombs from a
+height of several thousand feet, and takes its certain flight
+through the boundless sky to safety. The aggressor cannot tell
+whether his bombs have found a fitting target. He reports flaming
+buildings left behind him, but whether they are munition factories,
+theatres, or primary schools filled with little children he cannot
+tell. Nor does he know how quickly the flames were extinguished, or
+the amount of damage done. The British boast of successful air raids
+upon Cuxhaven, Zeebrugge, Essen, and Friedrichshaven. But if we
+take German official reports we must be convinced that the damage
+done was negligible <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> in its relation to the progress of the
+war. In their turn the Germans brag mightily of the deeds of their
+Zeppelins over London, and smaller British towns. But the sum and
+substance of their accomplishment, according to the British reports,
+has been the slaughter and mutilation of a number of
+civilians&mdash;mostly women and children&mdash;and the bloody destruction of
+many humble working-class homes.</p>
+
+<p>At this writing, December, 1917, it is not recorded that any
+battleship, munition factory, any headquarters, great government
+building, or fortress has been destroyed or seriously injured by the
+activities of aircraft of either type. This lack of precise
+information may be due to the censor rather than to any lack of
+great deeds on the part of airmen. We do know of successful attacks
+on submarines, though the military authorities are chary about
+giving out the facts. But as scouts, messengers, and guides for
+hidden batteries attacking unseen targets, aviators have compelled
+the rewriting of the rules of military strategy. About this time,
+however, it became apparent that the belligerents intended to
+develop the battleplanes. Particularly was this true of the Allies.
+The great measure of success won by the German submarines and the
+apparent impossibility of coping adequately with those weapons of
+death once they had reached the open sea, led the British and the
+Americans to consider the possibility of destroying them in their
+bases and destroying the bases as well. But Kiel and Wilhelmshaven
+were too heavily defended to make an attack by sea seem at all
+practicable. The lesser ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend had been
+successfully raided from the air and made practically useless as
+submarine bases. Discussion therefore was strong of making <span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span>
+like raids with heavier machines carrying heavier guns and dropping
+more destructive bombs upon the two chief lurking places of the
+submarines. While no conclusion had been reached as to this strategy
+at the time of the publication of this book, both nations were busy
+building larger aircraft probably for use in such an attack.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">The submarine has exerted upon the progress of the war an influence
+even more dominant than that of aircraft. It has been a positive
+force both offensive and defensive. It has been Germany's only
+potent weapon for bringing home to the British the privations and
+want which war entails upon a civilian population, and at the same
+time guarding the German people from the fullest result of the
+British blockade. It is no overstatement to declare that but for the
+German submarines the war would have ended in the victory of the
+Allies in 1916.</p>
+
+<p>We may hark back to our own Civil War for an illustration of the
+crushing power of a superior navy not qualified by any serviceable
+weapon in the hands of the weaker power.</p>
+
+<p>Historians have very generally failed to ascribe to the Federal
+blockade of Confederate ports its proportionate influence on the
+outcome of that war. The Confederates had no navy. Their few naval
+vessels were mere commerce destroyers, fleeing the ships of the
+United States navy and preying upon unarmed merchantmen. With what
+was rapidly developed into the most powerful navy the world had ever
+seen, the United States Government from the very beginning of the
+war locked the Confederate States in a wall of iron. None might pass
+going in or out, except by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> stealth and at the peril of
+property and life. Outside the harbour of every seaport in the
+control of the Confederates the blockading men-of-war lurked
+awaiting the blockade runners. Their vigilance was often eluded, of
+course, yet nevertheless the number of cargoes that slipped through
+was painfully inadequate to meet the needs of the fenced-in States.
+Clothing, medicines, articles of necessary household use were denied
+to civilians. Cannon, rifles, saltpetre, and other munitions of war
+were withheld from the Confederate armies. While the ports of the
+North were bustling with foreign trade, grass grew on the
+cobble-stoned streets along the waterfronts of Charleston and
+Savannah. Slow starvation aided the constant pounding of the
+Northern armies in reducing the South to subjection.</p>
+
+<p>Had the Confederacy possessed but a few submarines of modern type
+this situation could not have persisted. Then, as to-day, neutral
+nations were eager to trade with both belligerents. There were then
+more neutrals whose interests would have compelled the observance of
+the laws of blockade, which in the present war are flagrantly
+violated by all belligerents with impunity. A submarine raid which
+would have sunk or driven away the blockading fleet at the entrance
+to a single harbour would have resulted in opening that harbour to
+the unrestricted uses of neutral ships until the blockade could be
+re-established and formal notice given to all powers&mdash;a formality
+which in those days, prior to the existence of cables, would have
+entailed weeks, perhaps months, of delay.</p>
+
+<p>How serious such an interruption to the blockade was then considered
+was shown by the trepidation of the Union naval authorities over the
+first victories <span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span> of the <i>Merrimac</i> prior to the
+providential arrival of the <i>Monitor</i> in Hampton Roads. It was then
+thought that the Confederate ram would go straight to Wilmington,
+Charleston, and Savannah, destroy or drive away the blockaders, and
+open the Confederacy to the trade of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Even then men dreamed of submarines, as indeed they have since the
+days of the American Revolution. Of the slow development of that
+engine of war to its present effectiveness we shall speak more fully
+in later chapters. Enough now to say that had the Confederacy
+possessed boats of the U-53 type the story of our Civil War might
+have had a different ending. The device which the Allies have
+adopted to-day of blockading a port or ports by posting their ships
+several hundred miles away would have found no toleration among
+neutrals none too friendly to the United States, and vastly stronger
+in proportion to the power of this nation than all the neutrals
+to-day are to the strength of the Allies.</p>
+
+<a id="img004" name="img004"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="400" height="494" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>Victory in the Clouds.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>From the beginning of the Great War in Europe the fleets of the
+Teutonic alliance were locked up in port by the superior floating
+forces of the Entente. Such sporadic dashes into the arena of
+conflict as the one made by the German High Fleet, bringing on the
+Battle of Jutland, had but little bearing on the progress of the
+war. But the steady, persistent malignant activity of the German
+submarines had everything to do with it. They mitigated the rigidity
+of the British blockade by keeping the blockaders far from the ports
+they sought to seal. They preyed on the British fleets by sinking
+dreadnoughts, battleships, and cruisers in nearly all of the
+belligerent seas. If the British navy justified its costly power by
+keeping the German <span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> fleet practically imprisoned in its
+fortified harbours, the German submarines no less won credit and
+glory by keeping even that overwhelming naval force restricted in
+its movements, ever on guard, ever in a certain sense on the
+defensive. And meanwhile these underwater craft so preyed upon
+British foodships that in the days of the greatest submarine
+activity England was reduced to husbanding her stores of food with
+almost as great thrift and by precisely the same methods as did
+Germany suffering from the British blockade.</p>
+
+<p>Aircraft and submarines! Twin terrors of the world's greatest war!
+The development, though by no means the final development, of dreams
+that men of many nations have dreamed throughout the centuries! They
+are two of the outstanding features of the war; two of its legacies
+to mankind. How much the legacy may be worth in peaceful times is
+yet to be determined. The airplane and the dirigible at any rate
+seem already to promise useful service to peaceful man. Already the
+flier is almost as common a spectacle in certain sections of our
+country as the automobile was fifteen years ago. The submarine, for
+economic reasons, promises less for the future in the way of
+peaceful service, notwithstanding the exploits of the <i>Deutschland</i>
+in the ocean-carrying trade. But perhaps it too will find its place
+in industry when awakened man shall be willing to spend as much
+treasure, as much genius, as much intelligent effort, and as much
+heroic self-sacrifice in organizing for the social good as in the
+last four years he has expended in its destruction.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span> CHAPTER II<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE EARLIEST FLYING MEN</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The conquest of the air has been the dream of mankind for uncounted
+centuries. As far back as we have historic records we find stories
+of the attempts of men to fly. The earliest Greek mythology is full
+of aeronautical legends, and the disaster which befell Icarus and
+his wings of wax when exposed to the glare of the midsummer sun in
+Greece, is part of the schoolboy's task in Ovid. We find like
+traditions in the legendary lore of the Peruvians, the East Indians,
+the Babylonians, even the savage races of darkest Africa. In the
+Hebrew scriptures the chief badge of sanctity conferred on God's
+angels was wings, and the ability to fly. If we come down to the
+mythology of more recent times we find our pious ancestors in New
+England thoroughly convinced that the witches they flogged and
+hanged were perfectly able to navigate the air on a broomstick&mdash;thus
+antedating the Wrights' experiments with heavier-than-air machines
+by more than 250 years.</p>
+
+<p>It is an interesting fact, stimulating to philosophical reflection,
+that in the last decade more has been done toward the conquest of
+the air, than in the twenty centuries preceding it, though during
+all that period men had been dreaming, planning, and experimenting
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> upon contrivances for flight. Moreover when success
+came&mdash;or such measure of success as has been won&mdash;it came by the
+application of an entirely novel principle hardly dreamed of before
+the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the earlier efforts to master gravity and navigate the air
+are worthy of brief mention if only to show how persistent were the
+efforts from the earliest historic ages to accomplish this end.
+Passing over the legends of the time of mythology we find that
+many-sided genius, Leonardo da Vinci, early in the sixteenth
+century, not content with being a painter, architect, sculptor,
+engineer and designer of forts, offering drawings and specifications
+of wings which, fitted to men, he thought would enable them to fly.
+The sketches are still preserved in a museum at Paris. He modelled
+his wings on those of a bat and worked them with ropes passing over
+pulleys, the aviator lying prone, face downward, and kicking with
+both arms and legs with the vigour of a frog. There is, unhappily,
+no record that the proposition ever advanced beyond the literary
+stage&mdash;certainly none that Da Vinci himself thus risked his life.
+History records no one who kicked his way aloft with the Da Vinci
+device. But the manuscript which the projector left shows that he
+recognized the modern aviator's maxim, "There's safety in altitude."
+He says, in somewhat confused diction:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     The bird should with the aid of the wind raise itself to a great
+     height, and this will be its safety; because although the
+     revolutions mentioned may happen there is time for it to recover
+     its equilibrium, provided its various parts are capable of strong
+     resistance so that they may safely withstand the fury and impetus
+     of the descent.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span>
+
+<a id="img005" name="img005"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="600" height="392" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Peter A. Juley.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Fall of the Boche.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>From the painting by Lieutenant Farré.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fallacy that a man could, by the rapid flapping of wings of any
+sort, overcome the force of gravity persisted up to a very recent
+day, despite the complete mathematical demonstration by von
+Helmholtz in 1878 that man could not possibly by his own muscular
+exertions raise his own weight into the air and keep it suspended.
+Time after time the "flapping wings" were resorted to by ambitious
+aviators with results akin to those attained by Darius Green. One of
+the earliest was a French locksmith named Besnier, who had four
+collapsible planes on two rods balanced across his shoulders. These
+he vigorously moved up and down with his hands and feet, the planes
+opening like covers of a book as they came down, and closing as they
+came up. Besnier made no attempt to raise himself from the ground,
+but believed that once launched in the air from an elevation he
+could maintain himself, and glide gradually to earth at a
+considerable distance. It is said that he and one or two of his
+students did in a way accomplish this. Others, however,
+experimenting with the same method came to sorry disaster. Among
+these was an Italian friar whom King James IV. of Scotland had made
+Prior of Tongland. Equipped with a pair of large feather wings
+operated on the Besnier principle, he launched himself from the
+battlements of Stirling Castle in the presence of King James and his
+court. But gravity was too much for his apparatus, and turning over
+and over in mid-air he finally landed ingloriously on a manure
+heap&mdash;at that period of nascent culture a very common feature of the
+pleasure grounds of a palace. He had a soul above his fate however,
+for he ascribed his fall not to vulgar mechanical causes, but
+wholly to the fact that he had overlooked the proper dignity of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span> flight by pluming his wings with the feathers of common
+barn-yard fowl instead of with plumes plucked from the wings of
+eagles!</p>
+
+<p>In sharp competition with the aspiring souls who sought to fly with
+wings&mdash;the forerunners of the airplane devotees of to-day&mdash;were
+those who tried to find some direct lifting device for a car which
+should contain the aviators. Some of their ideas were curiously
+logical and at the same time comic. There was, for example, a
+priest, Le Père Galien of Avignon. He observed that the rarified air
+at the summit of the Alps was vastly lighter than that in the
+valleys below. What then was to hinder carrying up empty sacks of
+cotton or oiled silk to the mountain tops, opening them to the
+lighter air of the upper ranges, and sealing them hermetically when
+filled by it. When brought down into the valleys they would have
+lifting power enough to carry tons up to the summits again. The good
+Father's education in physics was not sufficiently advanced to warn
+him that the effort to drag the balloons down into the valley would
+exact precisely the force they would exert in lifting any load out
+of the valley&mdash;if indeed they possessed any lifting power
+whatsoever, which is exceedingly doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>Another project, which sounded logical enough, was based on the
+irrefutable truth that as air has some weight&mdash;to be exact 14.70
+pounds for a column one inch square and the height of the earth's
+atmosphere&mdash;a vacuum must be lighter, as it contains nothing, not
+even air. Accordingly in the seventeenth century, one Francisco
+Lana, another priest, proposed to build an airship supported by four
+globes of copper, very thin and light, from which all the air had
+been pumped. The globes were to be twenty feet in diameter, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> were estimated to have a lifting force of 2650 pounds. The
+weight of the copper shells was put at 1030 pounds, leaving a margin
+of possible weight for the car and its contents of 1620 pounds. It
+seemed at first glance a perfectly reasonable and logical plan.
+Unhappily one factor in the problem had been ignored. The
+atmospheric pressure on each of the globes would be about 1800 tons.
+Something more than a thin copper shell would be needed to resist
+this crushing force and an adequate increase in the strength of the
+shells would so enhance their weight as to destroy their lifting
+power.</p>
+
+<a id="img006" name="img006"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="300" height="433" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Lana's Vacuum Balloon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To tell at length the stories of attempt and failure of the earliest
+dabblers in aeronautics would be unprofitable and uninteresting. Not
+until the eighteenth century did the experimenters with
+lighter-than-air devices show any practical results. Not until the
+twentieth century did the advocates of the heavier-than-air machines
+show the value of their fundamental idea. The former had to discover
+a gaseous substance actually lighter, and much lighter, than the
+surrounding atmosphere before they could make headway. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> The
+latter were compelled to abandon wholly the effort to imitate the
+flapping of a bird's wings, and study rather the method by which the
+bird adjusts the surface of its wings to the wind and soars without
+apparent effort, before they could show the world any promising
+results.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly every step forward in applied science is accomplished because
+of the observation by some thoughtful mind of some common phenomenon
+of nature, and the later application of those observations to some
+useful purpose.</p>
+
+<p>It seems a far cry from an ancient Greek philosopher reposing
+peacefully in his bath to a modern Zeppelin, but the connection is
+direct. Every schoolboy knows the story of the sudden dash of
+Archimedes, stark and dripping from his tub, with the triumphant cry
+of "Eureka!"&mdash;"I have found it!" What he had found was the rule
+which governed the partial flotation of his body in water. Most of
+us observe it, but the philosophical mind alone inquired "Why?"
+Archimedes' answer was this rule which has become a fundamental of
+physics: "A body plunged into a fluid is subjected by this fluid to
+a pressure from below to above equal to the weight of the fluid
+displaced by the body." A balloon is plunged in the air&mdash;a fluid. If
+it is filled with air there is no upward pressure from below, but if
+it is filled with a gas lighter than air there is a pressure upward
+equal to the difference between the weight of that gas and that of
+an equal quantity of air. Upon that fact rests the whole theory and
+practice of ballooning.</p>
+
+<p>The illustration of James Watt watching the steam rattle the cover
+of a teapot and from it getting the rudimentary idea of the steam
+engine is another case <span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span> in point. Sometimes however the
+application of the hints of nature to the needs of man is rather
+ludicrously indirect. Charles Lamb gravely averred that because an
+early Chinaman discovered that the flesh of a pet pig, accidentally
+roasted in the destruction by fire of his owner's house, proved
+delicious to the palate, the Chinese for years made a practice of
+burning down their houses to get roast pig with "crackling." Early
+experimenters in aviation observed that birds flapped their wings
+and flew. Accordingly they believed that man to fly must have wings
+and flap them likewise. Not for hundreds of years did they observe
+that most birds flapped their wings only to get headway, or
+altitude, thereafter soaring to great heights and distances merely
+by adjusting the angle of their wings to the various currents of air
+they encountered.</p>
+
+<p>In a similar way the earliest experimenters with balloons observed
+that smoke always ascended. "Let us fill a light envelope with
+smoke," said they, "and it will rise into the air bearing a burden
+with it." All of which was true enough, and some of the first
+balloonists cast upon their fires substances like sulphur and pitch
+in order to produce a thicker smoke, which they believed had greater
+lifting power than ordinary hot air.</p>
+
+<p>In the race for actual accomplishment the balloonists, the advocates
+of lighter-than-air machines, took the lead at first. It is
+customary and reasonable to discard as fanciful the various devices
+and theories put forward by the experimenters in the Middle Ages and
+fix the beginning of practical aeronautical devices with the
+invention of hot-air balloons by the Montgolfiers, of Paris, in
+1783.</p>
+
+<p>The Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Jacques, were paper-makers of
+Paris. The family had long <span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> been famous for its development
+of the paper trade, and the many ingenious uses to which they put
+its staple. Just as the tanners of the fabled town in the Middle
+Ages thought there was "nothing like leather" with which to build
+its walls and gates, thereby giving a useful phrase to literature,
+so the Montgolfiers thought of everything in terms of paper. Sitting
+by their big open fireplace one night, so runs the story, they
+noticed the smoke rushing up the chimney. "Why not fill a big paper
+bag with smoke and make it lift objects into the air?" cried one.
+The experiment was tried next day with a small bag and proved a
+complete success. A neighbouring housewife looked in, and saw the
+bag bumping about the ceiling, but rapidly losing its buoyancy as
+the smoke escaped.</p>
+
+<a id="img007" name="img007"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img007.jpg" width="250" height="527" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Why not fasten a pan below the mouth of the bag," said she, "and
+put your fire in that? Its weight will keep the bag upright, and
+when it rises will carry the smoke and the pan up with it."</p>
+
+<p>Acting upon the hint the brothers fixed up a small <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> bag
+which sailed up into the air beyond recapture. After various
+experiments a bag of mixed paper and linen thirty-five feet in
+diameter was inflated and released. It soared to a height of six
+thousand feet, and drifted before the wind a mile or more before
+descending. The ascent took place at Avonay, the home at the time of
+the Montgolfiers, and as every sort of publicity was given in
+advance, a huge assemblage including many officials of high estate
+gathered to witness it. A roaring fire was built in a pit over the
+mouth of which eight men held the great sack, which rolled, and beat
+about before the wind as it filled and took the form of a huge ball.
+The crowd was unbelieving and cynical, inclined to scoff at the idea
+that mere smoke would carry so huge a construction up into the sky.
+But when the signal was given to cast off, the balloon rose with a
+swiftness and majesty that at first struck the crowd dumb, then
+moved it to cheers of amazement and admiration. It went up six
+thousand feet and the Montgolfiers were at once elevated to almost
+an equal height of fame. The crowd which watched the experiment was
+wild with enthusiasm; the Montgolfiers elated with the first
+considerable victory over the force of gravity. They had
+demonstrated a principle and made their names immortal. What
+remained was to develop that principle and apply it to practical
+ends. That development, however, proceeded for something more than a
+century before anything like a practical airship was constructed.</p>
+
+<p>But for the moment the attack on the forces which had kept the air
+virgin territory to man was not allowed to lag. In Paris public
+subscriptions were opened to defray the cost of a new and greater
+balloon. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> By this time it was known that hydrogen gas, or
+"inflammable air" as it was then called, was lighter than air. But
+its manufacture was then expensive and public aid was needed for the
+new experiment which would call at the outset for a thousand pounds
+of iron filings and 498 pounds of sulphuric acid wherewith to
+manufacture the gas.</p>
+
+<p>The first experiment had been made in the provinces. This one was
+set for Paris, and in an era when the French capital was
+intellectually more alert, more eager for novelty, more interested
+in the advancement of physical science and in new inventions than
+ever in its long history of hospitality to the new idea. They began
+to fill the bag August 23, 1783 in the <i>Place des Victoires</i>, but
+the populace so thronged that square that two days later it was
+moved half filled to Paris's most historic point, the <i>Champ de
+Mars</i>. The transfer was made at midnight through the narrow dark
+streets of mediæval Paris. Eyewitnesses have left descriptions of
+the scene. Torch-bearers lighted on its way the cortège the central
+feature of which was the great bag, half filled with gas, flabby,
+shapeless, monstrous, mysterious, borne along by men clutching at
+its formless bulk. The state had recognized the importance of the
+new device and cuirassiers in glittering breastplates on horseback,
+and halbardiers in buff leather on foot guarded it in its transit
+through the sleeping city. But Paris was not all asleep. An escort
+of the sensation-loving rabble kept pace with the guards. The cries
+of the quarters rose above the tramp of the armed men. Observers
+have recorded that the passing cab drivers were so affected by
+wonder that they clambered down from their boxes and with doffed
+hats knelt in the highway while the procession passed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> The ascension, which occurred two days later, was another
+moving spectacle. In the centre of the great square which has seen
+so many historic pageants, rose the swaying, quivering balloon, now
+filled to its full capacity of twenty-two thousand feet. Whether
+from the art instinct indigenous to the French, or some
+superstitious idea like that which impels the Chinese to paint eyes
+on their junks, the balloon was lavishly decorated in water colours,
+with views of rising suns, whirling planets, and other solar bodies
+amongst which it was expected to mingle.</p>
+
+<p>Ranks of soldiers kept the populace at a distance, while within the
+sacred precincts strolled the King and the ladies and cavaliers of
+his court treading all unconsciously on the brink of that red terror
+soon to engulf the monarchy. The gas in the reeling bag was no more
+inflammable than the air of Paris in those days just before the
+Revolution. With a salvo of cannon the guy-ropes were released and
+the balloon vanished in the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>Benjamin Franklin, at the moment representing in France the American
+colonies then struggling for liberty, witnessed this ascension! "Of
+what use is a new-born child?" he remarked sententiously as the
+balloon vanished. 'Twas a saying worthy of a cautious philosopher.
+Had Franklin been in Paris in 1914 he would have found the child,
+grown to lusty manhood, a strong factor in the city's defence. It is
+worth noting by the way that so alert was the American mind at that
+period that when the news of the Montgolfiers' achievement reached
+Philadelphia it found David Rittenhouse and other members of the
+Philosophical Society already experimenting with balloons.</p>
+
+<a id="img008" name="img008"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img008.jpg" width="600" height="388" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Peter A. Juley.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Rescue at Sea.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>From the painting by Lieutenant Farré.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A curious sequel attended the descent of the Montgolfier <span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span>
+craft which took place in a field fifteen miles from Paris. Long
+before the days of newspapers, the peasants had never heard of
+balloons, and this mysterious object, dropping from high heaven into
+their peaceful carrot patch affrighted them. Some fled. Others
+approached timidly, armed with the normal bucolic weapons&mdash;scythes
+and pitchforks. Attacked with these the fainting monster, which many
+took for a dragon, responded with loud hisses and emitted a gas of
+unfamiliar but most pestiferous odour. It suggested brimstone, which
+to the devout in turn implied the presence of Satan. With guns,
+flails, and all obtainable weapons they fell upon the emissary of
+the Evil One, beat him to the ground, crushed out of him the
+vile-smelling breath of his nostrils, and finally hitched horses to
+him and dragged him about the fields until torn to tatters and
+shreds.</p>
+
+<p>When the public-spirited M. Charles who had contributed largely to
+the cost of this experiment came in a day or two to seek his balloon
+he found nothing but some shreds of cloth, and some lively legends
+of the prowess of the peasants in demolishing the devil's own
+dragon.</p>
+
+<p>The government, far-sightedly, recognizing that there would be more
+balloons and useful ones, thereupon issued this proclamation for the
+discouragement of such bucolic valour:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     A discovery has been made which the government deems it wise to
+     make known so that alarm may not be occasioned to the people. On
+     calculating the different weights of inflammable and common air
+     it has been found that a balloon filled with inflammable air will
+     rise toward heaven until it is in equilibrium with the
+     surrounding air; which may not happen till it has attained to a
+     great height. Anyone <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> who should see such a globe,
+     resembling the moon in an eclipse, should be aware that far from
+     being an alarming phenomenon it is only a machine made of
+     taffetas, or light canvas covered with paper, that cannot
+     possibly cause any harm and which will some day prove serviceable
+     to the wants of society.</p>
+
+<p>Came now the next great step in the progress of aeronautics. It had
+been demonstrated that balloons could lift themselves. They had even
+been made to lift dumb animals and restore them to earth unhurt. But
+if the conquest of the air was to amount to anything, men must go
+aloft in these new machines. Lives must be risked to demonstrate a
+theory, or to justify a calculation. Aeronautics is no science for
+laboratory or library prosecution. Its battles must be fought in the
+sky, and its devotees must be willing to offer their lives to the
+cause. In that respect the science of aviation has been different
+from almost any subject of inquiry that has ever engaged the
+restless intellect of man, unless perhaps submarine navigation, or
+the invention of explosives. It cannot be prosecuted except with a
+perfect willingness to risk life. No doubt this is one of the
+reasons why practical results seemed so long in the coming. Nor have
+men been niggardly in this enforced sacrifice. Though no records of
+assured accuracy are available, the names of forty-eight aeronauts
+who gave up their lives in the century following the Montgolfiers'
+invention are recorded. That record ended in 1890. How many have
+since perished, particularly on the battlefields of Europe where
+aircraft are as commonplace as cannon, it is too early yet to
+estimate.</p>
+
+<a id="img009" name="img009"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img009.jpg" width="300" height="520" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After the success of the ascension from the <i>Champ de Mars</i>, the
+demand at once arose for an ascension by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> a human being. It
+was a case of calling for volunteers. The experiments already made
+showed clearly enough that the balloon would rise high in air. Who
+would risk his life soaring one thousand feet or more above the
+earth, in a flimsy bag, filled with hot air, or inflammable gas,
+without means of directing its course or bringing it with certainty
+and safety back to a landing place? It was a hard question, and it
+is interesting to note that it was answered not by a soldier or
+sailor, not by an adventurer, or devil-may-care spirit, but by a
+grave and learned professor of physical science, Pilatre de Rozier.
+Presently he was joined in his enterprise by a young man of the
+fashionable world and sporting tastes, the Marquis d'Arlandes.
+Aristocratic Paris took up aviation in the last days of the
+eighteenth century, precisely as the American <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> leisure
+class is taking it up in the first days of the twentieth.</p>
+
+<p>The balloon for this adventure was bigger than its predecessors and
+for the first time a departure was taken from the spherical
+variety&mdash;the gas bag being seventy-four feet high, and forty-eight
+feet in diameter. Like the first Montgolfier balloons it was to be
+inflated with hot air, and the car was well packed with bundles of
+fuel with which the two aeronauts were to fill the iron brazier when
+its fires went down. The instinct for art and decoration, so strong
+in the French mind, had been given full play by the constructors of
+this balloon and it was painted with something of the gorgeousness
+of a circus poster.</p>
+
+<p>A tremendous crowd packed the park near Paris whence the ascent was
+made. Always the spectacle of human lives in danger has a morbid
+attraction for curiosity seekers, and we have seen in our own days
+throngs attracted to aviation congresses quite as much in the
+expectation of witnessing some fatal disaster, as to observe the
+progress made in man's latest conquest over nature. But in this
+instance the occasion justified the widest interest. It was an
+historic moment&mdash;more epoch-making than those who gathered in that
+field in the environs of Paris could have possibly imagined. For in
+the clumsy, gaudy bag, rolling and tossing above a smoky fire lay
+the fundamentals of those great airships that, perfected by the
+persistence of Count Zeppelin, have crossed angry seas, breasted
+fierce winds, defied alike the blackest nights and the thickest fogs
+to rain their messages of death on the capital of a foe.</p>
+
+<p>Contemporary accounts of this first ascension are but few, and those
+that have survived have come down <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> to us in but fragmentary
+form. It was thought needful for two to make the ascent, for the
+car, or basket, which held the fire hung below the open mouth of the
+bag, and the weight of a man on one side would disturb the perfect
+equilibrium which it was believed would be essential to a successful
+flight. The Marquis d'Arlandes in a published account of the brief
+flight, which sounds rather as if the two explorers of an unknown
+element were not free from nervousness, writes:</p>
+
+<p>"Our departure was at fifty-four minutes past one, and occasioned
+little stir among the spectators. Thinking they might be frightened
+and stand in need of encouragement I waved my arm."</p>
+
+<p>This solicitude for the fears of the spectators, standing safely on
+solid earth while the first aeronauts sailed skywards, is
+characteristically Gallic. The Marquis continues:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     M. de Rozier cried: "You are doing nothing, and we are not
+     rising." I stirred the fire and then began to scan the river, but
+     Pilatre again cried: "See the river. We are dropping into it!" We
+     again urged the fire, but still clung to the river bed. Presently
+     I heard a noise in the upper part of the balloon, which gave a
+     shock as though it had burst. I called to my companion: "Are you
+     dancing?" The balloon by this time had many holes burnt in it and
+     using my sponge I cried that we must descend. My companion
+     however explained that we were over Paris and must now cross it;
+     therefore raising the fire once more we turned south till we
+     passed the Luxembourg, when, extinguishing the flames, the
+     balloon came down spent and empty.</p>
+
+<p>If poor Pilatre played the part of a rather nervous man in this
+narrative he had the nerve still to go on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> with his
+aeronautical experiments to the point of death. In 1785 he essayed
+the crossing of the English Channel in a balloon of his own design,
+in which he sought to combine the principles of the gas and hot-air
+balloons. It appears to have been something like an effort to
+combine nitro-glycerine with an electric spark. At any rate the
+dense crowds that thronged the coast near Boulogne to see the start
+of the "Charles&mdash;Montgolfier"&mdash;as the balloon was named after the
+originators of the rival systems&mdash;saw it, after half an hour's drift
+out to sea, suddenly explode in a burst of flame. De Rozier and a
+friend who accompanied him were killed. A monument still recalls
+their fate, which however is more picturesquely recorded in the
+signs of sundry inns and cafés of the neighbourhood which offer
+refreshment in the name of <i>Les Aviateurs Perdus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter experimenters with balloons multiplied amazingly. The
+world thought the solution of the problem of flight had been found
+in the gas bag. Within two months a balloon capable of lifting
+eighteen tons and carrying seven passengers ascended three thousand
+feet at Lyons, and, though sustaining a huge rent in the envelope,
+because of the expansion of the gas at that height, returned to
+earth in safety. The fever ran from France to England and in 1784,
+only a year after the first Montgolfier experiments, Lunardi, an
+Italian aeronaut made an ascension from London which was viewed by
+King George III. and his ministers, among them William Pitt. But the
+early enthusiasm for ballooning quickly died down to mere curiosity.
+It became apparent to all that merely to rise into the air, there to
+be the helpless plaything of the wind, was but a useless and futile
+accomplishment. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> Pleasure seekers and mountebanks used
+balloons for their own purposes, but serious experimenters at once
+saw that if the invention of the balloon was to be of the slightest
+practical value some method must be devised for controlling and
+directing its flight. To this end some of the brightest intellects
+of the world directed their efforts, but it is hardly overstating
+the case to say that more than a century passed without any
+considerable progress toward the development of a dirigible balloon.</p>
+
+<a id="img010" name="img010"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img010.jpg" width="300" height="503" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Charles's Balloon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But even at the earlier time it was evident enough that the Quaker
+philosopher, from the American Colonies, not yet the United States,
+whose shrewd and inquiring disposition made him intellectually one
+of the foremost figures of his day, foresaw clearly the great
+possibilities of this new invention. In letters to Sir Joseph Banks,
+then President of the Royal Society of London, Franklin gave a
+lively account of the first three ascensions, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> together
+with some comments, at once suggestive and humorous, which are worth
+quoting:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     Some think [he wrote of the balloon] Progressive Motion on the
+     Earth may be advanc'd by it, and that a Running Footman or a
+     Horse slung and suspended under such a Globe so as to have no
+     more of Weight pressing the Earth with their Feet than Perhaps 8
+     or 10 Pounds, might with a fair Wind run in a straight Line
+     across Countries as fast as that Wind, and over Hedges, Ditches
+     and even Waters. It has been even fancied that in time People
+     will keep such Globes anchored in the Air to which by Pullies
+     they may draw up Game to be preserved in the Cool and Water to be
+     frozen when Ice is wanted. And that to get Money it will be
+     contriv'd, by running them up in an Elbow Chair a Mile high for a
+     guinea, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>With his New England lineage Franklin could hardly have failed of
+this comparison: "A few Months since the Idea of Witches riding
+through the Air upon a broomstick, and that of Philosophers upon a
+Bag of Smoke would have appeared equally impossible and ridiculous."</p>
+
+<p>To-day when aircraft are the eyes of the armies in the greatest war
+of history, and when it appears that, with the return of peace, the
+conquest of the air for the ordinary uses of man will be swiftly
+completed, Franklin's good-humoured plea for the fullest
+experimentation is worth recalling. And the touch of piety with
+which he concludes his argument is a delightful example of the
+whimsical fashion in which he often undertook to bolster up a
+mundane theory with a reference to things supernatural.</p>
+
+<a id="img011" name="img011"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img011.jpg" width="400" height="523" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French Observation Balloon on Fire.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>I am sorry this Experiment is totally neglected in England,
+     where mechanic Genius is so strong. I wish I could <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> see
+     the same Emulation between the two Nations as I see between the
+     two Parties here. Your Philosophy seems to be too bashful. In
+     this Country we are not so much afraid of being laught at. If we
+     do a foolish thing, we are the first to laugh at it ourselves,
+     and are almost as much pleased with a <i>Bon Mot</i> or a <i>Chanson</i>,
+     that ridicules well the Disappointment of a Project, as we might
+     have been with its success. It does not seem to me a good reason
+     to decline prosecuting a new Experiment which apparently
+     increases the power of Man over Matter, till we can see to what
+     Use that Power may be applied. When we have learnt to manage it,
+     we may hope some time or other to find Uses for it, as men have
+     done for Magnetism and Electricity, of which the first
+     Experiments were mere Matters of Amusement.</p>
+
+<p>This Experience is by no means a trifling one. It may be attended
+     with important Consequences that no one can foresee. We should
+     not suffer Pride to prevent our progress in Science.</p>
+
+<p>Beings of a Rank and Nature far superior to ours have not
+     disdained to amuse themselves with making and launching Balloons,
+     otherwise we should never have enjoyed the Light of those
+     glorious objects that rule our Day &amp; Night, nor have had the
+     Pleasure of riding round the Sun ourselves upon the Balloon we
+     now inhabit.</p>
+
+<p class="right10 smcap">B. Franklin.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The earliest experimenters thought that oars might be employed to
+propel and direct a balloon. The immediate failure of all endeavours
+of this sort, led them, still pursuing the analogy between a balloon
+and a ship at sea, to try to navigate the air with sails. This again
+proved futile. It is impossible for a balloon, or airship to "tack"
+or man&oelig;uvre in any way by sail power. It is in fact a monster
+sail itself, needing some other power than the wind to make headway
+or steerage <span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span> way against the wind. The sail device was
+tested only to be abandoned. Only when a trail rope dragging along
+the ground or sea is employed does the sail offer sufficient
+resistance to the wind to sway the balloon's course this way or
+that. And a trailer is impracticable when navigating great heights.</p>
+
+<a id="img012" name="img012"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img012.jpg" width="300" height="456" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Roberts Brothers' Dirigible.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>For these reasons the development of the balloon lagged, until Count
+Zeppelin and M. Santos-Dumont consecrated their fortunes, their
+inventive minds, and their amazing courage to the task of perfecting
+a dirigible. In a book, necessarily packed with information
+concerning the rapid development of aircraft which began in the last
+decade of the nineteenth century and was enormously stimulated
+during the war of all the world, the long series of early
+experiments with balloons must be passed over hastily. Though
+interesting historically these experiments were futile. Beyond
+having discovered what could <i>not</i> be done with a balloon the
+practitioners of that form of aeronautics were little further along
+in 1898 when Count Zeppelin <span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> came along with the first plan
+for a rigid dirigible than they were when Blanchard in 1786, seizing
+a favourable gale drifted across the English Channel to the French
+shore, together with Dr. Jefferies, an American. It was just 124
+years later that Bleriot, a Frenchman, made the crossing in an
+airplane independently of favouring winds. It had taken a century
+and a quarter to attain this independence.</p>
+
+<p>In a vague way the earliest balloonists recognized that power,
+independent of wind, was necessary to give balloons steerage way and
+direction. Steam was in its infancy during the early days of
+ballooning, but the efforts to devise some sort of an engine light
+enough to be carried into the air were untiring. Within a year after
+the experiments of the Montgolfier brothers, the suggestion was made
+that the explosion of small quantities of gun-cotton and the
+expulsion of the resulting gases might be utilized in some fashion
+to operate propelling machinery. Though the suggestion was not
+developed to any useful point it was of interest as forecasting the
+fundamental idea of the gas engines of to-day which have made
+aviation possible&mdash;that is, the creation of power by a series of
+explosions within the motor.</p>
+
+<p>In the effort to make balloons dirigible one of the first steps was
+to change the form from the spherical or pear-shaped bag to a
+cylindrical, or cigar-shape. This device was adopted by the brothers
+Robert in France as early as 1784. Their balloon further had a
+double skin or envelope, its purpose being partly to save the gas
+which percolated through the inner skin, partly to maintain the
+rigidity of the structure. As gas escapes from an ordinary balloon
+it becomes flabby, and can be driven through the air only with
+extreme <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> difficulty. In the balloon of the Robert brothers
+air could from time to time be pumped into the space between the two
+skins, keeping the outer envelope always fully distended and rigid.
+In later years this idea has been modified by incorporating in the
+envelope one large or a number of smaller balloons or "balloonets,"
+into which air may be pumped as needed.</p>
+
+<p>The shape too has come to approximate that of a fish rather than a
+bird, in the case of balloons at least. "The head of a cod and the
+tail of a mackerel," was the way Marey-Monge, the French aeronaut
+described it. Though most apparent in dirigible balloons, this will
+be seen to be the favourite design for airplanes if the wings be
+stripped off, and the body and tail alone considered. Complete,
+these machines are not unlike a flying fish.</p>
+
+<p>In England, Sir George Cayley, as early as 1810 studied and wrote
+largely on the subject of dirigibles but, though the English call
+him the "father of British aeronautics," his work seems to have been
+rather theoretical than practical. He did indeed demonstrate
+mathematically that no lifting power existed that would support the
+cumbrous steam-engine of that date, and tried to solve this dilemma
+by devising a gas engine, and an explosive engine. With one of the
+latter, driven by a series of explosions of gunpowder, each in a
+separate cell set off by a detonator, he equipped a flying machine
+which attained a sufficient height to frighten Cayley's coachman,
+whom he had persuaded to act as pilot. The rather unwilling aviator,
+fearing a loftier flight, jumped out and broke his leg. Though by
+virtue of this martyrdom his name should surely have descended to
+fame with that of Cayley it has been lost, together with all record
+of any later performances <span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> of the machine, which
+unquestionably embodied some of the basic principles of our modern
+aircraft, though it antedated the first of these by nearly a
+century.</p>
+
+<a id="img013" name="img013"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img013.jpg" width="400" height="274" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Giffard's Dirigible.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We may pass over hastily some of the later experiments with
+dirigibles that failed. In 1834 the Count de Lennox built an airship
+130 feet long to be driven by oars worked by man power. When the
+crowd that gathered to watch the ascent found that the machine was
+too heavy to ascend even without the men, they expressed their
+lively contempt for the inventor by tearing his clothes to tatters
+and smashing his luckless airship. In 1852, another Frenchman, Henry
+Giffard, built a cigar-shaped balloon 150 feet long by 40 feet in
+diameter, driven by steam. The engine weighed three hundred pounds
+and generated about 3 H.-P.&mdash;about <sup>1</sup>/<sub>200</sub> as much power as a gas
+engine of equal weight would produce. Even with this slender power,
+however, Giffard attained a speed, independent of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span> wind,
+of from five to seven miles an hour&mdash;enough at least for steerage
+way. This was really the first practical demonstration of the
+possibilities of the mechanical propulsion of balloons. Several
+adaptations of the Giffard idea followed, and in 1883 Renard and
+Krebs, in a fusiform ship, driven by an electric motor, attained a
+speed of fifteen miles an hour. By this time inventive genius in all
+countries&mdash;save the United States which lagged in interest in
+dirigibles&mdash;was stimulated. Germany and France became the great
+protagonists in the struggle for precedence and in the struggle two
+figures stand out with commanding prominence&mdash;the Count von Zeppelin
+and Santos-Dumont, a young Brazilian resident in Paris who without
+official countenance consecrated his fortune to, and risked his life
+in, the service of aviation.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span> CHAPTER III<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE SERVICES OF SANTOS-DUMONT</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>In his book <i>My Airships</i> the distinguished aviator A. Santos-Dumont
+tells this story of the ambition of his youth and its realization in
+later days:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>I cannot say at what age I made my first kites, but I remember
+     how my comrades used to tease me at our game of "pigeon flies."
+     All the children gather round a table and the leader calls out
+     "Pigeon Flies! Hen flies! Crow flies! Bee flies!" and so on; and
+     at each call we were supposed to raise our fingers. Sometimes,
+     however, he would call out "Dog flies! Fox flies!" or some other
+     like impossibility to catch us. If any one raised a finger then
+     he was made to pay a forfeit. Now my playmates never failed to
+     wink and smile mockingly at me when one of them called "Man
+     flies!" for at the word I would always raise my finger very high,
+     as a sign of absolute conviction, and I refused with energy to
+     pay the forfeit. The more they laughed at me the happier I was,
+     hoping that some day the laugh would be on my side.</p>
+
+<p>Among the thousands of letters which I received after winning the
+     Deutsch prize (a prize offered in 1901 for sailing around the
+     Eiffel Tower) there was one that gave me peculiar pleasure. I
+     quote from it as a matter of curiosity:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember, my dear Alberto, when we played together
+     'Pigeon Flies!'? It came back to me suddenly when the news of
+     your success reached Rio. 'Man flies!' <span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> old fellow! You
+     were right to raise your finger, and you have just proved it by
+     flying round the Eiffel Tower.</p>
+
+<p>"They play the old game now more than ever at home; but the name
+     has been changed, and the rules modified since October 19, 1901.
+     They call it now 'Man flies!' and he who does not raise his
+     finger at the word pays the forfeit."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The story of Santos-Dumont affords a curious instance of a boy being
+obsessed by an idea which as a man he carried to its successful
+fruition. It offers also evidence of the service that may accrue to
+society from the devotion of a dilettante to what people may call a
+"fad," but what is in fact the germ of a great idea needing only an
+enthusiast with enthusiasm, brains, and money for its development.
+Because the efforts of Santos-Dumont always smacked of the amateur
+he has been denied his real place in the history of aeronautics,
+which is that of a fearless innovator, and a devoted worker in the
+cause.</p>
+
+<p>Born on one of those great coffee plantations of Brazil, where all
+is done by machinery that possibly can be, Santos-Dumont early
+developed a passion for mechanics. In childhood he made toy
+airplanes. He confesses that his favourite author was Jules Verne,
+that literary idol of boyhood, who while writing books as wildly
+imaginative as any dime tale of redskins, or nickel novel of the
+doings of "Nick Carter" had none the less the spirit of prophecy
+that led him to forecast the submarine, the automobile, and the
+navigation of the air. At fifteen Santos-Dumont saw his first
+balloon and marked the day with red.</p>
+
+<a id="img014" name="img014"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img014.jpg" width="600" height="416" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A British Kite Balloon.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller">(<i>The open sack at the lower end catches the breeze and keeps the
+balloon steady.</i>)</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     I too desired to go ballooning [he writes]. In the long
+     sun-bathed Brazilian afternoons, when the hum of insects,
+     punctuated by the far-off cry of some bird lulled me, I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span>
+     would lie in the shade of the veranda and gaze into the fair sky
+     of Brazil where the birds fly so high and soar with such ease on
+     their great outstretched wings; where the clouds mount so gaily
+     in the pure light of day, and you have only to raise your eyes to
+     fall in love with space and freedom. So, musing on the
+     exploration of the aërial ocean, I, too, devised airships and
+     flying-machines in my imagination.</p>
+
+<a id="img015" name="img015"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img015.jpg" width="600" height="392" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A British "Blimp" Photographed from Above.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>From dreaming, the boy's ambitions rapidly developed into actions.
+Good South Americans, whatever the practice of their northern
+neighbours, do not wait to die before going to Paris. At the age of
+eighteen the youth found himself in the capital of the world. To his
+amazement he found that the science of aeronautics, such as it was,
+had stopped with Giffard's work in 1852. No dirigible was to be
+heard of in all Paris. The antiquated gas ball was the only way to
+approach the upper air. When the boy tried to arrange for an
+ascension the balloonist he consulted put so unconscionable a price
+on one ascent that he bought an automobile instead&mdash;one of the first
+made, for this was in 1891&mdash;and with it returned to Brazil. It was
+not until six years later that, his ambition newly fired by reading
+of Andrée's plans for reaching the Pole in a balloon, Santos-Dumont
+took up anew his ambition to become an aviator. His own account of
+his first ascent does not bear precisely the hall-mark of the
+enthusiast too rapt in ecstasy to think of common things. "I had
+brought up," he notes gravely, "a substantial lunch of hard-boiled
+eggs, cold roast beef and chicken, cheese, ice cream, fruits and
+cakes, champagne, coffee, and chartreuse!"</p>
+
+<p>The balloon with its intrepid voyagers nevertheless returned to
+earth in safety.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> A picturesque figure, an habitué of the clubs and an eager
+sportsman, Santos-Dumont at once won the liking of the French
+people, and attracted attention wherever people gave thought to
+aviation. Liberal in expenditure of money, and utterly fearless in
+exposing his life, he pushed his experiments for the development of
+a true dirigible tirelessly. Perhaps his major fault was that he
+learned but slowly from the experiences of others. He clung to the
+spherical balloon long after the impossibility of controlling it in
+the air was accepted as unavoidable by aeronauts. But in 1898 having
+become infatuated with the performances of a little sixty-six pound
+tricycle motor he determined to build a cigar-shaped airship to fit
+it, and with that determination won success.</p>
+
+<p>Amateur he may have been, was indeed throughout the greater part of
+his career as an airman. Nevertheless Santos-Dumont has to his
+credit two very notable achievements.</p>
+
+<p>He was the first constructor and pilot of a dirigible balloon that
+made a round trip, that is to say returned to its starting place
+after rounding a stake at some distance&mdash;in this instance the
+Eiffel Tower, 3-&frac12; miles from St. Cloud whence Santos-Dumont
+started and whither he returned within half an hour, the time
+prescribed.</p>
+
+<p>This was not, indeed, the first occasion on which a round trip,
+necessitating operation against the wind on at least one course, had
+been made. In 1884 Captain Renard had accomplished this feat for the
+first time with the fish-shaped balloon <i>La France</i>, driven by an
+electric motor of nine horse-power. But though thus antedated in his
+exploit, Santos-Dumont did in fact accomplish more for the
+advancement and development <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> of dirigible balloons. To begin
+with he was able to use a new and efficient form of motor destined
+to become popular, and capable, as the automobile manufacturers
+later showed, of almost illimitable development in the direction of
+power and lightness. Except for the gasoline engine, developed by
+the makers of motor cars, aviation to-day would be where it was a
+quarter of a century ago.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover by his personal qualities, no less than by his successful
+demonstration of the possibilities inherent in the dirigible,
+Santos-Dumont persuaded the French Government to take up aeronautics
+again, after abandoning the subject as the mere fad of a number of
+visionaries.</p>
+
+<p>Turning from balloons to airplanes the Brazilian was the first
+aviator to make a flight with a heavier-than-air machine before a
+body of judges. This triumph was mainly technical. The Wrights had
+made an equally notable flight almost a year before but not under
+conditions that made it a matter of scientific record.</p>
+
+<p>But setting aside for the time the work done by Santos-Dumont with
+machines heavier than air, let us consider his triumphs with
+balloons at the opening of his career. He had come to France about
+forty years after Henry Giffard had demonstrated the practicability
+of navigating a balloon 144 feet long and 34 feet in diameter with a
+three-horse-power steam-engine. But no material success attended
+this demonstration, important as it was, and the inventor turned
+his attention to captive balloons, operating one at the Paris
+Exposition of 1878 that took up forty passengers at a time. There
+followed Captain Renard to whose achievement we have already
+referred. He had laid <span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> down as the fundamentals of a
+dirigible balloon these specifications:</p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li><span class="min1em">A cigar, or fishlike shape.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="min1em">An internal sack or ballonet into which air might be pumped to
+     replace any lost gas, and maintain the shape of the balloon.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="min1em">A keel, or other longitudinal brace, to maintain the longitudinal
+     stability of the balloon and from which the car containing the
+     motor might be hung.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="min1em">A propeller driven by a motor, the size and power of both to be
+     as great as permitted by the lifting power of the balloon.</span></li>
+
+<li><span class="min1em">A rudder capable of controlling the course of the ship.</span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Santos-Dumont adopted all of these specifications, but added to them
+certain improvements which gave his airships&mdash;he built five of them
+before taking his first prize&mdash;notable superiority over that of
+Renard. To begin with he had the inestimable advantage of having the
+gasoline motor. He further lightened his craft by having the
+envelope made of Japanese silk, in flat defiance of all the builders
+of balloons who assured him that the substance was too light and its
+use would be suicidal. "All right," said the innovator to his
+favourite constructor, who refused to build him a balloon of that
+material, "I'll build it myself." In the face of this threat the
+builder capitulated. The balloon was built, and the silk proved to
+be the best fabric available at that time for the purpose. A keel
+made of strips of pine banded together with aluminum wire formed the
+backbone of the Santos-Dumont craft, and from it depended the car
+about one quarter of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span> length of the balloon and hung
+squarely amidships. The idea of this keel occurred to the inventor
+while pleasuring at Nice. Later it saved his life.</p>
+
+<p>One novel and exceedingly simple device bore witness to the
+ingenuity of the inventor. He had noticed in his days of free
+ballooning that to rise the aeronaut had to throw out sand-ballast;
+to descend he had to open the valves and let out gas. As his supply
+of both gas and sand was limited it was clear that the time of his
+flight was necessarily curtailed every time he ascended or
+descended. Santos-Dumont thought to husband his supplies of lifting
+force and of ballast, and make the motor raise and lower the ship.
+It was obvious that the craft would go whichever way the bow might
+be pointed, whether up or down. But how to shift the bow? The
+solution seems so simple that one wonders it ever perplexed
+aviators. From the peak of the bow and stern of his craft
+Santos-Dumont hung long ropes caught in the centre by lighter ropes
+by which they could be dragged into the car. In the car was carried
+a heavy bag of sand, which so long as it was there held the ship in
+a horizontal plane. Was it needful to depress the bow? Then the bow
+rope was hauled in, the bag attached, and swung out to a position
+where it would pull the forward tip of the delicately adjusted gas
+bag toward the earth. If only a gentle inclination was desired the
+bag was not allowed to hang directly under the bow, but was held at
+a point somewhere between the car and the bow so that the pull would
+be diagonal and the great cylinder would be diverted but little from
+the horizontal. If it were desired to ascend, a like manipulation
+of the ballast on the stern rope would depress the stern and point
+the bow upwards. For slight changes in direction <span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span> it was not
+necessary even to attach the sand bag. Merely drawing the rope into
+the car and thus changing the line of its "pull" was sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The Deutsch prize which stimulated Santos-Dumont to his greatest
+achievements with dirigibles was a purse of twenty thousand dollars,
+offered by Mr. Henry Deutsch, a wealthy patron of the art of
+aviation. Not himself an aviator, M. Deutsch greatly aided the
+progress of the air's conquest. Convinced that the true solution of
+the problem lay in development of the gasoline engine, he expended
+large sums in developing and perfecting it. When he believed it was
+sufficiently developed to solve the problem of directing the flight
+of balloons he offered his prize for the circuit of the Eiffel
+Tower. The conditions of the contest were not easy. The competitor
+had to sail from the Aero Club at St. Cloud, pass twice over the
+Seine which at that point makes an abrupt bend, sail over the Bois
+de Boulogne, circle the Tower, and return to the stopping place
+within a half an hour. The distance was about seven miles, and it is
+noteworthy that in his own comment on the test Santos-Dumont
+complains that that required an average speed of fifteen miles an
+hour of which he could not be sure with his balloon. To-day
+dirigibles make sixty miles an hour, and airplanes not infrequently
+reach 130 miles. Moreover there could be no picking of a day on
+which atmospheric conditions were especially good. Mr. Deutsch had
+stipulated that the test must be made in the presence of a
+Scientific Commission whose members must be notified twenty-four
+hours in advance. None could tell twenty-four hours ahead what the
+air might be like, and as for utilizing the aviator's most
+favourable hour, the calm of the dawn, M. Santos-Dumont remarked:
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> "The duellist may call out his friends at that sacred hour,
+but not the airship captain."</p>
+
+<p>The craft with which the Brazilian first strove to win the Deutsch
+prize he called <i>Santos-Dumont No. V.</i> It was a cylinder, sharp at
+both ends, 109 feet long and driven by a 12-horse-power motor. A new
+feature was the use of piano wire for the support of the car, thus
+greatly reducing the resistance of the air which in the case of the
+old cord suspensions was almost as great as that of the balloon
+itself. Another novel feature was water ballast tanks forward and
+aft on the balloon itself and holding together twelve gallons. By
+pulling steel wires in the car the aviator could open the
+stop-cocks. The layman scarcely appreciates the very slight shift in
+ballast which will affect the stability of a dirigible. The shifting
+of a rope a few feet from its normal position, the dropping of two
+handfuls of sand, or release of a cup of water will do it. A
+humorous writer describing a lunch with Santos-Dumont in the air
+says: "Nothing must be thrown overboard, be it a bottle, an empty
+box or a chicken bone without the pilot's permission."</p>
+
+<p>After unofficial tests of his "No. 5" in one of which he circled the
+Tower without difficulty, Santos-Dumont summoned the Scientific
+Commission for a test. In ten minutes he had turned the Tower, and
+started back against a fierce head-wind, which made him ten minutes
+late in reaching the time-keepers. Just as he did so his engine
+failed, and after drifting for a time his ship perched in the top of
+a chestnut tree on the estate of M. Edmond Rothschild. Philosophical
+as ever the aeronaut clung to his craft, dispatched an excellent
+lunch which the Princess Isabel, Comtesse d'Eu, daughter of Dom
+Pedro, the deposed Emperor of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> Brazil, sent to his eyrie in
+the branches, and finally extricated himself and his
+balloon&mdash;neither much the worse for the accident. He had failed but
+his determination to win was only whetted.</p>
+
+<p>The second trial for the Deutsch prize like the first ended in
+failure, but that failure was so much more dramatic even than the
+success which attended the third effort that it is worth telling and
+can best be told in M. Santos-Dumont's own words. The quotation is
+from his memoir, <i>My Airships</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>And now I come to a terrible day&mdash;8th of August, 1901. At 6:30
+     <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> in presence of the Scientific Commission of the Aero Club, I
+     started again for the Eiffel Tower.</p>
+
+     <p>I turned the tower at the end of nine minutes and took my way
+     back to St. Cloud; but my balloon was losing hydrogen through one
+     of its two automatic gas valves whose spring had been
+     accidentally weakened.</p>
+
+     <p>I had perceived the beginning of this loss of gas even before
+     reaching the Eiffel Tower, and ordinarily, in such an event, I
+     should have come at once to earth to examine the lesion. But here
+     I was competing for a prize of great honour and my speed had been
+     good. Therefore I risked going on.</p>
+
+     <p>The balloon now shrunk visibly. By the time I had got back to the
+     fortifications of Paris, near La Muette, it caused the suspension
+     wires to sag so much that those nearest to the screw-propeller
+     caught in it as it revolved.</p>
+
+     <p>I saw the propeller cutting and tearing at the wires. I stopped
+     the motor instantly. Then, as a consequence, the airship was at
+     once driven back toward the tower by the wind which was strong.</p>
+
+<a id="img016" name="img016"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img016.jpg" width="600" height="429" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by International Film Service Co.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>At the same time I was falling. The balloon had lost much gas. I
+     might have thrown out ballast and greatly diminished the fall,
+     but then the wind would have time to blow me back on the Eiffel
+     Tower. I therefore preferred <span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> to let the airship go down
+     as it was going. It may have seemed a terrific fall to those who
+     watched it from the ground but to me the worst detail was the
+     airship's lack of equilibrium. The half-empty balloon, fluttering
+     its empty end as an elephant waves his trunk, caused the
+     airship's stern to point upward at an alarming angle. What I most
+     feared therefore was that the unequal strain on the suspension
+     wires would break them one by one and so precipitate me to the
+     ground.</p>
+
+     <p>Why was the balloon fluttering an empty end causing all this
+     extra danger? How was it that the rotary ventilator was not
+     fulfilling its purpose in feeding the interior air balloon and in
+     this manner swelling out the gas balloon around it? The answer
+     must be looked for in the nature of the accident. The rotary
+     ventilator stopped working when the motor itself stopped, and I
+     had been obliged to stop the motor to prevent the propeller from
+     tearing the suspension wires near it when the balloon first began
+     to sag from loss of gas. It is true that the ventilator which was
+     working at that moment had not proved sufficient to prevent the
+     first sagging. It may have been that the interior balloon refused
+     to fill out properly. The day after the accident when my balloon
+     constructor's man came to me for the plans of a "No. 6" balloon
+     envelope I gathered from something he said that the interior
+     balloon of "No. 5," not having been given time for its varnish
+     to dry before being adjusted, might have stuck together or stuck
+     to the sides or bottom of the outer balloon. Such are the rewards
+     of haste.</p>
+
+     <p>I was falling. At the same time the wind was carrying me toward
+     the Eiffel Tower. It had already carried me so far that I was
+     expecting to land on the Seine embankment beyond the Trocadero.
+     My basket and the whole of the keel had already passed the
+     Trocadero hotels, and had my balloon been a spherical one it
+     would have cleared the building. But now at the last critical
+     moment, the end of the long balloon that was still full of gas
+     came slapping <span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> down on the roof just before clearing it.
+     It exploded with a great noise; struck after being blown up. This
+     was the terrific explosion described in the newspaper of the day.</p>
+
+     <p>I had made a mistake in my estimate of the wind's force, by a few
+     yards. Instead of being carried on to fall on the Seine
+     embankment, I now found myself hanging in my wicker basket high
+     up in the courtyard of the Trocadero hotels, supported by my
+     airship's keel, that stood braced at an angle of about forty-five
+     degrees between the courtyard wall above and the roof of a lower
+     construction farther down. The keel, in spite of my weight, that
+     of the motor and machinery, and the shock it had received in
+     falling, resisted wonderfully. The thin pine scantlings and piano
+     wires of Nice (the town where the idea of a keel first suggested
+     itself) had saved my life!</p>
+
+     <p>After what seemed tedious waiting, I saw a rope being lowered to
+     me from the roof above. I held to it and was hauled up, when I
+     perceived my rescuers to be the brave firemen of Paris. From
+     their station at Passy they had been watching the flight of the
+     airship. They had seen my fall and immediately hastened to the
+     spot. Then, having rescued me, they proceeded to rescue the
+     airship.</p>
+
+     <p>The operation was painful. The remains of the balloon envelope
+     and the suspension wires hung lamentably; and it was impossible
+     to disengage them except in strips and fragments!</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The later balloon "No. VI." with which Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch
+prize may fairly be taken as his conception of the finished type of
+dirigible for one man. In fact his aspirations never soared as high
+as those of Count Zeppelin, and the largest airship he ever
+planned&mdash;called "the <i>Omnibus</i>"&mdash;carried only four men. It is
+probable that the diversion of his interest from dirigibles to
+airplanes had most to do with his failure to carry his development
+further than he did. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span> "No. VI." was 108 feet long, and 20
+feet in diameter with an eighteen-horse-power gasoline engine which
+could drive it at about nineteen miles an hour. Naturally the
+aeronaut's first thought in his new construction was of the valves.
+The memory of the anxious minutes spent perched on the window-sill
+of the Trocadero Hotel or dangling like a spider at the end of the
+firemen's rope were still fresh. The ballonet which had failed him
+in "No. V." was perfected in its successor. Notwithstanding the care
+with which she was constructed the prize-winner turned out to be a
+rather unlucky ship. On her trial voyage she ran into a tree and was
+damaged, and even on the day of her greatest conquest she behaved
+badly. The test was made on October 1, 1901. The aeronaut had
+rounded the Tower finely and was making for home when the motor
+began to miss and threatened to stop altogether. While Santos-Dumont
+was tinkering with the engine, leaving the steering wheel to itself,
+the balloon drifted over the Bois de Boulogne. As usual the cool air
+from the wood caused the hydrogen in the balloon to contract and the
+craft dropped until it appeared the voyage would end in the tree
+tops. Hastily shifting his weights the aeronaut forced the prow of
+the ship upwards to a sharp angle with the earth. Just at this
+moment the reluctant engine started up again with such vigour that
+for a moment the ship threatened to assume a perpendicular position,
+pointing straight up in the sky. A cry went up from the spectators
+below who feared a dire catastrophe was about to end a voyage which
+promised success. But with incomparable <i>sang-froid</i> the young
+Brazilian manipulated the weights, restored the ship to the
+horizontal again without stopping the engines, and reached the
+finishing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> stake in time to win the prize. Soon after it was
+awarded him the Brazilian Government presented him with another
+substantial prize, together with a gold medal bearing the words:
+<i>Por ceos nunca d'antes navegados</i> ("Through heavens hitherto
+unsailed").</p>
+
+<p>In a sense the reference to the heavens is a trifle over-rhetorical.
+Santos-Dumont differed from all aviators (or pilots of airplanes)
+and most navigators of dirigibles in always advocating the strategy
+of staying near the ground. In his flights he barely topped the
+roofs of the houses, and in his writings he repeatedly refers to the
+sense of safety that came to him when he knew he was close to the
+tree tops of a forest. This may have been due to the fact that in
+his very first flight in a dirigible he narrowly escaped a fatal
+accident due to flying too high. As he descended, the gas which had
+expanded now contracted. The balloon began to collapse in the
+middle. Cords subjected to unusual stress began to snap. The air
+pump, which should have pumped the ballonet full of air to keep the
+balloon rigid failed to work. Seeing that he was about to fall into
+a field in which his drag rope was already trailing the imperilled
+airman had a happy thought. Some boys were there flying kites. He
+shouted to them to seize his rope and run against the wind. The
+balloon responded to the new force like a kite. The rapidity of its
+fall was checked, and its pilot landed with only a serious shaking.</p>
+
+<p>But thereafter Santos-Dumont preached the maxim&mdash;rare among
+airmen&mdash;"Keep near the ground. That way lies safety!" Most aviators
+however, prefer the heights of the atmosphere, as the sailor prefers
+the wide and open sea to a course near land.</p>
+
+<p>After winning the Deutsch prize, Santos-Dumont continued <span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span>
+for a time to amuse himself with dirigibles. I say "amuse"
+purposely, for never did serious aeronaut get so much fun out of a
+rather perilous pastime as he. In his "No. IX." he built the
+smallest dirigible ever known. The balloon had just power enough to
+raise her pilot and sixty-six pounds more beside a three-horse-power
+motor. But she attained a speed of twelve miles an hour, was readily
+handled, and it was her owner's dearest delight to use her for a
+taxicab, calling for lunch at the cafés in the Bois, and paying
+visits to friends upon whom he looked in, literally, at their
+second-story windows. He ran her in and out of her hangar as one
+would a motor-car from its garage. One day he sailed down the Avenue
+des Champs Élysées at the level of the second-and third-story
+windows of the palaces that line that stately street. Coming to his
+own house he descended, made fast, and went in to <i>déjeuner</i>,
+leaving his aërial cab without. In the city streets he steered
+mainly by aid of a guide rope trailing behind him. With this he
+turned sharp corners, went round the Arc de Triomphe, and said: "I
+might have guide-roped under it had I thought myself worthy." On
+occasion he picked up children in the streets and gave them a ride.</p>
+
+<p>Though before losing his interest in dirigibles Santos-Dumont
+carried the number of his construction up to ten, he cannot be said
+to have devised any new and useful improvements after his "No. VI."
+The largest of his ships was "No. X.," which had a capacity of
+eighty thousand cubic feet&mdash;about ten times the size of the little
+runabout with which he played pranks in Paris streets. In this
+balloon he placed partitions to prevent the gas shifting to one part
+of the envelope, and to guard against losing it all in the event of
+a tear. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> same principle was fundamental in Count
+Zeppelin's airships. In 1904 he brought a dirigible to the United
+States expecting to compete for a prize at the St. Louis Exposition.
+But while suffering exasperating delay from the red-tape which
+enveloped the exposition authorities, he discovered one morning that
+his craft had been mutilated almost beyond repair in its storage
+place. In high dudgeon he left at once for Paris. The explanation of
+the malicious act has never been made clear, though many Americans
+had an uneasy feeling that the gallant and sportsman-like Brazilian
+had been badly treated in our land. On his return to Paris he at
+once began experimenting with heavier-than-air machines. Of his work
+with them we shall give some account later.</p>
+
+<p>Despite his great personal popularity the airship built by
+Santos-Dumont never appealed to the French military authorities.
+Probably this was largely due to the fact that he never built one of
+a sufficient size to meet military tests. The amateur in him was
+unconquerable. While von Zeppelin's first ship was big enough to
+take the air in actual war the Frenchman went on building craft for
+one or two men&mdash;good models for others to seize and build upon, but
+nothing which a war office could actually adopt. But he served his
+country well by stimulating the creation of great companies who
+built largely upon the foundations he had laid.</p>
+
+<p>First and greatest of these was the company formed by the Lebaudy
+Brothers, wealthy sugar manufacturers. Their model was semi-rigid,
+that is, provided with an inflexible keel or floor to the gas bag,
+which was cigar shaped. The most successful of the earlier ships was
+190 feet long, with a car suspended by cables ten feet <span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span>
+below the balloon and carrying the twin motors, together with
+passengers and supplies. Although it made many voyages without
+accident, it finally encountered what seems to be the chief peril of
+dirigible balloons, being torn from its moorings at Châlons and
+dashed against trees to the complete demolition of its envelope.
+Repaired in eleven weeks she was taken over by the French Department
+of War, and was in active service at the beginning of the war. Her
+two successors on the company's building ways were less fortunate.
+<i>La Patrie</i>, after many successful trips, and man&oelig;uvres with the
+troops, was insecurely moored at Verdun, the famous fortress where
+she was to have been permanently stationed. Came up a heavy gale.
+Her anchors began to drag. The bugles sounded and the soldiers by
+hundreds rushed from the fort to aid. Hurled along by the wind she
+dragged the soldiers after her. Fearing disaster to the men the
+commandant reluctantly ordered them to let go. The ship leaped into
+the black upper air and disappeared. All across France, across that
+very country where in 1916 the trenches cut their ugly zigzags from
+the Channel to the Vosges, she drifted unseen. By morning she was
+flying over England and Wales. Ireland caught a glimpse of her and
+days thereafter sailors coming into port told of a curious yellow
+mass, seemingly flabby and disintegrating like the carcass of a
+whale, floating far out at sea.</p>
+
+<p>Her partner ship <i>La République</i> had a like tragic end. She too made
+many successful trips, and proved her stability and worth. But one
+day while man&oelig;uvring near Paris one of her propellers broke and
+tore a great rent in her envelope. As the <i>Titanic</i>, her hull ripped
+open by an iceberg, sunk with more than a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> thousand of her
+people, so this airship, wounded in a more unstable element, fell to
+the ground killing all on board.</p>
+
+<p>Two airships were built in France for England in 1909. One, the
+<i>Clement-Bayard II.</i>, was of the rigid type and built for the
+government; the other, a <i>Lebaudy</i>, was non-rigid and paid for by
+popular subscriptions raised in England by the <i>Morning Post</i>. Both
+were safely delivered near London having made their voyages of
+approximately 242 miles each at a speed exceeding forty miles an
+hour. These were the first airships acquired for British use.</p>
+
+<p>In the United States the only serious effort to develop the
+dirigible prior to the war, and to apply it to some definite
+purpose, was made not by the government but by an individual. Mr.
+Walter Wellman, a distinguished journalist, fired by the effort of
+Andrée to reach the North Pole in a drifting balloon, undertook a
+similar expedition with a dirigible in 1907. A balloon was built 184
+feet in length and 52 feet in diameter, and was driven by a
+seventy-to eighty-horse-power motor. A curious feature of this craft
+was the guide rope or, as Wellman called it, the equilibrator, which
+was made of steel, jointed and hollow. At the lower end were four
+steel cylinders carrying wheels and so arranged that they would
+float on water or trundle along over the roughest ice. The idea was
+that the equilibrator would serve like a guide rope, trailing on the
+water or ice when the balloon hung low, and increasing the power of
+its drag if the balloon, rising higher, lifted a greater part of its
+length into the air. Wellman had every possible appliance to
+contribute to the safety of the airship, and many believe that had
+fortune favoured him the glory of the discovery of the Pole would
+have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span> been his. Unhappily he encountered only ill luck. One
+season he spent at Dane's Island, near Spitzenberg whence Andrée had
+set sail, waiting vainly for favourable weather conditions. The
+following summer, just as he was about to start, a fierce storm
+destroyed his balloon shed and injured the balloon. Before necessary
+repairs could be accomplished Admiral Peary discovered the Pole and
+the purpose of the expedition was at an end. Wellman, however, had
+become deeply interested in aeronautics and, balked in one ambition,
+set out to accomplish another. With the same balloon somewhat
+remodelled he tried to cross the Atlantic, setting sail from
+Atlantic City, N. J., October 16, 1911. But the device on which the
+aeronaut most prided himself proved his undoing. The equilibrator,
+relied upon both for storage room and as a regulator of the altitude
+of the ship, proved a fatal attachment. In even moderate weather it
+bumped over the waves and racked the structure of the balloon with
+its savage tugging until the machinery broke down and the
+adventurers were at the mercy of the elements. Luckily for them
+after they had been adrift for seventy-two hours, and travelled
+several hundred miles they were rescued by the British steamer
+<i>Trent</i>. Not long after Wellman's chief engineer Vanniman sought to
+cross the Atlantic in a similar craft but from some unexplained
+cause she blew up in mid-air and all aboard were lost.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Great Britain nor the United States has reason to be proud
+of the attitude of its government towards the inventors who were
+struggling to subdue the air to the uses of man. Nor has either
+reason to boast much of its action in utterly ignoring up to the
+very day war broke that aid to military service of which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span>
+Lord Kitchener said, "One aviator is worth a corps of cavalry." It
+will be noted that to get its first effective dirigible Great
+Britain had to rely upon popular subscriptions drummed up by a
+newspaper. That was in 1909. To-day, in 1917, the United States has
+only one dirigible of a type to be considered effective in the light
+of modern standards, though our entrance upon the war has caused the
+beginning of a considerable fleet. In aviation no less than in
+aerostatics the record of the United States is negligible. Our
+country did indeed produce the Wright Brothers, pioneers and true
+conquerors of the air with airplanes. But even they were forced to
+go to France for support and indeed for respectful attention.</p>
+
+<p>So far as the development of dirigible balloons is concerned there
+is no more need to devote space to what was done in England and the
+United States than there was for the famous chapter on Snakes in
+Iceland.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> CHAPTER IV<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE COUNT VON ZEPPELIN</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The year that witnessed the first triumphs of Santos-Dumont saw also
+the beginning of the success of his great German rival, the Count
+von Zeppelin. These two daring spirits, struggling to attain the
+same end, were alike in their enthusiasm, their pertinacity, and
+their devotion to the same cause. Both were animated by the highest
+patriotism. Santos-Dumont offered his fleet to France to be used
+against any nation except those of the two Americas. He said: "It is
+in France that I have met with all my encouragement; in France and
+with French material I have made all my experiments. I excepted the
+two Americas because I am an American."</p>
+
+<p>Count Zeppelin for his part, when bowed down in apparent defeat and
+crushed beneath the burden of virtual bankruptcy, steadily refused
+to deal with agents of other nations than Germany&mdash;which at that
+time was turning upon him the cold shoulder. He declared that his
+genius had been exerted for his own country alone, and that his
+invention should be kept a secret from all but German authorities. A
+secret it would be to-day, except that accident and the fortunes of
+war revealed the intricacies of the Zeppelin construction to both
+France and England.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> Santos-Dumont had the fire, enthusiasm, and resiliency of
+youth; Zeppelin, upon whom age had begun to press when first he took
+up aeronautics, had the dogged pertinacity of the Teuton. Both were
+rich at the outset, but Zeppelin's capital melted away under the
+demands of his experimental workshops, while the ancestral coffee
+lands of the Brazilian never failed him.</p>
+
+<p>Of the two Zeppelin had the more obstinacy, for he held to his plan
+of a rigid dirigible balloon even in face of its virtual failure in
+the supreme test of war. Santos-Dumont was the more alert
+intellectually for he was still in the flood tide of successful
+demonstration with his balloons when he saw and grasped the promise
+of the airplane and shifted his activities to that new field in
+which he won new laurels.</p>
+
+<p>Zeppelin won perhaps the wider measure of immediate fame, but
+whether enduring or not is yet to be determined. His airships
+impressive, even majestic as they are, have failed to prove their
+worth in war, and are yet to be fully tested in peace. That they
+remain a unique type, one which no other individual nor any other
+nation has sought to copy, cannot be attributed wholly to the
+jealousy of possible rivals. If the monster ship, of rigid frame,
+were indeed the ideal form of dirigible it would be imitated on
+every hand. The inventions of the Wrights have been seized upon,
+adapted, improved perhaps by half a hundred airplane designers of
+every nation. But nobody has been imitating the Zeppelins.</p>
+
+<a id="img017" name="img017"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img017.jpg" width="600" height="460" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>The Giant and the Pigmies.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>That, however, is a mere passing reflection. If the Zeppelin has not
+done all in war that the sanguine German people expected of it,
+nevertheless it is not yet to be pronounced an entire failure. And
+even though a failure in war, the chief service for which its
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> stout-hearted inventor designed it, there is still hope
+that it may ultimately prove better adapted to many ends of peace
+than the airplanes which for the time seem to have outdone it.</p>
+
+<p>Stout-hearted indeed the old <i>Luftgraaf</i>&mdash;"Air Scout"&mdash;as the
+Germans call him, was. His was a Bismarckian nature, reminiscent of
+the Iron Chancellor alike physically and mentally. In appearance he
+recalls irresistibly the heroic figure of Bismarck, jack-booted and
+cuirassed at the Congress of Vienna, painted by von Werner. Heir to
+an old land-owning family, ennobled and entitled to bear the title
+<i>Landgraf</i>, Count von Zeppelin was a type of the German aristocrat.
+But for his title and aristocratic rank he could never have won his
+long fight for recognition by the bureaucrats who control the German
+army. In youth he was anti-Prussian in sentiment, and indeed some of
+his most interesting army experiences were in service with the army
+of South Germany against Prussia and her allied states. But all that
+was forgotten in the national unity that followed the defeat of
+France in 1872.</p>
+
+<p>Before that, however, the young count&mdash;he was born in 1838&mdash;had
+served with gallantry, if not distinction, in the Union Army in our
+Civil War, had made a balloon ascension on the fighting line, had
+swum in the Niagara River below the falls, being rescued with
+difficulty, and together with two Russian officers and some Indian
+guides had almost starved in trying to discover the source of the
+Mississippi River&mdash;a spot which can now be visited without
+undergoing more serious hardships than the upper berth in a Pullman
+car.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the siege of Paris that Zeppelin's mind first became
+engaged with the problem of aërial navigation. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span> From his
+post in the besieging trenches he saw the almost daily ascent of
+balloons in which mail was sent out, and persons who could pay the
+price sought to escape from the beleaguered city. As a colonel of
+cavalry, he had been employed mainly in scouting duty throughout the
+war. He was impressed now with the conviction that those globes,
+rising silently into the air, above the enemy's cannon shot and
+drifting away to safety would be the ideal scouts could they but
+return with their intelligence. Was there no way of guiding these
+ships in the air, as a ship in the ocean is guided? The young
+soldier was hardly home from the war when he began to study the
+problem. He studied it indeed so much to the exclusion of other
+military matters that in 1890 the General Staff abruptly dismissed
+him from his command. They saw no reason why a major-general of
+cavalry should be mooning around with balloons and kites like a
+schoolboy.</p>
+
+<p>The dismissal hurt him, but deterred him in no way from the purpose
+of his life. Indeed the fruit of his many years' study of aeronautic
+conditions was ready for the gathering at this very moment. On the
+surface of the picturesque Lake Constance, on the border line
+between Germany and Switzerland, floated a huge shed, open to the
+water and more than five hundred feet long. In it, nearing
+completion, floated the first Zeppelin airship.</p>
+
+<p>In the long patient study which the Count had given to his problem
+he had reached the fixed conclusion that the basis of a practical
+dirigible balloon must be a rigid frame over which the envelope
+should be stretched. His experiments were made at the same time as
+those of Santos-Dumont, and he could not be ignorant of the measure
+of success which the younger <span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span> man was attaining with the
+non-rigid balloon. But it was a fact that all the serious accidents
+which befell Santos-Dumont and most of the threatened accidents
+which he narrowly escaped were fundamentally caused by the lack of
+rigidity in his balloon. The immediate cause may have been a leaky
+valve permitting the gas to escape, or a faulty air-pump which made
+prompt filling of the ballonet impossible. But the effect of these
+flaws was to deprive the balloon of its rigidity, cause it to
+buckle, throwing the cordage out of gear, shifting stresses and
+strains, and resulting in ultimate breakdown.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he observed the vicissitudes of his rival or not, Count
+Zeppelin determined that the advantages of a rigid frame counted for
+more than the disadvantage of its weight. Moreover that disadvantage
+could be compensated for by increasing the size, and therefore the
+lifting power of the balloon. In determining upon a rigid frame the
+Count was not a pioneer even in his own country. While his
+experiments were still under way, a rival, David Schwartz, who had
+begun, without completing, an airship in St. Petersburg, secured in
+some way aid from the German Government, which was at the moment
+coldly repulsing Zeppelin. He planned and built an aluminum airship
+but died before its completion. His widow continued the work amidst
+constant opposition from the builders. The end was one of the many
+tragedies of invention. Nobody but the widow ever believed the ship
+would rise from its moorings. It was in charge of a man who had
+never made an ascent. To his amazement and to the amazement of the
+spectators the engine was hardly started when the ship mounted and
+made headway against a stiff breeze. On the ground the spectators
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span> shouted in wonder; the widow, overwhelmed by this reward
+for her faith in her husband's genius, burst into tears of joy. But
+the amateur pilot was no match for the situation. Affrighted to find
+himself in mid-air, too dazed to know what to do, he pulled the
+wrong levers and the machine crashed to earth. The pilot escaped,
+but the airship which had taken four years to build was
+irretrievably wrecked. The widow's hopes were blasted, and the way
+was left free for the Count von Zeppelin.</p>
+
+<p>Freed, though unwillingly, from the routine duties of his military
+rank, Zeppelin thereafter devoted himself wholly to his airships. He
+was fifty-three years old, adding one more to the long list of men
+who found their real life's work after middle age. With him was
+associated his brother Eberhard, the two forming a partnership in
+aeronautical work as inseparable as that of Wilbur and Orville
+Wright. Like Wilbur Wright, Eberhard von Zeppelin did not live to
+witness the fullest fruition of the work, though he did see the
+soundness of its principles thoroughly established and in practical
+application. There is a picturesque story that when Eberhard lay on
+his death-bed his brother, instead of watching by his side, took the
+then completed airship from its hangar, and drove it over and around
+the house that the last sounds to reach the ears of his faithful
+ally might be the roar of the propellers in the air&mdash;the grand pæan
+of victory.</p>
+
+<a id="img018" name="img018"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img018.jpg" width="400" height="330" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French "Sausage".</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Though Count von Zeppelin had begun his experiments in 1873 it was
+not until 1890 that he actually began the construction of his first
+airship. The intervening years had been spent in constructing and
+testing models, in abstruse calculations of the resistance of the
+air, the lifting power of hydrogen, the comparative <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span>
+rigidity and weight of different woods and various metals, the power
+and weight of the different makes of motors. In these studies he
+spent both his time and his money lavishly, with the result that
+when he had built a model on the lines of which he was willing to
+risk the construction of an airship of operative size, his private
+fortune was gone. It is the common lot of inventors. For a time the
+Count suffered all the mortification and ignominy which the beggar,
+even in a most worthy cause, must always experience. Hat in hand he
+approached every possible patron with his story of certain success
+if only supplied with funds with which to complete his ship. A stock
+company with a capital of $225,000 of which he contributed one half,
+soon found its resources exhausted and retired from the speculation.
+Appeals to the Emperor met with only cold indifference. An American
+millionaire newspaper owner, resident in Europe, sent contemptuous
+word by his secretary that he "had no time to bother with crazy
+inventors." That was indeed the attitude of the business classes at
+the moment when the inventors of dirigibles were on the very point
+of conquering the obstacles in the way of making the navigation of
+air a practical art. A governmental commission at Berlin rejected
+with contempt the plans which Zeppelin presented in his appeal for
+support. Members of that commission were forced to an about-face
+later and became some of the inventor's sturdiest champions. But in
+his darkest hour the government failed him, and the one friendly
+hand stretched out in aid was that of the German Engineers' Society
+which, somewhat doubtfully, advanced some funds to keep the work in
+operation.</p>
+
+<a id="img019" name="img019"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img019.jpg" width="400" height="280" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A British "Blimp".</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>With this the construction of the first Zeppelin craft <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> was
+begun. Though there had been built up to the opening of the war
+twenty-five "Zeps"&mdash;nobody knows how many since&mdash;the fundamental
+type was not materially altered in the later ones, and a description
+of the first will stand for all. In connection with this description
+may be noted the criticisms of experts some of which proved only too
+well founded.</p>
+
+<p>The first Zeppelin was polygonal, 450 feet long, 78 broad, and 66
+feet high. This colossal bulk, equivalent to that of a 7500-ton ship
+necessary to supply lifting power for the metallic frame, naturally
+made her unwieldy to handle, unsafe to leave at rest, outside of a
+sheltering shed, and a particularly attractive target for artillery
+in time of war. Actual action indeed proved that to be safe from the
+shells of anti-aircraft guns, the Zeppelins were forced to fly so
+high that their own bombs could not be dropped with any degree of
+accuracy upon a desired target.</p>
+
+<p>The balloon's frame is made of aluminum, the lightest of metals, but
+not the least costly. A curious disadvantage of this construction
+was made apparent in the accident which destroyed <i>Zeppelin IV.</i>
+That was the first of the airships to be equipped with a full
+wireless outfit which was used freely on its flight. It appeared
+that the aluminum frame absorbed much of the electricity generated
+for the purpose of the wireless. The effect of this was two-fold. It
+limited the radius of operation of the wireless to 150 miles or
+less, and it made the metal frame a perilous storehouse of
+electricity. When <i>Zeppelin IV.</i> met with a disaster by a storm
+which dragged it from its moorings, the stored electricity in her
+frame was suddenly released by contact with the trees and set fire
+to the envelope, utterly destroying the ship.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> The balloon frame was divided into seventeen compartments,
+each of which held a ballonet filled with hydrogen gas. The purpose
+of this was similar to the practice of dividing a ship's hulls into
+compartments. If one or more of the ballonets, for any reason, were
+injured the remainder would keep the ship afloat. The space between
+the ballonets and the outer skin was pumped full of air to keep the
+latter taut and rigid. Moreover it helped to prevent the radiation
+of heat to the gas bags from the outer envelope whose huge expanse,
+presented to the sun, absorbed an immense amount of heat rays.</p>
+
+<p>Two cars were suspended from the frame of the Zeppelin, forward and
+aft, and a corridor connected them. A sliding weight was employed to
+raise or depress the bow. In each car of the first Zeppelin was a
+sixteen-horse-power gasoline motor, each working two screws, with
+four foot blades, revolving one thousand times a minute. The engines
+were reversible, thus making it possible to work the propellers
+against each other and aid materially in steering the ship. Rudders
+at bow and stern completed the navigating equipment.</p>
+
+<p>In the first Zeppelins, the corridor connecting the two cars was
+wholly outside the frame and envelope of the car. Later the perilous
+experiment was tried of putting it within the envelope. This
+resulted in one of the most shocking of the many Zeppelin disasters.
+In the case of the ship <i>L-II.</i>, built in 1912, the corridor became
+filled with gas that had oozed out of the ballonets. At one end or
+the other of the corridor this gas, then mixed with air, came in
+contact with fire,&mdash;perhaps the exhaust of the engines,&mdash;a violent
+explosion followed while the ship was some nine hundred feet aloft,
+and the mass of twisted and broken metal, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span> the flaming
+envelope, fell to the ground carrying twenty-eight men, including
+members of the Admiralty Board, to a horrible death.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to the first Zeppelin. Her trial was set for July 2,
+1900, and though the immediate vicinity of the floating hangar was
+barred to the public by the military authorities, the shores and
+surface of the lake were black with people eager to witness the
+test. Boats pulled out of the wide portal the huge cigar-shaped
+structure, floating on small rafts, its polished surface of pegamoid
+glittering in the sun. As large as a fair-sized ocean steamship, it
+looked, on that little lake dotted with pleasure craft, like a
+leviathan. Men were busy in the cars, fore and aft. The mooring
+ropes were cast off as the vessel gained an offing, and ballast
+being thrown out she began to rise slowly. The propellers began to
+whir, and the great craft swung around breasting the breeze and
+moved slowly up the lake. The crowd cheered. Count von Zeppelin,
+tense with excitement, alert for every sign of weakness watched his
+monster creation with mingled pride and apprehension. Two points
+were set at rest in the first two minutes&mdash;the lifting power was
+great enough to carry the heaviest load ever imposed upon a balloon
+and the motive power was sufficient to propel her against an
+ordinary breeze. But she was hardly in mid-air when defects became
+apparent. The apparatus for controlling the balancing weight got out
+of order. The steering lines became entangled so that the ship was
+first obliged to stop, then by reversing the engines to proceed
+backwards. This was, however, a favourable evidence of her handiness
+under untoward circumstances. After she had been in the air nearly
+an hour and had covered four or five miles, a landing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> was
+ordered and she dropped to the surface of the lake with perfect
+ease. Before reaching her shed, however, she collided with a
+pile&mdash;an accident in no way attributable to her design&mdash;and
+seriously bent her frame.</p>
+
+<p>The story told thus baldly does not sound like a record of glorious
+success. Nevertheless not Count Zeppelin alone but all Germany was
+wild with jubilation. <i>Zeppelin I.</i> had demonstrated a principle;
+all that remained was to develop and apply this principle and
+Germany would have a fleet of aërial dreadnoughts that would force
+any hostile nation to subjection. There was little or no discussion
+of the application of the principle to the ends of peace. It was as
+an engine of war alone that the airship appealed to the popular
+fancy.</p>
+
+<p>But at the time that fancy proved fickle. With a few repairs the
+airship was brought out for another test. In the air it did all that
+was asked for it, but it came to earth&mdash;or rather to the surface of
+the lake&mdash;with a shock that put it out of commission. When Count
+Zeppelin's company estimated the cost of further repairs it gave a
+sigh and abandoned the wreck. Thereupon the pertinacious inventor
+laid aside his tools, got into his old uniform, and went out again
+on the dreary task of begging for further funds.</p>
+
+<p>It was two years before he could take up again the work of
+construction. He lectured, wrote magazine articles, begged, cajoled,
+and pleaded for money. At last he made an impression upon the
+Emperor who, indeed, with a keen eye for all that makes for military
+advantage, should have given heed to his efforts long before. Merely
+a letter of approval from the all-powerful Kaiser was needed to turn
+the scale and in 1902 this was forthcoming. The factories of the
+empire <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span> agreed to furnish materials at cost price, and
+sufficient money was soon forthcoming to build a second ship. This
+ship took more than two years to build, was tested in January, 1906,
+made a creditable flight, and was dashed to pieces by a gale the
+same night!</p>
+
+<p>The wearisome work of begging began again. But this time the
+Kaiser's aid was even more effectively given and in nine months
+<i>Zeppelin III.</i> was in the air. More powerful than its predecessors
+it met with a greater measure of success. On one of its trials a
+propeller blade flew off and penetrated the envelope, but the ship
+returned to earth in safety. In October, 1906, the Minister of War
+reported that the airship was extremely stable, responded readily to
+her helm, had carried eleven persons sixty-seven miles in two hours
+and seventeen minutes, and had made its landing in ease and safety.
+Accepted by the government "No. III." passed into military service
+and Zeppelin, now the idol of the German people, began the
+construction of "No. IV."</p>
+
+<p>That ship was larger than her predecessors and carried a third cabin
+for passengers suspended amidships. Marked increase in the size of
+the steering and stabling planes characterized the appearance of the
+ship when compared with earlier types. She was at the outset a lucky
+ship. She cruised through Alpine passes into Switzerland, and made a
+circular voyage carrying eleven passengers and flying from
+Friedrichshaven to Mayence and back via Basle, Strassburg, Mannheim,
+and Stuttgart. The voyage occupied twenty-one hours&mdash;a world's
+record. The performance of the ship on both voyages was perfection.
+Even in the tortuous Alpine passes which she was forced to navigate
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span> on her trip to Lucerne she moved with the steadiness and
+certainty of a great ship at sea. The rarification of the air at
+high altitudes, the extreme and sudden variations in temperature,
+the gusts of wind that poured from the ice-bound peaks down through
+the narrow canyons affected her not at all. When to this experience
+was added the triumphant tour of the six German cities, Count von
+Zeppelin might well have thought his triumph was complete.</p>
+
+<p>But once again the cup of victory was dashed from his lips. After
+his landing a violent wind beat upon the ship. An army of men strove
+to hold her fast, while an effort was made to reduce her bulk by
+deflation. That effort, which would have been entirely successful in
+the case of a non-rigid balloon, was obviously futile in that of a
+Zeppelin. Not the gas in the ballonets, but the great rigid frame
+covered with water-proofed cloth constituted the huge bulk that made
+her the plaything of the winds. In a trice she was snatched from the
+hands of her crew and hurled against the trees in a neighbouring
+grove. There was a sudden and utterly unexpected explosion and the
+whole fabric was in flames. The precise cause of the explosion will
+always be in doubt, but, as already pointed out, many scientists
+believe that the great volume of electricity accumulated in the
+metallic frame was suddenly released in a mighty spark which set
+fire to the stores of gasoline on board.</p>
+
+<p>With this disaster the iron nerve of the inventor was for the first
+time broken. It followed so fast upon what appeared to be a complete
+triumph that the shock was peculiarly hard to bear. It is said that
+he broke down and wept, and that but for the loving courage and
+earnest entreaties of his wife and daughter he would <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span> then
+have abandoned the hope and ambition of his life. But after all it
+was but that darkest hour which comes just before the dawn. The
+demolition of "No. IV." had been no accident which reflected at all
+upon the plan or construction of the craft&mdash;unless the great bulk of
+the ship be considered a fundamental defect. What it did demonstrate
+was that the Zeppelin, like the one-thousand-foot ocean liner, must
+have adequate harbour and docking facilities wherever it is to land.
+The one cannot safely drop down in any convenient meadow, any more
+than the other can put into any little fishing port. Germany has
+learned this lesson well enough and since the opening of the Great
+War her territory is plentifully provided with Zeppelin shelters at
+all strategic points.</p>
+
+<a id="img020" name="img020"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img020.jpg" width="400" height="553" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Paul Thompson.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Death of a Zeppelin.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the Count the German people judged his latest
+reverse more justly than he did. They saw the completeness of the
+triumph which had preceded the disaster and recognized that the
+latter was one easily guarded against in future. Enthusiasm ran high
+all over the land. Begging was no longer necessary. The Emperor, who
+had heretofore expressed rather guarded approval of the enterprise,
+now flung himself into it with that enthusiasm for which he is
+notable. He bestowed upon the Count the Order of the Black Eagle,
+embraced him in public three times, and called aloud that all might
+hear, "Long life to his Excellency, Count Zeppelin, the Conqueror
+of the Air." He never wearied of assuring his hearers that the Count
+was the "greatest German of the century." With such august patronage
+the Count became the rage. Next to the Kaiser's the face best known
+to the people of Germany, through pictures and statues, was that of
+the inventor of the Zeppelin. The pleasing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> practice of
+showing affection for a public man by driving nails into his wooden
+effigy had not then been invented by the poetic Teutons, else von
+Zeppelin would have outdone von Hindenburg in weight of metal.</p>
+
+<p>The story that Zeppelin had refused repeated offers from other
+governments was widely published and evoked patriotic enthusiasm.
+With it went shrewd hints that in these powerful aircraft lay the
+way to overcome the hated English navy, and even to carry war to the
+very soil of England. It was then eight years before the greatest
+war of history was to break out, but even at that date hatred of
+England was being sedulously cultivated among the German people by
+those in authority.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of this national attitude Count Zeppelin's enterprise
+was speedily put on a sound financial footing. Though "No. IV." had
+been destroyed by an accident it had been the purpose of the
+government to buy her, and $125,000 of the purchase price was now
+put at the disposal of the Count von Zeppelin. A popular Zeppelin
+fund of $1,500,000 was raised and expended in building great works.
+Thenceforward there was no lack of money for furthering what had
+truly become a great national interest.</p>
+
+<p>But the progress of the construction of Zeppelins for the next few
+years was curiously compounded of success and failure. Fate seemed
+to have decreed to every Zeppelin triumph a disaster. Each mischance
+was attributed to exceptional conditions which never could happen
+again, but either they did occur, or some new but equally effective
+accident did. Outside of Germany, where the public mind had become
+set in an almost idolatrous confidence in Zeppelin, the great
+airships were becoming a jest and a byword notwithstanding <span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span>
+their unquestioned accomplishments. Indeed when the record was made
+up just before the declaration of war in 1914 it was found that of
+twenty-five Zeppelins thus far constructed only twelve were
+available. Thirteen had been destroyed by accident&mdash;two of them
+modern naval airships only completed in 1913. The record was not one
+to inspire confidence.</p>
+
+<p>In 1909, during a voyage in which he made nine hundred miles in
+thirty-eight hours, the rumour was spread that von Zeppelin would
+continue it to Berlin. Some joker sent a forged telegram to the
+Kaiser to that effect signed "Zeppelin." It was expected to be the
+first appearance of one of the great ships at the capital, and the
+Emperor hastened to prepare a suitable welcome. A great crowd
+assembled at the Templehoff Parade Ground. The Berlin Airship
+Battalion was under orders to assist in the landing. The Kaiser
+himself was ready to hasten to the spot should the ship be sighted.
+But she never appeared. If von Zeppelin knew of the exploit which
+rumour had assigned to him&mdash;which is doubtful&mdash;he could not have
+carried it out. His ship collided with a tree&mdash;an accident
+singularly frequent in the Zeppelin records&mdash;so disabling it that it
+could only limp home under half power. A rather curt telegram from
+his Imperial master is said to have been Count von Zeppelin's first
+intimation that he had broken an engagement.</p>
+
+<p>However, he kept it two months later, flying to Berlin, a distance
+of 475 miles. He was greeted with mad enthusiasm and among the crowd
+to welcome him was Orville Wright the American aviator. It is a
+curious coincidence that on the day the writer pens these words the
+New York newspapers contain accounts of Mr. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> Wright's
+proffer of his services, and aeronautical facilities, to the
+President in case an existing diplomatic break with Germany should
+reach the point of actual war. Mr. Wright accompanied his proffer by
+an appeal for a tremendous aviation force, "but," said he, "I
+strongly advise against spending any money whatsoever on dirigible
+balloons of any sort."</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter the progress of Count von Zeppelin was without
+interruption for any lack of financial strength. His great works at
+Friedrichshaven expanded until they were capable of putting out a
+complete ship in eight weeks. He was building, of course, primarily
+for war, and never concealed the fact that the enemy he expected to
+be the target of his bomb throwers was England. What the airships
+accomplished in this direction, how greatly they were developed, and
+the strength and weakness of the German air fleet, will be dwelt
+upon in another chapter.</p>
+
+<p>But, though building primarily for military purposes, Zeppelin did
+not wholly neglect the possibilities of his ship for non-military
+service. He built one which made more than thirty trips between
+Munich and Berlin, carrying passengers who paid a heavy fee for the
+privilege of enjoying this novel form of travel. The car was fitted
+up like our most up-to-date Pullmans, with comfortable seats, bright
+lights, and a kitchen from which excellent meals were served to the
+passengers. The service was not continued long enough to determine
+whether it could ever be made commercially profitable, but as an aid
+to firing the Teutonic heart and an assistance in selling stock it
+was well worth while. The spectacle of one of these great cars, six
+hundred or more feet long, floating grandly on even keel and with
+a steady course above one of the compact <span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> little towns of
+South Germany, was one to thrill the pulses.</p>
+
+<p>But the ill luck which pursued Count von Zeppelin even in what
+seemed to be his moments of assured success was remorseless. In 1912
+he produced the monster <i>L-I</i>, 525 feet long, 50 feet in diameter,
+of 776,900 cubic feet capacity, and equipped with three sets of
+motors, giving it a speed of fifty-two miles an hour. This ship was
+designed for naval use and after several successful cross-country
+voyages she was ordered to Heligoland, to participate in naval
+man&oelig;uvres with the fleet there stationed. One day, caught by a
+sudden gust of wind such as are common enough on the North Sea, she
+proved utterly helpless. Why no man could tell, her commander being
+drowned, but in the face of the gale she lost all control, was
+buffeted by the elements at their will, and dropped into the sea
+where she was a total loss. Fifteen of her twenty-two officers and
+men were drowned. The accident was the more inexplicable because the
+craft had been flying steadily overland for nearly twelve months and
+had covered more miles than any ship of Zeppelin construction. It
+was reported that her captain had said she was overloaded and that
+he feared that she would be helpless in a gale. But after the
+disaster his mouth was stopped by the waters of the North Sea.</p>
+
+<a id="img021" name="img021"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img021.jpg" width="600" height="369" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A German Dirigible, Hansa Type.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This calamity was not permitted long to stand alone. Indeed one of
+the most curious facts about the Zeppelin record is the regular,
+periodical recurrence of fatal accidents at almost equal intervals
+and apparently wholly unaffected by the growing perfection of the
+airships. While <i>L-I</i> was making her successful cross-country
+flights, <i>L-II</i> was reaching completion at Friedrichshaven. She was
+shorter but bulkier than her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span> immediate predecessor and
+carried engines giving her nine hundred horse power, or four hundred
+more than <i>L-I.</i> On its first official trip this ship exploded a
+thousand feet in air, killing twenty-eight officers and men aboard,
+including all the officials who were conducting the trials. The
+calamity, as explained on an earlier page, was due to the
+accumulation of gas in the communicating passage between the three
+cars.</p>
+
+<a id="img022" name="img022"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img022.jpg" width="600" height="422" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This new disaster left the faith and loyalty of the German people
+unshaken. But it did decidedly estrange the scientific world from
+Count von Zeppelin and all his works. It was pointed out, with
+truth, that the accident paralleled precisely one which had
+demolished the <i>Severo Pax</i> airship ten years earlier, and which had
+caused French inventors to establish a hard and fast rule against
+incorporating in an airship's design any inclosed space in which
+waste gas might gather. This rule and its reason were known to Count
+von Zeppelin and by ignoring both he lent new colour to the charge,
+already current in scientific circles, that he was loath to profit
+by the experiences of other inventors.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this feeling spread to the German Government it is
+impossible to say. Nor it is easy to estimate how much official
+confidence was shaken by it. The government, even before the war,
+was singularly reticent about the Zeppelins, their numbers and
+plans. It is certain that orders were not withheld from the Count.
+Great numbers of his machines were built, especially after the war
+was entered upon. But he was not permitted longer to have a monopoly
+of government aid for manufacturers of dirigibles. Other types
+sprung up, notably the Schutte-Lanz, the Gross, and the Parseval.
+But being first in the field the Zeppelin <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span> came to give its
+name to all the dirigibles of German make and many of the famous&mdash;or
+infamous&mdash;exploits credited to it during the war may in fact have
+been performed by one of its rivals.</p>
+
+<p>It would be futile to attempt to enumerate all these rivals here.
+Among them are the semi-rigid Parseval and Gross types which found
+great favour among the military authorities during the war. The
+latter is merely an adaptation of the highly successful French ship
+the <i>Lebaudy</i>, but the Parseval is the result of a slow evolution
+from an ordinary balloon. It is wholly German, in conception and
+development, and it is reported that the Kaiser, secretly disgusted
+that the Zeppelins, to the advancement of which he had given such
+powerful aid, should have recorded so many disasters, quietly
+transferred his interest to the new and simpler model. Despite the
+hope of a more efficient craft, however, both the Gross and the
+Parseval failed in their first official trials, though later they
+made good.</p>
+
+<p>The latter ship was absolutely without any wooden or metallic
+structure to give her rigidity. Two air ballonets were contained in
+the envelope at bow and stern and the ascent and descent of the ship
+was regulated by the quantity of air pumped into these. A most
+curious device was the utilization of heavy cloth for the propeller
+blades. Limp and flaccid when at rest, heavy weights in the hem of
+the cloth caused these blades to stand out stiff and rigid as the
+result of the centrifugal force created by their rapid revolution.
+One great military advantage of the Parseval was that she could be
+quickly deflated in the presence of danger at her moorings, and
+wholly knocked down and packed in small compass for shipment by rail
+in case of need. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> To neither of these models did there ever
+come such a succession of disasters as befell the earlier Zeppelins.
+It is fair to say however that prior to the war not many of them had
+been built, and that both their builders and navigators had
+opportunity to learn from Count von Zeppelin's errors.</p>
+
+<p>Among the chief German rivals to the Zeppelin is the Schutte-Lanz,
+of the rigid type, broader but not so long as the Zeppelin, framed
+of wood bound with wire and planned to carry a load of five or six
+tons, or as many as thirty passengers. No. I of this type met its
+fate as did so many Zeppelins by encountering a storm while
+improperly moored. Called to earth to replenish its supply of gas it
+was moored to an anchor sunk six feet in the ground, and as an
+additional precaution three hundred soldiers were called from a
+neighbouring barracks to handle it. It seems to have been one of the
+advantages of Germany as a place in which to man&oelig;uvre dirigibles,
+that, even in time of peace, there were always several hundred
+soldiers available wherever a ship might land. But this force was
+inadequate. A violent gust tore the ship from their hands. One poor
+fellow instinctively clung to his rope until one thousand feet in
+the air when he let go. The ship itself hovered over the town for an
+hour or more, then descended and was dashed to pieces against trees
+and stone walls.</p>
+
+<p>The danger which was always attached to the landing of airships has
+led some to suggest that they should never be brought to earth, but
+moored in mid-air as large ships anchor in midstream. It is
+suggested that tall towers be built to the top of which the ship be
+attached by a cable, so arranged that she will always float to the
+leeward of the tower. The passengers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span> would be landed by
+gangplanks, and taken up and down the towers in elevators. Kipling
+suggests this expedient in his prophetic sketch <i>With the Night
+Mail</i>. The airship would only return to earth&mdash;as a ship goes into
+dry dock&mdash;when in need of repairs.</p>
+
+<p>A curious mishap that threatened for a time to wreck the peace of
+the world, occurred in April, 1913, when a German Zeppelin was
+forced out of its course and over French territory. The right of
+alien machines to pass over their territory is jealously guarded by
+European nations, and during the progress of the Great War the Dutch
+repeatedly protested against the violation of their atmosphere by
+German aviators. At the time of this mischance, however, France and
+Germany were at peace&mdash;or as nearly so as racial and historic
+antipathies would permit. Accordingly when officers of a brigade of
+French cavalry engaged in man&oelig;uvring near the great fortress of
+Luneville saw a shadow moving across the field and looking up saw a
+huge Zeppelin betwixt themselves and the sun they were astonished
+and alarmed. Signs and faint shouts from the aeronauts appeared to
+indicate that their errand was at least friendly, if not
+involuntary. The soldiers stopped their drill; the townspeople
+trooped out to the Champs de Mars where the phenomenon was exhibited
+and began excitedly discussing this suspicious invasion. Word was
+speedily sent to military headquarters asking whether to welcome or
+to repel the foe.</p>
+
+<a id="img023" name="img023"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img023.jpg" width="400" height="518" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>British Aviators about to Ascend.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Note position of gunner on lower seat.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Meantime the great ship was drifting perilously near the housetops,
+and the uniformed officers in the cars began making signals to the
+soldiers below. Ropes were thrown out, seized by willing hands and
+made fast. The crew of Germans descended to find themselves <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span>
+prisoners. The international law was clear enough. The ship was a
+military engine of the German army. Its officers, all in uniform,
+had deliberately steered her into the very heart of a French
+fortress. Though the countries were at peace the act was technically
+one of war&mdash;an armed invasion by the enemy. Diplomacy of course
+settled the issue peacefully but not before the French had made
+careful drawings of all the essential features of the Zeppelin, and
+taken copies of its log. As Germany had theretofore kept a rigid
+secrecy about all the details of Zeppelin construction and operation
+this angered the military authorities beyond measure. The unlucky
+officers who had shared in the accident were savagely told that they
+should have blown the ship up in mid-air and perished with it rather
+than to have weakly submitted it to French inspection. They suffered
+court-martial but escaped with severe reprimands.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the dirigibles of France and Germany is practically the
+whole story of the development to a reasonable degree of perfection
+of the lighter-than-air machine. Other nations experimented
+somewhat, but in the main lagged behind these pioneers. Out of Spain
+indeed came a most efficient craft&mdash;the Astra-Torres, of which the
+British Government had the best example prior to the war, while both
+France and Russia placed large orders with the builders. How many
+finally went into service and what may have been their record are
+facts veiled in the secrecy of wartime. Belgium and Italy both
+produced dirigibles of distinctive character. The United States is
+alone at the present moment in having contributed nothing to the
+improvement of the dirigible balloon.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span> CHAPTER V<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIRPLANE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The story of the development of the heavier-than-air machine&mdash;which
+were called aëroplanes at first, but have been given the simpler
+name of airplanes&mdash;is far shorter than that of the balloons. It is
+really a record of achievement made since 1903 when the plane built
+by Professor Langley of the Smithsonian Institution came to utter
+disaster on the Potomac. In 1917, at the time of writing this book,
+there are probably thirty distinct types of airplanes being
+manufactured for commercial and military use, and not less than
+fifty thousand are being used daily over the battlefields of Europe.
+No invention save possibly the telephone and the automobile ever
+attained so prodigious a development in so brief a time. Wise
+observers hold that the demand for these machines is yet in its
+infancy, and that when the end of the war shall lead manufacturers
+and designers to turn their attention to the commercial value of the
+airplane the flying craft will be as common in the air as the
+automobiles at least on our country roads.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of flying like a bird with wings, the idea basicly
+underlying the airplane theory, is old enough&mdash;almost as old as the
+first conception of the balloon, before hydrogen gas was discovered.
+In an earlier <span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> chapter some account is given of early
+experiments with wings. No progress was made along this line until
+the hallucination that man could make any headway whatsoever against
+gravity by flapping artificial wings was definitely abandoned. There
+was more promise in the experiments made by Sir George Cayley, and
+he was followed in the first half of the nineteenth century by half
+a dozen British experimenters who were convinced that a series of
+planes, presenting a fixed angle to the breeze and driven against it
+by a sufficiently powerful motor, would develop a considerable
+lifting power. This was demonstrated by Henson, in 1842,
+Stringfellow, in 1847, Wenham, who arranged his planes like slats in
+a Venetian blind and first applied the modern term "aeroplane" to
+his invention, and Sir Hiram Maxim, who built in 1890 the most
+complicated and impressive looking 'plane the world has yet seen.
+But though each of these inventors proved the theorem that a
+heavier-than-air machine could be made to fly, all failed to get
+practical results because no motor had then been invented which
+combined the necessary lightness with the generation of the required
+power.</p>
+
+<p>In America we like to think of the brothers Wright as being the true
+inventors of the airplane. And indeed they did first bring it to the
+point of usefulness, and alone among the many pioneers lived to see
+the adoption of their device by many nations for serious practical
+use. But it would be unjust to claim for them entire priority in the
+field of the glider and the heavier-than-air machine. Professor
+Langley preceded them with an airplane which, dismissed with
+ridicule as a failure in his day, was long after his death equipped
+with a lighter motor and flown by Glenn Curtis, who declared
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> that the scientist had solved the problem, had only the
+explosive engine been perfected in his time.</p>
+
+<p>Despite, however, the early period of the successful experiments of
+the Wrights and Professor Langley, it would be unjust for America to
+arrogate to herself entire priority in airplane invention. Any story
+of that achievement which leaves out Lilienthal, the German, and
+Pilcher, the Englishman, is a record in which the truth is
+subordinated to national pride.</p>
+
+<a id="img024" name="img024"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img024.jpg" width="400" height="295" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Langley's Airplane.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Otto Lilienthal and his brother Gustav&mdash;the two like the Wrights
+were always associated in their aviation work&mdash;had been studying
+long the problem of flight when in 1889 they jointly published
+their book <i>Bird Flight as the Basis of the Flying Art</i>. Their
+investigations were wholly into the problem of flight without a
+motor. At the outset they even harked back <span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span> to the
+long-abandoned theory that man could raise himself by mere muscular
+effort, and Otto spent many hours suspended at the end of a rope
+flapping frantically a pair of wings before he abandoned this
+effort as futile. Convinced that the soaring or gliding of the birds
+was the feat to emulate, he made himself a pair of fixed, bat-like
+wings formed of a light fabric stretched over a willow frame. A tail
+composed of one vertical and one horizontal plane extended to the
+rear, and in the middle the aviator hung by his armpits, in an erect
+position. With this device he made some experimental glides, leaping
+from slight eminences. With his body, which swung at will from its
+cushioned supports, he could balance, and even steer the fabric
+which supported him, and accomplished long glides against the wind.
+Not infrequently, running into the teeth of the breeze down a gentle
+slope he would find himself gently wafted into the air and would
+make flights of as much as three hundred yards, steering to either
+side, or rising and falling at will. He was even able to make a
+circuitous flight and return to his starting place&mdash;a feat that was
+not accomplished with a motor-driven airplane until years later.
+Lilienthal achieved it with no mechanical aid, except the wings. He
+became passionately devoted to the art, made more than two thousand
+flights, and at the time of his death had just completed a
+motor-driven airplane, which he was never able to test. His earlier
+gliding wings he developed into a form of biplane, with which he
+made several successful flights, but met his death in 1896 by the
+collapse of this machine, of the bad condition of which he had been
+warned.</p>
+
+<a id="img025" name="img025"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img025.jpg" width="400" height="551" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© Kadel &amp; Herbert.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>French Airdrome near the Front.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lilienthal was more of a factor in the conquest of the air than his
+actual accomplishments would imply. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> His persistent
+experiments, his voluminous writings, and above all his friendly and
+intelligent interest in the work of other and younger men won him a
+host of disciples in other lands who took up the work that dropped
+from his lifeless hands.</p>
+
+<a id="img026" name="img026"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img026.jpg" width="400" height="150" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Lilienthal's Glider.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In England Percy S. Pilcher emulated the Lilienthal glides, and was
+at work on a motor-propelled machine when he was killed by the
+breakage of a seemingly unimportant part of his machine. He was on
+the edge of the greater success, not to that moment attained by
+anyone, of building a true airplane propelled by motor. Many
+historians think that to Lilienthal and Pilcher is justly due the
+title "the first flying men." But Le Bris, a French sailor, utterly
+without scientific or technical equipment, as far back as 1854 had
+accomplished a wonderful feat in that line. While on a cruise he had
+watched an albatross that followed his ship day after day apparently
+without rest and equally without fatigue. His imagination was fired
+by the spectacle and probably having never heard of the punishment
+that befell the Ancient Mariner, he shot the albatross. "I took the
+wing," he wrote later, "and exposed it to the breeze, and lo, in
+spite of me, it drew <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span> forward into the wind; notwithstanding
+my resistance it tended to rise. Thus I had discovered the secret
+of the bird. I comprehend the whole mystery of flight."</p>
+
+<p>A trifle too sanguine was sailor Le Bris, but he had just the
+qualities of imagination and confidence essential to one who sets
+forth to conquer the air. Had he possessed the accurate mind, the
+patience, and the pertinacity of the Wrights he might have beaten
+them by half a century. As it was he accomplished a remarkable feat,
+though it ended in somewhat laughable failure. He built an
+artificial bird, on the general plan of his albatross. The wings
+were not to flap, but their angles to the wind were controlled by a
+system of levers controlled by Le Bris, who stood up in the basket
+in the centre. To rise he required something like the flying start
+which the airplanes of to-day get on their bicycle wheels before
+leaving the ground. As Le Bris had no motor this method of
+propulsion was denied him, so he loaded the apparatus in a cart, and
+fastened it to the rail by a rope knotted in a slip knot which a
+jerk from him would release. As they started men walked beside the
+cart holding the wings, which extended for twenty-five feet on
+either side. As the horses speeded up these assistants released
+their hold. Feeling the car try to rise under his feet Le Bris cast
+off the rope, tilted the front end of the machine, and to his joy
+began to rise steadily into the air. The spectators below cheered
+madly, but a note of alarm mingled with their cheers, and the
+untried aviator noticed a strange and inexplicable jerking of his
+machine. Peering down he discovered, to his amaze, a man kicking and
+crying aloud in deadly fear. It was evident that the rope he had
+detached from the cart <span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> had caught up the driver, who had
+thus become, to his intense dismay, a partner in the inventor's
+triumph. Indeed it is most possible that he contributed to that
+triumph for the ease and steadiness with which the machine rose to
+a height estimated at three hundred feet suggests that he may have
+furnished needed ballast&mdash;acted in fact as the tail to the kite.
+Humanity naturally impelled Le Bris to descend at once, which he did
+skilfully without injuring his involuntary passenger, and only
+slightly breaking one of the wings.</p>
+
+<a id="img027" name="img027"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img027.jpg" width="600" height="208" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A German War Zeppelin.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Had Le Bris won this success twenty years later his fame and fortune
+would have been secure. But in 1854 the time was not ripe for
+aeronautics. Le Bris was poor. The public responded but grudgingly
+to his appeals for aid. His next experiment was less
+successful&mdash;perhaps for lack of the carter&mdash;and he ultimately
+disappeared from aviation to become an excellent soldier of France.</p>
+
+<a id="img028" name="img028"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img028.jpg" width="600" height="418" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Perhaps had they not met with early and violent deaths, the
+Lilienthals and Pilcher might have carried their experiments in the
+art of gliding into the broader domain of power flight. This however
+was left to the two Americans, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who have
+done more to advance the art of navigating the air than all the
+other experimenters whose names we have used. The story of the
+Wright brothers is one of boyhood interest gradually developed into
+the passion of a lifetime. It parallels to some degree the story of
+Santos-Dumont who insisting as a child that "man flies" finally made
+it a fact. The interest of the Wrights was first stimulated when, in
+1878, their father brought home a small toy, called a "helicopter,"
+which when tossed in the air rose up instead of falling. Every child
+had them at that time, but curiously this one was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> like the
+seed which fell upon fertile soil. The boys went mad, as boys will,
+on the subject of flying. But unlike most boys they nurtured and
+cultivated the passion and it stayed with them to manhood. From
+helicopters they passed to kites, and from kites to gliders. By
+calling they were makers and repairers of bicycles, but their spare
+time was for years devoted to solving the problem of flight. In time
+it became their sole occupation and by it they won a fortune and
+world-wide fame. Their story forms a remarkable testimony to the
+part of imagination, pertinacity, and courage in winning success.
+After years of tests with models, and with kites controlled from the
+ground, the brothers had worked out a type of glider which they
+believed, in a wind of from eighteen to twenty miles an hour, would
+lift and carry a man. But they had to find a testing ground. The
+fields near their home in Ohio were too level, and their firm
+unyielding surface was not attractive as a cushion on which to light
+in the event of disaster. Moreover the people round about were
+getting inquisitive about these grown men "fooling around" with
+kites and flying toys. To the last the Wrights were noted for their
+dislike of publicity, and it is entirely probable that the sneering
+criticisms of their "level headed" and "practical" neighbours had a
+good deal to do with rooting them in this distaste.</p>
+
+<p>Low steep hills down the sides of which they could run and at the
+proper moment throw themselves upon their glider; a sandy soil which
+would at least lessen the shock of a tumble; and a vicinage in which
+winds of eighteen miles an hour or more is the normal atmospheric
+state were the conditions they sought. These they found at a little
+hamlet called Kitty-Hawk on the coast of North Carolina. There for
+uncounted centuries <span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> the tossing Atlantic had been throwing
+up its snowy sand upon the shore, and the steady wind had caught it
+up, piled it in windrows, rolled it up into towering hills, or
+carried it over into the dunes which extended far inland. It was a
+lonely spot, and there secure from observation the Wrights pitched
+their camp. For them it was a midsummer's holiday. Not at first did
+they decide to make aviation not a sport but a profession. To their
+camp came visitors interested in the same study, among them Chanute,
+a well-known experimenter, and some of his associates. They had
+thought to give hours at a time to actual flight. When they closed
+their first season, they found that all their time spent in actual
+flight footed up less than an hour. Lilienthal, despite all he
+accomplished, estimated that he, up to a short time before his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span> death, spent only about five hours actually in the air. In
+that early day of experimentation a glide covering one hundred feet,
+and consuming eight or ten seconds, was counted a triumph.</p>
+
+<a id="img029" name="img029"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img029.jpg" width="400" height="316" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Chanute's Glider.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the season was by no means wasted. Indeed such was the estimate
+that the Wrights put upon it that they folded their tents determined
+that when they returned the year following it would be as
+professionals, not amateurs. They were confident of their ability to
+build machines that would fly, though up to that time they had never
+mounted a motor on their aircraft.</p>
+
+<p>In the clear hot air of a North Carolina midsummer the Wrights used
+to lie on their backs studying through glasses the methods of flight
+of the great buzzards&mdash;filthy scavenger birds which none the less
+soaring high aloft against a blue sky are pictures of dignity and
+grace.</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     Bald eagles, ospreys, hawks, and buzzards give us daily
+     exhibitions of their powers [wrote Wilbur Wright]. The buzzards
+     were the most numerous, and were the most persistent soarers.
+     They apparently never flapped except when it was absolutely
+     necessary, while the eagles and hawks usually soared only when
+     they were at leisure. Two methods of soaring were employed. When
+     the weather was cold and damp and the wind strong the buzzards
+     would be seen soaring back and forth along the hills or at the
+     edge of a clump of trees. They were evidently taking advantage of
+     the current of air flowing upward over these obstructions. On
+     such days they were often utterly unable to soar, except in these
+     special places. But on warm clear days when the wind was light
+     they would be seen high in the air soaring in great circles.
+     Usually, however, it seemed to be necessary to reach a height of
+     several hundred feet by flapping before this style of soaring
+     became possible. Frequently a great number of them would begin
+     circling in one spot, rising together higher and higher till
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> finally they would disperse, each gliding off in
+     whatever direction it wished to go. At such times other buzzards
+     only a short distance away found it necessary to flap frequently
+     in order to maintain themselves. But when they reached a point
+     beneath the circling flock they began to rise on motionless
+     wings. This seemed to indicate that rising columns of air do not
+     exist everywhere, but that the birds must find them. They
+     evidently watch each other and when one finds a rising current
+     the others quickly make their way to it. One day when scarce a
+     breath of wind was stirring on the ground we noticed two bald
+     eagles sailing in circling sweeps at a height of probably five
+     hundred feet. After a time our attention was attracted to the
+     flashing of some object considerably lower down. Examination with
+     a field-glass proved it to be a feather which one of the birds
+     had evidently cast. As it seemed apparent that it would come to
+     earth only a short distance away, some of our party started to
+     get it. But in a little while it was noted that the feather was
+     no longer falling, but on the contrary was rising rapidly. It
+     finally went out of sight upward. It apparently was drawn into
+     the same current in which the eagles were soaring and was carried
+     up like the birds.</p>
+
+<p>It was by such painstaking methods as these, coupled with the
+mathematical reduction of the fruits of such observations to terms
+of angles and supporting planes, that the Wrights gradually
+perfected their machine. The first airplane to which they fitted a
+motor and which actually flew has been widely exhibited in the
+United States, and is to find final repose in some public museum.
+Study it as you will you can find little resemblance in those
+rectangular rigid planes to the wings of a bird. But it was built
+according to deductions drawn from natural flight.</p>
+
+<a id="img030" name="img030"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img030.jpg" width="600" height="421" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Paul Thompson.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A German Taube Pursued by British Planes.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The method of progress in these preliminary experiments <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span>
+was, by repeated tests, to determine what form of airplane, and of
+what proportions, would best support a man. It was evident that for
+free and continuous flight it must be able to carry not only the
+pilot, but an engine and a store of fuel as well. Having, as they
+thought, determined these conditions the Wrights essayed their first
+flight at their home near Dayton, Ohio. It was a cold December day
+in 1903. The first flight, with motor and all, lasted twelve
+seconds; the fourth fifty-nine seconds. The handful of people who
+came out to witness the marvel went home jeering. In the spring of
+the next year a new flight was announced near Dayton. The newspapers
+had been asked to send reporters. A crowd of perhaps fifty persons
+had gathered. Again fate was hostile. The engine worked badly and
+the airplane refused to rise. The crowd dispersed and the
+newspapermen, returning the next day, met only with another
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<a id="img031" name="img031"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img031.jpg" width="400" height="197" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">The First Wright Glider.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These repeated failures in public exhibitions resulted in creating
+general indifference to the real progress <span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> that the Wrights
+were making in solving the flight problem. While the gliding
+experiments at Kitty-Hawk were furnishing the data for the plans on
+which the tens of thousands of airplanes used in the European war
+were afterwards built, no American newspaper was sufficiently
+interested to send representatives to the spot. The people of the
+United States were supremely indifferent. Perhaps this was due to
+the fact that superficially regarded the machine the Wrights were
+trying to perfect gave promise of usefulness only in war or in
+sport. We are not either a warlike or a sporting people. Ready
+enough to adopt a new device which seems adapted for utilitarian
+purposes, as is shown by the rapid multiplication of automobiles, we
+leave sport to our professional ball players, and our military
+equipment to luck.</p>
+
+<a id="img032" name="img032"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img032.jpg" width="400" height="241" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Pilcher's Glider.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>So after continued experimental flights in the open fields near
+Dayton had convinced them that the practical weaknesses in their
+machine had been eliminated, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span> the Wrights packed up their
+flyer and went to France. Before so doing they tried to get
+encouragement from the United States Government, but failed. Neither
+the government nor any rich American was willing to share the cost
+of further experiments. All that had been done was at their own
+cost, both in time and money. In France, whither they went in 1908,
+they had no coldness to complain of. It was then the golden day of
+aviation in the land which always afforded to the Knights of the Air
+their warmest welcome and their most liberal support. Two years had
+elapsed since Santos-Dumont, turning from dirigibles to 'planes, had
+made a flight of 238 yards. This the Wrights had at the time
+excelled at home but without attracting attention. France on the
+contrary went mad with enthusiasm, and claimed for the Brazilian the
+honour of first demonstrating the possibility of flight in a
+heavier-than-air machine. England, like the United States, was cold,
+clinging to the balloon long after all other nations had abandoned
+it. But France welcomed the Wrights with enthusiasm. They found
+rivals a-plenty in their field of effort. Santos-Dumont, Bleriot,
+Farman, Latham were all flying with airplanes, but with models
+radically different from that of the American brothers. Nevertheless
+the latter made an instant success.</p>
+
+<a id="img033" name="img033"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img033.jpg" width="600" height="410" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes at the
+Opening of the War.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>The French Army had at least 500 aëroplanes. England had about 250
+aëroplanes of all types Russia had 50 aëroplanes&mdash;Austria had at
+least 50 aëroplanes Germany is about the equal of France, having 500
+flyers.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>From the moment they found that they had hit upon the secret of
+raising, supporting, and propelling an airplane, the Wrights made of
+their profession a matter of cold business. In many ways this was
+the best contribution they could possibly have made to the science
+of aviation, though their keen eye to the main chance did bring down
+on them a certain amount of ridicule. Europe laughed long at the
+<i>sang-froid</i> with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> which Wilbur Wright, having won the
+Michelin prize of eight hundred pounds, gave no heed to the applause
+which the assembled throng gave him as the money was transferred to
+him with a neat presentation speech. Without a word he divided the
+notes into two packets, handed one to his brother Orville, and
+thrust the other into his own pocket. For the glory which attended
+his achievement he cared nothing. It was all in the day's work.
+Later in the course of trials of a machine for the United States
+Government at Fort Myer, just across the Potomac from Washington,
+the Wrights seriously offended a certain sort of public sentiment in
+a way which undoubtedly set back the encouragement of aviation by
+the United States Government very seriously.</p>
+
+<a id="img034" name="img034"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img034.jpg" width="600" height="409" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Dirigibles at the
+Opening of the War.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>France must be credited with at least eighteen airships of various
+types&mdash;England had only seven&mdash;Russia had probably not more than
+three airships available&mdash;Belgium had one airship Austria had not
+less than three, not more than five airships available&mdash;Germany had
+twenty three airships of the rigid, semi-rigid, and non-rigid
+type.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1909, they had received a contract from the government for a
+machine for the use of the Signal Service. The price was fixed at
+$25,000, but a bonus of $2500 was to be paid for every mile above
+forty miles an hour made by the machine on its trial trip. That
+bonus looked big to the Wrights, but it cost the cause of aviation
+many times its face value in the congressional disfavour it caused.
+Aviation was then in its infancy in the United States. Every man in
+Congress wanted to see the flights. But Fort Myer, whose parade was
+to be the testing ground, was fully fourteen miles from the Capitol,
+and reached only most inconveniently from Washington by trolley, or
+most expensively by carriage or automobile. Day after day members of
+the House and Senate made the long journey across the Potomac. Time
+and again they journeyed back without even a sight of the flyer in
+the hangar. One after another little flaws discovered in the machine
+led the aviators to postpone their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span> flight. Investigating
+statesmen who thought that their position justified them in seeking
+special privileges were brusquely turned away by the military
+guard. The dusk of many a summer's night saw thousands of
+disappointed sightseers tramping the long road back to Washington.
+The climax came when on a clear but breezy day Wilbur Wright
+announced that the machine was in perfect condition and could meet
+its tests readily, but that in order to win a bigger bonus, he would
+postpone the flight for a day with less wind. All over Washington
+the threat was heard that night that Congress would vote no more
+money for aviation, and whether or not the incident was the cause,
+the sequence was that the American Congress was, until the menace of
+war with Germany in 1916, the most niggardly of all legislative
+bodies in its treatment of the flying corps. When the Wrights did
+finally fly they made a triumphant flight before twelve thousand
+spectators. The test involved crossing the Potomac, going down its
+north side to Alexandria, and then back to Fort Myer. Ringing cheers
+and the crashing strains of the military band greeted the return of
+the aviator, but oblivious to the enthusiasm Wilbur Wright stood
+beside his machine with pencil and pad computing his bonus. It
+figured up to five thousand dollars, and the reporters chronicled
+that the Wrights knew well the difference between solid coin and the
+bubble of reputation.</p>
+
+<a id="img035" name="img035"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img035.jpg" width="400" height="229" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Wright Glider.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But this seemingly cold indifference to fame and single-minded
+concentration on the business of flying on the part of the Wrights
+was in fact of the utmost value to aviation as an art and a science.
+They were pioneers and successful ones. Their example was heeded by
+others in the business. In every way they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> sought to
+discourage that wild reaching after public favour and notoriety that
+led aviators to attempt reckless feats, and often sacrifice their
+lives in a foolish effort to astonish an audience. No one ever heard
+of either of the Wright brothers "looping-the-loop," doing a "demon
+glide," or in any other fashion reducing the profession of aviation
+to the level of a circus. In a time when brave and skilful aviators,
+with a mistaken idea of the ethics of their calling, were appealing
+to sensation lovers by the practice of dare-devil feats, the Wrights
+with admirable common sense and dignity stood sturdily against any
+such degradation of the aviator's art. In this position they were
+joined by Glenn Curtis, and the influence of the three was beginning
+to be shown in the reduced number of lives sacrificed in these
+follies when the Great War broke upon the world and gave to aviation
+its greatest opportunity. The world will hope nevertheless that
+after that war shall end the effort to adapt the airplane to the
+ends of peace will be no less earnest and persistent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span> than
+have been the methods by which it has been made a most serviceable
+auxiliary of war.</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1915, <i>Collier's Weekly</i> published an interview with
+Orville Wright in which that man, ordinarily of few words, set up
+some interesting theories upon the future of airplanes.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>"The greatest use of the airplane to date," said Mr. Wright, "has
+     been as a tremendously big factor of modern warfare. But&mdash;</p>
+
+     <p>"The greatest use of the airplane eventually will be to prevent
+     war.</p>
+
+     <p>"Some day there will be neither war nor rumours of war, and the
+     reason may be flying machines.</p>
+
+     <p>"It sounds paradoxical. We are building airplanes to use in time
+     of war, and will continue to build them for war. We think of war
+     and we think of airplanes. Later on, perhaps, we shall think of
+     airplanes in connection with the wisdom of keeping out of war.</p>
+
+     <p>"The airplane will prevent war by making it too expensive, too
+     slow, too difficult, too long drawn out&mdash;in brief, by making the
+     cost prohibitive.</p>
+
+     <p>"Did you ever stop to think," inquires Wright, "that there is a
+     very definite reason why the present war in Europe has dragged
+     along for a year with neither side gaining much advantage over
+     the other? The reason as I figure it out is airplanes. In
+     consequence of the scouting work done by the flying machines each
+     side knows exactly what the opposing forces are doing.</p>
+
+     <p>"There is little chance for one army to take another by surprise.
+     Napoleon won his wars by massing his troops at unexpected
+     places. The airplane has made that impossible. It has equalized
+     information. Each side has such complete knowledge of the other's
+     movements that both sides are obliged to crawl into trenches and
+     fight by means of slow, tedious routine, rather than by quick,
+     spectacular dashes.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span> "My impression is that before the present war started
+     the army experts expected it to be a matter of a few weeks, or at
+     the most, a few months. To-day it looks as if it might run into
+     years before one side can dictate terms. Now, a nation that may
+     be willing to undertake a war lasting a few months may well
+     hesitate about engaging in one that will occupy years. The daily
+     cost of a great war is of course stupendous. When this cost runs
+     on for years the total is likely to be so great that the side
+     which wins nevertheless loses. War will become prohibitively
+     expensive. The scouting work in flying machines will be the
+     predominating factor, as it seems to me, in bringing this about.
+     I like to think so anyhow."</p>
+
+     <p>"What, in your opinion, has the present war demonstrated
+     regarding the relative advantages of airplanes and Zeppelin
+     airships?" the inventor was asked.</p>
+
+     <p>"The airplane seems to have been of the more practical use,"
+     replied Wright. "In the first place, dirigible airships of the
+     Zeppelin type are so expensive to build, costing somewhere around
+     a half million dollars each, that it is distinctly
+     disadvantageous to the nation operating them to have one
+     destroyed. But what is more important is the fact that the
+     Zeppelin is so large that it furnishes an excellent target,
+     unless it sails considerably higher than is comparatively safe
+     for an airplane. And when the Zeppelin is at a safe height it is
+     too far above the ground for your scout to make accurate
+     observations. Similarly, when the Zeppelin is used for dropping
+     bombs, it must be too high for the bomb thrower to show much
+     accuracy."</p>
+
+     <p>"You think that the use of flying machines for scouting purposes
+     will be of considerably more importance than their use as a means
+     of attack?" was another question.</p>
+
+     <p>"That has been decidedly true so far," replied Wright. "About
+     all that has been accomplished by either side from bomb dropping
+     has been to kill a few non-combatants and that will have no
+     bearing on the result of the war.</p>
+
+<a id="img036" name="img036"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img036.jpg" width="600" height="433" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Pilot Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>At a French Airplane Base.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>"English newspapers have long talked of the danger of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span>
+     Zeppelin attacks or airplane attacks, but it was all for a
+     purpose, because they did not believe the country was
+     sufficiently prepared for war and sought to arouse the people and
+     the War Department to action by means of the airship bogy. [Later
+     history showed Mr. Wright sadly in error on this point.]</p>
+
+     <p>"Aside from the use of the machines for war purposes the war will
+     give a great boost to aviation generally. It has led more men to
+     learn to fly, and with a higher degree of skill than ever before.
+     It has awakened people to aviation possibilities.</p>
+
+<a id="img037" name="img037"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img037.jpg" width="400" height="178" alt="" title="">
+<p class="smcap">Stringfellow's Airplane.</p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>"Just like the automobile, it will become more and more
+     fool-proof, easier to handle and safer. There is no reason why it
+     should not take the place of special trains where there is urgent
+     need of great speed.</p>
+
+     <p>"The airplane has never really come into its own as a sporting
+     proposition. Of late years the tendency has been to develop a
+     high rate of speed rather than to build machines that may be
+     operated safely at a comparatively low speed. You see, a machine
+     adapted to make from seventy to one hundred miles an hour cannot
+     run at all except at a pretty rapid clip, and this means
+     difficulty in getting down. One must have a good, smooth piece of
+     ground to land on and plenty of it. When we get an airplane that
+     will fly along <span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> at twenty miles an hour, one can land
+     almost any place,&mdash;on a roof, if necessary,&mdash;and then people will
+     begin to take an interest in owning an airplane for the enjoyment
+     of flying."</p>
+
+     <p>"Is it true that you and your brother had a compact not to fly
+     together?"</p>
+
+     <p>"Yes, we felt that until the records of our work could be made
+     complete it was a wise precaution not to take a chance on both of
+     us getting killed at the same time. We never flew together but
+     once. From 1900 to 1908 the total time in the air for both Wilbur
+     and myself, all put together, was only about four hours."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright's statement of the brevity of the time spent in actual
+flying in order to learn the art will astonish many people. Few
+novices would be so rash as to undertake to steer an automobile
+alone after only four hours' practice, and despite the fact that
+the aviator always has plenty of space to himself the airplane can
+hardly yet be regarded as simple a machine to handle as the
+automobile. Nevertheless the ease with which the method of its
+actual manipulation is acquired is surprising. More work is done in
+the classroom and on the ground to make the fighting pilot than in
+the air. As we have traced the development of both dirigible and
+airplane from the first nascent germ of their creation to the point
+at which they were sufficiently developed to play a large part in
+the greatest of all wars, let us now consider how hosts of young
+men, boys in truth, were trained to fly like eagles and to give
+battle in mid-air to foes no less well trained and desperate than
+they.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> CHAPTER VI<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE TRAINING OF THE AVIATOR</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Great War, opening in Europe in 1914 and before its end
+involving practically the whole world, including our own nation, has
+had more to do with the rapid development of aircraft, both
+dirigible balloons and airplanes, than any other agency up to the
+present time. It tested widely and discarded all but the most
+efficient. It established the relative value of the dirigible and
+the airplane, so relegating the former to the rear that it is said
+that the death of Count Zeppelin, March 8, 1917, was in a measure
+due to his chagrin and disappointment. It stimulated at once the
+inventiveness of the constructors and the skill and daring of the
+pilots. When it opened there were a few thousand machines and
+trained pilots in all the armies of Europe. Before the war had been
+in progress three years there were more flying men over the
+battlefields of the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, than
+there were at that time soldiers of all classes enlisted in the
+regular army of the United States. Before that war the three arms of
+the armed service had been infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The
+experience of war added a new arm&mdash;the aviation corps&mdash;and there is
+to-day some doubt whether in importance it should not be ranked
+above the cavalry.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span>
+
+<a id="img038" name="img038"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img038.jpg" width="600" height="339" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>"America"&mdash;Built to Cross the Atlantic Ocean.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When war was declared none of the belligerent nations had its aërial
+fleet properly organized, nor was the aviation department in any of
+them equal in preparedness to the rest of the army. The two great
+antagonists did not differ greatly in the strength of their flying
+forces. Germany possessed about 1000 airplanes, exclusive of about
+450 in private hands, of all which it is estimated about 700 were
+ready for immediate service. Fourteen Zeppelins were in commission,
+and other large dirigibles of different types brought the number of
+the craft of this sort available up to forty.</p>
+
+<a id="img039" name="img039"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img039.jpg" width="600" height="433" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>Wright Airplane in Flight.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>France was stronger in airplanes but weaker in dirigibles. Of the
+former she had about 1500; of the latter not more than twenty-five.
+The land was swept for planes in the hands of private owners and, as
+the French people had from the first taken a lively interest in
+aviation, more than 500 were thus obtained. The French furthermore
+at the very outset imperilled their immediate strength in the air
+for the sake of the future by adopting four or five machines as army
+types and throwing out all of other makes. More than 550 machines
+were thus discarded, and their services lost during the first weeks
+of the war. The reason for this action was the determination of the
+French to equip their aviation corps with standardized machines of a
+few types only. Thus interchangeable parts could always be kept in
+readiness in case of an emergency, and the aviation corps was
+obliged to familiarize itself with the workings of only a few
+machines. The objection to the system is the fact that it
+practically stopped all development of any machines in France except
+the favoured few. Moreover it threw out of the service at a stroke,
+or remanded <span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span> for further instruction, not less than four
+hundred pilots who had been trained on the rejected machines. The
+order was received with great public dissatisfaction, and for a time
+threatened serious trouble in the Chamber of Deputies where
+criticisms of the direction of the flying service even menaced the
+continuance of the ministry in power.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset of the war Great Britain lagged far behind the other
+chief belligerents in the extent of her preparations for war in the
+air. As has been pointed out the people of that nation had never
+taken the general interest in aviation which was manifested in
+France, and there was no persistent Count von Zeppelin to stir
+government and citizens into action. The situation was rather
+anomalous. Protected from invasion by its ring of surrounding
+waters, England had long concentrated its defensive efforts upon its
+navy. But while the danger of invasion by the air was second only to
+that by sea the British contemplated with indifference the feverish
+building of Zeppelins by Germany, and the multiplication of aircraft
+of every sort in all the nations of the continent. The manufacture
+of aircraft was left to private builders, and not until the war was
+well under way did the government undertake its systematic
+supervision. The Royal Aërial Factory, then established, became the
+chief manufacturer of machines for army and navy use, and acted also
+as the agent for the inspection and testing of machines built by
+private firms. Control of the Royal Flying Corps is vested in the
+Admiralty, the government holding that the strategy of airships was
+distinctly naval.</p>
+
+<p>In the use of seaplanes the British were early far in the lead of
+other nations, as we shall see in a later chapter. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span> And in
+the prompt and efficient employment of such aircraft as she
+possessed at the opening of the war she far outclassed Germany which
+in point of numbers was her superior. At that moment Great Britain
+possessed about five hundred machines, of which two hundred were
+seaplanes, and fifteen dirigibles. Despite this puny force, however,
+British aviators flew across the channel in such numbers to the
+headquarters in France that when the Expeditionary Army arrived on
+the scene it found ready to its hand a scouting force vastly
+superior to anything the Germans could put in the air. It is no
+exaggeration to say that the Royal Flying Corps saved Sir John
+French's army in his long and gallant fight against the overwhelming
+numbers of the foe.</p>
+
+<p>Russia before the war had hidden her aeronautic activities behind
+the dreary curtain of miles of steppe and marsh that shut her off
+from the watchfulness of Western Europe. Professional aviators,
+indeed, had gone thither to make exhibition flights for enormous
+purses and had brought back word of huge airplanes in course of
+construction and an eager public interest in the subject of flying.
+But the secrecy which all the governments so soon to be plunged in
+war sought to throw about their production of aircraft was
+especially easy for Russia in her isolation. When the storm burst
+her air fleet was not less than eight hundred airplanes, and at
+least twenty-five dirigibles.</p>
+
+<p>A competent authority estimates that at the outbreak of the war the
+various Powers possessed a total of 4980 aircraft of all sorts. This
+sounds like a colossal fleet, but by 1917 it was probably multiplied
+more than tenfold. Of the increase of aircraft we can judge only by
+guesswork. The belligerents keep their output <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> an inviolable
+secret. It was known that many factories with a capacity of from
+thirty to fifty 'planes a week were working in the chief belligerent
+lands, that the United States was shipping aircraft in parts to
+avoid violation of neutrality laws before their entrance upon the
+war, and that American capital operated factories in Canada whence
+the completed craft could be shipped regardless of such laws. How
+great was the loss to be offset against this new construction is a
+subject on which no authoritative figures are available.</p>
+
+<p>It was estimated early in the war that the life of an airplane in
+active service seldom exceeded three weeks. In passing it may be
+mentioned that by some misapprehension on the part of the public,
+this estimate of the duration of a machine was thought to cover also
+the average life of the aviators in service. Happily this was far
+from true. The mortality among the machines was not altogether due
+to wounds sustained in combat, but largely to general wear and tear,
+rough usage, and constant service. The slightest sign of weakness in
+a machine led to its instant condemnation and destruction, for if it
+should develop in mid-air into a serious fault it might cost the
+life of the aviator and even a serious disaster to the army which he
+was serving. As the war went on the period of service of a machine
+became even briefer, for with the growing demand for faster and more
+quickly controllable machines everything was sacrificed to lightness
+and speed. The factor of safety which early in the war was six to
+eight was reduced to three and a half, and instances were known in
+all services of machines simply collapsing and going to pieces under
+their own weight without wound or shock.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> About the extent to which the belligerent governments
+developed their air forces after the outbreak of war there was
+during the continuance of that conflict great reticence maintained
+by all of them. At the outset there was little employment of the
+flyers except on scouting reconnaissance work, or in directing
+artillery fire. The raids of Zeppelins upon England, of seaplanes on
+Kiel and Cuxhaven, of airplanes on Friedrichshaven, Essen, and
+Venice came later. It has been noted by military authorities that,
+while Germany was provided at first with the largest aviation force
+of all the belligerents, she either underestimated its value at the
+outset, or did not know how to employ it, for she blundered into and
+through Belgium using her traditional Uhlans for scouts, to the
+virtual exclusion of airmen. The effectiveness of the Belgian fight
+for delay is ascribed largely to the intelligent and effective use
+its strategists made of the few aircraft they possessed.</p>
+
+<p>Wellington was wont to say that the thing he yearned for most in
+battle was to "see the other side of that hill."</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon wrote:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     Nothing is more contradictory, nothing more bewildering than the
+     multitude of reports of spies, or of officers sent out to
+     reconnoitre. Some locate army corps where they have seen only
+     detachments; others see only detachments where they ought to have
+     seen army corps.</p>
+
+<a id="img040" name="img040"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img040.jpg" width="600" height="432" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Lafayette Escadrille&mdash;First Americans to Fly in France.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller">(<i>Lufbery on left, Thaw on right.</i>)</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>So the two great protagonists of the opening years of the nineteenth
+century deplored their military blindness. In the opening years of
+the twentieth it was healed. All that Wellington strove to see, all
+that the cavalry failed to find for Napoleon is to-day brought
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> to headquarters by airmen, neatly set forth in maps,
+supported by photographs of the enemy's positions taken from the
+sky.</p>
+
+<p>Before describing the exploits of the airmen in actual campaign let
+us consider some account of how they were trained for their arduous
+and novel duties.</p>
+
+<p>To the non-professional an amazing thing about the employment of
+aircraft in war has been the rapidity with which pilots are trained.
+The average layman would think that to learn the art of
+man&oelig;uvring an airplane with such swiftness as to evade the
+attacks of an enemy, and to detect precisely the proper moment and
+method of attacking him in turn, would require long and arduous
+practice in the air. But as we have seen in earlier chapters,
+inventors like the Wrights, Bleriot, and Farman learned to fly with
+but a few hours spent in the air, with flights lasting less than ten
+minutes each. So too the army aviators spent but little time aloft,
+though their course of instruction covered in all a period of about
+four months.</p>
+
+<p>Some account of the method of instruction as reported by several out
+of the hundred or more American boys who went to fly for France may
+be interesting.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule the aviators were from twenty to twenty-five years of age.
+"Below twenty boys are too rash; above twenty-five they are too
+prudent," said a sententious French aviator. A slight knowledge of
+motors such as would be obtained from familiarity with automobiles
+was a marked advantage at the start, for the first task of the
+novice was to make himself familiar with every type of airplane
+engine. The army pilot in all the armies was the aristocrat of the
+service. Mechanics kept his motor in shape, and helpers housed,
+cleaned, and brought forth his machine for action. But while
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span> all but the actual piloting and fighting was spared him,
+there was always the possibility of his making an untimely landing
+back of the enemy's lines with an engine that would not work. To
+prepare for such an emergency he was taught all the intricacies of
+motor construction, so that he might speedily correct any minor
+fault.</p>
+
+<p>In our army, and indeed in all others, applicants for appointment to
+the aviation corps were subjected to scientific tests of their
+nerves, and their mental and physical alertness. How they would
+react to the sudden explosion of a shell near their ears, how long
+it took the candidate to respond to a sudden call for action, how
+swiftly he reacted to a sensation of touch were all tested and
+measured by delicate electric apparatus. A standard was fixed,
+failing to attain which, the applicant was rejected. The practical
+effect might be to determine how long after suddenly discovering a
+masked machine gun a given candidate would take before taking the
+action necessary to avoid its fire. Or how quickly would he pull the
+lever necessary to guard against a sudden gust of wind. To the
+layman it would appear that problems of this sort could only be
+solved in the presence of the actual attack, but science, which
+enables artillerists to destroy a little village beyond the hills
+which they never see, was able to devise instruments to answer these
+questions in the quiet of the laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>One of the best known flying schools of the French army was at Pau,
+where on broad level plains were, in 1917, four separate camps for
+aviators, each with its group of hangars for the machines, its
+repair shops, and with a tall wireless tower upstanding in the midst
+for the daily war news from Paris. On these plains the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span>
+Wright Brothers had made some of their earliest French flights. A
+little red barn which they had made their workshop was still
+standing there when war suddenly turned the spot into a flying
+school often with as many as five thousand pupils in attendance.
+"To-day that little red barn," writes Carroll Dana Winslow, one of
+the Americans who went to fly for France, "stands as a monument to
+American stupidity, for when we allowed the Wrights to go abroad to
+perfect their ideas instead of aiding them to carry on their work at
+home we lost a golden opportunity. Now the United States which gave
+to the world the first practical airplane is the least advanced in
+this all-important science."</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the school the tyro studies the fundamentals of flying in
+the classroom and on the field for two months before he is allowed
+to go up&mdash;to receive as they express it, his <i>baptême de l'air</i>. He
+picks motors to pieces, and puts them together, he learns the
+principles of airplane construction, and can discourse on such
+topics as the angle of attack of the cellule, the incidence of the
+wings, and the carrying power of the tail-plane. More than any other
+science aviation has a vocabulary of its own, and a peculiarly
+cosmopolitan one drawn from all tongues, but with the French
+predominating. America gave the airplane to France, but France has
+given the science its terminology.</p>
+
+<p>The maps of the battlefields of this war are the marvels of military
+science. Made from the air they show every road and watercourse,
+every ditch and gully, every patch of woodland, every farmhouse,
+church, or stonewall. Much of the early work of the aviator is in
+learning to make such maps, both by sketches and by the employment
+of the camera. It is no easy <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span> task. From an airplane one
+thousand feet up the earth seems to be all a dead level. Slight
+hills, gentle elevations, offer no contrast to the general plain. A
+road is not easy to tell from a trench. All these things the
+aviator must first learn to see with accuracy, and then to depict
+on his map with precision. He must learn furthermore to read the
+maps of his fellows&mdash;a task presupposing some knowledge of how they
+had been made. He must learn to fly by a map, to recognize objects
+by the technical signs upon it, to estimate his drift before the
+wind because of which the machine moves sidewise <i>en crabe</i>&mdash;or like
+a crab as the French phrase it.</p>
+
+<p>His first flight the novice makes in a machine especially fitted for
+instruction. The levers are fitted with double handles so that both
+learner and tutor may hold them at once. If the greenhorn pushes
+when he should pull the veteran's grip is hard on the handle to
+correct the error before it can cost two lives&mdash;for in the air there
+is little time to experiment. Either set of controls will steer the
+machine. The pupil grasps his levers, and puts his feet on the
+pedals. At first the instructor will do the steering, the pupil
+following with hands and feet as the motions made by the instructor
+are communicated to him by the moving levers. For a time the two
+work together. Then as the instructor senses that the student
+himself is doing the right thing he gradually lessens his own
+activity, until after a few days' practice the student finds that he
+is flying with a passenger and directing the machine himself. In
+France, at any rate, they teach in brief lessons. Each flight for
+instruction is limited to about five minutes. At first the student
+operates in a "penguin"&mdash;a machine which will run swiftly along the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> ground but cannot rise. It is no easy trick at first, to
+control the "penguin" and keep its course direct. Then he will try
+the "jumps" in a machine that leaps into the air and descends
+automatically after a twenty to forty yards' flight. As Darius Green
+expressed it so long ago, the trouble about flying comes when you
+want to alight. That holds as true to-day with the most perfect
+airplanes, as in boyhood days when one jumped from the barn in
+perfect confidence that the family umbrella would serve as a
+parachute. To alight with an airplane the pilot&mdash;supposing his
+descent to be voluntary and not compelled by accident or
+otherwise&mdash;surveys the country about him for a level field, big and
+clear enough for the machine to run off its momentum in a run of
+perhaps two hundred yards on its wheels. Then he gets up a good
+rate of speed, points the nose of the 'plane down at a sharp angle
+to the ground, cuts off the engine, and glides. The angle of the
+fall must be great enough for the force of gravity to keep up the
+speed. There is a minimum speed at which an airplane will remain
+subject to control. Loss of speed&mdash;"<i>perte de vitesse</i>," as the
+French call it&mdash;is the aviator's most common peril in landing. If it
+occurs after his engine is cut off and he has not the time to start
+it again, the machine tilts and slides down sideways. If it occurs
+higher up a <i>vrille</i> is the probable result. In this the plane
+plunges toward the ground spinning round and round with the corner
+of one wing as a pivot. In either case a serious accident is almost
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>In fact the land is almost as dangerous to the navigator of the air
+as it is to him of the sea. To make good landings is an art only
+perfected by constant practice. To shut off the engine at precisely
+the right moment, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> to choose an angle of descent that will
+secure the greatest speed and at the same moment bring you to your
+landing place, to change at the most favourable time from this angle
+to one that will bring you to the ground at the most gentle of
+obtuse angles, and to let your machine, weighing perhaps a ton, drop
+as lightly as a bird and run along the earth for several hundred
+feet before coming to a full stop, are all features of making a
+landing which the aviator has to master.</p>
+
+<p>In full air there are but few perils to encounter. All airmen unite
+in declaring that even to the novice in an airplane there is none of
+that sense of dizziness or vertigo which so many people experience
+in looking down from high places. The flyer has no sense of motion.
+A speed of forty miles an hour and of one hundred miles are the same
+to him. As he looks down the earth seems to be slipping away from
+him, and moving by, tailwards, like an old-fashioned panorama being
+unwound.</p>
+
+<p>Everything about the control of an airplane has to be learned
+mechanically. Once learned the aviator applies his knowledge
+intuitively. He "senses" the position and progress of the craft by
+the feel of the controls, as the man at the yacht's tiller tells
+mysteriously how she is responding to the breeze by "the feel." Even
+before the 'plane responds to some sudden gust of wind, or drops
+into a hole in the air, the trained aviator will foresee precisely
+what is about to happen. He reads it in some little thrill of his
+lever, a quiver in the frame, as the trained boxer reads in his
+antagonist's eyes the sort of blow that is coming. This instinctive
+control of his machine is absolutely essential for the fighting
+pilot who must keep his eyes on the movements of his enemy, watch
+out for possible aircraft guns below, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> and all the time be
+striving to get an advantageous position whence he can turn his
+machine gun loose. A row of gauges, dials, a compass, and a map on
+the frame of the car in which he sits will engage his attention in
+any moments of leisure. It is needless to remark that the successful
+pilot must have a quick eye and steady nerves.</p>
+
+<p>Nerve and rapidity of thought save the aviator in many a ticklish
+position. It is perhaps a tribute to the growing perfection of the
+airplanes that in certain moments of peril the machine is best left
+wholly to itself. Its stability is such that if freed from control
+it will often right itself and glide safely to earth. This not
+infrequently occurs in the moment of the dreaded <i>perte de vitesse</i>,
+to which reference has been made. In his book, <i>With the French
+Flying Corps</i>, Mr. Carroll Dana Winslow, a daring American aviator,
+tells of two such experiences, the one under his observation, the
+other happening to himself:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>The modern airplane is naturally so stable [he says] that if not
+     interfered with it will always attempt to right itself before the
+     dreaded <i>vrille</i> occurs, and fall <i>en feuille morte</i>. Like a leaf
+     dropping in an autumn breeze is what this means, and no other
+     words explain the meaning better.</p>
+
+     <p>A curious instance of this happened one day as I was watching the
+     flights and waiting for my turn. I was particularly interested in
+     a machine that had just risen from the "Grande Piste." It was
+     acting very peculiarly. Suddenly its motor was heard to stop.
+     Instead of diving it commenced to wabble, indicating a <i>perte de
+     vitesse</i>. It slipped off on the wing and then dove. I watched it
+     intently, expecting it to turn into the dreaded spiral. Instead
+     it began to climb. Then it went off on the wing, righted itself,
+     again slipped off on the wing, volplaned, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span> and went off
+     once more. This extraordinary performance was repeated several
+     times, while each time the machine approached nearer and nearer
+     to the ground. I thought that the pilot would surely be killed.
+     Luck was with him, however, for his slip ceased just as he made
+     contact with the ground and he settled in a neighbouring field.
+     It was a very bumpy landing but the airplane was undamaged.</p>
+
+     <p>The officers rushed to the spot to find out what was the matter.
+     They found the pilot unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. Later in
+     the hospital he explained that the altitude had affected his
+     heart and that he had fainted. As he felt himself going he
+     remembered his instructions and relinquished the controls, at the
+     same time stopping his motor. His presence of mind and his luck
+     had saved his life&mdash;his luck I say, for had the machine not
+     righted itself at the moment of touching the ground it would have
+     been inevitably wrecked.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The spectacle, though terrifying, proved valuable as an education
+to young Winslow who a few days later was ordered to a test of
+ascension of two thousand feet. This is his story:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     I had a narrow escape. I had received orders to make a flight
+     during a snow-storm. I rose to the prescribed height and then
+     prepared to make my descent. A whirling squall caught me in the
+     act of making a spiral. I felt the tail of my machine go down and
+     the nose point up. I had a classical <i>perte de vitesse</i>. I looked
+     out and saw that I was less than eight hundred feet above the
+     ground and approaching it at an alarming rate of speed. I had
+     already shut off the motor for the spiral, and turning it on, I
+     knew, would not help me in the least. Suddenly I remembered the
+     pilot who fainted. I let go of everything, and with a sickening
+     feeling I looked down at the up-rushing ground. At that instant I
+     felt the machine give a lurch and right itself. I grabbed the
+     controls, turned on the motor, and resumed my <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span> line of
+     flight only two hundred feet in the air. All this happened in a
+     few seconds, but my helplessness seemed to have lasted for hours.
+     I had had a very close call&mdash;not as close as the man who fainted,
+     but sufficiently so for me.</p>
+
+<a id="img041" name="img041"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img041.jpg" width="400" height="190" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>Distinguishing Marks of American Planes.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have said that the process of training a flyer is remarkably
+expeditious. So far as the fundamentals of his profession are
+concerned it is. But his education in fact never ends. In the mere
+matter of reconnaissance, for example, experience is everything. One
+might imagine that ten thousand men marching on a road would look
+alike in numbers whatever the nationality. Not so. To the untrained
+eye five thousand or six thousand French troops will look as
+numerous as ten thousand British or Germans. Why? Because the French
+march in much more extended order. Into their democratic military
+methods the precision and mechanical exactitude of German drill do
+not enter. With the same number of troops they will extend further
+along the road by at least a third than would a detachment of either
+of the other armies.</p>
+
+<a id="img042" name="img042"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img042.jpg" width="600" height="419" alt="" title="">
+<ul class="none smaller left20">
+<li>1 <i>WATCH</i></li>
+<li>2 <i>ALTIMETER-REGISTERING HEIGHT</i></li>
+<li>3 <i>COMPASS</i></li>
+<li>4 <i>PRESSURE GAUGES FOR TWO GASOLINE TANKS</i></li>
+<li>5 <i>DIAL REGISTERING ENGINE REVOLUTIONS</i></li>
+<li>6 <i>INCLINOMETER, REGISTERING LEVEL FORE AND AFT</i></li>
+<li>7 <i>OIL PULSATOR</i></li>
+<li>8 <i>CONTROL STICK, WITH THUMB SWITCH</i></li>
+<li>9 <i>SWITCHES, TWO MAGNETOS</i></li>
+<li>10 <i>AIR SPEED INDICATOR</i></li>
+<li>11 <i>GASOLENE SUPPLY PIPE</i></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p><i>What an Aviator must Watch.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And again. Great skill has been developed in the course of the war
+in the art of concealing positions and particularly in disguising
+cannon. The art has given a new word to the world&mdash;<i>camouflage</i>.
+Correspondents have repeatedly told of their amazement in suddenly
+coming across a battery of 75's, or a great siege gun so cunningly
+hidden in the edge of a thicket they would be almost upon it before
+detecting it. From an airplane 2500 feet or more in the air it
+requires sharp eyes to penetrate artillery disguises. A French poilu
+in a little book of reminiscences tells with glee how a German
+observation aviator deceived his batteries. A considerable body of
+French troops <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> being halted in an open field, out of sight
+of the enemy batteries, found the glare of the sun oppressive, and
+having some time to wait threw down their equipment and betook
+themselves to the cool shadows of a neighbouring wood. Along came an
+enemy aviator. From his lofty height the haversacks, blanket-rolls,
+and other pieces of dark equipment lying upon the grass looked like
+a body of troops resting. After sailing over and around the field
+twice as though to make assurance doubly sure he sailed swiftly
+away. In a very few minutes shells from a concealed battery began
+dropping into that field at the rate of several a minute. Every foot
+of it was torn up, and the French soldiers from their retreat in the
+woods saw their equipment being blown to pieces in every direction.
+The spectacle was harrowing, but the reflection that the aviator
+undoubtedly thought that he had turned his guns on a field full of
+men was cheering to them in their safety.</p>
+
+<p>An art which the fighting aviator must master early in his career is
+that of high diving. Many of us have seen a hawk, soaring high in
+air, suddenly fold his pinions and drop like a plummet full on the
+back of some luckless pigeon flapping along ungainly scores of feet
+below, or a fishhawk drop like a meteor from the sky with a
+resounding splash upon the bosom of some placid stream and rise
+again carrying a flapping fish to his eyrie in the distant pines.
+The hunting methods of the hawk are the fighting methods of the
+airman. But his dives exceed in height and daring anything known to
+the feathered warriors of the air.</p>
+
+<p>Boelke, most famous of all the German airmen&mdash;or for that matter of
+all aërial fighters of his day&mdash;who in 1917 held the record for the
+number of enemy flyers brought down, was famed for his savage dives.
+He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> would fly at a great height, fifteen thousand or more
+feet, thus assuring himself that there was no enemy above him. When
+he sighted his prey he would make an absolutely vertical nose dive,
+dropping at the rate of 150 miles an hour or more and spattering
+shots from his machine gun as he fell. Six hundred shots a minute
+and the sight of this charging demon were enough to test the nerve
+of any threatened aviator. In some fashion Boelke was enabled to
+give a slight spiral form to his dive so that his victim was
+enveloped in a ring of bullets that blocked his retreat whichever
+way he might turn for safety.</p>
+
+<p>Personality in fighting counted much for success. Boelke's method,
+its audacity and fierceness, placed him first in the list of airmen
+with killing records. Captain Immelman, also a German, who rolled up
+a score of thirty enemies put out of action before he himself was
+slain, followed entirely different tactics. His battle man&oelig;uvre
+savoured much of the circus, including as it did complete
+loop-the-loop. For instead of approaching his adversary from the
+side, or as would be said in the sea navy, on the beam, he followed
+squarely behind him. His study was to get the nose of his machine
+almost on the tail of the aircraft he was pursuing. This gave him,
+to begin with, what used to be called in the navy a raking position,
+for his shots would rake the whole body of the enemy airplane from
+tail to nose with a fair chance of hitting either the fuel tank, the
+engine, or the pilot. Failing to secure the position he most
+coveted, this daring German would surrender it with apparent
+unconcern to the enemy who usually fell into the trap. For just as
+the foeman's machine came up to the tail of Immelman's craft the
+latter would suddenly turn his nose straight to earth, drop
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> like a stone, execute a backward loop, and come up behind
+his surprised adversary who thus found the tables suddenly turned.</p>
+
+<p>These two German aviators long held the record for execution done in
+single combat. Boelke was killed before the air duel vanished to be
+replaced by the battle of scores of planes high in air. Immelman
+survived longer, but with the incoming of the pitched battle his
+personal prowess counted for less and his fame waned.</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1917, arrangements were complete in the United States for
+the immediate training in the fundamentals of aviation of ten
+thousand young Americans. The expectation was that long before the
+end of the year facilities would be provided for the training of
+many more. Both France and Great Britain sent over squads of their
+best aviators, some of them so incapacitated from wounds as to be
+disqualified for further fighting, but still vigorous enough for the
+work of an instructor. The aërial service took hold upon the
+imagination and the patriotism of young America as did no other. The
+flock of volunteers was far beyond the capacity of the government to
+care for, and many drifted over into private aviation schools which
+were established in great numbers. The need for the young students
+was admittedly great. More and more the impression had grown in both
+Great Britain and France that the airplane was to be the final
+arbiter in the war. It was hailed at once as the most dangerous
+enemy of the submarine and the most efficient ally of troops in the
+field. No number seemed too great for the needs of the entente
+allies, and their eagerness to increase their flying force was
+strengthened by the knowledge of the fact that Germany was building
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> feverishly in order that its fleet in the air might not be
+eclipsed.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the best description of an idealized aviator was given by
+Lieutenant Lufbery, of the Lafayette Escadrille, who came to the
+United States to assist in training the new corps of American
+flying men. Lufbery himself was a most successful air fighter&mdash;an
+"ace" several times over. Though French by lineage, he was an
+American citizen and had been a soldier in the United States Army.
+In October of 1917 his record was thirteen Boches brought down
+within the allied lines. In the allied air service one gets no
+credit for the defeated enemy plane if it falls within the enemy
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>While young Americans were being drilled into shape for service in
+the flying corps, Lufbery gave this outline of the type of men the
+service would demand:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>It will take the cream of the American youth between the ages of
+     eighteen and twenty-six to man America's thousands of airplanes,
+     and the double cream of youth to qualify as chasers in the
+     Republic's new aërial army.</p>
+
+     <p>Intensive and scientific training must be given this cream of
+     youth upon which America's welfare in the war must rest.
+     Experience has shown that for best results the fighting aviator
+     should be not over twenty-six years old or under eighteen. The
+     youth under eighteen has shown himself to be bold, but he lacks
+     judgment. Men over twenty-six are too cautious.</p>
+
+     <p>The best air fighters, especially a man handling a chaser, must
+     be of perfect physique. He must have the coolest nerve and be of
+     a temperament that longs for a fight. He must have a sense of
+     absolute duty and fearlessness, the keenest sense of action, and
+     perfect sight to gain the absolute "feel" of his machine.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> He must be entirely familiar with aërial acrobatics. The
+     latter frequently means life or death.</p>
+
+     <p>Fighting twenty-two thousand feet in the air produces a heavy
+     strain on the heart. It is vital therefore that this organ show
+     not the slightest evidence of weakness. Such weakness would
+     decrease the aviator's fighting efficiency.</p>
+
+     <p>The American boys who come over to France for this work will be
+     subject to rapid and frequent variations in altitude. It is a
+     common occurrence to dive vertically from six thousand to ten
+     thousand feet with the motor pulling hard.</p>
+
+     <p>Sharpness of vision is imperative. Otherwise the enemy may escape
+     or the aviator himself will be surprised or mistake a friendly
+     machine for a hostile craft. The differences are often merely
+     insignificant colours and details.</p>
+
+     <p>America's aviators must be men who will be absolute masters of
+     themselves under fire, thinking out their attacks as their fight
+     progresses.</p>
+
+     <p>Experience has shown that the chaser men should weigh under 180
+     pounds. Americans from the ranks of sport, youth who have played
+     baseball, polo, football, or have shot and participated in other
+     sports will make the best fighting aviators.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> CHAPTER VII<br>
+<span class="smaller">SOME METHODS OF THE WAR IN THE AIR</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The fighting tactics of the airmen with the various armies were
+developed as the war ran its course. As happens so often in the
+utilization of a new device, either of war or peace, the manner of
+its use was by no means what was expected at the outset. For the
+first year of the war the activities of the airmen fell far short of
+realizing Tennyson's conception of</p>
+
+<p class="quote">The nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue.</p>
+
+<p>The grappling was only incidental. The flyers seemed destined to be
+scouts and rangefinders, rather than fighters. Such pitched combats
+as there were took rather the form of duels, conducted with
+something of the formality of the days of chivalry. The aviator
+intent upon a fight would take his machine over the enemy's line and
+in various ways convey a challenge to a rival&mdash;often a hostile
+aviator of fame for his daring and skill in combat. If the duel was
+to the death it would be watched usually from the ground by the
+comrades of the two duellists, and if the one who fell left his
+body in the enemy's lines, the victor would gather up his
+identification disk and other personal belongings and drop them the
+next day in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> camp of the dead man's comrades with a note
+of polite regret.</p>
+
+<p>It was all very daring and chivalric, but it was not war according
+to twentieth century standards and was not long continued.</p>
+
+<a id="img043" name="img043"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img043.jpg" width="600" height="370" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Caproni Triplane.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When at first the aviators of one side flew over the enemy's
+territory diligently mapping out his trenches, observing the
+movements of his troops, or indicating, by dropping bunches of
+tinsel for the sun to shine upon or breaking smoke bombs, the
+position of his hidden battery, the foe thus menaced sought to drive
+them away with anti-aircraft guns. These proved to be ineffective
+and it may be said here that throughout the war the swift airplanes
+proved themselves more than a match for the best anti-aircraft
+artillery that had been devised. They could complete their
+reconnaissances or give their signals at a height out of range of
+these guns, or at least so great that the chances of their being hit
+were but slight. It was amazing the manner in which an airplane
+could navigate a stretch of air full of bursting shrapnel and yet
+escape serious injury. The mere puncture, even the repeated
+puncture, of the wings did no damage. Only lucky shots that might
+pierce the fuel tank, hit the engine, touch an aileron or an
+important stay or strut, could affect the machine, while in due
+course of time a light armour on the bottom of the fusillage or body
+of the machine in which the pilot sat, protected the operator to
+some degree. Other considerations, however, finally led to the
+rejection of armour.</p>
+
+<a id="img044" name="img044"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img044.jpg" width="600" height="431" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Caproni Triplane</i> (<i>Showing Propellers and Fuselage</i>).</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Accordingly it soon became the custom of the commanders who saw
+their works being spied out by an enemy soaring above to send up one
+or more aircraft to challenge the invader and drive him away. This
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> led to the second step in the development in aërial
+strategy. It was perfectly evident that a man could not observe
+critically a position and draw maps of it, or seek out the hiding
+place of massed batteries and indicate them to his own artillerists,
+and at the same time protect himself from assaults. Accordingly the
+flying corps of every army gradually became differentiated into
+observation machines and fighting machines&mdash;or <i>avions de réglage</i>,
+<i>avions de bombardement</i>, and <i>avions de chasse</i>, as the French call
+them. In their order these titles were applied to heavy slow-moving
+machines used for taking photographs and directing artillery fire,
+more heavily armed machines of greater weight used in raids and
+bombing attacks, and the swift fighting machines, quick to rise
+high, and swift to man&oelig;uvre which would protect the former from
+the enemy, or drive away the enemy's observation machines as the
+case might be. In the form which the belligerents finally adopted as
+most advantageous the fighting airplanes were mainly biplanes
+equipped with powerful motors seldom of less than 140 horse-power,
+and carrying often but one man who is not merely the pilot, but the
+operator of the machine gun with which each was equipped. Still
+planes carrying two men, and even three of whom one was the pilot,
+the other two the operators of the machine guns were widely adopted.
+They had indeed their disadvantages. They were slower to rise and
+clumsier in the turns. The added weight of the two gunmen cut down
+the amount of fuel that could be carried and limited the radius of
+action. But one curious disadvantage which would not at first
+suggest itself to the lay mind was the fact that the roar of the
+propeller was so great that no possible communication could pass
+between the pilot <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> and the gunner. Their co-operation must
+be entirely instinctive or there could be no unity of action&mdash;and in
+practice it was found that there was little indeed. The smaller
+machine, carrying but one man, was quicker in the get-away and could
+rise higher in less time&mdash;a most vital consideration, for in the
+tactics of aërial warfare it is as desirable to get above your enemy
+as in the days of the old line of battleships it was advantageous to
+secure a position off the stern of your enemy so that you might rake
+him fore and aft.</p>
+
+<p>The machines ultimately found to best meet the needs of aërial
+fighting were for the Germans always the Fokker, and the Taube&mdash;so
+called from its resemblance to a flying dove, though it was far from
+being the dove of peace. The wings are shaped like those of a bird
+and the tail adds to the resemblance. The Allies after testing the
+Taube design contemptuously rejected it, and indeed the Germans
+themselves substituted the Fokker for it in the war's later days.</p>
+
+<p>The English used the "Vickers Scout," built of aluminum and steel
+and until late in the war usually designed to carry two aviators.
+This machine unlike most of the others has the propeller at the
+stern, called a "pusher" in contradistinction to the "tractor,"
+acting as the screw of a ship and avoiding the interference with the
+rifle fire which the pulling, or tractor propeller mounted before
+the pilot to a certain degree presents. The Vickers machine is
+lightly armoured. The English also use what was known as the "D. H.
+5," a machine carrying a motor of very high horse-power, while the
+Sopwith and Bristol biplane were popular as fighting craft.</p>
+
+<p>The French pinned their faith mainly to the Farman, the Caudron, the
+Voisin, and the Moraine-Saulnier <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> machines. The Bleriot and
+the Nieuport, which were for some reason ruled out at the beginning
+of the war, were afterwards re-adopted and employed in great
+numbers.</p>
+
+<p>It would be gratifying to an American author to be able to describe,
+or at least to mention, the favourite machine of the American
+aviators who flocked to France immediately upon the declaration of
+war, but the mortifying fact is that having no airplanes of our own,
+our gallant volunteer soldiers of the air had to be equipped
+throughout by the French with machines of their favourite types.
+After we entered the war we adopted a 'plane of American design to
+which was given the name "Liberty plane."</p>
+
+<p>It may be worth while to revert for a moment to the distinction
+drawn in a preceding paragraph between the pusher propeller and the
+tractor which revolved in front of the aviator and of his machine
+gun. It would seem almost incredible that two heavy blades of hard
+wood revolving at a speed not less that twelve hundred times a
+minute, a speed so rapid that their passage in front of the eyes of
+the aviator interfered in no way with his vision, should not have
+blocked a stream of bullets falling from a gun at the rate of more
+than six hundred a minute. Nevertheless it was claimed during the
+earlier days of the war that these bullets were not appreciably
+diverted by the whirling propellers nor were the latter apparently
+injured by the missiles. The latter assertion, however, must have
+been to some extent disproved because it came about that the
+propellers of the later machines were rimmed with a thin coating of
+steel lest the blades be cut by the bullets. But the amazing ability
+of modern science to cope with what seemed to be an insoluble
+problem was demonstrated by the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> invention of a device light
+and compact enough to be carried in an airplane, which applied to
+the machine gun and timed in accordance with the revolutions of the
+propeller so synchronized the shots with those revolutions that the
+stream of lead passed between the whirling blades never once
+striking. The machine was entirely automatic, requiring no attention
+on the part of the operator after the gun was once started on its
+discharge. This device was originally used by the Germans who
+applied it to their Fokker machines. It was claimed for it that by
+doing away with the wastage caused by the diversion of the course of
+bullets, which struck the revolving propellers, it actually saved
+for effective use about thirty per cent. of the ammunition employed.
+As the amount of ammunition which can be carried by an airplane is
+rigidly limited this gave to the appliance a positive value.</p>
+
+<a id="img045" name="img045"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img045.jpg" width="400" height="533" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>The Terror that Flieth by Night.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by William J. Wilson.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Reference has been made to the extraordinary immunity of flying
+airplanes to the attacks of anti-aircraft guns. The number of wounds
+they could sustain without being brought to earth was amazing.
+Grahame-White tells of a comparison made in one of the airdromes of
+the wounds sustained by the machines after a day's hard scouting and
+fighting. One was found to have been hit no less than thirty-seven
+times. Curiously enough the man who navigated it escaped unscathed.
+Wounds in the wings are harmless. But the puncture of the fuel tank
+almost certainly means an explosion and the death of the aviator in
+the flame thousands of feet in the air. During an air battle before
+Arras, a British aviator encountered this fate. When his tank was
+struck and the fusillage, or body, of his machine burst into flames,
+he knew that he was lost. By no possibility could he reach the
+ground <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> before he should be burned to death. A neighbouring
+aviator flying not far from him told the story afterwards:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     Jack was not in the thick of this fight [said he]. He was rather
+     on the outskirts striving to get in when I suddenly saw his whole
+     machine enveloped in a sheet of flame. Instantly he turned
+     towards the nearest German and made at him with the obvious
+     intention of running him down and carrying him to earth in the
+     same cloud of fire. The man thus threatened, twisted and turned
+     in a vain effort to escape the red terror bearing down upon him.
+     But suffering acutely as he must have been, Jack followed his
+     every move until the two machines crashed, and whirling over and
+     over each other like two birds in an aërial combat fell to earth
+     and to destruction. They landed inside the German lines so we
+     heard no more about them. But we could see the smoke from the
+     burning débris for some time.</p>
+
+<p>As the range of anti-aircraft guns increased the flyers were driven
+higher and higher into the air to escape their missiles. At one time
+4500 feet was looked upon as a reasonably safe height, but when the
+war had been under way about two years the weapons designed to
+combat aircraft were so improved that they could send their shots
+effectively 10,000 feet into the air. If the aircraft had been
+forced to operate at that height their usefulness would have been
+largely destroyed, for it is obvious that for observation purposes
+the atmospheric haze at such a height would obscure the view and
+make accurate mapping of the enemy's position impossible. For
+offensive purposes too the airplanes at so great an elevation would
+be heavily handicapped, if not indeed rendered impotent. As we
+shall see later, dropping a bomb from a swiftly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> moving
+airplane upon a target is no easy task. It never falls direct but
+partakes of the motion of the plane. It is estimated that for every
+thousand feet of elevation a bomb will advance four hundred feet in
+the direction that the aircraft is moving, provided its speed is not
+in excess of sixty miles an hour. As a result marksmanship at a
+height of more than five thousand feet is practically impossible.</p>
+
+<p>In the main this situation is met, as all situations in war in which
+efficiency can only be attained at the expense of great personal
+danger are met, namely, by braving the danger. When the aviators
+have an attack in contemplation they fly low and snap their fingers
+at the puff balls of death as the shrapnel from their appearance
+when bursting may well be called. Naturally, efforts were made early
+in the war to lessen the danger by armouring the body of the machine
+sufficiently to protect the aviator and his engine&mdash;for if the
+aviator escaped a shot which found the engine, his plight would be
+almost as bad as if the missile had struck him.</p>
+
+<p>The main difficulty with armouring the machines grew out of the
+added weight. The more efficient the armour, the less fuel could be
+carried and the less ammunition. If too heavily loaded the speed of
+the machine would be reduced and its ability to climb rapidly upon
+which the safety of the aviator usually depends, either in
+reconnaissance or fighting, would be seriously impeded. The first
+essays in protective armour took the form of the installation of a
+thin sheet of steel along the bottom of the body of the craft. This
+turned aside missiles from below provided the plane were not so near
+the ground as to receive them at the moment of their highest
+velocity. But it was only an unsatisfactory makeshift. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span> At
+the higher altitudes it was unnecessary and in conflict with other
+airplanes it proved worthless, because in a battle in the air the
+shots of the enemy are more likely to come from above or at least
+from levels in the same plane. The armoured airplane was quickly
+found to have less chance of mounting above its enemy, because of
+the weight it carried, and before long the principle of protecting
+an airplane as a battleship is protected was abandoned, except in
+the case of the heavier machines intended to operate as scouts or
+guides to artillery, holding their flights near the earth and
+protected from attack from above by their attendant fleet of swift
+fighting machines. Of these the Vickers machine used mainly by the
+British is a common type. It is built throughout of steel and
+aluminum, and the entire fusillage is clothed with steel plating
+which assures protection to the two occupants from either upward or
+lateral fire. The sides of the body are carried up so that only the
+heads of the aviators are visible. But to accomplish this measure of
+protection for the pilot and the gunner who operates the machine gun
+from a seat forward of the pilot, the weight of the craft is so
+greatly increased that it is but little esteemed for any save the
+most sluggish man&oelig;uvre.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed just as aircraft, as a factor in war, have come to be more
+like the cavalry in the army, or the destroyers and scout cruisers
+in the navy, so the tendency has been to discard everything in their
+design that might by any possibility interfere with their speed and
+their ability to turn and twist, and change direction and elevation
+with the utmost celerity under the most difficult of conditions. It
+is possible that should this war run into the indefinite future we
+may see aircraft <span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> built on ponderous lines and heavily
+armoured, and performing in the air some of the functions that the
+British "tanks" have discharged on the battlefields. But at the end
+of three years of war, and at the moment when aërial hostilities
+seemed to be engaging more fully than even before the inventive
+genius of the nations, and the dash and skill of the fighting
+flyers, the tendency is all toward the light and swift machine.</p>
+
+<a id="img046" name="img046"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img046.jpg" width="600" height="419" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The attitude of the fighting airmen is somewhat reminiscent of that
+of America's greatest sea-fighter, Admiral Farragut. Always opposed
+to ironclads, the hero of Mobile Bay used to say that when he went
+to sea he did not want to go in an iron coffin, and that when a
+shell had made its way through one side of his ship he didn't want
+any obstacle presented to impede its passing out of the other side.</p>
+
+<a id="img047" name="img047"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img047.jpg" width="600" height="468" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Launching a Hydroaëroplane.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The all important and even vital necessity for speed also detracted
+much from the value of aircraft in offensive operations. It was
+found early that you could not mount on a flying machine guns of
+sufficient calibre to be of material use in attacking fortified
+positions. If it was necessary for the planes to proceed any
+material distance before reaching their objective, the weight of the
+necessary fuel would preclude the carriage of heavy artillery. In
+the case of seaplanes which might be carried on the deck of a
+battleship to a point reasonably contiguous to the object to be
+attacked, this difficulty was not so serious. This was demonstrated
+to some extent by the British raids on the German naval bases of
+Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven, but even in these instances it was bombs
+dropped by aviators, not gunfire that injured the enemy's works. But
+for the airplane proper this added weight was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> so positive a
+handicap as to practically destroy its usefulness as an assailant of
+fortified positions.</p>
+
+<p>The heavier weapons of offence which could be carried by the
+airplane even of the highest development were the bombs. These once
+landed might cause the greatest destruction, but the difficulty of
+depositing them directly upon a desired target was not to be
+overcome. The dirigible balloon enjoyed a great advantage over the
+airplane in this respect, for it was able to hover over the spot
+which it desired to hit and to discharge its bombs in a direct
+perpendicular line with enough initial velocity from a spring gun to
+overcome largely any tendency to deviate from the perpendicular. But
+an airplane cannot stop. When it stops it must descend. If it is
+moving at the moderate speed of sixty miles an hour when it drops
+its missile, the bomb itself will move forward at the rate of sixty
+miles an hour until gravity has overcome the initial forward force.
+Years before the war broke out, tests were held in Germany and
+France of the ability of aviators to drop a missile upon a target
+marked out upon the ground. One such test in France required the
+dropping of bombs from a height of 2400 feet upon a target 170 feet
+long by 40 broad&mdash;or about the dimensions of a small and rather
+stubby ship. The results were uniformly disappointing. The most
+creditable record was made by an American aviator, Lieutenant Scott,
+formerly of the United States Army. His first three shots missed
+altogether, but thereafter he landed eight within the limits. In
+Germany the same year the test was to drop bombs upon two targets,
+one resembling a captive Zeppelin, the other a military camp 330
+feet square. The altitude limit was set at 660 feet. This, though a
+comparatively easy test, was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span> virtually a failure. Only two
+competitors succeeded in dropping a bomb into the square at all,
+while the balloon was hit but once.</p>
+
+<p>The character and size of the bombs employed by aircraft naturally
+differed very widely, particularly as to size, between those carried
+by dirigibles and those used by airplanes. The Zeppelin shell varied
+in weight between two hundred and two hundred and fifty pounds. It
+was about forty-seven inches long by eight and a half inches in
+diameter. Its charge varied according to the use to which it was to
+be put. If it was hoped that it would drop in a crowded spot and
+inflict the greatest amount of damage to human life and limb it
+would carry a bursting charge, shrapnel, and bits of iron, all of
+which on the impact of the missile upon the earth would be hurled in
+every direction to a radius exceeding forty yards. If damage to
+buildings, on the other hand, was desired, some high explosive such
+as picric acid would be used which would totally wreck any
+moderate-sized building upon which the shell might fall. In many
+instances, particularly in raids upon cities such as London,
+incendiary shells were used charged with some form of liquid fire,
+which rapidly spread the conflagration, and which itself was
+practically inextinguishable.</p>
+
+<p>Shells or bombs of these varying types were dropped from airplanes
+as well as from the larger and steadier Zeppelins. The difference
+was entirely in the size. It was said that a Zeppelin might drop a
+bomb of a ton's weight. But so far as attainable records are
+concerned it is impossible to cite any instance of this being done.
+The effect on the great gas bag of the sudden release of a load so
+great would certainly cause a sudden upward flight which might be so
+quick and so powerful as to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> affect the very structure of
+the ship. So far as known 250 pounds was the topmost limit of
+Zeppelin bombs, while most of them were of much smaller dimensions.
+The airplane bombs were seldom more than sixty pounds in weight,
+although in the larger British machines a record of ninety-five
+pounds has been attained. The most common form of bomb used in the
+heavier-than-air machines was pear-shaped, with a whirling tail to
+keep the missile upright as it falls. Steel balls within, a little
+larger than ordinary shrapnel, are held in place by a device which
+releases them during the fall. On striking the ground they fall on
+the explosive charge within and the shell bursts, scattering the two
+or three hundred steel bullets which it carries over a wide radius.
+Bombs of this character weigh in the neighbourhood of six pounds and
+an ordinary airplane can carry a very considerable number. Their
+exploding device is very delicate so that it will operate upon
+impact with water, very soft earth, or even the covering of an
+airship. Other bombs commonly used in airplanes were shaped like
+darts, winged like an arrow so that they would fall perpendicularly
+and explode by a pusher at the point which was driven into the body
+of the bomb upon its impact with any hard substance.</p>
+
+<p>It seems curious to read of the devices sometimes quite complicated
+and at all times the result of the greatest care and thought, used
+for dropping these bombs. In the trenches men pitched explosive
+missiles about with little more care than if they had been so many
+baseballs, but only seldom was a bomb from aloft actually delivered
+by hand. In the case of the heavier bombs used by the dirigibles
+this is understandable. They could not be handled by a single man
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span> without the aid of mechanical devices. Some are dropped
+from a cradle which is tilted into a vertical position after the
+shell has been inserted. Others are fired from a tube not unlike the
+torpedo tube of a submarine, but which imparts only slight initial
+velocity to the missile. Its chief force is derived from gravity,
+and to be assured of its explosion the aviator must discharge it
+from a height proportionate to its size.</p>
+
+<p>In the airplane the aviator's methods are more simple. Sometimes the
+bombs are carried in a rack beneath the body of the machine, and
+released by means of a lever at the side. A more primitive method
+often in use is merely to attach the bomb to a string and lower it
+to a point at which the aviator is certain that in falling it will
+not touch any part of the craft, and then cut the string. Half a
+dozen devices by which the aviator can hold the bomb at arm's length
+and drop it with the certainty of a perpendicular fall are in use in
+the different air navies. It will be evident to the most casual
+consideration that with any one of these devices employed by an
+aviator in a machine going at a speed of sixty miles an hour or more
+the matter of hitting the target is one in which luck has a very
+great share.</p>
+
+<p>There is good reason for the pains taken by the aviators to see that
+their bombs fall swift and true, and clear of all the outlying parts
+of their machines. The grenadier in the trenches has a clear field
+for his explosive missile and he may toss it about with what appears
+to be desperate carelessness&mdash;though instances have been known in
+which a bomb thrower, throwing back his arm preparatory to launching
+his canned volcano, has struck the back of his own trench with
+disastrous results. But the aviator must be even more careful. His
+bombs must not hit any of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> wires below his machine in
+falling&mdash;else there will be a dire fall for him. And above all they
+must not get entangled in stays or braces. In such case landing will
+bring a most unpleasant surprise.</p>
+
+<p>A striking case was that of a bomber who had been out over the
+German trenches. He had a two-man machine, had made a successful
+flight and had dropped, effectively as he supposed, all his bombs.
+Returning in serene consciousness of a day's duty well done, he was
+about to spiral down to the landing place when his passenger looked
+over the side of the car to see if everything was in good order.
+Emphatically it was not. To his horror he discovered that two of the
+bombs had not fallen, but had caught in the running gear of his
+machine. To attempt a landing with the bombs in this position would
+have been suicidal. The bombs would have instantly exploded, and
+annihilated both machine and aviators. But to get out of the car,
+climb down on the wires, and try to unhook the bombs seemed more
+desperate still. Stabilizers, and other devices, now in common use,
+had not then been invented and to go out on the wing of a biplane,
+or to disturb its delicate balance, was unheard of. Nevertheless it
+was a moment for desperate remedies. The pilot clung to his
+controls, and sought to meet the shifting strains, while the
+passenger climbed out on the wing and then upon the running gear. To
+trust yourself two thousand feet in mid-air with your feet on one
+piano wire, and one hand clutching another, while with the other
+hand you grope blindly for a bomb charged with high explosive, is an
+experience for which few men would yearn. But in this case it was
+successful. The bombs fell&mdash;nobody cared where&mdash;and the two
+imperilled aviators came to ground safely.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> A form of offensive weapon which for some reason seems
+peculiarly horrible to the human mind is the fléchette. These are
+steel darts a little larger than a heavy lead pencil and with the
+upper two thirds of the stem deeply grooved so that the greater
+weight of the lower part will cause them to fall perpendicularly.
+These are used in attacks upon dense bodies of troops. Particularly
+have they proved effective in assailing cavalry, for the nature of
+the wounds they produce invariably maddens the horses who suffer
+from them and causes confusion that will often bring grave disaster
+to a transport or artillery train. Though very light, these arrows
+when dropped from any considerable height inflict most extraordinary
+wounds. They have been known to penetrate a soldier's steel helmet,
+to pass through his body and that of the horse he bestrode, and
+bury themselves in the earth. In the airplane they are carried in
+boxes of one hundred each, placed over an orifice in the floor. A
+touch of the aviator's foot and all are discharged. The speed of the
+machine causes them to fall at first in a somewhat confused fashion,
+with the result that before all have finally assumed their
+perpendicular position they have been scattered over a very
+considerable extent of air. Once fairly pointed downward they fall
+with unerring directness points downward to their mark.</p>
+
+<a id="img048" name="img048"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img048.jpg" width="600" height="333" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>At a United States Training Camp.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is a curious fact that not long after these arrows first made
+their appearance in the French machines, they were imitated by the
+Germans, but the German darts had stamped upon them the words: "Made
+in Germany, but invented by the French."</p>
+
+<a id="img049" name="img049"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img049.jpg" width="600" height="293" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One of the duties of the fighting airmen is to destroy the
+observation balloons which float in great numbers over both the
+lines tugging lazily at the ropes by which they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> are held
+captive while the observers perched in their baskets communicate the
+results of their observations by telephone to staff officers at a
+considerable distance. These balloons are usually anchored far
+enough back of their own lines to be safe from the ordinary
+artillery fire of their enemies. They were therefore fair game for
+the mosquitoes of the air. But they were not readily destroyed by
+such artillery as could be mounted on an ordinary airplane. Bullets
+from the machine-guns were too small to make any rents in the
+envelope that would affect its stability. Even if incendiary they
+could not carry a sufficiently heavy charge to affect so large a
+body. The skin of the "sausages," as the balloons were commonly
+called from their shape, was too soft to offer sufficient resistance
+to explode a shell of any size. The war was pretty well under way
+before the precise weapon needed for their destruction was
+discovered. This proved to be a large rocket of which eight were
+carried on an airplane, four on each side. They were discharged by
+powerful springs and a mechanism started which ignited them as soon
+as they had left the airplane behind. The head of each rocket was of
+pointed steel, very sharp and heavy enough to pierce the balloon
+skin. Winslow was fortunate enough to be present when the first test
+of this weapon was made. In his book, <i>With the French Flying
+Corps</i>, he thus tells the story:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Swinging lazily above the field was a captive balloon. At one end
+     of Le Bourget was a line of waiting airplanes. "This is the
+     second; they have already brought down one balloon," remarked the
+     man at my elbow. The hum of a motor caused me to look up. A
+     wide-winged double motor, Caudron, had left the ground and was
+     mounting <span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> gracefully above us. Up and up it went,
+     describing a great circle, until it faced the balloon. Everyone
+     caught his breath. The Caudron was rushing straight at the
+     balloon, diving for the attack.</p>
+
+     <p>"Now!" cried the crowd. There was a loud crack, a flash, and
+     eight long rockets darted forth leaving behind a fiery trail. The
+     aviator's aim however was wide, and to the disappointment of
+     everyone the darts fell harmlessly to the ground.</p>
+
+     <p>Another motor roared far down the field, and a tiny <i>appareil de
+     chasse</i> shot upward like a swallow. "A Nieuport," shouted the
+     crowd as one voice. Eager to atone for his <i>copain's</i> failure,
+     and impatient at his delay in getting out of the way, the tiny
+     biplane tossed and tumbled about in the air like a clown in the
+     circus ring.</p>
+
+     <p>"Look! he's looping! he falls! he slips! no, he rights again!"
+     cried a hundred voices as the skilful pilot kept our nerves on
+     edge.</p>
+
+     <p>Suddenly he darted into position and for a second hovered
+     uncertain. Then with a dive like that of a dragon-fly, he rushed
+     down to the attack. Again a sheet of flame and a shower of
+     sparks. This time the balloon sagged. The flames crept slowly
+     around its silken envelope. "<i>Touchez!</i>" cried the multitude.
+     Then the balloon burst and fell to the ground a mass of flames.
+     High above the little Nieuport saucily continued its pranks, as
+     though contemptuous of such easy prey.</p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img050" name="img050"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="200" height="572" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0 cap220px"><i>Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a Balloon
+Struck by Incendiary Shells.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img051" name="img051"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img051.jpg" width="225" height="572" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0 cap220px"><i>The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It may be properly noted at this point that the captive balloons or
+kite balloons have proved of the greatest value for observations in
+this war. Lacking of course the mobility of the swiftly moving
+airplanes, they have the advantage over the latter of being at all
+times in direct communication by telephone with the ground and being
+able to carry quite heavy scientific instruments for the more
+accurate mapping out <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span> of such territory as comes within
+their sphere of observation. They are not easy to destroy by
+artillery fire, for the continual swaying of the balloon before the
+wind perplexes gunners in their aim. At a height of six hundred
+feet, a normal observation post, the horizon is nearly thirty miles
+from the observer. In flat countries like Flanders, or at sea where
+the balloon may be sent up from the deck of a ship, this gives an
+outlook of the greatest advantage to the army or fleet relying upon
+the balloon for its observations of the enemy's dispositions.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the British and French observation balloons have been of the
+old-fashioned spherical form which officers in those services find
+sufficiently effective. The Germans, however, claimed that a balloon
+might be devised which would not be so very unstable in gusty
+weather. Out of this belief grew the Parseval-Siegfeld balloon which
+from its form took the name of the Sausage. In fact its appearance
+far from being terrifying suggests not only that particular edible,
+but a large dill pickle floating awkwardly in the air. In order to
+keep the balloon always pointed into the teeth of the wind there is
+attached to one end of it a large surrounding bag hanging from the
+lower half of the main envelope. One end of this, the end facing
+forward, is left open and into this the wind blows, steadying the
+whole structure after the fashion of the tail of a kite. The effect
+is somewhat grotesque as anyone who has studied the numerous
+pictures of balloons of this type employed during the war must have
+observed. It looks not unlike some form of tumor growing from a
+healthy structure.</p>
+
+<p>Captive or kite balloons are especially effective as coast guards.
+Posted fifty miles apart along a threatened <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> coast they can
+keep a steady watch over the sea for more than twenty-five miles
+toward the horizon. With their telephonic connections they can
+notify airplanes in waiting, or for that matter swift destroyers, of
+any suspicious sight in the distance, and secure an immediate
+investigation which will perhaps result in the defeat of some
+attempted raid. Requiring little power for raising and lowering them
+and few men for their operation, they form a method of standing
+sentry guard at a nation's front door which can probably be equalled
+by no other device. The United States at the moment of the
+preparation of this book is virtually without any balloons of this
+type&mdash;the first one of any pretensions having been tested in the
+summer of 1917.</p>
+
+<p>As late as the third year of the war it could not be said that the
+possibilities of aërial offense had been thoroughly developed by any
+nation. The Germans indeed had done more than any of the
+belligerents in this direction with their raids on the British coast
+and on London. But, as already pointed out, these raids as serious
+attacks on strategic positions were mere failures. Advocates of the
+increased employment of aircraft in this fashion insist that the
+military value to Germany of the raids lay not so much in the
+possibility of doing damage of military importance but rather in the
+fact that the possibility of repeated and more effective raids
+compelled Great Britain to keep at home a force of thirty thousand
+to fifty thousand men constantly on guard, who but for this menace
+would have been employed on the battlefields of France. In this
+argument there is a measure of plausibility. Indeed between January,
+1915, and June 13, 1917, the Germans made twenty-three disastrous
+raids upon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> England, killing more than seven hundred persons
+and injuring nearly twice as many. The amount of damage to property
+has never been reported nor is it possible to estimate the extent of
+injury inflicted upon works of a military character. The extreme
+secrecy with which Great Britain, in common with the other
+belligerents, has enveloped operations of this character makes it
+impossible at this early day to estimate the military value of these
+exploits. Merely to inflict anguish and death upon a great number of
+civilians, and those largely women and children, is obviously of no
+military service. But if such suffering is inflicted in the course
+of an attack which promises the destruction or even the crippling of
+works of military character like arsenals, munition plants, or naval
+stores, it must be accepted as an incident of legitimate warfare.
+The limited information obtainable in wartime seems to indicate that
+the German raids had no legitimate objective in view but were
+undertaken for the mere purpose of frightfulness.</p>
+
+<p>The methods of defence employed in Great Britain, where all attacks
+must come from the sea, were mainly naval. What might be called the
+outer, or flying, defences consisted of fast armed fighting
+seaplanes and dirigibles. Stationed on the coast and ready on the
+receipt of a wireless warning from scouts, either aërial or naval,
+that an enemy air flotilla was approaching the coast, they could at
+once fly forth and give it battle. A thorough defence of the British
+territory demanded that the enemy should be driven back before
+reaching the land. Once over British territory the projectiles
+discharged whether by friend or foe did equal harm to the people on
+the ground below. Accordingly every endeavour was made to meet and
+beat the raiders before <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> they had passed the barrier of sea.
+Beside the flying defences there were the floating defences.
+Anti-aircraft guns were mounted on different types of ships
+stationed far out from the shore and ever on the watch. But these
+latter were of comparatively little avail, for flying over the
+Channel or the North Sea the invaders naturally flew at a great
+height. They had no targets there to seek, steered by their
+compasses, and were entirely indifferent to the prospect beneath
+them. Moreover anti-aircraft guns, hard to train effectively from
+an immovable mount, were particularly untrustworthy when fired from
+the deck of a rolling and tossing ship in the turbulent Channel.</p>
+
+<p>Third in the list of defences of the British coast, or of any other
+coast which may at any time be threatened with an aërial raid, are
+defensive stations equipped not only with anti-aircraft guns and
+searchlights but with batteries of strange new scientific
+instruments like the "listening towers," equipped with huge
+microphones to magnify the sound of the motors of approaching
+aircraft so that they would be heard long before they could be seen,
+range finders, and other devices for the purpose of gauging the
+distance and fixing the direction of an approaching enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Some brief attention may here be given to the various types of
+anti-aircraft guns. These differ very materially in type and weight
+in the different belligerent armies and navies. They have but one
+quality in common, namely that they are most disappointing in the
+results attained. Mr. F. W. Lancaster, the foremost British
+authority on aircraft, says on this subject:</p>
+
+<p>"Anti-aircraft firing is very inaccurate, hence numbers of guns are
+employed to compensate."</p>
+
+<a id="img052" name="img052"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img052.jpg" width="400" height="533" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>German Air Raiders over England.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>In the foreground three British planes are advancing to the
+attack.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>That is to say that one or two guns can be little <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> relied
+upon to put a flyer <i>hors du combat</i>. The method adopted is to have
+large batteries which fairly fill that portion of the air through
+which the adventurous airman is making his way with shells fired
+rather at the section than at the swiftly moving target.</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald," the British airmen call, for some mysterious reason,
+the anti-aircraft guns employed by their enemies, sometimes
+referring to a big howitzer which made its appearance late in the
+war as "Cuthbert." The names sound a little effeminate, redolent
+somehow of high teas and the dancing floor, rather than the field of
+battle. Perhaps this was why the British soldiers adopted them as an
+expression of contempt for the enemy's batteries. But contempt was
+hardly justifiable in face of the difficulty of the problem. A gun
+firing a twenty-pound shrapnel shell is not pointed on an object
+with the celerity with which a practised revolver shot can throw his
+weapon into position. The gunner on the ground seeing an airplane
+flying five thousand feet above him&mdash;almost a mile up in the
+air&mdash;hurries to get his piece into position for a shot. But while he
+is aiming the flyer, if a high-speed machine, will be changing its
+position at a rate of perhaps 120 miles an hour. Nor does it fly
+straight ahead. The gunner cannot point his weapon some distance in
+advance as he would were he a sportsman intent on cutting off a
+flight of wild geese. The aviator makes quick
+turns&mdash;zigzags&mdash;employs every artifice to defeat the aim of his
+enemy below. Small wonder that in the majority of cases they have
+been successful. The attitude of the airmen toward the "Archies" is
+one of calm contempt.</p>
+
+<p>The German mind being distinctly scientific invented early in the
+war a method of fixing the range and position <span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span> of an enemy
+airplane which would be most effective if the target were not
+continually in erratic motion. The method was to arrange
+anti-aircraft guns in a triangle, all in telephonic connection with
+a central observer. When a flyer enters the territory which these
+guns are guarding, the gunner at one of the apexes of the triangle
+fires a shell which gives out a red cloud of smoke. Perhaps it falls
+short. The central observer notes the result and orders a second gun
+to fire. Instantly a gunner at another apex fires again, this time a
+shell giving forth black smoke. This shell discharged with the
+warning given by the earlier one is likely to come nearer the
+target, but at any rate marks another point at which it has been
+missed. Between the two a third gunner instantly corrects his aim
+by the results of the first two shots. His shell gives out a yellow
+smoke. The observer then figures from the positions of the three
+guns the lines of a triangular cone at the apex of which the target
+should be. Sometimes science wins, often enough for the Germans to
+cling to the system. But more often the shrewd aviator defeats
+science by his swift and eccentric changes of his line of flight.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the war Germany was very much better equipped
+with anti-aircraft guns than any of her enemies. This was due to the
+remarkable foresight of the great munition makers, Krupp and
+Ehrhardt, who began experimenting with anti-aircraft guns before the
+aircraft themselves were much more than experiments. The problem was
+no easy one. The gun had to be light, mobile, and often mounted on
+an automobile so as to be swiftly transferred from place to place in
+pursuit of raiders. It was vital that it should be so mounted as to
+be speedily trained to any <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> position vertical or horizontal.
+As a result the type determined upon was mounted on a pedestal fixed
+to the chassis of an automobile or to the deck of a ship in case it
+was to be used in naval warfare. The heaviest gun manufactured in
+Germany was of 4-&frac14;-inch calibre, throwing a shell of forty pounds
+weight. This could be mounted directly over the rear axle of a heavy
+motor truck. To protect the structure of the car from the shock of
+the recoil these guns are of course equipped with hydraulic or other
+appliances for taking it up. They are manufactured also in the
+3-inch size. Germany, France, and England vied with each other in
+devising armored motor cars equipped with guns of this type&mdash;the
+British using the makes of Vickers and Hotchkiss, and the French
+their favourite Creusot. The trucks are always armoured, the guns
+mounted in turrets so that the effect is not unlike that of a small
+battleship dashing madly down a country road and firing repeatedly
+at some object directly overhead. But the record has not shown that
+the success of these picturesque and ponderous engines of war has
+been great. They cannot man&oelig;uvre with enough swiftness to keep
+up with the gyrations of an airplane. They offer as good a target
+for a bomb from above as the aircraft does to their shots from
+below. Indeed they so thoroughly demonstrated their inefficiency
+that before the war had passed its third year they were either
+abandoned or their guns employed only when the car was stationary.
+Shots fired at full speed were seldom effective.</p>
+
+<p>The real measure of the effectiveness of anti-aircraft guns may be
+judged by the comparative immunity that attended the aviators
+engaged on the two early British raids on Friedrichshaven, the seat
+of the great <span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span> Zeppelin works on Lake Constance, and on the
+German naval base at Cuxhaven. The first was undertaken by three
+machines. From Belfort in France, the aviators turned into Germany
+and flew for 120 miles across hostile territory. The flight was made
+by day though indeed the adventurous aviators were favoured by a
+slight mist. Small single seated "avro" machines were used, loaded
+heavily with bombs as well as with the large amount of fuel
+necessary for a flight which before its completion would extend over
+250 miles. Not only at the frontier, but at many fortified positions
+over which they passed, they must have exposed themselves to the
+fire of artillery, but until they actually reached the neighbourhood
+of the Zeppelin works they encountered no fire whatsoever. There the
+attack on them was savage and well maintained. On the roofs of the
+gigantic factory, on neighbouring hillocks and points of vantage
+there were anti-aircraft guns busily discharging shrapnel at the
+invaders. It is claimed by the British that fearing this attack the
+Germans had called from the front in Flanders their best marksmen,
+for at that time the comparative worthlessness of the Zeppelin had
+not been demonstrated and the protection of the works was regarded
+as a prime duty of the army.</p>
+
+<a id="img053" name="img053"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img053.jpg" width="400" height="454" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>One Aviator's Narrow Escape.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The invading machines flew low above the factory roofs. The
+adventurers had come far on an errand which they knew would awaken
+the utmost enthusiasm among their fellows at home and they were
+determined to so perform their task that no charge of having left
+anything undone could possibly lie. Commander Briggs, the first of
+the aviators to reach the scene, flew as low as one hundred feet
+above the roofs, dropping his bombs with deadly accuracy. But he
+paid for his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span> temerity with the loss of his machine and his
+liberty. A bullet pierced his petrol tank and there was nothing for
+him to do save to glide to earth and surrender. The two aviators who
+accompanied him although their machines were repeatedly hit were
+nevertheless able to drop all their bombs and to fly safely back to
+Belfort whence they had taken their departure some hours before. The
+measure of actual damage done in the raid has never been precisely
+known. Germany always denied that it was serious, while the British
+ascribe to it the greatest importance&mdash;a clash of opinion common in
+the war and which will for some years greatly perplex the student of
+its history.</p>
+
+<p>The second raid, that upon Cuxhaven, was made by seaplanes so far as
+the air fighting was concerned, but in it not only destroyers but
+submarines also took part. It presented the unique phenomenon of a
+battle fought at once above, upon, and below the surface of the
+sea. It is with the aërial feature of the battle alone that we have
+to do.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas morning, 1915, seven seaplanes were quietly lowered to the
+surface of the water of the North Sea from their mother ships a
+little before daybreak. The spot was within a few miles of Cuxhaven
+and the mouth of the River Elbe. As the aircraft rose from the
+surface of the water and out of the light mist that lay upon it,
+they could see in the harbour which they threatened, a small group
+of German warships. Almost at the same moment their presence was
+detected. The alarms of the bugles rang out from the hitherto quiet
+craft and in a moment with the smoke pouring from their funnels
+destroyers and torpedo boats moved out to meet the attack. Two
+Zeppelins rose high in the air surrounded by a number of the smaller
+airplanes, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> eager for the conflict. The latter proceeded at
+once to the attack upon the raiding air fleet, while the destroyers,
+the heavier Zeppelins, and a number of submarines sped out to sea to
+attack the British ships. The mist, which grew thicker, turned the
+combat from a battle into a mere disorderly raid, but out of it the
+seaplanes emerged unhurt. All made their way safely back to the
+fleet, after having dropped their bombs with a degree of damage
+never precisely known. The weakness of the seaplane is that on
+returning to its parent ship it cannot usually alight upon her deck,
+even though a landing platform has been provided. It must, as a
+rule, drop to the surface of the ocean, and if this be at all rough
+the machine very speedily goes to pieces. This was the case with
+four of the seven seaplanes which took part in the raid on Cuxhaven.
+All however delivered their pilots safely to the awaiting fleet and
+none fell a victim to the German anti-aircraft guns.</p>
+
+<p>In May of 1917, the British Royal Naval Air Service undertook the
+mapping of the coast of Belgium north from Nieuport, the most
+northerly seaport held by the British, to the southern boundary of
+Holland. This section of coast was held by the Germans and in it
+were included the two submarine bases of Zeebrugge and Ostend. At
+the latter point the long line of German trenches extending to the
+boundary of Switzerland rested its right flank on the sea. The
+whole coast north of that was lined with German batteries, snugly
+concealed in the rolling sand dunes and masked by the waving
+grasses of a barren coast. From British ships thirty miles out at
+sea, for the waters there are shallow and large vessels can only at
+great peril approach the shore, the seaplanes were launched. Just
+south of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> Nieuport a land base was established as a
+rendezvous for both air-and seaplanes when their day's work was
+done. From fleet and station the aërial observers took their way
+daily to the enemy's coast. Every mile of it was photographed. The
+hidden batteries were detected and the inexorable record of their
+presence imprinted on the films. The work in progress at Ostend and
+Zeebrugge, the active construction of basins, locks, and quays, the
+progress of the great mole building at the latter port, the
+activities of submarines and destroyers within the harbour, the
+locations of guns and the positions of barracks were all indelibly
+set down. These films developed at leisure were made into coherent
+wholes, placed in projecting machines, and displayed like moving
+pictures in the ward rooms of the ships hovering off shore, so that
+the naval forces preparing for the assault had a very accurate idea
+of the nature of the defences they were about to encounter.</p>
+
+<p>This was not done of course without considerable savage fighting in
+mid-air. The Germans had no idea of allowing their defences and the
+works of their submarine bases to be pictured for the guidance of
+their foes. Their anti-aircraft guns barked from dawn to dark
+whenever a British plane was seen within range. Their own aërial
+fighters were continually busy, and along that desolate wave-washed
+coast many a lost lad in leather clothing and goggles, crumpled up
+in the ruins of his machine after a fall of thousands of feet, lay
+as a memorial to the prowess of the defenders of the coast and the
+audacity of those who sought to invade it. But during the long weeks
+of this extended reconnaissance hardly a spadeful of dirt could be
+moved, a square yard of concrete placed in position, or a submarine
+or torpedo boat man&oelig;uvred without <span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> its record being
+entered upon the detailed charts the British were so painstakingly
+preparing against the day of assault. When peace shall finally
+permit the publication of the records of the war, now held secret
+for military reasons, such maps as those prepared by the British air
+service on the Belgian coast will prove most convincing evidence of
+the military value of the aërial scouts.</p>
+
+<p>What the lads engaged in making these records had to brave in the
+way of physical danger is strikingly shown by the description of a
+combat included in one of the coldly matter-of-fact official
+reports. The battle was fought at about twelve thousand feet above
+mother earth. We quote the official description accompanied by some
+explanatory comments added by one who was an eye-witness and who
+conversed with the triumphant young airman on his return to the
+safety of the soil.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>"While exposing six plates," says the official report of this
+     youthful recording angel, "I observed five H. A.'s cruising."</p>
+
+     <p>"H. A." stands for "hostile aeroplane."</p>
+
+     <p>"Not having seen the escort since returning inland, the pilot
+     prepared to return. The enemy separated, one taking up a position
+     above the tail and one ahead. The other three glided toward us on
+     the port side, firing as they came. The two diving machines fired
+     over 100 rounds, hitting the pilot in the shoulder."</p>
+
+     <p>As a matter of fact, the bullet entered his shoulder from above,
+     behind, breaking his left collarbone, and emerged just above his
+     heart, tearing a jagged rent down his breast. Both his feet,
+     furthermore, were pierced by bullets; but the observer is not
+     concerned with petty detail.</p>
+
+     <p>The observer held his fire until H. A., diving on tail, was
+     within five yards.</p>
+
+     <p>Here it might be mentioned that the machines were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span>
+     hurtling through space at a speed in the region of one hundred
+     miles an hour.</p>
+
+     <p>The pilot of H. A., having swooped to within speaking distance,
+     pushed up his goggles, and laughed triumphantly as he took sight
+     for the shot that was to end the fight. But the observer, had his
+     own idea how the fight should end.</p>
+
+     <p>"I then shot one tray into the enemy pilot's face," he says, with
+     curt relish, "and watched him sideslip and go spinning earthward
+     in a train of smoke."</p>
+
+     <p>He then turned his attention to his own pilot. The British
+     machine was barely under control, but as the observer rose in his
+     seat to investigate the foremost gun was fired, and the aggressor
+     ahead went out of control and dived nose first in helpless
+     spirals.</p>
+
+     <p>Suspecting that his mate was badly wounded in spite of this
+     achievement, the observer swung one leg over the side of the
+     fusillage and climbed on to the wing&mdash;figure for a minute the air
+     pressure on his body during this gymnastic feat&mdash;until he was
+     beside the pilot, faint and drenched with blood, who had
+     nevertheless got his machine back into complete control.</p>
+
+     <p>"Get back, you ass!" he said through white lips in response to
+     inquiries how he felt. So the ass got back the way he came, and
+     looked around for the remainder of the H. A.'s. These, however,
+     appeared to have lost stomach for further fighting and fled.</p>
+
+     <p>The riddled machine returned home at one hundred knots while the
+     observer, having nothing better to do, continued to take
+     photographs.</p>
+
+     <p>"The pilot, though wounded, made a perfect landing"&mdash;thus the
+     report concludes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the time came for the assault upon Zeebrugge the value of these
+painstaking preparations was made evident. The attack was made from
+sea and air <span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span> alike. Out in the North Sea the great British
+battleships steamed in as near the coast as the shallowness of the
+water would permit. From the forward deck of each rose grandly a
+seaplane until the air was darkened by their wings, and they looked
+like a monstrous flock of the gulls which passengers on ocean-going
+liners watch wheeling and soaring around the ship as it ploughs its
+way through the ocean. These gulls though were birds of prey. They
+were planes of the larger type, biplanes or triplanes carrying two
+men, usually equipped with two motors and heavily laden with high
+explosive bombs. As they made their way toward the land they were
+accompanied by a fleet of light draft monitors especially built for
+this service, each mounting two heavy guns and able to man&oelig;uvre
+in shallow water. With them advanced a swarm of swift, low-lying,
+dark-painted destroyers ready to watch out for enemy torpedo boats
+or submarines. They mounted anti-aircraft guns too and were prepared
+to defend the monitors against assaults from the heavens above as
+well as from the sinister attack of the underwater boats. Up from
+the land base at Nieuport came a great fleet of airplanes to
+co-operate with their naval brethren. Soon upon the German works,
+sheltering squadrons of the sinister undersea boats, there rained a
+hell of exploding projectiles from sea and sky. Every gunner had
+absolute knowledge of the precise position and range of the target
+to which he was assigned. The great guns of the monitors roared
+steadily and their twelve and fourteen-inch projectiles rent in
+pieces the bomb proofs of the Germans, driving the Boches to cover
+and reducing their works to mere heaps of battered concrete. Back
+and forth above flew seaplanes and airplanes, giving battle to the
+aircraft which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> the Germans sent up in the forlorn hope of
+heading off that attack and dropping their bombs on points carefully
+mapped long in advance. It is true that the aim of the aviators was
+necessarily inaccurate. That is the chief weakness of a bombardment
+from the sky. But what was lacking in individual accuracy was made
+up by the numbers of the bombing craft. One might miss a lock or a
+shelter, but twenty concentrating their fire on the same target
+could not all fail. This has become the accepted principle of aërial
+offensive warfare. The inaccuracy of the individual must be
+corrected by the multiplication of the number of the assailants.</p>
+
+<p>The attack on Zeebrugge was wholly successful. Though the Germans
+assiduously strove to conceal the damage done, the later
+observations of the ruined port by British airmen left no doubt that
+as a submarine base it had been put out of commission for months to
+come. The success of the attack led to serious discussion, in which
+a determination has not yet been reached, of the feasibility of a
+similar assault upon Heligoland, Kiel, or Cuxhaven, the three great
+naval bases in which the German fleet has lurked in avoidance of
+battle with the British fleet. Many able naval strategists declared
+that it was time for the British to abandon the policy of a mere
+blockade and carry out the somewhat rash promise made by Winston
+Churchill when First Lord of the Admiralty, to "dig the rats out of
+their holes." Such an attack it was urged should be made mainly from
+the air, as the land batteries and sunken mines made the waters
+adjacent to these harbours almost impassable to attacking ships.
+Rear-Admiral Fiske, of the United States Navy, strongly urging such
+an attack, wrote in an open letter:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span> The German Naval General Staff realizes the value of
+     concentration of power and mobility in as large units as
+     possible. The torpedo plane embodies a greater concentration of
+     power and mobility than does any other mechanism. For its cost,
+     the torpedo plane is the most powerful and mobile weapon which
+     exists at the present day.</p>
+
+     <p>An attack by allied torpedo planes, armed with guns to defend
+     themselves from fighting airplanes, would be a powerful menace to
+     the German fleet and, if made in sufficient numbers, would give
+     the Allies such unrestricted command of the North Sea, even of
+     the shallow parts near the German coast, that German submarines
+     would be prevented from coming from a German port, the submarine
+     menace abolished, and all chance of German success wiped out.</p>
+
+     <p>I beg also to point out that an inspection of the map of Europe
+     shows that in the air raids over land the strategical advantage
+     lies with Germany, because her most important towns, like Berlin,
+     are farther inland than the most important towns of the Allies,
+     like London, so that aëroplanes of the Allies, in order to reach
+     Berlin, would have to fly over greater distances, while exposed
+     to the fire of other aëroplanes, than do aëroplanes of the
+     Germans in going to London for raids on naval vessels.</p>
+
+     <p>However, the strategical advantage over water lies with the
+     British, because their control of the deep parts of the North Sea
+     enables them to establish a temporary aeronautical base of mother
+     ships sufficiently close to the German fleet to enable the
+     British to launch a torpedo-plane attack from it on the German
+     fleets in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, while the Germans could not
+     possibly establish an aeronautical base sufficiently close to the
+     British fleet.</p>
+
+<a id="img054" name="img054"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img054.jpg" width="400" height="550" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Downed in the Enemy's Country.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>This gives the Allies the greatest advantage of the offensive. It
+     would seem possible, provided a distinct effort is made, for the
+     Allies to send a large number of aeroplane mother ships to a
+     point, say, fifty miles west of Heligoland, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span> and for a
+     large force of fighting aëroplanes and torpedo planes to start
+     from this place about two hours before dawn, reach Kiel Bay and
+     Wilhelmshaven about dawn, attack the German fleets there and sink
+     the German ships.</p>
+
+     <p>The distance from Heligoland to Kiel is about ninety land miles,
+     and to Wilhelmshaven about forty-five.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The torpedo planes referred to are an invention of Admiral Fiske's
+which, in accordance with what seems to be a fixed and fatal
+precedent in the United States, has been ignored by our own
+authorities but eagerly adopted by the naval services of practically
+all the belligerents. One weakness of the aërial attack upon ships
+of war is that the bombs dropped from the air, even if they strike
+the target, strike upon the protective deck which in most warships
+above the gunboat class is strong enough to resist, or at least to
+minimize, the effect of any bomb capable of being carried by an
+airplane. The real vulnerable part of a ship of war is the thin skin
+of its hull below water and below the armor belt. This is the point
+at which the torpedo strikes. Admiral Fiske's device permits an
+airplane to carry two torpedoes of the regular Whitehead class and
+to launch them with such an impetus and at such an angle that they
+will take the water and continue their course thereunder exactly as
+though launched from a naval torpedo tube. His idea was adopted both
+by Great Britain and Germany. British torpedo planes thus equipped
+sank four Turkish ships in the Sea of Marmora, a field of action
+which no British ship could have reached after the disastrous
+failure to force the Dardanelles. The Germans by employment of the
+same device sank at least two Russian ships in the Baltic and one
+British vessel in the North Sea. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> blindness of the
+United States naval authorities to the merits of this invention was
+a matter arousing at once curiosity and indignation among observers
+during the early days of our entrance upon the war.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> CHAPTER VIII<br>
+<span class="smaller">INCIDENTS OF THE WAR IN THE AIR</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>In time, no doubt, volumes will be written on the work of the airmen
+in the Great War. Except the submarine, no such novel and effective
+device was introduced into the conduct of this colossal struggle as
+the scouting airplane. The development of the service was steady
+from the first day when the Belgian flyers proved their worth at
+Liège. From mere observation trips there sprang up the air duels,
+from the duels developed skirmishes, and from these in time pitched
+battles in which several hundred machines would be engaged on each
+side. To this extent of development aërial tactics had proceeded by
+midsummer of 1917. Their further development must be left to some
+future chronicler to record. It must be noted, however, that at that
+early day the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,
+pleading for a larger measure of preparation for the perils of war,
+asserted that the time was not far distant when this country would
+have to prepare to repel invading fleets of aircraft from European
+shores. This may have been an exaggeration. At that moment no
+aircraft had crossed the Atlantic and no effort to make the passage
+had been made save those of Wellman and Vanniman. When the guns
+began to roar on the Belgian <span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span> frontier there was floating on
+Keuka Lake, New York, a huge hydro-airplane with which it was
+planned to make the trans-Atlantic voyage. The project had been
+financed by Mr. Rodman Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, and the tests of
+the ship under the supervision of a young British army officer who
+was to make the voyage were progressing most promisingly. But the
+event that plunged the world into war put a sudden end to
+experiments like this for the commercial development of the
+airplane. There is every reason to believe, however, that such a
+flight is practicable and that it will ultimately be made not long
+after the world shall have returned to peace and sanity.</p>
+
+<a id="img055" name="img055"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img055.jpg" width="600" height="308" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Kadel &amp; Herbert.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Later Type of French Scout.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>The gun mounted on the upper wing is aimed by pointing the machine
+and is fired by the pilot.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Airmen are not, as a rule, of a romantic or a literary temperament.
+Pursuing what seems to the onlooker to be the most adventurous and
+exhilarating of all forms of military service, they have been chary
+of telling their experiences and singularly set upon treating them
+as all in the day's work and eliminating all that is picturesque
+from their narratives. Sergeant James R. McConnell, one of the
+Americans in the French flying corps, afterwards killed, tells of a
+day's service in his most readable book, <i>Flying for France</i>, in a
+way that gives some idea of the daily routine of an operator of an
+<i>avion de chasse</i>. He is starting just as the sky at dawn is showing
+a faint pink toward the eastern horizon, for the aviator's work is
+best done in early morning when, as a rule, the sky is clear and
+the wind light:</p>
+
+<a id="img056" name="img056"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img056.jpg" width="600" height="432" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Position of Gunner in Early French Machines.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Drawing forward out of line, you put on full power, race across
+     the grass, and take the air. The ground drops as the hood slants
+     up before you and you seem to be going more and more slowly as
+     you rise. At a great height you <span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> hardly realize you are
+     moving. You glance at the clock to note the time of your
+     departure, and at the oil gauge to see its throb. The altimeter
+     registers 650 feet. You turn and look back at the field below and
+     see others leaving.</p>
+
+     <p>In three minutes you are at about four thousand feet. You have
+     been making wide circles over the field and watching the other
+     machines. At forty-five hundred feet you throttle down and wait
+     on that level for your companions to catch up. Soon the
+     escadrille is bunched and off for the lines. You begin climbing
+     again, gulping to clear your ears in the changing pressure.
+     Surveying the other machines, you recognize the pilot of each by
+     the marks on its side&mdash;or by the way he flies.</p>
+
+     <p>The country below has changed into a flat surface of varicoloured
+     figures. Woods are irregular blocks of dark green, like daubs of
+     ink spilled on a table; fields are geometrical designs of
+     different shades of green and brown, forming in composite an
+     ultra-cubist painting; roads are thin white lines, each with its
+     distinctive windings and crossings&mdash;from which you determine your
+     location. The higher you are the easier it is to read.</p>
+
+     <p>In about ten minutes you see the Meuse sparkling in the morning
+     light, and on either side the long line of sausage-shaped
+     observation balloons far below you. Red-roofed Verdun springs
+     into view just beyond. There are spots in it where no red shows
+     and you know what has happened there. In the green pasture land
+     bordering the town, round flecks of brown indicate the shell
+     holes. You cross the Meuse.</p>
+
+     <p>Immediately east and north of Verdun there lies a broad, brown
+     band. From the Woevre plain it runs westward to the "S" bend in
+     the Meuse, and on the left bank of that famous stream continues
+     on into the Argonne Forest. Peaceful fields and farms and
+     villages adorned that landscape a few months ago&mdash;when there was
+     no Battle of Verdun. Now there is only that sinister brown belt,
+     a strip of murdered Nature. It seems to belong to another
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span> world. Every sign of humanity has been swept away. The
+     woods and roads have vanished like chalk wiped from a blackboard;
+     of the villages nothing remains but grey smears where stone walls
+     have tumbled together. The great forts of Douaumont and Vaux are
+     outlined faintly, like the tracings of a finger in wet sand. One
+     cannot distinguish any one shell crater, as one can on the
+     pockmarked fields on either side. On the brown band the
+     indentations are so closely interlocked that they blend into a
+     confused mass of troubled earth. Of the trenches only broken,
+     half-obliterated links are visible.</p>
+
+     <p>Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives
+     tear deeper into this ulcered area. During heavy bombardment and
+     attacks I have seen shells falling like rain. The countless
+     towers of smoke remind one of Gustave Doré's picture of the fiery
+     tombs of the arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky pall covers
+     the sector under fire, rising so high that at a height of one
+     thousand feet one is enveloped in its mist-like fumes. Now and
+     then monster projectiles hurtling through the air close by leave
+     one's plane rocking violently in their wake. Airplanes have been
+     cut in two by them.</p>
+
+     <p>For us the battle passes in silence, the noise of one's motor
+     deadening all other sounds. In the green patches behind the brown
+     belt myriads of tiny flashes tell where the guns are hidden; and
+     those flashes, and the smoke of bursting shells, are all we see
+     of the fighting. It is a weird combination of stillness and
+     havoc, the Verdun conflict viewed from the sky.</p>
+
+     <p>Far below us, the observation and range-finding planes circle
+     over the trenches like gliding gulls. At a feeble altitude they
+     follow the attacking infantrymen and flash back wireless reports
+     of the engagement. Only through them can communication be
+     maintained when, under the barrier fire, wires from the front
+     lines are cut. Sometimes it falls to our lot to guard these
+     machines from Germans eager to swoop down on their backs. Sailing
+     about high <span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span> above a busy flock of them makes one feel
+     like an old mother hen protecting her chicks.</p>
+
+     <p>The pilot of an <i>avion de chasse</i> must not concern himself with
+     the ground, which to him is useful only for learning his
+     whereabouts. The earth is all-important to the men in the
+     observation, artillery-regulating, and bombardment machines, but
+     the fighting aviator has an entirely different sphere. His domain
+     is the blue heavens, the glistening rolls of clouds below the
+     fleecy banks towering above the vague aërial horizon, and he must
+     watch it as carefully as a navigator watches the storm-tossed
+     sea.</p>
+
+     <p>On days when the clouds form almost a solid flooring, one feels
+     very much at sea, and wonders if one is in the navy instead of
+     aviation. The diminutive Nieuports skirt the white expanse like
+     torpedo boats in an arctic sea, and sometimes, far across the
+     cloud-waves, one sights an enemy escadrille, moving as a fleet.</p>
+
+
+     <p>Principally our work consists of keeping German airmen away from
+     our lines, and in attacking them when opportunity offers. We
+     traverse the brown band and enter enemy territory to the
+     accompaniment of an anti-aircraft cannonade. Most of the shots
+     are wild, however, and we pay little attention to them. When the
+     shrapnel comes uncomfortably close, one shifts position slightly
+     to evade the range. One glances up to see if there is another
+     machine higher than one's own. Low, and far within the German
+     lines, are several enemy planes, a dull white in appearance,
+     resembling sandflies against the mottled earth. High above them
+     one glimpses the mosquito-like forms of two Fokkers. Away off to
+     one side white shrapnel puffs are vaguely visible, perhaps
+     directed against a German crossing the lines. We approach the
+     enemy machines ahead, only to find them slanting at a rapid rate
+     into their own country. High above them lurks a protection plane.
+     The man doing the "ceiling work," as it is called, will look
+     after him for us.</p>
+
+     <p>Getting started is the hardest part of an attack. Once <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span>
+     you have begun diving you're all right. The pilot just ahead
+     turns tail up like a trout dropping back to water, and swoops
+     down in irregular curves and circles. You follow at an angle so
+     steep your feet seem to be holding you back in your seat. Now the
+     black Maltese crosses on the German's wings stand out clearly.
+     You think of him as some sort of a big bug. Then you hear the
+     rapid tut-tut-tut of his machine-gun. The man that dived ahead of
+     you becomes mixed up with the topmost German. He is so close it
+     looks as if he had hit the enemy machine. You hear the staccato
+     barking of his mitrailleuse and see him pass from under the
+     German's tail.</p>
+
+     <p>The rattle of the gun that is aimed at you leaves you
+     undisturbed. Only when the bullets pierce the wings a few feet
+     off do you become uncomfortable. You see the gunner crouched
+     down behind his weapon, but you aim at where the pilot ought to
+     be&mdash;there are two men aboard the German craft&mdash;and press on the
+     release hard. Your mitrailleuse hammers out a stream of bullets
+     as you pass over and dive, nose down, to get out of range. Then,
+     hopefully, you redress and look back at the foe. He ought to be
+     dropping earthward at several miles a minute. As a matter of
+     fact, however, he is sailing serenely on. They have an annoying
+     habit of doing that, these Boches.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Zeppelins as well as the stationary kite balloons and the swiftly
+flying airplanes often tempted the fighting aviators to attack. One
+of the most successful of the British champions of the air, though
+his own life was ended in the second year of the war, was
+sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, of the British Flying Corps. In
+his brief period of service Warneford won more laurels than any of
+the British aviators of the time. He was absolutely fearless, with a
+marvelous control of the fast Vickers scout which he employed, and
+fertile in every resource of the chase and of the flight. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span>
+In an interview widely printed at the time, Lieutenant Warneford
+thus told the story of his casual meeting of a German Zeppelin high
+in air between Ghent and Brussels and his prompt and systematic
+destruction of the great balloon. The story as told in his own
+language reads like the recountal of an everyday event. That to meet
+an enemy more than a mile above the earth and demolish him was
+anything extraordinary does not seem to have occurred to the
+aviator.</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     I proceeded on my journey at an increased height [he says]. It
+     was just three o'clock in the morning when all of a sudden I
+     perceived on the horizon about midway between Ghent and Brussels
+     a Zeppelin flying fast at an altitude of about six thousand feet.
+     I immediately flew toward it and when I was almost over the
+     monster I descended about fifteen metres, and flung six bombs at
+     it. The sixth struck the envelope of the ship fair and square in
+     the middle. There was instantly a terrible explosion. The
+     displacement of the air round about me was so great that a
+     tornado seemed to have been produced. My machine tossed upward
+     and then flung absolutely upside down, I was forced to loop the
+     loop in spite of myself. I thought for a moment that the end of
+     everything had come. In the whirl I had the pleasure of seeing my
+     victim falling to the earth in a cloud of flames and smoke. Then
+     by some miracle my machine righted herself and I came to earth in
+     the enemy's country. I was not long on the ground you may be
+     sure. I speedily put myself and my machine into working order
+     again; then I set my engine going.</p>
+
+<p>This time the fortunate aviator returned safely to his own
+territory. He had then served only four months, had attained the age
+of twenty-three, and even in so brief a service had received the
+Cross of the Legion of Honour from France and the Victoria Cross
+from the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span> British. Only one week after this courageous
+exploit he was killed while on a pleasure flight and with him a
+young American journalist, Henry Beach Needham, to whom he was
+showing the battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>During the early years of the war all of the governments were
+peculiarly secretive concerning all matters relative to their
+aviation services. This was probably due to the fact that the flying
+corps was a brand new branch of the service. No nation was
+adequately equipped with flyers. Each was afraid to let its enemies
+know how insufficient were its air guards, or what measures were
+being taken to bring the aërial fleet up to the necessary point of
+efficiency. Investigators were frowned upon and the aviators
+themselves were discouraged from much conversation about their work.</p>
+
+<p>About the beginning of 1916 the British suddenly awoke to the fact
+that even in war publicity has its value. It was necessary to arouse
+the enthusiastic support of the people for recruiting or for the
+conscription which ultimately was ordered. To do this graphic
+descriptions of what was doing at the front in the various branches
+of the service seemed necessary. The best writers in England were
+mobilized for this work. Kipling wrote of the submarines, Conan
+Doyle of the fighting on the fields of France. The Royal Flying
+Corps gave out a detailed story the authorship of which was not
+stated, but which describes most picturesquely the day of a flying
+man.</p>
+
+<p>In the United States it appeared in the <i>Sun</i>, of New York, and
+sections of it are reprinted here:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>"The following bombing will be carried out by No.&mdash;Squadron at
+     night (10 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, 12 midnight, and 2 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span>). <span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> At each of
+     these times three machines, each carrying eight twenty-pound
+     bombs, will bomb respectively P&mdash;&mdash;, C&mdash;&mdash;, H&mdash;&mdash;."</p>
+
+     <p>Thus the operation order read one evening in France. Just an
+     ordinary order too, for bombing is carried out day and night
+     incessantly. Bombing by night is usually carried out on towns and
+     villages known to be resting places of the German troops, and it
+     is part of the work of the Royal Flying Corps to see that the Hun
+     never rests.</p>
+
+     <p>Fritz after a hard spell in the trenches is withdrawn to some
+     shell torn village behind his lines to rest. He enters the ruined
+     house, that forms his billet, and with a sigh of contentment at
+     reaching such luxury after the miseries of trench life prepares
+     to sleep in peace. He dreams of home, and then out of the night
+     comes the terror of the air.</p>
+
+     <p>A bomb falls in his billet, exploding with a terrific report and
+     doing more damage to the already ruined walls. Possibly a few of
+     his comrades are wounded or killed. Other explosions take place
+     close by and the whole village is in turmoil.</p>
+
+     <p>Fritz does not sleep again. His nerves are jangled and all
+     possibility of sleep is gone. The next day he is in a worse
+     condition than after a night in the trenches. This continues
+     night after night. The damage to German morale is enormous.</p>
+
+     <p>From the aërial point of view things are different. A pilot
+     warned for night flying takes it as he takes everything else,
+     with apparent unconcern. He realizes that he will have an
+     uninteresting ride in the dark; the danger from "Archie" will be
+     small, for an airplane is a difficult target to keep under
+     observation with a searchlight, and the danger from hostile
+     aircraft will be smaller still.</p>
+
+     <p>Over the trenches the star shells of the infantry may be seen,
+     occasionally the flash of a badly concealed gun glints in the
+     darkness or the exploding bombs of a trench raiding party cause
+     tiny sparks to glimmer far below. Probably the enemy, hearing the
+     sound of engines, will <span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> turn on his searchlights and
+     sweep the sky with long pencils of light. The pilot may be picked
+     up for a second, and a trifle later the angry bang, bang, bang of
+     "Archie" may be heard, firing excitedly at the place where the
+     aeroplane ought to be but is not&mdash;the pilot has probably dipped
+     and changed his course since he was in the rays of the
+     searchlight. He may be caught again for an instant and the
+     performance is repeated.</p>
+
+     <p>Before long the vicinity of the target is reached and he prepares
+     to drop his bombs, usually eight in number. A little before he is
+     over the spot the first bombs will be released, for the
+     trajectory of the bomb follows the course of the machine if the
+     latter keeps on a straight course and when it explodes the
+     airplane is still overhead. Down far below will be seen a tiny
+     burst of flame; possibly a large fire blazes up and the pilot
+     knows that his work is good. He then turns and repeats his
+     performance until all his bombs are exhausted, when he turns for
+     home.</p>
+
+     <p>Bombs are usually dropped from a low altitude at night in order
+     to be surer of getting the target. If during the performance any
+     local searchlights are turned on "Archie" gets busy and a merry
+     game of hide and seek in and out the beams takes place. If the
+     airplane is very low, and bombs are sometimes dropped from a
+     height of only a few hundred feet, it is highly probable that the
+     bursting shells do more damage than the airplane's bombs, and it
+     is almost impossible to wing an airplane by night.</p>
+
+<a id="img057" name="img057"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img057.jpg" width="600" height="380" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French Scout Airplane.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>Over the lines the pilot probably meets more searchlights, dodges
+     them, and gradually descends. Below him he sees the aerodromes of
+     the surrounding squadrons lighted up for landing purposes. Should
+     he be in doubt as to which is his own he fires a certain
+     combination of signal lights and is answered from below. He then
+     lands, hands his machine over to the mechanics, and turns in.</p>
+
+<a id="img058" name="img058"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img058.jpg" width="600" height="396" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0">"<i>Showing Off.</i>"<br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>A Nieuport performing aërial acrobatics around a heavier bombing
+     machine.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>So much for night bombing. By day it is different. Though at
+     night it is the billets which usually form the target, by day
+     bombing is carried out for the purpose of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span> damaging
+     specific objects. Railroads, dumps of stores and ammunition, and
+     enemy aerodromes are the favourite targets.</p>
+
+     <p>The raiding machines fly in formation and are surrounded by other
+     machines used solely for protective purposes. Generally a raid is
+     carried out by machines from two squadrons, the bomb carriers
+     belonging to a corps wing and the escorting machines to an army
+     wing.</p>
+
+     <p>All the machines meet at a prearranged rendezvous well on our
+     side of the line at a certain time and a given altitude. There
+     they man&oelig;uvre into their correct formation. A flight commander
+     leads the raid and his machine is distinguished by streamers tied
+     to it.</p>
+
+     <p>Once over the target the fighters scatter and patrol the
+     neighbourhood while the bombers discharge their missiles on the
+     objective. Usually, unless anti-aircraft fire is very heavy, they
+     descend a few thousand feet to make surer of the target, and when
+     their work is completed rise again to the level of the escort.</p>
+
+     <p>Results can usually be fairly judged by day. An ammunition dump
+     quickly shows if it is hit and stores soon burst into flame.
+     Railway stations or junctions show clearly damage to buildings or
+     overturned trucks, but the damage to the track itself is hard to
+     estimate. Aerodromes may be bombed for the purpose of destroying
+     enemy machines in their hangars or merely in order to spoil the
+     landing by blowing holes all over the place. It is with great
+     delight that a pilot remarks in his report that a hostile
+     machine, surrounded by mechanics, was about to ascend, but that
+     instead he had descended to within a few hundred feet and
+     obtained a direct hit, with the result that the enemy machine,
+     including the surrounding men, seemed to be severely damaged.</p>
+
+     <p>One officer on a bomb raid saw his chance in this way, descended
+     to four hundred feet under intense rifle fire, successfully
+     bombed the enemy machine, which was just emerging from its
+     hangar, and then tried to make off. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> Unfortunately at
+     this moment his engine petered out, possibly on account of the
+     enemy's fire, and he had to descend.</p>
+
+     <p>By skillful planing he managed to descend about three quarters of
+     a mile away, in full view of the enemy. Instead of giving up the
+     ghost and at once firing his machine, this officer jumped out
+     and, utterly unperturbed by the German fire or by the Huns making
+     across country to take him prisoner, commenced to inspect the
+     engine. Luckily he found the cause of the trouble at once, put it
+     right,&mdash;it was only a trifling mishap,&mdash;adjusted the controls,
+     and swung the propeller.</p>
+
+     <p>The engine started, he jumped in, with the nearest Hun only a
+     hundred yards off, and opening the throttle raced over the ground
+     and into the air pursued by a futile fusillade of bullets. His
+     engine held out and he safely regained his aerodrome, after
+     having been reported missing by his comrades. For this escapade
+     he received the Military Cross&mdash;a well-earned reward.</p>
+
+     <p>When all the bombs have been dropped and the formation resumed
+     the machines head for home. It is on the homeward journey that
+     events may be expected, for time enough has elapsed for the Hun
+     to detail a squadron to intercept our returning machines and pick
+     off any stragglers that may fall behind.</p>
+
+     <p>It is a favourite Boche man&oelig;uvre to detail some of his slow
+     machines to entice our fighters away from the main body, and when
+     this has been accomplished, to attack the remainder with Fokkers,
+     which dive from aloft onto the bombing machines. This trick is
+     now well-known and the fighters rarely leave their charges until
+     the latter are in comparative safety.</p>
+
+     <p>Sometimes a Hun of more sporting character than his brothers will
+     wait alone for the returning convoy, hiding himself thousands of
+     feet up in the clouds until he sees his moment. Then singling out
+     a machine he will dive at it, pouring out a stream of bullets as
+     he falls. Sometimes he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> achieves his object and a British
+     machine falls to earth, but whatever the result, the Hun does not
+     alter his tactics. He dives clean through the whole block of
+     machines, down many thousands of feet, only flattening out when
+     close to the ground.</p>
+
+     <p>The whole affair is so swift&mdash;just one lightning dive&mdash;that long
+     before a fighter can reach the Hun the latter is away thousands
+     of feet below and heading for home and safety. Every Fokker pilot
+     knows that once his surprise dive is over he has no chance
+     against another machine&mdash;the build of the Fokker only allows this
+     one method of attack&mdash;and he does not stop to argue about it. His
+     offensive dive becomes a defensive one&mdash;that is the sole
+     difference.</p>
+
+     <p>Sometimes a large squadron of German machines, composed of
+     various types of airplanes, intercepts a returning formation. If
+     it attacks a grand aërial battle ensues. The British fighting
+     machines spread out in a screen to allow the bombing machines a
+     chance of escape and then attack the Huns as they arrive. In one
+     place one British airplane will be defending itself from two or
+     three German machines; close by two or three of our busses will
+     be occupied in sending a Hun to his death; elsewhere more equal
+     combats rage and the whole sky becomes an aërial battlefield,
+     where machines perform marvellous evolutions, putting the best
+     trick flying of pre-war days very much in the shade. No sooner
+     has a pilot accounted for his foe, by killing him, forcing him to
+     descend, or making him think discretion the better part of
+     valour, than he turns to the help of a hard-pressed brother,
+     surprising the enemy by an attack from the rear or otherwise
+     creating a diversion.</p>
+
+     <p>A single shot in the petrol tank proves fatal; loss of pressure
+     ensues, the engine fails, and the pilot is forced to descend. He
+     can usually land safely, but should he be in enemy territory he
+     must fire his machine and prepare for a holiday in Germany.
+     Should he be fortunate enough to plane over our lines little
+     damage is done; the tank can <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> be repaired and the machine
+     made serviceable again. But for the time being he is out of the
+     fight. Sometimes the escaping petrol may ignite and the pilot and
+     observer perish in the flames&mdash;the most terrible fate of all.</p>
+
+     <p>The aërial battle ends in one of two ways: one side is
+     outman&oelig;uvred, outnumbered, and has lost several machines and
+     flies to safety, or, the more usual ending, both sides exhaust
+     their ammunition, only a limited quantity perforce being carried,
+     and the fight is of necessity broken off. Meanwhile the bombing
+     machines have probably crossed the line in safety, and their duty
+     is finished. Should they be attacked by a stray machine they are
+     armed and quite capable of guarding themselves against any attack
+     except one in force.</p>
+
+     <p>During these bomb raids photographs of the target are frequently
+     obtained or should the staff require any district crossed on the
+     journey and taken they are generally secured by bombing machines.
+     It is wonderful what minute details may be seen in a photograph
+     taken at a height of from eight to twelve thousand feet, and our
+     prints, which are far superior to those taken by the Hun, have
+     revealed many useful points which would otherwise have remained
+     unknown.</p>
+
+     <p>When it is remembered that a single machine crossing the line is
+     heavily shelled it may be conceived what an immense concentration
+     of "Archies" is made on the raiders on their return. It is
+     remarkable what feeble results are obtained considering the
+     intensity of the bombardment, but rarely is a machine brought
+     down, though casualties naturally occur occasionally.</p>
+
+     <p>Lieutenant C., in company with other machines, had successfully
+     bombed his target and had meanwhile been heavily shelled, with
+     the result that his engine was not giving its full number of
+     revolutions and he lagged a little behind the rest of the
+     formation. No hostile aircraft appeared and all went well until
+     he was about to cross the lines, when a terrific bombardment was
+     opened on him.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> He dodged and turned to the best of his ability, but a
+     well-aimed shell burst just above him and a piece of the "Archie"
+     hit him on the head, not seriously wounding him, but knocking him
+     unconscious. The machine, deprived of the guiding hand,
+     immediately got into a dive and commenced a rapid descent from
+     ten thousand feet, carrying the unconscious pilot with it, to be
+     dashed to pieces on the ground.</p>
+
+     <p>Whether the rush of air, the sudden increase of pressure, or the
+     passing off of the effect of the blow caused the disabled man to
+     come to his senses is not known, but when the machine was only a
+     few hundred feet from the ground, Lieutenant C. recovered his
+     senses sufficiently to realize his position and managed to pull
+     the machine up and make a landing. He then lapsed into
+     unconsciousness again. Had he remained in his state of collapse
+     half a minute longer, he would inevitably have been killed.</p>
+
+     <p>Another curious case of wounding was that of Lieutenant H., who
+     was also returning from a bomb raid. When passing through the
+     heavily shelled zone his machine was hit by a shell, which passed
+     through the floor by the pilot's seat and out at the top without
+     exploding. Lieutenant H. thought it must have been very close to
+     his leg, but he was so fully occupied with man&oelig;uvring to dodge
+     other shells that he had no time to think of it.</p>
+
+     <p>He crossed the line and began to plane down when he was aware of
+     a feeling of faintness, but pulling himself together he landed
+     his machine, taxied up to the sheds, and attempted to get out. It
+     was only then that he realized that his leg was shot almost
+     completely off above the knee; the lower part was merely hanging
+     by a piece of skin.</p>
+
+     <p>Incredible as it may seem the shell which hit his machine also
+     tore through the leg&mdash;luckily without exploding&mdash;unknown to
+     Lieutenant H. Probably the force of the blow and excitement of
+     the moment caused it to pass unnoticed and the torn nature of the
+     wound helped to close <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span> the arteries and prevent his
+     bleeding to death. He recovered, and though no longer flying is
+     still engaged in doing his duty for the duration of the war.</p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img059" name="img059"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img059.jpg" width="400" height="501" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>Raid on a Troop Train</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The courage and dash of the American aviators, serving with the
+French Army, led the Allies to expect great things of our flying
+corps which should be organized immediately after our declaration of
+war. About the time of that declaration Major L. W. B. Rees, of the
+British Flying Corps, came to the United States for the purpose of
+giving to our authorities the benefit of British experience in
+raising and equipping aërial fleets and in the development of the
+most efficient tactics. Major Rees in an official statement set
+forth many facts of general interest concerning the various flying
+services of the belligerent armies. The British, he said, fly on
+three levels with three different kinds of machines. Nearest the
+ground, about six thousand feet up, are the artillery directors who
+hover about cutting big figure eights above the enemy trenches and
+flash back directions by wireless to the British artillerists.
+These observers are, of course, exposed to attack from anti-aircraft
+guns, the effective range of which had by the middle of war become
+as great as ten thousand feet. Yet, as has already been noted, the
+amount of execution done by these weapons was surprisingly small.
+The observers are protected from attack from above, first by the
+heavy fighting planes, flying at ten thousand feet, carrying two men
+to the plane and able to keep the air for four hours at a time at a
+speed of 110 miles an hour. They are supposed to use every possible
+vigilance to keep the enemy's fighters away from the slower and busy
+observing machines. In this they are seconded by the lighter one-man
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> fighting machines which cruise about at a height of fifteen
+thousand feet at a speed of 130 miles an hour and able to make a
+straight upward dash at the rate of ten thousand feet in ten
+minutes. The aviators of these latter machines came to describe
+their task as "ceiling work," suggesting that they operated at the
+very top of the world's great room. They are able to keep the air
+only about two hours at a time.</p>
+
+<p>Americans, perhaps, gave exaggerated importance to the work of the
+Lafayette Escadrille which was manned wholly by American boys, and
+which, while in service from the very beginning of the war, was the
+first section of the French Army permitted to display the flag of
+the United States in battle after our declaration of war. It was
+made up, in the main, of young Americans of good family and
+independent means, most of them being college students who had laid
+down their books for the more exciting life of an airman. They paid
+heavily in the toll of death for their adventure and for the
+conviction which led them to take the side of democracy and right in
+the struggle against autocracy and barbarism months, even years,
+before their nation finally determined to join with them. In the
+first two and a half years of the war, seven of the aviators in this
+comparatively small body lost their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Harvard College was particularly well represented in the American
+Flying Corps&mdash;although this is a proper and pertinent place to say
+that the sympathy shown for the allied cause by the young collegians
+of the United States was a magnificent evidence of the lofty
+righteousness of their convictions and the spirit of democracy with
+which they looked out upon the world. When the leash was taken off
+by the declaration <span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span> of war by the United States the college
+boys flocked to training camps and enlistment headquarters in a way
+that bade fair to leave those institutions of learning without
+students for some years to come.</p>
+
+<p>But to hark back to Harvard, it had in the Lafayette Escadrille five
+men in 1916; three of these, Kiffen Rockwell, Norman Prince, and
+Victor Chapman, were killed in that year. A letter published in
+<i>Harvard Volunteers in Europe</i> tells of the way these young
+gladiators started the day's work:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Rockwell called me up at three: "Fine day, fine day, get up!" It
+     was very clear. We hung around at Billy's [Lieutenant Thaw] and
+     took chocolate made by his ordonnance. Hall and the Lieutenant
+     were guards on the field; but Thaw, Rockwell, and I thought we
+     would take <i>a tour chez les Boches</i>. Being the first time the
+     <i>mechanaux</i> were not there and the machine gun rolls not ready.
+     However it looked misty in the Vosges, so we were not hurried.
+     "Rendezvous over the field at a thousand metres," shouted Kiffen.
+     I nodded, for the motor was turning; and we sped over the field
+     and up.</p>
+
+<a id="img060" name="img060"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img060.jpg" width="200" height="532" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="cap220px top_0"><i>A Burning Balloon,<br> Photographed from a Parachute by the Escaping
+     Balloonist.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>In my little cockpit from which my shoulders just protrude I have
+     several diversions besides flying. The compass, of course, and
+     the map I keep tucked in a tiny closet over the reservoir before
+     my knees, a small clock and one altimetre. But most important is
+     the contour, showing revolutions of the motor which one is
+     constantly regarding as he moves the manettes of gasoline and gas
+     back and forth. To husband one's fuel and tease the motor to
+     round eleven takes attention, for the carburetor changes with the
+     weather and the altitude.... The earth seemed hidden under a fine
+     web such as the Lady of Shalott wove. Soft purple in the west,
+     changing to shimmering white in the east. Under me on the left
+     the Vosges like rounded sand dunes cushioned up with velvety
+     light and dark masses <span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> (really forests), but to the south
+     standing firmly above the purple cloth like icebergs shone the
+     Alps. My! they look steep and jagged. The sharp blue shadows on
+     their western slopes emphasized the effect. One mighty group
+     standing aloof to the west&mdash;Mount Blanc perhaps. Ah, there are
+     quantities of worm-eaten fields my friends the trenches&mdash;and that
+     town with the canal going through it must be M&mdash;&mdash;. Right beside
+     the capote of my engine, showing through the white cloth a silver
+     snake&mdash;the Rhine!</p>
+
+     <p>What, not a quarter to six, and I left the field at five!
+     Thirty-two hundred metres. Let's go north and have a look at the
+     map.</p>
+
+     <p>While thus engaged a black puff of smoke appeared behind my tail
+     and I had the impression of hearing a piece of iron hiss by.
+     "Must have got my range first shot!" I surmised, and making a
+     steep bank piqued heavily. "There, I have lost them now." The
+     whole art of avoiding shells is to pay no attention till they get
+     your range and then dodge away, change altitude, and generally
+     avoid going in a straight line. In point of fact, I could see
+     bunches of exploding shells up over my right shoulder not a
+     kilometre off. They continued to shell that section for some
+     time; the little balls of smoke thinning out and merging as they
+     crossed the lines.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the earlier days of the war, when the American aviators were
+still few, their deeds were widely recounted in their home country,
+and their deaths were deplored as though a personal loss to many of
+their countrymen. Later they went faster and were lost in the daily
+reports. Among those who had early fixed his personality in the
+minds of those who followed the fortunes of the little band of
+Americans flying in France was Kiffen Rockwell, mentioned in an
+earlier paragraph, and one of the first to join the American
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> escadrille. Rockwell was in the war from sincere conviction
+of the righteousness of the Allies' cause.</p>
+
+<p>"I pay my part for Lafayette, and Rochambeau," he said proudly, when
+asked what he was doing in a French uniform flying for France. And
+pay he did though not before making the Germans pay heavily for
+their part. Once, flying alone over Thann, he came upon a German
+scout. Without hesitation the battle was on. Rockwell's machine was
+the higher, had the better position. As aërial tactics demanded he
+dived for the foe, opening fire as soon as he came within thirty or
+forty yards. At his fourth shot the enemy pilot fell forward in his
+seat and his machine fell heavily to earth. He lighted behind the
+German lines much to the victor's disgust, for it was counted a
+higher achievement to bring your foe to earth in your own territory.
+But Rockwell was able to pursue his victim far enough to see the
+wreck burst into flames.</p>
+
+<p>Though often wounded, Rockwell scorned danger. He would go into
+action so bandaged that he seemed fitter to go to an hospital. He
+was always on the attack&mdash;"shoved his gun into the enemy's face" as
+his fellows in the escadrille expressed it. So in September, 1916,
+he went out after a big German machine, he saw flying in French
+territory. He had but little difficulty in climbing above it, and
+then dashed down in his usual impetuous manner, his machine gun
+blazing as he came on. But the German was of heavier metal mounting
+two machine guns. Just as to onlookers it seemed that the two
+machines would crash together, the wings of one side of Rockwell's
+plane suddenly collapsed and he fell like a stone between the lines.
+The Germans turned their guns on the pile of wreckage where he lay,
+but French gunners ran out <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> and brought his body in. His
+breast was all blown to pieces with an explosive bullet&mdash;criminal,
+of course, barbarous and uncivilized, but an everyday practice of
+the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>Rockwell was given an impressive funeral. All the British pilots,
+and five hundred of their men marched, and the bier was followed by
+a battalion of French troops. Over and around the little French
+graveyard aviators flew dropping flowers. In later days less
+ceremony attended the last scene of an American aviator's career.</p>
+
+<p>Another American aviator, also a Harvard man, who met death in the
+air, was Victor Chapman of New York, a youth of unusual charm, high
+ideals, and indomitable courage. At the very outbreak of the war he
+enlisted in the French Foreign Legion&mdash;a rough entourage for a
+college-bred man. Into the Foreign Legion drifted everything that
+was doubtful, and many that were criminal. No questions were asked
+of those who sought its hospitable ranks, and readers of Ouida's
+novel <i>Under Two Flags</i> will recall that it enveloped in its
+convenient obscurity British lordlings and the lowest of Catalonian
+thieves. But in time of actual war its personnel was less mixed, and
+Chapman's letters showed him serving there contentedly as pointer of
+a mitrailleuse. But not for long. Most of the spirited young
+Americans who entered the French Army aspired to serve in the
+aviation corps, and Chapman soon was transferred to that field.
+There he developed into a most daring flyer. On one occasion, with a
+bad scalp wound, after a brush with four German machines, he made
+his landing with his machine so badly wrecked that he had to hold
+together the broken ends of a severed control with one hand, while
+he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> steered with the other. Instead of laying up for the day
+he had his mechanician repair his machine while a surgeon repaired
+him, then, patched up together, man and machine took the air again
+in search for the Boches.</p>
+
+<p>In June, 1916, though still suffering from a wound in the head, he
+started in his machine to carry some oranges to a comrade lying
+desperately wounded in a hospital some miles away. On the way he saw
+in the distance behind the German lines two French airmen set upon
+by an overwhelming force of Germans. Instantly he was off to the
+assistance of his friends, plunging into so unequal a fight that
+even his coming left the other Americans outnumbered. But he had
+scarce a chance to strike a blow. Some chance shot from a German gun
+put him out of action. All that the other two Americans, Lufbery
+and Prince, knew was that they saw a French machine come flying to
+their aid, and suddenly tip and fall away to earth. Until nightfall
+came and Chapman failed to return none was sure that he was the
+victim.</p>
+
+<p>The part played by young Americans as volunteers for France before
+the United States entered upon the war was gallant and stimulating
+to national pride. It showed to the world&mdash;and to our own countrymen
+who needed the lesson as much as any&mdash;that we had among our youth
+scores who, moved by high ideals, stood ready to risk their lives
+for a sentiment&mdash;stood ready to brave the myriad discomforts of the
+trenches, the bursting shrapnel, the mutilating liquid fire, the
+torturing gas that German autocracy should be balked of its purpose
+of dominating the world.</p>
+
+<p>And the service of these boys aided far more than they knew. The
+fact that our countrymen in numbers were flying for France kept ever
+before the American <span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> people the vision of that war in the
+air of which poets and philosophers had dreamed for ages. It brought
+home to our people the importance of aviation before our statesmen
+could begin to see it. It set our boys to reading of aircraft,
+building model planes, haunting the few aviation fields which at the
+time our country possessed. And it finally so filled the
+consciousness of our people with conviction of the supreme
+importance of aviation as an arm of the national armed service that
+long before the declaration of war the government was embarrassed by
+the flood of volunteers seeking to be enrolled in the flying forces
+of the nation.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span> CHAPTER IX<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE UNITED STATES AT WAR</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The entrance of the United States upon the war was the signal for a
+most active agitation of the question of overwhelming the enemy with
+illimitable fleets of aircraft. Though the agitation was most
+vociferous in this country whence it was hoped the enormous new
+fleets of aircraft would come, it was fomented and earnestly pressed
+by our Allies. France sent a deputation of her leading flyers over
+to supervise the instruction of our new pilots. England contributed
+experts to advise as to the construction of our machines. The most
+comprehensive plans were urged upon Congress and the Administration
+for the creation of a navy of the air. A bill for an initial
+appropriation of $640,000,000, for aircraft purposes alone, was
+passed and one for a Department of Aeronautics to be established,
+co-ordinate with those of War and the Navy, its secretary holding a
+seat in the cabinet, was introduced in Congress. Many of the most
+eminent retired officers of the navy joined in their support.
+Retired officers only because officers in active service were
+estopped from political agitation.</p>
+
+<p>There was every possible reason for this great interest in the
+United States in wartime aviation. The nation had long been
+shamefaced because the development <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> of the heavier-than-air
+machines, having their origin undoubtedly in the inventive genius of
+Professor Langley and the Wrights, had been taken away from us by
+the more alert governments of France and Germany. The people were
+ready to buy back something of our lost prestige by building the
+greatest of air fleets at the moment when it should exercise the
+most determinative influence upon the war.</p>
+
+<p>But more. We entered upon the war in our chronic state of
+unpreparedness. We were without an army and without equipment for
+one. To raise, equip, and drill an army of a million, the least
+number that would have any appreciable effect upon the outcome of
+the war, would take months. When completed we would have added only
+to the numerical superiority of the Allies on the Western Front. The
+quality of a novel and decisive contribution to the war would be
+lacking.</p>
+
+<p>So too it was with our navy. The British Navy was amply adequate to
+deal with the German fleet should the latter ever leave its prudent
+retreat behind Helgoland and in the bases of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.
+True it was not capable of crushing out altogether the submarine
+menace, but it did hold the German underwater boats down to a fixed
+average of ships destroyed, which was far less than half of what the
+Germans had anticipated. In this work our ships, especially our
+destroyers, took a notable part.</p>
+
+<p>The argument for a monster fleet of fighting aircraft, thus came to
+the people of the United States in a moment of depression and
+perplexity. By land the Germans had dug themselves in, holding all
+of Belgium and the thousands of square miles of France they had won
+in their first dash to the Marne. What they had won swiftly and
+cheaply could only be regained slowly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> and at heavy cost.
+True, the Allies were, day by day, driving them back from their
+position, but the cost was disheartening and the progress but slow.</p>
+
+<p>By sea the Germans refused to bring their fleet to battle with their
+foes. But from every harbour of Belgium, and from Wilhelmshaven and
+Kiel, they sent out their sinister submarines to prey upon the
+commerce of the world&mdash;neutral as well as belligerent. Against them
+the navies of the world were impotent. To the threat that by them
+Germany would starve England into cowering surrender, the only
+answer was the despairing effort to build new ships faster than the
+submarines could sink those afloat&mdash;even though half a million tons
+a month were sent to the bottom in wasteful destruction.</p>
+
+<a id="img061" name="img061"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img061.jpg" width="600" height="384" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Levick.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth Building.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Faced by these disheartening conditions, wondering what they might
+do that could be done quickly and aid materially in bringing the
+war to a triumphant conclusion, the American people listened
+eagerly to the appeals and arguments of the advocates of a monster
+aërial fleet.</p>
+
+<a id="img062" name="img062"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img062.jpg" width="600" height="385" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Cruising at 2000 Feet.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>One Biplane photographed from another.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Listen [said these advocates], we show you a way to spring full
+     panoplied into the war, and to make your force felt with your
+     first stroke. We are not preaching dreadnoughts that take four
+     years to build. We are not asking for a million men taking nearly
+     a year to gather, equip, drill, and transport to France, in
+     imminent danger of destruction by the enemy's submarines every
+     mile of the way.</p>
+
+     <p>We ask you for a cheap, simple device of wood, wire, and cloth,
+     with an engine to drive it. All its parts are standardized. In a
+     few weeks the nation can be equipped to turn out 2000 of them
+     weekly. We want within the year 100,000 of them. We do not ask
+     for a million men. We <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span> want 10,000 bright, active, hardy,
+     plucky American boys between 20 and 25 years of age. We want to
+     give them four months' intensive training before sending them
+     into the air above the enemy's lines. In time we shall want
+     25,000 to 35,000 but the smaller number will well do to open the
+     campaign.</p>
+
+     <p>And what will they effect?</p>
+
+     <p>Do you know that to-day the eyes of an army are its airplanes?
+     Cavalry has disappeared practically. If a general wishes to pick
+     out a weak point in his enemy's line to assault he sends out
+     airmen to find it. If he is annoyed by the fire of some distant
+     unseen battery over the hills and far away he sends a man in an
+     airplane who brings back its location, its distance, and perhaps
+     a photograph of it in action. If he suspects that his foe is
+     abandoning his trenches, or getting ready for an attack, the
+     ready airmen bring in the facts.</p>
+
+     <p>And of course the enemy's airmen serve their side in the same
+     manner. They spy out what their foe is doing, and so far as their
+     power permits prevent him from seeing what they are doing.</p>
+
+     <p>Now suppose one side has an enormous preponderance of
+     aircraft&mdash;six to one, let us say. It is not believed, for
+     example, that at this moment Germany has more than 10,000
+     aircraft on the whole western front. Let us imagine that through
+     the enterprise of the United States our Allies were provided with
+     25,000 on one sector which we intended to make the scene of an
+     attack on the foe. Say the neighbourhood of Arras and Lille. For
+     days, weeks perhaps, we would be drawing troops toward this
+     sector from every part of the line. Through the reports of spies
+     the enemy's suspicions would be aroused. It is the business of an
+     efficient general to be suspicious. He would send out his
+     airplanes to report on the activities of the other side. Few
+     would come back. None would bring a useful report. For every
+     German plane that showed above the lines three Allied planes
+     would be ready to attack and destroy it or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span> beat it back.
+     The air would be full of Allied airmen&mdash;the great bombing planes
+     flying low and inundating the trenches with bombs, and the troops
+     on march with the deadly fléchettes. Over every German battery
+     would soar the observation plane indicating by tinsel or smoke
+     bombs the location of the guns, or even telegraphing it back by
+     wireless to the Allied batteries safe in positions which the
+     blinded enemy could never hope to find. Above all in myriads
+     would be soaring the swift fighting scouts, the Bleriots,
+     Nieuports, Moranes or perhaps some new American machine to-day
+     unknown. Let the wing of a Boche but show above the smoke and
+     they would be upon him in hordes, beating him to the ground,
+     enveloping him in flames, annihilating him before he had a chance
+     to observe, much less to report.</p>
+
+     <p>What think you would be the result on that sector of the battle
+     line? Why the foe would be cut to pieces, demolished,
+     obliterated. Blinded, he would be unrelentingly punished by an
+     adversary all eyes. Writhing under the concentrated fire of a
+     thousand guns he could make no response, for his own guns could
+     not find the attacking batteries. Did he think to flee? His
+     retreating columns would be marked down by the relentless scouts
+     in the air, and the deadly curtain of fire from well-coached
+     batteries miles away would sweep every road with death. If in
+     desperation he sought to attack he would do so ignorant whether
+     he were not hurling his regiments against the strongest part of
+     the Allied line, and with full knowledge of the fact that though
+     he was blinded they had complete information of his strength and
+     dispositions.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The argument impressed itself strongly upon the mind of the country.
+There appeared indeed no public sentiment hostile to it nor any
+organized opposition to the proposition for an enormous
+appropriation for purposes of aviation. The customary inertia of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> Congress delayed the actual appropriation for some months.
+But the President espoused its cause and the Secretaries both of War
+and the Navy warmly recommended it, although they united in opposing
+the proposition to establish a distinct department of aeronautics
+with a seat in the Cabinet. Being human neither one desired to let
+his share of this great new gift of power slip out of his hands.
+Leading in the fight for this legislation was Rear-Admiral Robert E.
+Peary, U. S. N., retired, the discoverer of the North Pole. Admiral
+Peary from the very outbreak of the war consecrated his time and his
+abilities to pushing the development of aeronautics in the United
+States. He was continually before Congressional committees urging
+the fullest appropriations for this purpose. In his first statement
+before the Senate Committee he declared that "in the immediate
+future the air service will be more important than the army and navy
+combined," and supported that statement by reference to utterances
+made by such British authorities as Mr. Balfour, Lord Charles
+Beresford, Lord Northcliffe, and Lord Montague. In an article
+published shortly after his appearance before the Senate Committee,
+the Admiral summarized in a popular way his views as to the
+possibility of meeting the submarine menace with aircraft, and what
+the United States might do in that respect. He wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>We are receiving agreeable reports as to the efficiency of the
+     American destroyer flotilla now operating against submarines in
+     the North Sea. An unknown naval officer, according to the
+     newspapers of May 30th, calls for the immediate construction of
+     from 100 to 200 additional American destroyers.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> By all means let us have this force&mdash;when it can be made
+     ready&mdash;but it would take at least two years to construct, equip,
+     and deliver such a heavy additional naval tonnage, while 200
+     fighting seaplanes, with a full complement of machine guns,
+     bombs, microphones, and aërial cameras, could be put in active
+     service in the North Sea within six months.</p>
+
+     <p>Seaplanes, small dirigibles on the order of the English "blimp"
+     type, and kite balloons have already shown themselves to be more
+     effective in detecting submarines than are submarine chasers or
+     armed liners.</p>
+
+     <p>Not only have the British, French, German, and Turkish forces
+     destroyed trawlers, patrol boats, and transports by aircraft, but
+     successful experiments in airplane submarine hunting have also
+     been made in this country.</p>
+
+     <p>In September, 1916, our first Aërial Coast Patrol Unit, in acting
+     as an auxiliary to the Mosquito Squadron in the annual
+     man&oelig;uvres of the Atlantic fleet, detected objects smaller than
+     the latest type of German submarines from fifteen to twenty feet
+     below the surface.</p>
+
+     <p>A more complete aërial submarine hunt took place on March 26th of
+     this year. This was the real thing, because the fliers were
+     looking for German U-boats. Inasmuch as the Navy Department is
+     still waiting before establishing its first and only aeronautical
+     base on the Atlantic seaboard, the honour of having conducted the
+     first aërial hunt of the enemy submarines in American history
+     went to the civilian aviators who are soon to be a part of the
+     Aërial Reserve Squadron at Governor's Island and to the civilian
+     instructors and aërial reservists connected with the Army
+     Aviation School at Mineola, Long Island.</p>
+
+     <p>These hawks of the air darted up and down the coast in search of
+     the enemy, often flying as far as eleven miles out to sea. The
+     inlets and bays were searched, vessels plotted, compass direction
+     and time when located were given.</p>
+
+     <p>No enemy submarines were found. It developed that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> the
+     supposed submarines were two patrol motor-boats returning from a
+     trial trip. Nevertheless the incident is illuminating, and the
+     official statement of the Navy Department closed with the words:
+     "This incident emphasizes the need of hydroaëroplanes for naval
+     scouting purposes."</p>
+
+     <p>It is also interesting to note what happened when Lawrence Sperry
+     went out to sea one day last summer in his hydroplane and failed
+     to return. Two seaplanes and three naval destroyers were sent in
+     search of him. In forty minutes the seaplanes returned with the
+     news that they had located Sperry floating safely on the water.
+     At the end of the day, after several hours of search, the
+     destroyers came back without having seen Sperry at all.</p>
+
+     <p>Those who may still believe that we Americans cannot build
+     aircraft and that all the exploits we read so much about in the
+     newspapers taking place on the other side are being done in
+     foreign aircraft will be surprised to know that a large number of
+     the big flying boats now in use in the English navy, harbour, and
+     coast defence work are Curtiss machines, designed and built in
+     this country by Americans, with American material and American
+     engines.</p>
+
+     <p>Great Britain wants all the machines of this type that it can
+     get, and sees no reason why we cannot do the same thing in
+     protecting our own Atlantic seaboard. I quote from C. G. Grey,
+     editor of <i>The London Aeroplane</i>:</p>
+
+     <p>"Curiously enough, these big flying boats originated in America,
+     and, if America is seriously perturbed about the fate of American
+     shipping and American citizens travelling by sea in the vicinity
+     of Europe, it should not be a difficult matter for America to rig
+     up in a very small space of time quite a fleet of seaplane
+     carriers suitable for the handling of these big seaplanes. If
+     each seaplane ship were armed with guns having a range of five to
+     ten miles, and if the gunners were practised in co-operating with
+     airplane spotters, such ships ought to be the very best possible
+     insurance for American lives and goods on the high seas."</p>
+
+     <p>I quote from <i>The Associated Press</i> report from Paris on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span>
+     May 14th to show the relative importance of aëroplanes in
+     submarine attacks:</p>
+
+     <p>"During the last three months French patrol boats have had
+     twelve engagements with submarines, French hydroaëroplanes have
+     fought them thirteen times, and there have been sixteen
+     engagements between armed merchantmen and submarines."</p>
+
+     <p>Henry Woodhouse, one of the most distinguished authorities on
+     aeronautics in the United States, in his standard <i>Textbook on
+     Naval Aeronautics</i>, published by the Century Company, has
+     assembled the following data on submarine and aeroplane combats:</p>
+
+     <p>"On May 4, 1915, the German Admiralty reported an engagement
+     between a German dirigible and several British submarines in the
+     North Sea. The submarines fired on the dirigible without success,
+     whereas bombs from the dirigible sank one submarine.</p>
+
+     <p>"On May 31, 1915, the German Admiralty announced the sinking of a
+     Russian submarine by bombs dropped by German naval aviators near
+     Gotland.</p>
+
+     <p>"On July 1, 1915, the Austrian submarine U-11 was destroyed in
+     the Adriatic by a French aeroplane, which swooped suddenly and
+     dropped three bombs directly on the deck of the submarine. The
+     craft was destroyed and the entire crew of twenty-five were lost.</p>
+
+     <p>"On July 27, 1915, a German submarine in the Dardanelles was
+     about to launch a torpedo at a British transport filled with
+     troops and ammunition, when British aviators gave the alarm to
+     the transport, and immediately began dropping bombs at the
+     submarine, which had to submerge and escape hurriedly, without
+     launching its torpedo.</p>
+
+     <p>"On August 19, 1915, the Turkish War Office stated that an Allied
+     submarine had been sunk in the Dardanelles by a Turkish
+     aeroplane.</p>
+
+     <p>"On August 26, the Secretary of the British Admiralty announced
+     that Squadron Commander Arthur W. Bigsworth <span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span> in a
+     single-handed attack bombed and destroyed a German submarine off
+     Ostend.</p>
+
+     <p>"Lieutenant Viney received the Victoria Cross and Lieutenant de
+     Sincay was recommended for the Legion of Honour for having flown
+     over a German submarine and destroyed it with bombs off the
+     Belgian coast on November 18, 1915.</p>
+
+     <p>"Early in 1916 an Austrian seaplane sank the French submarine
+     <i>Foucault</i> in the southern Adriatic. Lieutenant Calezeny was the
+     pilot and the observer was Lieutenant von Klinburg. After
+     crippling the submarine they then performed the remarkable feat
+     of calling another Austrian seaplane and rescuing the entire
+     French crew, two officers and twenty seven men, in spite of the
+     fact that a high sea was running at the time."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It will be noted that Admiral Peary lays great stress on the supreme
+value of aircraft as foes of the submarine. This was due to the fact
+that at about the time of his appearance before the Senate Committee
+the world was fairly panic-stricken by the vigour and effect of the
+German submarine campaign and its possible bearing upon the outcome
+of the war. Of that campaign I shall have more to say in the section
+of this book dealing with submarines. But the subject of the
+undersea boat in war became at this time inextricably interwoven
+with that of the aërial fleets, and the sudden development of the
+latter, together with the marked interest taken in it by our people,
+cannot be understood without some description of the way in which
+the two became related.</p>
+
+<p>From the very beginning of the war the Germans had prosecuted a
+desultory submarine warfare on the shipping of Great Britain and had
+extended it gradually until neutral shipping also was largely
+involved. All <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> the established principles of international
+law, or principles that had been supposed to be established, were
+set at naught. In bygone days enemy merchant ships were subject to
+destruction only after their crews had been given an opportunity to
+take to the boats. Neutral ships bearing neutral goods, even if
+bound to an enemy port, were liable to destruction only if found
+upon visit to be carrying goods that were contraband of war. The
+list of contraband had been from time immemorial rigidly limited,
+and confined almost wholly to munitions of war, or to raw material
+used in their construction. But international law went by the board
+early in the war. Each belligerent was able to ascribe plausible
+reasons for its amendment out of recognizable form. Great Britain
+established blockades two hundred miles away from the blockaded
+ports because the submarines made the old practice of watching at
+the entrance of the port too perilous. The list of contraband of war
+was extended by both belligerents until it comprehended almost every
+useful article grown, mined, or manufactured. But the amendment to
+international law which acted as new fuel for the flames of war,
+which aroused the utmost world-wide indignation, and which finally
+dragged the United States into the conflict, was that by which
+Germany sought to relieve her submarine commanders of the duty of
+visiting and searching a vessel, or of giving its people time to
+provide for their safety, before sinking it.</p>
+
+<a id="img063" name="img063"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img063.jpg" width="400" height="501" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>An Air Battle in Progress.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The German argument was that the submarine was unknown when the code
+of international law then in force was formulated. It was a
+peculiarly delicate naval weapon. Its strength lay in its ability to
+keep itself concealed while delivering its attack. If exposed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> on the surface a shot from a small calibred gun striking in
+a vital point would instantly send it to the bottom. If rammed it
+was lost. Should a submarine rise to the surface, send an officer
+aboard a ship it had halted, and await the result of his search, it
+would be exposed all the time to destruction at the hands of enemy
+vessels coming up to her aid. Indeed if the merchantman happened to
+carry one gun a single shot might put the assailant out of business.
+Accordingly the practice grew up among the Germans of launching
+their torpedoes without a word of warning at their helpless victim.
+The wound inflicted by a torpedo is such that the ship will go down
+in but a few minutes carrying with it most of the people aboard. The
+most glaring, inexcusable, and criminal instance of this sort of
+warfare was the sinking without warning of the great passenger
+liner, <i>Lusitania</i>, by which more than eleven hundred people were
+drowned, one hundred and fourteen of them American citizens.</p>
+
+<a id="img064" name="img064"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img064.jpg" width="600" height="357" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Curtis Hydroaëroplane.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Against this policy&mdash;or piracy&mdash;the United States protested, and
+people of this country waxed very weary as month after month through
+the years 1915 and 1916 Germany met the protests with polite letters
+of evasion and excuse continuing the while the very practice
+complained of. But late in January, 1917, her government announced
+that there would be no longer any pretence of complying with
+international law, but that with the coming month a campaign of
+unlimited submarine ruthlessness would be begun and ships sunk
+without warning and irrespective of their nationality if they
+appeared in certain prohibited zones. Within twenty-four hours the
+United States sent the German Ambassador from the country and within
+two months we were at war.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> At once the submarine was seen to be the great problem
+confronting us. Its attack was not so much upon the United States,
+for we are a self-contained nation able to raise all that we need
+within our own borders for our own support. But England is a nation
+that has to be fed from without. Seldom are her stores of food great
+enough to avert starvation for more than six weeks should the steady
+flow of supply ships from America and Australia to her ports be
+interrupted. This interruption the Germans proposed to effect by
+means of their underwater boats. Von Tirpitz and other leaders in
+the German administration promised the people that within six weeks
+England would be starved and begging for peace at any price. The
+output of submarines from German navy yards was greatly increased.
+Their activity became terrifying. The Germans estimated that if they
+could sink 1,000,000 tons of shipping monthly they would put England
+out of action in two or three months. For some weeks the destruction
+accomplished by their boats narrowly approached this estimate, but
+gradually fell off. At the same time there was no period in 1917 up
+to the time of Admiral Peary's statement, or indeed up to that of
+the preparation of this book, when it was not felt that the cause of
+the Allies was in danger because of the swarms of German submarines.</p>
+
+<p>It was that feeling, coupled with the wide-spread belief that
+aircraft furnished the best means of combating the submarine, that
+caused an irresistible demand in the United States for the
+construction of colossal fleets of these flying crafts. Congress
+enacted in midsummer the law appropriating $640,000,000 for the
+construction of aircraft and the maintenance of the aërial service.
+The Secretaries of War and the Navy <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> each appealed for heavy
+additional appropriations for aërial service. The arguments which
+have already been set forth as supporting the use of aircraft in
+military service were paralleled by those who urge its unlimited use
+in naval service.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Consider [said they] the primary need for attacking these vipers
+     of the sea in their nests. Once out on the broad Atlantic their
+     chances of roaming about undetected by destroyers or other patrol
+     boats are almost unlimited. But we know where they come from,
+     from Kiel, Antwerp, Wilhelmshaven, Ostend, and Zeebrugge. Catch
+     them there and you will destroy them as boys destroy hornets by
+     smoking out their nests. But against this the Germans have
+     provided by blocking every avenue of approach save one. The
+     channels are obstructed and mined, and guarded from the shore by
+     heavy batteries. No hostile ships dare run that gauntlet. Even
+     the much-boasted British navy in the three years of the war has
+     not ventured to attack a single naval base. You could not even
+     seek out the submarines thus sheltered by other submarines
+     because running below the surface our boats could not detect
+     either mines or nets and would be doomed to destruction. The
+     enemy boats come out on the surface protected by the batteries
+     and naval craft. But the air cannot be blocked by any fixed
+     defences. Give us more and more powerful aircraft than the
+     Germans possess and we will darken the sky above the German bases
+     with the wings of our airplanes, and rain explosive shells upon
+     the submarines that have taken shelter there until none survive.</p>
+
+     <p>The one essential is that our flyers shall be in overwhelming
+     numbers. We must be able not only to take care of any flying
+     force that the Germans may send against us, but also to have
+     enough of our aircraft not engaged in the aërial battle to devote
+     their entire attention to the destruction of the enemy forces
+     below.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> From every country allied with us came approval of this
+policy. At the time the debate was pending in Congress our Allies
+one after another were sending to us official commissions to consult
+upon the conduct of the war, to give us the benefit of their long
+and bitter experience in it, and to assist in any way our
+preparations for taking a decisive part in that combat. The subject
+of the part to be played by aircraft was one frequently discussed
+with them. With the French commission came two members of the staff
+of General Joffre, Major Tulasne and Lieutenant de la Grange,
+experts in aviation service. A formal interview given out by these
+gentlemen expressed so clearly the point of view on aviation and its
+possibilities held in France where it has reached its highest
+development that some extracts from it will be of interest here:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>"At the beginning of the war the Germans were the only ones who
+     had realized the great importance of aviation from a military
+     point of view," said these officers.</p>
+
+     <p>"France had looked upon aviation as a sport, Germany as a
+     powerful weapon in war. This is illustrated by the fact that even
+     in August, 1914, German artillery fire was directed by airplanes.</p>
+
+     <p>"It was only after the retreat from Belgium and the battle of the
+     Marne that the Allies realized the great importance of aviation.
+     Between August 15 and 25 the French General Staff thought that
+     the greater part of the German army was concentrated in Alsace
+     and that only a few army corps were coming through Belgium. It
+     was only through the reports of the aviators that they realized
+     that this was a mistake and that almost the whole of the German
+     army was invading Belgium.</p>
+
+     <p>"Immediately after the battle of the Marne the greatest efforts
+     were made in France to develop the aviation corps <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span> in
+     every possible way. The English army, then in process of
+     formation, profited by the experience of the French. Since that
+     time the allied as well as the German aviation corps has grown
+     constantly.</p>
+
+     <p>"A modern army is incomplete if it has not a strong aviation
+     corps. All the different services are obliged to turn to the
+     aviation corps for help in their work. An army without airplanes
+     is like a soldier without eyes. An army which has the superiority
+     in aviation over its adversary will have the following
+     advantages:</p>
+
+     <p>"It will have constantly the latest information on the movements
+     of the enemy. In this way, no concentration of troops will be
+     ignored and no surprise attack will be possible. The attack
+     against the enemy positions will be rendered easier because all
+     the details of these positions will be thoroughly known
+     beforehand. The artillery fire will be much more accurate. Many
+     enemy machines will be brought down by the superior fighting
+     machines and the result will be to strengthen the morale both of
+     the aviators and of the army."</p>
+
+     <p>The next question put to the French experts was: "Why do we need
+     to make a great effort to obtain the superiority in the air?"
+     They answered with much interesting detail:</p>
+
+     <p>"Because the Germans have understood the importance of aviation
+     from a military point of view and have concentrated all their
+     forces to develop this service.</p>
+
+     <p>"Owing to the large number of scientists and technicians they
+     possess they are able constantly to perfect motors and planes.
+     Owing to their great industrial organization they are able to
+     produce an enormous number of the best machines.</p>
+
+     <p>"The German aviation service is now fully as strong as that of
+     the Allies as far as numbers are concerned. The superiority in
+     the air can only remain in the hands of the Allies because of the
+     spirit of self-sacrifice of their aviators and their greater
+     skill.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span> "Germany feels that the decisive phase of the war is
+     imminent and the efforts she will make next year will be
+     infinitely greater than any she has made before. She will try in
+     every way to regain the supremacy of the air. Realizing what a
+     formidable enemy America can be in the air, she will strengthen
+     her aviation forces in consequence.</p>
+
+     <p>"The aeroplane is by far the most powerful of all the modern
+     weapons. If the Allies have the supremacy of the air the German
+     artillery will lose its accuracy of aim. It is impossible,
+     because of the long range, for modern guns to fire without the
+     help of airplanes. The accuracy of artillery fire depends
+     entirely on its being directed by an airplane.</p>
+
+     <p>"This was clearly illustrated during the battle of the Somme in
+     1916. The French at that time had concentrated such a large
+     number of fighting machines that no German machine was allowed to
+     fly over the lines. On the other hand, the Allies' reconnaissance
+     machines were so numerous that each French battery could have its
+     fire directed by an airplane.</p>
+
+     <p>"The destruction of the enemy positions was in consequence
+     carried out very effectively and very rapidly, while the Germans
+     were obliged to fire blindly and scatter their shells over large
+     areas, incapable as they were of locating our battery
+     emplacements and the positions of our troops. Unluckily, a few
+     weeks later the Germans had called from the different parts of
+     the line a good many of their squadrons, and were able to carry
+     out their work under better conditions.</p>
+
+     <p>"We need such a superiority that it will be impossible for any
+     German airplane to fly anywhere near the lines.</p>
+
+     <p>"Every German kite balloon, every airplane would immediately be
+     attacked by a number of allied machines. In this way the German
+     aviation will not only be dominated but will be entirely crushed.</p>
+
+     <p>"If we can prevent the Germans from seeing, through their
+     airplanes, what we are preparing we will be very near the end of
+     the war. It will require a huge effort to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span> carry out this
+     plan. Neither the English nor the French are able to do so by
+     their own means.</p>
+
+     <p>"As far as France is concerned, she is able to keep on building
+     machines rapidly enough to increase her aviation corps at about
+     the same rate as Germany is increasing hers. If she wanted to
+     double or triple her production of machines she could do so, but
+     she would have to call back from the trenches a certain number of
+     skilled workmen, and this would weaken her fighting power. She
+     needs in the trenches all the men who are able to carry a rifle.</p>
+
+     <p>"If the Allies are to have the absolute supremacy of the air
+     which we have been describing it will be the privilege of America
+     to give it to them. We want three or four or even five allied
+     machines for one German. America only has the possibilities of
+     production which would allow her to build an enormous number of
+     machines in a very short time.</p>
+
+     <p>"The airplane is a great engine of destruction. It tells the
+     artillery where to fire, it drops bombs, it gives the enemy all
+     the information he needs to plan murderous attacks. Drive the
+     German airplanes down and you will save the lives of thousands of
+     men in our trenches. As Ulysses in the cavern put out the eye of
+     the Cyclops, so the eyes of the beast must be put out before you
+     can attempt to kill it."</p>
+
+     <p>Major Tulasne and Lieutenant de la Grange then outlined what the
+     aviation programme of the United States should be, saying:</p>
+
+     <p>"American industry must be enabled to begin building at once. No
+     time must be lost in experiments. America must profit by the
+     experience of the Allies. She must choose the best planes and
+     build thousands of them.</p>
+
+     <p>"She must build reconnoissance machines which she will need for
+     her army; she must build a large number of fighting machines
+     because it is these machines that will destroy German planes; she
+     must also build squadrons of powerful bombing machines which will
+     go behind the German lines <span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span> to destroy the railway
+     junctions and bomb the enemy cantonments, so as to give the
+     soldiers no rest even when they have left the trenches.</p>
+
+     <p>"Bombing done by a few machines gives poor results. The same
+     cannot be said of this operation carried out by a large number of
+     machines which can go to the same places and bomb continually.</p>
+
+     <p>"Besides the number of men that are actually killed in these
+     raids, great disturbance is caused in the enemy's communication
+     lines, thereby hindering the operations. For example, since the
+     British Admiralty has increased the number of its bombing
+     squadrons in northern France and has decided to attack constantly
+     the two harbours of Ostend and Zeebrugge and the locks, bridges,
+     and canals leading to them they have greatly interfered with the
+     activity of these two German bases.</p>
+
+     <p>"It is certain that shortly, owing to this, these two ports will
+     no more be used by German torpedo boats and submarines. What the
+     English Royal Naval Air Service has been able to accomplish with
+     100 machines the Flying Corps of the United States with 1000
+     machines must be able to carry out on other parts of the front.</p>
+
+     <p>"The work of the bombing machines is rendered difficult now by
+     the fact that the actual lines are far from Germany. But it is
+     hoped that soon fighting will be carried on near the enemy
+     frontier and then a wonderful field will be opened to the bombing
+     machines.</p>
+
+     <p>"All the big ammunition factories which are in the Rhine and Ruhr
+     valleys, like Krupp's, will be wonderful targets for the American
+     bombing machines. If these machines are of the proper type&mdash;that
+     is to say, sufficiently fast and well armed and able to carry a
+     great weight of bombs&mdash;nothing will prevent them from destroying
+     any of these important factories.</p>
+
+     <p>"As Germany at the present time is only able to continue the war
+     because of her great stock of war material the destruction of her
+     sources of production would be the end <span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span> of her
+     resistance. For this also the Allies must turn to America. Such a
+     large number of machines is required to produce results that
+     America must be relied on to manufacture them.</p>
+
+     <p>"Every man in this country must know that it is in the power of
+     the United States, no matter what can be done in other fields, to
+     bring the war to an end simply by concentrating all its energies
+     on producing an enormous amount of material for aviation, and to
+     enlist a corresponding number of pilots. But this will not be
+     done without great effort. In order to be ready for the great
+     1918 offensive work must be begun at once."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The extreme secrecy which in this war has characterized the
+operation of the governments&mdash;our own most of all&mdash;makes it
+impossible to state the amount of progress made in 1917 in the
+construction of our aërial fleet. During the debate in Congress
+orators were very outspoken in their prophecies that we should
+outnumber the Kaiser's flying fleet two or three to one. The press
+of the nation was so very explicit in its descriptions of the way in
+which we were to blind the Germans and drive them from the air that
+it is no wonder the Kaiser's government took alarm, and set about
+building additional aircraft with feverish zeal. In this it was
+imitated by France and England. It seemed, all at once about the
+middle of 1917, that the whole belligerent world suddenly recognized
+the air as the final battlefield and began preparations for its
+conquest.</p>
+
+<p>All statistical estimates in war time are subject to doubt as to
+their accuracy&mdash;and particularly those having to do in any way with
+the activities of an enemy country. But competent estimators&mdash;or at
+any rate shrewd guessers&mdash;think that Germany's facilities for
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> constructing airplanes equal those of France and England
+together. If then all three nations build to the very limit of their
+abilities there will be a tie, which the contribution of aircraft
+from the United States will settle overwhelmingly in favour of the
+Allies. How great that contribution may be cannot be foretold with
+certainty at this moment. The building of aircraft was a decidedly
+infant industry in this country when war began. In the eight years
+prior to 1916 the government had given orders for just fifty-nine
+aircraft&mdash;scarcely enough to justify manufacturers in keeping their
+shops open. Orders from foreign governments, however, stimulated
+production after the war began so that when the United States
+belatedly took her place as national honour and national safety
+demanded among the Entente Allies, Mr. Howard E. Coffin, Chairman of
+the Aircraft Section of the Council of National Defence was able to
+report eight companies capable of turning out about 14,000 machines
+in six months&mdash;a better showing than British manufacturers could
+have made when Great Britain, first entered the war.</p>
+
+<p>A feature in the situation which impressed both Congress and the
+American people was the exposure by various military experts of the
+defenceless condition of New York City against an air raid by a
+hostile foreign power. At the moment, of course, there was no
+danger. The only hostile foreign power with any considerable naval
+or aërial force was Germany and her fleet was securely bottled up in
+her own harbours by the overpowering fleet of Great Britain. Yet if
+one could imagine the British fleet reduced to inefficiency, let us
+say by a futile, suicidal attack upon Kiel or Heligoland which would
+leave it crippled, and free the Germans, or if we could conceive
+that the German threat to reduce <span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> Great Britain to
+subjection by the submarine campaign, proved effective, the peril of
+New York would then be very real and very immediate. For, although
+the harbour defences are declared by military authorities to be
+practically impregnable against attack by sea, they would not be
+effective against an attack from the air. A hostile fleet carrying a
+number of seaplanes could round-to out of range of our shore
+batteries and loose their flyers who could within less than an hour
+be dropping bombs on the most congested section of Manhattan Island.
+It is true that our own navy would have to be evaded in such case,
+but the attack might be made from points more distant from New York
+and at which no scouts would ever dream of looking for an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The development in later months of the big heavily armed cruising
+machines makes the menace to any seaport city like New York still
+greater. The Germans have built great biplanes with two fuselages,
+or bodies, armoured, carrying two machine guns and one automatic
+rifle to each body. They have twin engines of three hundred and
+forty horse power and carry a crew of six men. They are able in an
+emergency to keep the air for not less than three days. It is
+obvious that a small fleet of such machines launched from the deck
+of a hostile squadron, let us say in the neighbourhood of Block
+Island, could menace equally Boston or New York, or by flying up the
+Sound could work ruin and desolation upon all the defenceless cities
+bordering that body of water.</p>
+
+<p>Nor are the Germans alone in possessing machines of this type. The
+giant Sikorsky machines of Russia, mentioned in an earlier chapter,
+have during the war been developed into types capable of carrying
+crews of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span> twenty-five men with guns and ammunition. The
+French, after having brought down one of the big German machines
+with the double bodies, instantly began building aircraft of their
+own of an even superior type. Some of these are driven by four
+motors and carry eleven persons, besides guns and ammunition. The
+Caproni machines of Italy are even bigger&mdash;capable of carrying nine
+guns and thirty-five men. The Congressional Committee was much
+impressed by consideration of what might be done by a small fleet of
+aircraft of this type launched from a hostile squadron off the Capes
+of Chesapeake Bay and operating against Washington. It is not likely
+that any foreign foe advancing by land could repeat the exploit of
+the British who burned the capitol in 1812. But in our present
+defenceless state a dozen aircraft of the largest type might reduce
+the national capitol to ruins.</p>
+
+<p>If an enemy well provided with aërial force possesses such power of
+offence an equal power of defence is given to the nation at all well
+provided with flying craft. In imitation, or perhaps rather in
+modification, of the English plan for guarding the coasts of Great
+Britain, a well matured system of defending the American coasts has
+been worked out and submitted to the national authorities. It
+involves the division of the coasts of the United States into
+thirteen aeronautical districts, each with aeronautical stations
+established at suitable points and all in communication with each
+other. Eight of these districts would be laid out on the Atlantic
+Coast extending from the northern boundary of Maine to the Rio
+Grande River.</p>
+
+<p>Just what the purpose and value of these districts would be may be
+explained by taking the case, not of a typical one, but of the most
+important one of all, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> the third district including the
+coast line from New London, Conn., to Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey.
+This of course includes New York and adjacent commercial centres and
+the entrance to Long Island Sound with its long line of thriving
+cities and the ports of the places from which come our chief
+supplies of munitions of war. It includes the part of the United
+States which an enemy would most covet. The part which at once would
+furnish the richest plunder, and possession of which by a foe would
+most cripple this nation. To-day it is defended by stationary guns
+in land fortresses and in time of attack would be further guarded by
+a fringe of cruising naval vessels. Apparently up to the middle of
+1917 the government thought no aërial watch was needed.</p>
+
+<p>But if we were to follow the methods which all the belligerent
+nations of Europe are employing on their sea coasts we would
+establish in this district ten aeronautical stations. This would be
+no match for the British system which has one such station to every
+twenty miles of coast. Ours would be farther apart, but as the Sound
+could be guarded at its entrance the stations need only be
+maintained along the south shore of Long Island and down the Jersey
+coast. Each station would be provided with patrol, fighting, and
+observation airplanes. It would have the mechanical equipment of
+microphones, searchlights, and other devices for detecting the
+approach of an enemy now employed successfully abroad. Its
+patrolling airplanes would cruise constantly far out to sea, not
+less than eighty miles, keeping ever in touch with their station. As
+the horizon visible from a soaring airplane is not less than fifty
+miles distant from the observer, this would mean that no enemy fleet
+could approach within 130 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span> miles of our coast without
+detection and report. The Montauk Point station would be charged
+with guarding the entrance to Long Island Sound and, the waters of
+Nantucket shoals and Block Island Sound where the German submarine
+U-53 did its deadly work in 1916. The Sandy Hook station would of
+course be the most important of all, guarding New York sea-going
+commerce and protecting the ship channel by a constant patrol of
+aircraft over it.</p>
+
+<p>The modern airplane has a speed of from eighty to one hundred and
+sixty miles an hour&mdash;the latter rate being attained only by the
+light scouts. Thus it is apparent that if an alarm were raised at
+any one of these stations between New London and Barnegat three
+hours at most would suffice to bring the fighting equipment of all
+the stations to the point threatened. There would be thus
+concentrated a fleet of several hundred swift scouts, heavy fighting
+machines, the torpedo planes of the type designed by Admiral Fiske,
+hydroaëroplanes capable of carrying heavy guns and in brief every
+form of aërial fighter. Moreover, by use of the wireless, every ship
+of the Navy within a radius of several hundred miles would be
+notified of the menace. They could not reach the scene of action so
+swiftly as the flying men but the former would be able to hold the
+foe in action until the heavier ships should arrive.</p>
+
+<p>The enormous advantage of such a system of guarding our coasts needs
+no further explanation. It is not even experimental, for France on
+her limited coast has 150 such stations. England, which started the
+war with 18, had 114 in 1917 and was still building. We at that time
+had none, although the extent of our sea coast and the great
+multiplicity of practicable harbours make us more vulnerable than
+any other nation.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> CHAPTER X<br>
+<span class="smaller">SOME FEATURES OF AËRIAL WARFARE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>As devices to translate German hate for England into deeds of bloody
+malignancy and cowardly murder the German aircraft have ranked
+supreme. The ruthless submarine war has indeed done something toward
+working off this peculiar passion, but it lacked the spectacular
+qualities which German wrath demanded. As the war proceeded, and it
+became apparent that the participation of Great Britain&mdash;at first
+wholly unexpected by the Kaiser's advisers&mdash;was certain to defeat
+the German aims, the authorities carefully inculcated in the minds
+of the people the most malignant hatred for that power. As
+Lissauer's famous hymn of hate had it&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  French and Russians it matters not,<br>
+  A blow for a blow, and a shot for a shot.<br>
+  <span class="spaced1">............</span><br>
+  We have one foe and one alone&mdash;<br>
+  <span class="add3em">England!</span></p>
+
+<p>By way of at once gratifying this hatred and still further
+stimulating it the German military authorities began early in the
+war a series of air raids upon English towns. They were of more than
+doubtful military <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> value. They damaged no military or naval
+works. They aroused the savage ire of the British people who saw
+their children slain in schools and their wounded in hospitals by
+bombs dropped from the sky and straightway rushed off to enlist
+against so callous and barbaric a foe. But the raids served their
+political purpose by making the German people believe that the
+British were suffering all the horrors of war on their own soil,
+while the iron line of trenches drawn across France by the German
+troops kept the invader and war's agonies far from the soil of the
+Fatherland.</p>
+
+<a id="img065" name="img065"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img065.jpg" width="600" height="394" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first German air raids were by Zeppelins on little English
+seaside towns&mdash;Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Harwich. Except in so
+far as they inflicted mutilation and death upon many non-combatants,
+mostly women and children, and misery upon their relatives and
+friends they were without effect. But early in 1915 began a
+systematic series of raids upon London, which, by October of 1917,
+had totalled thirty-four, with a toll of 865 persons killed, and
+2500 wounded. It seems fair to say that for these raids there was
+more plausible excuse than for those on the peaceful little seaside
+bathing resorts and fishing villages. London is full of military and
+naval centres, arsenals and navy yards, executive offices and
+centres of warlike activity. An incendiary bomb dropped into the
+Bank of England, or the Admiralty, might paralyze the finances of
+the Empire, or throw the naval organization into a state of
+anarchy. But as a matter of fact the German bombs did nothing of
+the sort. They fell in the congested districts of London, "the
+crowded warrens of the poor." They spread wounds and death among
+peaceable theatre audiences. One dropped on a 'bus loaded with
+passengers homeward bound, and obliterated it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span> and them from
+the face of the earth. But no building of the least military
+importance sustained any injury. It is true, however, that the
+persistent raiding has compelled England to withhold from the
+fighting lines in France several thousand men and several hundred
+guns in order to be in readiness to meet air raids in which Germany
+has never employed more than fifty machines and at most two hundred
+men, including both aviators and mechanics.</p>
+
+<p>It is entirely probable that the failure of the Germans to strike
+targets of military importance and the slaughter they wrought among
+peaceful civilians were due to no intent or purpose on their part.
+Hitting a chosen target from the air is no matter of certainty. The
+bomb intended for the railway station is quite as likely to hit the
+adjacent public school or hospital. If the world ever recurs to that
+moderate degree of sanity and civilization which shall permit wars,
+but strive to regulate them in the interest of humanity this
+untrustworthiness of the aircraft's aim will compel some form of
+international regulation, just as the vulnerability of the submarine
+will force the amendment of the doctrine of visitation and search.
+But neither problem can be logically and reasonably solved in the
+middle of a war. And so, while the German violation of existing
+international law had the uncomfortable result for Germany of
+bringing the United States into the war, the barbarous raids upon
+London caused the British at last to turn aside from their
+commendable abstention from air raids on unfortified and
+non-military towns and prepare for reprisals in kind.</p>
+
+<p>From the beginning of the war the British had abstained from
+bombing peaceful and non-military towns. They had not indeed been
+weak in the employment of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> their air forces. General Smuts
+speaking in October, 1917, said that the British had, in the month
+previous, dropped 207 tons of bombs behind the lines of the enemy.
+But the targets were airdromes, military camps, arsenals and
+munitions camps&mdash;not hospitals or kindergartens. The time had now
+come when this purely military campaign no longer satisfied an
+enraged British people who demanded the enforcement of the Mosaic
+law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, against a people
+whom General Smuts described as "an enemy who apparently recognizes
+no laws, human or divine; who knows no pity or restraint, who sung
+Te Deums over the sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i>, and to whom the
+maiming and slaughter of women and children appear legitimate means
+of warfare."</p>
+
+<p>And Premier Lloyd George, speaking to an audience of poor people in
+one of the congested districts which had suffered sorely from the
+aërial activities of the Hun, said:</p>
+
+<p>"We will give it all back to them, and we will give it soon. We
+shall bomb Germany with compound interest."</p>
+
+<p>But whether undertaken as part of a general programme of
+frightfulness or as reprisals for cruel and indefensible outrages
+air raids upon defenceless towns, killing peaceable citizens in
+their beds, and children in their kindergartens, are not incidents
+to add glory to aviation. The mind turns with relief from such
+examples of the cruel misuse of aircraft to the hosts of individual
+instances in which the airman and his machine remind one of the
+doughty Sir Knight and his charger in the most gallant days of
+chivalry. There were hosts of such incidents&mdash;men who fought
+gallantly and who always fought fair, men who hung about the
+outskirts <span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> of an aërial battle waiting for some individual
+champion of their own choosing to show himself and join in battle to
+death in the high ranges of the sky. Some of these have been
+mentioned in this book already. To discuss all who even as early as
+1917 had made their names memorable would require a volume in
+itself. A few may well be mentioned below.</p>
+
+<p>There, for example, was Captain Georges Guynemer, "King of the
+French Aces." An "ace" is an aviator who has brought down five enemy
+aircraft. Guynemer had fifty-three to his credit. Still a youth,
+only twenty-three years of age at the time of his death, and only
+flying for twenty-one months, he had lived out several life times in
+the mad excitement of combat in mid-air. Within three weeks after
+getting his aviator's license he had become an "Ace." Before his
+first year's service had expired he was decorated and promoted for
+gallantry in rushing to the aid of a comrade attacked by five enemy
+machines. He entered the combat at the height of ten thousand feet,
+and inside of two minutes had dropped two of the enemy. The others
+fled. He pursued hotly keeping up a steady fire with his machine
+gun. One Boche wavered and fell, but just then an enemy shell from
+an "Archie" far below exploded under Guynemer, tearing away one wing
+of his machine. Let him tell the rest of that story:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>I felt myself dropping [he said later]. It was ten thousand feet
+     to the earth, and, like a flash, I saw my funeral with my
+     saddened comrades marching behind the gun carriage to the
+     cemetery. But I pulled and pushed every lever I had, but nothing
+     would check my terrific descent.</p>
+
+     <p>Five thousand feet from the earth, the wrecked machine began to
+     turn somersaults, but I was strapped into the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> seat. I do
+     not know what it was, but something happened and I felt the speed
+     descent lessen. But suddenly there was a tremendous crash and
+     when I recovered my senses I had been taken from the wreckage and
+     was all right.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Two records Guynemer made which have not yet been surpassed&mdash;the
+first, the one described above of dropping three Fokkers in two
+minutes and thirty seconds, and rounding off the adventure by
+himself dropping ten thousand feet. The second was in shooting down
+four enemy machines in one day. His methods were of the simplest. He
+was always alone in his machine, which was the lightest available.
+He would rather carry more gasoline and ammunition than take along a
+gunner. The machine gun was mounted on the plane above his head,
+pointing dead ahead, and aimed by aiming the whole airplane. Once
+started the gun continued firing automatically and Guynemer's task
+was to follow his enemy pitilessly keeping that lead-spitting muzzle
+steadily bearing upon him. In September, 1917, he went up to attack
+five enemy machines&mdash;no odds however appalling seemed to terrify
+him&mdash;but was caught in a fleet of nearly forty Boches and fell to
+earth in the enemy's country.</p>
+
+<p>One of the last of the air duels to be fought under the practices
+which made early air service so vividly recall the age of chivalry,
+was that in which Captain Immelman, "The Falcon," of the German
+army, met Captain Ball of the British Royal Flying Corps. Immelman
+had a record of fifty-one British airplanes downed. Captain Ball was
+desirous of wiping out this record and the audacious German at the
+same time, and so flying over the German lines he dropped this
+letter:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> <span class="smcap">Captain Immelman</span>:</p>
+
+     <p>I challenge you to a man-to-man fight to take place this
+     afternoon at two o'clock. I will meet you over the German lines.
+     Have your anti-air craft guns withhold their fire, while we
+     decide which is the better man. The British guns will be silent.</p>
+
+<p class="right10 smcap">Ball.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Presently thereafter this answer was dropped from a German airplane:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain Ball</span>:</p>
+
+     <p>Your challenge is accepted. The guns will not interfere. I will
+     meet you promptly at two.</p>
+
+<p class="right10 smcap">Immelman.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The word spread far and wide along the trenches on both sides.
+Tacitly all firing stopped as though the bugles had sung truce. Men
+left cover and clambered up on the top to watch the duel. Punctually
+both flyers rose from their lines and made their way down No Man's
+Land. Let an eye witness tell the story:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>From our trenches there were wild cheers for Ball. The Germans
+     yelled just as vigorously for Immelman.</p>
+
+     <p>The cheers from the trenches continued; the Germans increased in
+     volume; ours changed into cries of alarm.</p>
+
+     <p>Ball, thousands of feet above us and only a speck in the sky, was
+     doing the craziest things imaginable. He was below Immelman and
+     was apparently making no effort to get above him, thus gaining
+     the advantage of position. Rather he was swinging around, this
+     way and that, attempting, it seemed, to postpone the inevitable.</p>
+
+     <p>We saw the German's machine dip over preparatory to starting the
+     nose dive.</p>
+
+     <p>"He's gone now," sobbed a young soldier, at my side, for he knew
+     Immelman's gun would start its raking fire once it was being
+     driven straight down.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> Then in a fraction of a second the tables were turned.
+     Before Immelman's plane could get into firing position, Ball
+     drove his machine into a loop, getting above his adversary and
+     cutting loose with his gun and smashing Immelman by a hail of
+     bullets as he swept by.</p>
+
+     <p>Immelman's airplane burst into flames and dropped. Ball, from
+     above, followed for a few hundred feet and then straightened out
+     and raced for home. He settled down, rose again, hurried back,
+     and released a huge wreath of flowers, almost directly over the
+     spot where Immelman's charred body was being lifted from a
+     tangled mass of metal.</p>
+
+     <p>Four days later Ball too was killed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the Germans, too, had their champion airmen, mighty fliers,
+skillful at control and with the machine gun, in whose triumphs they
+took the same pride that our boys in France did in those of Chapman,
+Rockwell or Thaw, the British in Warneford, or the French in
+Guynemer. Chief of these was Captain Boelke, who came to his death
+in the latter part of 1917, after putting to his credit over sixty
+Allied planes brought down. A German account of one of his duels as
+watched from the trenches, will be of interest:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>For quite a long time an Englishman had been making circles
+     before our eyes&mdash;calmly and deliberately.... My men on duty
+     clenched their fists in impotent wrath. "The dog&mdash;!" Shooting
+     would do no good.</p>
+
+     <p>Then suddenly from the rear a harsh, deep singing and buzzing
+     cuts the air. It sounds like a German flyer. But he is not yet
+     visible. Only the buzz of an approaching motor is heard in the
+     clouds in the direction of the Englishman. More than a hundred
+     eyes scanned the horizon. There! Far away and high among the
+     clouds is a small black humming bird&mdash;a German battle aeroplane.
+     Its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> course is laid directly for the hostile biplane and
+     it flies like an arrow shot with a clear eye and steady hand. My
+     men crawl out of the shelters. I adjust my field glasses. A lump
+     rises in our throats as if we are awaiting something new and
+     wonderful.</p>
+
+     <p>So far the other does not seem to have noticed or recognized the
+     black flyer that already is poised as a hawk above him. All at
+     once there is a mighty swoop through the air like the drop of a
+     bird of prey, and in no time the black flyer is immediately over
+     the Englishman and the air is filled with the furious crackling
+     of a machine gun, followed by the rapid ta-ta-ta of two or three
+     more, all operated at the highest speed just as during a charge.
+     The Englishman drops a little, makes a circle and tries to escape
+     toward the rear. The other circles and attacks him in front, and
+     again we hear the exciting ta-ta-ta! Now the Englishman tries to
+     slip from under his opponent, but the German makes a circle and
+     the effort fails. Then the enemy describes a great circle and
+     attempts to rise above the German. The latter ascends in sharp
+     half circles and again swoops down upon the biplane, driving it
+     toward the German trenches.</p>
+
+     <p>Will the Englishman yield so soon? Scattered shouts of joy are
+     already heard in our ranks. Suddenly he drops a hundred yards and
+     more through the air and makes a skillful loop toward the rear.
+     Our warrior of the air swoops after him, tackles him once more
+     and again we hear the wild defiant rattle of the machine guns
+     over our heads. Now they are quite close to our trenches. The
+     French infantry and artillery begin firing in a last desperate
+     hope. Neither of them is touched. Sticking close above and behind
+     him the German drives the Englishman along some six hundred yards
+     over our heads and then just above the housetops of St. A. Once
+     more we hear a distant ta-ta-ta a little slower and more
+     scattered and then as they drop both disappear from our view.</p>
+
+     <p>Scarcely five minutes pass before the telephone brings up
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> this news: Lieutenant Boelke has just brought down his
+     seventh flyer.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Methods of air-fighting were succinctly described in a hearing
+before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, in June, 1917. The
+officers testifying were young Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille
+of the French army. To the civilian the testimony is interesting for
+the clear idea it gives of military aviation. The extracts following
+are from the official record:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: Senator, there are about four kinds of machines
+     used abroad on the western front to-day. The machines that Adjt.
+     Rumsey and myself are looking after are called the battle
+     machines. Then there are the photography machines, machines that
+     go up to enable the taking of photographs of the German
+     batteries, go back of the line and take views of the country
+     behind their lines and find out what their next line of attack
+     will be, or, if they retreat from the present line, then
+     everything in that way. Probably we have, where we are, in my
+     group alone, a hundred and fifty photographers who do nothing all
+     day long except develop pictures, and you can get pictures of any
+     part of the country that you want. When the Germans retreated
+     from the old line where they used to be, by Peronne and Chaulnes,
+     we had absolute pictures of all the Hindenburg line from where
+     they are now right down to St. Quentin, down to the line the
+     French are on. We had photographs of it all.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Senator Kirby</i>: When they started on the retreat?</p>
+
+<a id="img066" name="img066"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img066.jpg" width="600" height="455" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© Kadel &amp; Herbert.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to New York Flight.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: Yes, sir. So we knew exactly where their stand
+     would be made. Then, besides that, those photograph machines do a
+     lot of scouting. They have a pilot and a photographer aboard. He
+     has not only a camera, but quite often he has a Lewis gun with
+     him in order to ward off any hostile airmen if they should get
+     through the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> battle planes that are above him; in other
+     words, should get through us in order to fight him. They do a
+     great deal of the scouting, because they fly at a lower level.
+     The battle planes go up to protect photography machines, or to go
+     man-hunting, as it is called; in other words, to fight the
+     Germans. We fly all day, like to-day, as high as we can go, or as
+     high as the French go as a rule, about 5500 metres, about 17,000
+     to 18,000 feet.</p>
+
+<a id="img067" name="img067"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img067.jpg" width="600" height="459" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French Aviator between Flights.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: I think 5500 metres is about 19,000 feet. Some go
+     up 6000 metres, which makes about 20,000 feet.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: We go up there, and we have a certain sector of
+     the front to look after. If we are only man-hunting, we go
+     backward and forward like a policeman to prevent the Germans from
+     getting over our own lines. We usually fly by fours, if we can,
+     and the four go out together, so as not to be alone. We are
+     usually fighting inside of the German lines, because the morale
+     of the French and English is better than that of the Germans
+     to-day; and every fight I have had&mdash;I have never been lucky
+     enough to have one inside of my own lines&mdash;they have all been
+     inside of the German lines.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Senator Kirby</i>: What is the equipment of a battle plane such as
+     you use?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: I use the 180 horse-power machine. It is called a
+     "S. P. A. D.," which has a Spanish motor. But a great many of the
+     motors to-day are being built here in America.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Senator Kirby</i>: How many men do you carry?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: We go up alone in these machines. We did have two
+     guns. We had the Lewis gun on our upper wing and the Vickers down
+     below, that shoots through the propeller as the propeller turns
+     around. Then we gave up the Lewis above. It added more weight,
+     and we did not need it so much. The trouble with the Lewis gun is
+     that it has only ninety-seven cartridges, while the Vickers has
+     five hundred, and you can do just as much damage with the Vickers
+     as you could with them both.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> <i>Senator Sutherland</i>: You drive and fight at the same
+     time?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: Yes, sir.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: The machine gun is fixed.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: It is absolutely fixed on the machine, and if I
+     should want to adjust it to shoot you, I would adjust my machine
+     on you.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The witness then took up the nature and work of some of the heavier
+machines. He testified:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: Then comes the artillery regulating machine. That
+     machine goes up, and it may be a Farman or a bi-motor, or some
+     other kind of heavier machine, a machine that goes slowly. They
+     go over a certain spot. They have a driver, who is a pilot, like
+     ourselves; then they have an artillery officer on board, whose
+     sole duty it is to send back word, mostly by Marconi, to his
+     battery where the shots are landing. He will say: "Too far," "Too
+     short," "Right," or "Left," and he stays there over this battery
+     until the work done by the French guns has been absolutely
+     controlled, and above him he has some of these battle planes
+     keeping him from being attacked from above by German airmen. Of
+     course, they may be shot at by anti-aircraft guns, which you can
+     not help. That is artillery regulating.</p>
+
+     <p><i>The Chairman</i>: Are you always attacked from above?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: By airplanes; yes, sir. It is always much safer
+     to attack from above.</p>
+
+     <p>Then you have the bomb-dropping machines, which carry a lot of
+     weight. They go out sometimes in the daytime, but mostly at
+     night, and they have these new sights by which they can stay up
+     quite high in the air and still know the spot they are going at.
+     They know the wind speed, they know their height, and they can
+     figure out by this new arrangement they have exactly when the
+     time is to let go their bombs.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Senator Kirby</i>: Something in the nature of a range-finder?</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> <i>Adjt. Prince</i>: A sort of range-finder.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: It is a sort of telescope that looks down between
+     your legs, and you have to regulate yourself, observing your
+     speed, and when you see the spot, you have to touch a button and
+     off go these things.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: In a raid my brother went on there were
+     sixty-eight machines that left; the French heavy machines, the
+     English heavy machines, and then the English sort of
+     half-fighting machine and half-bombing machine. They call it a
+     Sopwith, and it is a very good machine. They went over there, and
+     the first ones over were the Frenchmen, and they dropped bombs on
+     these Mauser works, and the only thing that the English saw was a
+     big cloud of smoke and dust, and they could not see the works so
+     they just dropped into them. Out of that raid the fighting
+     machines got eight Germans and dropped them, and the Germans got
+     eight Frenchmen. So, out of sixty-eight they lost eight, but we
+     also got eight Germans and dropped six tons of this stuff, which
+     is twenty times as strong as the melinite. We do not know what
+     the name of the powder is. The fighting machines on that trip
+     only carried gasolene for two hours, and the other ones carried
+     it for something like six hours, so we escorted them out for an
+     hour, came back to our lines, filled up with gasolene, went out
+     and met them and brought them back over the danger zone.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: Near the trenches is where the danger zone is,
+     because there the German fighting machines are located.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Senator Kirby</i>: How far was it from your battle front that you
+     went?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: I think it was about 500 miles, 250 there and 250
+     back; it was between 200 and 250 miles there.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Senator Kirby</i>: Beyond the battle front?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: Yes; or, to be more accurate, I think it was
+     nearer 200 than 250.</p>
+
+     <p><i>The Chairman</i>: What do you think of the function of the airplane
+     as a determining factor?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: There is no doubt that if we could send <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span>
+     over in huge waves a great number of these bomb-dropping
+     machines, and simply lay the country waste&mdash;for instance, the big
+     cities like Strassburg, Freiburg, and others&mdash;not only would the
+     damage done be great, but I guess the popular opinion in Germany,
+     everything being laid waste, would work very strongly in the
+     minds of the public toward having peace. I do not think you could
+     destroy an army, because you could not see them, but you could go
+     to different stations; you could go to Strassburg, to Brussels,
+     and places like that.</p>
+
+     <p><i>The Chairman</i>: Then, sending them over in enormous numbers would
+     also put out of business their airplanes, and they would be
+     helpless, would they not?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: Absolutely. You not only have on the front a
+     large number of bomb-dropping machines, but a large number of
+     fighting machines. When the Somme battle was started in the
+     morning the Germans knew, naturally, that the French and British
+     were going to start the Somme drive, and they had up these
+     Drachens, these observation balloons, and the first eighteen
+     minutes that the battle started the French and the English, I
+     think, got twenty-one "saucisse"; in other words, for the next
+     five days there was not a single German who came anywhere near
+     the lines, but the French and English could go ahead as they-felt
+     like.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Admiral Peary</i>: Have you any idea as to how many airplanes there
+     are along that western front on the German side?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: There must be about 3000 on that line in actual
+     commission.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Admiral Peary</i>: That means, then, about 10,000 in all, at least?</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Prince</i>: I should think so; I should say the French have
+     about 2000 and the English possibly 1000, or we have about 2500.</p>
+
+     <p><i>Adjt. Rumsey</i>: If they have 3000 we have 4000; that is, right on
+     the line.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> <i>Adjt. Prince</i>: We have about 1000 more than they have,
+     and we are up all the time. The day before I left the front I was
+     called to go out five times, and I went out five times, and spent
+     two hours every time I went out.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It would be gratifying to author and to reader alike if it were
+possible to give some account of the progress in aërial equipment
+made by the United States, since its declaration of war. But at the
+present moment (February, 1918), the government is chary of
+furnishing information concerning the advance made in the creation
+of an aërial fleet. Perhaps precise information, if available, would
+be discouraging to the many who believe that the war will be won in
+the air. For it is known in a broad general way that the activities
+of the Administration have been centred upon the construction of
+training camps and aviation stations. Orders for the actual
+construction of airplanes have been limited, so that a chorus of
+criticism arose from manufacturers who declared that they might have
+to close their works for lack of employment. The apparent check was
+discouraging to American airmen, and to our Allies who had expected
+marvellous things from the United States in the way of swift and
+wholesale preparation for winning battles in the air. The response
+of the government to all criticism was that it was laying broad
+foundations in order that construction once begun would proceed with
+unabated activity, and that when aircraft began to be turned out by
+the thousands a week there would be aviators and trained mechanics
+a-plenty to handle them. In this situation the advocates of a
+special cabinet department of aeronautics found new reason to
+criticize the Administration and Congress for having ignored or
+antagonized <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> their appeals. For responsibility for the delay
+and indifference&mdash;if indifference there was&mdash;rested equally upon the
+Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. Each had his measure
+of control over the enormous sum voted in a lump for aviation, each
+had the further millions especially voted to his department to
+account for. But no single individual could be officially asked what
+had been done with the almost one billion dollars voted for
+aeronautics in 1917.</p>
+
+<p>But if the authorities seemed to lag, the inventors were busy.
+Mention has already been made of the new "Liberty" motor, which
+report had it was the fruit of the imprisonment of two mechanical
+experts in a hotel room with orders that they should not be freed
+until they had produced a motor which met all criticisms upon those
+now in use. Their product is said to have met this test, and the
+happy result caused a general wish that the Secretaries of War and
+of the Navy might be similarly incarcerated and only liberated upon
+producing plans for the immediate creation of an aërial fleet suited
+to the nation's needs. If, however, the Liberty motor shall prove
+the complete success which at the moment the government believes it
+to be, it will be such a spur to the development of the airplane in
+peace and war, as could not otherwise be applied. For the motor is
+the true life of the airplane&mdash;its heart, lungs, and nerve centre.
+The few people who still doubt the wide adoption of aircraft for
+peaceful purposes after the war base their skepticism on the
+treachery of motors still in use. They repudiate all comparisons
+with automobiles. They say:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     It is perfectly true that a man can run his car repeatedly from
+     New York to Boston without motor trouble. But <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> the
+     trouble is inevitable sooner or later. When it comes to an
+     automobile it is trifling. The driver gets out and makes his
+     repairs by the roadside. But if it comes to the aviator it brings
+     the possibility of death with it every time. If his motor stops
+     he must descend. But to alight he must find a long level field,
+     with at least two hundred yards in which to run off his momentum.
+     If, when he discovers the failure of his motor, he is flying at
+     the height of a mile he must find his landing place within a
+     space of eight miles, for in gliding to earth the ratio of
+     forward movement to height is as eight to one. But how often in
+     rugged and densely populated New England, or Pennsylvania is
+     there a vacant level field half a mile in length? The aviator who
+     made a practice of daily flight between New York and Boston would
+     inevitably meet death in the end.</p>
+
+<p>The criticism is a shrewd and searching one. But it is based on the
+airplane and the motor of to-day without allowance for the
+development and improvement which are proceeding apace. It
+contemplates a craft which has but one motor, but the more modern
+machines have sufficient lifting power to carry two motors, and can
+be navigated successfully with one of these out of service.
+Experiments furthermore are being made with a device after the type
+of the helicopter which with the steady lightening of the aircraft
+motor, may be installed on airplanes with a special motor for its
+operation. This device, it is believed, will enable the airplane so
+equipped to stop dead in its course with both propellers out of
+action, to hover over a given spot or to rise or to descend gently
+in a perpendicular line without the necessity of soaring. It is
+obvious that if this device prove successful the chief force of the
+objections to aërial navigation outlined above will be nullified.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> The menace of infrequent landing places will quickly
+remedy itself on busy lines of aërial traffic. The average railroad
+doing business in a densely populated section has stations once
+every eight or ten miles which with their sidings, buildings, water
+tanks, etc., cost far more than the field half a mile long with a
+few hangars that the fliers will need as a place of refuge. Indeed,
+although for its size and apparent simplicity of construction an
+airplane is phenomenally costly, in the grand total of cost an
+aërial line would cost a tithe of the ordinary railway. It has
+neither right of way, road bed, rails, nor telegraph system to
+maintain, and if the average flyer seems to cost amazingly it still
+foots up less than one fifth the cost of a modern locomotive though
+its period of service is much shorter.</p>
+
+<p>Just at the present time aircraft costs are high, based on
+artificial conditions in the market. Their construction is a new
+industry; its processes not yet standardized; its materials still
+experimental in many ways and not yet systematically produced. A
+light sporting monoplane which superficially seems to have about
+$250 worth of materials in it&mdash;exclusive of the engine&mdash;will cost
+about $3000. A fighting biplane will touch $10,000. Yet the latter
+seems to the lay observer to contain no costly materials to justify
+so great a charge. The wings are a light wooden framework, usually
+of spruce, across which a fine grade of linen cloth is stretched.
+The materials are simple enough, but every bit of wood, every screw,
+every strand of wire is selected with the utmost care, and the
+workmanship of their assemblage is as painstaking as the setting of
+the most precious stones.</p>
+
+<a id="img068" name="img068"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img068.jpg" width="600" height="399" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A German "Gotha"&mdash;their Favorite Type.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">REMEMBER THE LEAST NEGLIGENCE MAY COST A <span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> LIFE!</span>" is a sign
+frequently seen hanging over the work benches in an airplane
+factory.</p>
+
+<p>When stretched over the framework, the cloth of the wings is treated
+to a dressing down of a preparation of collodion, which in the
+jargon of the shop is called "dope." This substance has a peculiar
+effect upon the cloth, causing it to shrink, and thus making it more
+taut and rigid than it could be by the most careful stretching.
+Though the layman would not suspect it, this wash alone costs about
+$150 a machine. The seaplanes too&mdash;or hydroaëroplanes as purists
+call them&mdash;present a curious illustration of unexpected and, it
+would seem, unexplainable expense. Where the flyer over land has two
+bicycle wheels on which to land, the flyer over the sea has two
+flat-bottomed boats or pontoons. These cost from $1000 to $1200 and
+look as though they should cost not over $100. But the necessity of
+combining maximum strength with minimum weight sends the price
+soaring as the machine itself soars. Moreover there is not yet the
+demand for either air-or seaplanes that would result in the division
+of labour, standardization of parts, and other manufacturing
+economies which reduce the cost of products.</p>
+
+<p>To the high cost of aircraft their comparative fragility is added as
+a reason for their unfitness for commercial uses. The engines cost
+from $2000 to $5000 each, are very delicate and usually must be
+taken out of the plane and overhauled after about 100 hours of
+active service. The strain on them is prodigious for it is estimated
+that the number of revolutions of an airplane's engine during an
+hour's flight is equal to the number of revolutions of an
+automobile's wheels during active service of a whole month.</p>
+
+<p>It is believed that the superior lightness and durability <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span>
+of the Liberty motor will obviate some of these objections to the
+commercial availability of aircraft in times of peace. And it is
+certain that with the cessation of the war, the retirement of the
+governments of the world from the purchasing field and the reduction
+of the demand for aircraft to such as are needed for pleasure and
+industrial uses the prices which we have cited will be cut in half.
+In such event what will be the future of aircraft; what their part
+in the social and industrial organization of the world?</p>
+
+<p>Ten or a dozen years ago Rudyard Kipling entertained the English
+reading public of the world with a vivacious sketch of aërial
+navigation in the year 2000 <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> He used the license of a poet in
+avoiding too precise descriptions of what is to come&mdash;dealing rather
+with broad and picturesque generalizations. Now the year 2000 is
+still far enough away for pretty much anything to be invented, and
+to become commonplace before that era arrives. Airships of the sort
+Mr. Kipling pictured may by that period have come and gone&mdash;have
+been relegated to the museums along with the stage-coaches of
+yesterday and the locomotives of to-day. For that matter before that
+millennial period shall arrive men may have learned to dispense with
+material transportation altogether, and be able to project their
+consciousness or even their astral bodies to any desired point on
+psychic waves. If a poet is going to prophecy he might as well be
+audacious and even revolutionary in his predictions.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kipling tried so hard to be reasonable that he made himself
+recognizably wrong so far as the present tendency of aircraft
+development would indicate. <i>With the Night Mail</i>, is the story of a
+trip by night across the Atlantic from England to America. It is
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span> made in a monster dirigible&mdash;though the present tendency is
+to reject the dirigible for the swifter, less costly, and more
+airworthy (leave "seaworthy" to the plodding ships on old ocean's
+breast) airplanes. If, however, we condone this glaring
+improbability we find Mr. Kipling's tale full of action and
+imaginary incident that give it an air of truth. His ship is not
+docked on the ground at the tempest's mercy, but is moored high in
+air to the top of a tall tower up which passengers and freight are
+conveyed in elevators. His lighthouses send their beams straight up
+into the sky instead of projecting them horizontally as do those
+which now guard our coasts. Just why lighthouses are needed,
+however, he does not explain. There are no reefs on which a packet
+of the air may run, no lee shores which they must avoid. On overland
+voyages guiding lights by night may be useful, as great white
+direction strips laid out on the ground are even now suggested as
+guides for daylight flying. But the main reliance of the airman must
+be his compass. Crossing the broad oceans no lighted path is
+possible, and even in a voyage from New York to Chicago, or from
+London to Rome good airmanship will dictate flight at a height that
+will make reliance upon natural objects as a guide perilous. The
+airman has the advantage over the sailor in that he may lay his
+course on leaving his port, or flying field, and pursue it straight
+as an arrow to his destination. No rocks or other obstacles bar his
+path, no tortuous channels must be navigated. All that can divert
+him from his chosen course is a steady wind on the beam, and that is
+instantly detected by his instruments and allowance made for it. On
+the other hand the sailor has a certain advantage over the airman in
+that his more leisurely progress <span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> allows time for the
+rectification of errors in course arising from contrary currents or
+winds. An error of a point, or even two, amounts to but little in a
+day's steaming of perhaps four hundred miles. It can readily be
+remedied, unless the ship is too near shore. But when the whole
+three thousand miles of Atlantic are covered in twenty hours in the
+air, the course must be right from the start and exactly adhered to,
+else the passenger for New York may be set down in Florida.</p>
+
+<p>It is not improbable that even before the war is over the crossing
+of the Atlantic by plane will be accomplished. Certainly it will be
+one of the first tasks undertaken by airmen on the return of peace.
+But it is probable that the adaptation of aircraft to commercial
+uses will be begun with undertakings of smaller proportions. Already
+the United States maintains an aërial mail route in Alaska, while
+Italy has military mail routes served by airplanes in the Alps.
+These have been undertaken because of the physical obstacles to
+travel on the surface, presented in those rugged neighbourhoods. But
+in the more densely populated regions of the United States
+considerations of financial profit will almost certainly result in
+the early establishment of mail and passenger air service. Air
+service will cut down the time between any two given points at least
+one half, and ultimately two thirds. Letters could be sent from New
+York to Boston, or even to Buffalo, and an answer received the same
+day. The carrying plane could take on each trip five tons of mail.
+Philadelphia would be brought within forty-five minutes of New York;
+Washington within two hours instead of the present five. Is there
+any doubt of the creation of an aërial passenger service under such
+conditions? Already a Caproni triplane will carry thirty-five
+passengers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> beside guns&mdash;say, fifty passengers if all other
+load be excluded, and has flown with a lighter load from Newport
+News to New York. It is easily imaginable that by 1920 the airplane
+capable of carrying eighty persons&mdash;or the normal number now
+accommodated on an inter-urban trolley car&mdash;will be an accomplished
+fact.</p>
+
+<p>The lines that will thus spring up will need no rails, no right of
+way, no expensive power plant. Their physical property will be
+confined to the airplanes themselves and to the fields from which
+the craft rise and on which they alight, with the necessary hangars.
+These indeed will involve heavy expenditure. For a busy line, with
+frequent sailings, of high speed machines a field will need to be in
+the neighbourhood of a mile square. A plane swooping down for its
+landing is not to be held up at the switch like a train while room
+is made for it. It is an imperative guest, and cannot be gainsaid.
+Accordingly the fields must be large enough to accommodate scores of
+planes at once and give each new arrival a long straight course on
+which to run off its momentum. It is obvious therefore that the
+union stations for aircraft routes cannot be in the hearts of our
+cities as are the railroad stations of to-day, but must be fairly
+well out in the suburbs.</p>
+
+<p>A form of machine which the professional airmen say has yet to be
+developed is the small monoplane, carrying two passengers at most,
+and of low speed&mdash;not more than twenty miles an hour at most. In
+this age of speed mania the idea of deliberately planning a
+conveyance or vehicle that shall not exceed a low limit seems out of
+accord with public desire. But the low speed airplane has the
+advantage of needing no extended field in which to alight. It
+reaches the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> ground with but little momentum to be taken up
+and can be brought up standing on the roof of a house or the deck of
+a ship. Small machines of this sort are likely to serve as the
+runabouts of the air, to succeed the trim little automobile
+roadsters as pleasure craft.</p>
+
+<a id="img069" name="img069"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img069.jpg" width="600" height="433" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French Monoplane.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The beginning of the fourth year of the war brought a notable change
+in aërial tactics. For three years everything had been sacrificed to
+speed. Such aërial duels as have been described were encouraged by
+the fact that aircraft were reduced to the proportions needful for
+carrying one man and a machine gun. The gallant flyers went up in
+the air and killed each other. That was about all there was to it.
+While as scouts, range finders, guides for the artillery, they
+exerted some influence on the course of the war, as a fighting arm
+in its earlier years, they were without efficiency. The bombing
+forays were harassing but little more, because the craft engaged
+were of too small capacity to carry enough bombs to work really
+serious damage, while the ever increasing range of the "Archies"
+compels the airmen to deliver their fire from so great a height as
+to make accurate aim impossible.</p>
+
+<a id="img070" name="img070"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img070.jpg" width="600" height="417" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo Press Illustrating Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A German Scout Brought to Earth in France.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But Kiel, Wilhelmshaven and Zeebrugge are likely to change all this.
+The constant contemplation of those nests for the sanctuary of
+pestiferous submarines, effectively guarded against attack by either
+land or water, has stirred up the determination of the Allies to
+seek their destruction from above. Heavy bombing planes are being
+built in all the Allied workshops for this purpose, and furthermore
+to give effect to the British determination to take vengeance upon
+Germany, for her raids upon London. It is reported that the United
+States, by agreement with its Allies, is to specialize in building
+the light, swift scout planes, but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> in other shops the heavy
+triplane, the dreadnought of the air is expected to be the feature
+of 1918. With it will come an entirely novel strategic use of
+aircraft in war, and with it too, which is perhaps the more
+permanently important, will come the development of aircraft of the
+sort that will be readily adaptable to the purposes of peace when
+the war shall end.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> THE SUBMARINE BOAT</h2>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> CHAPTER XI<br>
+<span class="smaller">BEGINNINGS OF SUBMARINE INVENTION</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>In September, 1914 the British Fleet in the North Sea had settled
+down to the monotonous task of holding the coasts of Germany and the
+channels leading to them in a state of blockade. The work was dismal
+enough. The ships tossing from day to day on the always unquiet
+waters of the North Sea were crowded with Jackies all of whom prayed
+each day that the German would come from hiding and give battle. Not
+far from the Hook of Holland engaged in this monotonous work were
+three cruisers of about 12,000 tons, each carrying 755 men and
+officers. They were the <i>Cressy</i>, <i>Aboukir</i>, and <i>Hogue</i>&mdash;not
+vessels of the first rank but still important factors in the British
+blockade. They were well within the torpedo belt and it may be
+believed that unceasing vigilance was observed on every ship.
+Nevertheless without warning the other two suddenly saw the
+<i>Aboukir</i> overwhelmed by a flash of fire, a pillar of smoke and a
+great geyser of water that rose from the sea and fell heavily upon
+her deck. Instantly followed a thundering explosion as the magazines
+of the doomed ship went off. Within a very few minutes, too little
+time to use their guns against the enemy had they been able to see
+him, or to lower their boats, the <i>Aboukir</i> sank leaving the crew
+floundering in the water.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> In the distance lay the German submarine U-9&mdash;one of the
+earliest of her class in service. From her conning tower Captain
+Weddigen had viewed the tragedy. Now seeing the two sister ships
+speeding to the rescue he quickly submerged. It may be noted that as
+a result of what followed, orders were given by the British
+Admiralty that in the event of the destruction of a ship by a
+submarine others in the same squadron should not come to the rescue
+of the victim, but scatter as widely as possible to avoid a like
+fate. In this instance the <i>Hogue</i> and the <i>Cressy</i> hurried to the
+spot whence the <i>Aboukir</i> had vanished and began lowering their
+boats. Hardly had they begun the work of mercy when a torpedo from
+the now unseen foe struck the <i>Hogue</i> and in twenty minutes she too
+had vanished. While she was sinking the <i>Cressy</i>, with all guns
+ready for action and her gunners scanning the sea in every direction
+for this deadly enemy, suddenly felt the shock of a torpedo and, her
+magazines having been set off, followed her sister ships to the
+ocean's bed.</p>
+
+<p>In little more than half an hour thirty-six thousand tons of
+up-to-date British fighting machinery, and more than 1200 gallant
+blue jackets had been sent to the depths of the North Sea by a
+little boat of 450 tons carrying a crew of twenty-six men.</p>
+
+<p>The world stood aghast. With the feeling of horror at the swift
+death of so many caused by so few, there was mingled a feeling of
+amazement at the scientific perfection of the submarine, its power,
+and its deadly work. Men said it was the end of dreadnoughts,
+battleships, and cruisers, but the history of the war has shown
+singularly few of these destroyed by submarines since the first
+novelty of the attack wore off. The world at the moment seemed to
+think that the submarine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span> was an entirely new idea and
+invention. But like almost everything else it was merely the
+ultimate reduction to practical use of an idea that had been
+germinating in the mind of man from the earliest days of history.</p>
+
+<p>We need not trouble ourselves with the speculations of Alexander
+the Great, Aristotle, and Pliny concerning "underwater" activities.
+Their active minds gave consideration to the problem, but mainly as
+to the employment of divers. Not until the first part of the
+sixteenth century do we find any very specific reference to actual
+underwater boats. That appears in a book of travels by Olaus Magnus,
+Archbishop of Upsala in Sweden. Notwithstanding the gentleman's
+reverend quality, one must question somewhat the veracity of the
+chapter which he heads:</p>
+
+<p>"Of the Leather Ships Made of Hides Used by the Pyrats of
+Greenland."</p>
+
+<p>He professed to have seen two of these "ships," more probably boats,
+hanging in a cathedral church in Greenland. With these singular
+vessels, according to his veracious reports the people of that
+country could navigate under water and attack stranger ships from
+beneath. "For the Inhabitants of that Countrey are wont to get small
+profits by the spoils of others," he wrote, "by these and the like
+treacherous Arts, who by their thieving wit, and by boring a hole
+privately in the sides of the ships beneath (as I said) have let in
+the water and presently caused them to sink."</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the tale of the Archbishop where we think it must belong in
+the realm of fiction, we may note that it was not until the
+beginning of the seventeenth century that the first submarine boat
+was actually built and navigated. A Hollander, Cornelius Drebel,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> or Van Drebel, born in 1572, in the town of Alkmaar, had
+come to London during the reign of James I., who became his patron
+and friend. Drebel seems to have been a serious student of science
+and in many ways far ahead of his times. Moreover, he had the talent
+of getting next to royalty. In 1620 he first conceived the idea of
+building a submarine. Fairly detailed descriptions of his boats&mdash;he
+built three from 1620-1624&mdash;and of their actual use, have been
+handed down to us by men whose accuracy and truthfulness cannot be
+doubted. The Honorable Robert Boyle, a scientist of unquestioned
+seriousness, tells in his <i>New Experiments, Physico-Mechanical
+touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects</i> about Drebel's work
+in the quaint language of his time:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     But yet on occasion of this opinion of Paracelsus, perhaps it
+     will not be impertinent if, before I proceed, I acquaint your
+     Lordship with a conceit of that deservedly famous mechanician and
+     Chymist, Cornelius Drebel, who, among other strange things that
+     he perform'd, is affirm'd, by more than a few credible persons,
+     to have contrived for the late learned King James, a vessel to go
+     under water; of which, trial was made in the Thames, with admired
+     success, the vessel carrying twelve rowers, besides passengers;
+     one which is yet alive, and related it to an excellent
+     Mathematician that informed me of it. Now that for which I
+     mention this story is, that having had the curiosity and
+     opportunity to make particular inquiries among the relations of
+     Drebel, and especially of an ingenious physician that married his
+     daughter, concerning the grounds upon which he conceived it
+     feasible to make men unaccustomed to continue so long under water
+     without suffocation, or (as the lately mentioned person that went
+     in the vessel affirms) without inconvenience; I was answered,
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> that Drebel conceived, that it is not the whole body of
+     the air, but a certain quintessence (as Chymists speak) or
+     spirituous part of it, that makes it fit for respiration; which
+     being spent, the remaining grosser body, or carcase, if I may so
+     call it, of the air, is unable to cherish the vital flame
+     residing in the heart; so that, for aught I could gather,
+     besides the mechanical contrivances of his vessel, he had a
+     chymical liquor, which he accounted the chief secret of his
+     submarine navigation. For when, from time to time, he conceived
+     that the finer and purer part of the air was consumed, or
+     over-clogged by the respiration and steam of those that went in
+     his ship, he would by unstopping a vessel full of this liquor,
+     speedily restore to the troubled air such a proportion of vital
+     parts, as would make it again, for a good while, fit for
+     respiration whether by dissipating, or precipitating the grosser
+     exhalations, or by some other intelligible way, I must not now
+     stay to examine, contenting myself to add, that having had the
+     opportunity to do some service to those of his relations that
+     were most intimate with him, and having made it my business to
+     learn what this strange liquor might be, they constantly affirmed
+     that Drebel would never disclose the liquor unto any, nor so much
+     as tell the nature whereof he had made it, to above one person,
+     who himself assured me what it was.</p>
+
+<p>This most curious narrative suggests that in some way Drebel, who
+died in London in 1634, had discovered the art of compressing oxygen
+and conceived the idea of making it serviceable for freshening the
+air in a boat, or other place, contaminated by the respiration of a
+number of men for a long time. Indeed the reference made to the
+substance by which Drebel purified the atmosphere in his submarine
+as "a liquor" suggests that he may possibly have hit upon the secret
+of liquid air which late in the nineteenth century caused such a
+stir in the United States. Of his possession of some <span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> such
+secret there can be no doubt whatsoever, for Samuel Pepys refers in
+his famous diary to a lawsuit, brought in the King's Courts by the
+heirs of Drebel, to secure the secret for their own use. What was
+the outcome of the suit or the subsequent history of Drebel's
+invention history does not record.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the next 150 years a large number of inventors and
+near-inventors occupied themselves with the problem of the
+submarine. Some of these men went no further than to draw plans and
+to write out descriptions of what appeared to them to be feasible
+submarine boats. Others took one step further, by taking out
+patents, but only very few of the submarine engineers of this period
+had either the means or the courage to test their inventions in the
+only practicable way, by building an experimental boat and using it.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this apparent lack of faith on the part of the men who
+worked on the submarine problem, it would not be fair to condemn
+them as fakirs. Experimental workers, in those times, had to face
+many difficulties which were removed in later times. The study of
+science and the examination of the forces of nature were not only
+not as popular as they became later, but frequently were looked upon
+as blasphemous, savouring of sorcery, or as a sign of an unbalanced
+mind.</p>
+
+<a id="img071" name="img071"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img071.jpg" width="600" height="441" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© Kadel &amp; Herbert.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>England and France supplied most of the men who occupied themselves
+with the submarine problem between 1610 and 1760. Of the Englishmen,
+the following left records of one kind or another concerning their
+labours in this direction. Richard Norwood, in 1632, was granted a
+patent for a contrivance which was apparently little more than a
+diving apparatus. In 1648, Bishop Wilkins published a book,
+<i>Mathematical Magick</i>, which was full of rather grotesque projects
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> and which contained one chapter on the possibility "of
+framing an ark for submarine navigation." In 1691, patents were
+granted on engines connected with submarine navigation to John
+Holland&mdash;curious forerunner of a name destined to be famous two
+hundred years later&mdash;and on a submarine boat to Sir Stephen Evance.</p>
+
+<p>In Prance, two priests, Fathers Mersenne and Fournier, published in
+1634 a small book called <i>Questions Théologiques, Physiques, Morales
+et Mathématiques</i>, which contained a detailed description of a
+submarine boat. They suggested that the hull of submarines ought to
+be of metal and not of wood, and that their shape ought to be as
+nearly fishlike as possible. Nearly three hundred years have hardly
+altered these opinions. Ancient French records also tell us that six
+years later, in 1640, the King of France had granted a patent to
+Jean Barrié, permitting him during the next twelve years to fish at
+the bottom of the sea with his boat. Unluckily Barrié's fish stories
+have expired with his permit. In 1654, a French engineer, De Son, is
+said to have built at Rotterdam a submarine boat. Little is known
+concerning this vessel except that it was reported to have been
+seventy-two feet long, twelve feet high, and eight feet broad, and
+to have been propelled by a paddlewheel instead of oars.</p>
+
+<p>Borelli, about whom very little seems to be known, is credited with
+having invented in 1680 a submarine boat, whose descent and ascent
+were regulated by a series of leather bottles placed in the hull of
+the boat with their mouths open to the surrounding water. The
+English magazine, <i>Graphic</i>, published a picture which is considered
+the oldest known illustration of any submarine boat. This picture
+matches in all details the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> description of Borelli's boat,
+but it is credited to a man called Symons.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-seven years later, in 1774, another Englishman, J. Day, built
+a small submarine boat, and after fairly extensive experiments,
+descended in his boat in Plymouth harbour. This descent is of
+special interest because we have a more detailed record of it than
+of any previous submarine exploit, and because Day is the first
+submarine inventor who lost his life in the attempt to prove the
+feasibility of his invention. The <i>Annual Register</i> of 1774 gives a
+narration in detail of Day's experiments and death and inasmuch as
+this is the first ungarbled report of a submarine descent, it may be
+quoted at length.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="center"><i>Authentic account of a late unfortunate transaction, with
+     respect to a diving machine at Plymouth.</i></p>
+
+
+     <p>Mr. Day (the sole projector of the scheme, and, as matters have
+     turned out, the unhappy sacrifice to his own ingenuity) employed
+     his thoughts for some years past in planning a method of sinking
+     a vessel under water, with a man in it, who should live therein
+     for a certain time, and then by his own means only, bring himself
+     up to the surface. After much study he conceived that his plan
+     could be reduced into practice. He communicated his idea in the
+     part of the country where he lived, and had the most sanguine
+     hopes of success. He went so far as to try his project in the
+     Broads near Yarmouth. He fitted a Norwich market-boat for his
+     purpose, sunk himself thirty feet under water, where he continued
+     during the space of twenty-four hours, and executed his design to
+     his own entire satisfaction. Elated with this success, he then
+     wanted to avail himself of his invention. He conversed with his
+     friends, convinced them that he had brought his undertaking to a
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> certainty; but how to reap the advantage of it was the
+     difficulty that remained. The person in whom he confided
+     suggested to him, that, if he acquainted the sporting Gentlemen
+     with the discovery, and the certainty of the performance,
+     considerable betts would take place, as soon as the project
+     would be mentioned in company. The Sporting Kalendar was
+     immediately looked into, and the name of Blake soon occurred;
+     that gentleman was fixed upon as the person to whom Mr. Day ought
+     to address himself. Accordingly, Mr. Blake, in the month of
+     November last, received the following letter:</p>
+
+     <p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p>
+
+     <p>"I found out an affair by which many thousands may be won; it is
+     of a paradoxical nature, but can be performed with ease;
+     therefore, sir, if you chuse to be informed of it, and give me
+     one hundred pounds of every thousand you shall win by it, I will
+     very readily wait upon you and inform you of it. I am myself but
+     a poor mechanic and not able to make anything by it without your
+     assistance.</p>
+
+  <p>"Your's, etc.</p>
+
+  <p class="right10">"<span class="smcap">J. DAY</span>."</p>
+
+     <p>Mr. Blake had no conception of Mr. Day's design, nor was he sure
+     that the letter was serious. To clear the matter up, he returned
+     for answer, that, if Mr. Day would come to town, and explain
+     himself, Mr. Blake would consider of the proposal. If he approved
+     of it, Mr. Day should have the recompence he desired; if, on the
+     other hand, the plan should be rejected, Mr. Blake would make him
+     a present to defray the expences of his journey. In a short time
+     after Mr. Day came to town; Mr. Blake saw him and desired to know
+     what secret he was possessed of. The man replied, "that he could
+     sink a ship 100 feet deep in the sea with himself in it, and
+     remain therein for the space of 24 hours, without communication
+     with anything above; and at the expiration of the time, rise up
+     again in the vessel." <span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> The proposal, in all its parts,
+     was new to Mr. Blake. He took down the particulars, and, after
+     considering the matter, desired some kind of proof of the
+     practicability. The man added that if Mr. Blake would furnish him
+     with the materials necessary, he would give him an occular
+     demonstration. A model of the vessel, with which he was to
+     perform the experiment, was then required, and in three or four
+     weeks accomplished, so as to give a perfect idea of the principle
+     upon which the scheme was to be executed, and, in time, a very
+     plausible promise of success, not to Mr. Blake only, but many
+     other gentlemen who were consulted upon the occasion. The
+     consequence was, that Mr. Blake, agreeably to the man's desire,
+     advanced money for the construction of a vessel fit for that
+     purpose. Mr. Day, thus assisted, went to Plymouth with his model,
+     and set a man in that place to work upon it. The pressure of the
+     water at 100 feet deep was a circumstance of which Mr. Blake was
+     advised, and touching that article he gave the strongest
+     precautions to Mr. Day, telling him, at any expence, to fortify
+     the chamber in which he was to subsist, against the weight of
+     such a body of water. Mr. Day set off in great spirits for
+     Plymouth, and seemed so confident, that Mr. Blake made a bett
+     that the project would succeed, reducing, however, the depth of
+     water from 100 yards to 100 feet, and the time from 24 to 12
+     hours. By the terms of the wager, the experiment was to be made
+     within three months from the date; but so much time was necessary
+     for due preparation, that on the appointed day things were not in
+     readiness and Mr. Blake lost the bett.</p>
+
+<a id="img072" name="img072"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img072.jpg" width="400" height="528" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>In some short time afterwards the vessel was finished, and Mr.
+     Day still continued eager for the carrying of his plan into
+     execution; he was uneasy at the idea of dropping the scheme and
+     wished for an opportunity to convince Mr. Blake that he could
+     perform what he had undertaken. He wrote from Plymouth that
+     everything was in readiness and should be executed the moment Mr.
+     Blake arrived. Induced by this promise, Mr. Blake set out for
+     Plymouth; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span> upon his arrival a trial was made in
+     Cat-water, where Mr. Day lay, during the flow of tide, six hours,
+     and six more during the tide of ebb; confined all the time in the
+     room appropriated for his use. A day for the final determination
+     was fixed; the vessel was towed to the place agreed upon; Mr. Day
+     provided himself with whatever he thought necessary; he went into
+     the vessel, let the water into her and with great composure
+     retired to the room constructed for him, and shut up the valve.
+     The ship went gradually down in 22 fathoms of water at 2 o'clock
+     on Tuesday, June 28, in the afternoon, being to return at 2 the
+     next morning. He had three buoys or messengers, which he could
+     send to the surface at option, to announce his situation below;
+     but, none appearing, Mr. Blake, who was near at hand in a barge,
+     began to entertain some suspicion. He kept a strict lookout, and
+     at the time appointed, neither the buoys nor the vessel coming
+     up, he applied to the <i>Orpheus</i> frigate, which lay just off the
+     barge, for assistance. The captain with the most ready
+     benevolence supplied them with everything in his power to seek
+     for the ship. Mr. Blake, in this alarming situation was not
+     content with the help of the <i>Orpheus</i> only; he made immediate
+     application to Lord Sandwich (who happened to be at Plymouth) for
+     further relief. His Lordship with great humanity ordered a number
+     of hands from the dock-yard, who went with the utmost alacrity
+     and tried every effort to regain the ship, but unhappily without
+     effect.</p>
+
+     <p>Thus ended this unfortunate affair. Mr. Blake had not experience
+     enough to judge of all possible contingencies, and he had now
+     only to lament the credulity with which he listened to a
+     projector, fond of his own scheme but certainly not possessed of
+     skill enough to guard against the variety of accidents to which
+     he was liable. The poor man has unfortunately shortened his days;
+     he was not however tempted or influenced by anybody; he confided
+     in his own judgment, and put his life to the hazard upon his own
+     mistaken notions.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> Many and various have been the opinions on this strange,
+     useless, and fatal experiment, though the more reasonable part of
+     mankind seemed to give it up as wholly impracticable. It is
+     well-known, that pent-up air, when overcharged with the vapours
+     emitted out of animal bodies, becomes unfit for respiration; for
+     which reason, those confined in the diving-bell, after continuing
+     some time under water are obliged to come up, and take in fresh
+     air, or by some such means recruit it. That any man should be
+     able after having sunk a vessel to so great a depth, to make that
+     vessel at pressure, so much more specifically lighter than water,
+     as thereby to enable it to force its way to the surface, through
+     the depressure of so great a weight, is a matter not hastily to
+     be credited. Even cork, when sunk to a certain depth will, by the
+     great weight of the fluid upon it, be prevented from rising.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The English of the <i>Annual Register</i> leaves much to be desired in
+clarity. It makes reasonably clear, however, that the unfortunate
+Mr. Day's knowledge of submarine conditions was, by no means, equal
+to Mr. Blake's sporting spirit. Even to-day one hundred feet is an
+unusual depth of submersion for the largest submarines.</p>
+
+<p>The credit for using a submarine boat for the first time in actual
+warfare belongs to a Yankee, David Bushnell. He was born in
+Saybrook, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale with the class of
+1775. While still in college he was interested in science and as far
+as his means and opportunities allowed, he devoted a great deal of
+his time and energy to experimental work. The problem which
+attracted his special attention was how to explode powder under
+water, and before very long he succeeded in solving this to his own
+satisfaction as well as to that of a number of prominent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span>
+people amongst whom were the Governor of Connecticut and his
+Council. Bushnell's experiments, of course, fell in the period
+during which the Revolutionary War was fought, and when he had
+completed his invention, there naturally presented itself to him a
+further problem. How could his device be used for the benefit of his
+country and against the British ships which were then threatening
+New York City? As a means to this end, Bushnell planned and built a
+submarine boat which on account of its shape is usually called the
+<i>Turtle</i>.</p>
+
+<p>General Washington thought very highly of Bushnell, whom he called
+in a letter to Thomas Jefferson "a man of great mechanical powers,
+fertile in inventions and master of execution." In regard to
+Bushnell's submarine boat the same letter, written after its
+failure, says: "I thought and still think that it was an effort of
+genius, but that too many things were necessary to be combined to
+expect much against an enemy who are always on guard."</p>
+
+<p>During the whole period of the building of the <i>Turtle</i> Bushnell was
+in ill health. Otherwise he would have navigated it on its trial
+trip himself for he was a man of undoubted courage and wrapped up
+alike in the merits of his invention and in the possibility of
+utilizing it to free New York from the constant ignominy of the
+presence of British ships in its harbour. But his health made this
+out of the question. Accordingly he taught his brother the method of
+navigating the craft, but at the moment for action the brother too
+fell ill. It became necessary to hire an operator. This was by no
+means easy as volunteers to go below the water in a submarine boat
+of a type hitherto undreamed of, and to attach an explosive to the
+hull <span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> of a British man-of-war, the sentries upon which were
+presumably especially vigilant, being in a hostile harbour, was an
+adventure likely to attract only the most daring and reckless
+spirits. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, other portions of which we
+shall have occasion to quote later, Bushnell refers to this
+difficulty in finding a suitable operator and tells briefly and with
+evident chagrin the story of the failure of the attempts made to
+utilize successfully his submarine:</p>
+
+<a id="img073" name="img073"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img073.jpg" width="600" height="382" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Bomb-Dropping Taube.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>After various attempts to find an operator to my wish, I sent one
+     who appeared more expert than the rest from New York to a 50-gun
+     ship lying not far from Governor's Island. He went under the ship
+     and attempted to fix the wooden screw into her bottom, but
+     struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron which passes from the
+     rudder hinge, and is spiked under the ship's quarter. Had he
+     moved a few inches, which he might have done without rowing, I
+     have no doubt but he would have found wood where he might have
+     fixed the screw, or if the ship were sheathed with copper he
+     might easily have pierced it; but, not being well skilled in the
+     management of the vessel, in attempting to move to another place
+     he lost the ship. After seeking her in vain for some time, he
+     rowed some distance and rose to the surface of the water, but
+     found daylight had advanced so far that he durst not renew the
+     attempt. He says that he could easily have fastened the magazine
+     under the stem of the ship above water, as he rowed up to the
+     stern and touched it before he descended. Had he fastened it
+     there the explosion of 150 lbs. of powder (the quantity contained
+     in the magazine) must have been fatal to the ship. In his return
+     from the ship to New York he passed near Governor's Island, and
+     thought he was discovered by the enemy on the island. Being in
+     haste to avoid the danger he feared, he cast off the magazine, as
+     he imagined it retarded him in the swell, which was very
+     considerable. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> After the magazine had been cast off one
+     hour, the time the internal apparatus was set to run, it blew up
+     with great violence.</p>
+
+     <p>Afterwards there were two attempts made in Hudson's River, above
+     the city, but they effected nothing. One of them was by the
+     aforementioned person. In going towards the ship he lost sight of
+     her, and went a great distance beyond her. When he at length
+     found her the tide ran so strong that, as he descended under
+     water for the ship's bottom, it swept him away. Soon after this
+     the enemy went up the river and pursued the boat which had the
+     submarine vessel on board and sunk it with their shot. Though I
+     afterwards recovered the vessel, I found it impossible at that
+     time to prosecute the design any farther.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The operator to whom Bushnell had entrusted his submarine boat was a
+typical Yankee, Ezra Lee of Lyme, Connecticut. His story of the
+adventure differs but little from that of Bushnell, but it is told
+with a calm indifference to danger and a seeming lack of any notion
+of the extraordinary in what he had done that gives an idea of the
+man. "When I rode under the stern of the ship [the <i>Eagle</i>] I could
+see the men on deck and hear them talk," he wrote. "I then shut down
+all the doors, sunk down, and came up under the bottom of the ship."</p>
+
+<p>This means that he hermetically sealed himself inside of a craft,
+shaped like two upper turtle shells joined together&mdash;hence the name
+of the <i>Turtle</i>. He had entered through the orifice at the top,
+whence the head of the turtle usually protrudes. This before sinking
+he had covered and made water-tight by screwing down upon it a brass
+crown or top like that to a flask. Within he had enough air to
+support him thirty minutes. The vessel stood upright, not flat as a
+turtle <span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> carries himself. It was maintained in this position
+by lead ballast. Within the operator occupied an upright position,
+half sitting, half standing. To sink water was admitted, which
+gathered in the lower part of the boat, while to rise again this was
+expelled by a force pump. There were ventilators and portholes for
+the admission of light and air when operating on the surface, but
+once the cap was screwed down the operator was in darkness.</p>
+
+<p>In this craft, which suggests more than anything else a curiously
+shaped submarine coffin, Lee drifted along by the side of the ship,
+navigating with difficulty with his single oar and seeking vainly to
+find some spot to which he might affix his magazine. A fact which
+might have disquieted a more nervous man was that the clockwork of
+this machine was running and had been set to go off in an hour from
+the time the voyage was undertaken. As to almost anyone in that
+position minutes would seem hours, the calmness of sailor Lee's
+nerves seems to be something beyond the ordinary.</p>
+
+<p>When he finally abandoned the attempt on the <i>Eagle</i> he started up
+the bay. Off Governor's Island he narrowly escaped capture.</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     When I was abreast of the Fort on the Island three hundred or
+     four hundred men got upon the parapet to observe me; at length a
+     number came down to the shore, shoved off a twelve oar'd barge
+     with five or six sitters and pulled for me. I eyed them, and when
+     they had got within fifty or sixty yards of me I let loose the
+     magazine in hopes that if they should take me they would likewise
+     pick up the magazine and then we should all be blown up together.
+     But as kind providence would have it they took fright and
+     returned to the Island to my infinite joy.... The magazine after
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span> getting a little past the Island went off with a
+     tremendous explosion, throwing up large bodies of water to an
+     immense height.</p>
+
+<p>During the last quarter of the eighteenth and during the first half
+of the nineteenth century France was the chief centre for the
+activities of submarine inventors. However, very few of the many
+plans put forward in this period were executed. The few exceptions
+resulted in little else than trial boats which usually did not live
+up to the expectations of their inventors or their financial
+backers and were, therefore, discarded in quick order. In spite of
+this lack of actual results this particular period was of
+considerable importance to the later development of the submarine.
+Almost every one of the many boats then projected or built contained
+some innovation and in this way some of the many obstacles were
+gradually overcome. Strictly speaking the net result of the
+experimental work done during these seventy-five years by a score or
+more of men, most of whom were French, though a few were English,
+was the creation of a more sane and sound basis on which, before
+long, other men began to build with greater success.</p>
+
+<p>The one notable accomplishment of interest, especially to Americans,
+was the submarine built in 1800-01 by Robert Fulton. Fulton, of
+course, is far better known by his work in connection with the
+discovery and development of steam navigation. Born in Pennsylvania
+in 1765, he early showed marked mechanical genius. In 1787 he went
+to England with the purpose of studying art under the famous painter
+West, but soon began to devote most of his time and energy to
+mechanical problems. Not finding in England as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> much
+encouragement as he had hoped, he went, in 1797, to Paris and, for
+the next seven years, lived there in the house of the American
+Minister, Joel Barlow.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had settled down in France, he offered his plans of a
+submarine boat which he called the <i>Nautilus</i> to the French
+Government. Though a special commission reported favourably on this
+boat, the opposition of the French Minister of the Marine was too
+strong to be overcome, even after another commission had approved a
+model built by Fulton. In 1800, however, he was successful in
+gaining the moral and financial support of Napoleon Bonaparte, then
+First Consul of the French Republic.</p>
+
+<p>Fulton immediately proceeded to build the <i>Nautilus</i> and completed
+the boat in May, 1801. It was cigar-shaped, about seven feet in
+diameter and over twenty-one feet in length. The hull was of copper
+strengthened by iron ribs. The most noticeable features were a
+collapsible mast and sail and a small conning tower at the forward
+end. The boat was propelled by a wheel affixed to the centre of the
+stern and worked by a hand-winch. A rudder was used for steering,
+and increased stability was gained by a keel which ran the whole
+length of the hull.</p>
+
+<a id="img074" name="img074"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img074.jpg" width="600" height="431" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the Invalides.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Soon after completion the boat was taken out for a number of trial
+trips all of which were carried out with signal success and finally
+culminated, on June 26, 1801, in the successful blowing up of an old
+ship furnished by the French Government. Although the <i>Nautilus</i>
+created a great sensation, popular as well as official interest
+began soon to flag. Fulton received no further encouragement and
+finally gave up his submarine experiments.</p>
+
+<a id="img075" name="img075"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img075.jpg" width="600" height="398" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A British Seaplane with Folding Wings.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1806 he returned to America. By 1814 he had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span> built
+another submarine boat which he called the <i>Mute</i>. It was,
+comparatively speaking, of immense size, being over eighty feet
+long, twenty-one feet wide, and fourteen feet deep and accommodating
+a hundred men. It was iron-plated on top and derived its peculiar
+name from the fact that it was propelled by a noiseless engine.
+Before its trials could be completed, Fulton died on February 24,
+1815, and no one seemed to have sufficient interest or faith in his
+new boat to continue his work.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the nineteenth century for the first time a German
+became seriously interested in submarines. His name was Wilhelm
+Bauer. He was born in 1822 in a small town in Bavaria and, though a
+turner by trade, joined the army in 1842. Bauer was even in his
+youth of a highly inventive turn of mind. He possessed an
+indomitable will and an unlimited supply of enthusiasm. Step by step
+he acquired, in what little time he could spare from his military
+duties, the necessary mechanical knowledge, and finally, supported
+financially by a few loyal friends and patrons, he built his first
+submarine at Kiel at a cost of about $2750. It sank to the bottom
+on its first trial trip, fortunately without anyone on board.
+Undaunted he continued his efforts.</p>
+
+<p>When he found that his support at Kiel was weakening, he promptly
+went to Austria. In spite of glowing promises, opposition on the
+part of some officials deprived Bauer of the promised assistance. He
+went then to England and succeeded in enlisting the interest of the
+Prince Consort. A boat was built according to Bauer's plans, which,
+however, he was forced by the interference of politicians to change
+to such an extent that it sank on its first trial with considerable
+loss of life.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> Still full of faith in his ability to produce a successful
+submarine, Bauer now went to Russia. In 1855, he built a boat at St.
+Petersburg and had it accepted by the Russian Government. It was
+called <i>Le Diable Marin</i> and looked very much like a dolphin. Its
+length was fifty-two feet, its beam twelve feet five inches, and its
+depth eleven feet. Its hull was of iron. A propeller, worked by four
+wheels, furnished motive power. Submersion and stability were
+regulated by four cylinders into which water could be pumped at
+will.</p>
+
+<p>The first trial of the boat was made on May 26, 1856, and was
+entirely successful. In later trials as many as fourteen men at a
+time descended in <i>Le Diable Marin</i>. It is said that Bauer made a
+total of 134 trips on his boat. All but two were carried out
+successfully. At one time, however, the propeller was caught in some
+seaweed and it was only by the quickest action that all the water
+was pumped out and the bow of the boat allowed to rise out of the
+water, so that the occupants managed to escape by means of the
+hatchway. Like Fulton in France, Bauer now experienced in Russia a
+sudden decrease of official interest. When he finally lost his boat,
+about four weeks later, he also lost his courage, and in 1858 he
+returned to Germany where he later died in comparative poverty.</p>
+
+<p>Contemporary with Bauer's submarines and immediately following them
+were a large number of other boats. Some of these were little more
+than freaks. Others failed in certain respects but added new
+features to the sum-total of submarine inventions. As early as 1854,
+M. Marié-Davy, Professor of Chemistry at Montpellier University,
+suggested an electro-magnetic engine as motive power. In 1855 a
+well-known engineer, J. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> Nasmith, suggested a submerged
+motor, driven by a steam engine. None of the boats of this period
+proved successful enough, however, to receive more than passing
+notice, and very few, indeed, ever reached the trial stage. But
+before long the rapid development of internal-combustion engines and
+the immense progress made in the study of electricity was to advance
+the development of submarines by leaps and bounds.</p>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> CHAPTER XII<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE COMING OF STEAM AND ELECTRICITY</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>In the fall of 1863, the Federal fleet was blockading the harbour of
+Charleston, S. C. Included among the many ships was one of the
+marvels of that period, the United States battleship <i>Ironsides</i>.
+Armour-plated and possessing what was then considered a wonderful
+equipment of high calibred guns and a remarkably trained crew, she
+was the terror of the Confederates. None of their ships could hope
+to compete with her and the land batteries of the Southern harbour
+were powerless to reach her.</p>
+
+<a id="img076" name="img076"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img076.jpg" width="600" height="405" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A British Anti-Aircraft Gun.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During the night of October 5, 1863, the officer of the watch on
+board the <i>Ironsides</i>, Ensign Howard, suddenly observed a small
+object looking somewhat like a pleasure boat, floating close to his
+own ship. Before Ensign Howard's order to fire at it could be
+executed, the <i>Ironsides</i> was shaken from bow to stern, an immense
+column of water was thrown up and flooded her deck and engine room,
+and Ensign Howard fell, mortally wounded. The little floating object
+was responsible for all this. It was a Confederate submersible boat,
+only fifty feet long and nine feet in diameter, carrying a
+fifteen-foot spar-torpedo. She had been named <i>David</i> and the
+Confederate authorities hoped to do away by means of her with the
+Goliaths of the Federal navy. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span> Manned only by five men,
+under the command of Lieutenant W. T. Glassel, driven by a small
+engine and propeller, she had managed to come up unobserved within
+striking distance of the big battleship.</p>
+
+<p>The attack, however, was unsuccessful. The <i>Ironsides</i> was
+undamaged. On the other hand the plucky little <i>David</i> had been
+disabled to such an extent that her crew had to abandon her and take
+to the water, allowing their boat to drift without motive power.
+Four of them were later picked up. According to an account in
+Barnes, <i>Torpedoes and Torpedo Warfare</i>, the engineer, after having
+been in the water for some time, found himself near her and
+succeeded in getting on board. He relighted her fires and navigated
+his little boat safely back to Charleston. There she remained,
+making occasional unsuccessful sallies against the Federal fleet,
+and when Charleston was finally occupied by the Federal forces, she
+was found there.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this failure the Confederates continued their attempts
+to break the blockade of their most important port by submarine
+devices. A new and somewhat improved <i>David</i> was ordered and built
+at another port. News of this somehow reached the Federal Navy
+Department and was immediately communicated to Vice-Admiral
+Dahlgren, in command of the blockading fleet. Despite this warning
+and instructions to all the officers of the fleet, the second
+<i>David</i> succeeded in crossing Charleston bar.</p>
+
+<p>This new boat was a real diving submarine boat and though frequently
+called <i>David</i> had been christened the <i>Hundley</i>. It had been built
+in the shipyards of McClintock &amp; Hundley at Mobile, Alabama, and had
+been brought to Charleston by rail. On her trial she proved very
+clumsy and difficult to manage. For her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> first trip a crew
+of nine men volunteered. Not having any conning tower it was
+necessary that one of the hatchways should be left open while the
+boat travelled on the surface so that the steersman could find his
+bearings. While she was on her first trip, the swell from a passing
+boat engulfed her. Before the hatchway could be closed, she filled
+with water. Of course, she sank like a piece of lead and her entire
+crew, with the exception of the steersman, was drowned.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this mishap the <i>Hundley</i> was raised and again put in
+commission. Lieutenant Payne who had steered her on her first fatal
+trip had lost neither his courage nor faith and again assumed
+command of her. Soon after she started on her second trip a sudden
+squall arose. Before the hatchways could be closed, she again filled
+with water and sank, drowning all of her crew with the exception of
+Lieutenant Payne and two of his men.</p>
+
+<p>Undaunted he took her out on a third trip after she had again been
+raised. Ill luck still pursued her. Off Fort Sumter she was capsized
+and this time four of her crew were drowned.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties encountered in sailing the <i>Hundley</i> on the
+surface of the water apparently made no difference when it came to
+finding new crews for her. By this time, however, the powers that be
+had become anxious that their submarine boat should accomplish
+something against an enemy, instead of drowning only her own men and
+it was decided to use her on the next trip in a submerged state.
+Again Lieutenant Payne was entrusted with her guidance. Her hatches
+were closed, her water tanks filled, and she was off for her first
+dive. Something went wrong however; either too much water had been
+put in her tanks or else the steering gear refused <span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> to work.
+At any rate she hit the muddy bottom with such force that her nose
+became deeply imbedded and before she could work herself free her
+entire crew of eight was suffocated. Lieutenant Payne himself lost
+his life which he had risked so valiantly and frequently before.</p>
+
+<p>Once more she was raised and once more volunteers rushed to man her.
+On the fifth trip, however, the <i>Hundley</i>, while travelling
+underwater, became entangled in the anchor chains of a boat she
+passed and was held fast so long that her crew of nine were dead
+when she was finally disentangled and raised.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty-five lives had so far been lost without any actual results
+having been accomplished. In spite of this a new crew was found. Her
+commander, Lieutenant Dixon, was ordered to make an attack against
+the Federal fleet immediately, using, however, the boat as a
+submersible instead of a submarine.</p>
+
+<p>Admiral David Porter in his <i>Naval History of the Civil War</i>
+described the attack, which was directed against the U. S. S.
+<i>Housatonic</i>, one of the newest Federal battleships, as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     At about 8.45 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span>, the officer of the deck on board the
+     unfortunate vessel discovered something about one hundred yards
+     away, moving along the water. It came directly towards the ship,
+     and within two minutes of the time it was first sighted was
+     alongside. The cable was slipped, the engines backed, and all
+     hands called to quarters. But it was too late&mdash;the torpedo struck
+     the <i>Housatonic</i> just forward of the mainmast, on the starboard
+     side, on a line with the magazine. The man who steered her (the
+     <i>Hundley</i>) knew where the vital spots of the steamer were and he
+     did his work well. When the explosion took place the ship
+     trembled all over as if by the shock of an earthquake, and
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> seemed to be lifted out of the water, and then sank
+     stern foremost, heeling to port as she went down.</p>
+
+<p>Only a part of the <i>Housatonic's</i> complement was saved. Of the
+<i>Hundley</i> no trace was discovered and she was believed to have
+escaped. Three years later, however, divers who had been sent down
+to examine the hull of the <i>Housatonic</i> found the little submarine
+stuck in the hole made by her attack on the larger ship and inside
+of her the bodies of her entire crew.</p>
+
+<p>The submarines and near-submarines built in the United States during
+the Civil War were remarkable rather for what they actually
+accomplished than for what they contributed towards the development
+of submarine boats. Perhaps the greatest service which they rendered
+in the latter direction was that they proved to the satisfaction of
+many scientific men that submarine boats really held vast
+possibilities as instruments of naval warfare.</p>
+
+<p>France still retained its lead in furnishing new submarine projects.
+One of these put forward in 1861 by Olivier Riou deserves mention
+because it provided for two boats, one driven by steam and one by
+electricity. Both of these submarines were built, but inasmuch as
+nothing is known of the result of their trials, it is safe to
+conclude that neither of them proved of any practical value.</p>
+
+<p>Two years later, in 1863, two other Frenchmen, Captain Bourgeois and
+M. Brun, built at Rochefort a submarine 146 feet long and 12 feet in
+diameter which they called the <i>Plongeur</i>. They fitted it with a
+compressed-air engine of eighty horse-power. Extensive trials were
+made with this boat but resulted only in the discovery that, though
+it was possible to sink or rise <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> with a boat of this type
+without great difficulty, it was impossible to keep her at an even
+keel for any length of time.</p>
+
+<p>During the next few years, undoubtedly as a result of the submarine
+activities during the Civil War, a number of projects were put
+forward in the United States, none of which, however, turned out
+successfully. One of them, for which a man by the name of Halstead
+was responsible, was a submarine built for the United States Navy in
+1865. It was not tried out until 1872 and it was not even successful
+in living up to its wonderful name, <i>The Intelligent Whale</i>. Its
+first trial almost resulted in loss of life and was never repeated.
+In spite of this, however, the boat was preserved and may still be
+seen at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, an invention had been made by an Austrian artillery
+officer which before long was to exert a powerful influence on
+submarine development, though it was in no sense a submarine boat.
+The manner in which the submarines had attacked their opponents
+during the Civil War suggested to him the need of improvements in
+this direction. As a result he conceived a small launch which was to
+carry the explosive without any navigators. Before he could carry
+his plans very far he died. A brother officer in the navy continued
+his work and finally interested the manager of an English
+engineering firm located at Fiume, Mr. Whitehead. The result of the
+collaboration of these two men was the Whitehead torpedo. A series
+of experiments led to the construction of what was first called a
+"Submarine Locomotive" torpedo, which not only contained a
+sufficient quantity of explosives to destroy large boats, but was
+also enabled by mechanical means <span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> to propel itself and keep
+on its course after having been fired. The Austrian Government was
+the first one to adopt this new weapon. Whitehead, however, refused
+to grant a monopoly to the Austrians and in 1870 he sold his
+manufacturing rights and secret processes to the British Government
+for a consideration of $45,000.</p>
+
+<p>Before very long, special boats were built for the purpose of
+carrying and firing these torpedoes and gradually every great power
+developed a separate torpedo flotilla. Hand in hand with this
+development a large number of improvements were made on the original
+torpedo and some of these devices proved of great usefulness in the
+development of submarine boats.</p>
+
+<p>The public interest in submarines grew rapidly at this time. Every
+man who was a boy in 1873, or who had the spirit of boyhood in him
+then,&mdash;or perhaps now,&mdash;will remember the extraordinary piece of
+literary and imaginative prophecy achieved by Jules Verne in his
+novel <i>Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea</i>. Little about the
+<i>Nautilus</i> that held all readers entranced throughout his story is
+lacking in the submarines of to-day except indeed its extreme
+comfort, even luxury. With those qualities our submarine navigators
+have to dispense. But the electric light, as we know it, was unknown
+in Verne's time yet he installed it in the boat of his fancy. Our
+modern internal-combustion engines were barely dreamed of, yet they
+drove his boat. His fancy even enabled him to foresee one of the
+most amazing features of the Lake boat of to-day, namely the
+compressed air chamber which opened to the sea still holds the water
+back, and enables the submarine navigator clad in a diver's suit to
+step into the wall of water and prosecute his labors on the bed of
+the ocean. Jules Verne even foresaw the callous <span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> and inhuman
+character of the men who command the German submarines to-day. His
+Captain Nemo had taken a vow of hate against the world and
+relentlessly drove the prow of his steel boat into the hulls of
+crowded passenger ships, finding his greatest joy in sinking slowly
+beside them with the bright glare of his submarine electric lights
+turned full upon the hapless women and children over whose
+sufferings he gloated as they sank. The man who sank the
+<i>Lusitania</i> could do no more.</p>
+
+<p>More and more determined became the attempts to build submarine
+boats that could sink and rise easily, navigate safely and quickly,
+and sustain human beings under the surface of the water for a
+considerable length of time. Steam, compressed air, and electricity
+were called upon to do their share in accomplishing this desired
+result. Engineers in every part of the world began to interest
+themselves in the submarine problem and as a result submarine boats
+in numbers were either projected or built between 1875 and 1900.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most persistent workers in this period was a well-known
+Swedish inventor, Nordenfeldt, who had established for himself a
+reputation by inventing a gun which even to-day has lost nothing of
+its fame. In 1881 he became interested in the work which had been
+done by an English clergyman named Garret. The latter had built a
+submarine boat which he called the <i>Resurgam</i> (I shall rise)&mdash;thus
+neatly combining a sacred promise with a profane purpose. In 1879
+another boat was built by him driven by a steam engine. Nordenfeldt
+used the fundamental ideas upon which these two boats were based,
+added to them some improvements of his own as well as some devices
+which had been used by Bushnell, and finally launched in 1886 his
+first submarine boat. The government of Greece bought it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span>
+after some successful trials. Not to be outdone, Greece's old rival,
+Turkey, immediately ordered two boats for her own navy. Both of
+these were much larger than the Greek boat and by 1887 they had
+reached Constantinople in sections where they were to be put
+together. Only one of them, however, was ever completed.
+Characteristic Turkish delay intervened. The most typical feature of
+this boat was the fact that it carried a torpedo tube for Whitehead
+torpedoes. On the surface of the water this boat proved very
+efficient, but as an underwater boat it was a dismal failure. More
+than in any other craft that had ever been built and accepted, the
+lack of stability was a cause of trouble in the <i>Nordenfeldt II.</i> As
+soon as any member of the crew moved from one part of the boat to
+another, she would dip in the direction in which he was moving, and
+everybody, who could not in time take hold of some part of the boat,
+came sliding and rolling in the same direction. When finally such a
+tangle was straightened out, only a few minutes elapsed before
+somebody else, moving a few steps, would bring about the same
+deplorable state of affairs. The <i>Nordenfeldt II.</i> acted more like a
+bucking bronco than a self-respecting submarine boat and as a result
+it became impossible to find a crew willing to risk their lives in
+manning her. Before very long she had rusted and rotted to pieces.
+In spite of this lack of success, Nordenfeldt built a fourth boat
+which displayed almost as many unfortunate features as her
+predecessors and soon was discarded and forgotten.</p>
+
+<a id="img077" name="img077"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img077.jpg" width="600" height="400" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Bain News Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>An Anti-Aircraft Outpost.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the latter part of the nineteenth century the French Government,
+which for so many years had shown a strong and continuous interest
+in the submarine problem, was particularly active. Three different
+types <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span> of boats built in this period under the auspices and
+with the assistance of the French Government deserve particular
+attention. The first of these was the <i>Gymnote</i>, planned originally
+by a well-known French engineer, Dupuy de Lome, whose alert mind
+also planned an airship and made him a figure in the history of our
+Panama Canal. He died, however, before his project could be
+executed. M. Gustave Zédé, a marine engineer and his friend,
+continued his work after modifying some of his plans. The French
+Minister of Marine of this period, Admiral Aube who had long been
+strongly interested in submarines, immediately accepted M. Zédé's
+design and ordered the boat to be built. As the earliest of
+successful submarines she merits description:</p>
+
+<a id="img078" name="img078"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img078.jpg" width="600" height="442" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Gymnote</i> was built of steel in the shape of a cigar. She was 59
+feet long, 5 feet 9 inches beam, and 6 feet in diameter, just deep
+enough to allow a man to stand upright in the interior. The motive
+power was originally an electro-motor of 55 horse-power, driven from
+564 accumulators. It was of extraordinary lightness, weighing only
+4410 pounds, and drove the screw at the rate of two thousand
+revolutions a minute, giving a speed of six knots an hour, its
+radius of action at this speed being thirty-five miles.</p>
+
+<p>Immersion was accomplished by the introduction of water into three
+reservoirs, placed one forward, one aft, and one centre. The water
+was expelled either by means of compressed air or by a rotary pump
+worked by an electro-motor. Two horizontal rudders steered the boat
+in the vertical plane and an ordinary rudder steered in the
+horizontal.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Gymnote</i> had her first trial on September 4, 1888, and the
+Paris <i>Temps</i> described the result in the following enthusiastic
+language:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span> She steered like a fish both as regards direction and
+     depth; she mastered the desired depth with ease and exactness; at
+     full power she attained the anticipated speed of from nine to ten
+     knots; the lighting was excellent, there was no difficulty about
+     heating. It was a strange sight to see the vessel skimming along
+     the top of the water, suddenly give a downward plunge with its
+     snout, and disappear with a shark-like wriggle of its stern, only
+     to come up again at a distance out and in an unlooked-for
+     direction. A few small matters connected with the accumulators
+     had to be seen to, but they did not take a month.</p>
+
+<p>Following along the same lines as this boat another boat,
+considerably larger, was built. Before it was completed, M. Zédé
+died and it was decided to name the new boat in his honour. The
+<i>Gustave Zédé</i> was launched at Toulon on June 1, 1893; she was 159
+feet in length, beam 12 feet 4 inches, and had a total displacement
+of 266 tons. Her shell was of "Roma" bronze, a non-magnetic metal,
+and one that could not be attacked by sea water.</p>
+
+<p>The motive power was furnished by two independent electro-motors of
+360 horse-power each and fed by accumulators. In order to endow the
+boat with a wide radius of action a storage battery was provided.</p>
+
+<p>The successive crews of the <i>Gustave Zédé</i> suffered much from the
+poisonous fumes of the accumulators, and during the earlier trials
+all the men on board were ill.</p>
+
+<p>In the bows was a torpedo tube, and an arrangement was used whereby
+the water that entered the tube after the discharge of the torpedo
+was forced out by compressed air. Three Whitehead torpedoes were
+carried. In spite of the fact that a horizontal rudder placed at the
+stern had not proved serviceable on the <i>Gymnote</i>, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span> such a
+rudder was fitted in the <i>Gustave Zédé</i>. With this rudder she
+usually plunged at an angle of about 5°, but on several occasions
+she behaved in a very erratic fashion, seesawing up and down, and
+once when the Committee of Experts were on board, she proved so
+capricious, going down at an angle of 30°-35°, often throwing the
+poor gentlemen on to the floor, that it was decided to fix a system
+of six rudders, three on each side.</p>
+
+<p>Four water tanks were carried, one at each end and two in the
+middle, and the water was expelled by four pumps worked by a little
+electro-motor; these pumps also furnished the air necessary for the
+crew and for the discharge of the torpedoes. For underwater vision,
+an optical tube and a periscope had been provided.</p>
+
+<p>On July 5, 1899, still another submarine boat was launched for the
+French Navy. She was called the <i>Morse</i>. She was 118 feet long, 9
+feet beam, displaced 146 tons, and was likewise made of "Roma"
+bronze. The motive power was electricity and in many other respects
+she was very similar to the <i>Gustave Zédé</i>, embodying, however, a
+number of improvements. M. Calmette, who accompanied the French
+Minister of War on the trial trip of the <i>Morse</i>, described his
+experience in the Paris <i>Figaro</i> as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>General André, Dr. Vincent, a naval doctor, and I entered the
+     submarine boat <i>Morse</i> through the narrow opening in the upper
+     surface of the boat. Our excursion was to begin immediately; in
+     two hours we came to the surface of the water again three miles
+     to the north to rejoin the <i>Narval</i>. Turning to the crew, every
+     man of which was at his post, the commandant gave his orders,
+     dwelling with emphasis on each word. A sailor repeated his orders
+     one by one, and all was silent. The <i>Morse</i> had already started
+     on its mysterious voyage, but was skimming along the surface
+     until outside <span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span> the port in order to avoid the numerous
+     craft in the Arsenal. To say that at this moment, which I had so
+     keenly anticipated, I did not have the tremor which comes from
+     contact with the unknown would be beside the truth. On the other
+     hand, calm and imperturbable, but keenly curious as to this novel
+     form of navigation, General André had already taken his place
+     near the commandant on a folding seat. There were no chairs in
+     this long tube in which we were imprisoned. Everything was
+     arranged for the crew alone, with an eye to serious action.
+     Moreover, the Minister of War was too tall to stand upright
+     beneath the iron ceiling, and in any case it would be impossible
+     to walk about.</p>
+
+     <p>The only free space was a narrow passage, sixty centimetres
+     broad, less than two metres high, and thirty metres long, divided
+     into three equal sections. In the first, in the forefront of the
+     tube, reposed the torpedoes, with the machine for launching them,
+     which at a distance of from 500 to 600 metres were bound to sink,
+     with the present secret processes, the largest of ironclads. In
+     the second section were the electric accumulators which gave the
+     light and power. In the third, near the screw, was the electric
+     motor which transformed into movement the current of the
+     accumulators. Under all this, beneath the floor, from end to end,
+     were immense water ballasts, which were capable of being emptied
+     or filled in a few seconds by electric machines, in order to
+     carry the vessel up or down. Finally, in the centre of the tube,
+     dominating these three sections, which the electric light
+     inundated, and which no partition divided, the navigating
+     lieutenant stood on the lookout giving his orders.</p>
+
+     <p>There was but one thing which could destroy in a second all the
+     sources of authority, initiative, and responsibility in this
+     officer. That was the failure of the accumulators. Were the
+     electricity to fail everything would come to a stop. Darkness
+     would overtake the boat and imprison it for ever in the water. To
+     avoid any such disaster there have been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span> arranged, it is
+     true, outside the tube and low down, a series of lead blades
+     which were capable of being removed from within to lighten the
+     vessel. But admitting that the plunger would return to the
+     surface, the boat would float hither and thither, and at all
+     events lose all its properties as a submarine vessel. To avoid
+     any such disaster a combination of motors have been in course of
+     construction for some months, so that the accumulators might be
+     loaded afresh on the spot, in case of their being used up.</p>
+
+     <p>The <i>Morse</i>, after skimming along the surface of the water until
+     outside the port, was now about to sink. The commandant's place
+     was no longer in the helmet or kiosque whence he could direct the
+     route along the surface of the sea. His place was henceforth in
+     the very centre of the tube, in the midst of all sort of electric
+     manipulators, his eyes continually fixed on a mysterious optical
+     apparatus, the periscope. The other extremity of this instrument
+     floated on the surface of the water, and whatever the depth of
+     the plunge it gave him a perfectly faithful and clear
+     representation, as in a camera, of everything occurring on the
+     water.</p>
+
+     <p>The most interesting moment of all now came. I hastened to the
+     little opening to get the impression of total immersion. The
+     lieutenant by the marine chart verified the depths. The casks of
+     water were filled and our supply of air was thereby renewed from
+     their stores of surplus air. In our tiny observatory, where
+     General André stationed himself above me, a most unexpected
+     spectacle presented itself as the boat was immersed.</p>
+
+     <p>The plunge was so gentle that in the perfect silence of the
+     waters one did not perceive the process of descent, and there was
+     only an instrument capable of indicating, by a needle, the depth
+     to which the <i>Morse</i> was penetrating. The vessel was advancing
+     while at the same time it descended, but there was no sensation
+     of either advance or roll. As to respiration, it was as perfect
+     as in any room. M. de Lanessan, who since entering office has
+     ordered eight more submarine vessels, had concerned himself with
+     the question as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span> a medical man also, and, thanks to the
+     labours of a commission formed by him, the difficulties of
+     respiration were entirely solved. The crew were able to remain
+     under water sixteen hours without the slightest strain. Our
+     excursion on this occasion lasted scarcely two hours. Towards
+     noon, by means of the mysterious periscope, which, always
+     invisible, floated on the surface and brought to the vessel below
+     a reflection of all that passed up above, the captain showed us
+     the <i>Narval</i>, which had just emerged with its two flags near the
+     old battery <i>Impregnable</i>. From the depths in which we were
+     sailing we watched its slightest man&oelig;uvres until the admiral's
+     flag, waving on the top of a fort, reminded us that it was time
+     to return.</p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img079" name="img079"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img079.jpg" width="400" height="484" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>The Submarine's Perfect Work.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span> CHAPTER XIII<br>
+<span class="smaller">JOHN P. HOLLAND AND SIMON LAKE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Naval Committee of the House of Representatives of the United
+States in the early part of 1900 held a meeting for the purpose of
+hearing expert testimony upon the subject of submarines. Up to then
+the United States authorities had shown, as compared with the ruling
+powers of other navies, only a limited amount of interest in the
+submarine question. Increased appropriations for the construction of
+submarine boats which were then beginning to become more frequent in
+other countries acted, however, as a stimulus at this time.</p>
+
+<p>The committee meeting took place a few days after some of the
+members of the committee, together with a number of United States
+navy officers, had attended an exhibition of a new submarine boat,
+the <i>Holland No. 9</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The late Admiral Dewey gave the following opinion about this
+submarine to the committee, an opinion which since then has become
+rather famous:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     Gentlemen: I saw the operation of the boat down off Mount Vernon
+     the other day. Several members of this committee were there. I
+     think we were very much impressed with its performance. My aid,
+     Lieutenant Caldwell, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span> was on board. The boat did
+     everything that the owners proposed to do. I said then, and I
+     have said it since, that if they had two of those things at
+     Manila, I could never have held it with the squadron I had. The
+     moral effect&mdash;to my mind, it is infinitely superior to mines or
+     torpedoes or anything of the kind. With two of those in Galveston
+     all the navies of the world could not blockade the place.</p>
+
+<p>Admiral Dewey's approval of the <i>Holland No. 9</i> undoubtedly exerted
+a considerable influence on the Naval Committee and as a result of
+its recommendations the United States Government finally purchased
+the boat on April 11, 1900, for $150,000. This amount was about
+$86,000 less than the cost of building to the manufacturers, the
+Holland Torpedo Boat Company. The latter, however, could well afford
+to take this loss because this first sale resulted a few months
+afterwards&mdash;on August 25th&mdash;in an order for six additional
+submarines. The British Government also contracted in the fall of
+the same year for five Hollands. The navy of almost every power
+interested in submarines soon followed the lead of the British
+Admiralty. Submarines of the Holland type were either ordered
+outright, or else arrangements were concluded permitting the use of
+the basic patents held by the Holland Company. It will be noted
+that the United States Government having discovered that it had a
+good thing benevolently shared it with the governments that might be
+expected to use it against us.</p>
+
+<a id="img080" name="img080"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img080.jpg" width="400" height="442" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Copyright by Munn &amp; Co., Inc.<br>
+From the <i>Scientific American.</i></p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Types of American Aircraft.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Holland No. 9</i>, as her very name indicates, was one of a long
+line of similar boats. As compared with other experimental submarine
+boats she was small. She was only fifty-three feet ten inches long,
+and ten feet seven inches deep. Although these proportions <span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span>
+made her look rather thickset, they were the result of experimental
+work done by the builder during a period of twenty-five years. She
+was equipped both with a gasoline engine of fifty horse-power and an
+electric motor run by storage batteries. The latter was intended for
+use when the boat was submerged, the former when she was travelling
+on the surface of the water. She was capable of a maximum speed of
+seven knots an hour. Her cruising radius was 1500 miles and the
+combination of oil and electric motors proved so successful that
+from that time on every submarine built anywhere adopted this
+principle. Two horizontal rudders placed at the stern of the boat
+steered her downward whenever she wanted to dive and so accomplished
+a diver was this boat that a depth of twenty-eight feet could be
+reached by her in five seconds. Her conning tower was the only means
+of making observations. No periscopes had been provided because none
+of the instruments available at that time gave satisfaction. This
+meant that whenever she wished to aim at her target it was
+necessary for her to make a quick ascent to the surface. Her
+stability was one of her most satisfactory features. So carefully
+had her proportions been worked out that there was practically no
+pitching or rolling when the boat was submerged. Even the concussion
+caused by the discharge of a torpedo was hardly noticeable because
+arrangements had been made to take up the recoil caused by the
+firing and to maintain the balance of the boat by permitting a
+quantity of water equal to the weight of the discharged torpedo to
+enter special compartments at the very moment of the discharge.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Holland No. 9</i> was built at Lewis Nixon's shipyards at
+Elizabethport, New Jersey, and was launched <span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span> early in 1898,
+just previous to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. Although
+numerous requests were made to the United States Government by her
+inventor and builder, John P. Holland, for permission to take her
+into Santiago harbour in an attempt to torpedo Cervera's fleet, the
+navy authorities at Washington refused this permission. Why?
+Presumably through navy hostility to the submarine idea. When the
+<i>Monitor</i> whipped the <i>Merrimac</i> in 1862 the former ship belonged to
+her inventor, not to the United States Government. It would have
+been interesting had Holland at his own expense destroyed the
+Spanish ships.</p>
+
+<p>John P. Holland at the time when he achieved his success was
+fifty-eight years old, Irish by birth and an early immigrant to the
+United States. He had been deeply interested for many years in
+mechanical problems and especially in those connected with
+navigation. The change from the old wooden battleships to the new
+ironclads and the rapidly increasing development of steam-engines
+acted as a strong stimulus to the young Irishman's experiments. It
+is claimed that his interest in submarine navigation was due
+primarily to his desire to find a weapon strong enough to destroy or
+at least dominate the British navy; for at that time Holland was
+strongly anti-British, because he, like many other educated
+Irishmen of that period, desired before everything else to free
+Ireland. His plans for doing this by supplying to the proposed
+Irish Republic a means for overcoming the British navy found little
+support and a great deal of ridicule on the part of his Irish
+friends. In spite of this he kept on with his work and in 1875 he
+built and launched his first submarine boat at Paterson. This boat
+was far from being very revolutionary. She was only sixteen feet
+long and two <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span> feet in diameter, shaped like a cigar but with
+both ends sharply pointed. In many respects except in appearance she
+was similar to Bushnell's <i>Turtle</i>. Room for only one operator was
+provided and the latter was to turn the propeller by means of pedals
+to be worked by his feet. She accomplished little beyond giving an
+opportunity to her inventor and builder to gather experience in
+actual underwater navigation.</p>
+
+<p>Two years later in 1877 the <i>Holland No. 2</i> was built. In spite of
+the number of improvements represented by her she was not
+particularly successful. Her double hull, it is true, provided space
+for carrying water ballast. But the leaks from this ballast tank
+continuously threatened to drown the navigator sitting inside of the
+second hull. A small oil engine of four horse-power was soon
+discarded on account of its inefficiency.</p>
+
+<p>The experience gathered by Holland in building and navigating these
+two boats strengthened his determination to build a thoroughly
+successful submarine and increased his faith in his ability to do
+so. He opened negotiations with the Fenian Brotherhood. This was a
+secret society founded for the purpose of freeing Ireland from
+British rule and creating an Irish Republic. Holland finally
+succeeded in persuading his Fenian friends to order from him two
+submarine boats and to supply him with the necessary means to build
+them. Both of these boats were built. The lack of success of the
+first one was due primarily to the inefficiency of her engine. The
+second boat which was really the <i>Holland No. 4</i> was built in 1881.
+It is usually known as the <i>Fenian Ram</i>, and is still in existence
+at New Haven, Connecticut, where a series of financial and political
+complications finally landed her.</p>
+
+<p>These two boats added vastly to Holland's knowledge <span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span>
+concerning submarine navigation. A few others which he built with
+his own means increased this fund of knowledge and step by step he
+came nearer to his goal. By 1888 his reputation as a submarine
+engineer and navigator had grown to such an extent that Holland was
+asked by the famous Philadelphia shipbuilders, the Cramps, to submit
+to them designs for a submarine boat to be built by the United
+States Government. Only one other design was submitted and this was
+by the Scandinavian, Nordenfeldt.</p>
+
+<p>William C. Whitney, then Secretary of the United States Navy,
+accepted Holland's design. Month after month passed by wasted by the
+usual governmental red tape, and when all preliminary arrangements
+had been made and the contract for the actual building of an
+experimental boat was to be drawn up, a sudden change in the
+administration resulted in the dropping of the entire plan.</p>
+
+<p>Holland's faith in the future submarine and in his own ability was
+still unshaken, but this was not the case with his financial
+condition. None of the boats he had built so far had brought him any
+profits and on some he had lost everything that he had put into
+them. His financial support, for which he relied entirely upon
+relatives and friends, was practically exhausted. But fortunately on
+March 3, 1893, Congress appropriated a sum of money to defray the
+expenses of constructing an experimental submarine. Invitations to
+inventors were extended. So precarious was Holland's financial
+condition at that time that he found it necessary to borrow the
+small sum of money involved in making plans which he had to submit.
+It is claimed that he succeeded in doing this in a manner highly
+typical of his thoroughness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span> He needed only about $350.00 but even this comparatively
+small sum was more than he had. However, he happened to be lunching
+with a young lawyer just about this time and began to tell him
+about his financial difficulties. Holland told him that if he only
+had $347.19 he could prepare the plans and pay the necessary fees.
+And that done, he was sure of being able to win the competition. His
+lawyer friend, of course, had been approached before by other people
+for loans. Invariably they had asked him for some round sum and
+Holland's request for $347.19 when he might just as well have asked
+for $350.00 aroused his interest. He asked the inventor what the
+nineteen cents were to be used for. Quick as a flash he was told
+that they were needed to pay for a particular type of ruler
+necessary to draw the required plans. So impressed was the lawyer
+with Holland's accuracy and honesty in asking not a cent more than
+he actually needed that he at once advanced the money. And a good
+investment it turned out to be. For in exchange he received a
+good-sized block of stock in the Holland Torpedo Boat Company which
+in later years made him a multi-millionaire.</p>
+
+<p>Holland's plans did win the competition just as he asserted that
+they would; but, of course, winning a prize, offered by a
+government, and getting that government to do something about it,
+are two different matters. So two years went by before the Holland
+Torpedo Boat Company at last was able to start with the construction
+of the new submarine which was to be called the <i>Plunger</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The principal feature of this new boat was that it was to have a
+steam engine for surface navigation and an electric motor for
+underwater navigation. This arrangement was not so much a new
+invention of Holland's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span> as an adaptation of ideas which had
+been promulgated by others. Especially indebted was he in this
+respect to Commander Hovgaard of the Danish navy who, in 1887, had
+published an important book on the subject of double propulsion in
+submarines. Though Holland had made many improvements on these
+earlier theories, he soon found out that even at that there was
+going to be serious trouble with the <i>Plunger's</i> engines. The boat
+had been launched in 1897; but instead of finishing it, he persuaded
+the government to permit his company to build a new boat, and to
+return to the government all the money so far expended on the
+<i>Plunger</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The new boat, <i>Holland No. 8</i>, was started immediately and completed
+in record time but she, too, was unsatisfactory to the inventor. So
+without loss of time he went ahead and built another boat, the
+<i>Holland No. 9</i>, which, as we have said, became the first United
+States submarine.</p>
+
+<p>Two other men submitted plans for submarine boats in the competition
+which was won by the Holland boat, George C. Baker and Simon Lake.
+Neither of these was accepted. Mr. Baker made no further efforts to
+find out if his plans would result in a practicable submarine boat.
+But Simon Lake was not so easily discouraged.</p>
+
+<p>It is very interesting that the United States Navy Department at
+that time demanded that plans submitted for this competition should
+meet the following specifications:</p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>1. Safety.</li>
+<li>2. Facility and certainty of action when submerged.</li>
+<li>3. Speed when running on the surface.</li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span> 4. Speed when submerged.</li>
+<li>5. Endurance, both submerged and on the surface.</li>
+<li>6. Stability.</li>
+<li>7. Visibility of object to be attacked.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>In spite of the many years that have passed since this competition
+and in spite of the tremendous progress that has been made in
+submarine construction these are still the essential requirements
+necessary to make a successful submarine boat.</p>
+
+<p>The designs submitted by Mr. Lake provided for a twin-screw vessel,
+80 feet long, 10 feet beam, and 115 tons displacement, with 400
+horse-power steam engines for surface propulsion and 70 horse-power
+motors for submerged work. The boat was to have a double hull, the
+spaces between the inner and the outer hulls forming water ballast
+tanks. There were to be four torpedo tubes, two forward and two aft.</p>
+
+<p>In an article published in 1915 in <i>International Marine
+Engineering</i>, Mr. Lake says about his 1893 design:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>The new and novel feature which attracted the most attention and
+     skepticism regarding this design was (the author was later
+     informed by a member of the board) the claim made that the vessel
+     could readily navigate over the waterbed itself, and that while
+     navigating on the waterbed a door could be opened in the bottom
+     of a compartment and the water kept from entering the vessel by
+     means of compressed air, and that the crew could, by donning
+     diving suits, readily leave and enter the vessel while submerged.
+     Another novel feature was in the method of controlling the depth
+     of submergence when navigating between the surface and waterbed.
+     The vessel was designed to always submerge and navigate on a
+     level keel rather than to be inclined down or up by the back, to
+     "dive" or "rise." <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span> This maintenance of a level keel while
+     submerged was provided for by the installation of four depth
+     regulating vanes which I later termed "hydroplanes" to
+     distinguish them from the forward and aft levelling vanes or
+     horizontal rudders. These hydroplanes were located at equal
+     distances forward and aft of the center of gravity and buoyancy
+     of the vessel when in the submerged condition, so as not to
+     disturb the vessel when the planes were inclined down or up to
+     cause the vessel to submerge or rise when under way.</p>
+
+     <p>I also used, in conjunction with the hydroplanes, horizontal
+     rudders which I then called "levelling vanes," as their purpose
+     was just the opposite from that of the horizontal rudder used in
+     the diving type of vessel. They were operated by a pendulum
+     controlling device to be inclined so as to always maintain the
+     vessel on a level keel rather than to cause her to depart
+     therefrom. When I came to try this combination out in practice, I
+     found hand control of the horizontal rudders was sufficient. If
+     vessels with this system of control have a sufficient amount of
+     stability, you will run for hours and automatically maintain both
+     a constant depth and a level keel, without the depth control man
+     touching either the hydroplane or horizontal rudder control gear.
+     This automatic maintenance of depth without manipulating the
+     hydroplanes or rudders was a performance not anticipated, nor
+     claimed in my original patent on the above-mentioned combination,
+     and what caused these vessels to function in this manner
+     remained a mystery, which was unsolved until I built a model tank
+     in 1905 in Berlin, Germany, and conducted a series of experiments
+     on models of submarines. I then learned that a down pull of a
+     hydroplane at a given degree of inclination varied according to
+     its depth of submergence and that the deeper the submergence, the
+     less the down pull. This works out to give automatic trim on a
+     substantially level keel, and I have known of vessels running for
+     a period of two hours without variation of depth of one foot and
+     without once <span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span> changing the inclination of either the
+     hydroplanes or the horizontal rudder.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A great deal of skepticism was displayed for many years towards this
+new system of controlling the depth of submergence. But in recent
+years all the latest submarine boats have been built on this plan.</p>
+
+<p>Who, then, was this mechanical genius who was responsible for these
+far-going changes in submarine construction? Simon Lake was born at
+Pleasantville, New Jersey, September 4, 1866. He was educated at
+Clinton Liberal Institute, Fort Plain, New York, and Franklin
+Institute, Philadelphia. Early in life he displayed a marked
+interest in and genius for mechanical problems. His lack of success
+in the 1893 competition only spurred him on to further efforts. As
+long as the United States Government was unwilling to assist him in
+building his submarine boat, there was nothing left for him except
+to build it from his own means. In 1894, therefore, he set to work
+on an experimental boat, called the <i>Argonaut, Jr.</i> According to Mr.
+Lake's description as published in <i>International Marine
+Engineering</i> in a series of articles from his pen the <i>Argonaut,
+Jr.</i>, was</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     provided with three wheels, two on either side forward and one
+     aft, the latter acting as a steering wheel. When on the bottom
+     the wheels were rotated by hand by one or two men inside the
+     boat. Her displacement was about seven tons, yet she could be
+     propelled at a moderate walking gait when on the bottom. She was
+     also fitted with an air lock and diver's compartment, so
+     arranged that by putting an air pressure on the diver's
+     compartment equal to the water pressure outside, a bottom door
+     could be opened and no water would come into the vessel. Then by
+     putting on a pair of rubber boots the operator could walk around
+     on the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span> sea bottom and push the boat along with him and
+     pick up objects, such as clams, oysters, etc. from the sea
+     bottom.</p>
+
+<p>So much interest was aroused by this little wooden boat that Mr.
+Lake was enabled to finance the building of a larger boat, called
+the <i>Argonaut</i>. It was designed in 1895 and built in 1897 at
+Baltimore.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the <i>Argonaut</i> Mr. Lake says in the same article:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>The <i>Argonaut</i> as originally built was 36 feet long and 9 feet in
+     diameter. She was the first submarine to be fitted with an
+     internal-combustion engine. She was propelled with a thirty
+     horse-power gasoline (petrol) engine driving a screw propeller.
+     She was fitted with two toothed driving wheels forward which were
+     revolved by suitable gearing when navigating on the waterbed, or
+     they could be disconnected from this gearing and permitted to
+     revolve freely, propulsion being secured by the screw propeller.
+     A wheel in the rudder enabled her to be steered in any direction
+     when on the bottom. She also had a diving compartment to enable
+     divers to leave or enter the vessel when submerged, to operate on
+     wrecks or to permit inspection of the bottom or to recover
+     shellfish. She also had a lookout compartment in the extreme bow,
+     with a powerful searchlight to light up a pathway in front of her
+     as she moved along over the waterbed. This searchlight I later
+     found of little value except for night work in clear water. In
+     clear water the sunlight would permit of as good vision without
+     the use of the light as with it, while if the water was not
+     clear, no amount of light would permit of vision through it for
+     any considerable distance.</p>
+
+     <p>In January, 1898 [says Mr. Lake], while the <i>Argonaut</i> was
+     submerged, telephone conversation was held from submerged
+     stations with Baltimore, Washington, and New York.</p>
+
+     <p>In 1898, also, the <i>Argonaut</i> made the trip from Norfolk to
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span> New York under her own power and unescorted. In her
+     original form she was a cigar-shaped craft with only a small
+     percentage of reserve buoyancy in her surface cruising condition.
+     We were caught out in the severe November northeast storm of 1898
+     in which over 200 vessels were lost and we did not succeed in
+     reaching a harbour in the "horseshoe" back of Sandy Hook until,
+     of course, in the morning. The seas were so rough they would
+     break over her conning tower in such masses I was obliged to lash
+     myself fast to prevent being swept overboard. It was freezing
+     weather and I was soaked and covered with ice on reaching
+     harbour.</p>
+
+     <p>This experience caused me to apply to the <i>Argonaut</i> a further
+     improvement for which I had already applied for a patent. This
+     was, doubled around the usual pressure resisting body of a
+     submarine, a ship-shape form of light plating which would give
+     greater seaworthiness, better surface speed, and make the vessel
+     more habitable for surface navigation. It would, in other words,
+     make a "sea-going submarine," which the usual form of
+     cigar-shaped vessel was not, as it would not have sufficient
+     surface buoyancy to enable it to rise with the seas and the seas
+     would sweep over it as they would sweep over a partly submerged
+     rock.</p>
+
+     <p>The <i>Argonaut</i> was, therefore, taken to Brooklyn, twenty feet
+     added to her length, and a light water-tight buoyancy
+     superstructure of ship-shape form added. This superstructure was
+     opened to the sea when it was desired to submerge the vessel, and
+     water was permitted to enter the space between the light plating
+     of the ship-shaped form and the heavy plating of the pressure
+     resisting hull. This equalized pressure on the light plates and
+     prevented their becoming deformed due to pressure. The
+     superstructure increased her reserve of buoyancy in the surface
+     cruising condition from about 10 per cent. to over 40 per cent.
+     and lifted right up to the seas like any ordinary type of surface
+     vessel, instead of being buried by them in rough weather.</p>
+
+     <p>This feature of construction has been adopted by the Germans,
+     Italians, Russians, and in all the latest types of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span>
+     French boats. It is the principal feature which distinguishes
+     them in their surface appearance from the earlier cigar-shaped
+     boats of the diving type. This ship-shaped form of hull is only
+     suited to the level keel submergence.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In those days submarine boats were a much more unusual sight than
+they are to-day and simple fishermen who had never read or heard
+about submarines undoubtedly experienced disturbing sensations when
+they ran across their first underwater boat. Mr. Lake, a short time
+ago, while addressing a meeting of electrical engineers in Brooklyn,
+told the following experience which he had on one of his trips in
+the <i>Argonaut</i>:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     On the first trip down the Chesapeake Bay, we had been running
+     along in forty feet of water and had been down about four hours.
+     Night was coming on, so we decided to come up to find out where
+     we were. I noticed one of those Chesapeake "Bug Eyes" lighting
+     just to leeward of us, and, as I opened the conning tower hatch,
+     called to the men aboard to find out where we were. As soon as I
+     did so, he turned his boat around and made straight for the
+     beach. I thought he was rather discourteous. He ran his boat up
+     on that beach and never stopped; the last I saw of him was when
+     he jumped ashore and started to run inland as hard as he and his
+     helper could go. Finally I learned we were just above the mouth
+     of the York or Rappahannock River and I found a sort of inland
+     harbour back of it. I decided to put up there for the night. Then
+     learning that there was a store nearby, we called after dark for
+     more provisions and I noticed a large crowd there. We got what we
+     wanted, and stepped outside the door. He asked us where we were
+     from. "We are down here in the submarine boat, <i>Argonaut</i>, making
+     an experimental trip down the bay." He then commenced to laugh.
+     "That explains it," he said; "just before nightfall, Captain
+     So-and-So and his mate came <span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span> running up here to the store
+     just as hard as they could, and both dropped down exhausted, and
+     when we were able to get anything out of them, they told a very
+     strange story. That's why all these people are here." This is the
+     story the storekeeper told me: "The men were out dredging and all
+     at once they noticed a buoy with a red flag on it, and that buoy
+     was going against the tide, and they could not understand it. It
+     came up alongside, and they heard a 'puff, puff,' something like
+     a locomotive puffing, and then they smelt sulphur." (The "puff,
+     puff" was the exhaust of our engine and those fumes were what
+     they thought was sulphur.) "Just then the thing rose up out of
+     the water, then the smokestack appeared, and then the devil came
+     right out of that smokestack."</p>
+
+<p>In the January, 1899, issue of <i>McClure's Magazine</i> there appeared a
+profusely illustrated article entitled "Voyaging under the Sea." The
+first part of it, "The Submarine Boat <i>Argonaut</i> and her
+Achievements," was written by Simon Lake himself. In it he quotes as
+follows from the log book of the <i>Argonaut</i> under date of July 28,
+1898.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Submerged at 8.20 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> in about thirty feet of water.
+     Temperature in living compartment, eighty-three degrees
+     Fahrenheit. Compass bearing west-north-west, one quarter west.
+     Quite a lively sea running on the surface, also strong current.
+     At 10.45 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> shut down engine; temperature, eighty-eight
+     degrees Fahrenheit.</p>
+
+     <p>After engine was shut down, we could hear the wind blowing past
+     our pipes extending above the surface; we could also tell by the
+     sound when any steamers were in the vicinity. We first allowed
+     the boat to settle gradually to the bottom, with the tide running
+     ebb; after a time the tide changed, and she would work slightly
+     sideways; we admitted about four hundred pounds of water
+     additional, but she still would <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span> move occasionally, so
+     that a pendulum nine inches long would sway one eighth of an inch
+     (thwartship). At 12 o'clock (noon) temperature was eighty-seven
+     degrees Fahrenheit; at 2.45 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> the temperature was still
+     eighty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. There were no signs of carbonic
+     acid gas at 2.45, although the engine had been closed down for
+     three hours and no fresh air had been admitted during the time.
+     Could hear the whistle of boats on the surface, and also their
+     propellers when running close, to the boat. At 3.30 the
+     temperature had dropped to eighty-five degrees. At 3.45 found a
+     little sign of carbonic acid gas, very slight, however, as a
+     candle would burn fairly bright in the pits. Thought we could
+     detect a smell of gasoline by comparing the fresh air which came
+     down the pipe (when hand blower was turned). Storage lamps were
+     burning during the five hours of submergence, while engine was
+     not running.</p>
+
+     <p>At 3.50 engine was again started, and went off nicely. Went into
+     diving compartment and opened door; came out through air-lock,
+     and left pressure there; found the wheels had buried about ten
+     inches or one foot, as the bottom had several inches of mud. We
+     had 500 pounds of air in the tanks, and it ran the pressure down
+     to 250 pounds to open the door in about thirty feet.</p>
+
+     <p>The temperature fell in the diving compartment to eighty-two
+     degrees after the compressed air was let in.</p>
+
+     <p>Cooked clam fritters and coffee for supper. The spirits of the
+     crew appeared to improve the longer we remained below; the time
+     was spent in catching clams, singing, trying to waltz, playing
+     cards, and writing letters to wives and sweethearts.</p>
+
+     <p>Our only visitors during the day were a couple of black bass that
+     came and looked in at the windows with a great deal of apparent
+     interest.</p>
+
+     <p>In future boats, it will be well to provide a smoking
+     compartment, as most of the crew had their smoking apparatus all
+     ready as soon as we came up.</p>
+
+     <p>Started pumps at 6.20, and arrived at the surface at 6.30.
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span> Down altogether ten hours and fifteen minutes. People on
+     pilot boat <i>Calvert</i> thought we were all hands drowned.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The second part of this article was called "A Voyage on the Bottom
+of the Sea." It was written by Ray Stannard Baker, who had been
+fortunate enough to receive an invitation from Mr. Lake to accompany
+him on one of the trips of the <i>Argonaut</i>. Any one who has read
+Jules Verne's fascinating story <i>Twenty Thousand Leagues under the
+Sea</i> must be struck immediately with the similarity between Mr.
+Baker's experiences and those of Captain Nemo's guests. It is not at
+all surprising, therefore, to have Mr. Baker tell us that during
+this trip Mr. Lake told him:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     "When I was ten years old, I read Jules Verne's <i>Twenty Thousand
+     Leagues under the Sea</i>, and I have been working on submarine
+     boats ever since."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Baker's record of what he saw and how he felt is not only a
+credit to his keen powers of observation, but also a proof of the
+fact that, in many ways, there was little difference between the
+<i>Argonaut</i> of 1898 and the most up-to-date submarine of to-day. In
+part he says:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Simon Lake planned an excursion on the bottom of the sea for
+     October 12, 1898. His strange amphibian craft, the <i>Argonaut</i>,
+     about which we had been hearing so many marvels, lay off the pier
+     at Atlantic Highlands. Before we were near enough to make out her
+     hulk, we saw a great black letter A, framed of heavy gas-pipe,
+     rising forty feet above the water. A flag rippled from its
+     summit. As we drew nearer, we discovered that there really wasn't
+     any hulk to make out&mdash;only a small oblong deck shouldering deep
+     in the water and supporting a slightly higher platform, from
+     which rose what seemed to be a squatty funnel. A moment later we
+     saw that the funnel was provided with a cap somewhat <span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span>
+     resembling a tall silk hat, the crown of which was represented by
+     a brass binnacle. This cap was tilted back, and as we ran
+     alongside, a man stuck his head up over the rim and sang out,
+     "Ahoy there!"</p>
+
+     <p>A considerable sea was running, but I observed that the
+     <i>Argonaut</i> was planted as firmly in the water as a stone pillar,
+     the big waves splitting over her without imparting any
+     perceptible motion.</p>
+
+     <p>We scrambled up on the little platform, and peered down through
+     the open conning-tower, which we had taken for a funnel, into the
+     depths of the ship below. Wilson had started his gasoline engine.</p>
+
+     <p>Mr. Lake had taken his place at the wheel, and we were going
+     ahead slowly, steering straight across the bay toward Sandy Hook
+     and deeper water. The <i>Argonaut</i> makes about five knots an hour
+     on the surface, but when she gets deep down on the sea bottom,
+     where she belongs, she can spin along more rapidly.</p>
+
+     <p>The <i>Argonaut</i> was slowly sinking under the water. We became
+     momentarily more impressed with the extreme smallness of the
+     craft to which we were trusting our lives. The little platform
+     around the conning-tower on which we stood&mdash;in reality the top of
+     the gasoline tank&mdash;was scarcely a half dozen feet across, and the
+     <i>Argonaut</i> herself was only thirty-six feet long. Her sides had
+     already faded out of sight, but not before we had seen how
+     solidly they were built&mdash;all of steel, riveted and reinforced, so
+     that the wonder grew how such a tremendous weight, when
+     submerged, could ever again be raised.</p>
+
+     <p>I think we made some inquiries about the safety of submarine
+     boats in general. Other water compartments had been flooded, and
+     we had settled so far down that the waves dashed repeatedly over
+     the platform on which we stood&mdash;and the conning-tower was still
+     wide open, inviting a sudden engulfing rush of water. "You
+     mustn't confuse the <i>Argonaut</i> with ordinary submarine boats,"
+     said Mr. Lake. "She is quite different and much safer."</p>
+
+<a id="img081" name="img081"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img081.jpg" width="600" height="437" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>For Anti-Aircraft Service.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span> He explained that the <i>Argonaut</i> was not only a
+     submarine boat, but much besides. She not only swims either on
+     the surface or beneath it, but she adds to this accomplishment
+     the extraordinary power of diving deep and rolling along the
+     bottom of the sea on wheels. No machine ever before did that.
+     Indeed, the <i>Argonaut</i> is more properly a "sea motorcycle" than a
+     "boat." In its invention Mr. Lake elaborated an idea which the
+     United States Patent Office has decided to be absolutely
+     original.</p>
+
+<a id="img082" name="img082"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img082.jpg" width="600" height="538" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by Bain News Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Latest French Aircraft Gun.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>We found ourselves in a long, narrow compartment, dimly
+     illuminated by yellowish-green light from the little round, glass
+     windows. The stern was filled with Wilson's gasoline engine and
+     the electric motor, and in front of us toward the bow we could
+     see through the heavy steel doorways of the diver's compartment
+     into the lookout room, where there was a single round eye of
+     light.</p>
+
+     <p>I climbed up the ladder of the conning-tower and looked out
+     through one of the glass ports. My eyes were just even with the
+     surface of the water. A wave came driving and foaming entirely
+     over the top of the vessel, and I could see the curiously
+     beautiful sheen of the bright summit of the water above us. It
+     was a most impressive sight. Mr. Lake told me that in very clear
+     water it was difficult to tell just where the air left off and
+     the water began; but in the muddy bay where we were going down
+     the surface looked like a peculiarly clear, greenish pane of
+     glass moving straight up and down, not forward, as the waves
+     appear to move when looked at from above.</p>
+
+     <p>Now we were entirely under water. The rippling noises that the
+     waves had made in beating against the upper structure of the boat
+     had ceased. As I looked through the thick glass port, the water
+     was only three inches from my eyes, and I could see thousands of
+     dainty, semi-translucent jellyfish floating about as lightly as
+     thistledown. They gathered in the eddy behind the conning-tower
+     in great numbers, bumping up sociably against one another and
+     darting up and down with each gentle movement of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span>
+     water. And I realized that we were in the domain of the fishes.</p>
+
+     <p>Jim brought the government chart, and Mr. Lake announced that we
+     were heading directly for Sandy Hook and the open ocean. But we
+     had not yet reached the bottom, and John was busily opening
+     valves and letting in more water. I went forward to the little
+     steel cuddy-hole in the extreme prow of the boat, and looked out
+     through the watch-port. The water had grown denser and yellower,
+     and I could not see much beyond the dim outlines of the ship's
+     spar reaching out forward. Jim said that he had often seen fishes
+     come swimming up wonderingly to gaze into the port. They would
+     remain quite motionless until he stirred his head, and then they
+     vanished instantly. Mr. Lake has a remarkable photograph which he
+     took of a visiting fish, and Wilson tells of nurturing a queer
+     flat crab for days in the crevice of one of the view-holes.</p>
+
+     <p>At that moment, I felt a faint jolt, and Mr. Lake said that we
+     were on the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+     <p>Here we were running as comfortably along the bottom of Sandy
+     Hook Bay as we would ride in a Broadway car, and with quite as
+     much safety. Wilson, who was of a musical turn, was whistling
+     <i>Down Went McGinty</i>, and Mr. Lake, with his hands on the
+     pilot-wheel, put in an occasional word about his marvellous
+     invention. On the wall opposite there was a row of dials which
+     told automatically every fact about our condition that the most
+     nervous of men could wish to know. One of them shows the pressure
+     of air in the main compartment of the boat, another registers
+     vacuum, and when both are at zero, Mr. Lake knows that the
+     pressure of the air is normal, the same as it is on the surface,
+     and he tries to maintain it in this condition. There are also a
+     cyclometer, not unlike those used on bicycles, to show how far
+     the boat travels on the wheels; a depth gauge, which keeps us
+     accurately informed as to the depth of the boat in the water, and
+     a declension indicator. By the long finger of the declension dial
+     we could tell whether we were going <span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> up hill or down.
+     Once while we were out, there was a sudden, sharp shock, the
+     pointer leaped back, and then quivered steady again. Mr. Lake
+     said that we had probably struck a bit of wreckage or an
+     embankment, but the <i>Argonaut</i> was running so lightly that she
+     had leaped up jauntily and slid over the obstruction.</p>
+
+     <p>We had been keeping our eyes on the depth dial, the most
+     fascinating and interesting of any of the number. It showed that
+     we were going down, down, down, literally down to the sea in a
+     ship. When we had been submerged far more than an hour, and there
+     was thirty feet of yellowish green ocean over our heads, Mr. Lake
+     suddenly ordered the machinery stopped. The clacking noises of
+     the dynamo ceased, and the electric lights blinked out, leaving
+     us at once in almost absolute darkness and silence. Before this,
+     we had found it hard to realize that we were on the bottom of the
+     ocean; now it came upon us suddenly and not without a touch of
+     awe. This absence of sound and light, this unchanging
+     motionlessness and coolness, this absolute negation&mdash;that was the
+     bottom of the sea. It lasted only a moment, but in that moment we
+     realized acutely the meaning and joy of sunshine and moving
+     winds, trees, and the world of men.</p>
+
+     <p>A minute light twinkled out like a star, and then another and
+     another, until the boat was bright again, and we knew that among
+     the other wonders of this most astonishing of inventions there
+     was storage electricity which would keep the boat illuminated for
+     hours, without so much as a single turn of the dynamo. With the
+     stopping of the engine, the air supply from above had ceased; but
+     Mr. Lake laid his hand on the steel wall above us, where he said
+     there was enough air compressed to last us all for two days,
+     should anything happen. The possibility of "something happening"
+     had been lurking in our minds ever since we started. "What if
+     your engine should break down, so that you couldn't pump the
+     water out of the water compartments?" I asked. "Here we have
+     hand-pumps," said Mr. Lake <span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span> promptly; "and if those
+     failed, a single touch of this lever would release our iron keel,
+     which weighs 4000 pounds, and up we would go like a rocket."</p>
+
+     <p>I questioned further, only to find that every imaginable
+     contingency, and some that were not at all imaginable to the
+     uninitiated, had been absolutely provided against by the genius
+     of the inventor. And everything from the gasoline engine to the
+     hand-pump was as compact and ingenious as the mechanism of a
+     watch. Moreover, the boat was not crowded; we had plenty of room
+     to move around and to sleep, if we wished, to say nothing of
+     eating. As for eating, John had brought out the kerosene stove
+     and was making coffee, while Jim cut the pumpkin pie. "This isn't
+     Delmonico's," said Jim, "but we're serving a lunch that
+     Delmonico's couldn't serve&mdash;a submarine lunch."</p>
+
+     <p>By this time the novelty was wearing off and we sat there, at the
+     bottom of the sea, drinking our coffee with as much unconcern as
+     though we were in an up-town restaurant. For the first time since
+     we started, Mr. Lake sat down, and we had an opportunity of
+     talking with him at leisure. He is a stout-shouldered, powerfully
+     built man, in the prime of life&mdash;a man of cool common sense, a
+     practical man, who is also an inventor. And he talks frankly and
+     convincingly, and yet modestly, of his accomplishment.</p>
+
+     <p>Having finished our lunch, Mr. Lake prepared to show us something
+     about the practical operations of the <i>Argonaut</i>. It has been a
+     good deal of a mystery to us how workmen penned up in a submarine
+     boat could expect to recover gold from wrecks in the water
+     outside, or to place torpedoes, or to pick up cables. "We simply
+     open the door, and the diver steps out on the bottom of the sea,"
+     Mr. Lake said, quite as if he was conveying the most ordinary
+     information.</p>
+
+     <p>At first it seemed incredible, but Mr. Lake showed us the heavy,
+     riveted door in the bottom of the diver's compartment. Then he
+     invited us inside with Wilson, who, besides being an engineer, is
+     also an expert diver. The massive steel doors of the little room
+     were closed and barred, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span> then Mr. Lake turned a cock
+     and the air rushed in under high pressure. At once our ears began
+     to throb, and it seemed as if the drums would burst inward.</p>
+
+     <p>"Keep swallowing," said Wilson, the diver.</p>
+
+     <p>As soon as we applied this remedy, the pain was relieved, but the
+     general sensation of increased air pressure, while exhilarating,
+     was still most uncomfortable. The finger on the pressure dial
+     kept creeping up and up, until it showed that the air pressure
+     inside of the compartment was nearly equal to the water pressure
+     without. Then Wilson opened a cock in the door. Instantly the
+     water gushed in, and for a single instant we expected to be
+     drowned there like rats in a trap. "This is really very simple,"
+     Mr. Lake was saying calmly. "When the pressure within is the same
+     as that without, no water can enter."</p>
+
+     <p>With that, Wilson dropped the iron door, and there was the water
+     and the muddy bottom of the sea within touch of a man's hand. It
+     was all easy enough to understand, and yet it seemed impossible,
+     even as we saw it with our own eyes. Mr. Lake stooped down, and
+     picked up a wooden rod having a sharp hook at the end. This he
+     pulled along the bottom....</p>
+
+     <p>We were now rising again to the surface, after being submerged
+     for more than three hours. I climbed into the conning-tower and
+     watched for the first glimpse of the sunlight. There was a sudden
+     fluff of foam, the ragged edge of a wave, and then I saw, not
+     more than a hundred feet away, a smack bound toward New York
+     under full sail. Her rigging was full of men, gazing curiously in
+     our direction, no doubt wondering what strange monster of the sea
+     was coming forth for a breath of air.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>(p. 294)</span> CHAPTER XIV<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE MODERN SUBMARINE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Holland and Lake must be considered the fathers of the modern
+submarine. This claim is not made in a spirit of patriotic
+boastfulness, though, of course it is true that the latter was an
+American by birth, and the former by choice, and that, therefore,
+we, as a nation, have a right to be proud of the accomplishments of
+these two fellow-citizens of ours. Without wishing to detract
+anything from the value of the work done by many men in many
+countries towards the development of the submarine after and
+contemporaneously with Holland and Lake, it still remains true that
+the work which these two did formed the foundation on which all
+others built. To-day, no submarine worthy of the name, no matter
+where it has been built and no matter where and how it is used, is
+without some features which are typical of either the Holland or
+Lake type. In many instances, and this is true especially of
+submarines of the highest type and the greatest development, the
+most significant characteristics of the Holland and Lake boats have
+been combined.</p>
+
+<p>During the years that followed the small beginnings of Holland and
+Lake, vast and highly efficient organizations have been built up to
+continue and elaborate their work. Death claimed Mr. Holland shortly
+after <span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span> the outbreak of the great war, on August 12, 1914.
+Mr. Lake in 1917 was still personally connected with and the guiding
+spirit of the extensive industrial establishments which have been
+created at Bridgeport, Conn., as a result of his inventions. He,
+too, surrounded himself with a corps of experts who in co-operation
+with him have brought the Lake submarines to a point of perfection
+which at the time of the <i>Argonaut's</i> first trip would have appeared
+all but impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Roughly speaking, the beginning of the twentieth century may be
+called the turning point in the history of submarine invention and
+the beginning of the modern submarine. Although, as we have heard,
+various governments, especially those of France and the United
+States, interested themselves in the submarine question and
+appropriated small sums of money towards its solution previous to
+1900, it was only after that year that governmental interest and
+influence were set to work with determination and purpose on behalf
+of submarine inventors. Quite naturally this resulted in increased
+popular interest. Experimental work on and with submarines no
+longer had to rely exclusively on private capital, frequently
+inconveniently timid and limited, but could count now on the vast
+financial resources of all the great nations of the world. This also
+made available the unlimited intellectual resources of serious
+scientists in every part of the universe. Mechanical and electrical
+engineers, naval designers and constructors, active men of finance
+and business, and quiet thinkers and investigators in laboratories
+began to interest themselves in the further development of the
+submarine.</p>
+
+<p>The United States for a number of years after its adoption of the
+Holland type remained true to its first <span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span> choice. Between
+1900, when the first Holland boat was bought by the United States
+Government, and 1911 all the United States submarine, boats were of
+the Holland type. In the latter year, however, it was decided to
+give the Lake boat a trial and since that time a number of boats of
+this type have been built. In all essential features both the
+Holland and Lake boats of later days were very similar to the
+original boats of these two types. In all the details, however,
+immense progress was made. Each new boat thus became greatly
+superior to its predecessors. This was especially true in regard to
+size and speed and the improvements made in these two respects
+naturally resulted in a corresponding increase in radius of
+activity. The passing years also brought a wonderful refinement of
+all the technical details of the submarine boats. Practically every
+feature was developed to a remarkable degree. There is, indeed, a
+great difference between the submarine boats of the early twentieth
+century which had to rely on their conning-tower for steering, and
+more recent boats with their wonderful periscopes and gyro
+compasses. Similar progress was made in the development of the means
+of propulsion. The engines used for surface travelling became more
+powerful and efficient. This was also true of the electric motors,
+batteries, and accumulators employed in the submerged state. The
+problem of ventilation likewise has been worked out to such an
+extent that in the most modern submarines most of the inconveniences
+experienced by the crews of earlier boats have been removed. This
+perfection of technical details which was thus gradually approached
+also permitted a very considerable increase in the fighting power
+of submarine boats. The number of torpedo tubes was increased
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span> and it became possible to carry a larger reserve stock of
+torpedoes. Submarines of to-day furthermore carry guns varying in
+calibre, attaining in some instances four inches, and when in later
+years it became evident that one of the most dangerous enemies of
+the submarine was the airplane, some of the boats were equipped even
+with anti-aircraft guns.</p>
+
+<a id="img083" name="img083"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img083.jpg" width="400" height="448" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Copyright by Munn &amp; Co., Inc.<br>
+From the <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Modern German Airplane Types.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the United States Navy the submarine has never been popular.
+Indeed it is by no means certain that in comparison with other
+navies of the world the United States was not better off in
+underwater boats in 1911 than she was three years later when the
+warcloud broke. The bulk of our naval opinion has always been for
+the dreadnoughts. A change of political administration at Washington
+in 1912 gave a temporary setback to naval development, and the
+submarines, being still a matter of controversy, languished. Few
+were built and of those few many showed such structural weakness
+that the reports of their man&oelig;uvres were either suppressed, or
+issued in terms of such broad generality that the public could by no
+possibility suspect, what all the Navy knew to be the fact, that the
+submarine flotilla of the United States was weak to the point of
+impotence.</p>
+
+<p>Happily we had nearly three years in which to observe the progress
+of the war before becoming ourselves embroiled in it. During this
+period our submarine fleet was somewhat increased, and upon our
+actual entrance upon the struggle a feverish race was begun to put
+us on an equality with other nations in underwater boats. It would
+have been too late had any emergency arisen. But Germany had no
+ships afloat to be attacked by our submarines had we possessed them.
+Her own warfare upon our merchant shipping could not be met in kind,
+for submarines <span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span> cannot fight submarines. We have, therefore,
+up to the present time, not suffered from the perilous neglect with
+which we long treated this form of naval weapon.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed the submarine fleet of the United States Navy at the
+beginning of the war was so inconsiderable that foreign writers on
+the subject ignored it. In 1900 we had purchased nine of the type of
+submarines then put out by the Holland Company. One of these, the
+first in actual service, known as the "Baby" Holland was kept in
+commission ten years and upon becoming obsolete was honoured by
+being taken in state to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and there
+mounted on a pedestal for the admiration of all comers. She was 59
+feet long and would make a striking exhibit placed next to one of
+the new German submersible cruisers which exceed 300 feet and have a
+displacement of 5000 tons. These first Holland ships which long
+constituted the entire underwater force of the United States were
+but trivial affairs compared with the modern vessel. Their
+displacement was but 122 tons, their engines for surface navigation
+were of 160 horse-power, gasoline, and for underwater navigation 70
+horse-power, electric. They carried but one torpedo tube and two
+extra torpedoes and had a radius of action of but 300 miles. At that
+time in fact the naval theory was that submarines were coast defence
+vessels altogether. After this war they are likely to form part of
+the first battle line of every navy. Yet these pioneer vessels
+established their seaworthiness well in 1911, when four of them
+accompanied by a parent ship to supply them with fresh stocks of
+fuel and to render assistance in case of need, crossed the Pacific
+Ocean under their own power to the Philippines. This exploit tended
+to popularize these craft in the Navy Department, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span> and soon
+after larger vessels known as the "Viper" class were ordered. One of
+these was called the <i>Octopus</i>, the first submarine to be fitted
+with twin screws. In many ways she represented a distinct advance in
+the art of submarine construction. She was in fact the first vessel
+built with the distinct idea of being a cruising, as well as a
+harbour defence ship. Her type proved successful in this respect.
+The <i>Octopus</i> further established a record for deep sea submergence
+in 1907 when she descended to a depth of 205 feet off Boston,
+returning to the surface in entire safety.</p>
+
+<p>The ability to withstand the pressure of the water at great depths
+is a vital quality of a successful submarine. One American
+submarine narrowly escaped destruction because of structural
+weakness in this respect. She had by accident descended a few feet
+below the normal depth at which such boats navigate. The water
+pressure affected the valves which refused to work and the vessel
+slowly sank deeper and deeper. At a recorded depth of 123 feet the
+sinking of the vessel became so much more rapid that the crew with
+frantic endeavours sought at once to stop the leaks and pump out the
+water which had entered. At that depth there was a pressure of
+153-&frac12; pounds upon every square inch of the surface of the
+submarine. This the workers at the one hand pump had to overcome. It
+was a savage and a desperate struggle but the men finally won and
+the vessel regained the surface. As a result of this experience
+every navy prescribed submergence tests for its submarines before
+putting them into commission. How to make these tests was perplexing
+at first. A government did not want to send men down in a steel
+casket to see just how far they could go before it collapsed. But if
+no observer accompanied the ship <span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span> it would be impossible to
+tell at what depth leakage and other signs of weakness became
+apparent. An Italian naval architect, Major Laurenti, whose
+submarines are now found in every navy of the world, invented a dock
+in which these tests can be made up to any desired pressure while
+the observers inside the submarine are in communication with those
+without and the pressure can be instantly removed if signs of danger
+appear. In the United States Navy boats to be accepted must stand a
+pressure equivalent to that encountered at 200 feet. In the German
+navy the depth prescribed is 170 feet. Under normal conditions
+submarines seldom travel at a depth of more than 100 feet although
+the "F-1" of the United States Navy accomplished the remarkable feat
+of making a six-hour cruise in San Francisco Bay at a depth of 283
+feet. At this depth the skin of the ship has to withstand a pressure
+of no less than 123 pounds per square inch.</p>
+
+<p>Specific information as to the nature of submarine construction in
+the United States since the beginning of the war in 1914 is
+jealously guarded by the Navy Department. In broad general terms the
+number of ships under construction is revealed to the public, but
+all information as to the size of individual vessels, their armour
+or the qualities of novelty with which every one hopes and believes
+American inventive genius has invested them, are kept secret. The
+<i>Navy Year Book of 1916</i> summarized our submarine strength at that
+time as follows:</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="Submarine strength.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="25%">
+    <col width="15%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="15%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center" colspan="2"><i>Displacement</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Submarines</td>
+<td>fit for action</td>
+<td class="right">42</td>
+<td class="right">15,722</td>
+<td>Tons</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="add2em">"</span></td>
+<td>under construction</td>
+<td class="right">33</td>
+<td class="right">21,093</td>
+<td><span class="add1em">"</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="add2em">"</span></td>
+<td colspan="4">authorized and appropriated</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>for</td>
+<td class="right">30</td>
+<td class="right">22,590</td>
+<td><span class="add1em">"</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td class="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td><span class="add1em">"</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="1">&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Total</td>
+<td class="right">105</td>
+<td class="right">59,405</td>
+<td><span class="add1em">"</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>(p. 301)</span> In addition thirty-seven more had been authorized by
+Congress without the appropriation of money for them. By this time
+however these appropriations have been made together with further
+heavy ones. While figures are refused at the Navy Department, it is
+declared that while the United States in 1914 was the last of the
+great powers in respect to submarine strength provided for, it is
+now well up to the foremost, even to Germany.</p>
+
+<p>Great Britain like the United States continued for many years to
+build submarines of the Holland type. Naturally all the recent
+improvements were incorporated in the British boats. Very little,
+however, is known concerning the details of the more recent
+additions to the British submarine flotilla because of the secrecy
+maintained by the British authorities in war time.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the present war, the British navy possessed 82
+active submarines of 5 different classes. They were all of the
+Holland type, but in each class there were incorporated vast
+improvements over the preceding class. Displacement, size, motive
+power, speed, radius of action, and armament were gradually
+increased until the "E" class contained boats possessing the
+following features: Submerged displacement, 800 tons; length 176
+feet; beam 22-&frac12; feet; heavy oil engines of 2000 H.-P.; electric
+engines of 800 H.-P.; surface speed 16 knots; submerged speed 10
+knots; cruising range 5000 miles; armament: 4 torpedo tubes, space
+for 6 torpedoes, and two 3-inch quick-firing, high-angle,
+disappearing guns; armoured conning-towers and decks; wireless
+equipment; 3 panoramic periscopes.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time 22 other submarines were said to be in course of
+construction. Some of these were of the "F" class (Holland type),
+similar to the "E" class <span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>(p. 302)</span> except that every single
+characteristic had been greatly increased, in many instances even
+doubled. In addition to the "F" class Holland-type boats, there were
+also under construction a number of boats of different types
+designated respectively as "V," "W," and "S" class. The "V" class
+were of the Lake type, the "W" of the French "Laubeuf" type, and the
+"S" class of the Italian "F. I. A. T." or Laurenti type; both of the
+last named were adaptations of the Lake type.</p>
+
+<p>France, which was for many years the prodigal of the nations when it
+came to submarine building has continued this tendency. In a way
+this liberal expenditure of money did not pay particularly well.
+For, although it resulted in the creation of a comparatively large
+submarine fleet, this fleet contained boats of every kind and
+description. Quite a number of the boats were little more than
+experiments and possessed not a great deal of practical value. The
+manning and efficient handling of a fleet having so little
+homogeneity naturally was a difficult matter and seriously
+restricted its fighting efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>At the outbreak of the war France had 92 submarines in active
+service, belonging to 12 different classes. In addition there had
+also been built at various times 5 experimental boats which had been
+named: <i>Argonaute</i>, <i>Amiral Bourgeoise</i>, <i>Archimède</i>, <i>Mariotte</i>,
+and <i>Charles Brun</i>. The majority of the boats belonging to the
+various classes were of the Laubeuf type, an adaptation of the Lake
+type made for the French navy by M. Laubeuf, a marine engineer. In
+their various details these boats vary considerably. Their
+displacement ranges from 67 tons to 1000 tons, their length from 100
+feet to 240 feet, their beam from 12 feet to 20 feet, their surface
+speed from 8-&frac12; knots to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>(p. 303)</span> 17 &frac12; knots, their submerged
+speed from 5 knots to 12 knots, the horse-power of their heavy oil
+engines from 1300 to 2000 and that of their electric motors from 350
+to 900. Some of the boats, however, have steam engines, others
+gasoline motors, and still others steam turbines. The cruising range
+of the biggest and newest boats is 4000 miles. Armament varies with
+size, of course, the latest boats carrying 4 torpedo tubes for eight
+18-inch torpedoes and two 14-pdr. quick-firing, high angle,
+disappearing guns.</p>
+
+<p>Nine more submarines were in course of construction at the outbreak
+of war, most of which were of the improved "Gustave Zédé" class.
+During the war French shipyards were chiefly occupied with capital
+navy ships and it is not thought the submarine strength has been
+much increased.</p>
+
+<p>Of the great naval powers, Germany was, strangely enough, the last
+to become interested in the building of a submarine fleet. This,
+however, was not due to any neglect on the part of the German naval
+authorities. It is quite evident from the few official records which
+are available that they watched and studied very carefully the
+development of the submarine and growth of the various submarine
+fleets. During the early years of the twentieth century, however,
+the Germans seemed to think that most of the boats that were being
+built then had not yet passed through the experimental stage and
+they also apparently decided that it would be just as well to wait
+until other nations had spent their money and efforts on these quasi
+experimental boats. Not until submarines had been built in the
+United States, England, and France which had proved beyond all doubt
+that they were practicable vessels of definite accomplishments, did
+the Germans seriously <span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>(p. 304)</span> concern themselves with the creation
+of a German submarine fleet. When this period had been reached they
+went ahead with full power, and with the usual German thoroughness
+they adopted the best points from each of the various types
+developed by that time. The result of this attitude was a submarine
+boat built at first exclusively by Krupp and known as the "Germania"
+type. It was this type which formed the basis of the German
+submarine which has become known so extensively and disastrously
+during recent years. In most respects this type is perhaps more
+similar to the Lake type than to any other, although some features
+of the Holland type have been incorporated as well.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the war Germany was credited with only thirty
+submarines. Six more were then rapidly approaching completion and
+the German naval law passed some time before provided for the
+building of seventy-two submarines by the end of 1917. It is
+believed in fact that by that time the Germans had not less than two
+hundred <i>Unterseeboots</i>.</p>
+
+<p>From the very beginning the Germans have designated their submarines
+by the letter "U" (standing for <i>Unterseeboot</i>) followed by numbers.
+The first boat was built in 1905 and was named "U-1." It was a
+comparatively small boat of 236 tons displacement. The motive power
+on the surface was a heavy-oil engine of 250 H.-P. Under water the
+boat was driven by electric motors of a little more than 100 H.-P.
+Submerged the "U-1" was capable of a speed of 7 knots only, which on
+the surface of the water could be increased to 10. Her radius of
+action was about 750 miles. Only one torpedo tube had been provided.</p>
+
+<a id="img084" name="img084"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img084.jpg" width="400" height="490" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by the British.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>From this boat to the modern German submarine was indeed a long step
+taken in a comparatively short <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>(p. 305)</span> time. Not very much is known
+regarding modern German submarines, but the latest boats completed
+before the war were vessels of 900 tons displacement with heavy-oil
+engines of 2000 H.-P. and electric motors of 900 H.-P., possessing a
+surface and submerged speed of 18 and 10 knots respectively and a
+cruising radius of 4000 miles. They had four torpedo tubes for eight
+torpedoes, two 14-pdr. quick-firing guns, and two 1-pdr. high-angle
+anti-aircraft guns. Naturally they were also equipped with all the
+latest improvements, such as wireless apparatus, panoramic
+periscopes, armoured conning-towers, and decks. Since the outbreak
+of the war the Germans have built even more powerful submarine boats
+whose perfections in regard to speed, radius of action and armament
+became known through their accomplishments. Of these we will hear
+more in a later chapter.</p>
+
+<p>At just what period of the war the Germans woke up to the vital
+importance to them of an enormous submarine fleet is not known. It
+may have been immediately upon the amazing exploit of Captain
+Weddigen in the North Sea. At any rate the war had not long
+progressed before the destruction caused by German submarine attacks
+began to awaken the apprehension of the Allies and neutral nations.
+Retaliation in kind was impossible. The Germans had neither merchant
+nor naval ships at sea to be sunk. The rapidity with which the
+volume of the loss inflicted upon merchant shipping grew indicated
+an equally rapid increase in the size of the German underwater
+fleet. Neutrals were enraged by the extension by the Germans of the
+areas of sea in which they claimed the right to sink neutral ships,
+and their growing disregard for the restraining principles of
+international law. How greatly they developed the submarine idea was
+shown by their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>(p. 306)</span> construction in 1916 of vessels with a
+displacement of 2400 tons; a length of 279 feet, and a beam of 26
+feet; a surface speed of 22 knots, cruising radius of 6500 miles,
+mounting 4 to 8 guns and carrying a crew of from 40 to 60. But it
+was reported that two vessels designed primarily for surface
+cruising, but nevertheless submersible at will, had been laid down
+of 5000 tons, a length of 414 feet, and a radius of 18,000 to 20,000
+miles. These "submersible cruisers" as they were called, mounted 6
+to 8 guns, 30 torpedo tubes, and carried 90 torpedoes. What part
+vessels of this type shall play in war is still to be determined.</p>
+
+<p>Of the smaller naval powers, Italy comparatively early had become
+interested in the building of submarines. Most of her boats are of
+the Laurenti type&mdash;which is a very close adaptation of the Lake
+type. Russia and Japan, especially the latter, built up fairly
+efficient underwater fleets. The lesser countries, like Austria,
+Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Spain have concerned
+themselves seriously with the creation of submarine fleets. The
+submarine boats of all of these countries in most instances were
+either of the Lake or Holland type though frequently they were built
+from plans of English, French or German adaptations rather than in
+accordance with the original American plans.</p>
+
+<p>The exact number of submarines possessed now by the various navies
+of the world is a matter of rather indefinite knowledge. Great
+secrecy has been maintained by every country in this respect. From a
+variety of sources, however, it has been possible to compile the
+following list which at least gives an approximate idea of the
+respective strength of the various submarine fleets at the beginning
+of the war. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>(p. 307)</span> The numbers assigned to each country are only
+approximate, however, and include both boats then in existence or
+ordered built: United States 57; Great Britain 104; France 92;
+Germany 36; Italy 28; Russia 40; Japan 15; Austria 12; Holland 13;
+Denmark 15; Sweden 13; Norway 4; Greece 2; Turkey 2; Brazil 3; Peru
+2.</p>
+
+<p>Having traced the development of the submarine from its earliest
+beginnings to recent times we are naturally now confronted with the
+question "What are the principal requirements and characteristics of
+the modern submarine?"</p>
+
+<p>The submarine boat of to-day, in order to do its work promptly and
+efficiently, must first of all possess seaworthiness. This means
+that no matter whether the sea is quiet or rough the submarine must
+be able to execute its operations with a fair degree of accuracy and
+promptness and must also be capable of making continuous headway.
+Surface and underwater navigation must be possible with equal
+facility and it is necessary that a state of submergence can be
+reached without loss of time and without any degree of danger to the
+boat's safety. At all times, travelling above water or below, the
+submarine must possess mechanical means which will make it possible
+to control its evolutions under all conditions. Furthermore, the
+ability of the submarine to find and to observe objects in its
+vicinity must not be greatly reduced when it is in a submerged
+position. In the latter it also becomes of extreme importance that
+the provisions for ventilation are such that the crew of the
+submarine should lose as little as possible in its efficiency and
+comfort. A fair amount of speed both on and below the surface of
+the water is essential and the maintenance of the speed for a
+fairly long period of time must be assured.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>(p. 308)</span> In regard to their general outward appearance, submarines
+of various types to-day vary comparatively little. In many respects
+they resemble closely in shape, torpedo boats&mdash;the earlier
+submarines particularly. In size, of course, they differ in
+accordance with the purposes for which they have been designed. As
+compared with earlier submarines the most notable difference is that
+modern submarines possess more of a superstructure. Almost all of
+them are built now with double hulls. The space between the outer
+and the inner hull is utilized primarily for ballast tanks by means
+of which submergence is accomplished and stability maintained and
+regulated. Some of these tanks, however, are not used to carry water
+ballast, but serve as reservoirs for the fuel needed by the engines.
+The stability of the submarine and the facility with which it can
+submerge also depend greatly on the distribution of weight of its
+various parts. This problem has been worked out in such a way that
+to-day there is little room for improvement. Its details, however,
+are of too technical a nature to permit discussion in this place.</p>
+
+<p>Hydroplanes both fore and aft are now generally used to assist in
+regulating and controlling stability in the submerged state. The
+motive power of the modern submarine is invariably of a two-fold
+type. For travelling on the surface internal combustion engines are
+used. The gasoline engine of former years has been displaced by
+Diesel motors or adaptations of them. Although these represent a
+wonderful advance over the engines used in the past there is still a
+great deal of room for improvement. The opinions of engineers in
+this respect vary greatly, American opinion being generally
+unfavourable to the Diesel type, and whether <span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>(p. 309)</span> the final
+solution of this problem will lie in the direction of a more highly
+developed motor of Diesel type, of an improved gasoline engine, or
+of some other engine not yet developed, only the future can tell.
+Simplicity of construction and reliability of operation are the two
+essential features which must be possessed by every part of the
+power plant of a submarine. For underwater travel electric motors
+and storage batteries are employed exclusively. These vary, of
+course, in detail. In principle, however, they are very much alike.
+Although this combination of electric and oil power is largely
+responsible for having made the submarine what it is to-day, it is
+far from perfect. Mechanical complications of many kinds and
+difficulties of varying degrees result from it. Up to comparatively
+recently these were considered insurmountable obstacles. But
+engineers all over the world are giving their most serious attention
+to the problem of devising a way to remove these obstacles and
+continuous progress is made by them.</p>
+
+<p>As an immediate result of the development of motive power in the
+submarine its speed both on and below the surface of the water as
+well as its radius of action has been materially increased. To-day
+submarines travel on the water with a speed which even a few years
+ago would have been thought quite respectable for the most powerful
+battleships or the swiftest passenger liners. And even under water,
+submarines attain a velocity which is far superior to that of which
+earlier submarines were capable on the surface of the water. How
+immensely extended the radius of action of the submarine has become
+in recent years, has impressed itself on the world especially in the
+last few years. Both English and French submarines have travelled
+without making <span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310"></a>(p. 310)</span> any stops from their home ports to the
+Dardanelles and back again. And used to, and satiated as we are with
+mechanical wonders of all kinds the whole world was amazed when in
+1916 German submarines made successful trips from their home ports
+to ports in the United States and returned with equal success. This
+meant a minimum radius of action of 3500 miles. In the case of the
+German U-boat which in 1916 appeared at Newport for a few hours,
+then attacked and sank some merchantmen off the United States coast
+and later was reported as having arrived safely in a German port, it
+has never been established whether the boat renewed its supplies of
+food and fuel on the way or carried enough to make the trip of some
+7000 miles.</p>
+
+<p>One other important feature without which submarines would have
+found it impossible to score such accomplishments is the periscope.
+In the beginning periscopes were rather crude appliances. They were
+very weak and sprung leaks frequently. Moisture, formed by
+condensation, made them practically useless. In certain positions
+the image of the object picked up by the periscope became inverted.
+Their radius of vision was limited, and in every way they proved
+unreliable and unsatisfactory. But, just as almost every feature of
+submarine construction was gradually developed and most every
+technical obstacle overcome, experts gradually concentrated their
+efforts on the improvement of periscopes. Modern periscopes are
+complicated optical instruments which have been developed to a very
+high point of efficiency. A combination of prisms and lenses makes
+it possible now to see true images clearly. Appliances have been
+developed to make the rotation of the periscope safe, prompt, and
+easy so that the horizon can be swept readily in every <span class="pagenum"><a id="page311" name="page311"></a>(p. 311)</span>
+direction. Magnification can be established at will by special
+devices easily connected or disconnected with the regular
+instrument. The range of vision of the modern periscope is as
+remarkable as its other characteristics. It differs, of course, in
+proportion to the height to which the periscope is elevated above
+the surface of the water. In clear weather a submarine, having
+elevated its periscope to a height of 20 feet can pick up a large
+battleship at as great a distance as 6 miles, while observers on the
+latter, even if equipped with the most powerful optical instruments,
+are absolutely unable to detect the submarine. This great distance
+is reduced to about 4000 yards if the periscope is only 3 feet above
+the surface of the water and to about 2200 yards if the elevation of
+the periscope is 1 foot. But even the highly developed periscope of
+to-day, usually called "panoramic periscope," has its limitations.
+The strain on the observer's eyes is very severe and can be borne
+only for short periods. In dirty weather the objectives become
+cloudy and the images are rendered obscure and indefinite, although
+this trouble has been corrected, at least in part, by forcing a
+strong blast through the rim surrounding the observation glass. At
+night, of course, the periscope is practically useless. Formerly a
+shot which cut off the periscope near the water's edge might sink
+the boat. This has been guarded against by cutting off the tube with
+a heavy plate of transparent glass which does not obstruct vision
+but shuts off the entrance of water.</p>
+
+<p>Important as the periscope is both as a means of observing the
+surroundings of the submarine and as a guide in steering it, it is
+not the only means of accomplishing the latter purpose. To-day every
+submarine possesses the most reliable type of compass available.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312"></a>(p. 312)</span> At night when the periscope is practically useless or in
+very rough weather, or in case the periscope has been damaged or
+destroyed, steering is done exclusively by means of the compass. The
+latest type in use now on submarines is called the gyroscope compass
+which is a highly efficient and reliable instrument.</p>
+
+<a id="img085" name="img085"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img085.jpg" width="400" height="352" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Exterior of First German Submarine.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the matter of ventilation the modern submarine also has reached
+a high state of perfection. The fresh air supply is provided and
+regulated in such a manner that most of the discomforts suffered by
+submarine crews in times past have been eliminated. The grave danger
+which formerly existed as a result of the poisonous fumes, emanating
+from the storage batteries and accumulators, has been reduced to a
+minimum. In every respect, except that of space, conditions of life
+in a submarine have been brought to a point where they can be
+favourably compared with those of boats navigated on the surface of
+the water. Of course, even at the best, living quarters in a
+submarine will always be cramped. However, it is so important that
+submarine crews should be continuously kept on a high plane of
+efficiency that they are supplied with every conceivable comfort
+permitted by the natural limitations of submarine construction.</p>
+
+<a id="img086" name="img086"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img086.jpg" width="600" height="443" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Interior of First German Submarine. Showing Appliances for
+Man-Power.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Submarine boats so far have been used almost exclusively as
+instruments of warfare. One of their most important features,
+therefore, naturally is their armament. We have already heard
+something about the use of torpedoes by submarines. The early
+submarines had as a rule only one torpedo tube and were incapable of
+carrying more than two or three torpedoes. Gradually, however, both
+the number of torpedo tubes and of torpedoes was increased. The
+latest types have as many as eight or ten tubes and carry enough
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name="page313"></a>(p. 313)</span> torpedoes to permit them to stay away from their base for
+several weeks. In recent years submarines have also been armed with
+guns. Naturally these have to be of light weight and small calibre.
+They are usually mounted so that they can be used at a high angle.
+This is done in order to make it possible for submarines to defend
+themselves against attacks from airships. The mountings of these
+guns are constructed in such a way that the guns themselves
+disappear immediately after discharge and are not visible while not
+in use. Though mounted on deck they are aimed and fired from below.
+As part of the armament of the submarine we must also consider the
+additional protection which they receive from having certain
+essential parts protected by armour plate.</p>
+
+<p>All these features have increased the safety of submarine navigation
+to a great extent. In spite of the popular impression that submarine
+navigation entailed a greater number of danger factors than
+navigation on the surface of the water, this is not altogether so.
+If we stop to consider this subject we can readily see why rather
+the opposite should be true. Navigation under the surface of the
+water greatly reduces the possibility of collision and also the
+dangers arising from rough weather. For the results of the latter
+are felt to a much lesser degree below than on the surface of the
+water. Many other factors are responsible for the comparatively high
+degree of safety inherent in submarines. Up to the outbreak of the
+present war only about two hundred and fifty lives had been lost as
+a result to accidents to modern submarines. Considering that up to
+1910 a great deal of submarine navigation was more or less
+experimental this is a record which can bear favourable comparison
+with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page314" name="page314"></a>(p. 314)</span> similar records established by overwater navigation or
+by navigation in the air.</p>
+
+<p>To the average man the thought of imprisonment in a steel tube
+beneath the surface of the sea, and being suddenly deprived of all
+means of bringing it up to air and light is a terrifying and nerve
+shattering thing. It is probably the first consideration which
+suggests itself to one asked to make a submarine trip. Always the
+newspaper headlines dealing with a submarine disaster speak of those
+lost as "drowned like rats in a trap." Men will admit that the
+progress of invention has greatly lessened the danger of accident to
+submarines, but nevertheless sturdily insist that when the accident
+does happen the men inside have no chance of escape.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact many devices have been applied to the modern
+submarine to meet exactly this contingency. Perhaps nothing is more
+effective than the so-called telephone buoy installed in our Navy
+and in some of those of Europe. This is a buoy lightly attached to
+the outer surface of the boat, containing a telephone transmitter
+and receiver connected by wire with a telephone within. In the event
+of an accident this buoy is released and rises at once to the
+surface. A flag attached attracts the attention of any craft that
+may be in the neighbourhood and makes immediate communication with
+those below possible. Arrangements can then be made for raising the
+boat or towing her to some point at which salvage is possible. An
+instance of the value of this device was given by the disaster to
+the German submarine "U-3" which was sunk at Kiel in 1910. Through
+the telephone the imprisoned crew notified those at the other end
+that they had oxygen enough for forty-eight hours but that the work
+of rescue must be completed in that time. A powerful <span class="pagenum"><a id="page315" name="page315"></a>(p. 315)</span>
+floating derrick grappled the sunken submarine and lifted its bow
+above water. Twenty-seven of the imprisoned crew crept out through
+the torpedo tubes. The captain and two lieutenants conceived it
+their duty to stay with the ship until she was actually saved. In
+the course of the operations one of the ventilators was broken, the
+water rushed in and all three were drowned.</p>
+
+<p>In some of the Holland ships of late construction there is an
+ingenious, indeed an almost incredible device by which the ship
+takes charge of herself if the operators or crew are incapacitated.
+It has happened that the shock of a collision has so stunned the men
+cooped up in the narrow quarters of a submarine that they are for
+quite an appreciable time unable to attend to their duties. Such a
+collision would naturally cause the boat to leak and to sink. In
+these newer Holland ships an automatic device causes the ship, when
+she has sunk to a certain depth, registered of course by automatic
+machinery, to start certain apparatus which empties the ballast
+tanks and starts the pumps which will empty the interior of the ship
+if it has become flooded. The result is that after a few minutes of
+this automatic work, whether the crew has sufficiently recovered to
+take part in it or not, the boat will rise to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>This extraordinary invention is curiously reminiscent of the fact
+chronicled in earlier chapters of this book that the most modern
+airplanes are so built that should the aviator become insensible or
+incapacitated for his work, if he will but drop the controls, the
+machine will adjust itself and make its own landing in safety.
+Unaided the airplane drops lightly to earth; unaided the submarine
+rises buoyantly to the air.</p>
+
+<p>In recent years there have been developed special <span class="pagenum"><a id="page316" name="page316"></a>(p. 316)</span> ships for
+the salvage of damaged or sunk submarines. At the same time the
+navies of the world have also produced special submarine tenders or
+mother ships. The purpose of these is to supply a base which can
+keep on the move with the same degree of facility which the
+submarine itself possesses. These tenders are equipped with air
+compressors by means of which the air tanks of submarines can be
+refilled. Electric generators make it possible to replenish the
+submarine storage batteries. Mechanical equipment permits the
+execution of repairs to the submarine's machinery and equipment.
+Extra fuel, substitute parts for the machinery, spare torpedoes are
+carried by these tenders. The most modern of them are even supplied
+with dry dock facilities, powerful cranes, and sufficiently strong
+armament to repel attacks from boats of the type most frequently
+encountered by submarines.</p>
+
+<p>There are, of course, many other special appliances which make up
+the sum total of a modern submarine's equipment. Electricity is used
+for illuminating all parts of the boat. Heat is supplied in the same
+manner; this is a very essential feature because the temperature of
+a submarine, after a certain period of submergence, becomes
+uncomfortably low. Electricity is also used for cooking purposes.</p>
+
+<p>Every submarine boat built to-day is equipped with wireless
+apparatus. Naturally it is only of limited range varying from one
+hundred and twenty to one hundred and eighty miles, but even at that
+it is possible for a submarine to send messages to its base or some
+other given point from a considerable distance by relay. If the
+submarine is running on the surface of the water the usual means of
+naval communication-flag signals, wig-wagging or the semaphore, can
+be employed. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page317" name="page317"></a>(p. 317)</span> submarine bell is another means for
+signalling. It is really a wireless telephone, operating through the
+water instead of the air. Up to the present, however, it has not
+been sufficiently developed to permit its use for any great
+distance. It is so constructed that it can also be used as a sound
+detector.</p>
+
+<p>Some submarines, besides being equipped with torpedo tubes, carry
+other tubes for laying mines. In most instances this is only a
+secondary function of the submarine. There are, however, special
+mine-laying submarines. Others, especially of the Lake type, have
+diving compartments which permit the employment of divers for the
+purpose of planting or taking up mines.</p>
+
+<p>Disappearing anchors, operated by electricity from within the boat,
+are carried. They are used for steadying the boat if it is desired
+to keep it for any length of time on the bottom of the sea in a
+current.</p>
+
+<p>From this necessarily brief description it can be seen readily that
+the modern submarine boat is a highly developed, but very
+complicated mechanism. Naturally it requires a highly trained,
+extremely efficient crew. The commanding officers must be men of
+strong personality, keen intellect, high mechanical efficiency, and
+quick judgment. The gradual increase in size has brought a
+corresponding increase in the number of a submarine's crew. A decade
+ago from 8 to 10 officers and men were sufficient but to-day we hear
+of submarine crews that number anywhere from 25 to 40.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the marvellous advances which have been made in the
+construction, equipment, and handling of the submarine during the
+last ten years, perfection in many directions is still a long way
+off. How soon it will be reached, if ever, and by what means, are,
+of course, questions which only the future can answer.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page318" name="page318"></a>(p. 318)</span> CHAPTER XV<br>
+<span class="smaller">ABOARD A SUBMARINE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Submarines have been compared to all kinds of things, from a fish to
+a cigar. Life on them has been described in terms of the highest
+elation as well as of the deepest depression. Their operation and
+navigation, according to some claims, require a veritable
+combination of mechanical, electrical, and naval genius&mdash;not only
+on the part of the officers, but even on that of the simplest
+oiler&mdash;while others make it appear as if a submarine was at least as
+simple to handle as a small motor boat. The truth concerning all
+these matters lies somewhere between these various extremes.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite true that except on the very latest "submerged cruisers"
+built by the Germans, the space for the men operating a submarine is
+painfully straitened. They must hold to their positions almost like
+a row of peas in a pod. From this results the gravest strain upon
+the nerves so that it has been found in Germany that after a cruise
+a period of rest of equal duration is needed to restore the men to
+their normal condition. Before assignment to submarine duty, too, a
+special course of training is requisite. Submarine crews are not
+created in a day.</p>
+
+<p>What the interior of the new German submarines with a length of 280
+feet, and a beam of 26 feet may <span class="pagenum"><a id="page319" name="page319"></a>(p. 319)</span> be, no man of the
+Anglo-Saxon race may know or tell. The few who have descended into
+those mysterious depths will have no chance to tell of them until
+the war is over. Nor is it possible during wartimes to secure
+descriptions even of our own underwater boats. But the interior of
+the typical submarine may be imagined as in size and shape something
+like an unusually long street car. Along the sides, where seats
+would normally be, are packed wheels, cylinders, motors, pumps,
+machinery of all imaginable kinds and some of it utterly
+unimaginable to the lay observer. The whole interior is painted
+white and bathed in electric light. The casual visitor from "above
+seas" is dazed by the array of machinery and shrinks as he walks the
+narrow aisle lest he become entangled in it.</p>
+
+<p>Running on the surface the submarine chamber is filled with a roar
+and clatter like a boiler shop in full operation. The Diesel engines
+are compact and powerful, but the racket they make more nearly
+corresponds to their power than to their size. On the surface too
+the boat rolls and pitches and the stranger passenger, unequipped
+with sea legs grabs for support as the subway rider reaches for a
+strap on the curves. But let the order come to submerge. The Diesels
+are stopped. The electric motors take up the task, spinning
+noiselessly in their jackets. In a moment or two all rolling ceases.
+One can hardly tell whether the ship is moving at all&mdash;it might for
+all its motion tells be resting quietly on the bottom. If you could
+disabuse your mind for a moment of the recollection that you were in
+a great steel cigar heavy laden with explosives, and deep under the
+surface of the sea you would find the experience no more exciting
+than a trip through the Pennsylvania tubes. But there is something
+uncanny about the silence.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page320" name="page320"></a>(p. 320)</span>
+
+<a id="img087" name="img087"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img087.jpg" width="400" height="163" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Torpedo Designed by Fulton.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Go forward to the conical compartment at the very bow. There you
+will find the torpedo chamber for the submarine, like the cigar to
+which it is so often compared, carries its fire at its front tip.
+The most common type of boat will have two or four torpedo tubes in
+this chamber. The more modern ones will have a second torpedo
+chamber astern with the same number of tubes and carry other
+torpedoes on deck which by an ingenious device can be launched from
+their outside cradles by mechanism within the boat. In the torpedo
+chamber are twice as many spare torpedoes as there are tubes, made
+fast along the sides. Here too the anchor winch stands with the
+cable attached to the anchor outside the boat and an automatic
+knife which cuts the cable should the anchor be fouled.</p>
+
+<a id="img088" name="img088"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img088.jpg" width="600" height="287" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>The Method of Attack by Nautilus.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Immediately aft of the torpedo chamber, cut off by a water-tight
+partition, is the battery compartment. It gets its name because of
+the fact, that beneath the deck which is full of traps readily
+raised are the electric storage batteries of anywhere from 60 to 260
+cells according to the size of the boat. This room is commonly used
+as the loafing place for the crew, being regarded as very spacious
+and empty. In it are nothing but the electric stove, the kitchen
+sink, the various lockers for food and all the housekeeping
+apparatus of the submarine. Mighty trim and compact they all are.
+The builder of twentieth century flats with his kitchenettes and his
+in-door beds might learn a good deal from a study of the smaller
+type of submarine. Next aft come the officers' staterooms, rather
+smaller than prison cells, each holding a bunk, a bureau, and a
+desk. Each holds also a good deal of moisture, for the greatest
+discomfort in submarine life comes from the fact that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page321" name="page321"></a>(p. 321)</span>
+everything is dripping with the water resulting from the constant
+condensation of the air within.</p>
+
+<p>The great compartment amidships given over to machinery is a place
+to test the nerves. The aisle down the centre is scarcely two feet
+wide and on each side are whirling wheels, engines, and electric
+motors. Only the photographs can give a clear idea of the crowded
+appearance of this compartment. It contains steering wheels, the
+gyroscopic compass, huge valves, dials showing depth of
+submergence, Kingston levers, motor controllers, all polished and
+shining, each doing its work and each easily thrown out of gear by
+an ignorant touch.</p>
+
+<p>The author once spending the night on a United States man-of-war was
+shown by the captain to his own cabin, that officer occupying the
+admiral's cabin for the time. At the head of the bunk were two small
+electric push buttons absolutely identical in appearance and about
+two inches apart. "Push this button," said the captain genially, "if
+you want the Jap boy to bring you shaving water or anything else.
+But be sure to push the right one. If you push the other you will
+call the entire crew to quarters at whatever hour of night the bell
+may ring."</p>
+
+<p>The possibility of mistaking the button rested heavily on the
+writer's nerves all night. A somewhat similar feeling comes over one
+who walks the narrow path down the centre of the machinery
+compartment of a submarine. He seems hedged about by mysterious
+apparatus a touch of which, or even an accidental jostle may release
+powerful and even murderous forces.</p>
+
+<p>While the submarine is under way, submerged, the operator at every
+piece of individual machinery stands at its side ready for action.
+Here are the gunner's mates at the diving rudder. They watch
+steadily a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page322" name="page322"></a>(p. 322)</span> big gauge on which a needle which shows how deep
+the boat is sinking. When the required depth is reached swift turns
+of two big brass wheels set the horizontal rudders that check the
+descent and keep the boat on an even keel. Other men stand at the
+levers of the Kingston valves which, when open, flood the ballast
+tanks with water and secure the submergence of the boat. Most of the
+underwater boats to-day sink rapidly on an even keel. The old
+method of depressing the nose of the boat so as to make a literal
+dive has been abandoned, partly because of the inconvenience it
+caused to the men within who suddenly found the floor on which they
+were standing tilted at a sharp angle, and partly because the diving
+position proved to be a dangerous one for the boat.</p>
+
+<p>In the early days of the submarines the quarters for the men were
+almost intolerable. The sleeping accommodations were cramped and
+there was no place for the men off duty to lounge and relax from the
+strain of constant attention to duty. Man cannot keep his body in a
+certain fixed position even though it be not rigid, for many hours.
+This is shown as well at the base ball grounds at the end of the
+sixth inning when "all stretch" as it was in the old time underwater
+boats. The crews now have space in which to loaf and even the strain
+of long silent watches under water is relieved by the use of talking
+machines and musical instruments. The efficiency of the boat of
+course is only that of her crew, and since more care and more
+scientific thought has been given to the comfort of the men, to the
+purity of the air they breathe, and even to their amusements, the
+effect upon the work done by the craft has been apparent. Ten years
+ago hot meals were unthought of on a submarine; now the electric
+cooker provides for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page323" name="page323"></a>(p. 323)</span> quite an elaborate bill of fare. But
+ten years ago the submarine was only expected to cruise for a few
+hours off the harbour's mouth carrying a crew of twenty men or less.
+Now it stays at sea sometimes for as long as three months. Its crews
+number often as many as fifty and the day is in sight when
+accommodations will have to be made for the housing of at least
+eighty men in such comparative comfort that they can stand a six
+months' voyage without loss of morale or decrease in physical
+vigour.</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, very rare that a civilian has the chance to be
+present on a submarine when the latter is making either a real or a
+feigned attack. Fred B. Pitney, a correspondent of the New York
+<i>Tribune</i>, was fortunate enough to have this experience, fortunate
+especially because it was all a game arranged for his special
+benefit by a French admiral. He writes of this interesting
+experience in the <i>Tribune</i> of Sunday, May 27, 1917, and at the same
+time gives a vivid description of a French submarine.</p>
+
+<p>It appears that Mr. Pitney was on a small vessel put at his disposal
+by the French Ministry of Marine to view the defences of a French
+naval base. This boat was attacked by what seemed to be an enemy
+submarine, but later turned out to be a French one which was giving
+this special performance for Mr. Pitney's information. We read:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Our officers were experts at watching for submarines, and though
+     the little white wave made by the periscope disappeared, they
+     caught the white wake of the torpedo coming toward the port
+     quarter and sheered off to escape it. The torpedo passed
+     harmlessly by our stern, but the adventure was not ended, for
+     hardly a minute later we heard a shot <span class="pagenum"><a id="page324" name="page324"></a>(p. 324)</span> from off the
+     starboard quarter and, turning in that direction, saw that the
+     submarine had come to the surface and was busily firing at us to
+     bring us to.</p>
+
+     <p>We stopped without any foolish waste of time in argument. I asked
+     if a boat would be sent to us, or if we would have to get out our
+     boat.</p>
+
+     <p>"They carry a small folding boat," said the officer to whom I had
+     been talking, "but we will have to send our boat."</p>
+
+     <p>While we were getting our boat over the side, the submarine moved
+     closer in, keeping her gun bearing on us all the time, most
+     uncomfortably. The gun stood uncovered on the deck, just abaft
+     the turret. It was thickly coated with grease to protect it when
+     the vessel submerged. It is only the very latest type of
+     submarines that have disappearing guns which go under cover when
+     the vessel submerges and are fired from within the ship, which
+     makes all the more surprising the speed with which a submarine
+     can come to the surface, the men get out on deck, fire the gun,
+     get in again and the vessel once more submerges.</p>
+
+     <p>I was in the first boatload that went over to the submarine. From
+     a distance it looked like nothing so much as a rather long piece
+     of 4×8 floating on the water, with another block set on top of it
+     and a length of lath nailed on the block. It lost none of these
+     characteristics as we neared it. It only gained a couple of ropes
+     along the sides of the 4×8, while men kept coming mysteriously
+     out of the block until a round dozen was waiting to receive us.
+     The really surprising thing was that the men turned out to be
+     perfectly good French sailors, with a most exceedingly polite
+     French lieutenant to help us aboard the little craft....</p>
+
+<a id="img089" name="img089"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img089.jpg" width="400" height="501" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>The Capture of a U-Boat.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>The vessel we were in was a 500-ton cruising submarine. It had
+     just come from eight months' guarding the Channel, and showed all
+     the battering of eight months of a very rough and stormy career
+     with no time for a lie-up for repairs. It was interesting to see
+     the commander hand the depth gauge a wallop to start it working
+     and find out if the centre of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page325" name="page325"></a>(p. 325)</span> boat was really nine
+     feet higher than either end. We were fifty-four feet under water
+     and diving when the commander performed that little experiment
+     and we continued to dive while the gauge spun around and finally
+     stopped at a place which indicated approximately that our back
+     was not broken. I suppose that was one of the things my friend
+     the lieutenant referred to when he said life on a submarine was
+     such a sporting proposition.</p>
+
+     <p>We boarded the submarine over the tail end and balanced our way
+     up the long narrow block, like walking a tight rope, to the
+     turret, where we descended through a hole like the opening into a
+     gas main into a small round compartment about six feet in
+     diameter exactly in the midship section, which was the largest
+     compartment in the ship. Running each way from it the length of
+     the vessel were long corridors, some two feet wide. On each side
+     of the corridors were rows of tiny compartments, which were the
+     living and working rooms of the ship. Naturally, most of the
+     space was given up to the working rooms.</p>
+
+     <p>The officers' quarters consisted of four tiny compartments, two
+     on each side of the after corridor. The first two were the mess
+     room and chart room, and the second pair were the cabins of the
+     commander&mdash;a lieutenant&mdash;and his second in command, an ensign.
+     Behind them was an electric kitchen, and next came the engines,
+     first two sets of Diesel engines, one on each side of the
+     corridor, each of four hundred horse-power. These were for
+     running on the surface. Then came four bunks for the
+     quartermasters and last the electric motors for running under the
+     surface. The motors were run from storage batteries and were half
+     the power of the Diesel engines. The quarters of the crew were
+     along the sides of the forward corridor. The floors of the
+     corridor were an unbroken series of trap doors, covering the
+     storage tanks for drinking water, food, and the ship's supplies.
+     The torpedo tubes were forward of the men's quarters. Ten
+     torpedoes were carried. The ammunition for the deck gun was
+     stored immediately beneath the gun, which was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page326" name="page326"></a>(p. 326)</span> mounted
+     between the turret and the first hatch, abaft the turret. Besides
+     the turret there were three hatches in the deck, one forward and
+     two aft.</p>
+
+     <p>There were thirty-four men in the crew. The men are counted every
+     two hours, as there is great danger of men being lost overboard
+     when running on the surface, and in bad weather they are
+     sometimes counted as often as every half hour.</p>
+
+     <p>The turret was divided in two sections. In the after part was the
+     main hatch and behind it a stationary periscope, standing about
+     thirty inches above the surface of the water when the deck was
+     submerged and only the periscope showing. There was no opening in
+     the forward section of the turret, but the fighting periscope,
+     which could be drawn down into the interior or pushed up to ten
+     feet above the surface when the vessel was completely submerged,
+     extended through the top.</p>
+
+     <p>For two hours, turn and turn about, the commander and his second
+     stand watch on the iron grips in the turret, one eye on the
+     periscope, the other on the compass. And this goes on for weeks
+     on end. It is only when they lie for a few hours fifty to
+     seventy-five feet below the surface that they can get some rest.
+     And even then there is no real rest, for one or the other of them
+     must be constantly on duty, testing pipes and gauges, air
+     pressure, water pressure, and a thousand other things.</p>
+
+     <p>When we dropped through the hatch into the interior of the
+     submarine and the cover was clamped down over our heads the
+     commander at once ordered me back into the turret.</p>
+
+     <p>"Hurry, if you want to see her dive," he said.</p>
+
+     <p>I climbed into the after section of the turret and fastened my
+     eye to the periscope. Around the top of the turret was a circle
+     of bulls' eyes and I was conscious of the water dashing against
+     them while the spray washed over the glass of the periscope. The
+     little vessel rolled very slightly on the surface, though there
+     was quite a bit of sea running. I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page327" name="page327"></a>(p. 327)</span> watched the horizon
+     through the periscope and watched for the dive, expecting a
+     distinct sensation, but the first thing I noticed was that even
+     the slight roll had ceased and I was surprised to see that the
+     bulls' eyes were completely under water. The next thing there was
+     no more horizon. The periscope also was covered and we were
+     completely beneath the surface.</p>
+
+     <p>"Did it make you sick?" the commander asked, when I climbed down
+     from the turret, and when I told him "no" he was surprised, for
+     he said most men were made sick by their first dive.</p>
+
+     <p>The thing most astonishing to me about that experience was how a
+     submerged submarine can thread its way through a mine field. For
+     though the water is luminous and translucent one can hardly make
+     out the black hull of the boat under the turret and a mine would
+     have to be on top of you before you could see it. The men who
+     watch for mines must have a sense for them as well as
+     particularly powerful sight.</p>
+
+     <p>We continued to dive until we were sixty-eight feet below the
+     surface, too deep to strike any mine, and there we ran tranquilly
+     on our electric engines, while the commander navigated the vessel
+     and the second in command opened champagne in the two by four
+     mess room. After half an hour of underwater work we came near
+     enough the surface for our fighting periscope to stick twenty
+     inches out of the water and searched the lonely horizon for a
+     ship to attack.</p>
+
+     <p>It was not long before we sighted a mine trawler, steaming for
+     the harbour, and speeded up to overtake her.</p>
+
+     <p>"Pikers!" said our commander, as we circled twice around the
+     trawler; "they can't find us."</p>
+
+     <p>Five men on the trawler were scanning the sea with glasses
+     looking for submarines. We could follow all their motions, could
+     tell when they thought they had found us and see their
+     disappointment at their mistakes, but though we were never more
+     than five hundred yards from them, I did not <span class="pagenum"><a id="page328" name="page328"></a>(p. 328)</span> think they
+     were pikers because they did not find us. I had tried that hunt
+     for the tiny wave of a periscope.</p>
+
+     <p>"No use wasting a torpedo on those fellows," said our commander.
+     "We will use the gun on them."</p>
+
+     <p>"How far away can you use a torpedo?" I asked.</p>
+
+     <p>"Two hundred yards is the best distance," he said. "Never more
+     than five hundred. A torpedo is pure guesswork at more than five
+     hundred yards."</p>
+
+     <p>We crossed the bow of the trawler, circled around to her
+     starboard quarter and came to the surface, fired nine shots and
+     submerged again in forty-five seconds.</p>
+
+     <p>The prey secured, we ran submerged through the mine field and
+     past the net barrier to come to the surface well within the
+     harbour and proceed peacefully to our mooring under the shelter
+     of the guns of the land forts.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Life and work on a German submarine is known to us, of course, only
+from descriptions in German publications. One of these appeared,
+previous to our entry in the war, in various journals and was
+translated and republished by the New York <i>Evening Post</i>. It reads
+partly as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>"U-47 will take provisions and clear for sea. Extreme economical
+     radius."</p>
+
+     <p>A first lieutenant, with acting rank of commander, takes the
+     order in the grey dawn of a February day. The hulk of an old
+     corvette with the Iron Cross of 1870 on her stubby foremast is
+     his quarters in port, and on the corvette's deck he is presently
+     saluted by his first engineer and the officer of the watch. On
+     the pier the crew of U-47 await him. At their feet the narrow
+     grey submarine lies alongside, straining a little at her cables.</p>
+
+     <p>"Well, we've our orders at last," begins the commander,
+     addressing his crew of thirty, and the crew grin. For this is
+     U-47's first experience of active service. She has done nothing
+     save trial trips hitherto, and has just been overhauled <span class="pagenum"><a id="page329" name="page329"></a>(p. 329)</span>
+     for her first fighting cruise. Her commander snaps out a number
+     of orders. Provisions are to be taken in "up to the neck," fresh
+     water is to be put aboard, and engine-room supplies to be
+     supplemented.</p>
+
+     <p>A mere plank is the gangway to the little vessel. As the
+     commander, followed by his officers, comes aboard, a sailor hands
+     to each a ball of cotton-waste, the sign and symbol of a
+     submarine officer, which never leaves his hand. For the steel
+     walls of his craft, the doors, and the companion-ladder all sweat
+     oil, and at every touch the hands must be wiped dry. The doorways
+     are narrow round holes. Through one of the holes aft the
+     commander descends by a breakneck iron ladder into the black hole
+     lit by electric glow-lamps. The air is heavy with the smell of
+     oil, and to the unaccustomed longshoreman it is almost choking,
+     though the hatches are off. The submarine man breathes this air
+     as if it were the purest ozone. Here in the engine-room aft men
+     must live and strain every nerve even if for days at a time every
+     crack whereby the fresh air could get in is hermetically sealed.
+     On their tense watchfulness thirty lives depend.</p>
+
+     <p>Here, too, are slung some hammocks, and in them one watch tries,
+     and, what is more, succeeds in sleeping, though the men moving
+     about bump them with head and elbows at every turn, and the low
+     and narrow vault is full of the hum and purr of machinery. In
+     length the vault is about ten feet, but if a man of normal
+     stature stands in the middle and raises his arms to about half
+     shoulder height his hands will touch the cold, moist steel walls
+     on either side. A network of wires runs overhead, and there is a
+     juggler's outfit of handles, levers, and instruments. The
+     commander inspects everything minutely, then creeps through a
+     hole into the central control station, where the chief engineer
+     is at his post. With just about enough assistance to run a fairly
+     simple machine ashore the chief engineer of a submarine is
+     expected to control, correct, and, if necessary, repair at sea an
+     infinitely complex machinery which must not break <span class="pagenum"><a id="page330" name="page330"></a>(p. 330)</span> down
+     for an instant if thirty men are to return alive to the hulk.</p>
+
+     <p>Forward is another narrow steel vault serving at once as
+     engine-room and crew's quarters. Next to it is a place like a
+     cupboard, where the cook has just room to stand in front of his
+     doll's house galley-stove. It is electrically heated, that the
+     already oppressive air may not be further vitiated by smoke or
+     fumes. A German submarine in any case smells perpetually of
+     coffee and cabbage. Two little cabins of the size of a decent
+     clothes-chest take the deck and engine-room officers, four of
+     them. Another box cabin is reserved for the commander&mdash;when he
+     has time to occupy it.</p>
+
+     <p>At daybreak the commander comes on deck in coat and trousers of
+     black leather lined with wool, a protection against oil, cold,
+     and sea-water. The crew at their stations await the command to
+     cast off.</p>
+
+     <p>"Machines clear," calls a voice from the control-station and
+     "Clear ship," snaps the order from the bridge. Then "Cast-off!"
+     The cables slap on to the landing-stage, the engines begin to
+     purr, and U-47 slides away into open water.</p>
+
+     <p>A few cable-lengths away another submarine appears homeward
+     bound. She is the U-20 returning from a long cruise in which she
+     succeeded in sinking a ship bound with a cargo of frozen mutton
+     for England.</p>
+
+     <p>"Good luck, old sheep-butcher," sings the commander of U-47 as
+     the sister-ship passes within hail.</p>
+
+     <p>The seas are heavier now, and U-47 rolls unpleasantly as she
+     makes the light-ship and answers the last salute from a friendly
+     hand. The two officers on the bridge turn once to look at the
+     light-ship already astern, then their eyes look seaward. It is
+     rough, stormy weather. If the egg-shell goes ahead two or three
+     days without a stop, the officers in charge will get no sleep for
+     just that long. If it gets any rougher they will be tied to the
+     bridge-rails to avoid being swept overboard. If they are hungry,
+     plates of soup will be brought to them on the bridge, and the
+     North Sea will attend to its salting for them.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page331" name="page331"></a>(p. 331)</span> Frequently this "meal" is interrupted by some announcement
+from the watch, such as: "Smoke on the horizon off the port bow."
+Then&mdash;so we are told:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>The commander drops his plate, shouts a short, crisp command, and
+     an electric alarm whirs inside the egg-shell. The ship buzzes
+     like a hive. Then water begins to gurgle into the ballast-tanks,
+     and U-47 sinks until only her periscope shows.</p>
+
+     <p>"The steamship is a Dutchman, sir," calls the watch officer.
+     The commander inspects her with the aid of a periscope. She has
+     no wireless and is bound for the Continent. So he can come up
+     and is glad, because moving under the water consumes electricity,
+     and the usefulness of a submarine is measured by her electric
+     power.</p>
+
+     <p>After fifty-four hours of waking nerve tension, sleep becomes a
+     necessity. So the ballast-tanks are filled and the nutshell sinks
+     to the sandy bottom. This is the time for sleep aboard a
+     submarine, because a sleeping man consumes less of the precious
+     oxygen than one awake and busy. So a submarine man has three
+     principal lessons to learn&mdash;to keep every faculty at tension when
+     he is awake, to keep stern silence when he is ashore (there is a
+     warning against talkativeness in all the German railway-carriages
+     now), and to sleep instantly when he gets a legitimate
+     opportunity. His sleep and the economy of oxygen may save the
+     ship. However, the commander allows half an hour's grace for
+     music. There is a gramophone, of course, and the "ship's band"
+     performs on all manner of instruments. At worst, a comb with a
+     bit of tissue paper is pressed into service.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Another American who suffered an enforced voyage on an
+<i>unterseeboot</i> made public later some of his experiences. His
+captor's craft was a good sized one&mdash;about 250 feet long, with a
+crew of 35 men and mounting two 4-&frac12; inch guns. She could make 18
+knots on the surface and 11 submerged and had a radius of 3200 miles
+of action. Her accommodations were not uncomfortable. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page332" name="page332"></a>(p. 332)</span> Each
+officer had a separate cabin while the crew were bunked along either
+side of a narrow passage. The ventilation was excellent, and her
+officers declared that they could stand twenty-four hours continuous
+submergence without discomfort, after that for six hours it was
+uncomfortable, and thereafter intolerable because of the exudation
+of moisture&mdash;or sweating&mdash;from every part. At such times all below
+have to wear leather suits. The food was varied and cooked on an
+electric stove. The original stores included preserved pork and
+beef, vegetables, tinned soups, fruits, raisins, biscuits, butter,
+marmalade, milk, tea, and coffee. But the pleasures of the table
+depended greatly on the number of their prizes, for whenever
+possible they made every ship captured contribute heavily to their
+larder before sinking her. Of the tactics followed the observer
+writes:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>It appears that 55 per cent., or more than half, of the torpedoes
+     fired miss their mark, and with this average they seem satisfied.
+     Once they let go at a ship two torpedoes at 3000 yards' range,
+     and both missed, the range being too long but they did not care
+     to come any nearer, as they believed the ship to be well armed.</p>
+
+     <p>They prefer to fire at 500 to 700 yards, which means that at this
+     range the track or "wake" of a projectile would be discernible
+     for, say, twenty-five to thirty seconds&mdash;not much time, indeed,
+     for any ship to get out of the way. At 100 yards' range or less
+     they do not care to fire unless compelled to, as the torpedo is
+     nearly always discharged when the submarine is lying ahead of the
+     object, <i>i. e.</i>, to hit the ship coming up to it; it follows that
+     a gun forward is more useful than one aft, the gun aft being of
+     real service when a submarine starts shelling, which she will do
+     for choice from aft the ship rather than from forward of her,
+     where she would be in danger of being run over and rammed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page333" name="page333"></a>(p. 333)</span> CHAPTER XVI<br>
+<span class="smaller">SUBMARINE WARFARE</span></h2>
+
+<p>At the moment of writing these words the outcome of the greatest war
+the world has ever known is believed by many to hang upon the
+success with which the Allies can meet and defeat the campaign of
+the German submarines. The German people believe this absolutely.
+The Allies and their sympathizers grudgingly admit that they are
+only too fearful that it may be true.</p>
+
+<p>To such a marvellous degree of military efficiency has the ingenuity
+of man brought these boats which so recently as our Civil War were
+still in the vaguest experimental stage and scarcely possessed of
+any offensive power whatsoever!</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless these machines had reached a degree of development, and
+had demonstrated their dangerous character so early in the war that
+it was amazing that the British were so slow in comprehending the
+use that might be made of them in cutting off British commerce. It
+is true that the first submarine actions redounded in their results
+entirely to British credit. In September of 1914 a British submarine
+ran gallantly into Heligoland Bay and sank the German light cruiser
+<i>Hela</i> at her moorings. Shortly after the Germans sought retaliation
+by attacking a British squadron, but the effort miscarried. The
+British cruiser <i>Birmingham</i> caught a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page334" name="page334"></a>(p. 334)</span> glimpse of her wake
+and with a well-aimed shot destroyed her periscope. The submarine
+dived, but shortly afterwards came up again making what was called a
+porpoise dive&mdash;that is to say, she came up just long enough for the
+officer in the conning tower to locate the enemy, then submerged
+again. Brief, however, as had been the appearance of the conning
+tower, the British put a shell into it and in a few minutes the
+submarine and most of her crew were at the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after followed the attack upon and sinking of the three
+cruisers by the submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander
+Otto von Weddigen, the narrative of which we have already told. But
+while after that attacks upon British armed ships were many,
+successes were few. There were no German ships at sea for the
+British to attack in turn, but some very gallant work was done by
+their submarines against Austrian and Turkish warships in the
+Mediterranean and the Dardanelles. All this time the Germans were
+preparing for that warfare upon the merchant shipping of all
+countries which at the end they came to believe would force the
+conclusion of the war. It seems curious that during this early
+period the Allies were able to devise no method of meeting this form
+of attack. When the United States entered the war more than three
+years later they looked to us for the instant invention of some
+effective anti-submarine weapon. If they were disappointed at our
+failure at once to produce one, they should have remembered at least
+that they too were baffled by the situation although it was
+presented to them long before it became part of our problems.</p>
+
+<p>About no feature of the war have the belligerents thrown more of
+mystery than about the circumstances <span class="pagenum"><a id="page335" name="page335"></a>(p. 335)</span> attending submarine
+attacks upon battleships and armed transports and the method
+employed of meeting them. Even when later in the war the Germans
+apparently driven to frenzy made special efforts to sink hospital
+and Red Cross ships the facts were concealed by the censors, and
+accounts of the efforts made to balk such inhuman and unchristian
+practices diligently suppressed. In the end it seemed that the
+British, who of course led all naval activities, had reached the
+conclusion that only by the maintenance of an enormous fleet of
+patrol boats could the submarines be kept in check. This method they
+have applied unremittingly. Alfred Noyes in a publication authorized
+by the British government has thus picturesquely told some of the
+incidents connected with this service:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>It is difficult to convey in words the wide sweep and subtle
+     co-ordination of this ocean hunting; for the beginning of any
+     tale may be known only to an admiral in a London office, the
+     middle of it only to a commander at Kirkwall, and the end of it
+     only to a trawler skipper off the coast of Ireland. But here and
+     there it is possible to piece the fragments together into a
+     complete adventure, as in the following record of a successful
+     chase, where the glorious facts outrun all the imaginations of
+     the wildest melodrama.</p>
+
+     <p>There were suspicious vessels at anchor, one moonless night, in
+     a small bay near the Mumbles. They lay there like shadows, but
+     before long they knew that the night was alive for a hundred
+     miles with silent talk about them. At dawn His Majesty's trawlers
+     <i>Golden Feather</i> and <i>Peggy Nutten</i> foamed up, but the shadows
+     had disappeared.</p>
+
+     <p>The trawlers were ordered to search the coast thoroughly for any
+     submarine stores that might have been left there. "Thoroughly" in
+     this war means a great deal. It means that even the bottom of the
+     sea must be searched. This was done by grapnels; but the bottom
+     was rocky and seemed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page336" name="page336"></a>(p. 336)</span> unfit for a base. Nothing was found
+     but a battered old lobster pot, crammed with seaweed and little
+     green crabs.</p>
+
+     <p>Probably these appearances were more than usually deceitful; for
+     shortly afterward watchers on the coast reported a strange
+     fishing boat, with patched brown sails, heading for the suspected
+     bay. Before the patrols came up, however, she seemed to be
+     alarmed. The brown sails were suddenly taken in; the disguised
+     conning tower was revealed, and this innocent fishing boat,
+     gracefully submerging, left only the smiling and spotless April
+     seas to the bewildered eyes of the coast guard.</p>
+
+     <p>In the meantime signals were pulsing and flashing on land and
+     sea, and the U-boat had hardly dipped when, over the smooth green
+     swell, a great sea hawk came whirring up to join the hunt, a hawk
+     with light yellow wings and a body of service grey&mdash;the latest
+     type of seaplane. It was one of those oily seas in which a
+     watcher from the air may follow a submarine for miles, as an
+     olive green shadow under the lighter green. The U-boat doubled
+     twice; but it was half an hour before her sunken shadow was lost
+     to sight under choppy blue waters, and long before that time she
+     was evidently at ease in her mind and pursuing a steady course.
+     For the moment her trail was then lost, and the hawk, having
+     reported her course, dropped out of the tale.</p>
+
+<a id="img090" name="img090"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img090.jpg" width="600" height="263" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A British Submarine.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>The next morning in the direction indicated by that report
+     several patrol boats heard the sound of gunfire and overhauled a
+     steamer which had been attacked by a submarine. They gave chase
+     by "starring" to all the points of the compass, but could not
+     locate the enemy. A little later, however, another trawler
+     observed the wash of a submarine crossing her stern about two
+     hundred yards away. The trawler star-boarded, got into the wake
+     of the submarine and tried to ram her at full speed. She failed
+     to do this, as the U-boat was at too great a depth. The enemy
+     disappeared, and again the trawlers gathered and "starred."</p>
+
+<a id="img091" name="img091"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img091.jpg" width="600" height="310" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Sectional View of the Nautilus.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>In the meantime, certain nets had been shot, and, though the
+     inclosed waters were very wide, it was quite certain that
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name="page337"></a>(p. 337)</span> the submarine was contained within them. Some hours
+     later another trawler heard firing and rushed toward the sound.
+     About sunset she sighted a submarine which was just dipping. The
+     trawler opened fire at once without result. The light was very
+     bad and it was very difficult to trace the enemy, but the trawler
+     continued the search, and about midnight she observed a small
+     light close to the water. She steamed within a few yards of it
+     and hailed, thinking it was a small boat. There was a
+     considerable amount of wreckage about, which was afterward proved
+     to be the remains of a patrol vessel sunk by the submarine. There
+     was no reply to the hail, and the light instantly disappeared.
+     For the third time the patrols gathered and "starred" from this
+     new point.</p>
+
+     <p>And here the tale was taken up by a sailor who was in command of
+     another trawler at the time. I give it, so far as possible, in
+     his own words.</p>
+
+     <p>"About 4 o'clock in the morning I was called by Deckhand William
+     Brown to come on deck and see if an object sighted was a
+     submarine. I did so, and saw a submarine about a mile distant on
+     the port bow. I gave the order, 'Hard a-starboard.' The ship was
+     turned until the gun was able to bear on the submarine, and it
+     was kept bearing. At the same time I ordered hands to station,
+     and about ten minutes afterward I gave the order to fire. The
+     submarine immediately altered her course from W. to N. N. W., and
+     went away from us very fast. I burned lights to attract the
+     attention of the drifters, and we followed at our utmost speed,
+     making about eight knots and shipping light sprays. We fired
+     another shot about two minutes later, but it was breaking dawn,
+     and we were unable to see the fall of the shots. After the second
+     shot the submarine submerged. I hoisted warning signals and about
+     half an hour later I saw a large steamer turning round, distant
+     between two and three miles on our starboard beam. I headed
+     toward her, keeping the gun trained on her, as I expected,
+     judging by her action, that she had smelt the submarine. When we
+     were about a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page338" name="page338"></a>(p. 338)</span> mile and a half from the steamer I saw the
+     submarine half a mile astern of her. We opened fire again, and
+     gave her four shots, with about two minutes between 'em. The
+     submarine then dodged behind the off quarter of the steamer."</p>
+
+     <p>He paused to light his pipe, and added, quite gravely, "When she
+     had disappeared behind the steamer I gave the order 'Cease fire,'
+     to avoid hitting the larger vessel."</p>
+
+     <p>I made a mental note of his thoughtfulness; but, not for worlds
+     would I have shown any doubt of his power to blast his way, if
+     necessary, through all the wood and iron in the universe; and I
+     was glad that the blue clouds of our smoke mingled for a moment
+     between us.</p>
+
+     <p>"I saw two white boats off the port quarter," he continued. "But
+     I paid no attention to them. I ordered the helm to be
+     star-boarded a bit more, and told the gunner to train his gun on
+     the bow of the steamer; for I expected the submarine to show
+     there next. A few minutes later she did so, and when she drew
+     ahead I gave the order to fire. I should say we were about a mile
+     and a quarter away. We gave him two more shots and they dropped
+     very close, as the spray rose over his conning tower. He altered
+     his course directly away from us, and we continued to fire. The
+     third shot smothered his conning tower with spray. I did not see
+     the fourth and fifth shots pitch. There was no splash visible,
+     although it was then broad daylight; so I believe they must have
+     hit him. A few moments after this the submarine disappeared.</p>
+
+     <p>"I turned, then, toward the two white boats and hailed them. The
+     chief officer of the steamer was in charge of one. They were
+     returning to their ship, and told me that we had hit the
+     submarine. We escorted them through the nets and parted very good
+     friends."</p>
+
+     <p>"But how did you get the scalp of this U-boat?" I asked.</p>
+
+     <p>"We signalled to the admiral, and sent the Daffy to investigate.
+     She found the place, all right. It was a choppy sea, but there
+     was one smooth patch in it, just where we told 'em the submarine
+     had disappeared; a big patch of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page339" name="page339"></a>(p. 339)</span> water like wavy satin,
+     two or three hundred yards of it, coloured like the stripes on
+     mackerel, all blue and green with oil. They took a specimen of
+     the oil."</p>
+
+     <p>"Did it satisfy the Admiralty?"</p>
+
+     <p>"No. Nothing satisfies the Admiralty but certainties. They count
+     the minimum losses of the enemy, and the maximum of their own.
+     Very proper, too. Then you know where you are. But, mind you, I
+     don't believe we finished him off that morning. Oil don't prove
+     that. It only proves we hit him. I believe it was the 'Maggie and
+     Rose' that killed him, or the 'Hawthorn.' No; it wasn't either.
+     It was the 'Loch Awe.'"</p>
+
+     <p>"How was that?"</p>
+
+     <p>"Well, as Commander White was telling you, we'd shot out nets to
+     the north and south of him. There were two or three hundred
+     miles, perhaps, in which he might wriggle about; but he couldn't
+     get out of the trap, even if he knew where to look for the
+     danger. He tried to run for home, and that's what finished him.
+     They'll tell you all about that on the 'Loch Awe.'"</p>
+
+     <p>So the next day I heard the end of the yarn from a sandy-haired
+     skipper in a trawler whose old romantic name was dark with new
+     significance. He was terribly logical. In his cabin&mdash;a
+     comfortable room with a fine big stove&mdash;he had a picture of his
+     wife and daughters, all very rigid and uncomfortable. He also had
+     three books. They included neither Burns nor Scott. One was the
+     Bible, thumbed by his grandfather and his father till the paper
+     had worn yellow and thin at the sides. The second, I am sorry to
+     say, was called <i>The Beautiful White Devil</i>. The third was an odd
+     volume of Froude in the <i>Everyman</i> edition. It dealt with the
+     Armada.</p>
+
+     <p>"I was towin' my nets wi' the rest o' my group," he said, "till
+     about 3 o'clock i' the mornin' on yon occasion. It was fine
+     weather wi' a kind o' haar. All at once, my ship gaed six points
+     aff her coorse, frae S. E. to E. N. E., and I jaloused that the
+     nets had been fouled by some muckle <span class="pagenum"><a id="page340" name="page340"></a>(p. 340)</span> movin' body. I gave
+     orders to pit the wheel hard a-port, but she wouldna answer.
+     Suddenly the strain on the nets stoppit.</p>
+
+     <p>"I needna tell you what had happened. Of course, it was
+     preceesely what the Admiralty had arranged tae happen when
+     gentlemen in undersea boats try to cut their way through our
+     nets. Mind ye, thae nets are verra expensive."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A different situation, however, has lately developed in the more
+unequal fight between submarines and merchant vessels. There the
+submarine unquestionably has gained and maintained supremacy. Two
+factors are primarily responsible for this: lack of speed and lack
+of armament on the part of the merchantman. Of course, recently the
+latter condition has been changed and apparently with good success.
+But even at best, an armed merchantman has a rather slim chance at
+escape. Neither space nor available equipment permits a general
+arming of merchantmen to a sufficient degree to make it possible for
+the latter to attack a submarine from any considerable distance.
+Then, too, what chance has a merchant vessel unprotected by patrol
+boats to escape the torpedo of a hidden submarine? How successfully
+this question will finally be solved, the future only will show. At
+present it bids fair to become one of the deciding factors in
+determining the final issue of this war.</p>
+
+<p>The first authentically known case of an attack without warning by a
+German submarine against an allied merchantman was the torpedoing of
+the French steamship <i>Amiral Ganteaume</i> on October 26, 1914, in the
+English Channel. The steamer was sunk and thirty of its passengers
+and crew were lost. A number of other attacks followed during the
+remainder of 1914 and in January, 1915. Then came on February 3,
+1915, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page341" name="page341"></a>(p. 341)</span> now famous pronouncement of the German Government
+declaring "all the waters around Great Britain and Ireland,
+including the whole of the English Channel, a war zone," and
+announcing that on and after Feb. 18th, Germany "will attempt to
+destroy every enemy ship found in that war zone, without its being
+always possible to avoid the danger that will thus threaten neutral
+persons and ships." Germany gave warning that "it cannot be
+responsible hereafter for the safety of crews, passengers, and
+cargoes of such ships," and it furthermore "calls the attention of
+neutrals to the fact that it would be well for their ships to avoid
+entering this zone, for, although the German naval forces are
+instructed to avoid all violence to neutral ships, in so far as
+these can be recognized, the order given by the British Government
+to hoist neutral flags and the contingencies of naval warfare might
+be the cause of these ships becoming the victims of an attack
+directed against the vessels of the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>This was the beginning of the submarine controversy between Germany
+and the United States and resulted in a note from the United States
+Government in which it was stated that the latter viewed the
+possibilities created by the German note</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     with such grave concern, that it feels it to be its privilege,
+     and, indeed, its duty, in the circumstances to request the
+     Imperial German Government to consider before action is taken the
+     critical situation in respect of the relation between this
+     country and Germany which might arise were the German naval
+     forces, in carrying out the policy foreshadowed in the
+     Admiralty's proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the
+     United States or cause the death of American citizens:&mdash;To
+     declare and exercise a right to attack and destroy any vessel
+     entering a prescribed area of the high seas <span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342"></a>(p. 342)</span> without
+     first certainly determining its belligerent nationality and the
+     contraband character of its cargo would be an act so
+     unprecedented in naval warfare that this Government is reluctant
+     to believe that the Imperial Government of Germany in this case
+     contemplates it as possible.</p>
+
+<p>After stating that the destruction of American ships or American
+lives on the high seas would be difficult to reconcile with the
+friendly relations existing between the two Governments, the note
+adds that the United States "would be constrained to hold the
+Imperial Government of Germany to a strict accountability for such
+acts of their naval authorities, and to take any steps it might feel
+necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to
+secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged
+rights on the high seas."</p>
+
+<p>It is not within the province of this book to go in detail into the
+diplomatic history of the submarine controversy between Germany and
+the United States. Suffice it to say, therefore, that from the very
+beginning the controversy held many possibilities of the disastrous
+ending which finally came to pass when diplomatic relations were
+broken off between the two countries on February 3, 1917, and a
+state of war was declared by President Wilson's proclamation of
+April 6, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>The period between Germany's first War Zone Declaration and the
+President's proclamation&mdash;two months and three days more than two
+years&mdash;was crowded with incidents in which submarines and submarine
+warfare held the centre of the stage. It would be impossible within
+the compass of this story to give a complete survey of all the boats
+that were sunk and of all the lives that were lost. Nor would it be
+possible <span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343"></a>(p. 343)</span> to recount all the deeds of heroism which this new
+warfare occasioned. Belligerents and neutrals alike were affected.
+American ships suffered, perhaps, to a lesser degree, than those of
+other neutrals, partly because of the determined stand taken by the
+United States Government. On May 1, 1915, the first American
+steamer, the <i>Gulflight</i>, was sunk. Six days later the world was
+shocked by the news that the <i>Lusitania</i>, one of the biggest British
+passenger liners, had been torpedoed without warning on May 7, 1915
+and had been sunk with a loss of 1198 lives, of whom 124 were
+American citizens. Before this nation was goaded into war, more than
+200 Americans were slain.</p>
+
+<p>Notes were again exchanged between the two Governments. Though the
+German government at that time showed an inclination to abandon its
+position in the submarine controversy under certain conditions,
+sinkings of passenger and freight steamers without warning
+continued. All attempts on the part of the United States Government
+to come to an equitable understanding with Germany failed on account
+of the latter's refusal to give up submarine warfare, or at least
+those features of it which, though considered illegal and inhuman by
+the United States, seemed to be considered most essential by
+Germany.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the German note of January 31, 1917, stating that "from
+February 1, 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with every available
+weapon and without further notice" in certain minutely described
+"prohibited zones around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the
+Eastern Mediterranean."</p>
+
+<p>The total tonnage sunk by German submarines from the beginning of
+the war up to February 1, 1917, has been given by British sources as
+over three million tons, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name="page344"></a>(p. 344)</span> while German authorities claimed
+four million. The result of the German edict for unrestricted
+submarine warfare has been rather appalling, even if it fell far
+short of German prophesies and hopes. During the first two weeks of
+February a total of ninety-seven ships with a tonnage of about
+210,000 tons were sent to the bottom of the sea. Since then the
+German submarines have taken an even heavier toll. It has, however,
+become next to impossible, due to the restrictions of censorship, to
+compute any accurate figures for later totals, though it has become
+known from time to time that the Allied as well as the neutral
+losses have been very much higher during the five months of February
+to July, 1917 than during any other five months.</p>
+
+<a id="img092" name="img092"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img092.jpg" width="600" height="386" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© U. &amp; U.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>U. S. Submarine H-3 Aground on California Coast.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The figures of the losses of British merchantmen alone are shown by
+the following table:</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="Losses of British merchantmen.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="10%">
+    <col width="5%">
+    <col width="5%">
+    <col width="8%">
+    <col width="8%">
+    <col width="5%">
+    <col width="8%">
+    <col width="8%">
+    <col width="20%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td colspan="6" class="center">Ships</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">Week ending&mdash;</td>
+<td class="center" colspan="3">Over 1,600 Tons.</td>
+<td class="center" colspan="3">Under 1,600 Tons.</td>
+<td class="center">Total.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>March</td>
+<td class="right">4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">9</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>March</td>
+<td class="right">11</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">13</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">17</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>March</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">16</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">8</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">24</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>March</td>
+<td class="right">25</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">7</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>April</td>
+<td class="right">1</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">13</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">31</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>April</td>
+<td class="right">8</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">17</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">19</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>April</td>
+<td class="right">15</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">19</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">9</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>April</td>
+<td class="right">22</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">40</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">15</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">55</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>April</td>
+<td class="right">29</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">38</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">13</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">51</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>May</td>
+<td class="right">6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">24</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">22</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">46</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>May</td>
+<td class="right">13</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>May</td>
+<td class="right">20</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">9</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">27</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>May</td>
+<td class="right">27</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">1</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">19</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>June</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">15</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>June</td>
+<td class="right">10</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">22</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">10</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">32</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>June</td>
+<td class="right">17</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">27</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">32</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>June</td>
+<td class="right">24</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">21</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">7</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>July</td>
+<td class="right">1</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">15</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>July</td>
+<td class="right">8</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">17</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>July</td>
+<td class="right">15</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>July</td>
+<td class="right">22</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">21</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">24</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>July</td>
+<td class="right">29</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">21</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Aug.</td>
+<td class="right">5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">21</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Aug.</td>
+<td class="right">12</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">16</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name="page345"></a>(p. 345)</span> Aug.</td>
+<td class="right">19</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">15</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Aug.</td>
+<td class="right">26</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">18</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sept.</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">20</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">3</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sept.</td>
+<td class="right">9</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">12</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sept.</td>
+<td class="right">16</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">8</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">20</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sept.</td>
+<td class="right">23</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">13</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">15</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sept.</td>
+<td class="right">30</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">11</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oct.</td>
+<td class="right">7</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">2</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">16</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oct.</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">12</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oct.</td>
+<td class="right">21</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">17</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">8</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Oct.</td>
+<td class="right">28</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">14</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Nov.</td>
+<td class="right">4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">8</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Nov.</td>
+<td class="right">11</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">1</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">5</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="center">6</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The table with its week by week report of the British losses is of
+importance because at the time it was taken as a barometer
+indicative of German success or failure. The German admiralty at the
+moment of declaring the ruthless submarine war promised the people
+of Germany that they would sink a million tons a month and by so
+doing would force England to abject surrender in the face of
+starvation within three months. During that period the whole
+civilized world looked eagerly for the weekly statement of British
+losses. Only at one time was the German estimate of a million tons
+monthly obtained. Most of the time the execution done by the
+undersea boats amounted to less than half that figure. So far from
+England being beaten in three months, at the end of ten she was
+still unshattered, though sorely disturbed by the loss of so much
+shipping. Her new crops had come on and her statesmen declared that
+so far as the food supply was concerned they were safe for another
+year.</p>
+
+<p>During this period of submarine activity the United States entered
+upon the war and its government immediately turned its attention to
+meeting the submarine menace. In the first four months literally
+nothing was accomplished toward this end. A few submarines were
+reported sunk by merchantmen, but in nearly every <span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name="page346"></a>(p. 346)</span> instance
+it was doubtful whether they were actually destroyed or merely
+submerged purposely in the face of a hostile fire. Americans were
+looked upon universally as a people of extraordinary inventive
+genius, and everywhere it was believed that by some sudden lucky
+thought an American would emerge from a laboratory equipped with a
+sovereign remedy for the submarine evil. Prominent inventors indeed
+declared their purpose of undertaking this search and went into
+retirement to study the problem. From that seclusion none had
+emerged with a solution at the end of ten months. When the submarine
+campaign was at its very height no one was able to suggest a better
+remedy for it than the building of cargo ships in such quantities
+that, sink as many as they might, the Germans would have to let
+enough slip through to sufficiently supply England with food and
+with the necessary munitions of war.</p>
+
+<p>Many cruel sufferings befell seafaring people during the period of
+German ruthlessness on the high seas. An open boat, overcrowded with
+refugees, hastily provisioned as the ship to which it belonged was
+careening to its fate, and tossing on the open sea two or three
+hundred miles from shore in the icy nights of midwinter was no place
+of safety or of comfort. Yet the Germans so construed it, holding
+that when they gave passengers and crew of a ship time to take to
+the boats, they had fully complied with the international law
+providing that in the event of sinking a ship its people must first
+be given an opportunity to assure their safety.</p>
+
+<p>There have been many harrowing stories of the experiences of
+survivors thus turned adrift. Under the auspices of the British
+government, Rudyard Kipling wrote a book detailing the agonies which
+the practice inflicted upon helpless human beings, including many
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347"></a>(p. 347)</span> women and children. Some of the survivors have told in
+graphic story the record of their actual experiences. Among these
+one of the most vivid is from the pen of a well-known American
+journalist, Floyd P. Gibbons, correspondent of the Chicago
+<i>Tribune</i>. He was saved from the British liner, <i>Laconia</i>, sunk by a
+German submarine, and thus tells the tale of his sufferings and
+final rescue:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>I have serious doubts whether this is a real story. I am not
+     entirely certain that it is not all a dream and that in a few
+     minutes I will wake up back in stateroom B. 19 on the promenade
+     deck of the Cunarder <i>Laconia</i> and hear my cockney steward
+     informing me with an abundance of "and sirs" that it is a fine
+     morning.</p>
+
+     <p>I am writing this within thirty minutes after stepping on the
+     dock here in Queenstown from the British mine sweeper which
+     picked up our open lifeboat after an eventful six hours of
+     drifting, and darkness and baling and pulling on the oars and of
+     straining aching eyes toward that empty, meaningless horizon in
+     search of help. But, dream or fact, here it is:</p>
+
+     <p>The first-cabin passengers were gathered in the lounge Sunday
+     evening, with the exception of the bridge fiends in the
+     smoking-room. <i>Poor Butterfly</i> was dying wearily on the
+     talking-machine and several couples were dancing.</p>
+
+     <p>About the tables in the smoke-room the conversation was limited
+     to the announcement of bids and orders to the stewards. This
+     group had about exhausted available discussion when the ship gave
+     a sudden lurch sideways and forward. There was a muffled noise
+     like the slamming of some large door at a good distance away. The
+     slightness of the shock and the mildness of the report compared
+     with my imagination was disappointing. Every man in the room was
+     on his feet in an instant.</p>
+
+     <p>I looked at my watch. It was 10.30.</p>
+
+     <p>Then came five blasts on the whistle. We rushed down <span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name="page348"></a>(p. 348)</span>
+     the corridor leading from the smoking-room at the stern to the
+     lounge, which was amidships. We were running, but there was no
+     panic. The occupants of the lounge were just leaving by the
+     forward doors as we entered.</p>
+
+     <p>It was dark when we reached the lower deck. I rushed into my
+     stateroom, grabbed life preservers and overcoat and made my way
+     to the upper deck on that same dark landing.</p>
+
+     <p>I saw the chief steward opening an electric switch box in the
+     wall and turning on the switch. Instantly the boat decks were
+     illuminated. That illumination saved lives.</p>
+
+     <p>The torpedo had hit us well astern on the starboard side and had
+     missed the engines and the dynamos. I had not noticed the deck
+     lights before. Throughout the voyage our decks had remained dark
+     at night and all cabin portholes were clamped down and all
+     windows covered with opaque paint.</p>
+
+     <p>The illumination of the upper deck, on which I stood, made the
+     darkness of the water, sixty feet below, appear all the blacker
+     when I peered over the edge at my station boat, No. 10.</p>
+
+     <p>Already the boat was loading up and men and boys were busy with
+     the ropes. I started to help near a davit that seemed to be
+     giving trouble, but was stoutly ordered to get out of the way and
+     get into the boat. We were on the port side, practically opposite
+     the engine well. Up and down the deck passengers and crew were
+     donning lifebelts, throwing on overcoats, and taking positions in
+     the boats. There were a number of women, but only one appeared
+     hysterical....</p>
+
+     <p>The boat started downward with a jerk toward the seemingly hungry
+     rising and falling swells. Then we stopped and remained suspended
+     in mid-air while the men at the bow and the stern swore and
+     tusselled with the lowering ropes. The stern of the boat was
+     down, the bow up, leaving us at an angle of about forty-five
+     degrees. We clung to the seats to save ourselves from falling
+     out.</p>
+
+<a id="img093" name="img093"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img093.jpg" width="600" height="336" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Salvaging H-3, View I.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img094" name="img094"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img094.jpg" width="600" height="320" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Salvaging H-3, View II.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img095" name="img095"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img095.jpg" width="600" height="304" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Salvaging H-3, View III.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>"Who's got a knife? A knife! a knife!" bawled a sweating seaman
+     in the bow.</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page349" name="page349"></a>(p. 349)</span> "Great God! Give him a knife," bawled a half-dressed,
+     gibbering negro stoker who wrung his hands in the stern.</p>
+
+     <p>A hatchet was thrust into my hand, and I forwarded it to the bow.
+     There was a flash of sparks as it crashed down on the holding
+     pulley. Many feet and hands pushed the boat from the side of the
+     ship and we sagged down again, this time smacking squarely on the
+     billowy top of a rising swell.</p>
+
+     <p>As we pulled away from the side of the ship its receding terrace
+     of lights stretched upward. The ship was slowly turning over. We
+     were opposite that part occupied by the engine rooms. There was a
+     tangle of oars, spars and rigging on the seat and considerable
+     confusion before four of the big sweeps could be manned on either
+     side of the boat.</p>
+
+     <p>The gibbering bullet-headed negro was pulling directly behind me
+     and I turned to quiet him as his frantic reaches with his oar
+     were hitting me in the back.</p>
+
+     <p>"Get away from her, get away from her," he kept repeating. "When
+     the water hits her hot boilers she'll blow up, and there's just
+     tons and tons of shrapnel in the hold."</p>
+
+     <p>His excitement spread to other members of the crew in the boat.</p>
+
+     <p>It was the give-way of nerve tension. It was bedlam and
+     nightmare.</p>
+
+     <p>We rested on our oars, with all eyes on the still lighted
+     <i>Laconia</i>. The torpedo had struck at 10.30 <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> It was thirty
+     minutes afterward that another dull thud, which was accompanied
+     by a noticeable drop in the hulk, told its story of the second
+     torpedo that the submarine had despatched through the engine room
+     and the boat's vitals from a distance of two hundred yards.</p>
+
+     <p>We watched silently during the next minute, as the tiers of
+     lights dimmed slowly from white to yellow, then a red, and
+     nothing was left but the murky mourning of the night, which hung
+     over all like a pall.</p>
+
+     <p>A mean, cheese-coloured crescent of a moon revealed one horn
+     above a ragged bundle of clouds low in the distance. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350"></a>(p. 350)</span> A
+     rim of blackness settled around our little world, relieved only
+     by general leering stars in the zenith, and where the <i>Laconia's</i>
+     lights had shone there remained only the dim outlines of a
+     blacker hulk standing out above the water like a jagged headland,
+     silhouetted against the overcast sky.</p>
+
+     <p>The ship sank rapidly at the stern until at last its nose stood
+     straight in the air. Then it slid silently down and out of sight
+     like a piece of disappearing scenery in a panorama spectacle.</p>
+
+     <p>Boat No. 3 stood closest to the ship and rocked about in a
+     perilous sea of clashing spars and wreckage. As our boat's crew
+     steadied its head into the wind a black hulk, glistening wet and
+     standing about eight feet above the surface of the water,
+     approached slowly and came to a stop opposite the boat and not
+     six feet from the side of it.</p>
+
+     <p>"What ship was dot?" The correct words in throaty English with a
+     German accent came from the dark hulk, according to Chief Steward
+     Ballyn's statement to me later.</p>
+
+     <p>"The <i>Laconia</i>," Ballyn answered.</p>
+
+     <p>"Vot?"</p>
+
+     <p>"The <i>Laconia</i>, Cunard Line," responded the steward.</p>
+
+     <p>"Vot did she weigh?" was the next question from the submarine.</p>
+
+     <p>"Eighteen thousand tons."</p>
+
+     <p>"Any passengers?"</p>
+
+     <p>"Seventy-three," replied Ballyn, "men, women, and children, some
+     of them in this boat. She had over two hundred in the crew."</p>
+
+     <p>"Did she carry cargo?"</p>
+
+     <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+     <p>"Well, you'll be all right. The patrol will pick you up soon."
+     And without further sound save for the almost silent fixing of
+     the conning tower lid, the submarine moved off.</p>
+
+     <p>There was no assurance of an early pick-up, even tho the promise
+     were from a German source, for the rest of the boats, whose
+     occupants&mdash;if they felt and spoke like those <span class="pagenum"><a id="page351" name="page351"></a>(p. 351)</span> in my
+     boat&mdash;were more than mildly anxious about their plight and the
+     prospects of rescue.</p>
+
+     <p>The fear of some of the boats crashing together produced a
+     general inclination toward further separation on the part of all
+     the little units of survivors, with the result that soon the
+     small craft stretched out for several miles, all of them
+     endeavouring to keep their heads in the wind.</p>
+
+     <p>And then we saw the first light&mdash;the first sign of help
+     coming&mdash;the first searching glow of white brilliance, deep down
+     on the sombre sides of the black pot of night that hung over us.</p>
+
+
+     <p>It was way over there&mdash;first a trembling quiver of silver against
+     the blackness; then, drawing closer, it defined itself as a
+     beckoning finger, altho still too far away yet to see our feeble
+     efforts to attract it....</p>
+
+     <p>We pulled, pulled, lustily forgetting the strain and pain of
+     innards torn and racked from pain, vomiting&mdash;oblivious of
+     blistered hands and wet, half frozen feet.</p>
+
+     <p>Then a nodding of that finger of light&mdash;a happy, snapping,
+     crap-shooting finger that seemed to say: "Come on, you men," like
+     a dice-player wooing the bones&mdash;led us to believe that our lights
+     had been seen. This was the fact, for immediately the coming
+     vessel flashed on its green and red side-lights and we saw it was
+     headed for our position.</p>
+
+     <p>"Come alongside port!" was megaphoned to us. And as fast as we
+     could we swung under the stern, while a dozen flashlights blinked
+     down to us and orders began to flow fast and thick.</p>
+
+     <p>A score of hands reached out, and we were suspended in the husky
+     tattooed arms of those doughty British jack tars, looking up into
+     the weather-beaten, youthful faces, mumbling thanks and
+     thankfulness and reading in the gold lettering on their pancake
+     hats the legend "H. M. S. Laburnum."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of course, the submarine fleets of the various navies paid a heavy
+toll too. It has become, however, increasingly difficult to get any
+accurate figures of these <span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name="page352"></a>(p. 352)</span> losses. The British navy, it is
+known, has lost during 1914, 1915, and 1916 twelve boats, some of
+which foundered, were wrecked or mined while others simply never
+returned. The loss of eight German submarines has also been
+definitely established. Others, however, are known to have been
+lost, and their number has been greatly increased since the arming
+of merchantmen. In 1917 it was estimated that the Germans lost one
+U-boat a week and built three.</p>
+
+<p>Just what sensations a man experiences in a submerged submarine that
+finds it impossible to rise again, is, of course, more or less of a
+mystery. For, though submarines, the entire crew of which perished,
+have been raised later, only one record has ever been known to have
+been made covering the period during which death by suffocation or
+drowning stared their occupants in the face. This heroic and
+pathetic record was written in form of a letter by the commander of
+a Japanese submarine, Lieutenant Takuma Faotomu, whose boat, with
+its entire crew, was lost on April 15, 1910, during man&oelig;uvres in
+Hiroshima Bay. The letter reads in part as follows:</p>
+
+<a id="img096" name="img096"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img096.jpg" width="600" height="406" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service, Inc.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>U. S. Submarine D 1 off Weehawken.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Although there is, indeed, no excuse to make for the sinking of
+     his Imperial Majesty's boat and for the doing away of
+     subordinates through my heedlessness, all on the boat have
+     discharged their duties well and in everything acted calmly until
+     death. Although we are departing in pursuance of our duty to the
+     State, the only regret we have is due to anxiety lest the men of
+     the world may misunderstand the matter, and that thereby a blow
+     may be given to the future development of submarines. While going
+     through gasoline submarine exercise, we submerged too far, and
+     when we attempted to shut the sluice-valve, the chain in the
+     meantime gave way. Then we tried to close the sluice-valve,
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353"></a>(p. 353)</span> by hand, but it was too late, the rear part being full
+     of water, and the boat sank at an angle of about twenty-five
+     degrees.</p>
+
+     <p>The switchboard being under water, the electric lights gave out.
+     Offensive gas developed and respiration became difficult. The
+     above has been written under the light of the conning-tower when
+     it was 11.45 o'clock. We are now soaked by the water that has
+     made its way in. Our clothes are very wet and we feel cold. I
+     have always expected death whenever I left my home, and therefore
+     my will is already in the drawer at Karasaki. I beg,
+     respectfully, to say to his Majesty that I respectfully request
+     that none of the families left by my subordinates shall suffer.
+     The only matter I am anxious about now is this. Atmospheric
+     pressure is increasing, and I feel as if my tympanum were
+     breaking. At 12.30 o'clock respiration is extraordinarily
+     difficult. I am breathing gasoline. I am intoxicated with
+     gasoline. It is 12.40 o'clock.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">Could there be a more touching record of the way in which a brave
+man met death?</p>
+
+<p class="p2">More interest in submarine warfare than ever before was aroused in
+this country when the German war submarine U-53 unexpectedly made
+its appearance in the harbour of Newport, R. I., during the
+afternoon of October 7, 1916. About three hours afterwards, without
+having taken on any supplies, and after explaining her presence by
+the desire of delivering a letter addressed to Count von Bernstorff,
+then German Ambassador at Washington, the U-53 left as suddenly and
+mysteriously as she had appeared.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first appearance of a foreign war submarine in an
+American port. It was claimed that the U-53 had made the trip from
+Wilhelmshaven in seventeen days. She was 213 feet long, equipped
+with two <span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354"></a>(p. 354)</span> guns, four torpedo tubes, and an exceptionally
+strong wireless outfit. Besides her commander, Captain Rose, she was
+manned by three officers and thirty-three men.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning, October 8, it became evident what had
+brought the U-53 to this side of the Atlantic. At the break of day,
+she made her re-appearance southeast of Nantucket. The American
+steamer <i>Kansan</i> of the American Hawaiian Company bound from New
+York by way of Boston to Genoa was stopped by her, but, after
+proving her nationality and neutral ownership was allowed to
+proceed. Five other steamships, three of them British, one Dutch,
+and one Norwegian were less fortunate. The British freighter
+<i>Strathend</i>, of 4321 tons was the first victim. Her crew were taken
+aboard the Nantucket shoals light-ship. Two other British
+freighters, <i>West Point</i> and <i>Stephano</i>, followed in short order to
+the bottom of the ocean. The crews of both were saved by United
+States torpedo boat destroyers who had come from Newport as soon as
+news of the U-53's activities had been received there. This was also
+the case with the crews of the Dutch <i>Bloomersdijk</i> and the
+Norwegian tanker, <i>Christian Knudsen</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Not often in recent years has there been put on American naval
+officers quite so disagreeable a restraint as duty enforced upon the
+commanders of the destroyers who watched the destruction of these
+friendly ships, almost within our own territorial waters, by an
+arrogant foreigner who gave himself no concern over the rescue of
+the crews of the sunken ships but seemed to think that the function
+of the American men of war. It was no secret at the time that
+sentiment in the Navy was strongly pro-Ally. Probably had it been
+wholly neutral the mind of any commander would have revolted at this
+spectacle of wanton destruction of property and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355"></a>(p. 355)</span> callous
+indifference to human life. It is quite probable that had this event
+occurred before the invention of wireless telegraphy had robbed the
+navy commander at sea of all initiative, there might have happened
+off Nantucket something analogous to the famous action of Commodore
+Tatnall when with the cry, "Blood is thicker than water" he took a
+part of his crew to the aid of British vessels sorely pressed by the
+fire of certain Chinese forts on the Yellow River. As it was it is
+an open secret that one commander appealed by wireless to Washington
+for authority to intervene. He did not get it of course. No possible
+construction of international law could give us rights beyond the
+three-mile limit. He had at least however the satisfaction when the
+German commander asked him to move his ship to a point at which it
+would not interfere with the submarine's fire upon one of the doomed
+vessels, of telling him to move his own ship and accompanying the
+suggestion with certain phrases of elaboration thoroughly American.</p>
+
+<p>The rapid development of submarine warfare naturally made it
+necessary to find ways and means to combat this new weapon of naval
+warfare. Much difficulty was experienced, especially in the
+beginning, because there were no precedents and because for a
+considerable period everything that was tried had necessarily to be
+of an experimental nature.</p>
+
+<p>To protect harbours and bays was found comparatively easy. Nets were
+spread across their entrances. They were made of strong wire cables
+and to judge from the total absence of submarines within the
+harbours thus guarded they proved a successful deterrent. In most
+cases they were supported by extensive minefields. The danger of
+these to submarines, however, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356"></a>(p. 356)</span> is rather a matter of doubt,
+for submarines can dive successfully under them and by careful
+navigating escape unharmed.</p>
+
+<p>The general idea of fighting submarines with nets was also adopted
+for areas of open water which were suspected of being infested with
+submarines. Recently, serious doubts have been raised concerning the
+future usefulness of nets. Reports have been published that German
+submarines have been fitted up with a wire and cable cutting
+appliance which would make it possible for them to break through
+nets at will, supposing, of course, that they had been caught by the
+nets in such a way that no vital parts of the underwater craft had
+been seriously damaged. A sketch of this wire cutting device was
+made by the captain of a merchantman, who, while in a small boat
+after his ship had been torpedoed, had come close enough to the
+attacking submarine to make the necessary observations. The sketch
+showed an arrangement consisting of a number of strands of heavy
+steel hawsers which were stretched from bow to stern, passing
+through the conning tower and to which were attached a series of
+heavy circular knives a foot in diameter and placed about a yard
+apart. Even as early as January, 1915, Mr. Simon Lake, the famous
+American submarine engineer and inventor, published an article in
+the <i>Scientific American</i> in which he dwelt at length on means by
+which a submarine could escape mines and nets. One of the
+illustrations, accompanying this article, showed a device enabling
+submarines travelling on the bottom of the sea to lift a net with a
+pair of projecting arms and thus pass unharmed under it.</p>
+
+<a id="img097" name="img097"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img097.jpg" width="600" height="414" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">© International Film Service, Inc.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Many other devices to trap, sink or capture submarines have been
+invented. A large number of these, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page357" name="page357"></a>(p. 357)</span> of course, have been
+found impracticable. Others, however, have been used with success.
+Few details of any of these have been allowed to become known.</p>
+
+<p>The most dangerous power of submarines, is their ability to approach
+very closely to their object of attack without making their presence
+known to their prey. This naturally suggested that a way be found to
+detect the presence of submarines early enough to make it possible
+to stave off an attack or even to assume the offensive against the
+underwater boat. A recent invention, the perfection of which is due
+to the work of Mr. William Dubilier, an American electrical
+engineer, and of Professor Tissot, a member of the French Academy of
+Science, is the microphone. Few details are known about this
+instrument except that it records sound waves at as great a distance
+as fifty-five miles. This would permit in most cases the calling of
+patrol boats or the use of other defensive means before the
+submarine would be able to execute an attack.</p>
+
+<p>At the present moment it would appear that the most dangerous enemy
+of the submarine yet discovered is the airplane or the dirigible.
+Some figures as to the mortality among submarines due to the efforts
+of aircraft have been published in an earlier chapter. The chief
+value of aircraft in this work is due to the fact that objects under
+the water are readily discernible at a considerable depth when
+viewed from a point directly over them. An illustration familiar to
+every boy is to be found in the fact that he can see fish at the
+bottom of a clear stream from a bridge, while from the shore the
+refraction of the water is such that he can see nothing. From the
+air the aviator can readily see a submarine at a depth of fifty feet
+unless the water is unusually rough or turbid. The higher he rises
+the wider is his sphere of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358"></a>(p. 358)</span> vision. With the lurking craft
+thus located the airman can either signal to watching destroyers or
+may bide his time and follow the submarine until it rises to the
+surface, when a well placed bomb will destroy it. Both of these
+methods have been adopted with success. For a time the submarines
+were immune from this form of attack because of the difficulty of
+finding a bomb which would not explode on striking the surface of
+the water, thus allowing its force to be dissipated before it
+reached the submarine, or else would not have its velocity so
+greatly checked by the water that on reaching the submarine the
+shock of its impact would not be great enough to explode it at all.
+Both of these difficulties have been overcome. The new high
+explosives have such power, taken in connection with the fact that
+water transmits the force of an explosion undiminished to a great
+distance, that many of them exploding at the surface will put out of
+action a submarine at a considerable depth. Furthermore bombs have
+been invented, which being fired, not merely dropped from an
+airplane, will go through the water with almost undiminished
+momentum and explode on striking the target, or after a period fixed
+by the assailant. Other bombs known as "depth bombs" are fitted with
+flanges that revolve as they sink, causing an explosion at any
+desired depth.</p>
+
+<p>About the actual achievements of the airplane as a foe to submarines
+there hangs a haze of mystery. It has been the policy of the Allied
+governments to keep secret the record of submarines destroyed and
+particularly the methods of destruction. But we know that a few have
+met their fate from bolts dropped from the blue. In <i>The Outlook</i>
+Lawrence La Tourette Driggs, himself a flying man of no contemptible
+record, describes the method and result of such an attack. After
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359"></a>(p. 359)</span> recounting the steps by which a brother airman attained a
+position directly above a submerged submarine preparatory to
+dropping his bomb, he says:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>Down shot his plummet of steel and neatly parted the waters ahead
+     of the labouring submarine. But it did not explode. I could see a
+     whirling metal propeller on the torpedo revolve as it sank. It
+     must have missed the craft by twenty feet.</p>
+
+     <p>Suddenly a column of water higher than my position in the air
+     stood straight up over the sea, then slipped noiselessly back. By
+     all that is wonderful how did that happen?</p>
+
+     <p>As we covered the spot again and again in our circling machines,
+     we were joined by two more pilots, and finally by a fast clipper
+     steam yacht. The surface of the water was literally covered with
+     oil, breaking up the ripple of the waves, and smoothing a huge
+     area into gleaming bronze. Here and there floated a cork belt,
+     odd bunches of cotton waste, a strip of carpet, and a wooden
+     three-legged stool. These fragments alone remained to testify to
+     the <i>corpus delicti</i>.</p>
+
+     <p>"Philip," I said half an hour later, as the hot coffee was
+     thawing out our insides, "what kind of a civilized bomb do you
+     call that?"</p>
+
+     <p>"That bears the simple little title of trinitrotoluol; call it T.
+     N. T. for short," replied Sergeant Pieron.</p>
+
+     <p>"But what made it hang fire so long?" I demanded.</p>
+
+     <p>"It's made to work that way. When the bomb begins sinking the
+     little propeller is turned as it is pulled down through the
+     water. It continues turning until it screws to the end. There it
+     touches the fuse-pin and that sets off the high explosive&mdash;at any
+     depth you arrange it for."</p>
+
+     <p>I regarded him steadfastly. Then I remarked, "But it did not
+     touch the submarine. I saw it miss."</p>
+
+     <p>"Yes, you can miss it fifty yards and still crush the submarine."
+     He took up an empty egg shell. "The submarine is hollow like
+     this. She is held rigidly on all her sides by the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360"></a>(p. 360)</span> water.
+     Water is non-compressible like steel. Now when the T. N. T.
+     explodes, even some distance away, the violent expending
+     concussion is communicated to this hollow shell just as though a
+     battering ram struck it. The submarine can't give any because the
+     surrounding water holds her in place. So she crumples up&mdash;like
+     this."</p>
+
+     <p>Pieron opened his hand and the flakes of egg shell fluttered
+     down until they struck the floor.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Gunfire undoubtedly is still the most reliable preventive against
+submarine attacks. Comparatively small calibred guns can cause
+serious damage to submarines even by one well directed shot.
+Submarines have been sunk both by warships and merchantmen in this
+way and many more have been forced to desist from attacks. Not every
+merchantman, of course, can be equipped with the necessary guns and
+gunners. Neither equipment nor men can be spared in sufficient
+quantities. But the efficiency of gun protection has been proved
+beyond all doubt by many authentic reports of successful encounters
+between armed merchantmen and submarines in which the latter were
+defeated.</p>
+
+<p>Ramming, too, has been advocated and tried. It is, however, a
+procedure involving considerable danger to the attacking boat. For
+one thing all the submarine has to do is to dive quick and deep
+enough and it is out of harm's way. Then, too, the chances are that
+the submarine can launch a torpedo in time to reach the ramming
+vessel before the latter can do any damage.</p>
+
+<a id="img098" name="img098"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img098.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" title="">
+<p><i>A Critical Moment.</i><br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>Painting by John E. Whiting.</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There have been reports of submarine duels between Austrian and
+Italian submarines in the Adriatic in which it was claimed that in
+each at least one submarine was destroyed, and, at least, in one
+instance both the duellists were sunk. Generally speaking the fact
+has been established, however, that submarines cannot fight <span class="pagenum"><a id="page361" name="page361"></a>(p. 361)</span>
+submarines with any degree of success, except in exceptional cases
+and under exceptional conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Since the outbreak of the war between the United States and Germany
+the question of combating the submarine has become more acute than
+ever. The latest development has been along negative rather than
+affirmative lines. It has apparently been decided that none of the
+devices, known at present and capable of destroying submarines, is
+sufficient either alone or in combinations to defeat the submarines
+decisively. The best means of balancing as much as possible the
+losses which German submarines are inflicting on the shipping
+facilities of the Allies at the present seems to be the unlimited
+and prompt building of large fleets of comparatively small ships. If
+this can be accomplished in time, the German submarines undoubtedly
+will find it impossible to destroy a tonnage sufficient to exert
+any great influence on the final outcome of the war.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page362" name="page362"></a>(p. 362)</span> CHAPTER XVII<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE FUTURE OF THE SUBMARINE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The world will not always be at war. Interminable as the conflict by
+which it is now racked seems, and endless as appear the resources of
+the nations participating in it, the time must come when victory or
+sheer exhaustion shall compel peace. People talk of that peace being
+permanent. That is perhaps too sanguine a dream while human nature
+remains what it is, and nations can still be as covetous, ambitious,
+and heedless of others' rights as are individuals. But beyond doubt
+a prolonged period of peace awaits the world. What then is to be the
+future of the aircraft and the submarine which had to wait for war
+to secure any recognition from mankind of their prodigious
+possibilities?</p>
+
+<p>Of the future of the aircraft there can be no doubt. Its uses in
+peace will be innumerable. Poor old Count Zeppelin, who thought of
+his invention only as a weapon of war, nevertheless showed how it
+might be successfully adapted to the needs of peace merely as a
+byproduct. As for the airplane both for sport and business its
+opportunities are endless. Easy and inexpensive to build, simple to
+operate with but little training on the part of the aviator, it will
+be made the common carrier of all nations. Already the United States
+is maintaining an aërial mail service in Alaska. Already <span class="pagenum"><a id="page363" name="page363"></a>(p. 363)</span>
+too, bi- and triplanes are built capable of carrying twenty-five to
+thirty men besides guns and ammunition. It is easy to foresee the
+use that can be made of machines of this character in times of
+peace. Needing no tracks or right of way, requiring no expensive
+signalling or operative system, asking only that at each end of the
+route there shall be a huge level field for rising and for landing,
+these machines will in time take to themselves the passenger
+business of the world.</p>
+
+<p>But the future of the submarine is more dubious. Always it will be a
+potent weapon of war. It may indeed force the relegation of
+dreadnoughts to the scrap heap. But of its peaceful services there
+is more doubt. That it can be made a cargo carrier is unquestionably
+true. But to what good? There is no intelligent reason for carrying
+cargoes slowly under water which might just as well be carried
+swiftly on the surface unless war compels concealment. Underwater
+navigation must always be slower and more expensive than surface
+navigation, nor does it seem probable that the underwater boats can
+ever equal in size ordinary ships, though undoubtedly their present
+proportions are going to be greatly increased.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the German submarine campaign it is possible that the
+United States may develop a fleet of underwater merchantmen to
+circumvent the enemy while this war continues, though there has been
+but little discussion of it. But even so, commonsense would indicate
+that such a fleet would be abandoned on the restoration of peace. If
+anything is to be done toward making the submarine a vessel of
+ordinary everyday use the present double system of motors&mdash;the
+Diesels for surface navigation and the electric for submerged
+service&mdash;will have to be abandoned. Inventors <span class="pagenum"><a id="page364" name="page364"></a>(p. 364)</span> however are
+diligently working on this problem to-day. Indeed so well known and
+successful a builder of submarines as Mr. Simon Lake seemed to have
+faith in their possibilities as merchant craft. As early as
+February, 1916, he announced that he had taken out a patent on a new
+form of cargo-carrying submarine which he described as made up of
+"nests of light-weight circular tanks of comparatively small
+diameter surrounded by a ship-shape form of hull." What advantage
+was to accrue from this type of vessel Mr. Lake has not explained.
+However the Germans who seemed to originate everything successfully
+demonstrated that the merchant submarine was a practicable and
+useful craft with which to beat the blockade.</p>
+
+<p>This was proved by the two successful trips made by the unarmed
+German merchant submarine <i>Deutschland</i> between Germany and the
+United States in 1916. Loaded with a cargo of dyestuffs and
+chemicals she left Bremen on June 14, 1916, and arrived in Baltimore
+early in July. After a short stay, during which she took on a full
+return cargo, consisting chiefly of rubber and metal, she started on
+August 1, 1916, for her return trip to Bremen where she arrived
+safely soon after August 15, 1916. Once more, in October of the same
+year she made a successful round trip, docking this time in New
+London. There was considerable talk about additional trips by other
+German merchant submarines, but none of them were ever carried out.
+It has never become known whether this was due to the loss of these
+merchant submarines or to political relations between Germany and
+the United States which were then gradually assuming a less friendly
+form.</p>
+
+<a id="img099" name="img099"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img099.jpg" width="400" height="549" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Photo by International Film Service.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Submarine Built for Chili, Passing through Cape Cod Canal.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of course, it is true that such boats are blockade runners and in a
+way, therefore, part and parcel of warfare. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page365" name="page365"></a>(p. 365)</span> But they are
+unarmed merchantmen just the same and their exclusively mercantile
+character has been officially acknowledged by the United States
+Government. Under conditions of peace, however, it is very doubtful
+whether submarine merchantmen would pay, nor does it seem as if they
+possessed any advantages at all over surface merchant vessels.
+Nevertheless they represent an entirely new development of submarine
+navigation and, therefore, deserve attention.</p>
+
+<p>During her stay in the United States, very few people were permitted
+to get more than a glance of the <i>Deutschland</i>. As a result,
+comparatively little became known regarding her mechanical details.
+The <i>Scientific American</i>, however, in its issue of July 22, 1916,
+gives a fairly detailed description of this first merchant
+submarine.</p>
+
+<p>From this account we learn that the <i>Deutschland</i> conforms rather
+closely to the typical German naval U-boat. The hull proper consists
+of an internal cigar-shaped, cylindrical structure, which extends
+from stem to stern, and in its largest diameter measures about
+twenty feet. Enclosing this hull is a lighter false hull, which is
+perforated, to permit the entrance and exit of the sea-water, and is
+so shaped as to give the submarine a fairly good ship model for
+driving at high speed on the surface and at a much lesser speed
+submerged. The upper portion of the false hull does not present
+such a flat deck-like appearance as is noticeable in the naval
+U-boats. In fact, the whole modelling of the <i>Deutschland</i>, as
+compared with the naval boats, suggests that she has been fulled
+out somewhat, with a view to obtaining the necessary displacement
+for cargo carrying.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page366" name="page366"></a>(p. 366)</span> The interior cylindrical hull is divided by four
+     transverse bulkheads into five separate water-tight compartments.
+     Compartment No. 1, at the bow, contains the anchor cables and
+     electric winches for handling the anchor; also general ship
+     stores, and a certain amount of cargo. Compartment No. 2 is given
+     up entirely to cargo. Compartment No. 3, which is considerably
+     larger than any of the others, contains the living quarters of
+     the officers and crew. At the after end of this compartment, and
+     communicating with it, is the conning tower. Compartment No. 4 is
+     given up entirely to cargo. Compartment No. 5 contains the
+     propelling machinery, consisting of two heavy oil engines and two
+     electric motors. The storage batteries are carried in the bottom
+     of the boat, below the living compartment. For purposes of
+     communication, a gangway, 2 feet 6 inches wide by 6 feet high, is
+     built through each cargo compartment, thus rendering it possible
+     for the crew to pass entirely from one end of the boat to the
+     other.</p>
+
+     <p>The length of the <i>Deutschland</i> is about 315 feet; beam 30 feet,
+     and draught 17 feet. For surface propulsion and for charging the
+     batteries, the boat carries two 4-cylinder, Diesel, heavy-oil
+     motors of about 600 H. P. each. The speed at the surface is from
+     12 to 13 knots; and submerged it is 7 knots. At the surface the
+     displacement of the boat is about 2000 tons, and she has a cargo
+     capacity of about 700 tons.</p>
+
+     <p>The freeboard to the main deck, which runs the full length of the
+     boat, but is only about 5-&frac12; feet wide, is about 6 feet, and the
+     cockpit at the top of the conning tower is about 15 feet above
+     the water. This cockpit, by the way, is suggestive of the
+     protection afforded a chauffeur in an automobile, there being a
+     shield in front of the quartermaster, so shaped as to throw the
+     wind and spray upwards and clear of his face.</p>
+
+     <p>Two periscopes are provided; one at the forward end of the
+     conning tower, and the other, of larger diameter, being forward
+     and on the starboard of the conning tower. An <span class="pagenum"><a id="page367" name="page367"></a>(p. 367)</span>
+     interesting feature is the two folding, steel, wireless masts,
+     about 50 feet in height, both of which fold aft into pockets
+     built in the deck of the ship. The forward one of these masts
+     carries a crow's nest for the lookout.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The commander of the <i>Deutschland</i>, Captain Paul König, was before
+the war a popular captain of North German Lloyd liners. He has
+published a very vivid and interesting account of the
+<i>Deutschland's</i> trip, the <i>Voyage of the Deutschland</i>. In this book,
+he tells us how he was offered this novel command while the plans
+were still being drawn and that he immediately accepted, making,
+however, the proviso "if the thing really comes off."</p>
+
+<p>The men, backing the venture, lost no time and, so Captain König
+tells us,</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>in less than two months a telegram called me to Berlin to an
+     important conference. Here I looked at sketches, plans, and
+     working drawings until my eyes swam. Four more months passed
+     which I utilized to the full. I then went to Kiel and saw a
+     remarkable framework of steel slowly take shape upon the stocks
+     across the way at Gaarden. Rotund, snug, and harmless the thing
+     lay there. Inside it were hidden all the countless, complicated,
+     and powerful features of those sketches and working drawings. I
+     cannot boast that the reality as executed in steel and brass was
+     any easier to grasp than the endless network of lines and circles
+     which had bewildered me when inspecting the blueprints.</p>
+
+     <p>Those of you who have seen illustrations and photographs of the
+     interior of the "central station" or the "turret" of a submarine,
+     will understand what I mean. And should you have entered a
+     submarine itself and felt yourself hopelessly confused by the
+     bewildering chaos of wheels, vents, screws, cocks, pipes,
+     conduits&mdash;above, below, and all <span class="pagenum"><a id="page368" name="page368"></a>(p. 368)</span> about&mdash;not to speak of
+     the mysterious levers and weird mechanisms, each of which has
+     some important function to fulfill, you may find some consolation
+     in the thought that my own brains performed a devils' dance at
+     the sight.</p>
+
+     <p>But after this monster, with its tangle of tubes and pipes, had
+     been duly christened, and its huge grey-green body had slid
+     majestically into the water, it suddenly became a ship. It swam
+     in its element as though born to it&mdash;as though it had never known
+     another.</p>
+
+     <p>For the first time I trod the tiny deck and mounted the turret to
+     the navigation platform. From here I glanced down and was
+     surprised to see beneath me a long, slender craft&mdash;with gracious
+     lines and dainty contours. Only the sides, where the green body
+     vaulted massively above the water, gave an indication of the huge
+     size of the hull. I felt pride and rapture as my eye took in this
+     picture. The fabric swayed slightly beneath my feet&mdash;an
+     impressive combination of power and delicacy.</p>
+
+     <p>And now I know that what had at first seemed to me nothing more
+     than the product of some mad phantasy on the part of the
+     technicians was in reality a ship. It was a ship in which oceans
+     might be crossed, a real ship, to which the heart of an old
+     sailor like myself might safely attach itself.</p>
+
+     <p>Then came a short period of trial trips and diving tests, all of
+     which were carried off successfully, and at last the day of
+     departure arrived. As soon as the last escort had turned around a
+     final diving test was ordered.</p>
+
+     <p>Instantly the response came back from the turret and the central
+     station, and the men hurried to their posts. The oil engines were
+     still hammering away at a mad rate. I left the manhole of the
+     turret. The cover was battened down, the engines stopped at the
+     same moment.</p>
+
+     <p>We felt a slight pressure in our ears for a moment. We were cut
+     off from outside and silence reigned. But this silence was merely
+     an illusion&mdash;and was due to the change.</p>
+
+<a id="img100" name="img100"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img100.jpg" width="600" height="290" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Submarine Entrapped by Nets.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+     <p>"Open the diving-valves! Submerge!"</p>
+
+     <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page369" name="page369"></a>(p. 369)</span> The valves were flung open and the compressed air
+     escaped hissing from the tanks. At the same time a gigantic,
+     intermittent snorting ensued, like the blowing and belching of
+     some prehistoric monster. There was an uncomfortable pressure in
+     our ears, then the noise became more regular, followed by a
+     buzzing and a shrill hum. All the high notes of the engines in
+     the central station intermingled and made a bewildering noise. It
+     was like a mad diabolical singsong. And yet it was almost like
+     silence after the dull, heavy pounding of the oil-motors&mdash;only
+     more insistent and irritating. The penetrating hum in the various
+     vents announced the fact that the diving mechanism was in
+     operation. It moaned and sang lower and lower in the scale of
+     tones. These slowly diminishing and steadily deepening tones give
+     one the physical feeling of mighty volumes of water pouring in
+     and flooding full.</p>
+
+     <p>You have the sensation of growing heavier and sinking as the
+     boat grows heavier and sinks, even though you may not be able to
+     see through the turret window, or the periscope, how the bows are
+     gradually submerged and the water climbs higher and higher up
+     the turret until all things without are wrapped in the eerie
+     twilight of the depths.</p>
+
+     <p>The faithful lamps burned, however, and then a real silence
+     suddenly ensued. There was no sound but the gentle trembling
+     rhythm of the electric engines.</p>
+
+     <p>I then gave the order:</p>
+
+     <p>"Submerge to twenty meters!"</p>
+
+     <p>"Both engines half steam ahead!"</p>
+
+     <p>I was able to follow our submersion by means of the manometer.
+     Through flooding the tanks, the boat is given several tons
+     over-weight and the enclosed ship's space is made heavier than
+     the displaced quantity of water. The titanic fish, therefore,
+     began to sink downward in its element, that is to say, it began,
+     in a certain sense, to fall. At the same time the electric
+     engines are put into motion and the propulsive force of the
+     propellers acts upon the diving rudders and causes the sinking to
+     become a gliding. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page370" name="page370"></a>(p. 370)</span> After the required depth has been
+     reached&mdash;something which may easily be read from the manometer
+     that records the depth&mdash;all further sinking may be stopped by
+     simply lightening the hull, which is done by forcing out some of
+     the water in the submarine's tanks. The furious growling of the
+     pump is always a sure sign that the required depth is being
+     approached. The noise ceased, only the electric motors continued
+     to purr, and the word came from the central station:</p>
+
+     <p>"Twenty meters&mdash;even keel!"</p>
+
+     <p>"Rudder set!"</p>
+
+     <p>So we forged ahead at a depth of twenty meters. Of course we are
+     "blind" under such conditions and can regulate our movements only
+     by means of the depth recorder and that precious little jewel of
+     the boat, our compass. No ray of light reached us any longer from
+     without, the periscope was submerged long ago and the steel
+     safety covers over the windows were closed. We had been
+     metamorphosed completely into a fish.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1" title="Go to footnote 1"><span class="smaller">[1]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Orders were then given to rise again. The <i>Deutschland</i> carried out
+this man&oelig;uvre with the same facility with which she had taken the
+initial dive of her long voyage. In record time the ballast tanks
+were emptied and the change from electric motors to oil engines was
+completed without further loss of time. The boat was started at top
+surface speed towards her ultimate goal, the United States.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day the <i>Deutschland</i> barely escaped running foul
+of a British submarine chaser, disguised as a neutral merchantman. A
+quick dive alone saved her. When she came up again a wild storm and
+a heavy sea were raging. Even before the change from the electric
+motors to the oil engines had been completed, another dangerous
+looking vessel appeared and before <span class="pagenum"><a id="page371" name="page371"></a>(p. 371)</span> long was recognized as a
+hostile destroyer by Captain König. He tells us that he "Made one
+jump into the turret and slammed the cover fast."</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>"Alarm! Dive quickly! Flood!"</p>
+
+     <p>"Set diving rudder!"</p>
+
+     <p>"Twenty meters' depth!"</p>
+
+     <p>The commands were uttered in almost one breath. But the execution
+     of them!</p>
+
+     <p>To attempt to dive with such a sea running was sheer madness, as
+     experience has taught us. What was I to do? The destroyer might
+     have seen us already!</p>
+
+     <p>Well, we knew we must get under&mdash;and as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+     <p>The men in the central below me were working away in silent
+     haste. All the exhausts were opened wide, the compressed air
+     hissed from the tanks&mdash;the diving vents were chanting in all
+     possible keys.</p>
+
+     <p>I stood with my lips pressed together and stared out of the
+     turret window upon the tossing sea, and watched for the first
+     sign of our going down. But our deck remained still visible and
+     we were continually lifted into the air by some wave. There was
+     not a moment to be lost.</p>
+
+     <p>I ordered the diving rudder to be set still more sharply and both
+     engines to drive ahead with full power.</p>
+
+     <p>The whole vessel quivered and thrilled under the increased
+     pressure of the engines and made several leaps. She staggered
+     about in the furious seas&mdash;but still seemed loath to leave the
+     surface. Then she gave a jerk and her bows suddenly dipped and
+     cut into the flood. She began to sink into the depths at an
+     ever-increasing angle. The coming daylight vanished from the
+     windows of the turret, the manometer in rapid succession showed
+     2&mdash;3&mdash;6&mdash;10 meters' depth. But the angle of the boat also began
+     to increase.</p>
+
+     <p>We staggered about, leaned back, slipped off our feet. We then
+     lost our footing entirely&mdash;for the floor of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page372" name="page372"></a>(p. 372)</span>
+     <i>Deutschland</i> slanted sharply toward the front. I was just able
+     to catch hold of the ocular or eye-piece of the periscope. Down
+     in the central the men were hanging on to the hand-wheels of the
+     diving rudder. A few terrible seconds passed thus.</p>
+
+     <p>We had not yet seized the full significance of this new situation
+     when there came a severe shock. We were hurled to the floor and
+     everything that was not fastened down went flying in all
+     directions.</p>
+
+     <p>We found ourselves in the queerest attitudes&mdash;and stared into one
+     another's faces. There was a grim silence for a moment, then
+     First Officer Krapohl remarked dryly:</p>
+
+     <p>"Well, we seem to have arrived!"</p>
+
+     <p>This broke the ghastly tension.</p>
+
+     <p>We were all rather pale around the gills, but at once tried to
+     get our bearings.</p>
+
+     <p>What had happened?</p>
+
+     <p>What had caused this unnatural inclination of the boat? And why
+     were the engines above us raving at intervals in a way that made
+     the whole boat roar from stem to stern?</p>
+
+     <p>Before any of us had arrived at any solution of the mystery, our
+     Chief Engineer, little Klees, had jumped up from his crouching
+     position, and, swift as lightning, had swept the engine-signal
+     dial around to "Stop!"</p>
+
+     <p>And suddenly there was a deep silence.</p>
+
+     <p>We slowly assembled our proper legs and arms and thought hard
+     over what had happened.</p>
+
+     <p>The vessel had slanted down toward the bows at an angle of about
+     36 degrees. She was standing, so to speak, on her head. Our bow
+     was fast upon the bottom of the sea&mdash;our stern was still
+     oscillating up and down like a mighty pendulum. The manometer
+     showed a depth of about 15 meters.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2" title="Go to footnote 2"><span class="smaller">[2]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img101" name="img101"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/img101.jpg">
+<img src="images/img101tb.jpg" width="600" height="381" alt="" title=""></a>
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>However, the <i>Deutschland</i> finally worked herself free and soon was
+again on the surface. Luck must have been with her, for she had
+suffered no damage and, in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page373" name="page373"></a>(p. 373)</span> spite of the mountains of water
+which she must have thrown up, the hostile destroyer had not
+discovered her. Once more she was off on her way.</p>
+
+<p>So the days went by and before long the merchant submarine had
+passed, without having been detected, beyond the territory in which
+British patrol boats were operating. Then came a succession of
+uneventful days and fine weather. Practically every day diving tests
+were made. One of these the captain describes as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>During these experimental diving tests we were treated to a
+     spectacle of fairy-like loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>I had set the rudder in such a way that the turret was
+     travelling about three yards under water. Overhead the sun shone
+     brilliantly and filled the deeps with a clear radiance. The pure
+     water was luminous with colour&mdash;close at hand it was of a light
+     azure blue, of fabulous clearness and transparent as glass. I
+     could see the entire boat from the turret windows. The shimmering
+     pearls of the air-bubbles which rise constantly from the body of
+     the craft played about the entire length of the vessel from deck
+     to bows, and every detail stood out in miraculous sharpness.
+     Farther ahead there was a multi-coloured twilight. It seemed as
+     if the prow kept pushing itself noiselessly into a wall of
+     opalescent green which parted, glistening, and grew to an
+     ethereal, rainbow-like translucency close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>We were spell-bound by this vision of beauty. The fairy-like
+     effect was increased by medusæ which, poised in the transparent
+     blue, frequently became entangled in the wires of the mine-guards
+     or the railings and glowed like trembling fires of rose, pale
+     gold, and purple.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3" title="Go to footnote 3"><span class="smaller">[3]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But less pleasant things were in store for the <i>Deutschland's</i> crew.
+The nearer the boat came to the region of the Gulf Stream, the more
+violent the weather became. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page374" name="page374"></a>(p. 374)</span> Though she still ran most of
+the time on the surface, it became necessary to keep all openings
+battened down. Even the manhole, leading to the turret, could be
+kept open only for short periods. Naturally the temperature was
+rising all the time. It was midsummer and the Gulf Stream
+contributed its share of warmth. No wonder, therefore, that Captain
+König compares conditions below decks to a "veritable hell," and
+then continues:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>While in the Gulf Stream we had an outer temperature of 28°
+     Celsius. This was about the warmth of the surrounding water.
+     Fresh air no longer entered. In the engine-room two 6-cylinder
+     combustion motors kept hammering away in a maddening two-four
+     time. They hurled the power of their explosions into the whirling
+     crankshafts. The red-hot breath of the consumed gases went
+     crashing out through the exhausts, but the glow of these
+     incessant firings remained in the cylinders and communicated
+     itself to the entire oil-dripping environment of steel. A choking
+     cloud of heat and oily vapour streamed from the engines and
+     spread itself like a leaden pressure through the entire ship.</p>
+
+<p>During these days the temperature mounted to 53° Celsius.</p>
+
+<p>And yet men lived and worked in a hell such as this! The watch
+     off duty, naked to the skin, groaned and writhed in their bunks.
+     It was no longer possible to think of sleep. And when one of the
+     men fell into a dull stupor, then he would be aroused by the
+     sweat which ran incessantly over his forehead and into his eyes,
+     and would awake to new torment.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost like a blessed deliverance when the eight hours of
+     rest were over, and a new watch was called to the central or the
+     engine-room.</p>
+
+<a id="img102" name="img102"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img102.jpg" width="600" height="321" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Redrawn from <i>The Sphere</i>.<br>
+Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But there the real martyrdom began. Clad only in an undershirt
+     and drawers, the men stood at their posts, a cloth wound about
+     their foreheads to keep the running sweat <span class="pagenum"><a id="page375" name="page375"></a>(p. 375)</span> from
+     streaming into their eyes. Their blood hammered and raced in
+     their temples. Every vein boiled as with fever. It was only by
+     the exertion of the most tremendous willpower that it was
+     possible to force the dripping human body to perform its
+     mechanical duty and to remain upright during the four hours of
+     the watch....</p>
+
+<p>But how long would we be able to endure this?</p>
+
+<p>I no longer kept a log during these days and I find merely this
+     one note: "Temperature must not rise any higher if the men are to
+     remain any longer in the engine-room."</p>
+
+<p>But they did endure it. They remained erect like so many heroes,
+     they did their duty, exhausted, glowing hot, and bathed in sweat,
+     until the storm centre lay behind us, until the weather cleared,
+     until the sun broke through the clouds, and the diminishing seas
+     permitted us once more to open the hatches.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4" title="Go to footnote 4"><span class="smaller">[4]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Deutschland</i> was now near her goal. Without any trouble she
+entered Hampton Roads and was docked at Baltimore. There her cargo
+was discharged and her return cargo loaded. This latter operation
+involved many difficulties. During her stay a United States
+Government Commission made a detailed inspection of the
+<i>Deutschland</i> to determine beyond all question her mercantile
+character. But at last the day of departure, August 1, had arrived.
+Properly escorted she made the trip down the Patapsco River and
+Chesapeake Bay. On her way down she made again diving trials which
+Captain König describes as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>In order to see that everything else was tight and in good
+     order, I gave the command to set the boat upon the sea bottom
+     at a spot which, according to the reading upon the chart, had a
+     depth of some 30 meters.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page376" name="page376"></a>(p. 376)</span> Once again everything grew silent. The daylight vanished
+     the well-known singing and boiling noise of the submerging vents
+     vibrated about us. In my turret I fixed my eyes upon the
+     manometer. Twenty meters were recorded, then twenty-five. The
+     water ballast was diminished&mdash;thirty meters appeared and I waited
+     the slight bump which was to announce the arrival of the boat at
+     the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing of the sort happened.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of this the indicator upon the dial pointed to 32&mdash;to
+     33&mdash;to 35 meters....</p>
+
+<p>I knocked against the glass with my finger&mdash;correct&mdash;the arrow
+     was just pointing toward thirty-six.</p>
+
+<p>"Great thunder! what's up?" I cried, and reached for the chart.
+     Everything tallied. Thirty meters were indicated at this spot and
+     our reckoning had been most exact.</p>
+
+<p>And we continued to sink deeper and deeper.</p>
+
+<p>The dial was now announcing 40 meters.</p>
+
+<p>This was a bit too much for me. I called down to the central and
+     got back the comforting answer that the large manometer was also
+     indicating a depth of over forty meters!</p>
+
+<p>The two manometers agreed.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, did not prevent the boat from continuing to sink.</p>
+
+<p>The men in the central began to look at one another....</p>
+
+<p>Ugh! it gives one a creepy feeling to go slipping away into the
+     unknown amidst this infernal singing silence and to see nothing
+     but the climbing down of the confounded indicator upon the
+     white-faced dial....</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing else to be seen in my turret. I glanced at the
+     chart and then at the manometer in a pretty helpless fashion.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the boat sank deeper; forty-five meters were
+     passed&mdash;the pointer indicated forty-eight meters. I began to
+     think the depth of the Chesapeake Bay must have some limit; we
+     surely could not be heading for the bottomless pit? Then&mdash;the
+     boat halted at a depth of fifty meters without the slightest
+     shock.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page377" name="page377"></a>(p. 377)</span> I climbed down into the central and took counsel with
+     Klees and the two officers of the watch.</p>
+
+<p>There could be only one explanation; we must have sunk into a
+     hole which had not been marked upon the chart.<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5" title="Go to footnote 5"><span class="smaller">[5]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img103" name="img103"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img103.jpg" width="600" height="322" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>A German Submarine in Three Positions.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When orders were now given to rise, it was found that the exhaust
+pumps refused to work. After a while, however, the chief engineer
+succeeded in getting them started. They reached the surface after
+about two hours of submergence.</p>
+
+<p>It was dark by the time the merchant submarine was approaching the
+three-mile limit. Outside of it hostile warships were lying in wait.
+That the <i>Deutschland</i> escaped them well illustrates the fact that
+submarines may be kept by various means from entering a bay or a
+harbour, but that to blockade their exit is practically impossible.
+This is how Captain König speaks of his escape.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>We knew that the most dangerous moment of our entire voyage was
+     now approaching. We once more marked our exact position, and then
+     proceeded to make all the preparations necessary for our breaking
+     through.</p>
+
+<p>Then we dived and drove forward. All our senses were keyed to the
+     utmost, our nerves taut to the breaking-point with that cold
+     excitement which sends quivers through one's soul, the while
+     outwardly one remains quite serene, governed by that clear and
+     icy deliberation which is apt to possess a man who is fully
+     conscious of the unknown perils toward which he goes....</p>
+
+<p>We knew our path. We had already been informed that fishermen had
+     been hired to spread their nets along certain stretches of the
+     three-mile limit; nets in which we were supposed to entangle
+     ourselves; nets into which devilish mines had very likely been
+     woven....</p>
+
+<p>Possibly these nets were merely attached to buoys which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page378" name="page378"></a>(p. 378)</span>
+     we were then supposed to drag along after us, thus betraying our
+     position....</p>
+
+<p>We were prepared for all emergencies, so that in case of extreme
+     necessity we should be able to free ourselves of the nets. But
+     all went well.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dark night. Quietly and peacefully the lighthouses upon
+     the two capes sent forth their light, the while a few miles
+     further out death lay lowering for us in every imaginable form.</p>
+
+<p>But while the English ships were racing up and down, jerking
+     their searchlights across the waters and searching again and
+     again in every imaginable spot, they little surmised that, at
+     times within the radius of their own shadows, a periscope pursued
+     its silent way, and under this periscope the <i>U-Deutschland</i>.</p>
+
+<p>That night at twelve o'clock, after hours of indescribable
+     tension, I gave the command to rise.</p>
+
+<p>We Had Broken Through!</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the <i>Deutschland</i> rose to the surface, the tanks were
+     blown out and the Diesel engines flung into the gearing. At our
+     highest speed we now went rushing toward the free Atlantic.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6" title="Go to footnote 6"><span class="smaller">[6]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The homeward voyage was completed without untoward incident and long
+before the month had ended, the first&mdash;and probably last&mdash;merchant
+submarine was again safe and snug in her home port.</p>
+
+<p>The cargo-carrying submarine, however, is by no means the only type
+of underwater vessel engaged in peaceful pursuits which has been
+suggested so far. Mr. Simon Lake, the American submarine engineer
+and inventor, has frequently pointed out the commercial
+possibilities of the submarine.</p>
+
+<p>In the early part of 1916 a series of articles from his pen appeared
+in <i>International Marine Engineering</i>. They contained a number of
+apparently feasible suggestions <span class="pagenum"><a id="page379" name="page379"></a>(p. 379)</span> looking towards the
+commercial development of the submarine.</p>
+
+<p>First of all he tells of experiments made with submarines for
+navigation under ice. The proper development of this idea, of
+course, would be of immense commercial value. Many harbours in
+various parts of the world are inaccessible during the winter months
+for vessels navigating on the surface. Navigation on many important
+inland lakes likewise has to be stopped during that period.
+Submarines, built so that they can safely travel under the ice,
+would overcome these conditions and would make it possible to use
+most ice-bound ports throughout the entire year at least in Mr.
+Lake's view.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since Mr. Lake began inventing and building submarines he has
+been interested in the possibilities which submarines offer for the
+exploration of the sea-bottom and for the discovery of wrecks and
+recovery of their valuable cargoes. His first boat, the <i>Argonaut</i>,
+as we have heard, possessed a diving chamber for just such
+purposes. He has continued his investigations and experiments along
+this line, and in these articles he shows illustrations of submarine
+boats and devices adapted for such work. Properly financed and
+directed, the recovery of cargoes from wrecks undoubtedly would not
+only bring large financial returns to the backers of such a venture,
+but also do away with the immense waste which the total loss of
+sunken vessels and cargoes inflicts now on the world. Submarines in
+peace may yet recover for the use of man much of the wealth which
+submarines in war have sent to the bottom of the sea. Marine
+insurance, too, would be favourably affected by such an undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>Still one other commercial submarine boat is advocated by Mr. Lake.
+This is to be used for the location <span class="pagenum"><a id="page380" name="page380"></a>(p. 380)</span> and collection of
+shellfish on a large scale. Of this vessel its inventor says:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+     <p>The design of this submarine oyster-dredging vessel is such that
+     the vessel goes down to the bottom direct, and the water is
+     forced out of the centre raking compartment so that the oysters
+     may be seen by the operator in the control compartment. With only
+     a few inches of water over them, headway is then given to the
+     submarine and the oysters are automatically raked up, washed, and
+     delivered through pipes into the cargo-carrying chambers.
+     Centrifugal pumps are constantly delivering water from the cargo
+     compartments, which induces a flow of water through the pipes
+     leading from the "rake pans" with sufficient velocity to carry up
+     the oysters and deposit them into the cargo holds. In this manner
+     the bottom may be seen, and by "tracking" back and forth over the
+     bottom the ground may be "cleaned up" at one operation.</p>
+
+     <p>This boat has a capacity of gathering oysters from good ground at
+     the rate of five thousand bushels per hour. The use of the
+     submarine will make the collection of oysters more nearly like
+     the method of reaping a field of grain, where one "swathe"
+     systematically joins on to another, and the whole field is
+     "cleaned up" at one operation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Man's greediness for profit has already driven the salmon from the
+rivers of New England where once they swarmed. Mechanical devices
+for taking them by the hundreds of thousands threaten a like result
+in the now teeming rivers of Washington and British Columbia. Mr.
+Lake's invention has the demerit of giving conscienceless profiteers
+the opportunity to obliterate the oyster from our national waters.</p>
+
+<a id="img104" name="img104"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img104.jpg" width="600" height="381" alt="" title="">
+<p class="top_0 right10 smaller">Permission of <i>Scientific American</i>.</p>
+<p class="top_0"><i>Sectional View of a British Submarine.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It does not appear, however, that, except as an engine of war the
+submarine offers much prospect of future development or future
+usefulness. And as we of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page381" name="page381"></a>(p. 381)</span> United States entered this
+war, which now engages our energies and our thoughts, for the
+purpose of making it the last war the world shall ever know,
+speculation on the future of the submarine seems rather barren. That
+does not mean however that there will be a complete stoppage of
+submarine construction or submarine development. War is not going to
+be ended by complete international disarmament, any more than
+complete unpreparedness kept the United States out of the struggle.
+A reasonable armament for every nation, and the union of all nations
+against any one or two that threaten wantonly to break the peace is
+the most promising plan intelligent pacifism has yet suggested. In
+such an international system there will be room and plenty for
+submarines.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed it is into just such a plan that they intelligently fit.
+Though not wholly successful in their operations against capital
+ships, they have demonstrated enough power to make nations hesitate
+henceforth before putting a score of millions into ponderous
+dreadnoughts which have to retire from submarine-infested waters as
+the British did in their very hour of triumph at Jutland. They have
+not nullified, but greatly reduced the value of overwhelming sea
+power such as the British have possessed. A navy greater than those
+of any two other nations has indeed kept the German ships, naval and
+commercial, locked in port. But less than two hundred inexpensive
+submarines bid fair to sweep the seas of all merchant ships&mdash;neutral
+as well as British unless by feverish building the nations can build
+ships faster than submarines can sink them. Huge navies may
+henceforth be unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The submarine has been the David of the war. It is a pity that its
+courage and efficiency have been exerted <span class="pagenum"><a id="page382" name="page382"></a>(p. 382)</span> mainly in the
+wrong cause and that the missiles from its sling have felled the
+wrong Goliath.</p>
+
+<p>Aircraft and submarine! It is still on the cards that when the
+definitive history of the war shall be written, its outcome may be
+ascribed to one or the other of these novel weapons&mdash;the creation of
+American inventive genius.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page383" name="page383"></a>(p. 383)</span> INDEX</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<p>A</p>
+
+<p><i>Aboukir</i>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a><br>
+
+  Aërial mail service,
+<a href="#page362">362</a><br>
+
+  Aërial instruction,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>-121<br>
+
+  Aërial Coast Patrol Unit,
+<a href="#page188">188</a><br>
+
+  Aerodromes,
+<a href="#page170">170</a><br>
+
+  Airplane costs,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>,
+<a href="#page225">225</a><br>
+
+  American aviators in France,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page174">174</a><br>
+
+  American Flying Corps,
+<a href="#page175">175</a><br>
+
+  André, General,
+<a href="#page267">267</a>-269<br>
+
+  Andrée, Polar expedition,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a><br>
+
+<a id="antiaircraftguns" name="antiaircraftguns"></a>
+  Anti-aircraft guns,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>,
+<a href="#page129">129</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>-147,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>,
+<a href="#page173">173</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>,
+<a href="#page305">305</a><br>
+
+  Antwerp,
+<a href="#page195">195</a><br>
+
+  "Archies," <i>see</i> <a href="#antiaircraftguns">anti-aircraft guns</a><br>
+
+  Arlandes, Marquis, d',
+<a href="#page029">29</a><br>
+
+  Archimedes,
+<a href="#page019">19</a><br>
+
+  Army Aviation School, Mineola,
+<a href="#page188">188</a><br>
+
+  Arras,
+<a href="#page185">185</a><br>
+
+  Astra-Torres,
+<a href="#page081">81</a><br>
+
+  Austrian, submarine, U-11,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">seaplane,</span>
+<a href="#page191">191</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">warships <i>vs.</i>, British submarines,</span>
+<a href="#page334">334</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarines,</span>
+<a href="#page261">261</a>,
+<a href="#page360">360</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength of,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Aviation, in England,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">in France,</span>
+<a href="#page104">104</a>-106;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Germany,</span>
+<a href="#page104">104</a>-106,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Russia,</span>
+<a href="#page106">106</a>;<br>
+    United States,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>-190,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a><br>
+
+  <span class="add1em">"Avro" machines,</span>
+<a href="#page148">148</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">B</p>
+
+<p>Baker, Ray Stannard, quoted,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>-293<br>
+
+  Ball, Captain,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>-214<br>
+
+  Baltic,
+<a href="#page157">157</a><br>
+
+  Bauer, Wilhelm,
+<a href="#page253">253</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a><br>
+
+  Belgium,
+<a href="#page018">18</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a><br>
+
+  Belgium, mapping coast of,
+<a href="#page150">150</a><br>
+
+  Berlin,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page074">74</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+  Besnier, wings,
+<a href="#page016">16</a><br>
+
+  Blanchard, aeronaut,
+<a href="#page035">35</a><br>
+
+  Bleriot, aviator,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">airplane,</span>
+<a href="#page186">186</a><br>
+
+  Blockade, United States,
+<a href="#page010">10</a><br>
+
+  Boelke, Lieutenant,
+<a href="#page118">118</a>-120;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">story of air duel of,</span>
+<a href="#page214">214</a>-216<br>
+
+  Brazil, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Briggs, Commander,
+<a href="#page148">148</a><br>
+
+  Bristol, biplane,
+<a href="#page126">126</a><br>
+
+  British,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page334">334</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Admiralty,</span>
+<a href="#page236">236</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Navy,</span>
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page274">274</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Royal Flying Corps,</span>
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Royal Naval Air Service,</span>
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength,</span>
+<a href="#page301">301</a>,
+<a href="#page302">302</a><br>
+
+  Brussels,
+<a href="#page165">165</a><br>
+
+  Bushnell, David,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>-249,
+<a href="#page263">263</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">C</p>
+
+<p>Calmette, M.,
+<a href="#page267">267</a>-270<br>
+
+  Canada, airplane factories in,
+<a href="#page107">107</a><br>
+
+  Caproni, airplanes,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page228">228</a><br>
+
+  Cayley, Sir George,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>,
+<a href="#page083">83</a><br>
+
+  Channel, English,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>,
+<a href="#page324">324</a>,
+<a href="#page340">340</a>,
+<a href="#page341">341</a><br>
+
+  Chanute,
+<a href="#page090">90</a><br>
+
+  Chapman, Victor,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a><br>
+
+  Charles, M.,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">balloon,</span>
+<a href="#page031">31</a><br>
+
+  Churchill, Winston,
+<a href="#page155">155</a><br>
+
+  Civil War,
+<a href="#page005">5</a>,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>,
+<a href="#page333">333</a><br>
+
+  <i>Clement-Bayard II.</i>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a><br>
+
+  Coffin, Howard E.,
+<a href="#page202">202</a><br>
+
+  Congress of the United States,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>,
+<a href="#page301">301</a><br>
+
+  Congressional Committee,
+<a href="#page204">204</a><br>
+
+  <i>Cressy</i>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a><br>
+
+  Curtis, Glenn,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a><br>
+
+  Cuxhaven,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">D</p>
+
+<p>Dardanelles,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>,
+<a href="#page334">334</a><br>
+
+  Da Vinci, Leonardo,
+<a href="#page015">15</a><br>
+
+  Day, J.,
+<a href="#page242">242</a>-246<br>
+
+  "D. H. 5,"
+<a href="#page126">126</a><br>
+
+  Denmark, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Department of Aeronautics,
+<a href="#page182">182</a><br>
+
+  Deutsch, Henry, prize for aviation,
+<a href="#page039">39</a>,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>-50<br>
+
+  <i>Deutschland</i>, The,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>,
+<a href="#page364">364</a>-378<br>
+
+  Dewey, Admiral,
+<a href="#page271">271</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a><br>
+
+  Diesel motor,
+<a href="#page308">308</a>,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>,
+<a href="#page319">319</a>,
+<a href="#page325">325</a>,
+<a href="#page363">363</a>,
+<a href="#page366">366</a><br>
+
+  Douaumont,
+<a href="#page162">162</a><br>
+
+  Drachens,
+<a href="#page220">220</a><br>
+
+  Drebel, Cornelius,
+<a href="#page238">238</a>-240<br>
+
+  Driggs, Lawrence La Tourette,
+<a href="#page358">358</a>,
+<a href="#page359">359</a><br>
+
+  Dubilier, William,
+<a href="#page357">357</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">E</p>
+
+<p>Eiffel Tower,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>-49,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>. <i>See also</i> <a href="#santosdumont">Santos-Dumont</a><br>
+
+<a id="emperorofgermany" name="emperorofgermany"></a>
+  Emperor of Germany,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a><br>
+
+  England,
+<a href="#page073">73</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page207">207</a>,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>,
+<a href="#page251">251</a>,
+<a href="#page253">253</a>,
+<a href="#page303">303</a>,
+<a href="#page345">345</a><br>
+
+  Essen,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a><br>
+
+  Expeditionary Army,
+<a href="#page106">106</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">F</p>
+
+<p>Faotomu, Lieutenant Takuma,
+<a href="#page352">352</a>,
+<a href="#page353">353</a><br>
+
+  Farman,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page218">218</a><br>
+
+  Farragut, Admiral,
+<a href="#page132">132</a><br>
+
+  Fiske, Rear-Admiral,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page206">206</a><br>
+
+  Flanders,
+<a href="#page006">6</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a><br>
+
+  Fléchette,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a><br>
+
+  Fokker,
+<a href="#page126">126</a>,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a><br>
+
+  Fort Myer,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a><br>
+
+  <i>Foucault</i>, submarine,
+<a href="#page191">191</a><br>
+
+  France,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>-106,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page133">133</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>-202,
+<a href="#page208">208</a>,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>,
+<a href="#page251">251</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page303">303</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a><br>
+
+  Franklin, Benjamin, views of balloons,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">letters,</span>
+<a href="#page032">32</a>,
+<a href="#page033">33</a><br>
+
+  French, airplanes at Battle of Somme,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Commission to United States,</span>
+<a href="#page196">196</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">guns,</span>
+<a href="#page147">147</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">improve on German airplane,</span>
+<a href="#page204">204</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">inspection of captive Zeppelin,</span>
+<a href="#page081">81</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">standardize their airplanes,</span>
+<a href="#page104">104</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine,</span>
+<a href="#page309">309</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength,</span>
+<a href="#page302">302</a>,
+<a href="#page303">303</a><br>
+
+  French, General Sir John,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>-5,
+<a href="#page106">106</a><br>
+
+  Friedrichshaven,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a><br>
+
+  Fulton, Robert,
+<a href="#page251">251</a>,
+<a href="#page252">252</a>,
+<a href="#page253">253</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">G</p>
+
+<p>George, Lloyd,
+<a href="#page210">210</a><br>
+
+  German, Admiralty,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">air champion,</span>
+<a href="#page214">214</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">air raids on England,</span>
+<a href="#page207">207</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">attempt to starve England,</span>
+<a href="#page194">194</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">fleet,</span>
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine attacks on allied shipping,</span>
+<a href="#page305">305</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine destroyed by bombs,</span>
+<a href="#page191">191</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarines <i>vs.</i> international law,</span>
+<a href="#page192">192</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength,</span>
+<a href="#page303">303</a>-305<br>
+
+  German U-boats,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page206">206</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a>,
+<a href="#page304">304</a>,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>,
+<a href="#page314">314</a>,
+<a href="#page333">333</a>,
+<a href="#page336">336</a>,
+<a href="#page338">338</a><br>
+
+  Germany,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a>,
+<a href="#page073">73</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>,
+<a href="#page133">133</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page146">146</a>-149,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>-185,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page280">280</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>,
+<a href="#page341">341</a>,
+<a href="#page361">361</a>,
+<a href="#page364">364</a><br>
+
+  Ghent,
+<a href="#page165">165</a><br>
+
+  Gibbons, Floyd P.,
+<a href="#page347">347</a>-351<br>
+
+  Giffard, dirigible,
+<a href="#page037">37</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a><br>
+
+  Grange, de la, Lieutenant,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199</a><br>
+
+  Great Britain,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page192">192</a>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page207">207</a>,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>,
+<a href="#page341">341</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a><br>
+
+  Great War,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page103">103</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a><br>
+
+  Greece, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Grey, C. G., quoted,
+<a href="#page189">189</a><br>
+
+  Gross, dirigible,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>,
+<a href="#page078">78</a><br>
+
+  Guynemer, Captain Georges,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a><br>
+
+  Gyroscope compass,
+<a href="#page312">312</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">H</p>
+
+<p>Hartlepool,
+<a href="#page208">208</a><br>
+
+  Harvard University,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page176">176</a><br>
+
+  Harwich,
+<a href="#page208">208</a><br>
+
+  Heligoland,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>-157,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page333">333</a><br>
+
+  <i>Hogue</i>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a><br>
+
+  Holland,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength of,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Holland, John P.,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>,
+<a href="#page274">274</a>-277,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine,</span>
+<a href="#page294">294</a>-296,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>,
+<a href="#page301">301</a>,
+<a href="#page302">302</a>,
+<a href="#page304">304</a>,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page313">313</a><br>
+
+  Holland Torpedo Boat Company,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a><br>
+
+  Hotchkiss,
+<a href="#page147">147</a><br>
+
+  <i>Housatonic</i>, U. S. S.,
+<a href="#page259">259</a>,
+<a href="#page260">260</a><br>
+
+  Hydro-airplane,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page206">206</a>,
+<a href="#page225">225</a><br>
+
+  Hydroplane,
+<a href="#page280">280</a>,
+<a href="#page308">308</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">I</p>
+
+<p>Icarus,
+<a href="#page014">14</a><br>
+
+  Immelman, Captain,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>-214<br>
+
+  Instruction, in aviation,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>-118;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">of American aviators,</span>
+<a href="#page011">11</a><br>
+
+  <i>Ironsides</i>,
+<a href="#page256">256</a>,
+<a href="#page257">257</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a><br>
+
+  Italy,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength of,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a><br>
+
+  Italian submarines,
+<a href="#page360">360</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">J</p>
+
+<p>Japan, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Japanese submarines,
+<a href="#page352">352</a><br>
+
+  Joffre, General,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a><br>
+
+  Jutland, battle of,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page381">381</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">K</p>
+
+<p>Kaiser,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>. <i>Also see</i> <a href="#emperorofgermany">Emperor of Germany</a><br>
+
+  Kiel,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>-157,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>,
+<a href="#page253">253</a>,
+<a href="#page314">314</a>,
+<a href="#page367">367</a><br>
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>,
+<a href="#page227">227</a>,
+<a href="#page346">346</a><br>
+
+  Kitchener, Lord,
+<a href="#page058">58</a><br>
+
+  Kitty-Hawk,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a><br>
+
+  Kluck, General von,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page004">4</a><br>
+
+  König, Captain Paul,
+<a href="#page367">367</a>-377<br>
+
+  Krebs,
+<a href="#page039">39</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">L</p>
+
+<p>Lafayette Escadrille,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a><br>
+
+  Lake Constance,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a><br>
+
+  Lake, Simon,
+<a href="#page278">278</a>-295,
+<a href="#page356">356</a>,
+<a href="#page364">364</a>,
+<a href="#page378">378</a>-380;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine,</span>
+<a href="#page294">294</a>-296,
+<a href="#page302">302</a>,
+<a href="#page304">304</a>,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page317">317</a><br>
+
+  Lana, Francisco,
+<a href="#page017">17</a><br>
+
+  Lancaster, F. W.,
+<a href="#page144">144</a><br>
+
+  Langley, Professor Samuel,
+<a href="#page082">82</a>,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a><br>
+
+  <i>La Patrie</i>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a><br>
+
+  <i>La République</i>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a><br>
+
+  Latham,
+<a href="#page095">95</a><br>
+
+  Laurenti, Major,
+<a href="#page300">300</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine,</span>
+<a href="#page302">302</a>,
+<a href="#page306">306</a><br>
+
+  Lebaudy Brothers,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">airplane,</span>
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page078">78</a><br>
+
+  Le Bris,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>-88<br>
+
+  Lee, Ezra,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page250">250</a><br>
+
+  Lewis gun,
+<a href="#page217">217</a><br>
+
+  Liberty motor,
+<a href="#page222">222</a>,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">plane,</span>
+<a href="#page127">127</a><br>
+
+  Liège,
+<a href="#page159">159</a><br>
+
+  Lilienthal, Gustav,
+<a href="#page084">84</a><br>
+
+  Lilienthal, Otto,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>-86,
+<a href="#page090">90</a><br>
+
+  Lilienthals,
+<a href="#page088">88</a><br>
+
+  Lille,
+<a href="#page185">185</a><br>
+
+  London,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page208">208</a>,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a><br>
+
+  Lufbery, Captain Raoul,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a><br>
+
+  Lunardi, aeronaut,
+<a href="#page030">30</a><br>
+
+  <i>Lusitania</i>,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">M</p>
+
+<p>McConnell, Sergeant James R.,
+<a href="#page160">160</a><br>
+
+  Marne, battle of,
+<a href="#page005">5</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a><br>
+
+  Maxim, Sir Hiram,
+<a href="#page083">83</a><br>
+
+  <i>Merrimac</i>,
+<a href="#page012">12</a><br>
+
+  Meuse river,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a><br>
+
+  <i>Monitor</i>,
+<a href="#page012">12</a><br>
+
+  Mons, battle of,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page005">5</a><br>
+
+  Montgolfier Brothers, Jos. &amp; Jacques,
+<a href="#page020">20</a>,
+<a href="#page022">22</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">balloon,</span>
+<a href="#page021">21</a>,
+<a href="#page022">22</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>,
+<a href="#page028">28</a>,
+<a href="#page030">30</a><br>
+
+  Moranes,
+<a href="#page186">186</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">N</p>
+
+<p>Namur,
+<a href="#page004">4</a><br>
+
+  Napoleon,
+<a href="#page099">99</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page252">252</a><br>
+
+  Naval Committee, House of Representatives,
+<a href="#page271">271</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a><br>
+
+  Navy Department of U. S.,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page278">278</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>,
+<a href="#page300">300</a>,
+<a href="#page301">301</a><br>
+
+  Navy Department, Civil War,
+<a href="#page256">256</a>,
+<a href="#page257">257</a><br>
+
+  Navy, Secretary of,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page222">222</a><br>
+
+  Needham, Henry Beach,
+<a href="#page166">166</a><br>
+
+  Nieuport, airplane,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">town of,</span>
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a><br>
+
+  Nordenfeldt, Swedish inventor,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>,
+<a href="#page275">275</a><br>
+
+  North Sea,
+<a href="#page006">6</a>,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a>,
+<a href="#page305">305</a><br>
+
+  Norway, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Noyes, Alfred, quoted,
+<a href="#page335">335</a>-340</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">O</p>
+
+<p>Ostend,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">P</p>
+
+<p>Paris,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>-25,
+<a href="#page028">28</a>,
+<a href="#page048">48</a>,
+<a href="#page050">50</a>-53,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>,
+<a href="#page110">110</a><br>
+
+  Parseval, dirigible,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>,
+<a href="#page078">78</a><br>
+
+  Parseval-Siegfeld,
+<a href="#page141">141</a><br>
+
+  Pau,
+<a href="#page110">110</a><br>
+
+  Père Galien,
+<a href="#page017">17</a><br>
+
+  Periscopes,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page305">305</a>,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>,
+<a href="#page326">326</a>-328,
+<a href="#page333">333</a>,
+<a href="#page366">366</a><br>
+
+  Petersburg,
+<a href="#page006">6</a><br>
+
+  Pilcher, Percy S.,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>,
+<a href="#page088">88</a><br>
+
+  Pitney, Fred B., quoted,
+<a href="#page323">323</a>-328<br>
+
+  Porter, Admiral David,
+<a href="#page259">259</a><br>
+
+  Prince, Norman,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>-221</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">R</p>
+
+<p>Rees, Major L. W. B.,
+<a href="#page174">174</a><br>
+
+  Renard,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a><br>
+
+  Richmond,
+<a href="#page006">6</a><br>
+
+  Roberts Brothers' balloon,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a><br>
+
+  Rockwell, Kiffen,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>-179,
+<a href="#page214">214</a><br>
+
+  Royal Aërial Factory,
+<a href="#page105">105</a><br>
+
+  Rozier, Pilatre de,
+<a href="#page027">27</a>,
+<a href="#page029">29</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">death of,</span>
+<a href="#page030">30</a><br>
+
+  Rumsey, Adjt., quoted,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>-220<br>
+
+  Russia,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength of,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Russian ships sunk in Baltic,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine sunk by bombs,</span>
+<a href="#page190">190</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">S</p>
+
+<a id="santosdumont" name="santosdumont"></a>
+<p>Santos-Dumont,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">quoted,</span>
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page039">39</a>-47,
+<a href="#page048">48</a>-50,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>-54,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>,
+<a href="#page060">60</a>,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a><br>
+
+  Scarborough,
+<a href="#page208">208</a><br>
+
+  Schutte-Lanz, dirigible,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a><br>
+
+  Schwartz, David,
+<a href="#page063">63</a><br>
+
+  Scott, Lieutenant,
+<a href="#page133">133</a><br>
+
+  Seaplanes,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page225">225</a>,
+<a href="#page236">236</a><br>
+
+  <i>Severo Pax</i>,
+<a href="#page077">77</a><br>
+
+  Sikorsky, airplanes,
+<a href="#page203">203</a><br>
+
+  Sincay, Lieutenant de,
+<a href="#page191">191</a><br>
+
+  Sopwith, biplane,
+<a href="#page126">126</a>,
+<a href="#page219">219</a><br>
+
+  "S. P. A. D.,"
+<a href="#page217">217</a><br>
+
+  Spain,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength of,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a><br>
+
+  St. Louis Exposition,
+<a href="#page054">54</a><br>
+
+  St. Petersburg,
+<a href="#page063">63</a><br>
+
+  Submarine, controversy between U. S. and Germany,
+<a href="#page342">342</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">cruise on,</span>
+<a href="#page323">323</a>-331;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">interior of,</span>
+<a href="#page318">318</a>-323;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">losses,</span>
+<a href="#page351">351</a>-354;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">tenders,</span>
+<a href="#page316">316</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">strength of different countries,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">ventilation,</span>
+<a href="#page239">239</a>,
+<a href="#page240">240</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a>,
+<a href="#page312">312</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">war zones,</span>
+<a href="#page342">342</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a><br>
+
+  Submarine warfare, allied losses,
+<a href="#page344">344</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">British losses,</span>
+<a href="#page344">344</a>,
+<a href="#page345">345</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">neutral losses,</span>
+<a href="#page344">344</a><br>
+
+  Submarines:<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Argonaut</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page282">282</a>-295,
+<a href="#page379">379</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>David</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page256">256</a>,
+<a href="#page257">257</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"E" class,</span>
+<a href="#page301">301</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Fenian Ram</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page275">275</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"F-1,"</span>
+<a href="#page300">300</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"F" (Holland type),</span>
+<a href="#page301">301</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">German type,</span>
+<a href="#page304">304</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Gustave Zédé</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page266">266</a>,
+<a href="#page267">267</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Gymnote</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page265">265</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Holland No. 2</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page275">275</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Holland No. 4</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page275">275</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Holland No. 8</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page278">278</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Holland No. 9</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page271">271</a>-273,
+<a href="#page278">278</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Hundley</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page258">258</a>-260<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Intelligent Whale</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page261">261</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Le Diable Marin</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page254">254</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">Laurenti type,</span>
+<a href="#page306">306</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Morse</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page267">267</a>-270<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Mute</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page253">253</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Narval</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page267">267</a>,
+<a href="#page270">270</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Nautilus</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page252">252</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Nordenfeldt II.</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page264">264</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Octopus</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page299">299</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Plongeur</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page260">260</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Plunger</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page277">277</a>,
+<a href="#page278">278</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Resurgam</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page263">263</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"S" class,</span>
+<a href="#page302">302</a> (Laurenti or "F. I. A. T." type)<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Turtle</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page247">247</a>,
+<a href="#page249">249</a>,
+<a href="#page275">275</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"U-3,"</span>
+<a href="#page314">314</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"U-20,"</span>
+<a href="#page330">330</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"U-47,"</span>
+<a href="#page328">328</a>-331<br>
+    <span class="add1em">"V" class (Lake type),</span>
+<a href="#page302">302</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"W" class (Laubeuf type),</span>
+<a href="#page302">302</a><br>
+    <span class="add1em">"Viper" class,</span>
+<a href="#page299">299</a><br>
+
+  Submarines, aircraft as enemy of,
+<a href="#page357">357</a>,
+<a href="#page358">358</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">armament of,</span>
+<a href="#page312">312</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">(general topic),</span>
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>-195,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">marksmanship,</span>
+<a href="#page322">322</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">microphone,</span>
+<a href="#page357">357</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">motives powers of,</span>
+<a href="#page308">308</a>,
+<a href="#page309">309</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">precautions and devices against,</span>
+<a href="#page345">345</a>,
+<a href="#page346">346</a>,
+<a href="#page355">355</a>,
+<a href="#page361">361</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">requirements of modern,</span>
+<a href="#page307">307</a>-317<br>
+
+  Sweden, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Switzerland,
+<a href="#page150">150</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">T</p>
+
+<p>Taube,
+<a href="#page126">126</a><br>
+
+  Thaw, Lieutenant William,
+<a href="#page214">214</a><br>
+
+  Tissot, Professor,
+<a href="#page357">357</a><br>
+
+  Torpedo chamber,
+<a href="#page320">320</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">plane,</span>
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">tubes,</span>
+<a href="#page298">298</a>,
+<a href="#page301">301</a>,
+<a href="#page303">303</a>-306,
+<a href="#page312">312</a>,
+<a href="#page315">315</a>,
+<a href="#page317">317</a>,
+<a href="#page320">320</a>,
+<a href="#page353">353</a><br>
+
+  Trocadero,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>-51<br>
+
+  Tulasne, Major,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199</a><br>
+
+  Turkey, submarine strength of,
+<a href="#page307">307</a><br>
+
+  Turkish,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page334">334</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">U</p>
+
+<p>U-53,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page206">206</a>,
+<a href="#page353">353</a>,
+<a href="#page354">354</a><br>
+
+  U-Boat attacks on, allied merchantmen;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Amiral Ganteaume,</i></span>
+<a href="#page340">340</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Gulflight</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page343">343</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Lusitania</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Laconia</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page347">347</a>-351;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Strathend</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>West Point</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Stephano</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Bloomersdijk</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Christian Knudsen</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">in general,</span>
+<a href="#page346">346</a>-354<br>
+
+  United States,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>-58,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>-96,
+<a href="#page103">103</a>,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>,
+<a href="#page239">239</a>,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>,
+<a href="#page271">271</a>,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>,
+<a href="#page297">297</a>,
+<a href="#page301">301</a>,
+<a href="#page303">303</a>,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>,
+<a href="#page334">334</a>,
+<a href="#page341">341</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a>,
+<a href="#page345">345</a>,
+<a href="#page361">361</a>,
+<a href="#page364">364</a>,
+<a href="#page365">365</a>,
+<a href="#page381">381</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">government of,</span>
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>,
+<a href="#page273">273</a>,
+<a href="#page276">276</a>,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>,
+<a href="#page343">343</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">declares war upon Germany,</span>
+<a href="#page342">342</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Navy,</span>
+<a href="#page297">297</a>,
+<a href="#page298">298</a>,
+<a href="#page300">300</a>,
+<a href="#page354">354</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">submarine strength,</span>
+<a href="#page350">350</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">V</p>
+
+<p>Vanniman,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a><br>
+
+  Vaux,
+<a href="#page162">162</a><br>
+
+  Venice,
+<a href="#page108">108</a><br>
+
+  Verdun,
+<a href="#page006">6</a>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a><br>
+
+  Verne, Jules,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>,
+<a href="#page287">287</a><br>
+
+  Vickers, gun,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">scout airplane,</span>
+<a href="#page126">126</a>,
+<a href="#page131">131</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a><br>
+
+  Vicksburg,
+<a href="#page006">6</a><br>
+
+  Viney, Lieutenant,
+<a href="#page191">191</a><br>
+
+  von Bernstorff, Count,
+<a href="#page353">353</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">W</p>
+
+<p>Wanamaker, Rodman,
+<a href="#page160">160</a><br>
+
+  War, Department of,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>;<br>
+    <span class="add1em">Secretary of,</span>
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page222">222</a><br>
+
+  War zones,
+<a href="#page341">341</a>,
+<a href="#page342">342</a><br>
+
+  Warneford, sub-Lieutenant R. A. J.,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a><br>
+
+  Washington, D. C.,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a><br>
+
+  Washington, General George,
+<a href="#page247">247</a><br>
+
+  Watt, James,
+<a href="#page019">19</a><br>
+
+  Weddigen, Captain, Otto von,
+<a href="#page236">236</a>,
+<a href="#page305">305</a>,
+<a href="#page334">334</a><br>
+
+  Wellington,
+<a href="#page108">108</a><br>
+
+  Wellman, Walter,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a><br>
+
+  White, Claude Graham,
+<a href="#page128">128</a><br>
+
+  Whitehead torpedo,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a><br>
+
+  Wilhelmshaven,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>,
+<a href="#page353">353</a><br>
+
+  Winslow, Carroll Dana,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>,
+<a href="#page139">139</a><br>
+
+  Woodhouse, Henry,
+<a href="#page190">190</a><br>
+
+  Wright Brothers,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page060">60</a>,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>-95,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a><br>
+
+  Wright, Orville,
+<a href="#page074">74</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page099">99</a>-102<br>
+
+  Wright, Wilbur,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="p2">Z</p>
+
+<p>Zédé, M. Gustav,
+<a href="#page265">265</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>,
+<a href="#page303">303</a><br>
+
+  Zeebrugge,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a><br>
+
+  Zeppelin, Count, von,
+<a href="#page028">28</a>,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page050">50</a>,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>-65,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>-77,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page362">362</a><br>
+
+  Zeppelin, Eberhard,
+<a href="#page064">64</a><br>
+
+  Zeppelin disasters:<br>
+    <span class="add1em"><i>Zeppelin I.</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page066">66</a>-69<br>
+      <span class="add1em"><i>IV.</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page072">72</a><br>
+      <span class="add1em"><i>L-I</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page076">76</a><br>
+      <span class="add1em"><i>L-II</i>,</span>
+<a href="#page067">67</a><br>
+
+  Zeppelin raids,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page208">208</a>,
+<a href="#page209">209</a><br>
+
+  Zeppelins,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page060">60</a>,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>-81,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page108">108</a>,
+<a href="#page133">133</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>-150,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page208">208</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h1><i>A Selection from the
+  Catalogue of</i><br>
+
+  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</h1>
+
+<p class="center">Complete Catalogues sent
+  on application</p>
+
+<div class="adbox">
+<p class="adtitle">The Making of a<br>
+  Modern Army<br>
+<span class="smaller">And Its Operations in the Field</span></p>
+
+<p class="adresume">A Study Bated on the Experience of<br>
+  Three Years on the French Front<br>
+<span class="adbigger">1914-1917</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="adauthor">René Radiguet</span><br>
+  Général de Division, Army of France</p>
+
+<p class="center">Translated by<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Henry P. du Bellet</span><br>
+  Formerly American Consul at Rheims</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>12<sup>o</sup>. 18 Illustrations and Diagrams. $1.50 net.<br>
+  By mail, $1.65</i></p>
+
+<p>The younger Americans who are now in training for active service in
+the field, and particularly those who have secured commissions as
+officers or who are preparing to compete for such commissions, will
+have a very direct interest in the instructions and suggestions
+presented by General Radiguet in regard to the organization of an
+army and the method of its operations in the field. General
+Radiguet's treatise is based upon a varied experience in the
+campaigns of the present war.</p>
+
+<p>The old text-books must be put to one side. The methods of
+organization and the methods of fighting have alike changed. It is
+only those who have had responsibilities as leaders in the present
+war whose instructions can be accepted as authoritative.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="p4 adbox">
+<p class="adtitle">Life<br>
+  at the<br>
+  U. S. Naval Academy</p>
+
+<p class="adresume">The Making of the American Navy Officer:<br>
+  His Studies, Discipline, and Amusements</p>
+
+<p class="center">By<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Ralph Earle</span><br>
+  Rear-Admiral, U. S. N.<br>
+  (Formerly Head of the Department of Ordnance and
+  Gunnery, U. S. Naval Academy)</p>
+
+<p class="center">With an Introduction by<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Franklin Roosevelt</span><br>
+  Assistant-Secretary of the Navy</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>12<sup>o</sup>. 73 Illustrations and a Map. $2.00 net
+  By mail, $2.20</i></p>
+
+<p>This book follows the boy's procedure in entering and his first
+summer's course, after which it takes the midshipman through the
+course, not by years, but by clear discussions of the various
+activities that make up his daily life. The recitations, drills,
+practice cruises, physical training, medical care, athletics,
+recreations, and the career that the Navy affords one after
+graduation are related in a manner that will make the midshipman's
+life easily understood by his parents and friends, and also show the
+boy intending to enter the Academy just what he may expect there.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>AT ALL BOOKSELLERS</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="p4 adbox">
+<p class="adtitle">West Point</p>
+<p class="adresume">An Intimate Picture of the National<br>
+  Military Academy, and of the Life<br>
+  of the Cadet</p>
+
+<p class="center">By<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Robert C. Richardson, Jr.</span><br>
+Captain, 2d Cavalry, U. S. A.; Aide-de-Camp to Major-General
+  Thomas H. Barry</p>
+
+<p class="center">Foreword by<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Major-General Hugh L. Scott</span><br>
+  Chief-of-Staff, U. S. Army</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>12<sup>o</sup>. 32 Illustrations, $2.00 net
+  By mail, $2.20</i></p>
+
+<p>The book, while of interest to all who have attended the
+institution, is addressed primarily to the general public so that
+that public may become better acquainted with the aims and ideals of
+their National Military Academy. To the prospective cadet the book
+is invaluable as a foretaste of the duties, responsibilities, and
+privileges obtaining at West Point.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="p4 adbox">
+<p class="adtitle">Tactics and Duties<br>
+  for<br>
+  Trench Fighting</p>
+
+<p class="center">By<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Georges Bertrand</span><br>
+  Capitaine, Chasseurs, de l'Armée de France<br>
+and<br>
+<span class="adauthor">Oscar N. Solbert</span><br>
+  Major, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>16<sup>o</sup>. 35 Diagrams. $1.50 net. By mail, $1.65</i></p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="1" summary="Ads.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="30%">
+    <col width="30%">
+    <col width="30%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td>000.7</td>
+<td class="center">(OD)</td>
+<td class="right">1st Ind.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>War Department, A. G. O., December 21, 1917&mdash;To Major O. N.
+     Solbert, Corp of Engineers, Office of the Chief of Engineers.</p>
+
+<p>1. The manuscript forwarded with this letter has been examined in
+the War College Division and the opinion given that it has
+exceptional merit, presenting the principles governing trench
+warfare in such a clear and logical manner that the publication,
+with some changes and additions,<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7" title="Go to footnote 7"><span class="smaller">[7]</span></a> will be of considerable value to
+our Officers.</p>
+
+<p>2. You are directed to confer with the Chief of the War College
+Division regarding the effecting of the changes desired.</p>
+
+<p class="center">By order of the Secretary of War</p>
+<p class="right10">(Signed) F. W. Lewis<br>
+<span class="right">Adjutant General.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="adbox center adbigger">G. P. Putnam's Sons<br>
+New York London</p>
+
+
+<p class="p4"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a>
+<b>Footnote 1:</b> ©<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a>
+<b>Footnote 2:</b> ©<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a>
+<b>Footnote 3:</b> ©<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a>
+<b>Footnote 4:</b> ©<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a>
+<b>Footnote 5:</b> ©<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a>
+<b>Footnote 6:</b> ©<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a>
+<b>Footnote 7:</b> These changes have been made.<a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Aircraft and Submarines, by Willis J. Abbot
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aircraft and Submarines, by Willis J. Abbot
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Aircraft and Submarines
+       The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day
+       Uses of War's Newest Weapons
+
+Author: Willis J. Abbot
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2009 [EBook #30047]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Christine P.
+Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+has been maintained.
+
+{} are used to inclose superscript.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Fighting by Sea and Sky._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+
+
+
+AIRCRAFT AND SUBMARINES
+
+The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day Uses of
+War's Newest Weapons
+
+By
+
+WILLIS J. ABBOT
+
+Author of "The Story of Our Army," "The Story of Our Navy," "The
+Nations at War"
+
+
+_With Eight Color Plates and 100 Other Illustrations_
+
+
+
+
+  G. P. Putnam's Sons
+  New York and London
+  The Knickerbocker Press
+  1918
+
+  Copyright, 1918
+  By
+  WILLIS J. ABBOT
+
+  The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Not since gunpowder was first employed in warfare has so
+revolutionary a contribution to the science of slaughtering men been
+made as by the perfection of aircraft and submarines. The former
+have had their first employment in this world-wide war of the
+nations. The latter, though in the experimental stage as far back as
+the American Revolution, have in this bitter contest been for the
+first time brought to so practical a stage of development as to
+exert a really appreciable influence on the outcome of the struggle.
+
+Comparatively few people appreciate how the thought of navigating
+the air's dizziest heights and the sea's gloomiest depths has
+obsessed the minds of inventors. From the earliest days of history
+men have grappled with the problem, yet it is only within two
+hundred years for aircraft and one hundred for submarines that any
+really intelligent start has been made upon its solution. The men
+who really gave practical effect to the vague theories which others
+set up--in aircraft the Wrights, Santos-Dumont, and Count Zeppelin;
+in submarines Lake and Holland--are either still living, or have
+died so recently that their memory is still fresh in the minds of
+all.
+
+In this book the author has sketched swiftly the slow stages by
+which in each of these fields of activity success has been attained.
+He has collated from the immense mass of records of the activities
+of both submarines and aircraft enough interesting data to show the
+degree of perfection and practicability to which both have been
+brought. And he has outlined so far as possible from existing
+conditions the possibilities of future usefulness in fields other
+than those of war of these new devices.
+
+The most serious difficulty encountered in dealing with the present
+state and future development of aircraft is the rapidity with which
+that development proceeds. Before a Congressional Committee last
+January an official testified that grave delay in the manufacture of
+airplanes for the army had been caused by the fact that types
+adopted a scant three months before had become obsolete, because of
+experience on the European battlefields, and later inventions before
+the first machines could be completed. There may be exaggeration in
+the statement but it is largely true. Neither the machines nor the
+tactics employed at the beginning of the war were in use in its
+fourth year. The course of this evolution, with its reasons, are
+described in this volume.
+
+Opportunities for the peaceful use of airplanes are beginning to
+suggest themselves daily. After the main body of this book was in
+type the Postmaster-General of the United States called for bids for
+an aerial mail service between New York and Washington--an act urged
+upon the Government in this volume. That service contemplates a
+swift carriage of first-class mail at an enhanced price--the
+tentative schedule being three hours, and a postage fee of
+twenty-five cents an ounce. There can be no doubt of the success of
+the service, its value to the public, and its possibilities of
+revenue to the post-office. Once its usefulness is established it
+will be extended to routes of similar length, such as New York and
+Boston, New York and Buffalo, or New York and Pittsburgh. The mind
+suggests no limit to the extension of aerial service, both postal
+and passenger, in the years of industrial activity that shall follow
+the war.
+
+In the preparation of this book the author has made use of many
+records of personal experiences of those who have dared the air's
+high altitudes and the sea's stilly depths. For permission to use
+certain of these he wishes to express his thanks to the Century Co.,
+for extracts from _My Airships_ by Santos-Dumont; to Doubleday, Page
+& Co., for extracts from _Flying for France_, by James R. McConnell;
+to Charles Scribner's Sons, for material drawn from _With the French
+Flying Corps_, by Carroll Dana Winslow; to _Collier's Weekly_, for
+certain extracts from interviews with Wilbur Wright; to _McClure's
+Magazine_, for the account of Mr. Ray Stannard Baker's trip in a
+Lake submarine; to Hearst's International Library, and to the
+_Scientific American_, for the use of several illustrations.
+
+                                                    W. J. A.
+
+NEW YORK, 1918.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                  Page
+    PREFACE                                                        iii
+
+  CHAPTER
+
+     I.--Introductory                                                3
+
+    II.--The Earliest Flying Men                                    14
+
+   III.--The Services of Santos-Dumont                              39
+
+    IV.--The Count von Zeppelin                                     59
+
+     V.--The Development of the Airplane                            82
+
+    VI.--The Training of the Aviator                               103
+
+   VII.--Some Methods of the War in the Air                        123
+
+  VIII.--Incidents of the War in the Air                           159
+
+    IX.--The United States at War                                  182
+
+     X.--Some Features of Aerial Warfare                           207
+
+    XI.--Beginnings of Submarine Invention                         235
+
+   XII.--The Coming of Steam and Electricity                       256
+
+  XIII.--John P. Holland and Simon Lake                            271
+
+   XIV.--The Modern Submarine                                      294
+
+    XV.--Aboard a Submarine                                        318
+
+   XVI.--Submarine Warfare                                         333
+
+  XVII.--The Future of the Submarine                               362
+
+         Index                                                     383
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                                  Page
+  Fighting by Sea and Sky                               _Frontispiece_
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  Dropping a Depth Bomb                                              4
+      Painting by Lieut. Farre
+
+  A Battle in Mid-air                                                8
+      Painting by Lieut. Farre
+
+  Victory in the Clouds                                             12
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  The Fall of the Boche                                             16
+      Painting by Lieut. Farre
+
+  Lana's Vacuum Balloon                                             18
+
+  Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon                                21
+
+  A Rescue at Sea                                                   24
+      Painting by Lieut. Farre
+
+  Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon                                   27
+
+  Charles's Balloon                                                 31
+
+  A French Observation Balloon on Fire                              32
+
+  Roberts Brothers' Dirigible                                       34
+
+  Giffard's Dirigible                                               37
+
+  A British Kite Balloon                                            40
+
+  British "Blimp"                                                   40
+      Photographed from Above.
+
+  A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship                     48
+
+  The Giant and the Pigmies                                         60
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A French "Sausage"                                                64
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  A British "Blimp"                                                 64
+
+  The Death of a Zeppelin                                           72
+      Photo by Paul Thompson
+
+  A German Dirigible, Hansa Type                                    76
+
+  A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika                                    76
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  British Aviators about to Ascend                                  80
+
+  Langley's Airplane                                                84
+
+  A French Airdrome near the Front                                  84
+
+  Lilienthal's Glider                                               86
+
+  A German War Zeppelin                                             88
+
+  French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines                     88
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  Chanute's Glider                                                  90
+
+  A German Taube Pursued by British Planes                          92
+
+  The First Wright Glider                                           93
+
+  Pilcher's Glider                                                  94
+
+  Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes at the Opening
+    of the War                                                      96
+
+  Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Dirigibles at the Opening
+    of the War                                                      96
+
+  The Wright Glider                                                 98
+
+  At a French Airplane Base                                        100
+      International Film Service
+
+  Stringfellow's Airplane                                          101
+
+  The "America"--Built to Cross the Atlantic                       104
+
+  A Wright Airplane in Flight                                      104
+
+  First Americans to Fly in France                                 108
+     The Lafayette Escadrille
+
+  Distinguishing Marks of American Planes                          116
+
+  What an Aviator must Watch                                       116
+
+  A Caproni Triplane                                               124
+
+  A Caproni Triplane Showing Propellers and Fuselage               124
+
+  The Terror that Flieth by Night                                  128
+      Painting by Wm. J. Wilson
+
+  A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship                           132
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  Launching a Hydroaeroplane                                       132
+
+  At a United States Training Camp                                 138
+
+  A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top                                138
+
+  Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a Balloon Struck by
+    Incendiary Shells                                              140
+
+  The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled                         140
+
+  German Air Raiders over England                                  144
+
+  One Aviator's Narrow Escape                                      148
+
+  Downed in the Enemy's Country                                    156
+
+  Position of Gunner in Early French Machine                       160
+
+  Later Type of French Scout                                       160
+      Photo by Kadel & Herbert
+
+  A French Scout Airplane                                          168
+      Photo by Press Illustrating Co.
+
+  "Showing Off." A Nieuport Performing Aerial Acrobatics around a
+    Heavier Bombing Machine                                        168
+
+  An Air Raid on a Troop Train                                     174
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A Burning Balloon, Photographed from a Parachute by the Escaping
+    Balloonist                                                     176
+
+  A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth Building                184
+
+  Cruising at 2000 Feet. One Biplane Photographed from Another     184
+
+  An Air Battle in Progress                                        192
+
+  A Curtis Hydroaroplane                                           192
+
+  The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola                             208
+
+  Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to New York Flight         216
+
+  A French Aviator between Flights                                 216
+
+  A German "Gotha"--Their Favorite Type                            224
+
+  A French Monoplane                                               232
+
+  A German Scout Brought to Earth in France                        232
+
+  A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane                       240
+
+  A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb                                244
+
+  A Bomb-Dropping Taube                                            248
+
+  A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the Invalides              252
+
+  A British Seaplane with Folding Wings                            252
+
+  British Anti-Aircraft Guns                                       256
+
+  An Anti-Aircraft Outpost                                         264
+
+  A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun                                264
+
+  The Submarine's Perfect Work                                     270
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  Types of American Aircraft                                       272
+
+  For Anti-Aircraft Service                                        288
+
+  The Latest French Aircraft Guns                                  288
+
+  Modern German Airplane Types                                     296
+
+  A German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by the British            304
+
+  The Exterior of First German Submarine                           312
+
+  The Interior of First German Submarine, Showing Appliances for
+    Man-Power                                                      312
+
+  A Torpedo Designed by Fulton                                     320
+
+  The Method of Attack by Nautilus                                 320
+
+  The Capture of a U-Boat                                          324
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A British Submarine                                              336
+
+  Sectional View of the Nautilus                                   336
+
+  U. S. Submarine H-3 aground on California Coast                  344
+
+  Salvaging H-3. Views I, II, and III                              348
+
+  U. S. Submarine D-1 off Weehawken                                352
+
+  A Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal                356
+
+  A Critical Moment                                                360
+      Painting by John E. Whiting
+
+  A Submarine Built for Chili Passing through Cape Cod Canal       364
+
+  A Submarine Entrapped by Nets                                    368
+
+  Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British     372
+
+  A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo                                374
+
+  A German Submarine in Three Positions                            376
+
+  Sectional View of a British Submarine                            380
+
+
+
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+It was at Mons in the third week of the Great War. The grey-green
+German hordes had overwhelmed the greater part of Belgium and were
+sweeping down into France whose people and military establishment
+were all unprepared for attack from that quarter. For days the
+little British army of perhaps 100,000 men, that forlorn hope which
+the Germans scornfully called "contemptible," but which man for man
+probably numbered more veteran fighters than any similar unit on
+either side, had been stoutly holding back the enemy's right wing
+and fighting for the delay that alone could save Paris. At Mons they
+had halted, hoping that here was the spot to administer to von
+Kluck, beating upon their front, the final check. The hope was
+futile. Looking back upon the day with knowledge of what General
+French's army faced--a knowledge largely denied to him--it seems
+that the British escape from annihilation was miraculous. And indeed
+it was due to a modern miracle--the conquest of the air by man in
+the development of the airplane.
+
+General French was outnumbered and in danger of being flanked on his
+left flank. His right he thought safe, for it was in contact with
+the French line which extended eastward along the bank of the Somme
+to where the dark fortress of Namur frowned on the steeps formed by
+the junction of that river with the Meuse. At that point the French
+line bent to the south following the course of the latter river.
+
+Namur was expected to hold out for weeks. Its defence lasted but
+three days! As a matter of fact it did not delay the oncoming
+Germans a day, for they invested it and drove past in their fierce
+assault upon Joffre's lines. Enormously outnumbered, the French were
+broken and forced to retreat. They left General French's right flank
+in the air, exposed to envelopment by von Kluck who was already
+reaching around the left flank. The German troops were ample in
+number to surround the British, cut them off from all support, and
+crush or capture them all. This indeed they were preparing to do
+while General French, owing to some mischance never yet explained,
+was holding his ground utterly without knowledge that his allies had
+already retired leaving his flank without protection.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Peter A. Juley.
+
+_Dropping a Depth Bomb._
+
+_From the Painting by Lieutenant Farre._]
+
+When that fatal information arrived belatedly at the British
+headquarters it seemed like a death warrant. The right of the line
+had already been exposed for more than half-a-day. It was
+inexplicable that it had not already been attacked. It was
+unbelievable that the attack would not fall the next moment. But how
+would it be delivered and where, and what force would the enemy
+bring to it? Was von Kluck lulling the British into a false sense
+of security by leaving the exposed flank unmenaced while he gained
+their rear and cut off their retreat? Questions such as these
+demanded immediate answer. Ten years before the most dashing scouts
+would have clattered off to the front and would have required a day,
+perhaps more, to complete the necessary reconnaissance. But though
+of all nations, except of course the utterly negligent United
+States, Great Britain had least developed her aviation corps, there
+were attached to General French's headquarters enough airmen to meet
+this need. In a few minutes after the disquieting news arrived the
+beat of the propellers rose above the din of the battlefield and the
+airplanes appeared above the enemy's lines. An hour or two sufficed
+to gather the necessary facts, the fliers returned to headquarters,
+and immediately the retreat was begun.
+
+It was a beaten army that plodded back to the line of the Marne. Its
+retreat at times narrowly approached a rout. But the army was not
+crushed, annihilated. It remained a coherent, serviceable part of
+the allied line in the successful action speedily fought along the
+Marne. But had it not been for the presence of the airmen the
+British expeditionary force would have been wiped out then and
+there.
+
+The battle of Mons gave the soldiers a legend which still
+persists--that of the ghostly English bowmen of the time of Edward
+the Black Prince who came back from their graves to save that field
+for England and for France. Thousands of simple souls believe that
+legend to-day. But it is no whit more unbelievable than the story of
+an army saved by a handful of men flying thousands of feet above the
+field would have been had it been told of a battle in our Civil War.
+The world has believed in ghosts for centuries and the Archers of
+Mons are the legitimate successors of the Great Twin Brethren at the
+Battle of Lake Regillus. But Caesar, Napoleon, perhaps the elder von
+Moltke himself would have scoffed at the idea that men could turn
+themselves into birds to spy out the enemy's dispositions and save a
+sorely menaced army.
+
+When this war has passed into history it will be recognized that its
+greatest contributions to military science have been the development
+and the use of aircraft and submarines. There have, of course, been
+other features in the method of waging war which have been novel
+either in themselves, or in the gigantic scale upon which they have
+been employed. There is, for example, nothing new about trench
+warfare. The American who desires to satisfy himself about that need
+only to visit the Military Park at Vicksburg, or the country about
+Petersburg or Richmond, to recognize that even fifty years ago our
+soldiers understood the art of sheltering themselves from bullet and
+shrapnel in the bosom of Mother Earth. The trench warfare in
+Flanders, the Argonne, and around Verdun has been novel only in the
+degree to which it has been developed and perfected. Concrete-lined
+trenches, with spacious and well-furnished bomb-proofs, with
+phonographs, printing presses, and occasional dramatic performances
+for lightening the soldiers' lot present an impressive elaboration
+of the muddy ditches of Virginia and Mississippi. Yet after all the
+boys of Grant and Lee had the essentials of trench warfare well in
+mind half a century before Germany, France, and England came to
+grips on the long line from the North Sea to the Vosges.
+
+Asphyxiating gas, whether liberated from a shell, or released along
+a trench front to roll slowly down before a wind upon its
+defenders, was a novelty of this war. But in some degree it was
+merely a development of the "stinkpot" which the Chinese have
+employed for years. So too the tear-bomb, or lachrymatory bomb,
+which painfully irritated the eyes of all in its neighbourhood when
+it burst, filling them with tears and making the soldiers
+practically helpless in the presence of a swift attack. These two
+weapons of offence, and particularly the first, because of the
+frightful and long-continuing agony it inflicts upon its victims,
+fascinated the observer, and awakened the bitter protests of those
+who held that an issue at war might be determined by civilized
+nations without recourse to engines of death and anguish more
+barbaric than any known to the red Indians, or the most savage
+tribes of Asia. Neither of these devices, nor for that matter the
+cognate one of fire spurted like a liquid from a hose upon a
+shrinking enemy, can be shown to have had any appreciable effect
+upon the fortunes of any great battle. Each, as soon as employed by
+any one belligerent, was quickly seized by the adversary, and the
+respiratory mask followed fast upon the appearance of the chlorine
+gas. Whatever the outcome of the gigantic conflict may be, no one
+will claim that any of these devices had contributed greatly to the
+result.
+
+But the airplane revolutionized warfare on land. The submarine has
+made an almost equal revolution in naval warfare.
+
+Had the airplane been known in the days of our Civil War some of its
+most picturesque figures would have never risen to eminence or at
+least would have had to win their places in history by efforts of an
+entirely different sort. There is no place left in modern military
+tactics for the dashing cavalry scout of the type of Sheridan,
+Custer, Fitz Lee, or Forrest. The airplane, soaring high above the
+lines of the enemy, brings back to headquarters in a few hours
+information that in the old times took a detachment of cavalry days
+to gather. The "screen of cavalry" that in bygone campaigns
+commanders used to mask their movements no longer screens nor masks.
+A general moves with perfect knowledge that his enemy's aircraft
+will report to their headquarters his roads, his strength, and his
+probable destination as soon as his vanguard is off. During the
+Federal advance upon Richmond, Stonewall Jackson, most brilliant of
+the generals of that war, repeatedly slipped away from the Federal
+front, away from the spot where the Federal commanders confidently
+supposed him to be, and was found days later in the Valley of the
+Shenandoah, threatening Washington or menacing the Union rear and
+its communications. The war was definitely prolonged by this
+Confederate dash and elusiveness--none of which would have been
+possible had the Union forces possessed an aviation corps.
+
+[Illustration: _A Battle in Mid-air._
+
+(_Note rifleman on wing of airplane._)
+
+_From the painting by Lieutenant Farre._
+
+Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
+
+It is yet to be shown conclusively that as offensive engines
+aircraft have any great value. The tendency of the military
+authorities of every side to minimize the damage they have suffered
+makes any positive conclusion on this subject difficult and
+dangerous at this moment. The airplane by day or the Zeppelin by
+night appears swiftly and mysteriously, drops its bombs from a
+height of several thousand feet, and takes its certain flight
+through the boundless sky to safety. The aggressor cannot tell
+whether his bombs have found a fitting target. He reports flaming
+buildings left behind him, but whether they are munition factories,
+theatres, or primary schools filled with little children he cannot
+tell. Nor does he know how quickly the flames were extinguished, or
+the amount of damage done. The British boast of successful air raids
+upon Cuxhaven, Zeebrugge, Essen, and Friedrichshaven. But if we take
+German official reports we must be convinced that the damage done
+was negligible in its relation to the progress of the war. In their
+turn the Germans brag mightily of the deeds of their Zeppelins over
+London, and smaller British towns. But the sum and substance of
+their accomplishment, according to the British reports, has been the
+slaughter and mutilation of a number of civilians--mostly women and
+children--and the bloody destruction of many humble working-class
+homes.
+
+At this writing, December, 1917, it is not recorded that any
+battleship, munition factory, any headquarters, great government
+building, or fortress has been destroyed or seriously injured by the
+activities of aircraft of either type. This lack of precise
+information may be due to the censor rather than to any lack of
+great deeds on the part of airmen. We do know of successful attacks
+on submarines, though the military authorities are chary about
+giving out the facts. But as scouts, messengers, and guides for
+hidden batteries attacking unseen targets, aviators have compelled
+the rewriting of the rules of military strategy. About this time,
+however, it became apparent that the belligerents intended to
+develop the battleplanes. Particularly was this true of the Allies.
+The great measure of success won by the German submarines and the
+apparent impossibility of coping adequately with those weapons of
+death once they had reached the open sea, led the British and the
+Americans to consider the possibility of destroying them in their
+bases and destroying the bases as well. But Kiel and Wilhelmshaven
+were too heavily defended to make an attack by sea seem at all
+practicable. The lesser ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend had been
+successfully raided from the air and made practically useless as
+submarine bases. Discussion therefore was strong of making like
+raids with heavier machines carrying heavier guns and dropping more
+destructive bombs upon the two chief lurking places of the
+submarines. While no conclusion had been reached as to this strategy
+at the time of the publication of this book, both nations were busy
+building larger aircraft probably for use in such an attack.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+The submarine has exerted upon the progress of the war an influence
+even more dominant than that of aircraft. It has been a positive
+force both offensive and defensive. It has been Germany's only
+potent weapon for bringing home to the British the privations and
+want which war entails upon a civilian population, and at the same
+time guarding the German people from the fullest result of the
+British blockade. It is no overstatement to declare that but for the
+German submarines the war would have ended in the victory of the
+Allies in 1916.
+
+We may hark back to our own Civil War for an illustration of the
+crushing power of a superior navy not qualified by any serviceable
+weapon in the hands of the weaker power.
+
+Historians have very generally failed to ascribe to the Federal
+blockade of Confederate ports its proportionate influence on the
+outcome of that war. The Confederates had no navy. Their few naval
+vessels were mere commerce destroyers, fleeing the ships of the
+United States navy and preying upon unarmed merchantmen. With what
+was rapidly developed into the most powerful navy the world had ever
+seen, the United States Government from the very beginning of the
+war locked the Confederate States in a wall of iron. None might pass
+going in or out, except by stealth and at the peril of property and
+life. Outside the harbour of every seaport in the control of the
+Confederates the blockading men-of-war lurked awaiting the blockade
+runners. Their vigilance was often eluded, of course, yet
+nevertheless the number of cargoes that slipped through was
+painfully inadequate to meet the needs of the fenced-in States.
+Clothing, medicines, articles of necessary household use were denied
+to civilians. Cannon, rifles, saltpetre, and other munitions of war
+were withheld from the Confederate armies. While the ports of the
+North were bustling with foreign trade, grass grew on the
+cobble-stoned streets along the waterfronts of Charleston and
+Savannah. Slow starvation aided the constant pounding of the
+Northern armies in reducing the South to subjection.
+
+Had the Confederacy possessed but a few submarines of modern type
+this situation could not have persisted. Then, as to-day, neutral
+nations were eager to trade with both belligerents. There were then
+more neutrals whose interests would have compelled the observance of
+the laws of blockade, which in the present war are flagrantly
+violated by all belligerents with impunity. A submarine raid which
+would have sunk or driven away the blockading fleet at the entrance
+to a single harbour would have resulted in opening that harbour to
+the unrestricted uses of neutral ships until the blockade could be
+re-established and formal notice given to all powers--a formality
+which in those days, prior to the existence of cables, would have
+entailed weeks, perhaps months, of delay.
+
+How serious such an interruption to the blockade was then considered
+was shown by the trepidation of the Union naval authorities over the
+first victories of the _Merrimac_ prior to the providential arrival
+of the _Monitor_ in Hampton Roads. It was then thought that the
+Confederate ram would go straight to Wilmington, Charleston, and
+Savannah, destroy or drive away the blockaders, and open the
+Confederacy to the trade of the world.
+
+Even then men dreamed of submarines, as indeed they have since the
+days of the American Revolution. Of the slow development of that
+engine of war to its present effectiveness we shall speak more fully
+in later chapters. Enough now to say that had the Confederacy
+possessed boats of the U-53 type the story of our Civil War might
+have had a different ending. The device which the Allies have
+adopted to-day of blockading a port or ports by posting their ships
+several hundred miles away would have found no toleration among
+neutrals none too friendly to the United States, and vastly stronger
+in proportion to the power of this nation than all the neutrals
+to-day are to the strength of the Allies.
+
+[Illustration: _Victory in the Clouds._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+From the beginning of the Great War in Europe the fleets of the
+Teutonic alliance were locked up in port by the superior floating
+forces of the Entente. Such sporadic dashes into the arena of
+conflict as the one made by the German High Fleet, bringing on the
+Battle of Jutland, had but little bearing on the progress of the
+war. But the steady, persistent malignant activity of the German
+submarines had everything to do with it. They mitigated the
+rigidity of the British blockade by keeping the blockaders far from
+the ports they sought to seal. They preyed on the British fleets by
+sinking dreadnoughts, battleships, and cruisers in nearly all of the
+belligerent seas. If the British navy justified its costly power by
+keeping the German fleet practically imprisoned in its fortified
+harbours, the German submarines no less won credit and glory by
+keeping even that overwhelming naval force restricted in its
+movements, ever on guard, ever in a certain sense on the defensive.
+And meanwhile these underwater craft so preyed upon British
+foodships that in the days of the greatest submarine activity
+England was reduced to husbanding her stores of food with almost as
+great thrift and by precisely the same methods as did Germany
+suffering from the British blockade.
+
+Aircraft and submarines! Twin terrors of the world's greatest war!
+The development, though by no means the final development, of dreams
+that men of many nations have dreamed throughout the centuries! They
+are two of the outstanding features of the war; two of its legacies
+to mankind. How much the legacy may be worth in peaceful times is
+yet to be determined. The airplane and the dirigible at any rate
+seem already to promise useful service to peaceful man. Already the
+flier is almost as common a spectacle in certain sections of our
+country as the automobile was fifteen years ago. The submarine, for
+economic reasons, promises less for the future in the way of
+peaceful service, notwithstanding the exploits of the _Deutschland_
+in the ocean-carrying trade. But perhaps it too will find its place
+in industry when awakened man shall be willing to spend as much
+treasure, as much genius, as much intelligent effort, and as much
+heroic self-sacrifice in organizing for the social good as in the
+last four years he has expended in its destruction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EARLIEST FLYING MEN
+
+
+The conquest of the air has been the dream of mankind for uncounted
+centuries. As far back as we have historic records we find stories
+of the attempts of men to fly. The earliest Greek mythology is full
+of aeronautical legends, and the disaster which befell Icarus and
+his wings of wax when exposed to the glare of the midsummer sun in
+Greece, is part of the schoolboy's task in Ovid. We find like
+traditions in the legendary lore of the Peruvians, the East Indians,
+the Babylonians, even the savage races of darkest Africa. In the
+Hebrew scriptures the chief badge of sanctity conferred on God's
+angels was wings, and the ability to fly. If we come down to the
+mythology of more recent times we find our pious ancestors in New
+England thoroughly convinced that the witches they flogged and
+hanged were perfectly able to navigate the air on a broomstick--thus
+antedating the Wrights' experiments with heavier-than-air machines
+by more than 250 years.
+
+It is an interesting fact, stimulating to philosophical reflection,
+that in the last decade more has been done toward the conquest of
+the air, than in the twenty centuries preceding it, though during
+all that period men had been dreaming, planning, and experimenting
+upon contrivances for flight. Moreover when success came--or such
+measure of success as has been won--it came by the application of an
+entirely novel principle hardly dreamed of before the nineteenth
+century.
+
+Some of the earlier efforts to master gravity and navigate the air
+are worthy of brief mention if only to show how persistent were the
+efforts from the earliest historic ages to accomplish this end.
+Passing over the legends of the time of mythology we find that
+many-sided genius, Leonardo da Vinci, early in the sixteenth
+century, not content with being a painter, architect, sculptor,
+engineer and designer of forts, offering drawings and specifications
+of wings which, fitted to men, he thought would enable them to fly.
+The sketches are still preserved in a museum at Paris. He modelled
+his wings on those of a bat and worked them with ropes passing over
+pulleys, the aviator lying prone, face downward, and kicking with
+both arms and legs with the vigour of a frog. There is, unhappily,
+no record that the proposition ever advanced beyond the literary
+stage--certainly none that Da Vinci himself thus risked his life.
+History records no one who kicked his way aloft with the Da Vinci
+device. But the manuscript which the projector left shows that he
+recognized the modern aviator's maxim, "There's safety in altitude."
+He says, in somewhat confused diction:
+
+     The bird should with the aid of the wind raise itself to a great
+     height, and this will be its safety; because although the
+     revolutions mentioned may happen there is time for it to recover
+     its equilibrium, provided its various parts are capable of strong
+     resistance so that they may safely withstand the fury and impetus
+     of the descent.
+
+[Illustration: _The Fall of the Boche._
+
+_From the painting by Lieutenant Farre._
+
+Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
+
+The fallacy that a man could, by the rapid flapping of wings of any
+sort, overcome the force of gravity persisted up to a very recent
+day, despite the complete mathematical demonstration by von
+Helmholtz in 1878 that man could not possibly by his own muscular
+exertions raise his own weight into the air and keep it suspended.
+Time after time the "flapping wings" were resorted to by ambitious
+aviators with results akin to those attained by Darius Green. One of
+the earliest was a French locksmith named Besnier, who had four
+collapsible planes on two rods balanced across his shoulders. These
+he vigorously moved up and down with his hands and feet, the planes
+opening like covers of a book as they came down, and closing as they
+came up. Besnier made no attempt to raise himself from the ground,
+but believed that once launched in the air from an elevation he
+could maintain himself, and glide gradually to earth at a
+considerable distance. It is said that he and one or two of his
+students did in a way accomplish this. Others, however,
+experimenting with the same method came to sorry disaster. Among
+these was an Italian friar whom King James IV. of Scotland had made
+Prior of Tongland. Equipped with a pair of large feather wings
+operated on the Besnier principle, he launched himself from the
+battlements of Stirling Castle in the presence of King James and
+his court. But gravity was too much for his apparatus, and turning
+over and over in mid-air he finally landed ingloriously on a manure
+heap--at that period of nascent culture a very common feature of the
+pleasure grounds of a palace. He had a soul above his fate however,
+for he ascribed his fall not to vulgar mechanical causes, but wholly
+to the fact that he had overlooked the proper dignity of flight by
+pluming his wings with the feathers of common barn-yard fowl instead
+of with plumes plucked from the wings of eagles!
+
+In sharp competition with the aspiring souls who sought to fly with
+wings--the forerunners of the airplane devotees of to-day--were
+those who tried to find some direct lifting device for a car which
+should contain the aviators. Some of their ideas were curiously
+logical and at the same time comic. There was, for example, a
+priest, Le Pere Galien of Avignon. He observed that the rarified air
+at the summit of the Alps was vastly lighter than that in the
+valleys below. What then was to hinder carrying up empty sacks of
+cotton or oiled silk to the mountain tops, opening them to the
+lighter air of the upper ranges, and sealing them hermetically when
+filled by it. When brought down into the valleys they would have
+lifting power enough to carry tons up to the summits again. The good
+Father's education in physics was not sufficiently advanced to warn
+him that the effort to drag the balloons down into the valley would
+exact precisely the force they would exert in lifting any load out
+of the valley--if indeed they possessed any lifting power
+whatsoever, which is exceedingly doubtful.
+
+Another project, which sounded logical enough, was based on the
+irrefutable truth that as air has some weight--to be exact 14.70
+pounds for a column one inch square and the height of the earth's
+atmosphere--a vacuum must be lighter, as it contains nothing, not
+even air. Accordingly in the seventeenth century, one Francisco
+Lana, another priest, proposed to build an airship supported by four
+globes of copper, very thin and light, from which all the air had
+been pumped. The globes were to be twenty feet in diameter, and were
+estimated to have a lifting force of 2650 pounds. The weight of the
+copper shells was put at 1030 pounds, leaving a margin of possible
+weight for the car and its contents of 1620 pounds. It seemed at
+first glance a perfectly reasonable and logical plan. Unhappily one
+factor in the problem had been ignored. The atmospheric pressure on
+each of the globes would be about 1800 tons. Something more than a
+thin copper shell would be needed to resist this crushing force and
+an adequate increase in the strength of the shells would so enhance
+their weight as to destroy their lifting power.
+
+[Illustration: Lana's Vacuum Balloon.]
+
+To tell at length the stories of attempt and failure of the earliest
+dabblers in aeronautics would be unprofitable and uninteresting. Not
+until the eighteenth century did the experimenters with
+lighter-than-air devices show any practical results. Not until the
+twentieth century did the advocates of the heavier-than-air machines
+show the value of their fundamental idea. The former had to discover
+a gaseous substance actually lighter, and much lighter, than the
+surrounding atmosphere before they could make headway. The latter
+were compelled to abandon wholly the effort to imitate the flapping
+of a bird's wings, and study rather the method by which the bird
+adjusts the surface of its wings to the wind and soars without
+apparent effort, before they could show the world any promising
+results.
+
+Nearly every step forward in applied science is accomplished because
+of the observation by some thoughtful mind of some common phenomenon
+of nature, and the later application of those observations to some
+useful purpose.
+
+It seems a far cry from an ancient Greek philosopher reposing
+peacefully in his bath to a modern Zeppelin, but the connection is
+direct. Every schoolboy knows the story of the sudden dash of
+Archimedes, stark and dripping from his tub, with the triumphant cry
+of "Eureka!"--"I have found it!" What he had found was the rule
+which governed the partial flotation of his body in water. Most of
+us observe it, but the philosophical mind alone inquired "Why?"
+Archimedes' answer was this rule which has become a fundamental of
+physics: "A body plunged into a fluid is subjected by this fluid to
+a pressure from below to above equal to the weight of the fluid
+displaced by the body." A balloon is plunged in the air--a fluid. If
+it is filled with air there is no upward pressure from below, but if
+it is filled with a gas lighter than air there is a pressure upward
+equal to the difference between the weight of that gas and that of
+an equal quantity of air. Upon that fact rests the whole theory and
+practice of ballooning.
+
+The illustration of James Watt watching the steam rattle the cover
+of a teapot and from it getting the rudimentary idea of the steam
+engine is another case in point. Sometimes however the application
+of the hints of nature to the needs of man is rather ludicrously
+indirect. Charles Lamb gravely averred that because an early
+Chinaman discovered that the flesh of a pet pig, accidentally
+roasted in the destruction by fire of his owner's house, proved
+delicious to the palate, the Chinese for years made a practice of
+burning down their houses to get roast pig with "crackling." Early
+experimenters in aviation observed that birds flapped their wings
+and flew. Accordingly they believed that man to fly must have wings
+and flap them likewise. Not for hundreds of years did they observe
+that most birds flapped their wings only to get headway, or
+altitude, thereafter soaring to great heights and distances merely
+by adjusting the angle of their wings to the various currents of air
+they encountered.
+
+In a similar way the earliest experimenters with balloons observed
+that smoke always ascended. "Let us fill a light envelope with
+smoke," said they, "and it will rise into the air bearing a burden
+with it." All of which was true enough, and some of the first
+balloonists cast upon their fires substances like sulphur and pitch
+in order to produce a thicker smoke, which they believed had greater
+lifting power than ordinary hot air.
+
+In the race for actual accomplishment the balloonists, the advocates
+of lighter-than-air machines, took the lead at first. It is
+customary and reasonable to discard as fanciful the various devices
+and theories put forward by the experimenters in the Middle Ages and
+fix the beginning of practical aeronautical devices with the
+invention of hot-air balloons by the Montgolfiers, of Paris, in
+1783.
+
+The Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Jacques, were paper-makers of
+Paris. The family had long been famous for its development of the
+paper trade, and the many ingenious uses to which they put its
+staple. Just as the tanners of the fabled town in the Middle Ages
+thought there was "nothing like leather" with which to build its
+walls and gates, thereby giving a useful phrase to literature, so
+the Montgolfiers thought of everything in terms of paper. Sitting by
+their big open fireplace one night, so runs the story, they noticed
+the smoke rushing up the chimney. "Why not fill a big paper bag with
+smoke and make it lift objects into the air?" cried one. The
+experiment was tried next day with a small bag and proved a complete
+success. A neighbouring housewife looked in, and saw the bag bumping
+about the ceiling, but rapidly losing its buoyancy as the smoke
+escaped.
+
+[Illustration: Montgolfier's Experimental Balloon.]
+
+"Why not fasten a pan below the mouth of the bag," said she, "and
+put your fire in that? Its weight will keep the bag upright, and
+when it rises will carry the smoke and the pan up with it."
+
+Acting upon the hint the brothers fixed up a small bag which sailed
+up into the air beyond recapture. After various experiments a bag of
+mixed paper and linen thirty-five feet in diameter was inflated and
+released. It soared to a height of six thousand feet, and drifted
+before the wind a mile or more before descending. The ascent took
+place at Avonay, the home at the time of the Montgolfiers, and as
+every sort of publicity was given in advance, a huge assemblage
+including many officials of high estate gathered to witness it. A
+roaring fire was built in a pit over the mouth of which eight men
+held the great sack, which rolled, and beat about before the wind as
+it filled and took the form of a huge ball. The crowd was
+unbelieving and cynical, inclined to scoff at the idea that mere
+smoke would carry so huge a construction up into the sky. But when
+the signal was given to cast off, the balloon rose with a swiftness
+and majesty that at first struck the crowd dumb, then moved it to
+cheers of amazement and admiration. It went up six thousand feet and
+the Montgolfiers were at once elevated to almost an equal height of
+fame. The crowd which watched the experiment was wild with
+enthusiasm; the Montgolfiers elated with the first considerable
+victory over the force of gravity. They had demonstrated a principle
+and made their names immortal. What remained was to develop that
+principle and apply it to practical ends. That development, however,
+proceeded for something more than a century before anything like a
+practical airship was constructed.
+
+But for the moment the attack on the forces which had kept the air
+virgin territory to man was not allowed to lag. In Paris public
+subscriptions were opened to defray the cost of a new and greater
+balloon. By this time it was known that hydrogen gas, or
+"inflammable air" as it was then called, was lighter than air. But
+its manufacture was then expensive and public aid was needed for the
+new experiment which would call at the outset for a thousand pounds
+of iron filings and 498 pounds of sulphuric acid wherewith to
+manufacture the gas.
+
+The first experiment had been made in the provinces. This one was
+set for Paris, and in an era when the French capital was
+intellectually more alert, more eager for novelty, more interested
+in the advancement of physical science and in new inventions than
+ever in its long history of hospitality to the new idea. They began
+to fill the bag August 23, 1783 in the _Place des Victoires_, but
+the populace so thronged that square that two days later it was
+moved half filled to Paris's most historic point, the _Champ de
+Mars_. The transfer was made at midnight through the narrow dark
+streets of mediaeval Paris. Eyewitnesses have left descriptions of
+the scene. Torch-bearers lighted on its way the cortege the central
+feature of which was the great bag, half filled with gas, flabby,
+shapeless, monstrous, mysterious, borne along by men clutching at
+its formless bulk. The state had recognized the importance of the
+new device and cuirassiers in glittering breastplates on horseback,
+and halbardiers in buff leather on foot guarded it in its transit
+through the sleeping city. But Paris was not all asleep. An escort
+of the sensation-loving rabble kept pace with the guards. The cries
+of the quarters rose above the tramp of the armed men. Observers
+have recorded that the passing cab drivers were so affected by
+wonder that they clambered down from their boxes and with doffed
+hats knelt in the highway while the procession passed.
+
+The ascension, which occurred two days later, was another moving
+spectacle. In the centre of the great square which has seen so many
+historic pageants, rose the swaying, quivering balloon, now filled
+to its full capacity of twenty-two thousand feet. Whether from the
+art instinct indigenous to the French, or some superstitious idea
+like that which impels the Chinese to paint eyes on their junks, the
+balloon was lavishly decorated in water colours, with views of
+rising suns, whirling planets, and other solar bodies amongst which
+it was expected to mingle.
+
+Ranks of soldiers kept the populace at a distance, while within the
+sacred precincts strolled the King and the ladies and cavaliers of
+his court treading all unconsciously on the brink of that red terror
+soon to engulf the monarchy. The gas in the reeling bag was no more
+inflammable than the air of Paris in those days just before the
+Revolution. With a salvo of cannon the guy-ropes were released and
+the balloon vanished in the clouds.
+
+Benjamin Franklin, at the moment representing in France the American
+colonies then struggling for liberty, witnessed this ascension! "Of
+what use is a new-born child?" he remarked sententiously as the
+balloon vanished. 'Twas a saying worthy of a cautious philosopher.
+Had Franklin been in Paris in 1914 he would have found the child,
+grown to lusty manhood, a strong factor in the city's defence. It is
+worth noting by the way that so alert was the American mind at that
+period that when the news of the Montgolfiers' achievement reached
+Philadelphia it found David Rittenhouse and other members of the
+Philosophical Society already experimenting with balloons.
+
+[Illustration: _A Rescue at Sea._
+
+_From the painting by Lieutenant Farre._
+
+Photo by Peter A. Juley.]
+
+A curious sequel attended the descent of the Montgolfier craft which
+took place in a field fifteen miles from Paris. Long before the days
+of newspapers, the peasants had never heard of balloons, and this
+mysterious object, dropping from high heaven into their peaceful
+carrot patch affrighted them. Some fled. Others approached timidly,
+armed with the normal bucolic weapons--scythes and pitchforks.
+Attacked with these the fainting monster, which many took for a
+dragon, responded with loud hisses and emitted a gas of unfamiliar
+but most pestiferous odour. It suggested brimstone, which to the
+devout in turn implied the presence of Satan. With guns, flails, and
+all obtainable weapons they fell upon the emissary of the Evil One,
+beat him to the ground, crushed out of him the vile-smelling breath
+of his nostrils, and finally hitched horses to him and dragged him
+about the fields until torn to tatters and shreds.
+
+When the public-spirited M. Charles who had contributed largely to
+the cost of this experiment came in a day or two to seek his balloon
+he found nothing but some shreds of cloth, and some lively legends
+of the prowess of the peasants in demolishing the devil's own
+dragon.
+
+The government, far-sightedly, recognizing that there would be more
+balloons and useful ones, thereupon issued this proclamation for the
+discouragement of such bucolic valour:
+
+     A discovery has been made which the government deems it wise to
+     make known so that alarm may not be occasioned to the people. On
+     calculating the different weights of inflammable and common air
+     it has been found that a balloon filled with inflammable air will
+     rise toward heaven until it is in equilibrium with the
+     surrounding air; which may not happen till it has attained to a
+     great height. Anyone who should see such a globe,
+     resembling the moon in an eclipse, should be aware that far from
+     being an alarming phenomenon it is only a machine made of
+     taffetas, or light canvas covered with paper, that cannot
+     possibly cause any harm and which will some day prove serviceable
+     to the wants of society.
+
+Came now the next great step in the progress of aeronautics. It had
+been demonstrated that balloons could lift themselves. They had even
+been made to lift dumb animals and restore them to earth unhurt. But
+if the conquest of the air was to amount to anything, men must go
+aloft in these new machines. Lives must be risked to demonstrate a
+theory, or to justify a calculation. Aeronautics is no science for
+laboratory or library prosecution. Its battles must be fought in the
+sky, and its devotees must be willing to offer their lives to the
+cause. In that respect the science of aviation has been different
+from almost any subject of inquiry that has ever engaged the
+restless intellect of man, unless perhaps submarine navigation, or
+the invention of explosives. It cannot be prosecuted except with a
+perfect willingness to risk life. No doubt this is one of the
+reasons why practical results seemed so long in the coming. Nor have
+men been niggardly in this enforced sacrifice. Though no records of
+assured accuracy are available, the names of forty-eight aeronauts
+who gave up their lives in the century following the Montgolfiers'
+invention are recorded. That record ended in 1890. How many have
+since perished, particularly on the battlefields of Europe where
+aircraft are as commonplace as cannon, it is too early yet to
+estimate.
+
+[Illustration: Montgolfier's Passenger Balloon.]
+
+After the success of the ascension from the _Champ de Mars_, the
+demand at once arose for an ascension by a human being. It was a
+case of calling for volunteers. The experiments already made showed
+clearly enough that the balloon would rise high in air. Who would
+risk his life soaring one thousand feet or more above the earth, in
+a flimsy bag, filled with hot air, or inflammable gas, without means
+of directing its course or bringing it with certainty and safety
+back to a landing place? It was a hard question, and it is
+interesting to note that it was answered not by a soldier or sailor,
+not by an adventurer, or devil-may-care spirit, but by a grave and
+learned professor of physical science, Pilatre de Rozier. Presently
+he was joined in his enterprise by a young man of the fashionable
+world and sporting tastes, the Marquis d'Arlandes. Aristocratic
+Paris took up aviation in the last days of the eighteenth century,
+precisely as the American leisure class is taking it up in the first
+days of the twentieth.
+
+The balloon for this adventure was bigger than its predecessors and
+for the first time a departure was taken from the spherical
+variety--the gas bag being seventy-four feet high, and forty-eight
+feet in diameter. Like the first Montgolfier balloons it was to be
+inflated with hot air, and the car was well packed with bundles of
+fuel with which the two aeronauts were to fill the iron brazier when
+its fires went down. The instinct for art and decoration, so strong
+in the French mind, had been given full play by the constructors of
+this balloon and it was painted with something of the gorgeousness
+of a circus poster.
+
+A tremendous crowd packed the park near Paris whence the ascent was
+made. Always the spectacle of human lives in danger has a morbid
+attraction for curiosity seekers, and we have seen in our own days
+throngs attracted to aviation congresses quite as much in the
+expectation of witnessing some fatal disaster, as to observe the
+progress made in man's latest conquest over nature. But in this
+instance the occasion justified the widest interest. It was an
+historic moment--more epoch-making than those who gathered in that
+field in the environs of Paris could have possibly imagined. For in
+the clumsy, gaudy bag, rolling and tossing above a smoky fire lay
+the fundamentals of those great airships that, perfected by the
+persistence of Count Zeppelin, have crossed angry seas, breasted
+fierce winds, defied alike the blackest nights and the thickest fogs
+to rain their messages of death on the capital of a foe.
+
+Contemporary accounts of this first ascension are but few, and those
+that have survived have come down to us in but fragmentary form. It
+was thought needful for two to make the ascent, for the car, or
+basket, which held the fire hung below the open mouth of the bag,
+and the weight of a man on one side would disturb the perfect
+equilibrium which it was believed would be essential to a successful
+flight. The Marquis d'Arlandes in a published account of the brief
+flight, which sounds rather as if the two explorers of an unknown
+element were not free from nervousness, writes:
+
+"Our departure was at fifty-four minutes past one, and occasioned
+little stir among the spectators. Thinking they might be frightened
+and stand in need of encouragement I waved my arm."
+
+This solicitude for the fears of the spectators, standing safely on
+solid earth while the first aeronauts sailed skywards, is
+characteristically Gallic. The Marquis continues:
+
+     M. de Rozier cried: "You are doing nothing, and we are not
+     rising." I stirred the fire and then began to scan the river,
+     but Pilatre again cried: "See the river. We are dropping into
+     it!" We again urged the fire, but still clung to the river bed.
+     Presently I heard a noise in the upper part of the balloon,
+     which gave a shock as though it had burst. I called to my
+     companion: "Are you dancing?" The balloon by this time had many
+     holes burnt in it and using my sponge I cried that we must
+     descend. My companion however explained that we were over Paris
+     and must now cross it; therefore raising the fire once more we
+     turned south till we passed the Luxembourg, when,
+     extinguishing the flames, the balloon came down spent and
+     empty.
+
+If poor Pilatre played the part of a rather nervous man in this
+narrative he had the nerve still to go on with his aeronautical
+experiments to the point of death. In 1785 he essayed the crossing
+of the English Channel in a balloon of his own design, in which he
+sought to combine the principles of the gas and hot-air balloons. It
+appears to have been something like an effort to combine
+nitro-glycerine with an electric spark. At any rate the dense crowds
+that thronged the coast near Boulogne to see the start of the
+"Charles--Montgolfier"--as the balloon was named after the
+originators of the rival systems--saw it, after half an hour's drift
+out to sea, suddenly explode in a burst of flame. De Rozier and a
+friend who accompanied him were killed. A monument still recalls
+their fate, which however is more picturesquely recorded in the
+signs of sundry inns and cafes of the neighbourhood which offer
+refreshment in the name of _Les Aviateurs Perdus_.
+
+Thereafter experimenters with balloons multiplied amazingly. The
+world thought the solution of the problem of flight had been found
+in the gas bag. Within two months a balloon capable of lifting
+eighteen tons and carrying seven passengers ascended three thousand
+feet at Lyons, and, though sustaining a huge rent in the envelope,
+because of the expansion of the gas at that height, returned to
+earth in safety. The fever ran from France to England and in 1784,
+only a year after the first Montgolfier experiments, Lunardi, an
+Italian aeronaut made an ascension from London which was viewed by
+King George III. and his ministers, among them William Pitt. But the
+early enthusiasm for ballooning quickly died down to mere curiosity.
+It became apparent to all that merely to rise into the air, there to
+be the helpless plaything of the wind, was but a useless and futile
+accomplishment. Pleasure seekers and mountebanks used balloons for
+their own purposes, but serious experimenters at once saw that if
+the invention of the balloon was to be of the slightest practical
+value some method must be devised for controlling and directing its
+flight. To this end some of the brightest intellects of the world
+directed their efforts, but it is hardly overstating the case to say
+that more than a century passed without any considerable progress
+toward the development of a dirigible balloon.
+
+[Illustration: Charles's Balloon.]
+
+But even at the earlier time it was evident enough that the Quaker
+philosopher, from the American Colonies, not yet the United States,
+whose shrewd and inquiring disposition made him intellectually one
+of the foremost figures of his day, foresaw clearly the great
+possibilities of this new invention. In letters to Sir Joseph Banks,
+then President of the Royal Society of London, Franklin gave a
+lively account of the first three ascensions, together with some
+comments, at once suggestive and humorous, which are worth quoting:
+
+     Some think [he wrote of the balloon] Progressive Motion on the
+     Earth may be advanc'd by it, and that a Running Footman or a
+     Horse slung and suspended under such a Globe so as to have no
+     more of Weight pressing the Earth with their Feet than Perhaps
+     8 or 10 Pounds, might with a fair Wind run in a straight Line
+     across Countries as fast as that Wind, and over Hedges, Ditches
+     and even Waters. It has been even fancied that in time People
+     will keep such Globes anchored in the Air to which by Pullies
+     they may draw up Game to be preserved in the Cool and Water to
+     be frozen when Ice is wanted. And that to get Money it will be
+     contriv'd, by running them up in an Elbow Chair a Mile high for
+     a guinea, etc., etc.
+
+With his New England lineage Franklin could hardly have failed of
+this comparison: "A few Months since the Idea of Witches riding
+through the Air upon a broomstick, and that of Philosophers upon a
+Bag of Smoke would have appeared equally impossible and ridiculous."
+
+To-day when aircraft are the eyes of the armies in the greatest war
+of history, and when it appears that, with the return of peace, the
+conquest of the air for the ordinary uses of man will be swiftly
+completed, Franklin's good-humoured plea for the fullest
+experimentation is worth recalling. And the touch of piety with
+which he concludes his argument is a delightful example of the
+whimsical fashion in which he often undertook to bolster up a
+mundane theory with a reference to things supernatural.
+
+[Illustration: _A French Observation Balloon on Fire._
+
+(C) U. & U.]
+
+     I am sorry this Experiment is totally neglected in England, where
+     mechanic Genius is so strong. I wish I could see the same
+     Emulation between the two Nations as I see between the two
+     Parties here. Your Philosophy seems to be too bashful. In this
+     Country we are not so much afraid of being laught at. If we do a
+     foolish thing, we are the first to laugh at it ourselves, and are
+     almost as much pleased with a _Bon Mot_ or a _Chanson_, that
+     ridicules well the Disappointment of a Project, as we might have
+     been with its success. It does not seem to me a good reason to
+     decline prosecuting a new Experiment which apparently increases
+     the power of Man over Matter, till we can see to what Use that
+     Power may be applied. When we have learnt to manage it, we may
+     hope some time or other to find Uses for it, as men have done for
+     Magnetism and Electricity, of which the first Experiments were
+     mere Matters of Amusement.
+
+     This Experience is by no means a trifling one. It may be attended
+     with important Consequences that no one can foresee. We should
+     not suffer Pride to prevent our progress in Science.
+
+     Beings of a Rank and Nature far superior to ours have not
+     disdained to amuse themselves with making and launching Balloons,
+     otherwise we should never have enjoyed the Light of those
+     glorious objects that rule our Day & Night, nor have had the
+     Pleasure of riding round the Sun ourselves upon the Balloon we
+     now inhabit.
+
+                                                B. FRANKLIN.
+
+The earliest experimenters thought that oars might be employed to
+propel and direct a balloon. The immediate failure of all endeavours
+of this sort, led them, still pursuing the analogy between a balloon
+and a ship at sea, to try to navigate the air with sails. This again
+proved futile. It is impossible for a balloon, or airship to "tack"
+or manoeuvre in any way by sail power. It is in fact a monster sail
+itself, needing some other power than the wind to make headway or
+steerage way against the wind. The sail device was tested only to be
+abandoned. Only when a trail rope dragging along the ground or sea
+is employed does the sail offer sufficient resistance to the wind to
+sway the balloon's course this way or that. And a trailer is
+impracticable when navigating great heights.
+
+[Illustration: Roberts Brothers' Dirigible.]
+
+For these reasons the development of the balloon lagged, until Count
+Zeppelin and M. Santos-Dumont consecrated their fortunes, their
+inventive minds, and their amazing courage to the task of perfecting
+a dirigible. In a book, necessarily packed with information
+concerning the rapid development of aircraft which began in the last
+decade of the nineteenth century and was enormously stimulated
+during the war of all the world, the long series of early
+experiments with balloons must be passed over hastily. Though
+interesting historically these experiments were futile. Beyond
+having discovered what could _not_ be done with a balloon the
+practitioners of that form of aeronautics were little further along
+in 1898 when Count Zeppelin came along with the first plan for a
+rigid dirigible than they were when Blanchard in 1786, seizing a
+favourable gale drifted across the English Channel to the French
+shore, together with Dr. Jefferies, an American. It was just 124
+years later that Bleriot, a Frenchman, made the crossing in an
+airplane independently of favouring winds. It had taken a century
+and a quarter to attain this independence.
+
+In a vague way the earliest balloonists recognized that power,
+independent of wind, was necessary to give balloons steerage way and
+direction. Steam was in its infancy during the early days of
+ballooning, but the efforts to devise some sort of an engine light
+enough to be carried into the air were untiring. Within a year after
+the experiments of the Montgolfier brothers, the suggestion was made
+that the explosion of small quantities of gun-cotton and the
+expulsion of the resulting gases might be utilized in some fashion
+to operate propelling machinery. Though the suggestion was not
+developed to any useful point it was of interest as forecasting the
+fundamental idea of the gas engines of to-day which have made
+aviation possible--that is, the creation of power by a series of
+explosions within the motor.
+
+In the effort to make balloons dirigible one of the first steps was
+to change the form from the spherical or pear-shaped bag to a
+cylindrical, or cigar-shape. This device was adopted by the brothers
+Robert in France as early as 1784. Their balloon further had a
+double skin or envelope, its purpose being partly to save the gas
+which percolated through the inner skin, partly to maintain the
+rigidity of the structure. As gas escapes from an ordinary balloon
+it becomes flabby, and can be driven through the air only with
+extreme difficulty. In the balloon of the Robert brothers air could
+from time to time be pumped into the space between the two skins,
+keeping the outer envelope always fully distended and rigid. In
+later years this idea has been modified by incorporating in the
+envelope one large or a number of smaller balloons or "balloonets,"
+into which air may be pumped as needed.
+
+The shape too has come to approximate that of a fish rather than a
+bird, in the case of balloons at least. "The head of a cod and the
+tail of a mackerel," was the way Marey-Monge, the French aeronaut
+described it. Though most apparent in dirigible balloons, this will
+be seen to be the favourite design for airplanes if the wings be
+stripped off, and the body and tail alone considered. Complete,
+these machines are not unlike a flying fish.
+
+In England, Sir George Cayley, as early as 1810 studied and wrote
+largely on the subject of dirigibles but, though the English call
+him the "father of British aeronautics," his work seems to have been
+rather theoretical than practical. He did indeed demonstrate
+mathematically that no lifting power existed that would support the
+cumbrous steam-engine of that date, and tried to solve this dilemma
+by devising a gas engine, and an explosive engine. With one of the
+latter, driven by a series of explosions of gunpowder, each in a
+separate cell set off by a detonator, he equipped a flying machine
+which attained a sufficient height to frighten Cayley's coachman,
+whom he had persuaded to act as pilot. The rather unwilling aviator,
+fearing a loftier flight, jumped out and broke his leg. Though by
+virtue of this martyrdom his name should surely have descended to
+fame with that of Cayley it has been lost, together with all record
+of any later performances of the machine, which unquestionably
+embodied some of the basic principles of our modern aircraft, though
+it antedated the first of these by nearly a century.
+
+[Illustration: Giffard's Dirigible.]
+
+We may pass over hastily some of the later experiments with dirigibles
+that failed. In 1834 the Count de Lennox built an airship 130 feet
+long to be driven by oars worked by man power. When the crowd that
+gathered to watch the ascent found that the machine was too heavy to
+ascend even without the men, they expressed their lively contempt for
+the inventor by tearing his clothes to tatters and smashing his
+luckless airship. In 1852, another Frenchman, Henry Giffard, built a
+cigar-shaped balloon 150 feet long by 40 feet in diameter, driven by
+steam. The engine weighed three hundred pounds and generated about 3
+H.-P.--about 1/200 as much power as a gas engine of equal weight would
+produce. Even with this slender power, however, Giffard attained a
+speed, independent of the wind, of from five to seven miles an
+hour--enough at least for steerage way. This was really the first
+practical demonstration of the possibilities of the mechanical
+propulsion of balloons. Several adaptations of the Giffard idea
+followed, and in 1883 Renard and Krebs, in a fusiform ship, driven by
+an electric motor, attained a speed of fifteen miles an hour. By this
+time inventive genius in all countries--save the United States which
+lagged in interest in dirigibles--was stimulated. Germany and France
+became the great protagonists in the struggle for precedence and in
+the struggle two figures stand out with commanding prominence--the
+Count von Zeppelin and Santos-Dumont, a young Brazilian resident in
+Paris who without official countenance consecrated his fortune to, and
+risked his life in, the service of aviation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE SERVICES OF SANTOS-DUMONT
+
+
+In his book _My Airships_ the distinguished aviator A. Santos-Dumont
+tells this story of the ambition of his youth and its realization in
+later days:
+
+     I cannot say at what age I made my first kites, but I remember
+     how my comrades used to tease me at our game of "pigeon flies."
+     All the children gather round a table and the leader calls out
+     "Pigeon Flies! Hen flies! Crow flies! Bee flies!" and so on; and
+     at each call we were supposed to raise our fingers. Sometimes,
+     however, he would call out "Dog flies! Fox flies!" or some other
+     like impossibility to catch us. If any one raised a finger then
+     he was made to pay a forfeit. Now my playmates never failed to
+     wink and smile mockingly at me when one of them called "Man
+     flies!" for at the word I would always raise my finger very high,
+     as a sign of absolute conviction, and I refused with energy to
+     pay the forfeit. The more they laughed at me the happier I was,
+     hoping that some day the laugh would be on my side.
+
+     Among the thousands of letters which I received after winning the
+     Deutsch prize (a prize offered in 1901 for sailing around the
+     Eiffel Tower) there was one that gave me peculiar pleasure. I
+     quote from it as a matter of curiosity:
+
+     "Do you remember, my dear Alberto, when we played together
+     'Pigeon Flies!'? It came back to me suddenly when the news of
+     your success reached Rio. 'Man flies!' old fellow! You were right
+     to raise your finger, and you have just proved it by flying round
+     the Eiffel Tower.
+
+      "They play the old game now more than ever at home; but the
+     name has been changed, and the rules modified since October 19,
+     1901. They call it now 'Man flies!' and he who does not raise his
+     finger at the word pays the forfeit."
+
+The story of Santos-Dumont affords a curious instance of a boy being
+obsessed by an idea which as a man he carried to its successful
+fruition. It offers also evidence of the service that may accrue to
+society from the devotion of a dilettante to what people may call a
+"fad," but what is in fact the germ of a great idea needing only an
+enthusiast with enthusiasm, brains, and money for its development.
+Because the efforts of Santos-Dumont always smacked of the amateur
+he has been denied his real place in the history of aeronautics,
+which is that of a fearless innovator, and a devoted worker in the
+cause.
+
+Born on one of those great coffee plantations of Brazil, where all
+is done by machinery that possibly can be, Santos-Dumont early
+developed a passion for mechanics. In childhood he made toy
+airplanes. He confesses that his favourite author was Jules Verne,
+that literary idol of boyhood, who while writing books as wildly
+imaginative as any dime tale of redskins, or nickel novel of the
+doings of "Nick Carter" had none the less the spirit of prophecy
+that led him to forecast the submarine, the automobile, and the
+navigation of the air. At fifteen Santos-Dumont saw his first
+balloon and marked the day with red.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A British Kite Balloon._
+
+(_The open sack at the lower end catches the breeze and keeps the
+balloon steady._)]
+
+     I too desired to go ballooning [he writes]. In the long
+     sun-bathed Brazilian afternoons, when the hum of insects,
+     punctuated by the far-off cry of some bird lulled me, I would lie
+     in the shade of the veranda and gaze into the fair sky of Brazil
+     where the birds fly so high and soar with such ease on their
+     great outstretched wings; where the clouds mount so gaily in the
+     pure light of day, and you have only to raise your eyes to fall
+     in love with space and freedom. So, musing on the exploration of
+     the aerial ocean, I, too, devised airships and flying-machines in
+     my imagination.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A British "Blimp" Photographed from Above._]
+
+From dreaming, the boy's ambitions rapidly developed into actions.
+Good South Americans, whatever the practice of their northern
+neighbours, do not wait to die before going to Paris. At the age of
+eighteen the youth found himself in the capital of the world. To his
+amazement he found that the science of aeronautics, such as it was,
+had stopped with Giffard's work in 1852. No dirigible was to be
+heard of in all Paris. The antiquated gas ball was the only way to
+approach the upper air. When the boy tried to arrange for an
+ascension the balloonist he consulted put so unconscionable a price
+on one ascent that he bought an automobile instead--one of the first
+made, for this was in 1891--and with it returned to Brazil. It was
+not until six years later that, his ambition newly fired by reading
+of Andree's plans for reaching the Pole in a balloon, Santos-Dumont
+took up anew his ambition to become an aviator. His own account of
+his first ascent does not bear precisely the hall-mark of the
+enthusiast too rapt in ecstasy to think of common things. "I had
+brought up," he notes gravely, "a substantial lunch of hard-boiled
+eggs, cold roast beef and chicken, cheese, ice cream, fruits and
+cakes, champagne, coffee, and chartreuse!"
+
+The balloon with its intrepid voyagers nevertheless returned to
+earth in safety.
+
+A picturesque figure, an habitue of the clubs and an eager
+sportsman, Santos-Dumont at once won the liking of the French
+people, and attracted attention wherever people gave thought to
+aviation. Liberal in expenditure of money, and utterly fearless in
+exposing his life, he pushed his experiments for the development of
+a true dirigible tirelessly. Perhaps his major fault was that he
+learned but slowly from the experiences of others. He clung to the
+spherical balloon long after the impossibility of controlling it in
+the air was accepted as unavoidable by aeronauts. But in 1898 having
+become infatuated with the performances of a little sixty-six pound
+tricycle motor he determined to build a cigar-shaped airship to fit
+it, and with that determination won success.
+
+Amateur he may have been, was indeed throughout the greater part of
+his career as an airman. Nevertheless Santos-Dumont has to his
+credit two very notable achievements.
+
+He was the first constructor and pilot of a dirigible balloon that
+made a round trip, that is to say returned to its starting place
+after rounding a stake at some distance--in this instance the Eiffel
+Tower, 3-1/2 miles from St. Cloud whence Santos-Dumont started and
+whither he returned within half an hour, the time prescribed.
+
+This was not, indeed, the first occasion on which a round trip,
+necessitating operation against the wind on at least one course, had
+been made. In 1884 Captain Renard had accomplished this feat for the
+first time with the fish-shaped balloon _La France_, driven by an
+electric motor of nine horse-power. But though thus antedated in his
+exploit, Santos-Dumont did in fact accomplish more for the
+advancement and development of dirigible balloons. To begin with he
+was able to use a new and efficient form of motor destined to become
+popular, and capable, as the automobile manufacturers later showed,
+of almost illimitable development in the direction of power and
+lightness. Except for the gasoline engine, developed by the makers
+of motor cars, aviation to-day would be where it was a quarter of a
+century ago.
+
+Moreover by his personal qualities, no less than by his successful
+demonstration of the possibilities inherent in the dirigible,
+Santos-Dumont persuaded the French Government to take up aeronautics
+again, after abandoning the subject as the mere fad of a number of
+visionaries.
+
+Turning from balloons to airplanes the Brazilian was the first
+aviator to make a flight with a heavier-than-air machine before a
+body of judges. This triumph was mainly technical. The Wrights had
+made an equally notable flight almost a year before but not under
+conditions that made it a matter of scientific record.
+
+But setting aside for the time the work done by Santos-Dumont with
+machines heavier than air, let us consider his triumphs with
+balloons at the opening of his career. He had come to France about
+forty years after Henry Giffard had demonstrated the practicability
+of navigating a balloon 144 feet long and 34 feet in diameter with a
+three-horse-power steam-engine. But no material success attended
+this demonstration, important as it was, and the inventor turned his
+attention to captive balloons, operating one at the Paris Exposition
+of 1878 that took up forty passengers at a time. There followed
+Captain Renard to whose achievement we have already referred. He had
+laid down as the fundamentals of a dirigible balloon these
+specifications:
+
+     A cigar, or fishlike shape.
+
+     An internal sack or ballonet into which air might be pumped to
+     replace any lost gas, and maintain the shape of the balloon.
+
+     A keel, or other longitudinal brace, to maintain the longitudinal
+     stability of the balloon and from which the car containing the
+     motor might be hung.
+
+     A propeller driven by a motor, the size and power of both to be
+     as great as permitted by the lifting power of the balloon.
+
+     A rudder capable of controlling the course of the ship.
+
+Santos-Dumont adopted all of these specifications, but added to them
+certain improvements which gave his airships--he built five of them
+before taking his first prize--notable superiority over that of
+Renard. To begin with he had the inestimable advantage of having the
+gasoline motor. He further lightened his craft by having the
+envelope made of Japanese silk, in flat defiance of all the builders
+of balloons who assured him that the substance was too light and its
+use would be suicidal. "All right," said the innovator to his
+favourite constructor, who refused to build him a balloon of that
+material, "I'll build it myself." In the face of this threat the
+builder capitulated. The balloon was built, and the silk proved to
+be the best fabric available at that time for the purpose. A keel
+made of strips of pine banded together with aluminum wire formed the
+backbone of the Santos-Dumont craft, and from it depended the car
+about one quarter of the length of the balloon and hung squarely
+amidships. The idea of this keel occurred to the inventor while
+pleasuring at Nice. Later it saved his life.
+
+One novel and exceedingly simple device bore witness to the
+ingenuity of the inventor. He had noticed in his days of free
+ballooning that to rise the aeronaut had to throw out sand-ballast;
+to descend he had to open the valves and let out gas. As his supply
+of both gas and sand was limited it was clear that the time of his
+flight was necessarily curtailed every time he ascended or
+descended. Santos-Dumont thought to husband his supplies of lifting
+force and of ballast, and make the motor raise and lower the ship.
+It was obvious that the craft would go whichever way the bow might
+be pointed, whether up or down. But how to shift the bow? The
+solution seems so simple that one wonders it ever perplexed
+aviators. From the peak of the bow and stern of his craft
+Santos-Dumont hung long ropes caught in the centre by lighter ropes
+by which they could be dragged into the car. In the car was carried
+a heavy bag of sand, which so long as it was there held the ship in
+a horizontal plane. Was it needful to depress the bow? Then the bow
+rope was hauled in, the bag attached, and swung out to a position
+where it would pull the forward tip of the delicately adjusted gas
+bag toward the earth. If only a gentle inclination was desired the
+bag was not allowed to hang directly under the bow, but was held at
+a point somewhere between the car and the bow so that the pull would
+be diagonal and the great cylinder would be diverted but little from
+the horizontal. If it were desired to ascend, a like manipulation of
+the ballast on the stern rope would depress the stern and point the
+bow upwards. For slight changes in direction it was not necessary
+even to attach the sand bag. Merely drawing the rope into the car
+and thus changing the line of its "pull" was sufficient.
+
+The Deutsch prize which stimulated Santos-Dumont to his greatest
+achievements with dirigibles was a purse of twenty thousand dollars,
+offered by Mr. Henry Deutsch, a wealthy patron of the art of
+aviation. Not himself an aviator, M. Deutsch greatly aided the
+progress of the air's conquest. Convinced that the true solution of
+the problem lay in development of the gasoline engine, he expended
+large sums in developing and perfecting it. When he believed it was
+sufficiently developed to solve the problem of directing the flight
+of balloons he offered his prize for the circuit of the Eiffel
+Tower. The conditions of the contest were not easy. The competitor
+had to sail from the Aero Club at St. Cloud, pass twice over the
+Seine which at that point makes an abrupt bend, sail over the Bois
+de Boulogne, circle the Tower, and return to the stopping place
+within a half an hour. The distance was about seven miles, and it is
+noteworthy that in his own comment on the test Santos-Dumont
+complains that that required an average speed of fifteen miles an
+hour of which he could not be sure with his balloon. To-day
+dirigibles make sixty miles an hour, and airplanes not infrequently
+reach 130 miles. Moreover there could be no picking of a day on
+which atmospheric conditions were especially good. Mr. Deutsch had
+stipulated that the test must be made in the presence of a
+Scientific Commission whose members must be notified twenty-four
+hours in advance. None could tell twenty-four hours ahead what the
+air might be like, and as for utilizing the aviator's most
+favourable hour, the calm of the dawn, M. Santos-Dumont remarked:
+"The duellist may call out his friends at that sacred hour, but not
+the airship captain."
+
+The craft with which the Brazilian first strove to win the Deutsch
+prize he called _Santos-Dumont No. V._ It was a cylinder, sharp at
+both ends, 109 feet long and driven by a 12-horse-power motor. A new
+feature was the use of piano wire for the support of the car, thus
+greatly reducing the resistance of the air which in the case of the
+old cord suspensions was almost as great as that of the balloon
+itself. Another novel feature was water ballast tanks forward and
+aft on the balloon itself and holding together twelve gallons. By
+pulling steel wires in the car the aviator could open the
+stop-cocks. The layman scarcely appreciates the very slight shift in
+ballast which will affect the stability of a dirigible. The shifting
+of a rope a few feet from its normal position, the dropping of two
+handfuls of sand, or release of a cup of water will do it. A
+humorous writer describing a lunch with Santos-Dumont in the air
+says: "Nothing must be thrown overboard, be it a bottle, an empty
+box or a chicken bone without the pilot's permission."
+
+After unofficial tests of his "No. 5" in one of which he circled the
+Tower without difficulty, Santos-Dumont summoned the Scientific
+Commission for a test. In ten minutes he had turned the Tower, and
+started back against a fierce head-wind, which made him ten minutes
+late in reaching the time-keepers. Just as he did so his engine
+failed, and after drifting for a time his ship perched in the top of
+a chestnut tree on the estate of M. Edmond Rothschild. Philosophical
+as ever the aeronaut clung to his craft, dispatched an excellent
+lunch which the Princess Isabel, Comtesse d'Eu, daughter of Dom
+Pedro, the deposed Emperor of Brazil, sent to his eyrie in the
+branches, and finally extricated himself and his balloon--neither
+much the worse for the accident. He had failed but his determination
+to win was only whetted.
+
+The second trial for the Deutsch prize like the first ended in
+failure, but that failure was so much more dramatic even than the
+success which attended the third effort that it is worth telling and
+can best be told in M. Santos-Dumont's own words. The quotation is
+from his memoir, _My Airships_:
+
+     And now I come to a terrible day--8th of August, 1901. At 6:30
+     A.M. in presence of the Scientific Commission of the Aero Club, I
+     started again for the Eiffel Tower.
+
+     I turned the tower at the end of nine minutes and took my way
+     back to St. Cloud; but my balloon was losing hydrogen through one
+     of its two automatic gas valves whose spring had been
+     accidentally weakened.
+
+     I had perceived the beginning of this loss of gas even before
+     reaching the Eiffel Tower, and ordinarily, in such an event, I
+     should have come at once to earth to examine the lesion. But here
+     I was competing for a prize of great honour and my speed had been
+     good. Therefore I risked going on.
+
+     The balloon now shrunk visibly. By the time I had got back to the
+     fortifications of Paris, near La Muette, it caused the suspension
+     wires to sag so much that those nearest to the screw-propeller
+     caught in it as it revolved.
+
+     I saw the propeller cutting and tearing at the wires. I stopped
+     the motor instantly. Then, as a consequence, the airship was at
+     once driven back toward the tower by the wind which was strong.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service Co.
+
+_A Kite Balloon Rising from the Hold of a Ship._]
+
+     At the same time I was falling. The balloon had lost much gas. I
+     might have thrown out ballast and greatly diminished the fall,
+     but then the wind would have time to blow me back on the Eiffel
+     Tower. I therefore preferred to let the airship go down as it was
+     going. It may have seemed a terrific fall to those who watched it
+     from the ground but to me the worst detail was the airship's lack
+     of equilibrium. The half-empty balloon, fluttering its empty end
+     as an elephant waves his trunk, caused the airship's stern to
+     point upward at an alarming angle. What I most feared therefore
+     was that the unequal strain on the suspension wires would break
+     them one by one and so precipitate me to the ground.
+
+     Why was the balloon fluttering an empty end causing all this
+     extra danger? How was it that the rotary ventilator was not
+     fulfilling its purpose in feeding the interior air balloon and in
+     this manner swelling out the gas balloon around it? The answer
+     must be looked for in the nature of the accident. The rotary
+     ventilator stopped working when the motor itself stopped, and I
+     had been obliged to stop the motor to prevent the propeller from
+     tearing the suspension wires near it when the balloon first began
+     to sag from loss of gas. It is true that the ventilator which was
+     working at that moment had not proved sufficient to prevent the
+     first sagging. It may have been that the interior balloon refused
+     to fill out properly. The day after the accident when my balloon
+     constructor's man came to me for the plans of a "No. 6" balloon
+     envelope I gathered from something he said that the interior
+     balloon of "No. 5," not having been given time for its varnish to
+     dry before being adjusted, might have stuck together or stuck to
+     the sides or bottom of the outer balloon. Such are the rewards of
+     haste.
+
+     I was falling. At the same time the wind was carrying me toward
+     the Eiffel Tower. It had already carried me so far that I was
+     expecting to land on the Seine embankment beyond the Trocadero.
+     My basket and the whole of the keel had already passed the
+     Trocadero hotels, and had my balloon been a spherical one it
+     would have cleared the building. But now at the last critical
+     moment, the end of the long balloon that was still full of gas
+     came slapping down on the roof just before clearing it. It
+     exploded with a great noise; struck after being blown up. This
+     was the terrific explosion described in the newspaper of the day.
+
+     I had made a mistake in my estimate of the wind's force, by a few
+     yards. Instead of being carried on to fall on the Seine
+     embankment, I now found myself hanging in my wicker basket high
+     up in the courtyard of the Trocadero hotels, supported by my
+     airship's keel, that stood braced at an angle of about forty-five
+     degrees between the courtyard wall above and the roof of a lower
+     construction farther down. The keel, in spite of my weight, that
+     of the motor and machinery, and the shock it had received in
+     falling, resisted wonderfully. The thin pine scantlings and piano
+     wires of Nice (the town where the idea of a keel first suggested
+     itself) had saved my life!
+
+     After what seemed tedious waiting, I saw a rope being lowered to
+     me from the roof above. I held to it and was hauled up, when I
+     perceived my rescuers to be the brave firemen of Paris. From
+     their station at Passy they had been watching the flight of the
+     airship. They had seen my fall and immediately hastened to the
+     spot. Then, having rescued me, they proceeded to rescue the
+     airship.
+
+     The operation was painful. The remains of the balloon envelope
+     and the suspension wires hung lamentably; and it was impossible
+     to disengage them except in strips and fragments!
+
+The later balloon "No. VI." with which Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch
+prize may fairly be taken as his conception of the finished type of
+dirigible for one man. In fact his aspirations never soared as high
+as those of Count Zeppelin, and the largest airship he ever
+planned--called "the _Omnibus_"--carried only four men. It is
+probable that the diversion of his interest from dirigibles to
+airplanes had most to do with his failure to carry his development
+further than he did. "No. VI." was 108 feet long, and 20 feet in
+diameter with an eighteen-horse-power gasoline engine which could
+drive it at about nineteen miles an hour. Naturally the aeronaut's
+first thought in his new construction was of the valves. The memory
+of the anxious minutes spent perched on the window-sill of the
+Trocadero Hotel or dangling like a spider at the end of the
+firemen's rope were still fresh. The ballonet which had failed him
+in "No. V." was perfected in its successor. Notwithstanding the care
+with which she was constructed the prize-winner turned out to be a
+rather unlucky ship. On her trial voyage she ran into a tree and was
+damaged, and even on the day of her greatest conquest she behaved
+badly. The test was made on October 1, 1901. The aeronaut had
+rounded the Tower finely and was making for home when the motor
+began to miss and threatened to stop altogether. While Santos-Dumont
+was tinkering with the engine, leaving the steering wheel to itself,
+the balloon drifted over the Bois de Boulogne. As usual the cool air
+from the wood caused the hydrogen in the balloon to contract and the
+craft dropped until it appeared the voyage would end in the tree
+tops. Hastily shifting his weights the aeronaut forced the prow of
+the ship upwards to a sharp angle with the earth. Just at this
+moment the reluctant engine started up again with such vigour that
+for a moment the ship threatened to assume a perpendicular position,
+pointing straight up in the sky. A cry went up from the spectators
+below who feared a dire catastrophe was about to end a voyage which
+promised success. But with incomparable _sang-froid_ the young
+Brazilian manipulated the weights, restored the ship to the
+horizontal again without stopping the engines, and reached the
+finishing stake in time to win the prize. Soon after it was awarded
+him the Brazilian Government presented him with another substantial
+prize, together with a gold medal bearing the words: _Por ceos nunca
+d'antes navegados_ ("Through heavens hitherto unsailed").
+
+In a sense the reference to the heavens is a trifle over-rhetorical.
+Santos-Dumont differed from all aviators (or pilots of airplanes)
+and most navigators of dirigibles in always advocating the strategy
+of staying near the ground. In his flights he barely topped the
+roofs of the houses, and in his writings he repeatedly refers to the
+sense of safety that came to him when he knew he was close to the
+tree tops of a forest. This may have been due to the fact that in
+his very first flight in a dirigible he narrowly escaped a fatal
+accident due to flying too high. As he descended, the gas which had
+expanded now contracted. The balloon began to collapse in the
+middle. Cords subjected to unusual stress began to snap. The air
+pump, which should have pumped the ballonet full of air to keep the
+balloon rigid failed to work. Seeing that he was about to fall into
+a field in which his drag rope was already trailing the imperilled
+airman had a happy thought. Some boys were there flying kites. He
+shouted to them to seize his rope and run against the wind. The
+balloon responded to the new force like a kite. The rapidity of its
+fall was checked, and its pilot landed with only a serious shaking.
+
+But thereafter Santos-Dumont preached the maxim--rare among
+airmen--"Keep near the ground. That way lies safety!" Most aviators
+however, prefer the heights of the atmosphere, as the sailor prefers
+the wide and open sea to a course near land.
+
+After winning the Deutsch prize, Santos-Dumont continued for a time
+to amuse himself with dirigibles. I say "amuse" purposely, for never
+did serious aeronaut get so much fun out of a rather perilous
+pastime as he. In his "No. IX." he built the smallest dirigible
+ever known. The balloon had just power enough to raise her pilot and
+sixty-six pounds more beside a three-horse-power motor. But she
+attained a speed of twelve miles an hour, was readily handled, and
+it was her owner's dearest delight to use her for a taxicab, calling
+for lunch at the cafes in the Bois, and paying visits to friends
+upon whom he looked in, literally, at their second-story windows. He
+ran her in and out of her hangar as one would a motor-car from its
+garage. One day he sailed down the Avenue des Champs Elysees at the
+level of the second-and third-story windows of the palaces that line
+that stately street. Coming to his own house he descended, made
+fast, and went in to _dejeuner_, leaving his aerial cab without. In
+the city streets he steered mainly by aid of a guide rope trailing
+behind him. With this he turned sharp corners, went round the Arc de
+Triomphe, and said: "I might have guide-roped under it had I thought
+myself worthy." On occasion he picked up children in the streets and
+gave them a ride.
+
+Though before losing his interest in dirigibles Santos-Dumont
+carried the number of his construction up to ten, he cannot be said
+to have devised any new and useful improvements after his "No. VI."
+The largest of his ships was "No. X.," which had a capacity of
+eighty thousand cubic feet--about ten times the size of the little
+runabout with which he played pranks in Paris streets. In this
+balloon he placed partitions to prevent the gas shifting to one part
+of the envelope, and to guard against losing it all in the event of
+a tear. The same principle was fundamental in Count Zeppelin's
+airships. In 1904 he brought a dirigible to the United States
+expecting to compete for a prize at the St. Louis Exposition. But
+while suffering exasperating delay from the red-tape which
+enveloped the exposition authorities, he discovered one morning that
+his craft had been mutilated almost beyond repair in its storage
+place. In high dudgeon he left at once for Paris. The explanation of
+the malicious act has never been made clear, though many Americans
+had an uneasy feeling that the gallant and sportsman-like Brazilian
+had been badly treated in our land. On his return to Paris he at
+once began experimenting with heavier-than-air machines. Of his work
+with them we shall give some account later.
+
+Despite his great personal popularity the airship built by
+Santos-Dumont never appealed to the French military authorities.
+Probably this was largely due to the fact that he never built one of
+a sufficient size to meet military tests. The amateur in him was
+unconquerable. While von Zeppelin's first ship was big enough to
+take the air in actual war the Frenchman went on building craft for
+one or two men--good models for others to seize and build upon, but
+nothing which a war office could actually adopt. But he served his
+country well by stimulating the creation of great companies who
+built largely upon the foundations he had laid.
+
+First and greatest of these was the company formed by the Lebaudy
+Brothers, wealthy sugar manufacturers. Their model was semi-rigid,
+that is, provided with an inflexible keel or floor to the gas bag,
+which was cigar shaped. The most successful of the earlier ships was
+190 feet long, with a car suspended by cables ten feet below the
+balloon and carrying the twin motors, together with passengers and
+supplies. Although it made many voyages without accident, it finally
+encountered what seems to be the chief peril of dirigible balloons,
+being torn from its moorings at Chalons and dashed against trees to
+the complete demolition of its envelope. Repaired in eleven weeks
+she was taken over by the French Department of War, and was in
+active service at the beginning of the war. Her two successors on
+the company's building ways were less fortunate. _La Patrie_, after
+many successful trips, and manoeuvres with the troops, was
+insecurely moored at Verdun, the famous fortress where she was to
+have been permanently stationed. Came up a heavy gale. Her anchors
+began to drag. The bugles sounded and the soldiers by hundreds
+rushed from the fort to aid. Hurled along by the wind she dragged
+the soldiers after her. Fearing disaster to the men the commandant
+reluctantly ordered them to let go. The ship leaped into the black
+upper air and disappeared. All across France, across that very
+country where in 1916 the trenches cut their ugly zigzags from the
+Channel to the Vosges, she drifted unseen. By morning she was flying
+over England and Wales. Ireland caught a glimpse of her and days
+thereafter sailors coming into port told of a curious yellow mass,
+seemingly flabby and disintegrating like the carcass of a whale,
+floating far out at sea.
+
+Her partner ship _La Republique_ had a like tragic end. She too made
+many successful trips, and proved her stability and worth. But one
+day while manoeuvring near Paris one of her propellers broke and
+tore a great rent in her envelope. As the _Titanic_, her hull ripped
+open by an iceberg, sunk with more than a thousand of her people, so
+this airship, wounded in a more unstable element, fell to the ground
+killing all on board.
+
+Two airships were built in France for England in 1909. One, the
+_Clement-Bayard II._, was of the rigid type and built for the
+government; the other, a _Lebaudy_, was non-rigid and paid for by
+popular subscriptions raised in England by the _Morning Post_. Both
+were safely delivered near London having made their voyages of
+approximately 242 miles each at a speed exceeding forty miles an
+hour. These were the first airships acquired for British use.
+
+In the United States the only serious effort to develop the
+dirigible prior to the war, and to apply it to some definite
+purpose, was made not by the government but by an individual. Mr.
+Walter Wellman, a distinguished journalist, fired by the effort of
+Andree to reach the North Pole in a drifting balloon, undertook a
+similar expedition with a dirigible in 1907. A balloon was built 184
+feet in length and 52 feet in diameter, and was driven by a
+seventy-to eighty-horse-power motor. A curious feature of this craft
+was the guide rope or, as Wellman called it, the equilibrator, which
+was made of steel, jointed and hollow. At the lower end were four
+steel cylinders carrying wheels and so arranged that they would
+float on water or trundle along over the roughest ice. The idea was
+that the equilibrator would serve like a guide rope, trailing on the
+water or ice when the balloon hung low, and increasing the power of
+its drag if the balloon, rising higher, lifted a greater part of its
+length into the air. Wellman had every possible appliance to
+contribute to the safety of the airship, and many believe that had
+fortune favoured him the glory of the discovery of the Pole would
+have been his. Unhappily he encountered only ill luck. One season he
+spent at Dane's Island, near Spitzenberg whence Andree had set sail,
+waiting vainly for favourable weather conditions. The following
+summer, just as he was about to start, a fierce storm destroyed his
+balloon shed and injured the balloon. Before necessary repairs could
+be accomplished Admiral Peary discovered the Pole and the purpose
+of the expedition was at an end. Wellman, however, had become deeply
+interested in aeronautics and, balked in one ambition, set out to
+accomplish another. With the same balloon somewhat remodelled he
+tried to cross the Atlantic, setting sail from Atlantic City, N. J.,
+October 16, 1911. But the device on which the aeronaut most prided
+himself proved his undoing. The equilibrator, relied upon both for
+storage room and as a regulator of the altitude of the ship, proved
+a fatal attachment. In even moderate weather it bumped over the
+waves and racked the structure of the balloon with its savage
+tugging until the machinery broke down and the adventurers were at
+the mercy of the elements. Luckily for them after they had been
+adrift for seventy-two hours, and travelled several hundred miles
+they were rescued by the British steamer _Trent_. Not long after
+Wellman's chief engineer Vanniman sought to cross the Atlantic in a
+similar craft but from some unexplained cause she blew up in mid-air
+and all aboard were lost.
+
+Neither Great Britain nor the United States has reason to be proud
+of the attitude of its government towards the inventors who were
+struggling to subdue the air to the uses of man. Nor has either
+reason to boast much of its action in utterly ignoring up to the
+very day war broke that aid to military service of which Lord
+Kitchener said, "One aviator is worth a corps of cavalry." It will
+be noted that to get its first effective dirigible Great Britain had
+to rely upon popular subscriptions drummed up by a newspaper. That
+was in 1909. To-day, in 1917, the United States has only one
+dirigible of a type to be considered effective in the light of
+modern standards, though our entrance upon the war has caused the
+beginning of a considerable fleet. In aviation no less than in
+aerostatics the record of the United States is negligible. Our
+country did indeed produce the Wright Brothers, pioneers and true
+conquerors of the air with airplanes. But even they were forced to
+go to France for support and indeed for respectful attention.
+
+So far as the development of dirigible balloons is concerned there
+is no more need to devote space to what was done in England and the
+United States than there was for the famous chapter on Snakes in
+Iceland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE COUNT VON ZEPPELIN
+
+
+The year that witnessed the first triumphs of Santos-Dumont saw also
+the beginning of the success of his great German rival, the Count
+von Zeppelin. These two daring spirits, struggling to attain the
+same end, were alike in their enthusiasm, their pertinacity, and
+their devotion to the same cause. Both were animated by the highest
+patriotism. Santos-Dumont offered his fleet to France to be used
+against any nation except those of the two Americas. He said: "It is
+in France that I have met with all my encouragement; in France and
+with French material I have made all my experiments. I excepted the
+two Americas because I am an American."
+
+Count Zeppelin for his part, when bowed down in apparent defeat and
+crushed beneath the burden of virtual bankruptcy, steadily refused
+to deal with agents of other nations than Germany--which at that
+time was turning upon him the cold shoulder. He declared that his
+genius had been exerted for his own country alone, and that his
+invention should be kept a secret from all but German authorities. A
+secret it would be to-day, except that accident and the fortunes of
+war revealed the intricacies of the Zeppelin construction to both
+France and England.
+
+Santos-Dumont had the fire, enthusiasm, and resiliency of youth;
+Zeppelin, upon whom age had begun to press when first he took up
+aeronautics, had the dogged pertinacity of the Teuton. Both were
+rich at the outset, but Zeppelin's capital melted away under the
+demands of his experimental workshops, while the ancestral coffee
+lands of the Brazilian never failed him.
+
+Of the two Zeppelin had the more obstinacy, for he held to his plan
+of a rigid dirigible balloon even in face of its virtual failure in
+the supreme test of war. Santos-Dumont was the more alert
+intellectually for he was still in the flood tide of successful
+demonstration with his balloons when he saw and grasped the promise
+of the airplane and shifted his activities to that new field in
+which he won new laurels.
+
+Zeppelin won perhaps the wider measure of immediate fame, but
+whether enduring or not is yet to be determined. His airships
+impressive, even majestic as they are, have failed to prove their
+worth in war, and are yet to be fully tested in peace. That they
+remain a unique type, one which no other individual nor any other
+nation has sought to copy, cannot be attributed wholly to the
+jealousy of possible rivals. If the monster ship, of rigid frame,
+were indeed the ideal form of dirigible it would be imitated on
+every hand. The inventions of the Wrights have been seized upon,
+adapted, improved perhaps by half a hundred airplane designers of
+every nation. But nobody has been imitating the Zeppelins.
+
+[Illustration: _The Giant and the Pigmies._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+That, however, is a mere passing reflection. If the Zeppelin has not
+done all in war that the sanguine German people expected of it,
+nevertheless it is not yet to be pronounced an entire failure. And
+even though a failure in war, the chief service for which its
+stout-hearted inventor designed it, there is still hope that it may
+ultimately prove better adapted to many ends of peace than the
+airplanes which for the time seem to have outdone it.
+
+Stout-hearted indeed the old _Luftgraaf_--"Air Scout"--as the
+Germans call him, was. His was a Bismarckian nature, reminiscent of
+the Iron Chancellor alike physically and mentally. In appearance he
+recalls irresistibly the heroic figure of Bismarck, jack-booted and
+cuirassed at the Congress of Vienna, painted by von Werner. Heir to
+an old land-owning family, ennobled and entitled to bear the title
+_Landgraf_, Count von Zeppelin was a type of the German aristocrat.
+But for his title and aristocratic rank he could never have won his
+long fight for recognition by the bureaucrats who control the German
+army. In youth he was anti-Prussian in sentiment, and indeed some of
+his most interesting army experiences were in service with the army
+of South Germany against Prussia and her allied states. But all that
+was forgotten in the national unity that followed the defeat of
+France in 1872.
+
+Before that, however, the young count--he was born in 1838--had
+served with gallantry, if not distinction, in the Union Army in our
+Civil War, had made a balloon ascension on the fighting line, had
+swum in the Niagara River below the falls, being rescued with
+difficulty, and together with two Russian officers and some Indian
+guides had almost starved in trying to discover the source of the
+Mississippi River--a spot which can now be visited without
+undergoing more serious hardships than the upper berth in a Pullman
+car.
+
+It was at the siege of Paris that Zeppelin's mind first became
+engaged with the problem of aerial navigation. From his post in the
+besieging trenches he saw the almost daily ascent of balloons in
+which mail was sent out, and persons who could pay the price sought
+to escape from the beleaguered city. As a colonel of cavalry, he
+had been employed mainly in scouting duty throughout the war. He was
+impressed now with the conviction that those globes, rising silently
+into the air, above the enemy's cannon shot and drifting away to
+safety would be the ideal scouts could they but return with their
+intelligence. Was there no way of guiding these ships in the air, as
+a ship in the ocean is guided? The young soldier was hardly home
+from the war when he began to study the problem. He studied it
+indeed so much to the exclusion of other military matters that in
+1890 the General Staff abruptly dismissed him from his command. They
+saw no reason why a major-general of cavalry should be mooning
+around with balloons and kites like a schoolboy.
+
+The dismissal hurt him, but deterred him in no way from the purpose
+of his life. Indeed the fruit of his many years' study of aeronautic
+conditions was ready for the gathering at this very moment. On the
+surface of the picturesque Lake Constance, on the border line
+between Germany and Switzerland, floated a huge shed, open to the
+water and more than five hundred feet long. In it, nearing
+completion, floated the first Zeppelin airship.
+
+In the long patient study which the Count had given to his problem
+he had reached the fixed conclusion that the basis of a practical
+dirigible balloon must be a rigid frame over which the envelope
+should be stretched. His experiments were made at the same time as
+those of Santos-Dumont, and he could not be ignorant of the measure
+of success which the younger man was attaining with the non-rigid
+balloon. But it was a fact that all the serious accidents which
+befell Santos-Dumont and most of the threatened accidents which he
+narrowly escaped were fundamentally caused by the lack of rigidity
+in his balloon. The immediate cause may have been a leaky valve
+permitting the gas to escape, or a faulty air-pump which made prompt
+filling of the ballonet impossible. But the effect of these flaws
+was to deprive the balloon of its rigidity, cause it to buckle,
+throwing the cordage out of gear, shifting stresses and strains,
+and resulting in ultimate breakdown.
+
+Whether he observed the vicissitudes of his rival or not, Count
+Zeppelin determined that the advantages of a rigid frame counted for
+more than the disadvantage of its weight. Moreover that disadvantage
+could be compensated for by increasing the size, and therefore the
+lifting power of the balloon. In determining upon a rigid frame the
+Count was not a pioneer even in his own country. While his
+experiments were still under way, a rival, David Schwartz, who had
+begun, without completing, an airship in St. Petersburg, secured in
+some way aid from the German Government, which was at the moment
+coldly repulsing Zeppelin. He planned and built an aluminum airship
+but died before its completion. His widow continued the work amidst
+constant opposition from the builders. The end was one of the many
+tragedies of invention. Nobody but the widow ever believed the ship
+would rise from its moorings. It was in charge of a man who had
+never made an ascent. To his amazement and to the amazement of the
+spectators the engine was hardly started when the ship mounted and
+made headway against a stiff breeze. On the ground the spectators
+shouted in wonder; the widow, overwhelmed by this reward for her
+faith in her husband's genius, burst into tears of joy. But the
+amateur pilot was no match for the situation. Affrighted to find
+himself in mid-air, too dazed to know what to do, he pulled the
+wrong levers and the machine crashed to earth. The pilot escaped,
+but the airship which had taken four years to build was
+irretrievably wrecked. The widow's hopes were blasted, and the way
+was left free for the Count von Zeppelin.
+
+Freed, though unwillingly, from the routine duties of his military
+rank, Zeppelin thereafter devoted himself wholly to his airships. He
+was fifty-three years old, adding one more to the long list of men
+who found their real life's work after middle age. With him was
+associated his brother Eberhard, the two forming a partnership in
+aeronautical work as inseparable as that of Wilbur and Orville
+Wright. Like Wilbur Wright, Eberhard von Zeppelin did not live to
+witness the fullest fruition of the work, though he did see the
+soundness of its principles thoroughly established and in practical
+application. There is a picturesque story that when Eberhard lay on
+his death-bed his brother, instead of watching by his side, took the
+then completed airship from its hangar, and drove it over and around
+the house that the last sounds to reach the ears of his faithful
+ally might be the roar of the propellers in the air--the grand paean
+of victory.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A French "Sausage"._]
+
+Though Count von Zeppelin had begun his experiments in 1873 it was
+not until 1890 that he actually began the construction of his first
+airship. The intervening years had been spent in constructing and
+testing models, in abstruse calculations of the resistance of the
+air, the lifting power of hydrogen, the comparative rigidity and
+weight of different woods and various metals, the power and weight
+of the different makes of motors. In these studies he spent both his
+time and his money lavishly, with the result that when he had built
+a model on the lines of which he was willing to risk the
+construction of an airship of operative size, his private fortune
+was gone. It is the common lot of inventors. For a time the Count
+suffered all the mortification and ignominy which the beggar, even
+in a most worthy cause, must always experience. Hat in hand he
+approached every possible patron with his story of certain success
+if only supplied with funds with which to complete his ship. A
+stock company with a capital of $225,000 of which he contributed one
+half, soon found its resources exhausted and retired from the
+speculation. Appeals to the Emperor met with only cold indifference.
+An American millionaire newspaper owner, resident in Europe, sent
+contemptuous word by his secretary that he "had no time to bother
+with crazy inventors." That was indeed the attitude of the business
+classes at the moment when the inventors of dirigibles were on the
+very point of conquering the obstacles in the way of making the
+navigation of air a practical art. A governmental commission at
+Berlin rejected with contempt the plans which Zeppelin presented in
+his appeal for support. Members of that commission were forced to an
+about-face later and became some of the inventor's sturdiest
+champions. But in his darkest hour the government failed him, and
+the one friendly hand stretched out in aid was that of the German
+Engineers' Society which, somewhat doubtfully, advanced some funds
+to keep the work in operation.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A British "Blimp"._]
+
+With this the construction of the first Zeppelin craft was begun.
+Though there had been built up to the opening of the war twenty-five
+"Zeps"--nobody knows how many since--the fundamental type was not
+materially altered in the later ones, and a description of the first
+will stand for all. In connection with this description may be noted
+the criticisms of experts some of which proved only too well
+founded.
+
+The first Zeppelin was polygonal, 450 feet long, 78 broad, and 66
+feet high. This colossal bulk, equivalent to that of a 7500-ton
+ship necessary to supply lifting power for the metallic frame,
+naturally made her unwieldy to handle, unsafe to leave at rest,
+outside of a sheltering shed, and a particularly attractive target
+for artillery in time of war. Actual action indeed proved that to be
+safe from the shells of anti-aircraft guns, the Zeppelins were
+forced to fly so high that their own bombs could not be dropped with
+any degree of accuracy upon a desired target.
+
+The balloon's frame is made of aluminum, the lightest of metals, but
+not the least costly. A curious disadvantage of this construction
+was made apparent in the accident which destroyed _Zeppelin IV._
+That was the first of the airships to be equipped with a full
+wireless outfit which was used freely on its flight. It appeared
+that the aluminum frame absorbed much of the electricity generated
+for the purpose of the wireless. The effect of this was two-fold. It
+limited the radius of operation of the wireless to 150 miles or
+less, and it made the metal frame a perilous storehouse of
+electricity. When _Zeppelin IV._ met with a disaster by a storm
+which dragged it from its moorings, the stored electricity in her
+frame was suddenly released by contact with the trees and set fire
+to the envelope, utterly destroying the ship.
+
+The balloon frame was divided into seventeen compartments, each of
+which held a ballonet filled with hydrogen gas. The purpose of this
+was similar to the practice of dividing a ship's hulls into
+compartments. If one or more of the ballonets, for any reason, were
+injured the remainder would keep the ship afloat. The space between
+the ballonets and the outer skin was pumped full of air to keep the
+latter taut and rigid. Moreover it helped to prevent the radiation
+of heat to the gas bags from the outer envelope whose huge expanse,
+presented to the sun, absorbed an immense amount of heat rays.
+
+Two cars were suspended from the frame of the Zeppelin, forward and
+aft, and a corridor connected them. A sliding weight was employed
+to raise or depress the bow. In each car of the first Zeppelin was
+a sixteen-horse-power gasoline motor, each working two screws, with
+four foot blades, revolving one thousand times a minute. The engines
+were reversible, thus making it possible to work the propellers
+against each other and aid materially in steering the ship. Rudders
+at bow and stern completed the navigating equipment.
+
+In the first Zeppelins, the corridor connecting the two cars was
+wholly outside the frame and envelope of the car. Later the perilous
+experiment was tried of putting it within the envelope. This
+resulted in one of the most shocking of the many Zeppelin disasters.
+In the case of the ship _L-II._, built in 1912, the corridor became
+filled with gas that had oozed out of the ballonets. At one end or
+the other of the corridor this gas, then mixed with air, came in
+contact with fire,--perhaps the exhaust of the engines,--a violent
+explosion followed while the ship was some nine hundred feet aloft,
+and the mass of twisted and broken metal, with the flaming envelope,
+fell to the ground carrying twenty-eight men, including members of
+the Admiralty Board, to a horrible death.
+
+But to return to the first Zeppelin. Her trial was set for July 2,
+1900, and though the immediate vicinity of the floating hangar was
+barred to the public by the military authorities, the shores and
+surface of the lake were black with people eager to witness the
+test. Boats pulled out of the wide portal the huge cigar-shaped
+structure, floating on small rafts, its polished surface of pegamoid
+glittering in the sun. As large as a fair-sized ocean steamship, it
+looked, on that little lake dotted with pleasure craft, like a
+leviathan. Men were busy in the cars, fore and aft. The mooring
+ropes were cast off as the vessel gained an offing, and ballast
+being thrown out she began to rise slowly. The propellers began to
+whir, and the great craft swung around breasting the breeze and
+moved slowly up the lake. The crowd cheered. Count von Zeppelin,
+tense with excitement, alert for every sign of weakness watched his
+monster creation with mingled pride and apprehension. Two points
+were set at rest in the first two minutes--the lifting power was
+great enough to carry the heaviest load ever imposed upon a balloon
+and the motive power was sufficient to propel her against an
+ordinary breeze. But she was hardly in mid-air when defects became
+apparent. The apparatus for controlling the balancing weight got out
+of order. The steering lines became entangled so that the ship was
+first obliged to stop, then by reversing the engines to proceed
+backwards. This was, however, a favourable evidence of her handiness
+under untoward circumstances. After she had been in the air nearly
+an hour and had covered four or five miles, a landing was ordered
+and she dropped to the surface of the lake with perfect ease. Before
+reaching her shed, however, she collided with a pile--an accident in
+no way attributable to her design--and seriously bent her frame.
+
+The story told thus baldly does not sound like a record of glorious
+success. Nevertheless not Count Zeppelin alone but all Germany was
+wild with jubilation. _Zeppelin I._ had demonstrated a principle;
+all that remained was to develop and apply this principle and
+Germany would have a fleet of aerial dreadnoughts that would force
+any hostile nation to subjection. There was little or no discussion
+of the application of the principle to the ends of peace. It was as
+an engine of war alone that the airship appealed to the popular
+fancy.
+
+But at the time that fancy proved fickle. With a few repairs the
+airship was brought out for another test. In the air it did all that
+was asked for it, but it came to earth--or rather to the surface of
+the lake--with a shock that put it out of commission. When Count
+Zeppelin's company estimated the cost of further repairs it gave a
+sigh and abandoned the wreck. Thereupon the pertinacious inventor
+laid aside his tools, got into his old uniform, and went out again
+on the dreary task of begging for further funds.
+
+It was two years before he could take up again the work of
+construction. He lectured, wrote magazine articles, begged, cajoled,
+and pleaded for money. At last he made an impression upon the
+Emperor who, indeed, with a keen eye for all that makes for military
+advantage, should have given heed to his efforts long before. Merely
+a letter of approval from the all-powerful Kaiser was needed to turn
+the scale and in 1902 this was forthcoming. The factories of the
+empire agreed to furnish materials at cost price, and sufficient
+money was soon forthcoming to build a second ship. This ship took
+more than two years to build, was tested in January, 1906, made a
+creditable flight, and was dashed to pieces by a gale the same
+night!
+
+The wearisome work of begging began again. But this time the
+Kaiser's aid was even more effectively given and in nine months
+_Zeppelin III._ was in the air. More powerful than its predecessors
+it met with a greater measure of success. On one of its trials a
+propeller blade flew off and penetrated the envelope, but the ship
+returned to earth in safety. In October, 1906, the Minister of War
+reported that the airship was extremely stable, responded readily to
+her helm, had carried eleven persons sixty-seven miles in two hours
+and seventeen minutes, and had made its landing in ease and safety.
+Accepted by the government "No. III." passed into military service
+and Zeppelin, now the idol of the German people, began the
+construction of "No. IV."
+
+That ship was larger than her predecessors and carried a third
+cabin for passengers suspended amidships. Marked increase in the
+size of the steering and stabling planes characterized the
+appearance of the ship when compared with earlier types. She was at
+the outset a lucky ship. She cruised through Alpine passes into
+Switzerland, and made a circular voyage carrying eleven passengers
+and flying from Friedrichshaven to Mayence and back via Basle,
+Strassburg, Mannheim, and Stuttgart. The voyage occupied twenty-one
+hours--a world's record. The performance of the ship on both voyages
+was perfection. Even in the tortuous Alpine passes which she was
+forced to navigate on her trip to Lucerne she moved with the
+steadiness and certainty of a great ship at sea. The rarification of
+the air at high altitudes, the extreme and sudden variations in
+temperature, the gusts of wind that poured from the ice-bound peaks
+down through the narrow canyons affected her not at all. When to
+this experience was added the triumphant tour of the six German
+cities, Count von Zeppelin might well have thought his triumph was
+complete.
+
+But once again the cup of victory was dashed from his lips. After
+his landing a violent wind beat upon the ship. An army of men strove
+to hold her fast, while an effort was made to reduce her bulk by
+deflation. That effort, which would have been entirely successful in
+the case of a non-rigid balloon, was obviously futile in that of a
+Zeppelin. Not the gas in the ballonets, but the great rigid frame
+covered with water-proofed cloth constituted the huge bulk that made
+her the plaything of the winds. In a trice she was snatched from the
+hands of her crew and hurled against the trees in a neighbouring
+grove. There was a sudden and utterly unexpected explosion and the
+whole fabric was in flames. The precise cause of the explosion will
+always be in doubt, but, as already pointed out, many scientists
+believe that the great volume of electricity accumulated in the
+metallic frame was suddenly released in a mighty spark which set
+fire to the stores of gasoline on board.
+
+With this disaster the iron nerve of the inventor was for the first
+time broken. It followed so fast upon what appeared to be a complete
+triumph that the shock was peculiarly hard to bear. It is said that
+he broke down and wept, and that but for the loving courage and
+earnest entreaties of his wife and daughter he would then have
+abandoned the hope and ambition of his life. But after all it was
+but that darkest hour which comes just before the dawn. The
+demolition of "No. IV." had been no accident which reflected at all
+upon the plan or construction of the craft--unless the great bulk of
+the ship be considered a fundamental defect. What it did demonstrate
+was that the Zeppelin, like the one-thousand-foot ocean liner, must
+have adequate harbour and docking facilities wherever it is to land.
+The one cannot safely drop down in any convenient meadow, any more
+than the other can put into any little fishing port. Germany has
+learned this lesson well enough and since the opening of the Great
+War her territory is plentifully provided with Zeppelin shelters at
+all strategic points.
+
+[Illustration: _The Death of a Zeppelin._
+
+Photo by Paul Thompson.]
+
+Fortunately for the Count the German people judged his latest
+reverse more justly than he did. They saw the completeness of the
+triumph which had preceded the disaster and recognized that the
+latter was one easily guarded against in future. Enthusiasm ran high
+all over the land. Begging was no longer necessary. The Emperor,
+who had heretofore expressed rather guarded approval of the
+enterprise, now flung himself into it with that enthusiasm for which
+he is notable. He bestowed upon the Count the Order of the Black
+Eagle, embraced him in public three times, and called aloud that all
+might hear, "Long life to his Excellency, Count Zeppelin, the
+Conqueror of the Air." He never wearied of assuring his hearers that
+the Count was the "greatest German of the century." With such august
+patronage the Count became the rage. Next to the Kaiser's the face
+best known to the people of Germany, through pictures and statues,
+was that of the inventor of the Zeppelin. The pleasing practice of
+showing affection for a public man by driving nails into his wooden
+effigy had not then been invented by the poetic Teutons, else von
+Zeppelin would have outdone von Hindenburg in weight of metal.
+
+The story that Zeppelin had refused repeated offers from other
+governments was widely published and evoked patriotic enthusiasm.
+With it went shrewd hints that in these powerful aircraft lay the
+way to overcome the hated English navy, and even to carry war to the
+very soil of England. It was then eight years before the greatest
+war of history was to break out, but even at that date hatred of
+England was being sedulously cultivated among the German people by
+those in authority.
+
+As a result of this national attitude Count Zeppelin's enterprise
+was speedily put on a sound financial footing. Though "No. IV." had
+been destroyed by an accident it had been the purpose of the
+government to buy her, and $125,000 of the purchase price was now
+put at the disposal of the Count von Zeppelin. A popular Zeppelin
+fund of $1,500,000 was raised and expended in building great works.
+Thenceforward there was no lack of money for furthering what had
+truly become a great national interest.
+
+But the progress of the construction of Zeppelins for the next few
+years was curiously compounded of success and failure. Fate seemed
+to have decreed to every Zeppelin triumph a disaster. Each mischance
+was attributed to exceptional conditions which never could happen
+again, but either they did occur, or some new but equally effective
+accident did. Outside of Germany, where the public mind had become
+set in an almost idolatrous confidence in Zeppelin, the great
+airships were becoming a jest and a byword notwithstanding their
+unquestioned accomplishments. Indeed when the record was made up
+just before the declaration of war in 1914 it was found that of
+twenty-five Zeppelins thus far constructed only twelve were
+available. Thirteen had been destroyed by accident--two of them
+modern naval airships only completed in 1913. The record was not one
+to inspire confidence.
+
+In 1909, during a voyage in which he made nine hundred miles in
+thirty-eight hours, the rumour was spread that von Zeppelin would
+continue it to Berlin. Some joker sent a forged telegram to the
+Kaiser to that effect signed "Zeppelin." It was expected to be the
+first appearance of one of the great ships at the capital, and the
+Emperor hastened to prepare a suitable welcome. A great crowd
+assembled at the Templehoff Parade Ground. The Berlin Airship
+Battalion was under orders to assist in the landing. The Kaiser
+himself was ready to hasten to the spot should the ship be sighted.
+But she never appeared. If von Zeppelin knew of the exploit which
+rumour had assigned to him--which is doubtful--he could not have
+carried it out. His ship collided with a tree--an accident
+singularly frequent in the Zeppelin records--so disabling it that
+it could only limp home under half power. A rather curt telegram
+from his Imperial master is said to have been Count von Zeppelin's
+first intimation that he had broken an engagement.
+
+However, he kept it two months later, flying to Berlin, a distance
+of 475 miles. He was greeted with mad enthusiasm and among the crowd
+to welcome him was Orville Wright the American aviator. It is a
+curious coincidence that on the day the writer pens these words the
+New York newspapers contain accounts of Mr. Wright's proffer of his
+services, and aeronautical facilities, to the President in case an
+existing diplomatic break with Germany should reach the point of
+actual war. Mr. Wright accompanied his proffer by an appeal for a
+tremendous aviation force, "but," said he, "I strongly advise
+against spending any money whatsoever on dirigible balloons of any
+sort."
+
+Thereafter the progress of Count von Zeppelin was without
+interruption for any lack of financial strength. His great works at
+Friedrichshaven expanded until they were capable of putting out a
+complete ship in eight weeks. He was building, of course, primarily
+for war, and never concealed the fact that the enemy he expected to
+be the target of his bomb throwers was England. What the airships
+accomplished in this direction, how greatly they were developed, and
+the strength and weakness of the German air fleet, will be dwelt
+upon in another chapter.
+
+But, though building primarily for military purposes, Zeppelin did
+not wholly neglect the possibilities of his ship for non-military
+service. He built one which made more than thirty trips between
+Munich and Berlin, carrying passengers who paid a heavy fee for the
+privilege of enjoying this novel form of travel. The car was fitted
+up like our most up-to-date Pullmans, with comfortable seats, bright
+lights, and a kitchen from which excellent meals were served to
+the passengers. The service was not continued long enough to
+determine whether it could ever be made commercially profitable,
+but as an aid to firing the Teutonic heart and an assistance in
+selling stock it was well worth while. The spectacle of one of these
+great cars, six hundred or more feet long, floating grandly on even
+keel and with a steady course above one of the compact little towns
+of South Germany, was one to thrill the pulses.
+
+But the ill luck which pursued Count von Zeppelin even in what
+seemed to be his moments of assured success was remorseless. In 1912
+he produced the monster _L-I_, 525 feet long, 50 feet in diameter,
+of 776,900 cubic feet capacity, and equipped with three sets of
+motors, giving it a speed of fifty-two miles an hour. This ship was
+designed for naval use and after several successful cross-country
+voyages she was ordered to Heligoland, to participate in naval
+manoeuvres with the fleet there stationed. One day, caught by a
+sudden gust of wind such as are common enough on the North Sea, she
+proved utterly helpless. Why no man could tell, her commander being
+drowned, but in the face of the gale she lost all control, was
+buffeted by the elements at their will, and dropped into the sea
+where she was a total loss. Fifteen of her twenty-two officers and
+men were drowned. The accident was the more inexplicable because the
+craft had been flying steadily overland for nearly twelve months and
+had covered more miles than any ship of Zeppelin construction. It
+was reported that her captain had said she was overloaded and that
+he feared that she would be helpless in a gale. But after the
+disaster his mouth was stopped by the waters of the North Sea.
+
+[Illustration: _A German Dirigible, Hansa Type._
+
+(C) U.& U.]
+
+This calamity was not permitted long to stand alone. Indeed one of
+the most curious facts about the Zeppelin record is the regular,
+periodical recurrence of fatal accidents at almost equal intervals
+and apparently wholly unaffected by the growing perfection of the
+airships. While _L-I_ was making her successful cross-country
+flights, _L-II_ was reaching completion at Friedrichshaven. She was
+shorter but bulkier than her immediate predecessor and carried
+engines giving her nine hundred horse power, or four hundred more
+than _L-I._ On its first official trip this ship exploded a thousand
+feet in air, killing twenty-eight officers and men aboard, including
+all the officials who were conducting the trials. The calamity, as
+explained on an earlier page, was due to the accumulation of gas in
+the communicating passage between the three cars.
+
+[Illustration: _A Wrecked Zeppelin at Salonika._
+
+Photo by Press Illustrating Service.]
+
+This new disaster left the faith and loyalty of the German people
+unshaken. But it did decidedly estrange the scientific world from
+Count von Zeppelin and all his works. It was pointed out, with
+truth, that the accident paralleled precisely one which had
+demolished the _Severo Pax_ airship ten years earlier, and which had
+caused French inventors to establish a hard and fast rule against
+incorporating in an airship's design any inclosed space in which
+waste gas might gather. This rule and its reason were known to Count
+von Zeppelin and by ignoring both he lent new colour to the charge,
+already current in scientific circles, that he was loath to profit
+by the experiences of other inventors.
+
+Whether this feeling spread to the German Government it is
+impossible to say. Nor it is easy to estimate how much official
+confidence was shaken by it. The government, even before the war,
+was singularly reticent about the Zeppelins, their numbers and
+plans. It is certain that orders were not withheld from the Count.
+Great numbers of his machines were built, especially after the war
+was entered upon. But he was not permitted longer to have a monopoly
+of government aid for manufacturers of dirigibles. Other types
+sprung up, notably the Schutte-Lanz, the Gross, and the Parseval.
+But being first in the field the Zeppelin came to give its name to
+all the dirigibles of German make and many of the famous--or
+infamous--exploits credited to it during the war may in fact have
+been performed by one of its rivals.
+
+It would be futile to attempt to enumerate all these rivals here.
+Among them are the semi-rigid Parseval and Gross types which found
+great favour among the military authorities during the war. The
+latter is merely an adaptation of the highly successful French ship
+the _Lebaudy_, but the Parseval is the result of a slow evolution
+from an ordinary balloon. It is wholly German, in conception and
+development, and it is reported that the Kaiser, secretly disgusted
+that the Zeppelins, to the advancement of which he had given such
+powerful aid, should have recorded so many disasters, quietly
+transferred his interest to the new and simpler model. Despite the
+hope of a more efficient craft, however, both the Gross and the
+Parseval failed in their first official trials, though later they
+made good.
+
+The latter ship was absolutely without any wooden or metallic
+structure to give her rigidity. Two air ballonets were contained in
+the envelope at bow and stern and the ascent and descent of the
+ship was regulated by the quantity of air pumped into these. A most
+curious device was the utilization of heavy cloth for the propeller
+blades. Limp and flaccid when at rest, heavy weights in the hem of
+the cloth caused these blades to stand out stiff and rigid as the
+result of the centrifugal force created by their rapid revolution.
+One great military advantage of the Parseval was that she could be
+quickly deflated in the presence of danger at her moorings, and
+wholly knocked down and packed in small compass for shipment by rail
+in case of need. To neither of these models did there ever come such
+a succession of disasters as befell the earlier Zeppelins. It is
+fair to say however that prior to the war not many of them had been
+built, and that both their builders and navigators had opportunity
+to learn from Count von Zeppelin's errors.
+
+Among the chief German rivals to the Zeppelin is the Schutte-Lanz,
+of the rigid type, broader but not so long as the Zeppelin, framed
+of wood bound with wire and planned to carry a load of five or six
+tons, or as many as thirty passengers. No. I of this type met its
+fate as did so many Zeppelins by encountering a storm while
+improperly moored. Called to earth to replenish its supply of gas it
+was moored to an anchor sunk six feet in the ground, and as an
+additional precaution three hundred soldiers were called from a
+neighbouring barracks to handle it. It seems to have been one of the
+advantages of Germany as a place in which to manoeuvre dirigibles,
+that, even in time of peace, there were always several hundred
+soldiers available wherever a ship might land. But this force was
+inadequate. A violent gust tore the ship from their hands. One poor
+fellow instinctively clung to his rope until one thousand feet in
+the air when he let go. The ship itself hovered over the town for an
+hour or more, then descended and was dashed to pieces against trees
+and stone walls.
+
+The danger which was always attached to the landing of airships has
+led some to suggest that they should never be brought to earth, but
+moored in mid-air as large ships anchor in midstream. It is
+suggested that tall towers be built to the top of which the ship be
+attached by a cable, so arranged that she will always float to the
+leeward of the tower. The passengers would be landed by gangplanks,
+and taken up and down the towers in elevators. Kipling suggests this
+expedient in his prophetic sketch _With the Night Mail_. The airship
+would only return to earth--as a ship goes into dry dock--when in
+need of repairs.
+
+A curious mishap that threatened for a time to wreck the peace of
+the world, occurred in April, 1913, when a German Zeppelin was
+forced out of its course and over French territory. The right of
+alien machines to pass over their territory is jealously guarded by
+European nations, and during the progress of the Great War the Dutch
+repeatedly protested against the violation of their atmosphere by
+German aviators. At the time of this mischance, however, France and
+Germany were at peace--or as nearly so as racial and historic
+antipathies would permit. Accordingly when officers of a brigade of
+French cavalry engaged in manoeuvring near the great fortress of
+Luneville saw a shadow moving across the field and looking up saw a
+huge Zeppelin betwixt themselves and the sun they were astonished
+and alarmed. Signs and faint shouts from the aeronauts appeared to
+indicate that their errand was at least friendly, if not
+involuntary. The soldiers stopped their drill; the townspeople
+trooped out to the Champs de Mars where the phenomenon was exhibited
+and began excitedly discussing this suspicious invasion. Word was
+speedily sent to military headquarters asking whether to welcome or
+to repel the foe.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_British Aviators about to Ascend._
+
+_Note position of gunner on lower seat._]
+
+Meantime the great ship was drifting perilously near the housetops,
+and the uniformed officers in the cars began making signals to the
+soldiers below. Ropes were thrown out, seized by willing hands and
+made fast. The crew of Germans descended to find themselves
+prisoners. The international law was clear enough. The ship was a
+military engine of the German army. Its officers, all in uniform,
+had deliberately steered her into the very heart of a French
+fortress. Though the countries were at peace the act was technically
+one of war--an armed invasion by the enemy. Diplomacy of course
+settled the issue peacefully but not before the French had made
+careful drawings of all the essential features of the Zeppelin, and
+taken copies of its log. As Germany had theretofore kept a rigid
+secrecy about all the details of Zeppelin construction and operation
+this angered the military authorities beyond measure. The unlucky
+officers who had shared in the accident were savagely told that they
+should have blown the ship up in mid-air and perished with it rather
+than to have weakly submitted it to French inspection. They suffered
+court-martial but escaped with severe reprimands.
+
+The story of the dirigibles of France and Germany is practically the
+whole story of the development to a reasonable degree of perfection
+of the lighter-than-air machine. Other nations experimented
+somewhat, but in the main lagged behind these pioneers. Out of Spain
+indeed came a most efficient craft--the Astra-Torres, of which the
+British Government had the best example prior to the war, while both
+France and Russia placed large orders with the builders. How many
+finally went into service and what may have been their record are
+facts veiled in the secrecy of wartime. Belgium and Italy both
+produced dirigibles of distinctive character. The United States is
+alone at the present moment in having contributed nothing to the
+improvement of the dirigible balloon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIRPLANE
+
+
+The story of the development of the heavier-than-air machine--which
+were called aeroplanes at first, but have been given the simpler
+name of airplanes--is far shorter than that of the balloons. It is
+really a record of achievement made since 1903 when the plane built
+by Professor Langley of the Smithsonian Institution came to utter
+disaster on the Potomac. In 1917, at the time of writing this book,
+there are probably thirty distinct types of airplanes being
+manufactured for commercial and military use, and not less than
+fifty thousand are being used daily over the battlefields of Europe.
+No invention save possibly the telephone and the automobile ever
+attained so prodigious a development in so brief a time. Wise
+observers hold that the demand for these machines is yet in its
+infancy, and that when the end of the war shall lead manufacturers
+and designers to turn their attention to the commercial value of the
+airplane the flying craft will be as common in the air as the
+automobiles at least on our country roads.
+
+The idea of flying like a bird with wings, the idea basicly
+underlying the airplane theory, is old enough--almost as old as the
+first conception of the balloon, before hydrogen gas was discovered.
+In an earlier chapter some account is given of early experiments
+with wings. No progress was made along this line until the
+hallucination that man could make any headway whatsoever against
+gravity by flapping artificial wings was definitely abandoned. There
+was more promise in the experiments made by Sir George Cayley, and
+he was followed in the first half of the nineteenth century by half
+a dozen British experimenters who were convinced that a series of
+planes, presenting a fixed angle to the breeze and driven against it
+by a sufficiently powerful motor, would develop a considerable
+lifting power. This was demonstrated by Henson, in 1842,
+Stringfellow, in 1847, Wenham, who arranged his planes like slats in
+a Venetian blind and first applied the modern term "aeroplane" to
+his invention, and Sir Hiram Maxim, who built in 1890 the most
+complicated and impressive looking 'plane the world has yet seen.
+But though each of these inventors proved the theorem that a
+heavier-than-air machine could be made to fly, all failed to get
+practical results because no motor had then been invented which
+combined the necessary lightness with the generation of the required
+power.
+
+In America we like to think of the brothers Wright as being the true
+inventors of the airplane. And indeed they did first bring it to the
+point of usefulness, and alone among the many pioneers lived to see
+the adoption of their device by many nations for serious practical
+use. But it would be unjust to claim for them entire priority in the
+field of the glider and the heavier-than-air machine. Professor
+Langley preceded them with an airplane which, dismissed with
+ridicule as a failure in his day, was long after his death equipped
+with a lighter motor and flown by Glenn Curtis, who declared that
+the scientist had solved the problem, had only the explosive engine
+been perfected in his time.
+
+Despite, however, the early period of the successful experiments of
+the Wrights and Professor Langley, it would be unjust for America to
+arrogate to herself entire priority in airplane invention. Any story
+of that achievement which leaves out Lilienthal, the German, and
+Pilcher, the Englishman, is a record in which the truth is
+subordinated to national pride.
+
+[Illustration: Langley's Airplane.]
+
+Otto Lilienthal and his brother Gustav--the two like the Wrights
+were always associated in their aviation work--had been studying
+long the problem of flight when in 1889 they jointly published their
+book _Bird Flight as the Basis of the Flying Art_. Their
+investigations were wholly into the problem of flight without a
+motor. At the outset they even harked back to the long-abandoned
+theory that man could raise himself by mere muscular effort, and
+Otto spent many hours suspended at the end of a rope flapping
+frantically a pair of wings before he abandoned this effort as
+futile. Convinced that the soaring or gliding of the birds was the
+feat to emulate, he made himself a pair of fixed, bat-like wings
+formed of a light fabric stretched over a willow frame. A tail
+composed of one vertical and one horizontal plane extended to the
+rear, and in the middle the aviator hung by his armpits, in an erect
+position. With this device he made some experimental glides, leaping
+from slight eminences. With his body, which swung at will from its
+cushioned supports, he could balance, and even steer the fabric
+which supported him, and accomplished long glides against the wind.
+Not infrequently, running into the teeth of the breeze down a gentle
+slope he would find himself gently wafted into the air and would
+make flights of as much as three hundred yards, steering to either
+side, or rising and falling at will. He was even able to make a
+circuitous flight and return to his starting place--a feat that was
+not accomplished with a motor-driven airplane until years later.
+Lilienthal achieved it with no mechanical aid, except the wings. He
+became passionately devoted to the art, made more than two thousand
+flights, and at the time of his death had just completed a
+motor-driven airplane, which he was never able to test. His earlier
+gliding wings he developed into a form of biplane, with which he
+made several successful flights, but met his death in 1896 by the
+collapse of this machine, of the bad condition of which he had been
+warned.
+
+[Illustration: (C) Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_French Airdrome near the Front._]
+
+Lilienthal was more of a factor in the conquest of the air than his
+actual accomplishments would imply. His persistent experiments, his
+voluminous writings, and above all his friendly and intelligent
+interest in the work of other and younger men won him a host of
+disciples in other lands who took up the work that dropped from his
+lifeless hands.
+
+[Illustration: Lilienthal's Glider.]
+
+In England Percy S. Pilcher emulated the Lilienthal glides, and was
+at work on a motor-propelled machine when he was killed by the
+breakage of a seemingly unimportant part of his machine. He was on
+the edge of the greater success, not to that moment attained by
+anyone, of building a true airplane propelled by motor. Many
+historians think that to Lilienthal and Pilcher is justly due the
+title "the first flying men." But Le Bris, a French sailor, utterly
+without scientific or technical equipment, as far back as 1854 had
+accomplished a wonderful feat in that line. While on a cruise he had
+watched an albatross that followed his ship day after day apparently
+without rest and equally without fatigue. His imagination was fired
+by the spectacle and probably having never heard of the punishment
+that befell the Ancient Mariner, he shot the albatross. "I took the
+wing," he wrote later, "and exposed it to the breeze, and lo, in
+spite of me, it drew forward into the wind; notwithstanding my
+resistance it tended to rise. Thus I had discovered the secret of
+the bird. I comprehend the whole mystery of flight."
+
+A trifle too sanguine was sailor Le Bris, but he had just the
+qualities of imagination and confidence essential to one who sets
+forth to conquer the air. Had he possessed the accurate mind, the
+patience, and the pertinacity of the Wrights he might have beaten
+them by half a century. As it was he accomplished a remarkable feat,
+though it ended in somewhat laughable failure. He built an
+artificial bird, on the general plan of his albatross. The wings
+were not to flap, but their angles to the wind were controlled by a
+system of levers controlled by Le Bris, who stood up in the basket
+in the centre. To rise he required something like the flying start
+which the airplanes of to-day get on their bicycle wheels before
+leaving the ground. As Le Bris had no motor this method of
+propulsion was denied him, so he loaded the apparatus in a cart, and
+fastened it to the rail by a rope knotted in a slip knot which a
+jerk from him would release. As they started men walked beside the
+cart holding the wings, which extended for twenty-five feet on
+either side. As the horses speeded up these assistants released
+their hold. Feeling the car try to rise under his feet Le Bris cast
+off the rope, tilted the front end of the machine, and to his joy
+began to rise steadily into the air. The spectators below cheered
+madly, but a note of alarm mingled with their cheers, and the
+untried aviator noticed a strange and inexplicable jerking of his
+machine. Peering down he discovered, to his amaze, a man kicking
+and crying aloud in deadly fear. It was evident that the rope he had
+detached from the cart had caught up the driver, who had thus
+become, to his intense dismay, a partner in the inventor's triumph.
+Indeed it is most possible that he contributed to that triumph for
+the ease and steadiness with which the machine rose to a height
+estimated at three hundred feet suggests that he may have furnished
+needed ballast--acted in fact as the tail to the kite. Humanity
+naturally impelled Le Bris to descend at once, which he did
+skilfully without injuring his involuntary passenger, and only
+slightly breaking one of the wings.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A German War Zeppelin._]
+
+Had Le Bris won this success twenty years later his fame and fortune
+would have been secure. But in 1854 the time was not ripe for aeronautics.
+Le Bris was poor. The public responded but grudgingly to his appeals
+for aid. His next experiment was less successful--perhaps for lack of
+the carter--and he ultimately disappeared from aviation to become an
+excellent soldier of France.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A French Observation Balloon Seeking Submarines._]
+
+Perhaps had they not met with early and violent deaths, the
+Lilienthals and Pilcher might have carried their experiments in the
+art of gliding into the broader domain of power flight. This however
+was left to the two Americans, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who have
+done more to advance the art of navigating the air than all the
+other experimenters whose names we have used. The story of the
+Wright brothers is one of boyhood interest gradually developed into
+the passion of a lifetime. It parallels to some degree the story of
+Santos-Dumont who insisting as a child that "man flies" finally made
+it a fact. The interest of the Wrights was first stimulated when, in
+1878, their father brought home a small toy, called a "helicopter,"
+which when tossed in the air rose up instead of falling. Every child
+had them at that time, but curiously this one was like the seed
+which fell upon fertile soil. The boys went mad, as boys will, on
+the subject of flying. But unlike most boys they nurtured and
+cultivated the passion and it stayed with them to manhood. From
+helicopters they passed to kites, and from kites to gliders. By
+calling they were makers and repairers of bicycles, but their spare
+time was for years devoted to solving the problem of flight. In time
+it became their sole occupation and by it they won a fortune and
+world-wide fame. Their story forms a remarkable testimony to the
+part of imagination, pertinacity, and courage in winning success.
+After years of tests with models, and with kites controlled from the
+ground, the brothers had worked out a type of glider which they
+believed, in a wind of from eighteen to twenty miles an hour, would
+lift and carry a man. But they had to find a testing ground. The
+fields near their home in Ohio were too level, and their firm
+unyielding surface was not attractive as a cushion on which to light
+in the event of disaster. Moreover the people round about were
+getting inquisitive about these grown men "fooling around" with
+kites and flying toys. To the last the Wrights were noted for their
+dislike of publicity, and it is entirely probable that the sneering
+criticisms of their "level headed" and "practical" neighbours had a
+good deal to do with rooting them in this distaste.
+
+Low steep hills down the sides of which they could run and at the
+proper moment throw themselves upon their glider; a sandy soil which
+would at least lessen the shock of a tumble; and a vicinage in which
+winds of eighteen miles an hour or more is the normal atmospheric
+state were the conditions they sought. These they found at a little
+hamlet called Kitty-Hawk on the coast of North Carolina. There for
+uncounted centuries the tossing Atlantic had been throwing up its
+snowy sand upon the shore, and the steady wind had caught it up,
+piled it in windrows, rolled it up into towering hills, or carried
+it over into the dunes which extended far inland. It was a lonely
+spot, and there secure from observation the Wrights pitched their
+camp. For them it was a midsummer's holiday. Not at first did they
+decide to make aviation not a sport but a profession. To their camp
+came visitors interested in the same study, among them Chanute, a
+well-known experimenter, and some of his associates. They had
+thought to give hours at a time to actual flight. When they closed
+their first season, they found that all their time spent in actual
+flight footed up less than an hour. Lilienthal, despite all he
+accomplished, estimated that he, up to a short time before his
+death, spent only about five hours actually in the air. In that
+early day of experimentation a glide covering one hundred feet, and
+consuming eight or ten seconds, was counted a triumph.
+
+[Illustration: Chanute's Glider.]
+
+But the season was by no means wasted. Indeed such was the estimate
+that the Wrights put upon it that they folded their tents determined
+that when they returned the year following it would be as
+professionals, not amateurs. They were confident of their ability to
+build machines that would fly, though up to that time they had never
+mounted a motor on their aircraft.
+
+In the clear hot air of a North Carolina midsummer the Wrights used
+to lie on their backs studying through glasses the methods of flight
+of the great buzzards--filthy scavenger birds which none the less
+soaring high aloft against a blue sky are pictures of dignity and
+grace.
+
+     Bald eagles, ospreys, hawks, and buzzards give us daily
+     exhibitions of their powers [wrote Wilbur Wright]. The buzzards
+     were the most numerous, and were the most persistent soarers.
+     They apparently never flapped except when it was absolutely
+     necessary, while the eagles and hawks usually soared only when
+     they were at leisure. Two methods of soaring were employed. When
+     the weather was cold and damp and the wind strong the buzzards
+     would be seen soaring back and forth along the hills or at the
+     edge of a clump of trees. They were evidently taking advantage of
+     the current of air flowing upward over these obstructions. On
+     such days they were often utterly unable to soar, except in these
+     special places. But on warm clear days when the wind was light
+     they would be seen high in the air soaring in great circles.
+     Usually, however, it seemed to be necessary to reach a height of
+     several hundred feet by flapping before this style of soaring
+     became possible. Frequently a great number of them would begin
+     circling in one spot, rising together higher and higher till
+     finally they would disperse, each gliding off in whatever
+     direction it wished to go. At such times other buzzards only a
+     short distance away found it necessary to flap frequently in
+     order to maintain themselves. But when they reached a point
+     beneath the circling flock they began to rise on motionless
+     wings. This seemed to indicate that rising columns of air do not
+     exist everywhere, but that the birds must find them. They
+     evidently watch each other and when one finds a rising current
+     the others quickly make their way to it. One day when scarce a
+     breath of wind was stirring on the ground we noticed two bald
+     eagles sailing in circling sweeps at a height of probably five
+     hundred feet. After a time our attention was attracted to the
+     flashing of some object considerably lower down. Examination with
+     a field-glass proved it to be a feather which one of the birds
+     had evidently cast. As it seemed apparent that it would come to
+     earth only a short distance away, some of our party started to
+     get it. But in a little while it was noted that the feather was
+     no longer falling, but on the contrary was rising rapidly. It
+     finally went out of sight upward. It apparently was drawn into
+     the same current in which the eagles were soaring and was carried
+     up like the birds.
+
+It was by such painstaking methods as these, coupled with the
+mathematical reduction of the fruits of such observations to terms
+of angles and supporting planes, that the Wrights gradually
+perfected their machine. The first airplane to which they fitted a
+motor and which actually flew has been widely exhibited in the
+United States, and is to find final repose in some public museum.
+Study it as you will you can find little resemblance in those
+rectangular rigid planes to the wings of a bird. But it was built
+according to deductions drawn from natural flight.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Paul Thompson.
+
+_A German Taube Pursued by British Planes._]
+
+The method of progress in these preliminary experiments was, by
+repeated tests, to determine what form of airplane, and of what
+proportions, would best support a man. It was evident that for free
+and continuous flight it must be able to carry not only the pilot,
+but an engine and a store of fuel as well. Having, as they thought,
+determined these conditions the Wrights essayed their first flight
+at their home near Dayton, Ohio. It was a cold December day in 1903.
+The first flight, with motor and all, lasted twelve seconds; the
+fourth fifty-nine seconds. The handful of people who came out to
+witness the marvel went home jeering. In the spring of the next year
+a new flight was announced near Dayton. The newspapers had been
+asked to send reporters. A crowd of perhaps fifty persons had
+gathered. Again fate was hostile. The engine worked badly and the
+airplane refused to rise. The crowd dispersed and the newspapermen,
+returning the next day, met only with another disappointment.
+
+[Illustration: The First Wright Glider.]
+
+These repeated failures in public exhibitions resulted in creating
+general indifference to the real progress that the Wrights were
+making in solving the flight problem. While the gliding experiments
+at Kitty-Hawk were furnishing the data for the plans on which the
+tens of thousands of airplanes used in the European war were
+afterwards built, no American newspaper was sufficiently interested
+to send representatives to the spot. The people of the United States
+were supremely indifferent. Perhaps this was due to the fact that
+superficially regarded the machine the Wrights were trying to
+perfect gave promise of usefulness only in war or in sport. We are
+not either a warlike or a sporting people. Ready enough to adopt a
+new device which seems adapted for utilitarian purposes, as is shown
+by the rapid multiplication of automobiles, we leave sport to our
+professional ball players, and our military equipment to luck.
+
+[Illustration: Pilcher's Glider.]
+
+So after continued experimental flights in the open fields near
+Dayton had convinced them that the practical weaknesses in their
+machine had been eliminated, the Wrights packed up their flyer and
+went to France. Before so doing they tried to get encouragement from
+the United States Government, but failed. Neither the government nor
+any rich American was willing to share the cost of further
+experiments. All that had been done was at their own cost, both in
+time and money. In France, whither they went in 1908, they had no
+coldness to complain of. It was then the golden day of aviation in
+the land which always afforded to the Knights of the Air their
+warmest welcome and their most liberal support. Two years had
+elapsed since Santos-Dumont, turning from dirigibles to 'planes, had
+made a flight of 238 yards. This the Wrights had at the time
+excelled at home but without attracting attention. France on the
+contrary went mad with enthusiasm, and claimed for the Brazilian the
+honour of first demonstrating the possibility of flight in a
+heavier-than-air machine. England, like the United States, was cold,
+clinging to the balloon long after all other nations had abandoned
+it. But France welcomed the Wrights with enthusiasm. They found
+rivals a-plenty in their field of effort. Santos-Dumont, Bleriot,
+Farman, Latham were all flying with airplanes, but with models
+radically different from that of the American brothers. Nevertheless
+the latter made an instant success.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Airplanes at the
+Opening of the War._
+
+_The French Army had at least 500 aeroplanes. England had about 250
+aeroplanes of all types Russia had 50 aeroplanes--Austria had at
+least 50 aeroplanes Germany is about the equal of France, having 500
+flyers._]
+
+From the moment they found that they had hit upon the secret of
+raising, supporting, and propelling an airplane, the Wrights made of
+their profession a matter of cold business. In many ways this was
+the best contribution they could possibly have made to the science
+of aviation, though their keen eye to the main chance did bring down
+on them a certain amount of ridicule. Europe laughed long at the
+_sang-froid_ with which Wilbur Wright, having won the Michelin prize
+of eight hundred pounds, gave no heed to the applause which the
+assembled throng gave him as the money was transferred to him with a
+neat presentation speech. Without a word he divided the notes into
+two packets, handed one to his brother Orville, and thrust the other
+into his own pocket. For the glory which attended his achievement he
+cared nothing. It was all in the day's work. Later in the course of
+trials of a machine for the United States Government at Fort Myer,
+just across the Potomac from Washington, the Wrights seriously
+offended a certain sort of public sentiment in a way which
+undoubtedly set back the encouragement of aviation by the United
+States Government very seriously.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Comparative Strength of Belligerents in Dirigibles at the
+Opening of the War._
+
+_France must be credited with at least eighteen airships of various
+types--England had only seven--Russia had probably not more than
+three airships available--Belgium had one airship Austria had not
+less than three, not more than five airships available--Germany had
+twenty three airships of the rigid, semi-rigid, and non-rigid
+type._]
+
+In 1909, they had received a contract from the government for a
+machine for the use of the Signal Service. The price was fixed at
+$25,000, but a bonus of $2500 was to be paid for every mile above
+forty miles an hour made by the machine on its trial trip. That
+bonus looked big to the Wrights, but it cost the cause of aviation
+many times its face value in the congressional disfavour it caused.
+Aviation was then in its infancy in the United States. Every man in
+Congress wanted to see the flights. But Fort Myer, whose parade was
+to be the testing ground, was fully fourteen miles from the Capitol,
+and reached only most inconveniently from Washington by trolley, or
+most expensively by carriage or automobile. Day after day members
+of the House and Senate made the long journey across the Potomac.
+Time and again they journeyed back without even a sight of the
+flyer in the hangar. One after another little flaws discovered in
+the machine led the aviators to postpone their flight. Investigating
+statesmen who thought that their position justified them in seeking
+special privileges were brusquely turned away by the military guard.
+The dusk of many a summer's night saw thousands of disappointed
+sightseers tramping the long road back to Washington. The climax
+came when on a clear but breezy day Wilbur Wright announced that the
+machine was in perfect condition and could meet its tests readily,
+but that in order to win a bigger bonus, he would postpone the
+flight for a day with less wind. All over Washington the threat was
+heard that night that Congress would vote no more money for
+aviation, and whether or not the incident was the cause, the
+sequence was that the American Congress was, until the menace of war
+with Germany in 1916, the most niggardly of all legislative bodies
+in its treatment of the flying corps. When the Wrights did finally
+fly they made a triumphant flight before twelve thousand spectators.
+The test involved crossing the Potomac, going down its north side to
+Alexandria, and then back to Fort Myer. Ringing cheers and the
+crashing strains of the military band greeted the return of the
+aviator, but oblivious to the enthusiasm Wilbur Wright stood beside
+his machine with pencil and pad computing his bonus. It figured up
+to five thousand dollars, and the reporters chronicled that the
+Wrights knew well the difference between solid coin and the bubble
+of reputation.
+
+[Illustration: Wright Glider.]
+
+But this seemingly cold indifference to fame and single-minded
+concentration on the business of flying on the part of the Wrights
+was in fact of the utmost value to aviation as an art and a science.
+They were pioneers and successful ones. Their example was heeded by
+others in the business. In every way they sought to discourage that
+wild reaching after public favour and notoriety that led aviators to
+attempt reckless feats, and often sacrifice their lives in a foolish
+effort to astonish an audience. No one ever heard of either of the
+Wright brothers "looping-the-loop," doing a "demon glide," or in any
+other fashion reducing the profession of aviation to the level of a
+circus. In a time when brave and skilful aviators, with a mistaken
+idea of the ethics of their calling, were appealing to sensation
+lovers by the practice of dare-devil feats, the Wrights with
+admirable common sense and dignity stood sturdily against any such
+degradation of the aviator's art. In this position they were joined
+by Glenn Curtis, and the influence of the three was beginning to be
+shown in the reduced number of lives sacrificed in these follies
+when the Great War broke upon the world and gave to aviation its
+greatest opportunity. The world will hope nevertheless that after
+that war shall end the effort to adapt the airplane to the ends of
+peace will be no less earnest and persistent than have been the
+methods by which it has been made a most serviceable auxiliary of
+war.
+
+In July, 1915, _Collier's Weekly_ published an interview with
+Orville Wright in which that man, ordinarily of few words, set up
+some interesting theories upon the future of airplanes.
+
+     "The greatest use of the airplane to date," said Mr. Wright, "has
+     been as a tremendously big factor of modern warfare. But--
+
+     "The greatest use of the airplane eventually will be to prevent
+     war.
+
+     "Some day there will be neither war nor rumours of war, and the
+     reason may be flying machines.
+
+     "It sounds paradoxical. We are building airplanes to use in time
+     of war, and will continue to build them for war. We think of war
+     and we think of airplanes. Later on, perhaps, we shall think of
+     airplanes in connection with the wisdom of keeping out of war.
+
+     "The airplane will prevent war by making it too expensive, too
+     slow, too difficult, too long drawn out--in brief, by making the
+     cost prohibitive.
+
+     "Did you ever stop to think," inquires Wright, "that there is a
+     very definite reason why the present war in Europe has dragged
+     along for a year with neither side gaining much advantage over
+     the other? The reason as I figure it out is airplanes. In
+     consequence of the scouting work done by the flying machines each
+     side knows exactly what the opposing forces are doing.
+
+     "There is little chance for one army to take another by surprise.
+     Napoleon won his wars by massing his troops at unexpected places.
+     The airplane has made that impossible. It has equalized
+     information. Each side has such complete knowledge of the other's
+     movements that both sides are obliged to crawl into trenches and
+     fight by means of slow, tedious routine, rather than by quick,
+     spectacular dashes.
+
+     "My impression is that before the present war started the army
+     experts expected it to be a matter of a few weeks, or at the
+     most, a few months. To-day it looks as if it might run into years
+     before one side can dictate terms. Now, a nation that may be
+     willing to undertake a war lasting a few months may well hesitate
+     about engaging in one that will occupy years. The daily cost of a
+     great war is of course stupendous. When this cost runs on for
+     years the total is likely to be so great that the side which wins
+     nevertheless loses. War will become prohibitively expensive. The
+     scouting work in flying machines will be the predominating
+     factor, as it seems to me, in bringing this about. I like to
+     think so anyhow."
+
+     "What, in your opinion, has the present war demonstrated
+     regarding the relative advantages of airplanes and Zeppelin
+     airships?" the inventor was asked.
+
+     "The airplane seems to have been of the more practical use,"
+     replied Wright. "In the first place, dirigible airships of the
+     Zeppelin type are so expensive to build, costing somewhere around
+     a half million dollars each, that it is distinctly
+     disadvantageous to the nation operating them to have one
+     destroyed. But what is more important is the fact that the
+     Zeppelin is so large that it furnishes an excellent target,
+     unless it sails considerably higher than is comparatively safe
+     for an airplane. And when the Zeppelin is at a safe height it is
+     too far above the ground for your scout to make accurate
+     observations. Similarly, when the Zeppelin is used for dropping
+     bombs, it must be too high for the bomb thrower to show much
+     accuracy."
+
+     "You think that the use of flying machines for scouting purposes
+     will be of considerably more importance than their use as a means
+     of attack?" was another question.
+
+     "That has been decidedly true so far," replied Wright. "About all
+     that has been accomplished by either side from bomb dropping has
+     been to kill a few non-combatants and that will have no bearing
+     on the result of the war.
+
+[Illustration: _At a French Airplane Base._ (C) International Pilot
+Service.]
+
+     "English newspapers have long talked of the danger of Zeppelin
+     attacks or airplane attacks, but it was all for a purpose,
+     because they did not believe the country was sufficiently
+     prepared for war and sought to arouse the people and the War
+     Department to action by means of the airship bogy. [Later history
+     showed Mr. Wright sadly in error on this point.]
+
+     "Aside from the use of the machines for war purposes the war will
+     give a great boost to aviation generally. It has led more men to
+     learn to fly, and with a higher degree of skill than ever before.
+     It has awakened people to aviation possibilities.
+
+[Illustration: Stringfellow's Airplane.]
+
+     "Just like the automobile, it will become more and more
+     fool-proof, easier to handle and safer. There is no reason why it
+     should not take the place of special trains where there is urgent
+     need of great speed.
+
+     "The airplane has never really come into its own as a sporting
+     proposition. Of late years the tendency has been to develop a
+     high rate of speed rather than to build machines that may be
+     operated safely at a comparatively low speed. You see, a machine
+     adapted to make from seventy to one hundred miles an hour cannot
+     run at all except at a pretty rapid clip, and this means
+     difficulty in getting down. One must have a good, smooth piece of
+     ground to land on and plenty of it. When we get an airplane that
+     will fly along at twenty miles an hour, one can land almost any
+     place,--on a roof, if necessary,--and then people will begin to
+     take an interest in owning an airplane for the enjoyment of
+     flying."
+
+     "Is it true that you and your brother had a compact not to fly
+     together?"
+
+     "Yes, we felt that until the records of our work could be made
+     complete it was a wise precaution not to take a chance on both of
+     us getting killed at the same time. We never flew together but
+     once. From 1900 to 1908 the total time in the air for both Wilbur
+     and myself, all put together, was only about four hours."
+
+Mr. Wright's statement of the brevity of the time spent in actual
+flying in order to learn the art will astonish many people. Few
+novices would be so rash as to undertake to steer an automobile
+alone after only four hours' practice, and despite the fact that the
+aviator always has plenty of space to himself the airplane can
+hardly yet be regarded as simple a machine to handle as the
+automobile. Nevertheless the ease with which the method of its
+actual manipulation is acquired is surprising. More work is done in
+the classroom and on the ground to make the fighting pilot than in
+the air. As we have traced the development of both dirigible and
+airplane from the first nascent germ of their creation to the point
+at which they were sufficiently developed to play a large part in
+the greatest of all wars, let us now consider how hosts of young
+men, boys in truth, were trained to fly like eagles and to give
+battle in mid-air to foes no less well trained and desperate than
+they.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE TRAINING OF THE AVIATOR
+
+
+The Great War, opening in Europe in 1914 and before its end
+involving practically the whole world, including our own nation, has
+had more to do with the rapid development of aircraft, both
+dirigible balloons and airplanes, than any other agency up to the
+present time. It tested widely and discarded all but the most
+efficient. It established the relative value of the dirigible and
+the airplane, so relegating the former to the rear that it is said
+that the death of Count Zeppelin, March 8, 1917, was in a measure
+due to his chagrin and disappointment. It stimulated at once the
+inventiveness of the constructors and the skill and daring of the
+pilots. When it opened there were a few thousand machines and
+trained pilots in all the armies of Europe. Before the war had been
+in progress three years there were more flying men over the
+battlefields of the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa,
+than there were at that time soldiers of all classes enlisted in the
+regular army of the United States. Before that war the three arms of
+the armed service had been infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The
+experience of war added a new arm--the aviation corps--and there is
+to-day some doubt whether in importance it should not be ranked
+above the cavalry.
+
+[Illustration: "_America"--Built to Cross the Atlantic Ocean._ (C) U.
+& U.]
+
+When war was declared none of the belligerent nations had its aerial
+fleet properly organized, nor was the aviation department in any of
+them equal in preparedness to the rest of the army. The two great
+antagonists did not differ greatly in the strength of their flying
+forces. Germany possessed about 1000 airplanes, exclusive of about
+450 in private hands, of all which it is estimated about 700 were
+ready for immediate service. Fourteen Zeppelins were in commission,
+and other large dirigibles of different types brought the number of
+the craft of this sort available up to forty.
+
+[Illustration: _Wright Airplane in Flight._]
+
+France was stronger in airplanes but weaker in dirigibles. Of the
+former she had about 1500; of the latter not more than twenty-five.
+The land was swept for planes in the hands of private owners and, as
+the French people had from the first taken a lively interest in
+aviation, more than 500 were thus obtained. The French furthermore
+at the very outset imperilled their immediate strength in the air
+for the sake of the future by adopting four or five machines as army
+types and throwing out all of other makes. More than 550 machines
+were thus discarded, and their services lost during the first weeks
+of the war. The reason for this action was the determination of the
+French to equip their aviation corps with standardized machines of a
+few types only. Thus interchangeable parts could always be kept in
+readiness in case of an emergency, and the aviation corps was
+obliged to familiarize itself with the workings of only a few
+machines. The objection to the system is the fact that it
+practically stopped all development of any machines in France except
+the favoured few. Moreover it threw out of the service at a stroke,
+or remanded for further instruction, not less than four hundred
+pilots who had been trained on the rejected machines. The order was
+received with great public dissatisfaction, and for a time
+threatened serious trouble in the Chamber of Deputies where
+criticisms of the direction of the flying service even menaced the
+continuance of the ministry in power.
+
+At the outset of the war Great Britain lagged far behind the other
+chief belligerents in the extent of her preparations for war in the
+air. As has been pointed out the people of that nation had never
+taken the general interest in aviation which was manifested in
+France, and there was no persistent Count von Zeppelin to stir
+government and citizens into action. The situation was rather
+anomalous. Protected from invasion by its ring of surrounding
+waters, England had long concentrated its defensive efforts upon its
+navy. But while the danger of invasion by the air was second only to
+that by sea the British contemplated with indifference the feverish
+building of Zeppelins by Germany, and the multiplication of aircraft
+of every sort in all the nations of the continent. The manufacture
+of aircraft was left to private builders, and not until the war was
+well under way did the government undertake its systematic
+supervision. The Royal Aerial Factory, then established, became the
+chief manufacturer of machines for army and navy use, and acted also
+as the agent for the inspection and testing of machines built by
+private firms. Control of the Royal Flying Corps is vested in the
+Admiralty, the government holding that the strategy of airships was
+distinctly naval.
+
+In the use of seaplanes the British were early far in the lead of
+other nations, as we shall see in a later chapter. And in the prompt
+and efficient employment of such aircraft as she possessed at the
+opening of the war she far outclassed Germany which in point of
+numbers was her superior. At that moment Great Britain possessed
+about five hundred machines, of which two hundred were seaplanes,
+and fifteen dirigibles. Despite this puny force, however, British
+aviators flew across the channel in such numbers to the headquarters
+in France that when the Expeditionary Army arrived on the scene it
+found ready to its hand a scouting force vastly superior to anything
+the Germans could put in the air. It is no exaggeration to say that
+the Royal Flying Corps saved Sir John French's army in his long and
+gallant fight against the overwhelming numbers of the foe.
+
+Russia before the war had hidden her aeronautic activities behind
+the dreary curtain of miles of steppe and marsh that shut her off
+from the watchfulness of Western Europe. Professional aviators,
+indeed, had gone thither to make exhibition flights for enormous
+purses and had brought back word of huge airplanes in course of
+construction and an eager public interest in the subject of flying.
+But the secrecy which all the governments so soon to be plunged in
+war sought to throw about their production of aircraft was
+especially easy for Russia in her isolation. When the storm burst
+her air fleet was not less than eight hundred airplanes, and at
+least twenty-five dirigibles.
+
+A competent authority estimates that at the outbreak of the war the
+various Powers possessed a total of 4980 aircraft of all sorts. This
+sounds like a colossal fleet, but by 1917 it was probably multiplied
+more than tenfold. Of the increase of aircraft we can judge only by
+guesswork. The belligerents keep their output an inviolable secret.
+It was known that many factories with a capacity of from thirty to
+fifty 'planes a week were working in the chief belligerent lands,
+that the United States was shipping aircraft in parts to avoid
+violation of neutrality laws before their entrance upon the war, and
+that American capital operated factories in Canada whence the
+completed craft could be shipped regardless of such laws. How great
+was the loss to be offset against this new construction is a subject
+on which no authoritative figures are available.
+
+It was estimated early in the war that the life of an airplane in
+active service seldom exceeded three weeks. In passing it may be
+mentioned that by some misapprehension on the part of the public,
+this estimate of the duration of a machine was thought to cover also
+the average life of the aviators in service. Happily this was far
+from true. The mortality among the machines was not altogether due
+to wounds sustained in combat, but largely to general wear and tear,
+rough usage, and constant service. The slightest sign of weakness in
+a machine led to its instant condemnation and destruction, for if it
+should develop in mid-air into a serious fault it might cost the
+life of the aviator and even a serious disaster to the army which he
+was serving. As the war went on the period of service of a machine
+became even briefer, for with the growing demand for faster and more
+quickly controllable machines everything was sacrificed to lightness
+and speed. The factor of safety which early in the war was six to
+eight was reduced to three and a half, and instances were known in
+all services of machines simply collapsing and going to pieces under
+their own weight without wound or shock.
+
+About the extent to which the belligerent governments developed
+their air forces after the outbreak of war there was during the
+continuance of that conflict great reticence maintained by all of
+them. At the outset there was little employment of the flyers except
+on scouting reconnaissance work, or in directing artillery fire. The
+raids of Zeppelins upon England, of seaplanes on Kiel and Cuxhaven,
+of airplanes on Friedrichshaven, Essen, and Venice came later. It
+has been noted by military authorities that, while Germany was
+provided at first with the largest aviation force of all the
+belligerents, she either underestimated its value at the outset, or
+did not know how to employ it, for she blundered into and through
+Belgium using her traditional Uhlans for scouts, to the virtual
+exclusion of airmen. The effectiveness of the Belgian fight for
+delay is ascribed largely to the intelligent and effective use its
+strategists made of the few aircraft they possessed.
+
+Wellington was wont to say that the thing he yearned for most in
+battle was to "see the other side of that hill."
+
+Napoleon wrote:
+
+     Nothing is more contradictory, nothing more bewildering than the
+     multitude of reports of spies, or of officers sent out to
+     reconnoitre. Some locate army corps where they have seen only
+     detachments; others see only detachments where they ought to have
+     seen army corps.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_The Lafayette Escadrille--First Americans to Fly in France._
+(_Lufbery on left, Thaw on right._)]
+
+So the two great protagonists of the opening years of the
+nineteenth century deplored their military blindness. In the opening
+years of the twentieth it was healed. All that Wellington strove to
+see, all that the cavalry failed to find for Napoleon is to-day
+brought to headquarters by airmen, neatly set forth in maps,
+supported by photographs of the enemy's positions taken from the
+sky.
+
+Before describing the exploits of the airmen in actual campaign let
+us consider some account of how they were trained for their arduous
+and novel duties.
+
+To the non-professional an amazing thing about the employment of
+aircraft in war has been the rapidity with which pilots are trained.
+The average layman would think that to learn the art of manoeuvring
+an airplane with such swiftness as to evade the attacks of an enemy,
+and to detect precisely the proper moment and method of attacking
+him in turn, would require long and arduous practice in the air. But
+as we have seen in earlier chapters, inventors like the Wrights,
+Bleriot, and Farman learned to fly with but a few hours spent in the
+air, with flights lasting less than ten minutes each. So too the
+army aviators spent but little time aloft, though their course of
+instruction covered in all a period of about four months.
+
+Some account of the method of instruction as reported by several out
+of the hundred or more American boys who went to fly for France may
+be interesting.
+
+As a rule the aviators were from twenty to twenty-five years of age.
+"Below twenty boys are too rash; above twenty-five they are too
+prudent," said a sententious French aviator. A slight knowledge of
+motors such as would be obtained from familiarity with automobiles
+was a marked advantage at the start, for the first task of the
+novice was to make himself familiar with every type of airplane
+engine. The army pilot in all the armies was the aristocrat of the
+service. Mechanics kept his motor in shape, and helpers housed,
+cleaned, and brought forth his machine for action. But while all but
+the actual piloting and fighting was spared him, there was always
+the possibility of his making an untimely landing back of the
+enemy's lines with an engine that would not work. To prepare for
+such an emergency he was taught all the intricacies of motor
+construction, so that he might speedily correct any minor fault.
+
+In our army, and indeed in all others, applicants for appointment to
+the aviation corps were subjected to scientific tests of their
+nerves, and their mental and physical alertness. How they would
+react to the sudden explosion of a shell near their ears, how long
+it took the candidate to respond to a sudden call for action, how
+swiftly he reacted to a sensation of touch were all tested and
+measured by delicate electric apparatus. A standard was fixed,
+failing to attain which, the applicant was rejected. The practical
+effect might be to determine how long after suddenly discovering a
+masked machine gun a given candidate would take before taking the
+action necessary to avoid its fire. Or how quickly would he pull the
+lever necessary to guard against a sudden gust of wind. To the
+layman it would appear that problems of this sort could only be
+solved in the presence of the actual attack, but science, which
+enables artillerists to destroy a little village beyond the hills
+which they never see, was able to devise instruments to answer these
+questions in the quiet of the laboratory.
+
+One of the best known flying schools of the French army was at Pau,
+where on broad level plains were, in 1917, four separate camps for
+aviators, each with its group of hangars for the machines, its
+repair shops, and with a tall wireless tower upstanding in the
+midst for the daily war news from Paris. On these plains the Wright
+Brothers had made some of their earliest French flights. A little
+red barn which they had made their workshop was still standing there
+when war suddenly turned the spot into a flying school often with as
+many as five thousand pupils in attendance. "To-day that little red
+barn," writes Carroll Dana Winslow, one of the Americans who went to
+fly for France, "stands as a monument to American stupidity, for
+when we allowed the Wrights to go abroad to perfect their ideas
+instead of aiding them to carry on their work at home we lost a
+golden opportunity. Now the United States which gave to the world
+the first practical airplane is the least advanced in this
+all-important science."
+
+Arrived at the school the tyro studies the fundamentals of flying in
+the classroom and on the field for two months before he is allowed
+to go up--to receive as they express it, his _bapteme de l'air_. He
+picks motors to pieces, and puts them together, he learns the
+principles of airplane construction, and can discourse on such
+topics as the angle of attack of the cellule, the incidence of the
+wings, and the carrying power of the tail-plane. More than any other
+science aviation has a vocabulary of its own, and a peculiarly
+cosmopolitan one drawn from all tongues, but with the French
+predominating. America gave the airplane to France, but France has
+given the science its terminology.
+
+The maps of the battlefields of this war are the marvels of military
+science. Made from the air they show every road and watercourse,
+every ditch and gully, every patch of woodland, every farmhouse,
+church, or stonewall. Much of the early work of the aviator is in
+learning to make such maps, both by sketches and by the employment
+of the camera. It is no easy task. From an airplane one thousand
+feet up the earth seems to be all a dead level. Slight hills, gentle
+elevations, offer no contrast to the general plain. A road is not
+easy to tell from a trench. All these things the aviator must first
+learn to see with accuracy, and then to depict on his map with
+precision. He must learn furthermore to read the maps of his
+fellows--a task presupposing some knowledge of how they had been
+made. He must learn to fly by a map, to recognize objects by the
+technical signs upon it, to estimate his drift before the wind
+because of which the machine moves sidewise _en crabe_--or like a
+crab as the French phrase it.
+
+His first flight the novice makes in a machine especially fitted for
+instruction. The levers are fitted with double handles so that both
+learner and tutor may hold them at once. If the greenhorn pushes
+when he should pull the veteran's grip is hard on the handle to
+correct the error before it can cost two lives--for in the air there
+is little time to experiment. Either set of controls will steer the
+machine. The pupil grasps his levers, and puts his feet on the
+pedals. At first the instructor will do the steering, the pupil
+following with hands and feet as the motions made by the instructor
+are communicated to him by the moving levers. For a time the two
+work together. Then as the instructor senses that the student
+himself is doing the right thing he gradually lessens his own
+activity, until after a few days' practice the student finds that he
+is flying with a passenger and directing the machine himself. In
+France, at any rate, they teach in brief lessons. Each flight for
+instruction is limited to about five minutes. At first the student
+operates in a "penguin"--a machine which will run swiftly along the
+ground but cannot rise. It is no easy trick at first, to control the
+"penguin" and keep its course direct. Then he will try the "jumps"
+in a machine that leaps into the air and descends automatically
+after a twenty to forty yards' flight. As Darius Green expressed it
+so long ago, the trouble about flying comes when you want to alight.
+That holds as true to-day with the most perfect airplanes, as in
+boyhood days when one jumped from the barn in perfect confidence
+that the family umbrella would serve as a parachute. To alight
+with an airplane the pilot--supposing his descent to be voluntary
+and not compelled by accident or otherwise--surveys the country
+about him for a level field, big and clear enough for the machine to
+run off its momentum in a run of perhaps two hundred yards on its
+wheels. Then he gets up a good rate of speed, points the nose of the
+'plane down at a sharp angle to the ground, cuts off the engine, and
+glides. The angle of the fall must be great enough for the force of
+gravity to keep up the speed. There is a minimum speed at which an
+airplane will remain subject to control. Loss of speed--"_perte de
+vitesse_," as the French call it--is the aviator's most common peril
+in landing. If it occurs after his engine is cut off and he has not
+the time to start it again, the machine tilts and slides down
+sideways. If it occurs higher up a _vrille_ is the probable result.
+In this the plane plunges toward the ground spinning round and round
+with the corner of one wing as a pivot. In either case a serious
+accident is almost inevitable.
+
+In fact the land is almost as dangerous to the navigator of the air
+as it is to him of the sea. To make good landings is an art only
+perfected by constant practice. To shut off the engine at precisely
+the right moment, to choose an angle of descent that will secure the
+greatest speed and at the same moment bring you to your landing
+place, to change at the most favourable time from this angle to one
+that will bring you to the ground at the most gentle of obtuse
+angles, and to let your machine, weighing perhaps a ton, drop as
+lightly as a bird and run along the earth for several hundred feet
+before coming to a full stop, are all features of making a landing
+which the aviator has to master.
+
+In full air there are but few perils to encounter. All airmen unite
+in declaring that even to the novice in an airplane there is none of
+that sense of dizziness or vertigo which so many people experience
+in looking down from high places. The flyer has no sense of motion.
+A speed of forty miles an hour and of one hundred miles are the
+same to him. As he looks down the earth seems to be slipping away
+from him, and moving by, tailwards, like an old-fashioned panorama
+being unwound.
+
+Everything about the control of an airplane has to be learned
+mechanically. Once learned the aviator applies his knowledge
+intuitively. He "senses" the position and progress of the craft by
+the feel of the controls, as the man at the yacht's tiller tells
+mysteriously how she is responding to the breeze by "the feel." Even
+before the 'plane responds to some sudden gust of wind, or drops
+into a hole in the air, the trained aviator will foresee precisely
+what is about to happen. He reads it in some little thrill of his
+lever, a quiver in the frame, as the trained boxer reads in his
+antagonist's eyes the sort of blow that is coming. This instinctive
+control of his machine is absolutely essential for the fighting
+pilot who must keep his eyes on the movements of his enemy, watch
+out for possible aircraft guns below, and all the time be striving
+to get an advantageous position whence he can turn his machine gun
+loose. A row of gauges, dials, a compass, and a map on the frame of
+the car in which he sits will engage his attention in any moments of
+leisure. It is needless to remark that the successful pilot must
+have a quick eye and steady nerves.
+
+Nerve and rapidity of thought save the aviator in many a ticklish
+position. It is perhaps a tribute to the growing perfection of the
+airplanes that in certain moments of peril the machine is best left
+wholly to itself. Its stability is such that if freed from control
+it will often right itself and glide safely to earth. This not
+infrequently occurs in the moment of the dreaded _perte de vitesse_,
+to which reference has been made. In his book, _With the French
+Flying Corps_, Mr. Carroll Dana Winslow, a daring American aviator,
+tells of two such experiences, the one under his observation, the
+other happening to himself:
+
+     The modern airplane is naturally so stable [he says] that if not
+     interfered with it will always attempt to right itself before the
+     dreaded _vrille_ occurs, and fall _en feuille morte_. Like a leaf
+     dropping in an autumn breeze is what this means, and no other
+     words explain the meaning better.
+
+     A curious instance of this happened one day as I was watching the
+     flights and waiting for my turn. I was particularly interested in
+     a machine that had just risen from the "Grande Piste." It was
+     acting very peculiarly. Suddenly its motor was heard to stop.
+     Instead of diving it commenced to wabble, indicating a _perte de
+     vitesse_. It slipped off on the wing and then dove. I watched it
+     intently, expecting it to turn into the dreaded spiral. Instead
+     it began to climb. Then it went off on the wing, righted itself,
+     again slipped off on the wing, volplaned, and went off once more.
+     This extraordinary performance was repeated several times, while
+     each time the machine approached nearer and nearer to the ground.
+     I thought that the pilot would surely be killed. Luck was with
+     him, however, for his slip ceased just as he made contact with
+     the ground and he settled in a neighbouring field. It was a very
+     bumpy landing but the airplane was undamaged.
+
+     The officers rushed to the spot to find out what was the matter.
+     They found the pilot unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. Later in
+     the hospital he explained that the altitude had affected his
+     heart and that he had fainted. As he felt himself going he
+     remembered his instructions and relinquished the controls, at the
+     same time stopping his motor. His presence of mind and his luck
+     had saved his life--his luck I say, for had the machine not
+     righted itself at the moment of touching the ground it would have
+     been inevitably wrecked.
+
+The spectacle, though terrifying, proved valuable as an education to
+young Winslow who a few days later was ordered to a test of
+ascension of two thousand feet. This is his story:
+
+     I had a narrow escape. I had received orders to make a flight
+     during a snow-storm. I rose to the prescribed height and then
+     prepared to make my descent. A whirling squall caught me in the
+     act of making a spiral. I felt the tail of my machine go down and
+     the nose point up. I had a classical _perte de vitesse_. I looked
+     out and saw that I was less than eight hundred feet above the
+     ground and approaching it at an alarming rate of speed. I had
+     already shut off the motor for the spiral, and turning it on, I
+     knew, would not help me in the least. Suddenly I remembered the
+     pilot who fainted. I let go of everything, and with a sickening
+     feeling I looked down at the up-rushing ground. At that instant I
+     felt the machine give a lurch and right itself. I grabbed the
+     controls, turned on the motor, and resumed my line of flight only
+     two hundred feet in the air. All this happened in a few seconds,
+     but my helplessness seemed to have lasted for hours. I had had a
+     very close call--not as close as the man who fainted, but
+     sufficiently so for me.
+
+[Illustration: _Distinguishing Marks of American Planes._]
+
+We have said that the process of training a flyer is remarkably
+expeditious. So far as the fundamentals of his profession are
+concerned it is. But his education in fact never ends. In the mere
+matter of reconnaissance, for example, experience is everything. One
+might imagine that ten thousand men marching on a road would look
+alike in numbers whatever the nationality. Not so. To the untrained
+eye five thousand or six thousand French troops will look as
+numerous as ten thousand British or Germans. Why? Because the French
+march in much more extended order. Into their democratic military
+methods the precision and mechanical exactitude of German drill do
+not enter. With the same number of troops they will extend further
+along the road by at least a third than would a detachment of either
+of the other armies.
+
+[Illustration: _What an Aviator must Watch._
+
+   1 _Watch_
+   2 _Altimeter-registering height_
+   3 _Compass_
+   4 _Pressure gauges for two gasoline tanks_
+   5 _Dial registering engine revolutions_
+   6 _Inclinometer, registering level fore and aft_
+   7 _Oil pulsator_
+   8 _Control stick, with thumb switch_
+   9 _Switches, two magnetos_
+  10 _Air speed indicator_
+  11 _Gasolene supply pipe_]
+
+And again. Great skill has been developed in the course of the war
+in the art of concealing positions and particularly in disguising
+cannon. The art has given a new word to the world--_camouflage_.
+Correspondents have repeatedly told of their amazement in suddenly
+coming across a battery of 75's, or a great siege gun so cunningly
+hidden in the edge of a thicket they would be almost upon it before
+detecting it. From an airplane 2500 feet or more in the air it
+requires sharp eyes to penetrate artillery disguises. A French poilu
+in a little book of reminiscences tells with glee how a German
+observation aviator deceived his batteries. A considerable body of
+French troops being halted in an open field, out of sight of the
+enemy batteries, found the glare of the sun oppressive, and having
+some time to wait threw down their equipment and betook themselves
+to the cool shadows of a neighbouring wood. Along came an enemy
+aviator. From his lofty height the haversacks, blanket-rolls, and
+other pieces of dark equipment lying upon the grass looked like a
+body of troops resting. After sailing over and around the field
+twice as though to make assurance doubly sure he sailed swiftly
+away. In a very few minutes shells from a concealed battery began
+dropping into that field at the rate of several a minute. Every foot
+of it was torn up, and the French soldiers from their retreat in the
+woods saw their equipment being blown to pieces in every direction.
+The spectacle was harrowing, but the reflection that the aviator
+undoubtedly thought that he had turned his guns on a field full of
+men was cheering to them in their safety.
+
+An art which the fighting aviator must master early in his career is
+that of high diving. Many of us have seen a hawk, soaring high in
+air, suddenly fold his pinions and drop like a plummet full on the
+back of some luckless pigeon flapping along ungainly scores of feet
+below, or a fishhawk drop like a meteor from the sky with a
+resounding splash upon the bosom of some placid stream and rise
+again carrying a flapping fish to his eyrie in the distant pines.
+The hunting methods of the hawk are the fighting methods of the
+airman. But his dives exceed in height and daring anything known to
+the feathered warriors of the air.
+
+Boelke, most famous of all the German airmen--or for that matter of
+all aerial fighters of his day--who in 1917 held the record for the
+number of enemy flyers brought down, was famed for his savage dives.
+He would fly at a great height, fifteen thousand or more feet, thus
+assuring himself that there was no enemy above him. When he sighted
+his prey he would make an absolutely vertical nose dive, dropping at
+the rate of 150 miles an hour or more and spattering shots from his
+machine gun as he fell. Six hundred shots a minute and the sight of
+this charging demon were enough to test the nerve of any threatened
+aviator. In some fashion Boelke was enabled to give a slight spiral
+form to his dive so that his victim was enveloped in a ring of
+bullets that blocked his retreat whichever way he might turn for
+safety.
+
+Personality in fighting counted much for success. Boelke's method,
+its audacity and fierceness, placed him first in the list of airmen
+with killing records. Captain Immelman, also a German, who rolled up
+a score of thirty enemies put out of action before he himself was
+slain, followed entirely different tactics. His battle manoeuvre
+savoured much of the circus, including as it did complete
+loop-the-loop. For instead of approaching his adversary from the
+side, or as would be said in the sea navy, on the beam, he followed
+squarely behind him. His study was to get the nose of his machine
+almost on the tail of the aircraft he was pursuing. This gave him,
+to begin with, what used to be called in the navy a raking position,
+for his shots would rake the whole body of the enemy airplane from
+tail to nose with a fair chance of hitting either the fuel tank,
+the engine, or the pilot. Failing to secure the position he most
+coveted, this daring German would surrender it with apparent
+unconcern to the enemy who usually fell into the trap. For just as
+the foeman's machine came up to the tail of Immelman's craft the
+latter would suddenly turn his nose straight to earth, drop like a
+stone, execute a backward loop, and come up behind his surprised
+adversary who thus found the tables suddenly turned.
+
+These two German aviators long held the record for execution done in
+single combat. Boelke was killed before the air duel vanished to be
+replaced by the battle of scores of planes high in air. Immelman
+survived longer, but with the incoming of the pitched battle his
+personal prowess counted for less and his fame waned.
+
+In July, 1917, arrangements were complete in the United States for
+the immediate training in the fundamentals of aviation of ten
+thousand young Americans. The expectation was that long before the
+end of the year facilities would be provided for the training of
+many more. Both France and Great Britain sent over squads of their
+best aviators, some of them so incapacitated from wounds as to be
+disqualified for further fighting, but still vigorous enough for the
+work of an instructor. The aerial service took hold upon the
+imagination and the patriotism of young America as did no other. The
+flock of volunteers was far beyond the capacity of the government to
+care for, and many drifted over into private aviation schools which
+were established in great numbers. The need for the young students
+was admittedly great. More and more the impression had grown in both
+Great Britain and France that the airplane was to be the final
+arbiter in the war. It was hailed at once as the most dangerous
+enemy of the submarine and the most efficient ally of troops in the
+field. No number seemed too great for the needs of the entente
+allies, and their eagerness to increase their flying force was
+strengthened by the knowledge of the fact that Germany was building
+feverishly in order that its fleet in the air might not be
+eclipsed.
+
+Perhaps the best description of an idealized aviator was given by
+Lieutenant Lufbery, of the Lafayette Escadrille, who came to the
+United States to assist in training the new corps of American flying
+men. Lufbery himself was a most successful air fighter--an "ace"
+several times over. Though French by lineage, he was an American
+citizen and had been a soldier in the United States Army. In October
+of 1917 his record was thirteen Boches brought down within the
+allied lines. In the allied air service one gets no credit for the
+defeated enemy plane if it falls within the enemy lines.
+
+While young Americans were being drilled into shape for service in
+the flying corps, Lufbery gave this outline of the type of men the
+service would demand:
+
+     It will take the cream of the American youth between the ages of
+     eighteen and twenty-six to man America's thousands of airplanes,
+     and the double cream of youth to qualify as chasers in the
+     Republic's new aerial army.
+
+     Intensive and scientific training must be given this cream of
+     youth upon which America's welfare in the war must rest.
+     Experience has shown that for best results the fighting aviator
+     should be not over twenty-six years old or under eighteen. The
+     youth under eighteen has shown himself to be bold, but he lacks
+     judgment. Men over twenty-six are too cautious.
+
+     The best air fighters, especially a man handling a chaser, must
+     be of perfect physique. He must have the coolest nerve and be of
+     a temperament that longs for a fight. He must have a sense of
+     absolute duty and fearlessness, the keenest sense of action, and
+     perfect sight to gain the absolute "feel" of his machine.
+
+     He must be entirely familiar with aerial acrobatics. The latter
+     frequently means life or death.
+
+     Fighting twenty-two thousand feet in the air produces a heavy
+     strain on the heart. It is vital therefore that this organ show
+     not the slightest evidence of weakness. Such weakness would
+     decrease the aviator's fighting efficiency.
+
+     The American boys who come over to France for this work will be
+     subject to rapid and frequent variations in altitude. It is a
+     common occurrence to dive vertically from six thousand to ten
+     thousand feet with the motor pulling hard.
+
+     Sharpness of vision is imperative. Otherwise the enemy may escape
+     or the aviator himself will be surprised or mistake a friendly
+     machine for a hostile craft. The differences are often merely
+     insignificant colours and details.
+
+     America's aviators must be men who will be absolute masters of
+     themselves under fire, thinking out their attacks as their fight
+     progresses.
+
+     Experience has shown that the chaser men should weigh under 180
+     pounds. Americans from the ranks of sport, youth who have played
+     baseball, polo, football, or have shot and participated in other
+     sports will make the best fighting aviators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SOME METHODS OF THE WAR IN THE AIR
+
+
+The fighting tactics of the airmen with the various armies were
+developed as the war ran its course. As happens so often in the
+utilization of a new device, either of war or peace, the manner of
+its use was by no means what was expected at the outset. For the
+first year of the war the activities of the airmen fell far short of
+realizing Tennyson's conception of
+
+  The nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue.
+
+The grappling was only incidental. The flyers seemed destined to be
+scouts and rangefinders, rather than fighters. Such pitched combats
+as there were took rather the form of duels, conducted with
+something of the formality of the days of chivalry. The aviator
+intent upon a fight would take his machine over the enemy's line and
+in various ways convey a challenge to a rival--often a hostile
+aviator of fame for his daring and skill in combat. If the duel was
+to the death it would be watched usually from the ground by the
+comrades of the two duellists, and if the one who fell left his body
+in the enemy's lines, the victor would gather up his identification
+disk and other personal belongings and drop them the next day in the
+camp of the dead man's comrades with a note of polite regret.
+
+It was all very daring and chivalric, but it was not war according
+to twentieth century standards and was not long continued.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A Caproni Triplane._]
+
+When at first the aviators of one side flew over the enemy's
+territory diligently mapping out his trenches, observing the
+movements of his troops, or indicating, by dropping bunches of
+tinsel for the sun to shine upon or breaking smoke bombs, the
+position of his hidden battery, the foe thus menaced sought to drive
+them away with anti-aircraft guns. These proved to be ineffective
+and it may be said here that throughout the war the swift airplanes
+proved themselves more than a match for the best anti-aircraft
+artillery that had been devised. They could complete their
+reconnaissances or give their signals at a height out of range of
+these guns, or at least so great that the chances of their being hit
+were but slight. It was amazing the manner in which an airplane
+could navigate a stretch of air full of bursting shrapnel and yet
+escape serious injury. The mere puncture, even the repeated
+puncture, of the wings did no damage. Only lucky shots that might
+pierce the fuel tank, hit the engine, touch an aileron or an
+important stay or strut, could affect the machine, while in due
+course of time a light armour on the bottom of the fusillage or body
+of the machine in which the pilot sat, protected the operator to
+some degree. Other considerations, however, finally led to the
+rejection of armour.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A Caproni Triplane_ (_Showing Propellers and Fuselage_).]
+
+Accordingly it soon became the custom of the commanders who saw
+their works being spied out by an enemy soaring above to send up one
+or more aircraft to challenge the invader and drive him away. This
+led to the second step in the development in aerial strategy. It was
+perfectly evident that a man could not observe critically a position
+and draw maps of it, or seek out the hiding place of massed
+batteries and indicate them to his own artillerists, and at the same
+time protect himself from assaults. Accordingly the flying corps of
+every army gradually became differentiated into observation machines
+and fighting machines--or _avions de reglage_, _avions de
+bombardement_, and _avions de chasse_, as the French call them. In
+their order these titles were applied to heavy slow-moving machines
+used for taking photographs and directing artillery fire, more
+heavily armed machines of greater weight used in raids and bombing
+attacks, and the swift fighting machines, quick to rise high, and
+swift to manoeuvre which would protect the former from the enemy, or
+drive away the enemy's observation machines as the case might be. In
+the form which the belligerents finally adopted as most
+advantageous the fighting airplanes were mainly biplanes equipped
+with powerful motors seldom of less than 140 horse-power, and
+carrying often but one man who is not merely the pilot, but the
+operator of the machine gun with which each was equipped. Still
+planes carrying two men, and even three of whom one was the pilot,
+the other two the operators of the machine guns were widely adopted.
+They had indeed their disadvantages. They were slower to rise and
+clumsier in the turns. The added weight of the two gunmen cut down
+the amount of fuel that could be carried and limited the radius of
+action. But one curious disadvantage which would not at first
+suggest itself to the lay mind was the fact that the roar of the
+propeller was so great that no possible communication could pass
+between the pilot and the gunner. Their co-operation must be
+entirely instinctive or there could be no unity of action--and in
+practice it was found that there was little indeed. The smaller
+machine, carrying but one man, was quicker in the get-away and could
+rise higher in less time--a most vital consideration, for in the
+tactics of aerial warfare it is as desirable to get above your enemy
+as in the days of the old line of battleships it was advantageous to
+secure a position off the stern of your enemy so that you might rake
+him fore and aft.
+
+The machines ultimately found to best meet the needs of aerial
+fighting were for the Germans always the Fokker, and the Taube--so
+called from its resemblance to a flying dove, though it was far from
+being the dove of peace. The wings are shaped like those of a bird
+and the tail adds to the resemblance. The Allies after testing the
+Taube design contemptuously rejected it, and indeed the Germans
+themselves substituted the Fokker for it in the war's later days.
+
+The English used the "Vickers Scout," built of aluminum and steel
+and until late in the war usually designed to carry two aviators.
+This machine unlike most of the others has the propeller at the
+stern, called a "pusher" in contradistinction to the "tractor,"
+acting as the screw of a ship and avoiding the interference with the
+rifle fire which the pulling, or tractor propeller mounted before
+the pilot to a certain degree presents. The Vickers machine is
+lightly armoured. The English also use what was known as the "D. H.
+5," a machine carrying a motor of very high horse-power, while the
+Sopwith and Bristol biplane were popular as fighting craft.
+
+The French pinned their faith mainly to the Farman, the Caudron, the
+Voisin, and the Moraine-Saulnier machines. The Bleriot and the
+Nieuport, which were for some reason ruled out at the beginning of
+the war, were afterwards re-adopted and employed in great numbers.
+
+It would be gratifying to an American author to be able to describe,
+or at least to mention, the favourite machine of the American
+aviators who flocked to France immediately upon the declaration of
+war, but the mortifying fact is that having no airplanes of our own,
+our gallant volunteer soldiers of the air had to be equipped
+throughout by the French with machines of their favourite types.
+After we entered the war we adopted a 'plane of American design to
+which was given the name "Liberty plane."
+
+It may be worth while to revert for a moment to the distinction
+drawn in a preceding paragraph between the pusher propeller and the
+tractor which revolved in front of the aviator and of his machine
+gun. It would seem almost incredible that two heavy blades of hard
+wood revolving at a speed not less that twelve hundred times a
+minute, a speed so rapid that their passage in front of the eyes of
+the aviator interfered in no way with his vision, should not have
+blocked a stream of bullets falling from a gun at the rate of more
+than six hundred a minute. Nevertheless it was claimed during the
+earlier days of the war that these bullets were not appreciably
+diverted by the whirling propellers nor were the latter apparently
+injured by the missiles. The latter assertion, however, must have
+been to some extent disproved because it came about that the
+propellers of the later machines were rimmed with a thin coating of
+steel lest the blades be cut by the bullets. But the amazing ability
+of modern science to cope with what seemed to be an insoluble
+problem was demonstrated by the invention of a device light and
+compact enough to be carried in an airplane, which applied to the
+machine gun and timed in accordance with the revolutions of the
+propeller so synchronized the shots with those revolutions that the
+stream of lead passed between the whirling blades never once
+striking. The machine was entirely automatic, requiring no attention
+on the part of the operator after the gun was once started on its
+discharge. This device was originally used by the Germans who
+applied it to their Fokker machines. It was claimed for it that by
+doing away with the wastage caused by the diversion of the course of
+bullets, which struck the revolving propellers, it actually saved
+for effective use about thirty per cent. of the ammunition employed.
+As the amount of ammunition which can be carried by an airplane is
+rigidly limited this gave to the appliance a positive value.
+
+[Illustration: _The Terror that Flieth by Night._
+
+_Painting by William J. Wilson._]
+
+Reference has been made to the extraordinary immunity of flying
+airplanes to the attacks of anti-aircraft guns. The number of wounds
+they could sustain without being brought to earth was amazing.
+Grahame-White tells of a comparison made in one of the airdromes of
+the wounds sustained by the machines after a day's hard scouting and
+fighting. One was found to have been hit no less than thirty-seven
+times. Curiously enough the man who navigated it escaped unscathed.
+Wounds in the wings are harmless. But the puncture of the fuel tank
+almost certainly means an explosion and the death of the aviator in
+the flame thousands of feet in the air. During an air battle before
+Arras, a British aviator encountered this fate. When his tank was
+struck and the fusillage, or body, of his machine burst into flames,
+he knew that he was lost. By no possibility could he reach the
+ground before he should be burned to death. A neighbouring aviator
+flying not far from him told the story afterwards:
+
+     Jack was not in the thick of this fight [said he]. He was rather
+     on the outskirts striving to get in when I suddenly saw his whole
+     machine enveloped in a sheet of flame. Instantly he turned
+     towards the nearest German and made at him with the obvious
+     intention of running him down and carrying him to earth in the
+     same cloud of fire. The man thus threatened, twisted and turned
+     in a vain effort to escape the red terror bearing down upon him.
+     But suffering acutely as he must have been, Jack followed his
+     every move until the two machines crashed, and whirling over and
+     over each other like two birds in an aerial combat fell to earth
+     and to destruction. They landed inside the German lines so we
+     heard no more about them. But we could see the smoke from the
+     burning debris for some time.
+
+As the range of anti-aircraft guns increased the flyers were driven
+higher and higher into the air to escape their missiles. At one time
+4500 feet was looked upon as a reasonably safe height, but when the
+war had been under way about two years the weapons designed to
+combat aircraft were so improved that they could send their shots
+effectively 10,000 feet into the air. If the aircraft had been
+forced to operate at that height their usefulness would have been
+largely destroyed, for it is obvious that for observation purposes
+the atmospheric haze at such a height would obscure the view and
+make accurate mapping of the enemy's position impossible. For
+offensive purposes too the airplanes at so great an elevation would
+be heavily handicapped, if not indeed rendered impotent. As we shall
+see later, dropping a bomb from a swiftly moving airplane upon a
+target is no easy task. It never falls direct but partakes of the
+motion of the plane. It is estimated that for every thousand feet of
+elevation a bomb will advance four hundred feet in the direction
+that the aircraft is moving, provided its speed is not in excess of
+sixty miles an hour. As a result marksmanship at a height of more
+than five thousand feet is practically impossible.
+
+In the main this situation is met, as all situations in war in which
+efficiency can only be attained at the expense of great personal
+danger are met, namely, by braving the danger. When the aviators
+have an attack in contemplation they fly low and snap their fingers
+at the puff balls of death as the shrapnel from their appearance
+when bursting may well be called. Naturally, efforts were made early
+in the war to lessen the danger by armouring the body of the machine
+sufficiently to protect the aviator and his engine--for if the
+aviator escaped a shot which found the engine, his plight would be
+almost as bad as if the missile had struck him.
+
+The main difficulty with armouring the machines grew out of the
+added weight. The more efficient the armour, the less fuel could be
+carried and the less ammunition. If too heavily loaded the speed of
+the machine would be reduced and its ability to climb rapidly upon
+which the safety of the aviator usually depends, either in
+reconnaissance or fighting, would be seriously impeded. The first
+essays in protective armour took the form of the installation of a
+thin sheet of steel along the bottom of the body of the craft. This
+turned aside missiles from below provided the plane were not so near
+the ground as to receive them at the moment of their highest
+velocity. But it was only an unsatisfactory makeshift. At the higher
+altitudes it was unnecessary and in conflict with other airplanes it
+proved worthless, because in a battle in the air the shots of the
+enemy are more likely to come from above or at least from levels in
+the same plane. The armoured airplane was quickly found to have less
+chance of mounting above its enemy, because of the weight it
+carried, and before long the principle of protecting an airplane as
+a battleship is protected was abandoned, except in the case of the
+heavier machines intended to operate as scouts or guides to
+artillery, holding their flights near the earth and protected from
+attack from above by their attendant fleet of swift fighting
+machines. Of these the Vickers machine used mainly by the British is
+a common type. It is built throughout of steel and aluminum, and the
+entire fusillage is clothed with steel plating which assures
+protection to the two occupants from either upward or lateral fire.
+The sides of the body are carried up so that only the heads of the
+aviators are visible. But to accomplish this measure of protection
+for the pilot and the gunner who operates the machine gun from a
+seat forward of the pilot, the weight of the craft is so greatly
+increased that it is but little esteemed for any save the most
+sluggish manoeuvre.
+
+Indeed just as aircraft, as a factor in war, have come to be more
+like the cavalry in the army, or the destroyers and scout cruisers
+in the navy, so the tendency has been to discard everything in their
+design that might by any possibility interfere with their speed and
+their ability to turn and twist, and change direction and elevation
+with the utmost celerity under the most difficult of conditions. It
+is possible that should this war run into the indefinite future we
+may see aircraft built on ponderous lines and heavily armoured, and
+performing in the air some of the functions that the British "tanks"
+have discharged on the battlefields. But at the end of three years
+of war, and at the moment when aerial hostilities seemed to be
+engaging more fully than even before the inventive genius of the
+nations, and the dash and skill of the fighting flyers, the tendency
+is all toward the light and swift machine.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A Curtis Seaplane Leaving a Battleship._]
+
+The attitude of the fighting airmen is somewhat reminiscent of that
+of America's greatest sea-fighter, Admiral Farragut. Always opposed
+to ironclads, the hero of Mobile Bay used to say that when he went
+to sea he did not want to go in an iron coffin, and that when a
+shell had made its way through one side of his ship he didn't want
+any obstacle presented to impede its passing out of the other side.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_Launching a Hydroaeroplane._]
+
+The all important and even vital necessity for speed also detracted
+much from the value of aircraft in offensive operations. It was
+found early that you could not mount on a flying machine guns of
+sufficient calibre to be of material use in attacking fortified
+positions. If it was necessary for the planes to proceed any
+material distance before reaching their objective, the weight of
+the necessary fuel would preclude the carriage of heavy artillery.
+In the case of seaplanes which might be carried on the deck of a
+battleship to a point reasonably contiguous to the object to be
+attacked, this difficulty was not so serious. This was demonstrated
+to some extent by the British raids on the German naval bases of
+Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven, but even in these instances it was bombs
+dropped by aviators, not gunfire that injured the enemy's works. But
+for the airplane proper this added weight was so positive a handicap
+as to practically destroy its usefulness as an assailant of
+fortified positions.
+
+The heavier weapons of offence which could be carried by the
+airplane even of the highest development were the bombs. These once
+landed might cause the greatest destruction, but the difficulty of
+depositing them directly upon a desired target was not to be
+overcome. The dirigible balloon enjoyed a great advantage over the
+airplane in this respect, for it was able to hover over the spot
+which it desired to hit and to discharge its bombs in a direct
+perpendicular line with enough initial velocity from a spring gun to
+overcome largely any tendency to deviate from the perpendicular. But
+an airplane cannot stop. When it stops it must descend. If it is
+moving at the moderate speed of sixty miles an hour when it drops
+its missile, the bomb itself will move forward at the rate of sixty
+miles an hour until gravity has overcome the initial forward force.
+Years before the war broke out, tests were held in Germany and
+France of the ability of aviators to drop a missile upon a target
+marked out upon the ground. One such test in France required the
+dropping of bombs from a height of 2400 feet upon a target 170 feet
+long by 40 broad--or about the dimensions of a small and rather
+stubby ship. The results were uniformly disappointing. The most
+creditable record was made by an American aviator, Lieutenant Scott,
+formerly of the United States Army. His first three shots missed
+altogether, but thereafter he landed eight within the limits. In
+Germany the same year the test was to drop bombs upon two targets,
+one resembling a captive Zeppelin, the other a military camp 330
+feet square. The altitude limit was set at 660 feet. This, though a
+comparatively easy test, was virtually a failure. Only two
+competitors succeeded in dropping a bomb into the square at all,
+while the balloon was hit but once.
+
+The character and size of the bombs employed by aircraft naturally
+differed very widely, particularly as to size, between those carried
+by dirigibles and those used by airplanes. The Zeppelin shell varied
+in weight between two hundred and two hundred and fifty pounds. It
+was about forty-seven inches long by eight and a half inches in
+diameter. Its charge varied according to the use to which it was to
+be put. If it was hoped that it would drop in a crowded spot and
+inflict the greatest amount of damage to human life and limb it
+would carry a bursting charge, shrapnel, and bits of iron, all of
+which on the impact of the missile upon the earth would be hurled in
+every direction to a radius exceeding forty yards. If damage to
+buildings, on the other hand, was desired, some high explosive such
+as picric acid would be used which would totally wreck any
+moderate-sized building upon which the shell might fall. In many
+instances, particularly in raids upon cities such as London,
+incendiary shells were used charged with some form of liquid fire,
+which rapidly spread the conflagration, and which itself was
+practically inextinguishable.
+
+Shells or bombs of these varying types were dropped from airplanes
+as well as from the larger and steadier Zeppelins. The difference
+was entirely in the size. It was said that a Zeppelin might drop a
+bomb of a ton's weight. But so far as attainable records are
+concerned it is impossible to cite any instance of this being done.
+The effect on the great gas bag of the sudden release of a load so
+great would certainly cause a sudden upward flight which might be so
+quick and so powerful as to affect the very structure of the ship.
+So far as known 250 pounds was the topmost limit of Zeppelin bombs,
+while most of them were of much smaller dimensions. The airplane
+bombs were seldom more than sixty pounds in weight, although in the
+larger British machines a record of ninety-five pounds has been
+attained. The most common form of bomb used in the heavier-than-air
+machines was pear-shaped, with a whirling tail to keep the missile
+upright as it falls. Steel balls within, a little larger than
+ordinary shrapnel, are held in place by a device which releases them
+during the fall. On striking the ground they fall on the explosive
+charge within and the shell bursts, scattering the two or three
+hundred steel bullets which it carries over a wide radius. Bombs of
+this character weigh in the neighbourhood of six pounds and an
+ordinary airplane can carry a very considerable number. Their
+exploding device is very delicate so that it will operate upon
+impact with water, very soft earth, or even the covering of an
+airship. Other bombs commonly used in airplanes were shaped like
+darts, winged like an arrow so that they would fall perpendicularly
+and explode by a pusher at the point which was driven into the body
+of the bomb upon its impact with any hard substance.
+
+It seems curious to read of the devices sometimes quite complicated
+and at all times the result of the greatest care and thought, used
+for dropping these bombs. In the trenches men pitched explosive
+missiles about with little more care than if they had been so many
+baseballs, but only seldom was a bomb from aloft actually delivered
+by hand. In the case of the heavier bombs used by the dirigibles
+this is understandable. They could not be handled by a single man
+without the aid of mechanical devices. Some are dropped from a
+cradle which is tilted into a vertical position after the shell has
+been inserted. Others are fired from a tube not unlike the torpedo
+tube of a submarine, but which imparts only slight initial velocity
+to the missile. Its chief force is derived from gravity, and to be
+assured of its explosion the aviator must discharge it from a height
+proportionate to its size.
+
+In the airplane the aviator's methods are more simple. Sometimes the
+bombs are carried in a rack beneath the body of the machine, and
+released by means of a lever at the side. A more primitive method
+often in use is merely to attach the bomb to a string and lower it
+to a point at which the aviator is certain that in falling it will
+not touch any part of the craft, and then cut the string. Half a
+dozen devices by which the aviator can hold the bomb at arm's length
+and drop it with the certainty of a perpendicular fall are in use in
+the different air navies. It will be evident to the most casual
+consideration that with any one of these devices employed by an
+aviator in a machine going at a speed of sixty miles an hour or more
+the matter of hitting the target is one in which luck has a very
+great share.
+
+There is good reason for the pains taken by the aviators to see that
+their bombs fall swift and true, and clear of all the outlying parts
+of their machines. The grenadier in the trenches has a clear field
+for his explosive missile and he may toss it about with what appears
+to be desperate carelessness--though instances have been known in
+which a bomb thrower, throwing back his arm preparatory to launching
+his canned volcano, has struck the back of his own trench with
+disastrous results. But the aviator must be even more careful. His
+bombs must not hit any of the wires below his machine in
+falling--else there will be a dire fall for him. And above all they
+must not get entangled in stays or braces. In such case landing will
+bring a most unpleasant surprise.
+
+A striking case was that of a bomber who had been out over the
+German trenches. He had a two-man machine, had made a successful
+flight and had dropped, effectively as he supposed, all his bombs.
+Returning in serene consciousness of a day's duty well done, he was
+about to spiral down to the landing place when his passenger looked
+over the side of the car to see if everything was in good order.
+Emphatically it was not. To his horror he discovered that two of the
+bombs had not fallen, but had caught in the running gear of his
+machine. To attempt a landing with the bombs in this position would
+have been suicidal. The bombs would have instantly exploded, and
+annihilated both machine and aviators. But to get out of the car,
+climb down on the wires, and try to unhook the bombs seemed more
+desperate still. Stabilizers, and other devices, now in common use,
+had not then been invented and to go out on the wing of a biplane,
+or to disturb its delicate balance, was unheard of. Nevertheless it
+was a moment for desperate remedies. The pilot clung to his
+controls, and sought to meet the shifting strains, while the
+passenger climbed out on the wing and then upon the running gear. To
+trust yourself two thousand feet in mid-air with your feet on one
+piano wire, and one hand clutching another, while with the other
+hand you grope blindly for a bomb charged with high explosive, is an
+experience for which few men would yearn. But in this case it was
+successful. The bombs fell--nobody cared where--and the two
+imperilled aviators came to ground safely.
+
+A form of offensive weapon which for some reason seems peculiarly
+horrible to the human mind is the flechette. These are steel darts a
+little larger than a heavy lead pencil and with the upper two thirds
+of the stem deeply grooved so that the greater weight of the lower
+part will cause them to fall perpendicularly. These are used in
+attacks upon dense bodies of troops. Particularly have they proved
+effective in assailing cavalry, for the nature of the wounds they
+produce invariably maddens the horses who suffer from them and
+causes confusion that will often bring grave disaster to a
+transport or artillery train. Though very light, these arrows when
+dropped from any considerable height inflict most extraordinary
+wounds. They have been known to penetrate a soldier's steel helmet,
+to pass through his body and that of the horse he bestrode, and bury
+themselves in the earth. In the airplane they are carried in boxes
+of one hundred each, placed over an orifice in the floor. A touch of
+the aviator's foot and all are discharged. The speed of the machine
+causes them to fall at first in a somewhat confused fashion, with
+the result that before all have finally assumed their perpendicular
+position they have been scattered over a very considerable extent of
+air. Once fairly pointed downward they fall with unerring directness
+points downward to their mark.
+
+[Illustration: _At a United States Training Camp._ (C) U. & U.]
+
+It is a curious fact that not long after these arrows first made
+their appearance in the French machines, they were imitated by the
+Germans, but the German darts had stamped upon them the words: "Made
+in Germany, but invented by the French."
+
+[Illustration: _A "Blimp" with Gun Mounted on Top._ (C) U. & U.]
+
+One of the duties of the fighting airmen is to destroy the
+observation balloons which float in great numbers over both the
+lines tugging lazily at the ropes by which they are held captive
+while the observers perched in their baskets communicate the results
+of their observations by telephone to staff officers at a
+considerable distance. These balloons are usually anchored far
+enough back of their own lines to be safe from the ordinary
+artillery fire of their enemies. They were therefore fair game for
+the mosquitoes of the air. But they were not readily destroyed by
+such artillery as could be mounted on an ordinary airplane. Bullets
+from the machine-guns were too small to make any rents in the
+envelope that would affect its stability. Even if incendiary they
+could not carry a sufficiently heavy charge to affect so large a
+body. The skin of the "sausages," as the balloons were commonly
+called from their shape, was too soft to offer sufficient resistance
+to explode a shell of any size. The war was pretty well under way
+before the precise weapon needed for their destruction was
+discovered. This proved to be a large rocket of which eight were
+carried on an airplane, four on each side. They were discharged by
+powerful springs and a mechanism started which ignited them as soon
+as they had left the airplane behind. The head of each rocket was of
+pointed steel, very sharp and heavy enough to pierce the balloon
+skin. Winslow was fortunate enough to be present when the first test
+of this weapon was made. In his book, _With the French Flying
+Corps_, he thus tells the story:
+
+     Swinging lazily above the field was a captive balloon. At one end
+     of Le Bourget was a line of waiting airplanes. "This is the
+     second; they have already brought down one balloon," remarked the
+     man at my elbow. The hum of a motor caused me to look up. A
+     wide-winged double motor, Caudron, had left the ground and was
+     mounting gracefully above us. Up and up it went, describing a
+     great circle, until it faced the balloon. Everyone caught his
+     breath. The Caudron was rushing straight at the balloon, diving
+     for the attack.
+
+     "Now!" cried the crowd. There was a loud crack, a flash, and
+     eight long rockets darted forth leaving behind a fiery trail. The
+     aviator's aim however was wide, and to the disappointment of
+     everyone the darts fell harmlessly to the ground.
+
+     Another motor roared far down the field, and a tiny _appareil de
+     chasse_ shot upward like a swallow. "A Nieuport," shouted the
+     crowd as one voice. Eager to atone for his _copain's_ failure,
+     and impatient at his delay in getting out of the way, the tiny
+     biplane tossed and tumbled about in the air like a clown in the
+     circus ring.
+
+     "Look! he's looping! he falls! he slips! no, he rights again!"
+     cried a hundred voices as the skilful pilot kept our nerves on
+     edge.
+
+     Suddenly he darted into position and for a second hovered
+     uncertain. Then with a dive like that of a dragon-fly, he rushed
+     down to the attack. Again a sheet of flame and a shower of
+     sparks. This time the balloon sagged. The flames crept slowly
+     around its silken envelope. "_Touchez!_" cried the multitude.
+     Then the balloon burst and fell to the ground a mass of flames.
+     High above the little Nieuport saucily continued its pranks, as
+     though contemptuous of such easy prey.
+
+[Illustration: _Aviators Descending in Parachutes from a Balloon
+Struck by Incendiary Shells._ (C) U. & U.]
+
+It may be properly noted at this point that the captive balloons or
+kite balloons have proved of the greatest value for observations in
+this war. Lacking of course the mobility of the swiftly moving
+airplanes, they have the advantage over the latter of being at all
+times in direct communication by telephone with the ground and being
+able to carry quite heavy scientific instruments for the more
+accurate mapping out of such territory as comes within their sphere
+of observation. They are not easy to destroy by artillery fire, for
+the continual swaying of the balloon before the wind perplexes
+gunners in their aim. At a height of six hundred feet, a normal
+observation post, the horizon is nearly thirty miles from the
+observer. In flat countries like Flanders, or at sea where the
+balloon may be sent up from the deck of a ship, this gives an
+outlook of the greatest advantage to the army or fleet relying upon
+the balloon for its observations of the enemy's dispositions.
+
+[Illustration: _The Balloon from which the Aviators Fled._ (C) U. &
+U.]
+
+Most of the British and French observation balloons have been of the
+old-fashioned spherical form which officers in those services find
+sufficiently effective. The Germans, however, claimed that a balloon
+might be devised which would not be so very unstable in gusty
+weather. Out of this belief grew the Parseval-Siegfeld balloon which
+from its form took the name of the Sausage. In fact its appearance
+far from being terrifying suggests not only that particular edible,
+but a large dill pickle floating awkwardly in the air. In order to
+keep the balloon always pointed into the teeth of the wind there is
+attached to one end of it a large surrounding bag hanging from the
+lower half of the main envelope. One end of this, the end facing
+forward, is left open and into this the wind blows, steadying the
+whole structure after the fashion of the tail of a kite. The effect
+is somewhat grotesque as anyone who has studied the numerous
+pictures of balloons of this type employed during the war must have
+observed. It looks not unlike some form of tumor growing from a
+healthy structure.
+
+Captive or kite balloons are especially effective as coast guards.
+Posted fifty miles apart along a threatened coast they can keep a
+steady watch over the sea for more than twenty-five miles toward the
+horizon. With their telephonic connections they can notify airplanes
+in waiting, or for that matter swift destroyers, of any suspicious
+sight in the distance, and secure an immediate investigation which
+will perhaps result in the defeat of some attempted raid. Requiring
+little power for raising and lowering them and few men for their
+operation, they form a method of standing sentry guard at a nation's
+front door which can probably be equalled by no other device. The
+United States at the moment of the preparation of this book is
+virtually without any balloons of this type--the first one of any
+pretensions having been tested in the summer of 1917.
+
+As late as the third year of the war it could not be said that the
+possibilities of aerial offense had been thoroughly developed by any
+nation. The Germans indeed had done more than any of the
+belligerents in this direction with their raids on the British coast
+and on London. But, as already pointed out, these raids as serious
+attacks on strategic positions were mere failures. Advocates of the
+increased employment of aircraft in this fashion insist that the
+military value to Germany of the raids lay not so much in the
+possibility of doing damage of military importance but rather in the
+fact that the possibility of repeated and more effective raids
+compelled Great Britain to keep at home a force of thirty thousand
+to fifty thousand men constantly on guard, who but for this menace
+would have been employed on the battlefields of France. In this
+argument there is a measure of plausibility. Indeed between January,
+1915, and June 13, 1917, the Germans made twenty-three disastrous
+raids upon England, killing more than seven hundred persons and
+injuring nearly twice as many. The amount of damage to property has
+never been reported nor is it possible to estimate the extent of
+injury inflicted upon works of a military character. The extreme
+secrecy with which Great Britain, in common with the other
+belligerents, has enveloped operations of this character makes it
+impossible at this early day to estimate the military value of these
+exploits. Merely to inflict anguish and death upon a great number of
+civilians, and those largely women and children, is obviously of no
+military service. But if such suffering is inflicted in the course
+of an attack which promises the destruction or even the crippling of
+works of military character like arsenals, munition plants, or naval
+stores, it must be accepted as an incident of legitimate warfare.
+The limited information obtainable in wartime seems to indicate that
+the German raids had no legitimate objective in view but were
+undertaken for the mere purpose of frightfulness.
+
+The methods of defence employed in Great Britain, where all attacks
+must come from the sea, were mainly naval. What might be called the
+outer, or flying, defences consisted of fast armed fighting
+seaplanes and dirigibles. Stationed on the coast and ready on the
+receipt of a wireless warning from scouts, either aerial or naval,
+that an enemy air flotilla was approaching the coast, they could at
+once fly forth and give it battle. A thorough defence of the British
+territory demanded that the enemy should be driven back before
+reaching the land. Once over British territory the projectiles
+discharged whether by friend or foe did equal harm to the people on
+the ground below. Accordingly every endeavour was made to meet and
+beat the raiders before they had passed the barrier of sea. Beside
+the flying defences there were the floating defences. Anti-aircraft
+guns were mounted on different types of ships stationed far out
+from the shore and ever on the watch. But these latter were of
+comparatively little avail, for flying over the Channel or the North
+Sea the invaders naturally flew at a great height. They had no
+targets there to seek, steered by their compasses, and were entirely
+indifferent to the prospect beneath them. Moreover anti-aircraft
+guns, hard to train effectively from an immovable mount, were
+particularly untrustworthy when fired from the deck of a rolling and
+tossing ship in the turbulent Channel.
+
+Third in the list of defences of the British coast, or of any other
+coast which may at any time be threatened with an aerial raid, are
+defensive stations equipped not only with anti-aircraft guns and
+searchlights but with batteries of strange new scientific
+instruments like the "listening towers," equipped with huge
+microphones to magnify the sound of the motors of approaching
+aircraft so that they would be heard long before they could be seen,
+range finders, and other devices for the purpose of gauging the
+distance and fixing the direction of an approaching enemy.
+
+Some brief attention may here be given to the various types of
+anti-aircraft guns. These differ very materially in type and weight
+in the different belligerent armies and navies. They have but one
+quality in common, namely that they are most disappointing in the
+results attained. Mr. F. W. Lancaster, the foremost British
+authority on aircraft, says on this subject:
+
+"Anti-aircraft firing is very inaccurate, hence numbers of guns are
+employed to compensate."
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+_German Air Raiders over England._
+
+_In the foreground three British planes are advancing to the
+attack._]
+
+That is to say that one or two guns can be little relied upon to put
+a flyer _hors du combat_. The method adopted is to have large
+batteries which fairly fill that portion of the air through which
+the adventurous airman is making his way with shells fired rather at
+the section than at the swiftly moving target.
+
+"Archibald," the British airmen call, for some mysterious reason, the
+anti-aircraft guns employed by their enemies, sometimes referring to a
+big howitzer which made its appearance late in the war as "Cuthbert."
+The names sound a little effeminate, redolent somehow of high teas and
+the dancing floor, rather than the field of battle. Perhaps this was
+why the British soldiers adopted them as an expression of contempt for
+the enemy's batteries. But contempt was hardly justifiable in face of
+the difficulty of the problem. A gun firing a twenty-pound shrapnel
+shell is not pointed on an object with the celerity with which a
+practised revolver shot can throw his weapon into position. The gunner
+on the ground seeing an airplane flying five thousand feet above
+him--almost a mile up in the air--hurries to get his piece into
+position for a shot. But while he is aiming the flyer, if a high-speed
+machine, will be changing its position at a rate of perhaps 120 miles
+an hour. Nor does it fly straight ahead. The gunner cannot point his
+weapon some distance in advance as he would were he a sportsman intent
+on cutting off a flight of wild geese. The aviator makes quick
+turns--zigzags--employs every artifice to defeat the aim of his enemy
+below. Small wonder that in the majority of cases they have been
+successful. The attitude of the airmen toward the "Archies" is one of
+calm contempt.
+
+The German mind being distinctly scientific invented early in the
+war a method of fixing the range and position of an enemy airplane
+which would be most effective if the target were not continually in
+erratic motion. The method was to arrange anti-aircraft guns in a
+triangle, all in telephonic connection with a central observer. When
+a flyer enters the territory which these guns are guarding, the
+gunner at one of the apexes of the triangle fires a shell which
+gives out a red cloud of smoke. Perhaps it falls short. The central
+observer notes the result and orders a second gun to fire. Instantly
+a gunner at another apex fires again, this time a shell giving
+forth black smoke. This shell discharged with the warning given by
+the earlier one is likely to come nearer the target, but at any rate
+marks another point at which it has been missed. Between the two a
+third gunner instantly corrects his aim by the results of the first
+two shots. His shell gives out a yellow smoke. The observer then
+figures from the positions of the three guns the lines of a
+triangular cone at the apex of which the target should be. Sometimes
+science wins, often enough for the Germans to cling to the system.
+But more often the shrewd aviator defeats science by his swift and
+eccentric changes of his line of flight.
+
+At the beginning of the war Germany was very much better equipped
+with anti-aircraft guns than any of her enemies. This was due to the
+remarkable foresight of the great munition makers, Krupp and
+Ehrhardt, who began experimenting with anti-aircraft guns before the
+aircraft themselves were much more than experiments. The problem was
+no easy one. The gun had to be light, mobile, and often mounted on
+an automobile so as to be swiftly transferred from place to place in
+pursuit of raiders. It was vital that it should be so mounted as to
+be speedily trained to any position vertical or horizontal. As a
+result the type determined upon was mounted on a pedestal fixed to
+the chassis of an automobile or to the deck of a ship in case it was
+to be used in naval warfare. The heaviest gun manufactured in
+Germany was of 4-1/4-inch calibre, throwing a shell of forty pounds
+weight. This could be mounted directly over the rear axle of a heavy
+motor truck. To protect the structure of the car from the shock of
+the recoil these guns are of course equipped with hydraulic or other
+appliances for taking it up. They are manufactured also in the
+3-inch size. Germany, France, and England vied with each other in
+devising armored motor cars equipped with guns of this type--the
+British using the makes of Vickers and Hotchkiss, and the French
+their favourite Creusot. The trucks are always armoured, the guns
+mounted in turrets so that the effect is not unlike that of a small
+battleship dashing madly down a country road and firing repeatedly
+at some object directly overhead. But the record has not shown that
+the success of these picturesque and ponderous engines of war has
+been great. They cannot manoeuvre with enough swiftness to keep up
+with the gyrations of an airplane. They offer as good a target for a
+bomb from above as the aircraft does to their shots from below.
+Indeed they so thoroughly demonstrated their inefficiency that
+before the war had passed its third year they were either abandoned
+or their guns employed only when the car was stationary. Shots fired
+at full speed were seldom effective.
+
+The real measure of the effectiveness of anti-aircraft guns may be
+judged by the comparative immunity that attended the aviators
+engaged on the two early British raids on Friedrichshaven, the seat
+of the great Zeppelin works on Lake Constance, and on the German
+naval base at Cuxhaven. The first was undertaken by three machines.
+From Belfort in France, the aviators turned into Germany and flew
+for 120 miles across hostile territory. The flight was made by day
+though indeed the adventurous aviators were favoured by a slight
+mist. Small single seated "avro" machines were used, loaded heavily
+with bombs as well as with the large amount of fuel necessary for a
+flight which before its completion would extend over 250 miles. Not
+only at the frontier, but at many fortified positions over which
+they passed, they must have exposed themselves to the fire of
+artillery, but until they actually reached the neighbourhood of the
+Zeppelin works they encountered no fire whatsoever. There the attack
+on them was savage and well maintained. On the roofs of the
+gigantic factory, on neighbouring hillocks and points of vantage
+there were anti-aircraft guns busily discharging shrapnel at the
+invaders. It is claimed by the British that fearing this attack the
+Germans had called from the front in Flanders their best marksmen,
+for at that time the comparative worthlessness of the Zeppelin had
+not been demonstrated and the protection of the works was regarded
+as a prime duty of the army.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_One Aviator's Narrow Escape._]
+
+The invading machines flew low above the factory roofs. The
+adventurers had come far on an errand which they knew would awaken
+the utmost enthusiasm among their fellows at home and they were
+determined to so perform their task that no charge of having left
+anything undone could possibly lie. Commander Briggs, the first of
+the aviators to reach the scene, flew as low as one hundred feet
+above the roofs, dropping his bombs with deadly accuracy. But he
+paid for his temerity with the loss of his machine and his liberty.
+A bullet pierced his petrol tank and there was nothing for him to do
+save to glide to earth and surrender. The two aviators who
+accompanied him although their machines were repeatedly hit were
+nevertheless able to drop all their bombs and to fly safely back to
+Belfort whence they had taken their departure some hours before. The
+measure of actual damage done in the raid has never been precisely
+known. Germany always denied that it was serious, while the British
+ascribe to it the greatest importance--a clash of opinion common in
+the war and which will for some years greatly perplex the student of
+its history.
+
+The second raid, that upon Cuxhaven, was made by seaplanes so far as
+the air fighting was concerned, but in it not only destroyers but
+submarines also took part. It presented the unique phenomenon of a
+battle fought at once above, upon, and below the surface of the sea.
+It is with the aerial feature of the battle alone that we have to
+do.
+
+Christmas morning, 1915, seven seaplanes were quietly lowered to the
+surface of the water of the North Sea from their mother ships a
+little before daybreak. The spot was within a few miles of Cuxhaven
+and the mouth of the River Elbe. As the aircraft rose from the
+surface of the water and out of the light mist that lay upon it,
+they could see in the harbour which they threatened, a small group
+of German warships. Almost at the same moment their presence was
+detected. The alarms of the bugles rang out from the hitherto quiet
+craft and in a moment with the smoke pouring from their funnels
+destroyers and torpedo boats moved out to meet the attack. Two
+Zeppelins rose high in the air surrounded by a number of the smaller
+airplanes, eager for the conflict. The latter proceeded at once to
+the attack upon the raiding air fleet, while the destroyers, the
+heavier Zeppelins, and a number of submarines sped out to sea to
+attack the British ships. The mist, which grew thicker, turned the
+combat from a battle into a mere disorderly raid, but out of it the
+seaplanes emerged unhurt. All made their way safely back to the
+fleet, after having dropped their bombs with a degree of damage
+never precisely known. The weakness of the seaplane is that on
+returning to its parent ship it cannot usually alight upon her deck,
+even though a landing platform has been provided. It must, as a
+rule, drop to the surface of the ocean, and if this be at all rough
+the machine very speedily goes to pieces. This was the case with
+four of the seven seaplanes which took part in the raid on Cuxhaven.
+All however delivered their pilots safely to the awaiting fleet and
+none fell a victim to the German anti-aircraft guns.
+
+In May of 1917, the British Royal Naval Air Service undertook the
+mapping of the coast of Belgium north from Nieuport, the most
+northerly seaport held by the British, to the southern boundary of
+Holland. This section of coast was held by the Germans and in it
+were included the two submarine bases of Zeebrugge and Ostend. At
+the latter point the long line of German trenches extending to the
+boundary of Switzerland rested its right flank on the sea. The whole
+coast north of that was lined with German batteries, snugly
+concealed in the rolling sand dunes and masked by the waving grasses
+of a barren coast. From British ships thirty miles out at sea, for
+the waters there are shallow and large vessels can only at great
+peril approach the shore, the seaplanes were launched. Just south of
+Nieuport a land base was established as a rendezvous for both
+air-and seaplanes when their day's work was done. From fleet and
+station the aerial observers took their way daily to the enemy's
+coast. Every mile of it was photographed. The hidden batteries were
+detected and the inexorable record of their presence imprinted on
+the films. The work in progress at Ostend and Zeebrugge, the active
+construction of basins, locks, and quays, the progress of the great
+mole building at the latter port, the activities of submarines and
+destroyers within the harbour, the locations of guns and the
+positions of barracks were all indelibly set down. These films
+developed at leisure were made into coherent wholes, placed in
+projecting machines, and displayed like moving pictures in the ward
+rooms of the ships hovering off shore, so that the naval forces
+preparing for the assault had a very accurate idea of the nature of
+the defences they were about to encounter.
+
+This was not done of course without considerable savage fighting in
+mid-air. The Germans had no idea of allowing their defences and the
+works of their submarine bases to be pictured for the guidance of
+their foes. Their anti-aircraft guns barked from dawn to dark
+whenever a British plane was seen within range. Their own aerial
+fighters were continually busy, and along that desolate wave-washed
+coast many a lost lad in leather clothing and goggles, crumpled up
+in the ruins of his machine after a fall of thousands of feet, lay
+as a memorial to the prowess of the defenders of the coast and the
+audacity of those who sought to invade it. But during the long weeks
+of this extended reconnaissance hardly a spadeful of dirt could be
+moved, a square yard of concrete placed in position, or a submarine
+or torpedo boat manoeuvred without its record being entered upon the
+detailed charts the British were so painstakingly preparing against
+the day of assault. When peace shall finally permit the publication
+of the records of the war, now held secret for military reasons,
+such maps as those prepared by the British air service on the
+Belgian coast will prove most convincing evidence of the military
+value of the aerial scouts.
+
+What the lads engaged in making these records had to brave in the
+way of physical danger is strikingly shown by the description of a
+combat included in one of the coldly matter-of-fact official
+reports. The battle was fought at about twelve thousand feet above
+mother earth. We quote the official description accompanied by some
+explanatory comments added by one who was an eye-witness and who
+conversed with the triumphant young airman on his return to the
+safety of the soil.
+
+     "While exposing six plates," says the official report of this
+     youthful recording angel, "I observed five H. A.'s cruising."
+
+     "H. A." stands for "hostile aeroplane."
+
+     "Not having seen the escort since returning inland, the pilot
+     prepared to return. The enemy separated, one taking up a position
+     above the tail and one ahead. The other three glided toward us
+     on the port side, firing as they came. The two diving machines
+     fired over 100 rounds, hitting the pilot in the shoulder."
+
+     As a matter of fact, the bullet entered his shoulder from above,
+     behind, breaking his left collarbone, and emerged just above his
+     heart, tearing a jagged rent down his breast. Both his feet,
+     furthermore, were pierced by bullets; but the observer is not
+     concerned with petty detail.
+
+     The observer held his fire until H. A., diving on tail, was
+     within five yards.
+
+     Here it might be mentioned that the machines were hurtling
+     through space at a speed in the region of one hundred miles an
+     hour.
+
+     The pilot of H. A., having swooped to within speaking distance,
+     pushed up his goggles, and laughed triumphantly as he took sight
+     for the shot that was to end the fight. But the observer, had his
+     own idea how the fight should end.
+
+     "I then shot one tray into the enemy pilot's face," he says, with
+     curt relish, "and watched him sideslip and go spinning earthward
+     in a train of smoke."
+
+     He then turned his attention to his own pilot. The British
+     machine was barely under control, but as the observer rose in his
+     seat to investigate the foremost gun was fired, and the aggressor
+     ahead went out of control and dived nose first in helpless
+     spirals.
+
+     Suspecting that his mate was badly wounded in spite of this
+     achievement, the observer swung one leg over the side of the
+     fusillage and climbed on to the wing--figure for a minute the air
+     pressure on his body during this gymnastic feat--until he was
+     beside the pilot, faint and drenched with blood, who had
+     nevertheless got his machine back into complete control.
+
+     "Get back, you ass!" he said through white lips in response to
+     inquiries how he felt. So the ass got back the way he came, and
+     looked around for the remainder of the H. A.'s. These, however,
+     appeared to have lost stomach for further fighting and fled.
+
+     The riddled machine returned home at one hundred knots while the
+     observer, having nothing better to do, continued to take
+     photographs.
+
+     "The pilot, though wounded, made a perfect landing"--thus the
+     report concludes.
+
+When the time came for the assault upon Zeebrugge the value of these
+painstaking preparations was made evident. The attack was made from
+sea and air alike. Out in the North Sea the great British
+battleships steamed in as near the coast as the shallowness of the
+water would permit. From the forward deck of each rose grandly a
+seaplane until the air was darkened by their wings, and they looked
+like a monstrous flock of the gulls which passengers on ocean-going
+liners watch wheeling and soaring around the ship as it ploughs its
+way through the ocean. These gulls though were birds of prey. They
+were planes of the larger type, biplanes or triplanes carrying two
+men, usually equipped with two motors and heavily laden with high
+explosive bombs. As they made their way toward the land they were
+accompanied by a fleet of light draft monitors especially built for
+this service, each mounting two heavy guns and able to manoeuvre in
+shallow water. With them advanced a swarm of swift, low-lying,
+dark-painted destroyers ready to watch out for enemy torpedo boats
+or submarines. They mounted anti-aircraft guns too and were prepared
+to defend the monitors against assaults from the heavens above as
+well as from the sinister attack of the underwater boats. Up from
+the land base at Nieuport came a great fleet of airplanes to
+co-operate with their naval brethren. Soon upon the German works,
+sheltering squadrons of the sinister undersea boats, there rained a
+hell of exploding projectiles from sea and sky. Every gunner had
+absolute knowledge of the precise position and range of the target
+to which he was assigned. The great guns of the monitors roared
+steadily and their twelve and fourteen-inch projectiles rent in
+pieces the bomb proofs of the Germans, driving the Boches to cover
+and reducing their works to mere heaps of battered concrete. Back
+and forth above flew seaplanes and airplanes, giving battle to the
+aircraft which the Germans sent up in the forlorn hope of heading
+off that attack and dropping their bombs on points carefully mapped
+long in advance. It is true that the aim of the aviators was
+necessarily inaccurate. That is the chief weakness of a bombardment
+from the sky. But what was lacking in individual accuracy was made
+up by the numbers of the bombing craft. One might miss a lock or a
+shelter, but twenty concentrating their fire on the same target
+could not all fail. This has become the accepted principle of aerial
+offensive warfare. The inaccuracy of the individual must be
+corrected by the multiplication of the number of the assailants.
+
+The attack on Zeebrugge was wholly successful. Though the Germans
+assiduously strove to conceal the damage done, the later
+observations of the ruined port by British airmen left no doubt that
+as a submarine base it had been put out of commission for months to
+come. The success of the attack led to serious discussion, in which
+a determination has not yet been reached, of the feasibility of a
+similar assault upon Heligoland, Kiel, or Cuxhaven, the three great
+naval bases in which the German fleet has lurked in avoidance of
+battle with the British fleet. Many able naval strategists declared
+that it was time for the British to abandon the policy of a mere
+blockade and carry out the somewhat rash promise made by Winston
+Churchill when First Lord of the Admiralty, to "dig the rats out of
+their holes." Such an attack it was urged should be made mainly from
+the air, as the land batteries and sunken mines made the waters
+adjacent to these harbours almost impassable to attacking ships.
+Rear-Admiral Fiske, of the United States Navy, strongly urging such
+an attack, wrote in an open letter:
+
+     The German Naval General Staff realizes the value of
+     concentration of power and mobility in as large units as
+     possible. The torpedo plane embodies a greater concentration of
+     power and mobility than does any other mechanism. For its cost,
+     the torpedo plane is the most powerful and mobile weapon which
+     exists at the present day.
+
+     An attack by allied torpedo planes, armed with guns to defend
+     themselves from fighting airplanes, would be a powerful menace to
+     the German fleet and, if made in sufficient numbers, would give
+     the Allies such unrestricted command of the North Sea, even of
+     the shallow parts near the German coast, that German submarines
+     would be prevented from coming from a German port, the submarine
+     menace abolished, and all chance of German success wiped out.
+
+     I beg also to point out that an inspection of the map of Europe
+     shows that in the air raids over land the strategical advantage
+     lies with Germany, because her most important towns, like Berlin,
+     are farther inland than the most important towns of the Allies,
+     like London, so that aeroplanes of the Allies, in order to reach
+     Berlin, would have to fly over greater distances, while exposed
+     to the fire of other aeroplanes, than do aeroplanes of the
+     Germans in going to London for raids on naval vessels.
+
+     However, the strategical advantage over water lies with the
+     British, because their control of the deep parts of the North Sea
+     enables them to establish a temporary aeronautical base of mother
+     ships sufficiently close to the German fleet to enable the
+     British to launch a torpedo-plane attack from it on the German
+     fleets in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, while the Germans could not
+     possibly establish an aeronautical base sufficiently close to the
+     British fleet.
+
+[Illustration: (C) Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_Downed in the Enemy's Country._]
+
+     This gives the Allies the greatest advantage of the offensive. It
+     would seem possible, provided a distinct effort is made, for the
+     Allies to send a large number of aeroplane mother ships to a
+     point, say, fifty miles west of Heligoland, and for a large force
+     of fighting aeroplanes and torpedo planes to start from this
+     place about two hours before dawn, reach Kiel Bay and
+     Wilhelmshaven about dawn, attack the German fleets there and sink
+     the German ships.
+
+     The distance from Heligoland to Kiel is about ninety land miles,
+     and to Wilhelmshaven about forty-five.
+
+The torpedo planes referred to are an invention of Admiral Fiske's
+which, in accordance with what seems to be a fixed and fatal
+precedent in the United States, has been ignored by our own
+authorities but eagerly adopted by the naval services of practically
+all the belligerents. One weakness of the aerial attack upon ships
+of war is that the bombs dropped from the air, even if they strike
+the target, strike upon the protective deck which in most warships
+above the gunboat class is strong enough to resist, or at least to
+minimize, the effect of any bomb capable of being carried by an
+airplane. The real vulnerable part of a ship of war is the thin skin
+of its hull below water and below the armor belt. This is the point
+at which the torpedo strikes. Admiral Fiske's device permits an
+airplane to carry two torpedoes of the regular Whitehead class and
+to launch them with such an impetus and at such an angle that they
+will take the water and continue their course thereunder exactly as
+though launched from a naval torpedo tube. His idea was adopted both
+by Great Britain and Germany. British torpedo planes thus equipped
+sank four Turkish ships in the Sea of Marmora, a field of action
+which no British ship could have reached after the disastrous
+failure to force the Dardanelles. The Germans by employment of the
+same device sank at least two Russian ships in the Baltic and one
+British vessel in the North Sea. The blindness of the United States
+naval authorities to the merits of this invention was a matter
+arousing at once curiosity and indignation among observers during
+the early days of our entrance upon the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+INCIDENTS OF THE WAR IN THE AIR
+
+
+In time, no doubt, volumes will be written on the work of the airmen
+in the Great War. Except the submarine, no such novel and effective
+device was introduced into the conduct of this colossal struggle as
+the scouting airplane. The development of the service was steady
+from the first day when the Belgian flyers proved their worth at
+Liege. From mere observation trips there sprang up the air duels,
+from the duels developed skirmishes, and from these in time pitched
+battles in which several hundred machines would be engaged on each
+side. To this extent of development aerial tactics had proceeded by
+midsummer of 1917. Their further development must be left to some
+future chronicler to record. It must be noted, however, that at that
+early day the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,
+pleading for a larger measure of preparation for the perils of war,
+asserted that the time was not far distant when this country would
+have to prepare to repel invading fleets of aircraft from European
+shores. This may have been an exaggeration. At that moment no
+aircraft had crossed the Atlantic and no effort to make the passage
+had been made save those of Wellman and Vanniman. When the guns
+began to roar on the Belgian frontier there was floating on Keuka
+Lake, New York, a huge hydro-airplane with which it was planned to
+make the trans-Atlantic voyage. The project had been financed by Mr.
+Rodman Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, and the tests of the ship under
+the supervision of a young British army officer who was to make the
+voyage were progressing most promisingly. But the event that plunged
+the world into war put a sudden end to experiments like this for the
+commercial development of the airplane. There is every reason to
+believe, however, that such a flight is practicable and that it will
+ultimately be made not long after the world shall have returned to
+peace and sanity.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_Later Type of French Scout._
+
+_The gun mounted on the upper wing is aimed by pointing the machine
+and is fired by the pilot._]
+
+Airmen are not, as a rule, of a romantic or a literary temperament.
+Pursuing what seems to the onlooker to be the most adventurous and
+exhilarating of all forms of military service, they have been chary
+of telling their experiences and singularly set upon treating them
+as all in the day's work and eliminating all that is picturesque
+from their narratives. Sergeant James R. McConnell, one of the
+Americans in the French flying corps, afterwards killed, tells of a
+day's service in his most readable book, _Flying for France_, in a
+way that gives some idea of the daily routine of an operator of an
+_avion de chasse_. He is starting just as the sky at dawn is showing
+a faint pink toward the eastern horizon, for the aviator's work is
+best done in early morning when, as a rule, the sky is clear and the
+wind light:
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_Position of Gunner in Early French Machines._]
+
+     Drawing forward out of line, you put on full power, race across
+     the grass, and take the air. The ground drops as the hood slants
+     up before you and you seem to be going more and more slowly as
+     you rise. At a great height you hardly realize you are moving.
+     You glance at the clock to note the time of your departure, and
+     at the oil gauge to see its throb. The altimeter registers 650
+     feet. You turn and look back at the field below and see others
+     leaving.
+
+     In three minutes you are at about four thousand feet. You have
+     been making wide circles over the field and watching the other
+     machines. At forty-five hundred feet you throttle down and wait
+     on that level for your companions to catch up. Soon the
+     escadrille is bunched and off for the lines. You begin climbing
+     again, gulping to clear your ears in the changing pressure.
+     Surveying the other machines, you recognize the pilot of each by
+     the marks on its side--or by the way he flies.
+
+     The country below has changed into a flat surface of varicoloured
+     figures. Woods are irregular blocks of dark green, like daubs of
+     ink spilled on a table; fields are geometrical designs of
+     different shades of green and brown, forming in composite an
+     ultra-cubist painting; roads are thin white lines, each with its
+     distinctive windings and crossings--from which you determine your
+     location. The higher you are the easier it is to read.
+
+     In about ten minutes you see the Meuse sparkling in the morning
+     light, and on either side the long line of sausage-shaped
+     observation balloons far below you. Red-roofed Verdun springs
+     into view just beyond. There are spots in it where no red shows
+     and you know what has happened there. In the green pasture land
+     bordering the town, round flecks of brown indicate the shell
+     holes. You cross the Meuse.
+
+     Immediately east and north of Verdun there lies a broad, brown
+     band. From the Woevre plain it runs westward to the "S" bend in
+     the Meuse, and on the left bank of that famous stream continues
+     on into the Argonne Forest. Peaceful fields and farms and
+     villages adorned that landscape a few months ago--when there was
+     no Battle of Verdun. Now there is only that sinister brown belt,
+     a strip of murdered Nature. It seems to belong to another world.
+     Every sign of humanity has been swept away. The woods and roads
+     have vanished like chalk wiped from a blackboard; of the villages
+     nothing remains but grey smears where stone walls have tumbled
+     together. The great forts of Douaumont and Vaux are outlined
+     faintly, like the tracings of a finger in wet sand. One cannot
+     distinguish any one shell crater, as one can on the pockmarked
+     fields on either side. On the brown band the indentations are so
+     closely interlocked that they blend into a confused mass of
+     troubled earth. Of the trenches only broken, half-obliterated
+     links are visible.
+
+     Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives
+     tear deeper into this ulcered area. During heavy bombardment and
+     attacks I have seen shells falling like rain. The countless
+     towers of smoke remind one of Gustave Dore's picture of the fiery
+     tombs of the arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky pall covers
+     the sector under fire, rising so high that at a height of one
+     thousand feet one is enveloped in its mist-like fumes. Now and
+     then monster projectiles hurtling through the air close by leave
+     one's plane rocking violently in their wake. Airplanes have been
+     cut in two by them.
+
+     For us the battle passes in silence, the noise of one's motor
+     deadening all other sounds. In the green patches behind the brown
+     belt myriads of tiny flashes tell where the guns are hidden; and
+     those flashes, and the smoke of bursting shells, are all we see
+     of the fighting. It is a weird combination of stillness and
+     havoc, the Verdun conflict viewed from the sky.
+
+     Far below us, the observation and range-finding planes circle
+     over the trenches like gliding gulls. At a feeble altitude they
+     follow the attacking infantrymen and flash back wireless reports
+     of the engagement. Only through them can communication be
+     maintained when, under the barrier fire, wires from the front
+     lines are cut. Sometimes it falls to our lot to guard these
+     machines from Germans eager to swoop down on their backs. Sailing
+     about high above a busy flock of them makes one feel like an old
+     mother hen protecting her chicks.
+
+     The pilot of an _avion de chasse_ must not concern himself with
+     the ground, which to him is useful only for learning his
+     whereabouts. The earth is all-important to the men in the
+     observation, artillery-regulating, and bombardment machines, but
+     the fighting aviator has an entirely different sphere. His domain
+     is the blue heavens, the glistening rolls of clouds below the
+     fleecy banks towering above the vague aerial horizon, and he must
+     watch it as carefully as a navigator watches the storm-tossed
+     sea.
+
+      On days when the clouds form almost a solid flooring, one feels
+     very much at sea, and wonders if one is in the navy instead of
+     aviation. The diminutive Nieuports skirt the white expanse like
+     torpedo boats in an arctic sea, and sometimes, far across the
+     cloud-waves, one sights an enemy escadrille, moving as a fleet.
+
+     Principally our work consists of keeping German airmen away from
+     our lines, and in attacking them when opportunity offers. We
+     traverse the brown band and enter enemy territory to the
+     accompaniment of an anti-aircraft cannonade. Most of the shots
+     are wild, however, and we pay little attention to them. When the
+     shrapnel comes uncomfortably close, one shifts position slightly
+     to evade the range. One glances up to see if there is another
+     machine higher than one's own. Low, and far within the German
+     lines, are several enemy planes, a dull white in appearance,
+     resembling sandflies against the mottled earth. High above them
+     one glimpses the mosquito-like forms of two Fokkers. Away off to
+     one side white shrapnel puffs are vaguely visible, perhaps
+     directed against a German crossing the lines. We approach the
+     enemy machines ahead, only to find them slanting at a rapid rate
+     into their own country. High above them lurks a protection plane.
+     The man doing the "ceiling work," as it is called, will look
+     after him for us.
+
+     Getting started is the hardest part of an attack. Once you have
+     begun diving you're all right. The pilot just ahead turns tail up
+     like a trout dropping back to water, and swoops down in irregular
+     curves and circles. You follow at an angle so steep your feet
+     seem to be holding you back in your seat. Now the black Maltese
+     crosses on the German's wings stand out clearly. You think of him
+     as some sort of a big bug. Then you hear the rapid tut-tut-tut of
+     his machine-gun. The man that dived ahead of you becomes mixed up
+     with the topmost German. He is so close it looks as if he had hit
+     the enemy machine. You hear the staccato barking of his
+     mitrailleuse and see him pass from under the German's tail.
+
+     The rattle of the gun that is aimed at you leaves you
+     undisturbed. Only when the bullets pierce the wings a few feet
+     off do you become uncomfortable. You see the gunner crouched
+     down behind his weapon, but you aim at where the pilot ought to
+     be--there are two men aboard the German craft--and press on the
+     release hard. Your mitrailleuse hammers out a stream of bullets
+     as you pass over and dive, nose down, to get out of range. Then,
+     hopefully, you redress and look back at the foe. He ought to be
+     dropping earthward at several miles a minute. As a matter of
+     fact, however, he is sailing serenely on. They have an annoying
+     habit of doing that, these Boches.
+
+Zeppelins as well as the stationary kite balloons and the swiftly
+flying airplanes often tempted the fighting aviators to attack. One
+of the most successful of the British champions of the air, though
+his own life was ended in the second year of the war, was
+sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, of the British Flying Corps. In
+his brief period of service Warneford won more laurels than any of
+the British aviators of the time. He was absolutely fearless, with a
+marvelous control of the fast Vickers scout which he employed, and
+fertile in every resource of the chase and of the flight. In an
+interview widely printed at the time, Lieutenant Warneford thus told
+the story of his casual meeting of a German Zeppelin high in air
+between Ghent and Brussels and his prompt and systematic destruction
+of the great balloon. The story as told in his own language reads
+like the recountal of an everyday event. That to meet an enemy more
+than a mile above the earth and demolish him was anything
+extraordinary does not seem to have occurred to the aviator.
+
+     I proceeded on my journey at an increased height [he says]. It
+     was just three o'clock in the morning when all of a sudden I
+     perceived on the horizon about midway between Ghent and Brussels
+     a Zeppelin flying fast at an altitude of about six thousand feet.
+     I immediately flew toward it and when I was almost over the
+     monster I descended about fifteen metres, and flung six bombs at
+     it. The sixth struck the envelope of the ship fair and square in
+     the middle. There was instantly a terrible explosion. The
+     displacement of the air round about me was so great that a
+     tornado seemed to have been produced. My machine tossed upward
+     and then flung absolutely upside down, I was forced to loop the
+     loop in spite of myself. I thought for a moment that the end of
+     everything had come. In the whirl I had the pleasure of seeing my
+     victim falling to the earth in a cloud of flames and smoke. Then
+     by some miracle my machine righted herself and I came to earth in
+     the enemy's country. I was not long on the ground you may be
+     sure. I speedily put myself and my machine into working order
+     again; then I set my engine going.
+
+This time the fortunate aviator returned safely to his own
+territory. He had then served only four months, had attained the age
+of twenty-three, and even in so brief a service had received the
+Cross of the Legion of Honour from France and the Victoria Cross
+from the British. Only one week after this courageous exploit he was
+killed while on a pleasure flight and with him a young American
+journalist, Henry Beach Needham, to whom he was showing the
+battlefield.
+
+During the early years of the war all of the governments were
+peculiarly secretive concerning all matters relative to their
+aviation services. This was probably due to the fact that the flying
+corps was a brand new branch of the service. No nation was
+adequately equipped with flyers. Each was afraid to let its enemies
+know how insufficient were its air guards, or what measures were
+being taken to bring the aerial fleet up to the necessary point of
+efficiency. Investigators were frowned upon and the aviators
+themselves were discouraged from much conversation about their work.
+
+About the beginning of 1916 the British suddenly awoke to the fact
+that even in war publicity has its value. It was necessary to arouse
+the enthusiastic support of the people for recruiting or for the
+conscription which ultimately was ordered. To do this graphic
+descriptions of what was doing at the front in the various branches
+of the service seemed necessary. The best writers in England were
+mobilized for this work. Kipling wrote of the submarines, Conan
+Doyle of the fighting on the fields of France. The Royal Flying
+Corps gave out a detailed story the authorship of which was not
+stated, but which describes most picturesquely the day of a flying
+man.
+
+In the United States it appeared in the _Sun_, of New York, and
+sections of it are reprinted here:
+
+     "The following bombing will be carried out by No.--Squadron at
+     night (10 P.M., 12 midnight, and 2 A.M.). At each of these times
+     three machines, each carrying eight twenty-pound bombs, will bomb
+     respectively P----, C----, H----."
+
+     Thus the operation order read one evening in France. Just an
+     ordinary order too, for bombing is carried out day and night
+     incessantly. Bombing by night is usually carried out on towns and
+     villages known to be resting places of the German troops, and it
+     is part of the work of the Royal Flying Corps to see that the Hun
+     never rests.
+
+     Fritz after a hard spell in the trenches is withdrawn to some
+     shell torn village behind his lines to rest. He enters the ruined
+     house, that forms his billet, and with a sigh of contentment at
+     reaching such luxury after the miseries of trench life prepares
+     to sleep in peace. He dreams of home, and then out of the night
+     comes the terror of the air.
+
+     A bomb falls in his billet, exploding with a terrific report and
+     doing more damage to the already ruined walls. Possibly a few of
+     his comrades are wounded or killed. Other explosions take place
+     close by and the whole village is in turmoil.
+
+     Fritz does not sleep again. His nerves are jangled and all
+     possibility of sleep is gone. The next day he is in a worse
+     condition than after a night in the trenches. This continues
+     night after night. The damage to German morale is enormous.
+
+     From the aerial point of view things are different. A pilot
+     warned for night flying takes it as he takes everything else,
+     with apparent unconcern. He realizes that he will have an
+     uninteresting ride in the dark; the danger from "Archie" will be
+     small, for an airplane is a difficult target to keep under
+     observation with a searchlight, and the danger from hostile
+     aircraft will be smaller still.
+
+     Over the trenches the star shells of the infantry may be seen,
+     occasionally the flash of a badly concealed gun glints in the
+     darkness or the exploding bombs of a trench raiding party cause
+     tiny sparks to glimmer far below. Probably the enemy, hearing the
+     sound of engines, will turn on his searchlights and sweep the sky
+     with long pencils of light. The pilot may be picked up for a
+     second, and a trifle later the angry bang, bang, bang of "Archie"
+     may be heard, firing excitedly at the place where the aeroplane
+     ought to be but is not--the pilot has probably dipped and changed
+     his course since he was in the rays of the searchlight. He may be
+     caught again for an instant and the performance is repeated.
+
+     Before long the vicinity of the target is reached and he prepares
+     to drop his bombs, usually eight in number. A little before he is
+     over the spot the first bombs will be released, for the
+     trajectory of the bomb follows the course of the machine if the
+     latter keeps on a straight course and when it explodes the
+     airplane is still overhead. Down far below will be seen a tiny
+     burst of flame; possibly a large fire blazes up and the pilot
+     knows that his work is good. He then turns and repeats his
+     performance until all his bombs are exhausted, when he turns for
+     home.
+
+     Bombs are usually dropped from a low altitude at night in order
+     to be surer of getting the target. If during the performance any
+     local searchlights are turned on "Archie" gets busy and a merry
+     game of hide and seek in and out the beams takes place. If the
+     airplane is very low, and bombs are sometimes dropped from a
+     height of only a few hundred feet, it is highly probable that the
+     bursting shells do more damage than the airplane's bombs, and it
+     is almost impossible to wing an airplane by night.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A French Scout Airplane._]
+
+     Over the lines the pilot probably meets more searchlights, dodges
+     them, and gradually descends. Below him he sees the aerodromes of
+     the surrounding squadrons lighted up for landing purposes. Should
+     he be in doubt as to which is his own he fires a certain
+     combination of signal lights and is answered from below. He then
+     lands, hands his machine over to the mechanics, and turns in.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+"_Showing Off._"
+
+_A Nieuport performing aerial acrobatics around a heavier bombing
+machine._]
+
+     So much for night bombing. By day it is different. Though at
+     night it is the billets which usually form the target, by day
+     bombing is carried out for the purpose of damaging specific
+     objects. Railroads, dumps of stores and ammunition, and enemy
+     aerodromes are the favourite targets.
+
+     The raiding machines fly in formation and are surrounded by other
+     machines used solely for protective purposes. Generally a raid is
+     carried out by machines from two squadrons, the bomb carriers
+     belonging to a corps wing and the escorting machines to an army
+     wing.
+
+     All the machines meet at a prearranged rendezvous well on our
+     side of the line at a certain time and a given altitude. There
+     they manoeuvre into their correct formation. A flight commander
+     leads the raid and his machine is distinguished by streamers tied
+     to it.
+
+     Once over the target the fighters scatter and patrol the
+     neighbourhood while the bombers discharge their missiles on the
+     objective. Usually, unless anti-aircraft fire is very heavy, they
+     descend a few thousand feet to make surer of the target, and when
+     their work is completed rise again to the level of the escort.
+
+     Results can usually be fairly judged by day. An ammunition dump
+     quickly shows if it is hit and stores soon burst into flame.
+     Railway stations or junctions show clearly damage to buildings or
+     overturned trucks, but the damage to the track itself is hard to
+     estimate. Aerodromes may be bombed for the purpose of destroying
+     enemy machines in their hangars or merely in order to spoil the
+     landing by blowing holes all over the place. It is with great
+     delight that a pilot remarks in his report that a hostile
+     machine, surrounded by mechanics, was about to ascend, but that
+     instead he had descended to within a few hundred feet and
+     obtained a direct hit, with the result that the enemy machine,
+     including the surrounding men, seemed to be severely damaged.
+
+     One officer on a bomb raid saw his chance in this way, descended
+     to four hundred feet under intense rifle fire, successfully
+     bombed the enemy machine, which was just emerging from its
+     hangar, and then tried to make off. Unfortunately at this moment
+     his engine petered out, possibly on account of the enemy's fire,
+     and he had to descend.
+
+     By skillful planing he managed to descend about three quarters of
+     a mile away, in full view of the enemy. Instead of giving up the
+     ghost and at once firing his machine, this officer jumped out
+     and, utterly unperturbed by the German fire or by the Huns making
+     across country to take him prisoner, commenced to inspect the
+     engine. Luckily he found the cause of the trouble at once, put it
+     right,--it was only a trifling mishap,--adjusted the controls,
+     and swung the propeller.
+
+     The engine started, he jumped in, with the nearest Hun only a
+     hundred yards off, and opening the throttle raced over the ground
+     and into the air pursued by a futile fusillade of bullets. His
+     engine held out and he safely regained his aerodrome, after
+     having been reported missing by his comrades. For this escapade
+     he received the Military Cross--a well-earned reward.
+
+     When all the bombs have been dropped and the formation resumed
+     the machines head for home. It is on the homeward journey that
+     events may be expected, for time enough has elapsed for the Hun
+     to detail a squadron to intercept our returning machines and pick
+     off any stragglers that may fall behind.
+
+     It is a favourite Boche manoeuvre to detail some of his slow
+     machines to entice our fighters away from the main body, and when
+     this has been accomplished, to attack the remainder with Fokkers,
+     which dive from aloft onto the bombing machines. This trick is
+     now well-known and the fighters rarely leave their charges until
+     the latter are in comparative safety.
+
+     Sometimes a Hun of more sporting character than his brothers will
+     wait alone for the returning convoy, hiding himself thousands of
+     feet up in the clouds until he sees his moment. Then singling out
+     a machine he will dive at it, pouring out a stream of bullets as
+     he falls. Sometimes he achieves his object and a British machine
+     falls to earth, but whatever the result, the Hun does not alter
+     his tactics. He dives clean through the whole block of machines,
+     down many thousands of feet, only flattening out when close to
+     the ground.
+
+     The whole affair is so swift--just one lightning dive--that long
+     before a fighter can reach the Hun the latter is away thousands
+     of feet below and heading for home and safety. Every Fokker
+     pilot knows that once his surprise dive is over he has no chance
+     against another machine--the build of the Fokker only allows this
+     one method of attack--and he does not stop to argue about it. His
+     offensive dive becomes a defensive one--that is the sole
+     difference.
+
+     Sometimes a large squadron of German machines, composed of
+     various types of airplanes, intercepts a returning formation. If
+     it attacks a grand aerial battle ensues. The British fighting
+     machines spread out in a screen to allow the bombing machines a
+     chance of escape and then attack the Huns as they arrive. In one
+     place one British airplane will be defending itself from two or
+     three German machines; close by two or three of our busses will
+     be occupied in sending a Hun to his death; elsewhere more equal
+     combats rage and the whole sky becomes an aerial battlefield,
+     where machines perform marvellous evolutions, putting the best
+     trick flying of pre-war days very much in the shade. No sooner
+     has a pilot accounted for his foe, by killing him, forcing him to
+     descend, or making him think discretion the better part of
+     valour, than he turns to the help of a hard-pressed brother,
+     surprising the enemy by an attack from the rear or otherwise
+     creating a diversion.
+
+     A single shot in the petrol tank proves fatal; loss of pressure
+     ensues, the engine fails, and the pilot is forced to descend. He
+     can usually land safely, but should he be in enemy territory he
+     must fire his machine and prepare for a holiday in Germany.
+     Should he be fortunate enough to plane over our lines little
+     damage is done; the tank can be repaired and the machine made
+     serviceable again. But for the time being he is out of the fight.
+     Sometimes the escaping petrol may ignite and the pilot and
+     observer perish in the flames--the most terrible fate of all.
+
+     The aerial battle ends in one of two ways: one side is
+     outmanoeuvred, outnumbered, and has lost several machines and
+     flies to safety, or, the more usual ending, both sides exhaust
+     their ammunition, only a limited quantity perforce being carried,
+     and the fight is of necessity broken off. Meanwhile the bombing
+     machines have probably crossed the line in safety, and their duty
+     is finished. Should they be attacked by a stray machine they are
+     armed and quite capable of guarding themselves against any attack
+     except one in force.
+
+     During these bomb raids photographs of the target are frequently
+     obtained or should the staff require any district crossed on the
+     journey and taken they are generally secured by bombing machines.
+     It is wonderful what minute details may be seen in a photograph
+     taken at a height of from eight to twelve thousand feet, and our
+     prints, which are far superior to those taken by the Hun, have
+     revealed many useful points which would otherwise have remained
+     unknown.
+
+     When it is remembered that a single machine crossing the line is
+     heavily shelled it may be conceived what an immense concentration
+     of "Archies" is made on the raiders on their return. It is
+     remarkable what feeble results are obtained considering the
+     intensity of the bombardment, but rarely is a machine brought
+     down, though casualties naturally occur occasionally.
+
+     Lieutenant C., in company with other machines, had successfully
+     bombed his target and had meanwhile been heavily shelled, with
+     the result that his engine was not giving its full number of
+     revolutions and he lagged a little behind the rest of the
+     formation. No hostile aircraft appeared and all went well until
+     he was about to cross the lines, when a terrific bombardment was
+     opened on him.
+
+     He dodged and turned to the best of his ability, but a well-aimed
+     shell burst just above him and a piece of the "Archie" hit him on
+     the head, not seriously wounding him, but knocking him
+     unconscious. The machine, deprived of the guiding hand,
+     immediately got into a dive and commenced a rapid descent from
+     ten thousand feet, carrying the unconscious pilot with it, to be
+     dashed to pieces on the ground.
+
+     Whether the rush of air, the sudden increase of pressure, or the
+     passing off of the effect of the blow caused the disabled man to
+     come to his senses is not known, but when the machine was only a
+     few hundred feet from the ground, Lieutenant C. recovered his
+     senses sufficiently to realize his position and managed to pull
+     the machine up and make a landing. He then lapsed into
+     unconsciousness again. Had he remained in his state of collapse
+     half a minute longer, he would inevitably have been killed.
+
+     Another curious case of wounding was that of Lieutenant H., who
+     was also returning from a bomb raid. When passing through the
+     heavily shelled zone his machine was hit by a shell, which passed
+     through the floor by the pilot's seat and out at the top without
+     exploding. Lieutenant H. thought it must have been very close to
+     his leg, but he was so fully occupied with manoeuvring to dodge
+     other shells that he had no time to think of it.
+
+     He crossed the line and began to plane down when he was aware of
+     a feeling of faintness, but pulling himself together he landed
+     his machine, taxied up to the sheds, and attempted to get out. It
+     was only then that he realized that his leg was shot almost
+     completely off above the knee; the lower part was merely hanging
+     by a piece of skin.
+
+     Incredible as it may seem the shell which hit his machine also
+     tore through the leg--luckily without exploding--unknown to
+     Lieutenant H. Probably the force of the blow and excitement of
+     the moment caused it to pass unnoticed and the torn nature of the
+     wound helped to close the arteries and prevent his bleeding to
+     death. He recovered, and though no longer flying is still engaged
+     in doing his duty for the duration of the war.
+
+[Illustration: _Raid on a Troop Train by John E. Whiting._]
+
+The courage and dash of the American aviators, serving with the
+French Army, led the Allies to expect great things of our flying
+corps which should be organized immediately after our declaration of
+war. About the time of that declaration Major L. W. B. Rees, of the
+British Flying Corps, came to the United States for the purpose of
+giving to our authorities the benefit of British experience in
+raising and equipping aerial fleets and in the development of the
+most efficient tactics. Major Rees in an official statement set
+forth many facts of general interest concerning the various flying
+services of the belligerent armies. The British, he said, fly on
+three levels with three different kinds of machines. Nearest the
+ground, about six thousand feet up, are the artillery directors who
+hover about cutting big figure eights above the enemy trenches and
+flash back directions by wireless to the British artillerists. These
+observers are, of course, exposed to attack from anti-aircraft guns,
+the effective range of which had by the middle of war become as
+great as ten thousand feet. Yet, as has already been noted, the
+amount of execution done by these weapons was surprisingly small.
+The observers are protected from attack from above, first by the
+heavy fighting planes, flying at ten thousand feet, carrying two men
+to the plane and able to keep the air for four hours at a time at a
+speed of 110 miles an hour. They are supposed to use every possible
+vigilance to keep the enemy's fighters away from the slower and busy
+observing machines. In this they are seconded by the lighter one-man
+fighting machines which cruise about at a height of fifteen thousand
+feet at a speed of 130 miles an hour and able to make a straight
+upward dash at the rate of ten thousand feet in ten minutes. The
+aviators of these latter machines came to describe their task as
+"ceiling work," suggesting that they operated at the very top of the
+world's great room. They are able to keep the air only about two
+hours at a time.
+
+Americans, perhaps, gave exaggerated importance to the work of the
+Lafayette Escadrille which was manned wholly by American boys, and
+which, while in service from the very beginning of the war, was the
+first section of the French Army permitted to display the flag of
+the United States in battle after our declaration of war. It was
+made up, in the main, of young Americans of good family and
+independent means, most of them being college students who had laid
+down their books for the more exciting life of an airman. They paid
+heavily in the toll of death for their adventure and for the
+conviction which led them to take the side of democracy and right in
+the struggle against autocracy and barbarism months, even years,
+before their nation finally determined to join with them. In the
+first two and a half years of the war, seven of the aviators in this
+comparatively small body lost their lives.
+
+Harvard College was particularly well represented in the American
+Flying Corps--although this is a proper and pertinent place to say
+that the sympathy shown for the allied cause by the young collegians
+of the United States was a magnificent evidence of the lofty
+righteousness of their convictions and the spirit of democracy with
+which they looked out upon the world. When the leash was taken off
+by the declaration of war by the United States the college boys
+flocked to training camps and enlistment headquarters in a way that
+bade fair to leave those institutions of learning without students
+for some years to come.
+
+But to hark back to Harvard, it had in the Lafayette Escadrille five
+men in 1916; three of these, Kiffen Rockwell, Norman Prince, and
+Victor Chapman, were killed in that year. A letter published in
+_Harvard Volunteers in Europe_ tells of the way these young
+gladiators started the day's work:
+
+     Rockwell called me up at three: "Fine day, fine day, get up!" It
+     was very clear. We hung around at Billy's [Lieutenant Thaw] and
+     took chocolate made by his ordonnance. Hall and the Lieutenant
+     were guards on the field; but Thaw, Rockwell, and I thought we
+     would take _a tour chez les Boches_. Being the first time the
+     _mechanaux_ were not there and the machine gun rolls not ready.
+     However it looked misty in the Vosges, so we were not hurried.
+     "Rendezvous over the field at a thousand metres," shouted Kiffen.
+     I nodded, for the motor was turning; and we sped over the field
+     and up.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A Burning Balloon, Photographed from a Parachute by the Escaping
+Balloonist._]
+
+     In my little cockpit from which my shoulders just protrude I have
+     several diversions besides flying. The compass, of course, and
+     the map I keep tucked in a tiny closet over the reservoir before
+     my knees, a small clock and one altimetre. But most important is
+     the contour, showing revolutions of the motor which one is
+     constantly regarding as he moves the manettes of gasoline and gas
+     back and forth. To husband one's fuel and tease the motor to
+     round eleven takes attention, for the carburetor changes with the
+     weather and the altitude.... The earth seemed hidden under a fine
+     web such as the Lady of Shalott wove. Soft purple in the west,
+     changing to shimmering white in the east. Under me on the left
+     the Vosges like rounded sand dunes cushioned up with velvety
+     light and dark masses (really forests), but to the south standing
+     firmly above the purple cloth like icebergs shone the Alps. My!
+     they look steep and jagged. The sharp blue shadows on their
+     western slopes emphasized the effect. One mighty group standing
+     aloof to the west--Mount Blanc perhaps. Ah, there are quantities
+     of worm-eaten fields my friends the trenches--and that town with
+     the canal going through it must be M----. Right beside the capote
+     of my engine, showing through the white cloth a silver snake--the
+     Rhine!
+
+     What, not a quarter to six, and I left the field at five!
+     Thirty-two hundred metres. Let's go north and have a look at the
+     map.
+
+     While thus engaged a black puff of smoke appeared behind my tail
+     and I had the impression of hearing a piece of iron hiss by.
+     "Must have got my range first shot!" I surmised, and making a
+     steep bank piqued heavily. "There, I have lost them now." The
+     whole art of avoiding shells is to pay no attention till they get
+     your range and then dodge away, change altitude, and generally
+     avoid going in a straight line. In point of fact, I could see
+     bunches of exploding shells up over my right shoulder not a
+     kilometre off. They continued to shell that section for some
+     time; the little balls of smoke thinning out and merging as they
+     crossed the lines.
+
+In the earlier days of the war, when the American aviators were
+still few, their deeds were widely recounted in their home country,
+and their deaths were deplored as though a personal loss to many of
+their countrymen. Later they went faster and were lost in the daily
+reports. Among those who had early fixed his personality in the
+minds of those who followed the fortunes of the little band of
+Americans flying in France was Kiffen Rockwell, mentioned in an
+earlier paragraph, and one of the first to join the American
+escadrille. Rockwell was in the war from sincere conviction of the
+righteousness of the Allies' cause.
+
+"I pay my part for Lafayette, and Rochambeau," he said proudly, when
+asked what he was doing in a French uniform flying for France. And
+pay he did though not before making the Germans pay heavily for
+their part. Once, flying alone over Thann, he came upon a German
+scout. Without hesitation the battle was on. Rockwell's machine was
+the higher, had the better position. As aerial tactics demanded he
+dived for the foe, opening fire as soon as he came within thirty or
+forty yards. At his fourth shot the enemy pilot fell forward in his
+seat and his machine fell heavily to earth. He lighted behind the
+German lines much to the victor's disgust, for it was counted a
+higher achievement to bring your foe to earth in your own territory.
+But Rockwell was able to pursue his victim far enough to see the
+wreck burst into flames.
+
+Though often wounded, Rockwell scorned danger. He would go into
+action so bandaged that he seemed fitter to go to an hospital. He
+was always on the attack--"shoved his gun into the enemy's face" as
+his fellows in the escadrille expressed it. So in September, 1916,
+he went out after a big German machine, he saw flying in French
+territory. He had but little difficulty in climbing above it, and
+then dashed down in his usual impetuous manner, his machine gun
+blazing as he came on. But the German was of heavier metal mounting
+two machine guns. Just as to onlookers it seemed that the two
+machines would crash together, the wings of one side of Rockwell's
+plane suddenly collapsed and he fell like a stone between the lines.
+The Germans turned their guns on the pile of wreckage where he lay,
+but French gunners ran out and brought his body in. His breast was
+all blown to pieces with an explosive bullet--criminal, of course,
+barbarous and uncivilized, but an everyday practice of the Germans.
+
+Rockwell was given an impressive funeral. All the British pilots,
+and five hundred of their men marched, and the bier was followed by
+a battalion of French troops. Over and around the little French
+graveyard aviators flew dropping flowers. In later days less
+ceremony attended the last scene of an American aviator's career.
+
+Another American aviator, also a Harvard man, who met death in the
+air, was Victor Chapman of New York, a youth of unusual charm, high
+ideals, and indomitable courage. At the very outbreak of the war he
+enlisted in the French Foreign Legion--a rough entourage for a
+college-bred man. Into the Foreign Legion drifted everything that
+was doubtful, and many that were criminal. No questions were asked
+of those who sought its hospitable ranks, and readers of Ouida's
+novel _Under Two Flags_ will recall that it enveloped in its
+convenient obscurity British lordlings and the lowest of Catalonian
+thieves. But in time of actual war its personnel was less mixed, and
+Chapman's letters showed him serving there contentedly as pointer of
+a mitrailleuse. But not for long. Most of the spirited young
+Americans who entered the French Army aspired to serve in the
+aviation corps, and Chapman soon was transferred to that field.
+There he developed into a most daring flyer. On one occasion, with a
+bad scalp wound, after a brush with four German machines, he made
+his landing with his machine so badly wrecked that he had to hold
+together the broken ends of a severed control with one hand, while
+he steered with the other. Instead of laying up for the day he had
+his mechanician repair his machine while a surgeon repaired him,
+then, patched up together, man and machine took the air again in
+search for the Boches.
+
+In June, 1916, though still suffering from a wound in the head, he
+started in his machine to carry some oranges to a comrade lying
+desperately wounded in a hospital some miles away. On the way he saw
+in the distance behind the German lines two French airmen set upon
+by an overwhelming force of Germans. Instantly he was off to the
+assistance of his friends, plunging into so unequal a fight that
+even his coming left the other Americans outnumbered. But he had
+scarce a chance to strike a blow. Some chance shot from a German gun
+put him out of action. All that the other two Americans, Lufbery and
+Prince, knew was that they saw a French machine come flying to their
+aid, and suddenly tip and fall away to earth. Until nightfall came
+and Chapman failed to return none was sure that he was the victim.
+
+The part played by young Americans as volunteers for France before
+the United States entered upon the war was gallant and stimulating
+to national pride. It showed to the world--and to our own countrymen
+who needed the lesson as much as any--that we had among our youth
+scores who, moved by high ideals, stood ready to risk their lives
+for a sentiment--stood ready to brave the myriad discomforts of the
+trenches, the bursting shrapnel, the mutilating liquid fire, the
+torturing gas that German autocracy should be balked of its purpose
+of dominating the world.
+
+And the service of these boys aided far more than they knew. The
+fact that our countrymen in numbers were flying for France kept ever
+before the American people the vision of that war in the air of
+which poets and philosophers had dreamed for ages. It brought home
+to our people the importance of aviation before our statesmen could
+begin to see it. It set our boys to reading of aircraft, building
+model planes, haunting the few aviation fields which at the time our
+country possessed. And it finally so filled the consciousness of our
+people with conviction of the supreme importance of aviation as an
+arm of the national armed service that long before the declaration
+of war the government was embarrassed by the flood of volunteers
+seeking to be enrolled in the flying forces of the nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE UNITED STATES AT WAR
+
+
+The entrance of the United States upon the war was the signal for a
+most active agitation of the question of overwhelming the enemy with
+illimitable fleets of aircraft. Though the agitation was most
+vociferous in this country whence it was hoped the enormous new
+fleets of aircraft would come, it was fomented and earnestly pressed
+by our Allies. France sent a deputation of her leading flyers over
+to supervise the instruction of our new pilots. England contributed
+experts to advise as to the construction of our machines. The most
+comprehensive plans were urged upon Congress and the Administration
+for the creation of a navy of the air. A bill for an initial
+appropriation of $640,000,000, for aircraft purposes alone, was
+passed and one for a Department of Aeronautics to be established,
+co-ordinate with those of War and the Navy, its secretary holding a
+seat in the cabinet, was introduced in Congress. Many of the most
+eminent retired officers of the navy joined in their support.
+Retired officers only because officers in active service were
+estopped from political agitation.
+
+There was every possible reason for this great interest in the
+United States in wartime aviation. The nation had long been
+shamefaced because the development of the heavier-than-air machines,
+having their origin undoubtedly in the inventive genius of Professor
+Langley and the Wrights, had been taken away from us by the more
+alert governments of France and Germany. The people were ready to
+buy back something of our lost prestige by building the greatest of
+air fleets at the moment when it should exercise the most
+determinative influence upon the war.
+
+But more. We entered upon the war in our chronic state of
+unpreparedness. We were without an army and without equipment for
+one. To raise, equip, and drill an army of a million, the least
+number that would have any appreciable effect upon the outcome of
+the war, would take months. When completed we would have added only
+to the numerical superiority of the Allies on the Western Front. The
+quality of a novel and decisive contribution to the war would be
+lacking.
+
+So too it was with our navy. The British Navy was amply adequate to
+deal with the German fleet should the latter ever leave its prudent
+retreat behind Helgoland and in the bases of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.
+True it was not capable of crushing out altogether the submarine
+menace, but it did hold the German underwater boats down to a fixed
+average of ships destroyed, which was far less than half of what the
+Germans had anticipated. In this work our ships, especially our
+destroyers, took a notable part.
+
+The argument for a monster fleet of fighting aircraft, thus came to
+the people of the United States in a moment of depression and
+perplexity. By land the Germans had dug themselves in, holding all
+of Belgium and the thousands of square miles of France they had won
+in their first dash to the Marne. What they had won swiftly and
+cheaply could only be regained slowly and at heavy cost. True, the
+Allies were, day by day, driving them back from their position, but
+the cost was disheartening and the progress but slow.
+
+By sea the Germans refused to bring their fleet to battle with their
+foes. But from every harbour of Belgium, and from Wilhelmshaven and
+Kiel, they sent out their sinister submarines to prey upon the
+commerce of the world--neutral as well as belligerent. Against them
+the navies of the world were impotent. To the threat that by them
+Germany would starve England into cowering surrender, the only
+answer was the despairing effort to build new ships faster than the
+submarines could sink those afloat--even though half a million tons
+a month were sent to the bottom in wasteful destruction.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Levick.
+
+_A Caproni Biplane Circling the Woolworth Building._]
+
+Faced by these disheartening conditions, wondering what they might
+do that could be done quickly and aid materially in bringing the war
+to a triumphant conclusion, the American people listened eagerly to
+the appeals and arguments of the advocates of a monster aerial
+fleet.
+
+[Illustration: (C) International Film Service.
+
+_Cruising at 2000 Feet._
+
+_One Biplane photographed from another._]
+
+     Listen [said these advocates], we show you a way to spring full
+     panoplied into the war, and to make your force felt with your
+     first stroke. We are not preaching dreadnoughts that take four
+     years to build. We are not asking for a million men taking nearly
+     a year to gather, equip, drill, and transport to France, in
+     imminent danger of destruction by the enemy's submarines every
+     mile of the way.
+
+     We ask you for a cheap, simple device of wood, wire, and cloth,
+     with an engine to drive it. All its parts are standardized. In a
+     few weeks the nation can be equipped to turn out 2000 of them
+     weekly. We want within the year 100,000 of them. We do not ask
+     for a million men. We want 10,000 bright, active, hardy, plucky
+     American boys between 20 and 25 years of age. We want to give
+     them four months' intensive training before sending them into the
+     air above the enemy's lines. In time we shall want 25,000 to
+     35,000 but the smaller number will well do to open the campaign.
+
+     And what will they effect?
+
+     Do you know that to-day the eyes of an army are its airplanes?
+     Cavalry has disappeared practically. If a general wishes to pick
+     out a weak point in his enemy's line to assault he sends out
+     airmen to find it. If he is annoyed by the fire of some distant
+     unseen battery over the hills and far away he sends a man in an
+     airplane who brings back its location, its distance, and perhaps
+     a photograph of it in action. If he suspects that his foe is
+     abandoning his trenches, or getting ready for an attack, the
+     ready airmen bring in the facts.
+
+     And of course the enemy's airmen serve their side in the same
+     manner. They spy out what their foe is doing, and so far as their
+     power permits prevent him from seeing what they are doing.
+
+     Now suppose one side has an enormous preponderance of
+     aircraft--six to one, let us say. It is not believed, for
+     example, that at this moment Germany has more than 10,000
+     aircraft on the whole western front. Let us imagine that through
+     the enterprise of the United States our Allies were provided with
+     25,000 on one sector which we intended to make the scene of an
+     attack on the foe. Say the neighbourhood of Arras and Lille. For
+     days, weeks perhaps, we would be drawing troops toward this
+     sector from every part of the line. Through the reports of spies
+     the enemy's suspicions would be aroused. It is the business of an
+     efficient general to be suspicious. He would send out his
+     airplanes to report on the activities of the other side. Few
+     would come back. None would bring a useful report. For every
+     German plane that showed above the lines three Allied planes
+     would be ready to attack and destroy it or beat it back. The air
+     would be full of Allied airmen--the great bombing planes flying
+     low and inundating the trenches with bombs, and the troops on
+     march with the deadly flechettes. Over every German battery would
+     soar the observation plane indicating by tinsel or smoke bombs
+     the location of the guns, or even telegraphing it back by
+     wireless to the Allied batteries safe in positions which the
+     blinded enemy could never hope to find. Above all in myriads
+     would be soaring the swift fighting scouts, the Bleriots,
+     Nieuports, Moranes or perhaps some new American machine to-day
+     unknown. Let the wing of a Boche but show above the smoke and
+     they would be upon him in hordes, beating him to the ground,
+     enveloping him in flames, annihilating him before he had a chance
+     to observe, much less to report.
+
+     What think you would be the result on that sector of the battle
+     line? Why the foe would be cut to pieces, demolished,
+     obliterated. Blinded, he would be unrelentingly punished by an
+     adversary all eyes. Writhing under the concentrated fire of a
+     thousand guns he could make no response, for his own guns could
+     not find the attacking batteries. Did he think to flee? His
+     retreating columns would be marked down by the relentless scouts
+     in the air, and the deadly curtain of fire from well-coached
+     batteries miles away would sweep every road with death. If in
+     desperation he sought to attack he would do so ignorant whether
+     he were not hurling his regiments against the strongest part of
+     the Allied line, and with full knowledge of the fact that though
+     he was blinded they had complete information of his strength and
+     dispositions.
+
+The argument impressed itself strongly upon the mind of the country.
+There appeared indeed no public sentiment hostile to it nor any
+organized opposition to the proposition for an enormous
+appropriation for purposes of aviation. The customary inertia of
+Congress delayed the actual appropriation for some months. But the
+President espoused its cause and the Secretaries both of War and the
+Navy warmly recommended it, although they united in opposing the
+proposition to establish a distinct department of aeronautics with a
+seat in the Cabinet. Being human neither one desired to let his
+share of this great new gift of power slip out of his hands. Leading
+in the fight for this legislation was Rear-Admiral Robert E. Peary,
+U. S. N., retired, the discoverer of the North Pole. Admiral Peary
+from the very outbreak of the war consecrated his time and his
+abilities to pushing the development of aeronautics in the United
+States. He was continually before Congressional committees urging
+the fullest appropriations for this purpose. In his first statement
+before the Senate Committee he declared that "in the immediate
+future the air service will be more important than the army and navy
+combined," and supported that statement by reference to utterances
+made by such British authorities as Mr. Balfour, Lord Charles
+Beresford, Lord Northcliffe, and Lord Montague. In an article
+published shortly after his appearance before the Senate Committee,
+the Admiral summarized in a popular way his views as to the
+possibility of meeting the submarine menace with aircraft, and what
+the United States might do in that respect. He wrote:
+
+     We are receiving agreeable reports as to the efficiency of the
+     American destroyer flotilla now operating against submarines in
+     the North Sea. An unknown naval officer, according to the
+     newspapers of May 30th, calls for the immediate construction of
+     from 100 to 200 additional American destroyers.
+
+     By all means let us have this force--when it can be made
+     ready--but it would take at least two years to construct, equip,
+     and deliver such a heavy additional naval tonnage, while 200
+     fighting seaplanes, with a full complement of machine guns,
+     bombs, microphones, and aerial cameras, could be put in active
+     service in the North Sea within six months.
+
+     Seaplanes, small dirigibles on the order of the English "blimp"
+     type, and kite balloons have already shown themselves to be more
+     effective in detecting submarines than are submarine chasers or
+     armed liners.
+
+     Not only have the British, French, German, and Turkish forces
+     destroyed trawlers, patrol boats, and transports by aircraft,
+     but successful experiments in airplane submarine hunting have
+     also been made in this country.
+
+     In September, 1916, our first Aerial Coast Patrol Unit, in acting
+     as an auxiliary to the Mosquito Squadron in the annual manoeuvres
+     of the Atlantic fleet, detected objects smaller than the latest
+     type of German submarines from fifteen to twenty feet below the
+     surface.
+
+     A more complete aerial submarine hunt took place on March 26th of
+     this year. This was the real thing, because the fliers were
+     looking for German U-boats. Inasmuch as the Navy Department is
+     still waiting before establishing its first and only aeronautical
+     base on the Atlantic seaboard, the honour of having conducted the
+     first aerial hunt of the enemy submarines in American history
+     went to the civilian aviators who are soon to be a part of the
+     Aerial Reserve Squadron at Governor's Island and to the civilian
+     instructors and aerial reservists connected with the Army
+     Aviation School at Mineola, Long Island.
+
+     These hawks of the air darted up and down the coast in search of
+     the enemy, often flying as far as eleven miles out to sea. The
+     inlets and bays were searched, vessels plotted, compass direction
+     and time when located were given.
+
+     No enemy submarines were found. It developed that the supposed
+     submarines were two patrol motor-boats returning from a trial
+     trip. Nevertheless the incident is illuminating, and the official
+     statement of the Navy Department closed with the words: "This
+     incident emphasizes the need of hydroaeroplanes for naval
+     scouting purposes."
+
+     It is also interesting to note what happened when Lawrence Sperry
+     went out to sea one day last summer in his hydroplane and failed
+     to return. Two seaplanes and three naval destroyers were sent in
+     search of him. In forty minutes the seaplanes returned with the
+     news that they had located Sperry floating safely on the water.
+     At the end of the day, after several hours of search, the
+     destroyers came back without having seen Sperry at all.
+
+     Those who may still believe that we Americans cannot build
+     aircraft and that all the exploits we read so much about in the
+     newspapers taking place on the other side are being done in
+     foreign aircraft will be surprised to know that a large number of
+     the big flying boats now in use in the English navy, harbour, and
+     coast defence work are Curtiss machines, designed and built in
+     this country by Americans, with American material and American
+     engines.
+
+     Great Britain wants all the machines of this type that it can
+     get, and sees no reason why we cannot do the same thing in
+     protecting our own Atlantic seaboard. I quote from C. G. Grey,
+     editor of _The London Aeroplane_:
+
+     "Curiously enough, these big flying boats originated in America,
+     and, if America is seriously perturbed about the fate of American
+     shipping and American citizens travelling by sea in the vicinity
+     of Europe, it should not be a difficult matter for America to rig
+     up in a very small space of time quite a fleet of seaplane
+     carriers suitable for the handling of these big seaplanes. If
+     each seaplane ship were armed with guns having a range of five to
+     ten miles, and if the gunners were practised in co-operating with
+     airplane spotters, such ships ought to be the very best possible
+     insurance for American lives and goods on the high seas."
+
+     I quote from _The Associated Press_ report from Paris on May 14th
+     to show the relative importance of aeroplanes in submarine
+     attacks:
+
+     "During the last three months French patrol boats have had twelve
+     engagements with submarines, French hydroaeroplanes have fought
+     them thirteen times, and there have been sixteen engagements
+     between armed merchantmen and submarines."
+
+     Henry Woodhouse, one of the most distinguished authorities on
+     aeronautics in the United States, in his standard _Textbook on
+     Naval Aeronautics_, published by the Century Company, has
+     assembled the following data on submarine and aeroplane combats:
+
+     "On May 4, 1915, the German Admiralty reported an engagement
+     between a German dirigible and several British submarines in the
+     North Sea. The submarines fired on the dirigible without success,
+     whereas bombs from the dirigible sank one submarine.
+
+     "On May 31, 1915, the German Admiralty announced the sinking of a
+     Russian submarine by bombs dropped by German naval aviators near
+     Gotland.
+
+     "On July 1, 1915, the Austrian submarine U-11 was destroyed in
+     the Adriatic by a French aeroplane, which swooped suddenly and
+     dropped three bombs directly on the deck of the submarine. The
+     craft was destroyed and the entire crew of twenty-five were lost.
+
+     "On July 27, 1915, a German submarine in the Dardanelles was
+     about to launch a torpedo at a British transport filled with
+     troops and ammunition, when British aviators gave the alarm to
+     the transport, and immediately began dropping bombs at the
+     submarine, which had to submerge and escape hurriedly, without
+     launching its torpedo.
+
+     "On August 19, 1915, the Turkish War Office stated that an Allied
+     submarine had been sunk in the Dardanelles by a Turkish
+     aeroplane.
+
+     "On August 26, the Secretary of the British Admiralty announced
+     that Squadron Commander Arthur W. Bigsworth in a single-handed
+     attack bombed and destroyed a German submarine off Ostend.
+
+     "Lieutenant Viney received the Victoria Cross and Lieutenant de
+     Sincay was recommended for the Legion of Honour for having flown
+     over a German submarine and destroyed it with bombs off the
+     Belgian coast on November 18, 1915.
+
+     "Early in 1916 an Austrian seaplane sank the French submarine
+     _Foucault_ in the southern Adriatic. Lieutenant Calezeny was the
+     pilot and the observer was Lieutenant von Klinburg. After
+     crippling the submarine they then performed the remarkable feat
+     of calling another Austrian seaplane and rescuing the entire
+     French crew, two officers and twenty seven men, in spite of the
+     fact that a high sea was running at the time."
+
+It will be noted that Admiral Peary lays great stress on the supreme
+value of aircraft as foes of the submarine. This was due to the fact
+that at about the time of his appearance before the Senate Committee
+the world was fairly panic-stricken by the vigour and effect of the
+German submarine campaign and its possible bearing upon the outcome
+of the war. Of that campaign I shall have more to say in the section
+of this book dealing with submarines. But the subject of the
+undersea boat in war became at this time inextricably interwoven
+with that of the aerial fleets, and the sudden development of the
+latter, together with the marked interest taken in it by our people,
+cannot be understood without some description of the way in which
+the two became related.
+
+From the very beginning of the war the Germans had prosecuted a
+desultory submarine warfare on the shipping of Great Britain and had
+extended it gradually until neutral shipping also was largely
+involved. All the established principles of international law, or
+principles that had been supposed to be established, were set at
+naught. In bygone days enemy merchant ships were subject to
+destruction only after their crews had been given an opportunity to
+take to the boats. Neutral ships bearing neutral goods, even if
+bound to an enemy port, were liable to destruction only if found
+upon visit to be carrying goods that were contraband of war. The
+list of contraband had been from time immemorial rigidly limited,
+and confined almost wholly to munitions of war, or to raw material
+used in their construction. But international law went by the board
+early in the war. Each belligerent was able to ascribe plausible
+reasons for its amendment out of recognizable form. Great Britain
+established blockades two hundred miles away from the blockaded
+ports because the submarines made the old practice of watching at
+the entrance of the port too perilous. The list of contraband of war
+was extended by both belligerents until it comprehended almost every
+useful article grown, mined, or manufactured. But the amendment to
+international law which acted as new fuel for the flames of war,
+which aroused the utmost world-wide indignation, and which finally
+dragged the United States into the conflict, was that by which
+Germany sought to relieve her submarine commanders of the duty of
+visiting and searching a vessel, or of giving its people time to
+provide for their safety, before sinking it.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_An Air Battle in Progress._]
+
+The German argument was that the submarine was unknown when the code
+of international law then in force was formulated. It was a
+peculiarly delicate naval weapon. Its strength lay in its ability to
+keep itself concealed while delivering its attack. If exposed on the
+surface a shot from a small calibred gun striking in a vital point
+would instantly send it to the bottom. If rammed it was lost. Should
+a submarine rise to the surface, send an officer aboard a ship it
+had halted, and await the result of his search, it would be exposed
+all the time to destruction at the hands of enemy vessels coming up
+to her aid. Indeed if the merchantman happened to carry one gun a
+single shot might put the assailant out of business. Accordingly the
+practice grew up among the Germans of launching their torpedoes
+without a word of warning at their helpless victim. The wound
+inflicted by a torpedo is such that the ship will go down in but a
+few minutes carrying with it most of the people aboard. The most
+glaring, inexcusable, and criminal instance of this sort of warfare
+was the sinking without warning of the great passenger liner,
+_Lusitania_, by which more than eleven hundred people were drowned,
+one hundred and fourteen of them American citizens.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by U. & U.
+
+_A Curtis Hydroaeroplane._]
+
+Against this policy--or piracy--the United States protested, and
+people of this country waxed very weary as month after month through
+the years 1915 and 1916 Germany met the protests with polite letters
+of evasion and excuse continuing the while the very practice
+complained of. But late in January, 1917, her government announced
+that there would be no longer any pretence of complying with
+international law, but that with the coming month a campaign of
+unlimited submarine ruthlessness would be begun and ships sunk
+without warning and irrespective of their nationality if they
+appeared in certain prohibited zones. Within twenty-four hours the
+United States sent the German Ambassador from the country and within
+two months we were at war.
+
+At once the submarine was seen to be the great problem confronting
+us. Its attack was not so much upon the United States, for we are a
+self-contained nation able to raise all that we need within our own
+borders for our own support. But England is a nation that has to be
+fed from without. Seldom are her stores of food great enough to
+avert starvation for more than six weeks should the steady flow of
+supply ships from America and Australia to her ports be interrupted.
+This interruption the Germans proposed to effect by means of their
+underwater boats. Von Tirpitz and other leaders in the German
+administration promised the people that within six weeks England
+would be starved and begging for peace at any price. The output of
+submarines from German navy yards was greatly increased. Their
+activity became terrifying. The Germans estimated that if they could
+sink 1,000,000 tons of shipping monthly they would put England out
+of action in two or three months. For some weeks the destruction
+accomplished by their boats narrowly approached this estimate, but
+gradually fell off. At the same time there was no period in 1917 up
+to the time of Admiral Peary's statement, or indeed up to that of
+the preparation of this book, when it was not felt that the cause of
+the Allies was in danger because of the swarms of German submarines.
+
+It was that feeling, coupled with the wide-spread belief that
+aircraft furnished the best means of combating the submarine, that
+caused an irresistible demand in the United States for the
+construction of colossal fleets of these flying crafts. Congress
+enacted in midsummer the law appropriating $640,000,000 for the
+construction of aircraft and the maintenance of the aerial service.
+The Secretaries of War and the Navy each appealed for heavy
+additional appropriations for aerial service. The arguments which
+have already been set forth as supporting the use of aircraft in
+military service were paralleled by those who urge its unlimited use
+in naval service.
+
+     Consider [said they] the primary need for attacking these vipers
+     of the sea in their nests. Once out on the broad Atlantic their
+     chances of roaming about undetected by destroyers or other patrol
+     boats are almost unlimited. But we know where they come from,
+     from Kiel, Antwerp, Wilhelmshaven, Ostend, and Zeebrugge. Catch
+     them there and you will destroy them as boys destroy hornets by
+     smoking out their nests. But against this the Germans have
+     provided by blocking every avenue of approach save one. The
+     channels are obstructed and mined, and guarded from the shore by
+     heavy batteries. No hostile ships dare run that gauntlet. Even
+     the much-boasted British navy in the three years of the war has
+     not ventured to attack a single naval base. You could not even
+     seek out the submarines thus sheltered by other submarines
+     because running below the surface our boats could not detect
+     either mines or nets and would be doomed to destruction. The
+     enemy boats come out on the surface protected by the batteries
+     and naval craft. But the air cannot be blocked by any fixed
+     defences. Give us more and more powerful aircraft than the
+     Germans possess and we will darken the sky above the German bases
+     with the wings of our airplanes, and rain explosive shells upon
+     the submarines that have taken shelter there until none survive.
+
+     The one essential is that our flyers shall be in overwhelming
+     numbers. We must be able not only to take care of any flying
+     force that the Germans may send against us, but also to have
+     enough of our aircraft not engaged in the aerial battle to devote
+     their entire attention to the destruction of the enemy forces
+     below.
+
+From every country allied with us came approval of this policy. At
+the time the debate was pending in Congress our Allies one after
+another were sending to us official commissions to consult upon the
+conduct of the war, to give us the benefit of their long and bitter
+experience in it, and to assist in any way our preparations for
+taking a decisive part in that combat. The subject of the part to be
+played by aircraft was one frequently discussed with them. With the
+French commission came two members of the staff of General Joffre,
+Major Tulasne and Lieutenant de la Grange, experts in aviation
+service. A formal interview given out by these gentlemen expressed
+so clearly the point of view on aviation and its possibilities held
+in France where it has reached its highest development that some
+extracts from it will be of interest here:
+
+     "At the beginning of the war the Germans were the only ones who
+     had realized the great importance of aviation from a military
+     point of view," said these officers.
+
+     "France had looked upon aviation as a sport, Germany as a
+     powerful weapon in war. This is illustrated by the fact that
+     even in August, 1914, German artillery fire was directed by
+     airplanes.
+
+     "It was only after the retreat from Belgium and the battle of the
+     Marne that the Allies realized the great importance of aviation.
+     Between August 15 and 25 the French General Staff thought that
+     the greater part of the German army was concentrated in Alsace
+     and that only a few army corps were coming through Belgium. It
+     was only through the reports of the aviators that they realized
+     that this was a mistake and that almost the whole of the German
+     army was invading Belgium.
+
+     "Immediately after the battle of the Marne the greatest efforts
+     were made in France to develop the aviation corps in every
+     possible way. The English army, then in process of formation,
+     profited by the experience of the French. Since that time the
+     allied as well as the German aviation corps has grown constantly.
+
+     "A modern army is incomplete if it has not a strong aviation
+     corps. All the different services are obliged to turn to the
+     aviation corps for help in their work. An army without airplanes
+     is like a soldier without eyes. An army which has the superiority
+     in aviation over its adversary will have the following
+     advantages:
+
+     "It will have constantly the latest information on the movements
+     of the enemy. In this way, no concentration of troops will be
+     ignored and no surprise attack will be possible. The attack
+     against the enemy positions will be rendered easier because all
+     the details of these positions will be thoroughly known
+     beforehand. The artillery fire will be much more accurate. Many
+     enemy machines will be brought down by the superior fighting
+     machines and the result will be to strengthen the morale both of
+     the aviators and of the army."
+
+     The next question put to the French experts was: "Why do we need
+     to make a great effort to obtain the superiority in the air?"
+     They answered with much interesting detail:
+
+     "Because the Germans have understood the importance of aviation
+     from a military point of view and have concentrated all their
+     forces to develop this service.
+
+     "Owing to the large number of scientists and technicians they
+     possess they are able constantly to perfect motors and planes.
+     Owing to their great industrial organization they are able to
+     produce an enormous number of the best machines.
+
+     "The German aviation service is now fully as strong as that of
+     the Allies as far as numbers are concerned. The superiority in
+     the air can only remain in the hands of the Allies because of the
+     spirit of self-sacrifice of their aviators and their greater
+     skill.
+
+     "Germany feels that the decisive phase of the war is imminent and
+     the efforts she will make next year will be infinitely greater
+     than any she has made before. She will try in every way to regain
+     the supremacy of the air. Realizing what a formidable enemy
+     America can be in the air, she will strengthen her aviation
+     forces in consequence.
+
+     "The aeroplane is by far the most powerful of all the modern
+     weapons. If the Allies have the supremacy of the air the German
+     artillery will lose its accuracy of aim. It is impossible,
+     because of the long range, for modern guns to fire without the
+     help of airplanes. The accuracy of artillery fire depends
+     entirely on its being directed by an airplane.
+
+     "This was clearly illustrated during the battle of the Somme in
+     1916. The French at that time had concentrated such a large
+     number of fighting machines that no German machine was allowed to
+     fly over the lines. On the other hand, the Allies' reconnaissance
+     machines were so numerous that each French battery could have its
+     fire directed by an airplane.
+
+     "The destruction of the enemy positions was in consequence
+     carried out very effectively and very rapidly, while the Germans
+     were obliged to fire blindly and scatter their shells over large
+     areas, incapable as they were of locating our battery
+     emplacements and the positions of our troops. Unluckily, a few
+     weeks later the Germans had called from the different parts of
+     the line a good many of their squadrons, and were able to carry
+     out their work under better conditions.
+
+     "We need such a superiority that it will be impossible for any
+     German airplane to fly anywhere near the lines.
+
+     "Every German kite balloon, every airplane would immediately be
+     attacked by a number of allied machines. In this way the German
+     aviation will not only be dominated but will be entirely crushed.
+
+     "If we can prevent the Germans from seeing, through their
+     airplanes, what we are preparing we will be very near the end of
+     the war. It will require a huge effort to carry out this plan.
+     Neither the English nor the French are able to do so by their own
+     means.
+
+     "As far as France is concerned, she is able to keep on building
+     machines rapidly enough to increase her aviation corps at about
+     the same rate as Germany is increasing hers. If she wanted to
+     double or triple her production of machines she could do so, but
+     she would have to call back from the trenches a certain number of
+     skilled workmen, and this would weaken her fighting power. She
+     needs in the trenches all the men who are able to carry a rifle.
+
+     "If the Allies are to have the absolute supremacy of the air
+     which we have been describing it will be the privilege of America
+     to give it to them. We want three or four or even five allied
+     machines for one German. America only has the possibilities of
+     production which would allow her to build an enormous number of
+     machines in a very short time.
+
+     "The airplane is a great engine of destruction. It tells the
+     artillery where to fire, it drops bombs, it gives the enemy all
+     the information he needs to plan murderous attacks. Drive the
+     German airplanes down and you will save the lives of thousands
+     of men in our trenches. As Ulysses in the cavern put out the eye
+     of the Cyclops, so the eyes of the beast must be put out before
+     you can attempt to kill it."
+
+     Major Tulasne and Lieutenant de la Grange then outlined what the
+     aviation programme of the United States should be, saying:
+
+     "American industry must be enabled to begin building at once. No
+     time must be lost in experiments. America must profit by the
+     experience of the Allies. She must choose the best planes and
+     build thousands of them.
+
+     "She must build reconnoissance machines which she will need for
+     her army; she must build a large number of fighting machines
+     because it is these machines that will destroy German planes; she
+     must also build squadrons of powerful bombing machines which will
+     go behind the German lines to destroy the railway junctions and
+     bomb the enemy cantonments, so as to give the soldiers no rest
+     even when they have left the trenches.
+
+     "Bombing done by a few machines gives poor results. The same
+     cannot be said of this operation carried out by a large number of
+     machines which can go to the same places and bomb continually.
+
+     "Besides the number of men that are actually killed in these
+     raids, great disturbance is caused in the enemy's communication
+     lines, thereby hindering the operations. For example, since the
+     British Admiralty has increased the number of its bombing
+     squadrons in northern France and has decided to attack constantly
+     the two harbours of Ostend and Zeebrugge and the locks, bridges,
+     and canals leading to them they have greatly interfered with the
+     activity of these two German bases.
+
+     "It is certain that shortly, owing to this, these two ports will
+     no more be used by German torpedo boats and submarines. What the
+     English Royal Naval Air Service has been able to accomplish with
+     100 machines the Flying Corps of the United States with 1000
+     machines must be able to carry out on other parts of the front.
+
+     "The work of the bombing machines is rendered difficult now by
+     the fact that the actual lines are far from Germany. But it is
+     hoped that soon fighting will be carried on near the enemy
+     frontier and then a wonderful field will be opened to the bombing
+     machines.
+
+     "All the big ammunition factories which are in the Rhine and Ruhr
+     valleys, like Krupp's, will be wonderful targets for the American
+     bombing machines. If these machines are of the proper type--that
+     is to say, sufficiently fast and well armed and able to carry a
+     great weight of bombs--nothing will prevent them from destroying
+     any of these important factories.
+
+     "As Germany at the present time is only able to continue the war
+     because of her great stock of war material the destruction of her
+     sources of production would be the end of her resistance. For
+     this also the Allies must turn to America. Such a large number of
+     machines is required to produce results that America must be
+     relied on to manufacture them.
+
+     "Every man in this country must know that it is in the power of
+     the United States, no matter what can be done in other fields, to
+     bring the war to an end simply by concentrating all its energies
+     on producing an enormous amount of material for aviation, and to
+     enlist a corresponding number of pilots. But this will not be
+     done without great effort. In order to be ready for the great
+     1918 offensive work must be begun at once."
+
+The extreme secrecy which in this war has characterized the
+operation of the governments--our own most of all--makes it
+impossible to state the amount of progress made in 1917 in the
+construction of our aerial fleet. During the debate in Congress
+orators were very outspoken in their prophecies that we should
+outnumber the Kaiser's flying fleet two or three to one. The press
+of the nation was so very explicit in its descriptions of the way in
+which we were to blind the Germans and drive them from the air that
+it is no wonder the Kaiser's government took alarm, and set about
+building additional aircraft with feverish zeal. In this it was
+imitated by France and England. It seemed, all at once about the
+middle of 1917, that the whole belligerent world suddenly recognized
+the air as the final battlefield and began preparations for its
+conquest.
+
+All statistical estimates in war time are subject to doubt as to
+their accuracy--and particularly those having to do in any way with
+the activities of an enemy country. But competent estimators--or at
+any rate shrewd guessers--think that Germany's facilities for
+constructing airplanes equal those of France and England together.
+If then all three nations build to the very limit of their abilities
+there will be a tie, which the contribution of aircraft from the
+United States will settle overwhelmingly in favour of the Allies.
+How great that contribution may be cannot be foretold with certainty
+at this moment. The building of aircraft was a decidedly infant
+industry in this country when war began. In the eight years prior to
+1916 the government had given orders for just fifty-nine
+aircraft--scarcely enough to justify manufacturers in keeping their
+shops open. Orders from foreign governments, however, stimulated
+production after the war began so that when the United States
+belatedly took her place as national honour and national safety
+demanded among the Entente Allies, Mr. Howard E. Coffin, Chairman of
+the Aircraft Section of the Council of National Defence was able to
+report eight companies capable of turning out about 14,000 machines
+in six months--a better showing than British manufacturers could
+have made when Great Britain, first entered the war.
+
+A feature in the situation which impressed both Congress and the
+American people was the exposure by various military experts of the
+defenceless condition of New York City against an air raid by a
+hostile foreign power. At the moment, of course, there was no
+danger. The only hostile foreign power with any considerable naval
+or aerial force was Germany and her fleet was securely bottled up in
+her own harbours by the overpowering fleet of Great Britain. Yet if
+one could imagine the British fleet reduced to inefficiency, let us
+say by a futile, suicidal attack upon Kiel or Heligoland which would
+leave it crippled, and free the Germans, or if we could conceive
+that the German threat to reduce Great Britain to subjection by the
+submarine campaign, proved effective, the peril of New York would
+then be very real and very immediate. For, although the harbour
+defences are declared by military authorities to be practically
+impregnable against attack by sea, they would not be effective
+against an attack from the air. A hostile fleet carrying a number of
+seaplanes could round-to out of range of our shore batteries and
+loose their flyers who could within less than an hour be dropping
+bombs on the most congested section of Manhattan Island. It is true
+that our own navy would have to be evaded in such case, but the
+attack might be made from points more distant from New York and at
+which no scouts would ever dream of looking for an enemy.
+
+The development in later months of the big heavily armed cruising
+machines makes the menace to any seaport city like New York still
+greater. The Germans have built great biplanes with two fuselages,
+or bodies, armoured, carrying two machine guns and one automatic
+rifle to each body. They have twin engines of three hundred and
+forty horse power and carry a crew of six men. They are able in an
+emergency to keep the air for not less than three days. It is
+obvious that a small fleet of such machines launched from the deck
+of a hostile squadron, let us say in the neighbourhood of Block
+Island, could menace equally Boston or New York, or by flying up the
+Sound could work ruin and desolation upon all the defenceless cities
+bordering that body of water.
+
+Nor are the Germans alone in possessing machines of this type. The
+giant Sikorsky machines of Russia, mentioned in an earlier chapter,
+have during the war been developed into types capable of carrying
+crews of twenty-five men with guns and ammunition. The French, after
+having brought down one of the big German machines with the double
+bodies, instantly began building aircraft of their own of an even
+superior type. Some of these are driven by four motors and carry
+eleven persons, besides guns and ammunition. The Caproni machines of
+Italy are even bigger--capable of carrying nine guns and thirty-five
+men. The Congressional Committee was much impressed by consideration
+of what might be done by a small fleet of aircraft of this type
+launched from a hostile squadron off the Capes of Chesapeake Bay and
+operating against Washington. It is not likely that any foreign foe
+advancing by land could repeat the exploit of the British who burned
+the capitol in 1812. But in our present defenceless state a dozen
+aircraft of the largest type might reduce the national capitol to
+ruins.
+
+If an enemy well provided with aerial force possesses such power of
+offence an equal power of defence is given to the nation at all well
+provided with flying craft. In imitation, or perhaps rather in
+modification, of the English plan for guarding the coasts of Great
+Britain, a well matured system of defending the American coasts has
+been worked out and submitted to the national authorities. It
+involves the division of the coasts of the United States into
+thirteen aeronautical districts, each with aeronautical stations
+established at suitable points and all in communication with each
+other. Eight of these districts would be laid out on the Atlantic
+Coast extending from the northern boundary of Maine to the Rio
+Grande River.
+
+Just what the purpose and value of these districts would be may be
+explained by taking the case, not of a typical one, but of the most
+important one of all, the third district including the coast line
+from New London, Conn., to Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey. This of
+course includes New York and adjacent commercial centres and the
+entrance to Long Island Sound with its long line of thriving cities
+and the ports of the places from which come our chief supplies of
+munitions of war. It includes the part of the United States which an
+enemy would most covet. The part which at once would furnish the
+richest plunder, and possession of which by a foe would most cripple
+this nation. To-day it is defended by stationary guns in land
+fortresses and in time of attack would be further guarded by a
+fringe of cruising naval vessels. Apparently up to the middle of
+1917 the government thought no aerial watch was needed.
+
+But if we were to follow the methods which all the belligerent
+nations of Europe are employing on their sea coasts we would
+establish in this district ten aeronautical stations. This would be
+no match for the British system which has one such station to every
+twenty miles of coast. Ours would be farther apart, but as the Sound
+could be guarded at its entrance the stations need only be
+maintained along the south shore of Long Island and down the Jersey
+coast. Each station would be provided with patrol, fighting, and
+observation airplanes. It would have the mechanical equipment of
+microphones, searchlights, and other devices for detecting the
+approach of an enemy now employed successfully abroad. Its
+patrolling airplanes would cruise constantly far out to sea, not
+less than eighty miles, keeping ever in touch with their station. As
+the horizon visible from a soaring airplane is not less than fifty
+miles distant from the observer, this would mean that no enemy fleet
+could approach within 130 miles of our coast without detection and
+report. The Montauk Point station would be charged with guarding the
+entrance to Long Island Sound and, the waters of Nantucket shoals
+and Block Island Sound where the German submarine U-53 did its
+deadly work in 1916. The Sandy Hook station would of course be the
+most important of all, guarding New York sea-going commerce and
+protecting the ship channel by a constant patrol of aircraft over
+it.
+
+The modern airplane has a speed of from eighty to one hundred and
+sixty miles an hour--the latter rate being attained only by the
+light scouts. Thus it is apparent that if an alarm were raised at
+any one of these stations between New London and Barnegat three
+hours at most would suffice to bring the fighting equipment of all
+the stations to the point threatened. There would be thus
+concentrated a fleet of several hundred swift scouts, heavy fighting
+machines, the torpedo planes of the type designed by Admiral Fiske,
+hydroaeroplanes capable of carrying heavy guns and in brief every
+form of aerial fighter. Moreover, by use of the wireless, every ship
+of the Navy within a radius of several hundred miles would be
+notified of the menace. They could not reach the scene of action so
+swiftly as the flying men but the former would be able to hold the
+foe in action until the heavier ships should arrive.
+
+The enormous advantage of such a system of guarding our coasts needs
+no further explanation. It is not even experimental, for France on
+her limited coast has 150 such stations. England, which started the
+war with 18, had 114 in 1917 and was still building. We at that time
+had none, although the extent of our sea coast and the great
+multiplicity of practicable harbours make us more vulnerable than
+any other nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SOME FEATURES OF AERIAL WARFARE
+
+
+As devices to translate German hate for England into deeds of bloody
+malignancy and cowardly murder the German aircraft have ranked
+supreme. The ruthless submarine war has indeed done something toward
+working off this peculiar passion, but it lacked the spectacular
+qualities which German wrath demanded. As the war proceeded, and it
+became apparent that the participation of Great Britain--at first
+wholly unexpected by the Kaiser's advisers--was certain to defeat
+the German aims, the authorities carefully inculcated in the minds
+of the people the most malignant hatred for that power. As
+Lissauer's famous hymn of hate had it--
+
+  French and Russians it matters not,
+  A blow for a blow, and a shot for a shot.
+  .................................
+  We have one foe and one alone--
+          England!
+
+By way of at once gratifying this hatred and still further
+stimulating it the German military authorities began early in the
+war a series of air raids upon English towns. They were of more than
+doubtful military value. They damaged no military or naval works.
+They aroused the savage ire of the British people who saw their
+children slain in schools and their wounded in hospitals by bombs
+dropped from the sky and straightway rushed off to enlist against so
+callous and barbaric a foe. But the raids served their political
+purpose by making the German people believe that the British were
+suffering all the horrors of war on their own soil, while the iron
+line of trenches drawn across France by the German troops kept the
+invader and war's agonies far from the soil of the Fatherland.
+
+[Illustration: (C)International Film Service.
+
+_The U. S. Aviation School at Mineola._]
+
+The first German air raids were by Zeppelins on little English
+seaside towns--Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Harwich. Except in so
+far as they inflicted mutilation and death upon many non-combatants,
+mostly women and children, and misery upon their relatives and
+friends they were without effect. But early in 1915 began a
+systematic series of raids upon London, which, by October of 1917,
+had totalled thirty-four, with a toll of 865 persons killed, and
+2500 wounded. It seems fair to say that for these raids there was
+more plausible excuse than for those on the peaceful little seaside
+bathing resorts and fishing villages. London is full of military
+and naval centres, arsenals and navy yards, executive offices and
+centres of warlike activity. An incendiary bomb dropped into the
+Bank of England, or the Admiralty, might paralyze the finances of
+the Empire, or throw the naval organization into a state of anarchy.
+But as a matter of fact the German bombs did nothing of the sort.
+They fell in the congested districts of London, "the crowded warrens
+of the poor." They spread wounds and death among peaceable theatre
+audiences. One dropped on a 'bus loaded with passengers homeward
+bound, and obliterated it and them from the face of the earth. But
+no building of the least military importance sustained any injury.
+It is true, however, that the persistent raiding has compelled
+England to withhold from the fighting lines in France several
+thousand men and several hundred guns in order to be in readiness to
+meet air raids in which Germany has never employed more than fifty
+machines and at most two hundred men, including both aviators and
+mechanics.
+
+It is entirely probable that the failure of the Germans to strike
+targets of military importance and the slaughter they wrought among
+peaceful civilians were due to no intent or purpose on their part.
+Hitting a chosen target from the air is no matter of certainty. The
+bomb intended for the railway station is quite as likely to hit the
+adjacent public school or hospital. If the world ever recurs to that
+moderate degree of sanity and civilization which shall permit wars,
+but strive to regulate them in the interest of humanity this
+untrustworthiness of the aircraft's aim will compel some form of
+international regulation, just as the vulnerability of the submarine
+will force the amendment of the doctrine of visitation and search.
+But neither problem can be logically and reasonably solved in the
+middle of a war. And so, while the German violation of existing
+international law had the uncomfortable result for Germany of
+bringing the United States into the war, the barbarous raids upon
+London caused the British at last to turn aside from their
+commendable abstention from air raids on unfortified and
+non-military towns and prepare for reprisals in kind.
+
+From the beginning of the war the British had abstained from bombing
+peaceful and non-military towns. They had not indeed been weak in
+the employment of their air forces. General Smuts speaking in
+October, 1917, said that the British had, in the month previous,
+dropped 207 tons of bombs behind the lines of the enemy. But the
+targets were airdromes, military camps, arsenals and munitions
+camps--not hospitals or kindergartens. The time had now come when
+this purely military campaign no longer satisfied an enraged British
+people who demanded the enforcement of the Mosaic law of an eye for
+an eye and a tooth for a tooth, against a people whom General Smuts
+described as "an enemy who apparently recognizes no laws, human or
+divine; who knows no pity or restraint, who sung Te Deums over the
+sinking of the _Lusitania_, and to whom the maiming and slaughter of
+women and children appear legitimate means of warfare."
+
+And Premier Lloyd George, speaking to an audience of poor people in
+one of the congested districts which had suffered sorely from the
+aerial activities of the Hun, said:
+
+"We will give it all back to them, and we will give it soon. We
+shall bomb Germany with compound interest."
+
+But whether undertaken as part of a general programme of
+frightfulness or as reprisals for cruel and indefensible outrages
+air raids upon defenceless towns, killing peaceable citizens in
+their beds, and children in their kindergartens, are not incidents
+to add glory to aviation. The mind turns with relief from such
+examples of the cruel misuse of aircraft to the hosts of individual
+instances in which the airman and his machine remind one of the
+doughty Sir Knight and his charger in the most gallant days of
+chivalry. There were hosts of such incidents--men who fought
+gallantly and who always fought fair, men who hung about the
+outskirts of an aerial battle waiting for some individual champion
+of their own choosing to show himself and join in battle to death in
+the high ranges of the sky. Some of these have been mentioned in
+this book already. To discuss all who even as early as 1917 had made
+their names memorable would require a volume in itself. A few may
+well be mentioned below.
+
+There, for example, was Captain Georges Guynemer, "King of the
+French Aces." An "ace" is an aviator who has brought down five enemy
+aircraft. Guynemer had fifty-three to his credit. Still a youth,
+only twenty-three years of age at the time of his death, and only
+flying for twenty-one months, he had lived out several life times in
+the mad excitement of combat in mid-air. Within three weeks after
+getting his aviator's license he had become an "Ace." Before his
+first year's service had expired he was decorated and promoted for
+gallantry in rushing to the aid of a comrade attacked by five enemy
+machines. He entered the combat at the height of ten thousand feet,
+and inside of two minutes had dropped two of the enemy. The others
+fled. He pursued hotly keeping up a steady fire with his machine
+gun. One Boche wavered and fell, but just then an enemy shell from
+an "Archie" far below exploded under Guynemer, tearing away one wing
+of his machine. Let him tell the rest of that story:
+
+     I felt myself dropping [he said later]. It was ten thousand feet
+     to the earth, and, like a flash, I saw my funeral with my
+     saddened comrades marching behind the gun carriage to the
+     cemetery. But I pulled and pushed every lever I had, but nothing
+     would check my terrific descent.
+
+     Five thousand feet from the earth, the wrecked machine began to
+     turn somersaults, but I was strapped into the seat. I do not know
+     what it was, but something happened and I felt the speed descent
+     lessen. But suddenly there was a tremendous crash and when I
+     recovered my senses I had been taken from the wreckage and was
+     all right.
+
+Two records Guynemer made which have not yet been surpassed--the
+first, the one described above of dropping three Fokkers in two
+minutes and thirty seconds, and rounding off the adventure by
+himself dropping ten thousand feet. The second was in shooting down
+four enemy machines in one day. His methods were of the simplest. He
+was always alone in his machine, which was the lightest available.
+He would rather carry more gasoline and ammunition than take along a
+gunner. The machine gun was mounted on the plane above his head,
+pointing dead ahead, and aimed by aiming the whole airplane. Once
+started the gun continued firing automatically and Guynemer's task
+was to follow his enemy pitilessly keeping that lead-spitting muzzle
+steadily bearing upon him. In September, 1917, he went up to attack
+five enemy machines--no odds however appalling seemed to terrify
+him--but was caught in a fleet of nearly forty Boches and fell to
+earth in the enemy's country.
+
+One of the last of the air duels to be fought under the practices
+which made early air service so vividly recall the age of chivalry,
+was that in which Captain Immelman, "The Falcon," of the German
+army, met Captain Ball of the British Royal Flying Corps. Immelman
+had a record of fifty-one British airplanes downed. Captain Ball was
+desirous of wiping out this record and the audacious German at the
+same time, and so flying over the German lines he dropped this
+letter:
+
+     CAPTAIN IMMELMAN:
+
+     I challenge you to a man-to-man fight to take place this
+     afternoon at two o'clock. I will meet you over the German lines.
+     Have your anti-air craft guns withhold their fire, while we
+     decide which is the better man. The British guns will be silent.
+
+                                                       BALL.
+
+Presently thereafter this answer was dropped from a German airplane:
+
+     CAPTAIN BALL:
+
+     Your challenge is accepted. The guns will not interfere. I will
+     meet you promptly at two.
+
+                                                   IMMELMAN.
+
+The word spread far and wide along the trenches on both sides.
+Tacitly all firing stopped as though the bugles had sung truce. Men
+left cover and clambered up on the top to watch the duel. Punctually
+both flyers rose from their lines and made their way down No Man's
+Land. Let an eye witness tell the story:
+
+     From our trenches there were wild cheers for Ball. The Germans
+     yelled just as vigorously for Immelman.
+
+     The cheers from the trenches continued; the Germans increased in
+     volume; ours changed into cries of alarm.
+
+     Ball, thousands of feet above us and only a speck in the sky, was
+     doing the craziest things imaginable. He was below Immelman and
+     was apparently making no effort to get above him, thus gaining
+     the advantage of position. Rather he was swinging around, this
+     way and that, attempting, it seemed, to postpone the inevitable.
+
+     We saw the German's machine dip over preparatory to starting the
+     nose dive.
+
+     "He's gone now," sobbed a young soldier, at my side, for he knew
+     Immelman's gun would start its raking fire once it was being
+     driven straight down.
+
+     Then in a fraction of a second the tables were turned. Before
+     Immelman's plane could get into firing position, Ball drove his
+     machine into a loop, getting above his adversary and cutting
+     loose with his gun and smashing Immelman by a hail of bullets as
+     he swept by.
+
+     Immelman's airplane burst into flames and dropped. Ball, from
+     above, followed for a few hundred feet and then straightened out
+     and raced for home. He settled down, rose again, hurried back,
+     and released a huge wreath of flowers, almost directly over the
+     spot where Immelman's charred body was being lifted from a
+     tangled mass of metal.
+
+     Four days later Ball too was killed.
+
+But the Germans, too, had their champion airmen, mighty fliers,
+skillful at control and with the machine gun, in whose triumphs they
+took the same pride that our boys in France did in those of Chapman,
+Rockwell or Thaw, the British in Warneford, or the French in
+Guynemer. Chief of these was Captain Boelke, who came to his death
+in the latter part of 1917, after putting to his credit over sixty
+Allied planes brought down. A German account of one of his duels as
+watched from the trenches, will be of interest:
+
+     For quite a long time an Englishman had been making circles
+     before our eyes--calmly and deliberately.... My men on duty
+     clenched their fists in impotent wrath. "The dog--!" Shooting
+     would do no good.
+
+     Then suddenly from the rear a harsh, deep singing and buzzing
+     cuts the air. It sounds like a German flyer. But he is not yet
+     visible. Only the buzz of an approaching motor is heard in the
+     clouds in the direction of the Englishman. More than a hundred
+     eyes scanned the horizon. There! Far away and high among the
+     clouds is a small black humming bird--a German battle aeroplane.
+     Its course is laid directly for the hostile biplane and it flies
+     like an arrow shot with a clear eye and steady hand. My men crawl
+     out of the shelters. I adjust my field glasses. A lump rises in
+     our throats as if we are awaiting something new and wonderful.
+
+     So far the other does not seem to have noticed or recognized the
+     black flyer that already is poised as a hawk above him. All at
+     once there is a mighty swoop through the air like the drop of a
+     bird of prey, and in no time the black flyer is immediately over
+     the Englishman and the air is filled with the furious crackling
+     of a machine gun, followed by the rapid ta-ta-ta of two or three
+     more, all operated at the highest speed just as during a charge.
+     The Englishman drops a little, makes a circle and tries to escape
+     toward the rear. The other circles and attacks him in front, and
+     again we hear the exciting ta-ta-ta! Now the Englishman tries to
+     slip from under his opponent, but the German makes a circle and
+     the effort fails. Then the enemy describes a great circle and
+     attempts to rise above the German. The latter ascends in sharp
+     half circles and again swoops down upon the biplane, driving it
+     toward the German trenches.
+
+     Will the Englishman yield so soon? Scattered shouts of joy are
+     already heard in our ranks. Suddenly he drops a hundred yards and
+     more through the air and makes a skillful loop toward the rear.
+     Our warrior of the air swoops after him, tackles him once more
+     and again we hear the wild defiant rattle of the machine guns
+     over our heads. Now they are quite close to our trenches. The
+     French infantry and artillery begin firing in a last desperate
+     hope. Neither of them is touched. Sticking close above and behind
+     him the German drives the Englishman along some six hundred yards
+     over our heads and then just above the housetops of St. A. Once
+     more we hear a distant ta-ta-ta a little slower and more
+     scattered and then as they drop both disappear from our view.
+
+     Scarcely five minutes pass before the telephone brings up this
+     news: Lieutenant Boelke has just brought down his seventh flyer.
+
+Methods of air-fighting were succinctly described in a hearing
+before the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, in June, 1917. The
+officers testifying were young Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille
+of the French army. To the civilian the testimony is interesting for
+the clear idea it gives of military aviation. The extracts following
+are from the official record:
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Senator, there are about four kinds of machines
+     used abroad on the western front to-day. The machines that Adjt.
+     Rumsey and myself are looking after are called the battle
+     machines. Then there are the photography machines, machines that
+     go up to enable the taking of photographs of the German
+     batteries, go back of the line and take views of the country
+     behind their lines and find out what their next line of attack
+     will be, or, if they retreat from the present line, then
+     everything in that way. Probably we have, where we are, in my
+     group alone, a hundred and fifty photographers who do nothing all
+     day long except develop pictures, and you can get pictures of any
+     part of the country that you want. When the Germans retreated
+     from the old line where they used to be, by Peronne and Chaulnes,
+     we had absolute pictures of all the Hindenburg line from where
+     they are now right down to St. Quentin, down to the line the
+     French are on. We had photographs of it all.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: When they started on the retreat?
+
+[Illustration: (C) Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_Miss Ruth Law at Close of her Chicago to New York Flight._]
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Yes, sir. So we knew exactly where their stand
+     would be made. Then, besides that, those photograph machines do a
+     lot of scouting. They have a pilot and a photographer aboard. He
+     has not only a camera, but quite often he has a Lewis gun with
+     him in order to ward off any hostile airmen if they should get
+     through the battle planes that are above him; in other words,
+     should get through us in order to fight him. They do a great deal
+     of the scouting, because they fly at a lower level. The battle
+     planes go up to protect photography machines, or to go
+     man-hunting, as it is called; in other words, to fight the
+     Germans. We fly all day, like to-day, as high as we can go, or as
+     high as the French go as a rule, about 5500 metres, about 17,000
+     to 18,000 feet.
+
+[Illustration: (C) International Film Service.
+
+_A French Aviator between Flights._]
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: I think 5500 metres is about 19,000 feet. Some go
+     up 6000 metres, which makes about 20,000 feet.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: We go up there, and we have a certain sector of
+     the front to look after. If we are only man-hunting, we go
+     backward and forward like a policeman to prevent the Germans from
+     getting over our own lines. We usually fly by fours, if we can,
+     and the four go out together, so as not to be alone. We are
+     usually fighting inside of the German lines, because the morale
+     of the French and English is better than that of the Germans
+     to-day; and every fight I have had--I have never been lucky
+     enough to have one inside of my own lines--they have all been
+     inside of the German lines.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: What is the equipment of a battle plane such as
+     you use?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: I use the 180 horse-power machine. It is called a
+     "S. P. A. D.," which has a Spanish motor. But a great many of the
+     motors to-day are being built here in America.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: How many men do you carry?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: We go up alone in these machines. We did have two
+     guns. We had the Lewis gun on our upper wing and the Vickers down
+     below, that shoots through the propeller as the propeller turns
+     around. Then we gave up the Lewis above. It added more weight,
+     and we did not need it so much. The trouble with the Lewis gun is
+     that it has only ninety-seven cartridges, while the Vickers has
+     five hundred, and you can do just as much damage with the Vickers
+     as you could with them both.
+
+     _Senator Sutherland_: You drive and fight at the same time?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Yes, sir.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: The machine gun is fixed.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: It is absolutely fixed on the machine, and if I
+     should want to adjust it to shoot you, I would adjust my machine
+     on you.
+
+The witness then took up the nature and work of some of the heavier
+machines. He testified:
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Then comes the artillery regulating machine. That
+     machine goes up, and it may be a Farman or a bi-motor, or some
+     other kind of heavier machine, a machine that goes slowly. They
+     go over a certain spot. They have a driver, who is a pilot, like
+     ourselves; then they have an artillery officer on board, whose
+     sole duty it is to send back word, mostly by Marconi, to his
+     battery where the shots are landing. He will say: "Too far," "Too
+     short," "Right," or "Left," and he stays there over this battery
+     until the work done by the French guns has been absolutely
+     controlled, and above him he has some of these battle planes
+     keeping him from being attacked from above by German airmen. Of
+     course, they may be shot at by anti-aircraft guns, which you can
+     not help. That is artillery regulating.
+
+     _The Chairman_: Are you always attacked from above?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: By airplanes; yes, sir. It is always much safer
+     to attack from above.
+
+     Then you have the bomb-dropping machines, which carry a lot of
+     weight. They go out sometimes in the daytime, but mostly at
+     night, and they have these new sights by which they can stay up
+     quite high in the air and still know the spot they are going at.
+     They know the wind speed, they know their height, and they can
+     figure out by this new arrangement they have exactly when the
+     time is to let go their bombs.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: Something in the nature of a range-finder?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: A sort of range-finder.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: It is a sort of telescope that looks down between
+     your legs, and you have to regulate yourself, observing your
+     speed, and when you see the spot, you have to touch a button and
+     off go these things.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: In a raid my brother went on there were
+     sixty-eight machines that left; the French heavy machines, the
+     English heavy machines, and then the English sort of
+     half-fighting machine and half-bombing machine. They call it a
+     Sopwith, and it is a very good machine. They went over there, and
+     the first ones over were the Frenchmen, and they dropped bombs on
+     these Mauser works, and the only thing that the English saw was a
+     big cloud of smoke and dust, and they could not see the works so
+     they just dropped into them. Out of that raid the fighting
+     machines got eight Germans and dropped them, and the Germans got
+     eight Frenchmen. So, out of sixty-eight they lost eight, but we
+     also got eight Germans and dropped six tons of this stuff, which
+     is twenty times as strong as the melinite. We do not know what
+     the name of the powder is. The fighting machines on that trip
+     only carried gasolene for two hours, and the other ones carried
+     it for something like six hours, so we escorted them out for an
+     hour, came back to our lines, filled up with gasolene, went out
+     and met them and brought them back over the danger zone.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Near the trenches is where the danger zone is,
+     because there the German fighting machines are located.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: How far was it from your battle front that you
+     went?
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: I think it was about 500 miles, 250 there and 250
+     back; it was between 200 and 250 miles there.
+
+     _Senator Kirby_: Beyond the battle front?
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: Yes; or, to be more accurate, I think it was
+     nearer 200 than 250.
+
+     _The Chairman_: What do you think of the function of the airplane
+     as a determining factor?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: There is no doubt that if we could send over in
+     huge waves a great number of these bomb-dropping machines, and
+     simply lay the country waste--for instance, the big cities like
+     Strassburg, Freiburg, and others--not only would the damage done
+     be great, but I guess the popular opinion in Germany, everything
+     being laid waste, would work very strongly in the minds of the
+     public toward having peace. I do not think you could destroy an
+     army, because you could not see them, but you could go to
+     different stations; you could go to Strassburg, to Brussels, and
+     places like that.
+
+     _The Chairman_: Then, sending them over in enormous numbers would
+     also put out of business their airplanes, and they would be
+     helpless, would they not?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: Absolutely. You not only have on the front a
+     large number of bomb-dropping machines, but a large number of
+     fighting machines. When the Somme battle was started in the
+     morning the Germans knew, naturally, that the French and British
+     were going to start the Somme drive, and they had up these
+     Drachens, these observation balloons, and the first eighteen
+     minutes that the battle started the French and the English, I
+     think, got twenty-one "saucisse"; in other words, for the next
+     five days there was not a single German who came anywhere near
+     the lines, but the French and English could go ahead as they-felt
+     like.
+
+     _Admiral Peary_: Have you any idea as to how many airplanes there
+     are along that western front on the German side?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: There must be about 3000 on that line in actual
+     commission.
+
+     _Admiral Peary_: That means, then, about 10,000 in all, at least?
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: I should think so; I should say the French have
+     about 2000 and the English possibly 1000, or we have about 2500.
+
+     _Adjt. Rumsey_: If they have 3000 we have 4000; that is, right on
+     the line.
+
+     _Adjt. Prince_: We have about 1000 more than they have, and we
+     are up all the time. The day before I left the front I was called
+     to go out five times, and I went out five times, and spent two
+     hours every time I went out.
+
+It would be gratifying to author and to reader alike if it were
+possible to give some account of the progress in aerial equipment
+made by the United States, since its declaration of war. But at the
+present moment (February, 1918), the government is chary of
+furnishing information concerning the advance made in the creation
+of an aerial fleet. Perhaps precise information, if available, would
+be discouraging to the many who believe that the war will be won in
+the air. For it is known in a broad general way that the activities
+of the Administration have been centred upon the construction of
+training camps and aviation stations. Orders for the actual
+construction of airplanes have been limited, so that a chorus of
+criticism arose from manufacturers who declared that they might have
+to close their works for lack of employment. The apparent check was
+discouraging to American airmen, and to our Allies who had expected
+marvellous things from the United States in the way of swift and
+wholesale preparation for winning battles in the air. The response
+of the government to all criticism was that it was laying broad
+foundations in order that construction once begun would proceed with
+unabated activity, and that when aircraft began to be turned out by
+the thousands a week there would be aviators and trained mechanics
+a-plenty to handle them. In this situation the advocates of a
+special cabinet department of aeronautics found new reason to
+criticize the Administration and Congress for having ignored or
+antagonized their appeals. For responsibility for the delay and
+indifference--if indifference there was--rested equally upon the
+Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. Each had his measure
+of control over the enormous sum voted in a lump for aviation, each
+had the further millions especially voted to his department to
+account for. But no single individual could be officially asked what
+had been done with the almost one billion dollars voted for
+aeronautics in 1917.
+
+But if the authorities seemed to lag, the inventors were busy.
+Mention has already been made of the new "Liberty" motor, which
+report had it was the fruit of the imprisonment of two mechanical
+experts in a hotel room with orders that they should not be freed
+until they had produced a motor which met all criticisms upon those
+now in use. Their product is said to have met this test, and the
+happy result caused a general wish that the Secretaries of War and
+of the Navy might be similarly incarcerated and only liberated upon
+producing plans for the immediate creation of an aerial fleet suited
+to the nation's needs. If, however, the Liberty motor shall prove
+the complete success which at the moment the government believes it
+to be, it will be such a spur to the development of the airplane in
+peace and war, as could not otherwise be applied. For the motor is
+the true life of the airplane--its heart, lungs, and nerve centre.
+The few people who still doubt the wide adoption of aircraft for
+peaceful purposes after the war base their skepticism on the
+treachery of motors still in use. They repudiate all comparisons
+with automobiles. They say:
+
+     It is perfectly true that a man can run his car repeatedly from
+     New York to Boston without motor trouble. But the trouble is
+     inevitable sooner or later. When it comes to an automobile it is
+     trifling. The driver gets out and makes his repairs by the
+     roadside. But if it comes to the aviator it brings the
+     possibility of death with it every time. If his motor stops he
+     must descend. But to alight he must find a long level field, with
+     at least two hundred yards in which to run off his momentum. If,
+     when he discovers the failure of his motor, he is flying at the
+     height of a mile he must find his landing place within a space of
+     eight miles, for in gliding to earth the ratio of forward
+     movement to height is as eight to one. But how often in rugged
+     and densely populated New England, or Pennsylvania is there a
+     vacant level field half a mile in length? The aviator who made a
+     practice of daily flight between New York and Boston would
+     inevitably meet death in the end.
+
+The criticism is a shrewd and searching one. But it is based on the
+airplane and the motor of to-day without allowance for the
+development and improvement which are proceeding apace. It
+contemplates a craft which has but one motor, but the more modern
+machines have sufficient lifting power to carry two motors, and can
+be navigated successfully with one of these out of service.
+Experiments furthermore are being made with a device after the type
+of the helicopter which with the steady lightening of the aircraft
+motor, may be installed on airplanes with a special motor for its
+operation. This device, it is believed, will enable the airplane
+so equipped to stop dead in its course with both propellers out of
+action, to hover over a given spot or to rise or to descend gently
+in a perpendicular line without the necessity of soaring. It is
+obvious that if this device prove successful the chief force of the
+objections to aerial navigation outlined above will be nullified.
+
+The menace of infrequent landing places will quickly remedy itself
+on busy lines of aerial traffic. The average railroad doing business
+in a densely populated section has stations once every eight or ten
+miles which with their sidings, buildings, water tanks, etc., cost
+far more than the field half a mile long with a few hangars that the
+fliers will need as a place of refuge. Indeed, although for its size
+and apparent simplicity of construction an airplane is phenomenally
+costly, in the grand total of cost an aerial line would cost a tithe
+of the ordinary railway. It has neither right of way, road bed,
+rails, nor telegraph system to maintain, and if the average flyer
+seems to cost amazingly it still foots up less than one fifth the
+cost of a modern locomotive though its period of service is much
+shorter.
+
+Just at the present time aircraft costs are high, based on
+artificial conditions in the market. Their construction is a new
+industry; its processes not yet standardized; its materials still
+experimental in many ways and not yet systematically produced. A
+light sporting monoplane which superficially seems to have about
+$250 worth of materials in it--exclusive of the engine--will cost
+about $3000. A fighting biplane will touch $10,000. Yet the latter
+seems to the lay observer to contain no costly materials to justify
+so great a charge. The wings are a light wooden framework, usually
+of spruce, across which a fine grade of linen cloth is stretched.
+The materials are simple enough, but every bit of wood, every screw,
+every strand of wire is selected with the utmost care, and the
+workmanship of their assemblage is as painstaking as the setting of
+the most precious stones.
+
+[Illustration: (C) International Film Service.
+
+_A German "Gotha"--their Favorite Type._]
+
+"REMEMBER THE LEAST NEGLIGENCE MAY COST A LIFE!" is a sign
+frequently seen hanging over the work benches in an airplane
+factory.
+
+When stretched over the framework, the cloth of the wings is
+treated to a dressing down of a preparation of collodion, which in
+the jargon of the shop is called "dope." This substance has a
+peculiar effect upon the cloth, causing it to shrink, and thus
+making it more taut and rigid than it could be by the most careful
+stretching. Though the layman would not suspect it, this wash alone
+costs about $150 a machine. The seaplanes too--or hydroaeroplanes as
+purists call them--present a curious illustration of unexpected and,
+it would seem, unexplainable expense. Where the flyer over land has
+two bicycle wheels on which to land, the flyer over the sea has two
+flat-bottomed boats or pontoons. These cost from $1000 to $1200 and
+look as though they should cost not over $100. But the necessity of
+combining maximum strength with minimum weight sends the price
+soaring as the machine itself soars. Moreover there is not yet the
+demand for either air-or seaplanes that would result in the division
+of labour, standardization of parts, and other manufacturing
+economies which reduce the cost of products.
+
+To the high cost of aircraft their comparative fragility is added as
+a reason for their unfitness for commercial uses. The engines cost
+from $2000 to $5000 each, are very delicate and usually must be
+taken out of the plane and overhauled after about 100 hours of
+active service. The strain on them is prodigious for it is estimated
+that the number of revolutions of an airplane's engine during an
+hour's flight is equal to the number of revolutions of an
+automobile's wheels during active service of a whole month.
+
+It is believed that the superior lightness and durability of the
+Liberty motor will obviate some of these objections to the
+commercial availability of aircraft in times of peace. And it is
+certain that with the cessation of the war, the retirement of the
+governments of the world from the purchasing field and the reduction
+of the demand for aircraft to such as are needed for pleasure and
+industrial uses the prices which we have cited will be cut in half.
+In such event what will be the future of aircraft; what their part
+in the social and industrial organization of the world?
+
+Ten or a dozen years ago Rudyard Kipling entertained the English
+reading public of the world with a vivacious sketch of aerial
+navigation in the year 2000 A.D. He used the license of a poet in
+avoiding too precise descriptions of what is to come--dealing
+rather with broad and picturesque generalizations. Now the year 2000
+is still far enough away for pretty much anything to be invented,
+and to become commonplace before that era arrives. Airships of the
+sort Mr. Kipling pictured may by that period have come and
+gone--have been relegated to the museums along with the
+stage-coaches of yesterday and the locomotives of to-day. For that
+matter before that millennial period shall arrive men may have
+learned to dispense with material transportation altogether, and be
+able to project their consciousness or even their astral bodies to
+any desired point on psychic waves. If a poet is going to prophecy
+he might as well be audacious and even revolutionary in his
+predictions.
+
+Mr. Kipling tried so hard to be reasonable that he made himself
+recognizably wrong so far as the present tendency of aircraft
+development would indicate. _With the Night Mail_, is the story of a
+trip by night across the Atlantic from England to America. It is
+made in a monster dirigible--though the present tendency is to
+reject the dirigible for the swifter, less costly, and more
+airworthy (leave "seaworthy" to the plodding ships on old ocean's
+breast) airplanes. If, however, we condone this glaring
+improbability we find Mr. Kipling's tale full of action and
+imaginary incident that give it an air of truth. His ship is not
+docked on the ground at the tempest's mercy, but is moored high in
+air to the top of a tall tower up which passengers and freight are
+conveyed in elevators. His lighthouses send their beams straight up
+into the sky instead of projecting them horizontally as do those
+which now guard our coasts. Just why lighthouses are needed,
+however, he does not explain. There are no reefs on which a packet
+of the air may run, no lee shores which they must avoid. On overland
+voyages guiding lights by night may be useful, as great white
+direction strips laid out on the ground are even now suggested as
+guides for daylight flying. But the main reliance of the airman must
+be his compass. Crossing the broad oceans no lighted path is
+possible, and even in a voyage from New York to Chicago, or from
+London to Rome good airmanship will dictate flight at a height that
+will make reliance upon natural objects as a guide perilous. The
+airman has the advantage over the sailor in that he may lay his
+course on leaving his port, or flying field, and pursue it straight
+as an arrow to his destination. No rocks or other obstacles bar his
+path, no tortuous channels must be navigated. All that can divert
+him from his chosen course is a steady wind on the beam, and that
+is instantly detected by his instruments and allowance made for it.
+On the other hand the sailor has a certain advantage over the airman
+in that his more leisurely progress allows time for the
+rectification of errors in course arising from contrary currents or
+winds. An error of a point, or even two, amounts to but little in a
+day's steaming of perhaps four hundred miles. It can readily be
+remedied, unless the ship is too near shore. But when the whole
+three thousand miles of Atlantic are covered in twenty hours in the
+air, the course must be right from the start and exactly adhered to,
+else the passenger for New York may be set down in Florida.
+
+It is not improbable that even before the war is over the crossing
+of the Atlantic by plane will be accomplished. Certainly it will be
+one of the first tasks undertaken by airmen on the return of peace.
+But it is probable that the adaptation of aircraft to commercial
+uses will be begun with undertakings of smaller proportions. Already
+the United States maintains an aerial mail route in Alaska, while
+Italy has military mail routes served by airplanes in the Alps.
+These have been undertaken because of the physical obstacles to
+travel on the surface, presented in those rugged neighbourhoods. But
+in the more densely populated regions of the United States
+considerations of financial profit will almost certainly result in
+the early establishment of mail and passenger air service. Air
+service will cut down the time between any two given points at least
+one half, and ultimately two thirds. Letters could be sent from New
+York to Boston, or even to Buffalo, and an answer received the same
+day. The carrying plane could take on each trip five tons of mail.
+Philadelphia would be brought within forty-five minutes of New York;
+Washington within two hours instead of the present five. Is there
+any doubt of the creation of an aerial passenger service under such
+conditions? Already a Caproni triplane will carry thirty-five
+passengers beside guns--say, fifty passengers if all other load be
+excluded, and has flown with a lighter load from Newport News to New
+York. It is easily imaginable that by 1920 the airplane capable of
+carrying eighty persons--or the normal number now accommodated on an
+inter-urban trolley car--will be an accomplished fact.
+
+The lines that will thus spring up will need no rails, no right of
+way, no expensive power plant. Their physical property will be
+confined to the airplanes themselves and to the fields from which
+the craft rise and on which they alight, with the necessary hangars.
+These indeed will involve heavy expenditure. For a busy line, with
+frequent sailings, of high speed machines a field will need to be in
+the neighbourhood of a mile square. A plane swooping down for its
+landing is not to be held up at the switch like a train while room
+is made for it. It is an imperative guest, and cannot be gainsaid.
+Accordingly the fields must be large enough to accommodate scores of
+planes at once and give each new arrival a long straight course on
+which to run off its momentum. It is obvious therefore that the
+union stations for aircraft routes cannot be in the hearts of our
+cities as are the railroad stations of to-day, but must be fairly
+well out in the suburbs.
+
+A form of machine which the professional airmen say has yet to be
+developed is the small monoplane, carrying two passengers at most,
+and of low speed--not more than twenty miles an hour at most. In
+this age of speed mania the idea of deliberately planning a
+conveyance or vehicle that shall not exceed a low limit seems out of
+accord with public desire. But the low speed airplane has the
+advantage of needing no extended field in which to alight. It
+reaches the ground with but little momentum to be taken up and can
+be brought up standing on the roof of a house or the deck of a ship.
+Small machines of this sort are likely to serve as the runabouts of
+the air, to succeed the trim little automobile roadsters as pleasure
+craft.
+
+[Illustration: (C) International Film Service.
+
+_A French Monoplane._]
+
+The beginning of the fourth year of the war brought a notable change
+in aerial tactics. For three years everything had been sacrificed to
+speed. Such aerial duels as have been described were encouraged by
+the fact that aircraft were reduced to the proportions needful for
+carrying one man and a machine gun. The gallant flyers went up in
+the air and killed each other. That was about all there was to it.
+While as scouts, range finders, guides for the artillery, they
+exerted some influence on the course of the war, as a fighting arm
+in its earlier years, they were without efficiency. The bombing
+forays were harassing but little more, because the craft engaged
+were of too small capacity to carry enough bombs to work really
+serious damage, while the ever increasing range of the "Archies"
+compels the airmen to deliver their fire from so great a height as
+to make accurate aim impossible.
+
+[Illustration: Photo Press Illustrating Service.
+
+_A German Scout Brought to Earth in France._]
+
+But Kiel, Wilhelmshaven and Zeebrugge are likely to change all this.
+The constant contemplation of those nests for the sanctuary of
+pestiferous submarines, effectively guarded against attack by either
+land or water, has stirred up the determination of the Allies to
+seek their destruction from above. Heavy bombing planes are being
+built in all the Allied workshops for this purpose, and furthermore
+to give effect to the British determination to take vengeance upon
+Germany, for her raids upon London. It is reported that the United
+States, by agreement with its Allies, is to specialize in building
+the light, swift scout planes, but in other shops the heavy
+triplane, the dreadnought of the air is expected to be the feature
+of 1918. With it will come an entirely novel strategic use of
+aircraft in war, and with it too, which is perhaps the more
+permanently important, will come the development of aircraft of the
+sort that will be readily adaptable to the purposes of peace when
+the war shall end.
+
+
+
+
+THE SUBMARINE BOAT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BEGINNINGS OF SUBMARINE INVENTION
+
+
+In September, 1914 the British Fleet in the North Sea had settled
+down to the monotonous task of holding the coasts of Germany and the
+channels leading to them in a state of blockade. The work was dismal
+enough. The ships tossing from day to day on the always unquiet
+waters of the North Sea were crowded with Jackies all of whom prayed
+each day that the German would come from hiding and give battle. Not
+far from the Hook of Holland engaged in this monotonous work were
+three cruisers of about 12,000 tons, each carrying 755 men and
+officers. They were the _Cressy_, _Aboukir_, and _Hogue_--not
+vessels of the first rank but still important factors in the British
+blockade. They were well within the torpedo belt and it may be
+believed that unceasing vigilance was observed on every ship.
+Nevertheless without warning the other two suddenly saw the
+_Aboukir_ overwhelmed by a flash of fire, a pillar of smoke and a
+great geyser of water that rose from the sea and fell heavily upon
+her deck. Instantly followed a thundering explosion as the magazines
+of the doomed ship went off. Within a very few minutes, too little
+time to use their guns against the enemy had they been able to see
+him, or to lower their boats, the _Aboukir_ sank leaving the crew
+floundering in the water.
+
+In the distance lay the German submarine U-9--one of the earliest of
+her class in service. From her conning tower Captain Weddigen had
+viewed the tragedy. Now seeing the two sister ships speeding to the
+rescue he quickly submerged. It may be noted that as a result of
+what followed, orders were given by the British Admiralty that in
+the event of the destruction of a ship by a submarine others in the
+same squadron should not come to the rescue of the victim, but
+scatter as widely as possible to avoid a like fate. In this instance
+the _Hogue_ and the _Cressy_ hurried to the spot whence the
+_Aboukir_ had vanished and began lowering their boats. Hardly had
+they begun the work of mercy when a torpedo from the now unseen foe
+struck the _Hogue_ and in twenty minutes she too had vanished. While
+she was sinking the _Cressy_, with all guns ready for action and her
+gunners scanning the sea in every direction for this deadly enemy,
+suddenly felt the shock of a torpedo and, her magazines having been
+set off, followed her sister ships to the ocean's bed.
+
+In little more than half an hour thirty-six thousand tons of
+up-to-date British fighting machinery, and more than 1200 gallant
+blue jackets had been sent to the depths of the North Sea by a
+little boat of 450 tons carrying a crew of twenty-six men.
+
+The world stood aghast. With the feeling of horror at the swift
+death of so many caused by so few, there was mingled a feeling of
+amazement at the scientific perfection of the submarine, its power,
+and its deadly work. Men said it was the end of dreadnoughts,
+battleships, and cruisers, but the history of the war has shown
+singularly few of these destroyed by submarines since the first
+novelty of the attack wore off. The world at the moment seemed to
+think that the submarine was an entirely new idea and invention.
+But like almost everything else it was merely the ultimate reduction
+to practical use of an idea that had been germinating in the mind of
+man from the earliest days of history.
+
+We need not trouble ourselves with the speculations of Alexander the
+Great, Aristotle, and Pliny concerning "underwater" activities.
+Their active minds gave consideration to the problem, but mainly as
+to the employment of divers. Not until the first part of the
+sixteenth century do we find any very specific reference to actual
+underwater boats. That appears in a book of travels by Olaus Magnus,
+Archbishop of Upsala in Sweden. Notwithstanding the gentleman's
+reverend quality, one must question somewhat the veracity of the
+chapter which he heads:
+
+"Of the Leather Ships Made of Hides Used by the Pyrats of
+Greenland."
+
+He professed to have seen two of these "ships," more probably boats,
+hanging in a cathedral church in Greenland. With these singular
+vessels, according to his veracious reports the people of that
+country could navigate under water and attack stranger ships from
+beneath. "For the Inhabitants of that Countrey are wont to get small
+profits by the spoils of others," he wrote, "by these and the like
+treacherous Arts, who by their thieving wit, and by boring a hole
+privately in the sides of the ships beneath (as I said) have let in
+the water and presently caused them to sink."
+
+Leaving the tale of the Archbishop where we think it must belong in
+the realm of fiction, we may note that it was not until the
+beginning of the seventeenth century that the first submarine boat
+was actually built and navigated. A Hollander, Cornelius Drebel, or
+Van Drebel, born in 1572, in the town of Alkmaar, had come to
+London during the reign of James I., who became his patron and
+friend. Drebel seems to have been a serious student of science and
+in many ways far ahead of his times. Moreover, he had the talent of
+getting next to royalty. In 1620 he first conceived the idea of
+building a submarine. Fairly detailed descriptions of his boats--he
+built three from 1620-1624--and of their actual use, have been
+handed down to us by men whose accuracy and truthfulness cannot be
+doubted. The Honorable Robert Boyle, a scientist of unquestioned
+seriousness, tells in his _New Experiments, Physico-Mechanical
+touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects_ about Drebel's work
+in the quaint language of his time:
+
+     But yet on occasion of this opinion of Paracelsus, perhaps it
+     will not be impertinent if, before I proceed, I acquaint your
+     Lordship with a conceit of that deservedly famous mechanician and
+     Chymist, Cornelius Drebel, who, among other strange things that
+     he perform'd, is affirm'd, by more than a few credible persons,
+     to have contrived for the late learned King James, a vessel to go
+     under water; of which, trial was made in the Thames, with admired
+     success, the vessel carrying twelve rowers, besides passengers;
+     one which is yet alive, and related it to an excellent
+     Mathematician that informed me of it. Now that for which I
+     mention this story is, that having had the curiosity and
+     opportunity to make particular inquiries among the relations of
+     Drebel, and especially of an ingenious physician that married his
+     daughter, concerning the grounds upon which he conceived it
+     feasible to make men unaccustomed to continue so long under water
+     without suffocation, or (as the lately mentioned person that went
+     in the vessel affirms) without inconvenience; I was answered,
+     that Drebel conceived, that it is not the whole body of the air,
+     but a certain quintessence (as Chymists speak) or spirituous part
+     of it, that makes it fit for respiration; which being spent, the
+     remaining grosser body, or carcase, if I may so call it, of the
+     air, is unable to cherish the vital flame residing in the heart;
+     so that, for aught I could gather, besides the mechanical
+     contrivances of his vessel, he had a chymical liquor, which he
+     accounted the chief secret of his submarine navigation. For when,
+     from time to time, he conceived that the finer and purer part of
+     the air was consumed, or over-clogged by the respiration and
+     steam of those that went in his ship, he would by unstopping a
+     vessel full of this liquor, speedily restore to the troubled air
+     such a proportion of vital parts, as would make it again, for a
+     good while, fit for respiration whether by dissipating, or
+     precipitating the grosser exhalations, or by some other
+     intelligible way, I must not now stay to examine, contenting
+     myself to add, that having had the opportunity to do some service
+     to those of his relations that were most intimate with him, and
+     having made it my business to learn what this strange liquor
+     might be, they constantly affirmed that Drebel would never
+     disclose the liquor unto any, nor so much as tell the nature
+     whereof he had made it, to above one person, who himself assured
+     me what it was.
+
+This most curious narrative suggests that in some way Drebel, who
+died in London in 1634, had discovered the art of compressing oxygen
+and conceived the idea of making it serviceable for freshening the
+air in a boat, or other place, contaminated by the respiration of a
+number of men for a long time. Indeed the reference made to the
+substance by which Drebel purified the atmosphere in his submarine
+as "a liquor" suggests that he may possibly have hit upon the secret
+of liquid air which late in the nineteenth century caused such a
+stir in the United States. Of his possession of some such secret
+there can be no doubt whatsoever, for Samuel Pepys refers in his
+famous diary to a lawsuit, brought in the King's Courts by the heirs
+of Drebel, to secure the secret for their own use. What was the
+outcome of the suit or the subsequent history of Drebel's invention
+history does not record.
+
+Throughout the next 150 years a large number of inventors and
+near-inventors occupied themselves with the problem of the
+submarine. Some of these men went no further than to draw plans and
+to write out descriptions of what appeared to them to be feasible
+submarine boats. Others took one step further, by taking out
+patents, but only very few of the submarine engineers of this period
+had either the means or the courage to test their inventions in the
+only practicable way, by building an experimental boat and using it.
+
+In spite of this apparent lack of faith on the part of the men who
+worked on the submarine problem, it would not be fair to condemn
+them as fakirs. Experimental workers, in those times, had to face
+many difficulties which were removed in later times. The study of
+science and the examination of the forces of nature were not only
+not as popular as they became later, but frequently were looked upon
+as blasphemous, savouring of sorcery, or as a sign of an unbalanced
+mind.
+
+[Illustration: (C) Kadel & Herbert.
+
+_A Gas Attack Photographed from an Airplane._]
+
+England and France supplied most of the men who occupied themselves
+with the submarine problem between 1610 and 1760. Of the
+Englishmen, the following left records of one kind or another
+concerning their labours in this direction. Richard Norwood, in
+1632, was granted a patent for a contrivance which was apparently
+little more than a diving apparatus. In 1648, Bishop Wilkins
+published a book, _Mathematical Magick_, which was full of rather
+grotesque projects and which contained one chapter on the
+possibility "of framing an ark for submarine navigation." In 1691,
+patents were granted on engines connected with submarine navigation
+to John Holland--curious forerunner of a name destined to be famous
+two hundred years later--and on a submarine boat to Sir Stephen
+Evance.
+
+In Prance, two priests, Fathers Mersenne and Fournier, published in
+1634 a small book called _Questions Theologiques, Physiques, Morales
+et Mathematiques_, which contained a detailed description of a
+submarine boat. They suggested that the hull of submarines ought to
+be of metal and not of wood, and that their shape ought to be as
+nearly fishlike as possible. Nearly three hundred years have hardly
+altered these opinions. Ancient French records also tell us that six
+years later, in 1640, the King of France had granted a patent to
+Jean Barrie, permitting him during the next twelve years to fish at
+the bottom of the sea with his boat. Unluckily Barrie's fish stories
+have expired with his permit. In 1654, a French engineer, De Son, is
+said to have built at Rotterdam a submarine boat. Little is known
+concerning this vessel except that it was reported to have been
+seventy-two feet long, twelve feet high, and eight feet broad, and
+to have been propelled by a paddlewheel instead of oars.
+
+Borelli, about whom very little seems to be known, is credited with
+having invented in 1680 a submarine boat, whose descent and ascent
+were regulated by a series of leather bottles placed in the hull of
+the boat with their mouths open to the surrounding water. The
+English magazine, _Graphic_, published a picture which is considered
+the oldest known illustration of any submarine boat. This picture
+matches in all details the description of Borelli's boat, but it is
+credited to a man called Symons.
+
+Twenty-seven years later, in 1774, another Englishman, J. Day, built
+a small submarine boat, and after fairly extensive experiments,
+descended in his boat in Plymouth harbour. This descent is of
+special interest because we have a more detailed record of it than
+of any previous submarine exploit, and because Day is the first
+submarine inventor who lost his life in the attempt to prove the
+feasibility of his invention. The _Annual Register_ of 1774 gives a
+narration in detail of Day's experiments and death and inasmuch as
+this is the first ungarbled report of a submarine descent, it may be
+quoted at length.
+
+     _Authentic account of a late unfortunate transaction, with
+     respect to a diving machine at Plymouth._
+
+
+     Mr. Day (the sole projector of the scheme, and, as matters have
+     turned out, the unhappy sacrifice to his own ingenuity) employed
+     his thoughts for some years past in planning a method of sinking
+     a vessel under water, with a man in it, who should live therein
+     for a certain time, and then by his own means only, bring himself
+     up to the surface. After much study he conceived that his plan
+     could be reduced into practice. He communicated his idea in the
+     part of the country where he lived, and had the most sanguine
+     hopes of success. He went so far as to try his project in the
+     Broads near Yarmouth. He fitted a Norwich market-boat for his
+     purpose, sunk himself thirty feet under water, where he continued
+     during the space of twenty-four hours, and executed his design to
+     his own entire satisfaction. Elated with this success, he then
+     wanted to avail himself of his invention. He conversed with his
+     friends, convinced them that he had brought his undertaking to a
+     certainty; but how to reap the advantage of it was the difficulty
+     that remained. The person in whom he confided suggested to him,
+     that, if he acquainted the sporting Gentlemen with the discovery,
+     and the certainty of the performance, considerable betts would
+     take place, as soon as the project would be mentioned in company.
+     The Sporting Kalendar was immediately looked into, and the name
+     of Blake soon occurred; that gentleman was fixed upon as the
+     person to whom Mr. Day ought to address himself. Accordingly, Mr.
+     Blake, in the month of November last, received the following
+     letter:
+
+     "SIR,
+
+     "I found out an affair by which many thousands may be won; it is
+     of a paradoxical nature, but can be performed with ease;
+     therefore, sir, if you chuse to be informed of it, and give me
+     one hundred pounds of every thousand you shall win by it, I will
+      very readily wait upon you and inform you of it. I am myself
+     but a poor mechanic and not able to make anything by it without
+     your  assistance.
+
+                              "Your's, etc.
+
+                                                   "J. DAY."
+
+     Mr. Blake had no conception of Mr. Day's design, nor was he sure
+     that the letter was serious. To clear the matter up, he returned
+     for answer, that, if Mr. Day would come to town, and explain
+     himself, Mr. Blake would consider of the proposal. If he approved
+     of it, Mr. Day should have the recompence he desired; if, on the
+     other hand, the plan should be rejected, Mr. Blake would make him
+     a present to defray the expences of his journey. In a short time
+     after Mr. Day came to town; Mr. Blake saw him and desired to know
+     what secret he was possessed of. The man replied, "that he could
+     sink a ship 100 feet deep in the sea with himself in it, and
+     remain therein for the space of 24 hours, without communication
+     with anything above; and at the expiration of the time, rise up
+     again in the vessel." The proposal, in all its parts, was new to
+     Mr. Blake. He took down the particulars, and, after considering
+     the matter, desired some kind of proof of the practicability. The
+     man added that if Mr. Blake would furnish him with the materials
+     necessary, he would give him an occular demonstration. A model of
+     the vessel, with which he was to perform the experiment, was then
+     required, and in three or four weeks accomplished, so as to give
+     a perfect idea of the principle upon which the scheme was to be
+     executed, and, in time, a very plausible promise of success, not
+     to Mr. Blake only, but many other gentlemen who were consulted
+     upon the occasion. The consequence was, that Mr. Blake, agreeably
+     to the man's desire, advanced money for the construction of a
+     vessel fit for that purpose. Mr. Day, thus assisted, went to
+     Plymouth with his model, and set a man in that place to work upon
+     it. The pressure of the water at 100 feet deep was a circumstance
+     of which Mr. Blake was advised, and touching that article he gave
+     the strongest precautions to Mr. Day, telling him, at any
+     expence, to fortify the chamber in which he was to subsist,
+     against the weight of such a body of water. Mr. Day set off in
+     great spirits for Plymouth, and seemed so confident, that Mr.
+     Blake made a bett that the project would succeed, reducing,
+     however, the depth of water from 100 yards to 100 feet, and the
+     time from 24 to 12 hours. By the terms of the wager, the
+     experiment was to be made within three months from the date; but
+     so much time was necessary for due preparation, that on the
+     appointed day things were not in readiness and Mr. Blake lost the
+     bett.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+_A French Nieuport Dropping a Bomb._]
+
+     In some short time afterwards the vessel was finished, and Mr.
+     Day still continued eager for the carrying of his plan into
+     execution; he was uneasy at the idea of dropping the scheme and
+     wished for an opportunity to convince Mr. Blake that he could
+     perform what he had undertaken. He wrote from Plymouth that
+     everything was in readiness and should be executed the moment Mr.
+     Blake arrived. Induced by this promise, Mr. Blake set out for
+     Plymouth; upon his arrival a trial was made in Cat-water, where
+     Mr. Day lay, during the flow of tide, six hours, and six more
+     during the tide of ebb; confined all the time in the room
+     appropriated for his use. A day for the final determination was
+     fixed; the vessel was towed to the place agreed upon; Mr. Day
+     provided himself with whatever he thought necessary; he went into
+     the vessel, let the water into her and with great composure
+     retired to the room constructed for him, and shut up the valve.
+     The ship went gradually down in 22 fathoms of water at 2 o'clock
+     on Tuesday, June 28, in the afternoon, being to return at 2 the
+     next morning. He had three buoys or messengers, which he could
+     send to the surface at option, to announce his situation below;
+     but, none appearing, Mr. Blake, who was near at hand in a barge,
+     began to entertain some suspicion. He kept a strict lookout, and
+     at the time appointed, neither the buoys nor the vessel coming
+     up, he applied to the _Orpheus_ frigate, which lay just off the
+     barge, for assistance. The captain with the most ready
+     benevolence supplied them with everything in his power to seek
+     for the ship. Mr. Blake, in this alarming situation was not
+     content with the help of the _Orpheus_ only; he made immediate
+     application to Lord Sandwich (who happened to be at Plymouth) for
+     further relief. His Lordship with great humanity ordered a number
+     of hands from the dock-yard, who went with the utmost alacrity
+     and tried every effort to regain the ship, but unhappily without
+     effect.
+
+     Thus ended this unfortunate affair. Mr. Blake had not experience
+     enough to judge of all possible contingencies, and he had now
+     only to lament the credulity with which he listened to a
+     projector, fond of his own scheme but certainly not possessed of
+     skill enough to guard against the variety of accidents to which
+     he was liable. The poor man has unfortunately shortened his days;
+     he was not however tempted or influenced by anybody; he confided
+     in his own judgment, and put his life to the hazard upon his own
+     mistaken notions.
+
+     Many and various have been the opinions on this strange, useless,
+     and fatal experiment, though the more reasonable part of mankind
+     seemed to give it up as wholly impracticable. It is well-known,
+     that pent-up air, when overcharged with the vapours emitted out
+     of animal bodies, becomes unfit for respiration; for which
+     reason, those confined in the diving-bell, after continuing some
+     time under water are obliged to come up, and take in fresh air,
+     or by some such means recruit it. That any man should be able
+     after having sunk a vessel to so great a depth, to make that
+     vessel at pressure, so much more specifically lighter than water,
+     as thereby to enable it to force its way to the surface, through
+     the depressure of so great a weight, is a matter not hastily to
+     be credited. Even cork, when sunk to a certain depth will, by the
+     great weight of the fluid upon it, be prevented from rising.
+
+The English of the _Annual Register_ leaves much to be desired in
+clarity. It makes reasonably clear, however, that the unfortunate
+Mr. Day's knowledge of submarine conditions was, by no means, equal
+to Mr. Blake's sporting spirit. Even to-day one hundred feet is an
+unusual depth of submersion for the largest submarines.
+
+The credit for using a submarine boat for the first time in actual
+warfare belongs to a Yankee, David Bushnell. He was born in
+Saybrook, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale with the class of
+1775. While still in college he was interested in science and as far
+as his means and opportunities allowed, he devoted a great deal of
+his time and energy to experimental work. The problem which
+attracted his special attention was how to explode powder under
+water, and before very long he succeeded in solving this to his own
+satisfaction as well as to that of a number of prominent people
+amongst whom were the Governor of Connecticut and his Council.
+Bushnell's experiments, of course, fell in the period during which
+the Revolutionary War was fought, and when he had completed his
+invention, there naturally presented itself to him a further
+problem. How could his device be used for the benefit of his country
+and against the British ships which were then threatening New York
+City? As a means to this end, Bushnell planned and built a submarine
+boat which on account of its shape is usually called the _Turtle_.
+
+General Washington thought very highly of Bushnell, whom he called
+in a letter to Thomas Jefferson "a man of great mechanical powers,
+fertile in inventions and master of execution." In regard to
+Bushnell's submarine boat the same letter, written after its
+failure, says: "I thought and still think that it was an effort of
+genius, but that too many things were necessary to be combined to
+expect much against an enemy who are always on guard."
+
+During the whole period of the building of the _Turtle_ Bushnell was
+in ill health. Otherwise he would have navigated it on its trial
+trip himself for he was a man of undoubted courage and wrapped up
+alike in the merits of his invention and in the possibility of
+utilizing it to free New York from the constant ignominy of the
+presence of British ships in its harbour. But his health made this
+out of the question. Accordingly he taught his brother the method of
+navigating the craft, but at the moment for action the brother too
+fell ill. It became necessary to hire an operator. This was by no
+means easy as volunteers to go below the water in a submarine boat
+of a type hitherto undreamed of, and to attach an explosive to the
+hull of a British man-of-war, the sentries upon which were
+presumably especially vigilant, being in a hostile harbour, was an
+adventure likely to attract only the most daring and reckless
+spirits. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, other portions of which we
+shall have occasion to quote later, Bushnell refers to this
+difficulty in finding a suitable operator and tells briefly and with
+evident chagrin the story of the failure of the attempts made to
+utilize successfully his submarine:
+
+[Illustration: Photo by U. & U.
+
+_A Bomb-Dropping Taube._]
+
+     After various attempts to find an operator to my wish, I sent one
+     who appeared more expert than the rest from New York to a 50-gun
+     ship lying not far from Governor's Island. He went under the ship
+     and attempted to fix the wooden screw into her bottom, but
+     struck, as he supposes, a bar of iron which passes from the
+     rudder hinge, and is spiked under the ship's quarter. Had he
+     moved a few inches, which he might have done without rowing, I
+     have no doubt but he would have found wood where he might have
+     fixed the screw, or if the ship were sheathed with copper he
+     might easily have pierced it; but, not being well skilled in the
+     management of the vessel, in attempting to move to another place
+     he lost the ship. After seeking her in vain for some time, he
+     rowed some distance and rose to the surface of the water, but
+     found daylight had advanced so far that he durst not renew the
+     attempt. He says that he could easily have fastened the magazine
+     under the stem of the ship above water, as he rowed up to the
+     stern and touched it before he descended. Had he fastened it
+     there the explosion of 150 lbs. of powder (the quantity contained
+     in the magazine) must have been fatal to the ship. In his return
+     from the ship to New York he passed near Governor's Island, and
+     thought he was discovered by the enemy on the island. Being in
+     haste to avoid the danger he feared, he cast off the magazine, as
+     he imagined it retarded him in the swell, which was very
+     considerable. After the magazine had been cast off one hour, the
+     time the internal apparatus was set to run, it blew up with great
+     violence.
+
+     Afterwards there were two attempts made in Hudson's River, above
+     the city, but they effected nothing. One of them was by the
+     aforementioned person. In going towards the ship he lost sight
+     of her, and went a great distance beyond her. When he at length
+     found her the tide ran so strong that, as he descended under
+     water for the ship's bottom, it swept him away. Soon after this
+     the enemy went up the river and pursued the boat which had the
+     submarine vessel on board and sunk it with their shot. Though I
+     afterwards recovered the vessel, I found it impossible at that
+     time to prosecute the design any farther.
+
+The operator to whom Bushnell had entrusted his submarine boat was a
+typical Yankee, Ezra Lee of Lyme, Connecticut. His story of the
+adventure differs but little from that of Bushnell, but it is told
+with a calm indifference to danger and a seeming lack of any notion
+of the extraordinary in what he had done that gives an idea of the
+man. "When I rode under the stern of the ship [the _Eagle_] I could
+see the men on deck and hear them talk," he wrote. "I then shut down
+all the doors, sunk down, and came up under the bottom of the ship."
+
+This means that he hermetically sealed himself inside of a craft,
+shaped like two upper turtle shells joined together--hence the name
+of the _Turtle_. He had entered through the orifice at the top,
+whence the head of the turtle usually protrudes. This before sinking
+he had covered and made water-tight by screwing down upon it a brass
+crown or top like that to a flask. Within he had enough air to
+support him thirty minutes. The vessel stood upright, not flat as a
+turtle carries himself. It was maintained in this position by lead
+ballast. Within the operator occupied an upright position, half
+sitting, half standing. To sink water was admitted, which gathered
+in the lower part of the boat, while to rise again this was
+expelled by a force pump. There were ventilators and portholes for
+the admission of light and air when operating on the surface, but
+once the cap was screwed down the operator was in darkness.
+
+In this craft, which suggests more than anything else a curiously
+shaped submarine coffin, Lee drifted along by the side of the ship,
+navigating with difficulty with his single oar and seeking vainly to
+find some spot to which he might affix his magazine. A fact which
+might have disquieted a more nervous man was that the clockwork of
+this machine was running and had been set to go off in an hour from
+the time the voyage was undertaken. As to almost anyone in that
+position minutes would seem hours, the calmness of sailor Lee's
+nerves seems to be something beyond the ordinary.
+
+When he finally abandoned the attempt on the _Eagle_ he started up
+the bay. Off Governor's Island he narrowly escaped capture.
+
+     When I was abreast of the Fort on the Island three hundred or
+     four hundred men got upon the parapet to observe me; at length a
+     number came down to the shore, shoved off a twelve oar'd barge
+     with five or six sitters and pulled for me. I eyed them, and when
+     they had got within fifty or sixty yards of me I let loose the
+     magazine in hopes that if they should take me they would likewise
+     pick up the magazine and then we should all be blown up together.
+     But as kind providence would have it they took fright and
+     returned to the Island to my infinite joy.... The magazine after
+     getting a little past the Island went off with a tremendous
+     explosion, throwing up large bodies of water to an immense
+     height.
+
+During the last quarter of the eighteenth and during the first half
+of the nineteenth century France was the chief centre for the
+activities of submarine inventors. However, very few of the many
+plans put forward in this period were executed. The few exceptions
+resulted in little else than trial boats which usually did not live
+up to the expectations of their inventors or their financial backers
+and were, therefore, discarded in quick order. In spite of this lack
+of actual results this particular period was of considerable
+importance to the later development of the submarine. Almost every
+one of the many boats then projected or built contained some
+innovation and in this way some of the many obstacles were gradually
+overcome. Strictly speaking the net result of the experimental work
+done during these seventy-five years by a score or more of men, most
+of whom were French, though a few were English, was the creation of
+a more sane and sound basis on which, before long, other men began
+to build with greater success.
+
+The one notable accomplishment of interest, especially to Americans,
+was the submarine built in 1800-01 by Robert Fulton. Fulton, of
+course, is far better known by his work in connection with the
+discovery and development of steam navigation. Born in Pennsylvania
+in 1765, he early showed marked mechanical genius. In 1787 he went
+to England with the purpose of studying art under the famous painter
+West, but soon began to devote most of his time and energy to
+mechanical problems. Not finding in England as much encouragement as
+he had hoped, he went, in 1797, to Paris and, for the next seven
+years, lived there in the house of the American Minister, Joel
+Barlow.
+
+As soon as he had settled down in France, he offered his plans of a
+submarine boat which he called the _Nautilus_ to the French
+Government. Though a special commission reported favourably on this
+boat, the opposition of the French Minister of the Marine was too
+strong to be overcome, even after another commission had approved a
+model built by Fulton. In 1800, however, he was successful in
+gaining the moral and financial support of Napoleon Bonaparte, then
+First Consul of the French Republic.
+
+Fulton immediately proceeded to build the _Nautilus_ and completed
+the boat in May, 1801. It was cigar-shaped, about seven feet in
+diameter and over twenty-one feet in length. The hull was of copper
+strengthened by iron ribs. The most noticeable features were a
+collapsible mast and sail and a small conning tower at the forward
+end. The boat was propelled by a wheel affixed to the centre of the
+stern and worked by a hand-winch. A rudder was used for steering,
+and increased stability was gained by a keel which ran the whole
+length of the hull.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A Captured German Fokker Exhibited at the Invalides._]
+
+Soon after completion the boat was taken out for a number of trial
+trips all of which were carried out with signal success and finally
+culminated, on June 26, 1801, in the successful blowing up of an old
+ship furnished by the French Government. Although the _Nautilus_
+created a great sensation, popular as well as official interest
+began soon to flag. Fulton received no further encouragement and
+finally gave up his submarine experiments.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A British Seaplane with Folding Wings._]
+
+In 1806 he returned to America. By 1814 he had built another
+submarine boat which he called the _Mute_. It was, comparatively
+speaking, of immense size, being over eighty feet long, twenty-one
+feet wide, and fourteen feet deep and accommodating a hundred men.
+It was iron-plated on top and derived its peculiar name from the
+fact that it was propelled by a noiseless engine. Before its trials
+could be completed, Fulton died on February 24, 1815, and no one
+seemed to have sufficient interest or faith in his new boat to
+continue his work.
+
+In the middle of the nineteenth century for the first time a German
+became seriously interested in submarines. His name was Wilhelm
+Bauer. He was born in 1822 in a small town in Bavaria and, though a
+turner by trade, joined the army in 1842. Bauer was even in his
+youth of a highly inventive turn of mind. He possessed an
+indomitable will and an unlimited supply of enthusiasm. Step by step
+he acquired, in what little time he could spare from his military
+duties, the necessary mechanical knowledge, and finally, supported
+financially by a few loyal friends and patrons, he built his first
+submarine at Kiel at a cost of about $2750. It sank to the bottom on
+its first trial trip, fortunately without anyone on board. Undaunted
+he continued his efforts.
+
+When he found that his support at Kiel was weakening, he promptly
+went to Austria. In spite of glowing promises, opposition on the
+part of some officials deprived Bauer of the promised assistance. He
+went then to England and succeeded in enlisting the interest of the
+Prince Consort. A boat was built according to Bauer's plans, which,
+however, he was forced by the interference of politicians to change
+to such an extent that it sank on its first trial with considerable
+loss of life.
+
+Still full of faith in his ability to produce a successful
+submarine, Bauer now went to Russia. In 1855, he built a boat at St.
+Petersburg and had it accepted by the Russian Government. It was
+called _Le Diable Marin_ and looked very much like a dolphin. Its
+length was fifty-two feet, its beam twelve feet five inches, and its
+depth eleven feet. Its hull was of iron. A propeller, worked by four
+wheels, furnished motive power. Submersion and stability were
+regulated by four cylinders into which water could be pumped at
+will.
+
+The first trial of the boat was made on May 26, 1856, and was
+entirely successful. In later trials as many as fourteen men at a
+time descended in _Le Diable Marin_. It is said that Bauer made a
+total of 134 trips on his boat. All but two were carried out
+successfully. At one time, however, the propeller was caught in some
+seaweed and it was only by the quickest action that all the water
+was pumped out and the bow of the boat allowed to rise out of the
+water, so that the occupants managed to escape by means of the
+hatchway. Like Fulton in France, Bauer now experienced in Russia a
+sudden decrease of official interest. When he finally lost his boat,
+about four weeks later, he also lost his courage, and in 1858 he
+returned to Germany where he later died in comparative poverty.
+
+Contemporary with Bauer's submarines and immediately following them
+were a large number of other boats. Some of these were little more
+than freaks. Others failed in certain respects but added new
+features to the sum-total of submarine inventions. As early as 1854,
+M. Marie-Davy, Professor of Chemistry at Montpellier University,
+suggested an electro-magnetic engine as motive power. In 1855 a
+well-known engineer, J. Nasmith, suggested a submerged motor, driven
+by a steam engine. None of the boats of this period proved
+successful enough, however, to receive more than passing notice, and
+very few, indeed, ever reached the trial stage. But before long the
+rapid development of internal-combustion engines and the immense
+progress made in the study of electricity was to advance the
+development of submarines by leaps and bounds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE COMING OF STEAM AND ELECTRICITY
+
+
+In the fall of 1863, the Federal fleet was blockading the harbour of
+Charleston, S. C. Included among the many ships was one of the
+marvels of that period, the United States battleship _Ironsides_.
+Armour-plated and possessing what was then considered a wonderful
+equipment of high calibred guns and a remarkably trained crew, she
+was the terror of the Confederates. None of their ships could hope
+to compete with her and the land batteries of the Southern harbour
+were powerless to reach her.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A British Anti-Aircraft Gun._]
+
+During the night of October 5, 1863, the officer of the watch on
+board the _Ironsides_, Ensign Howard, suddenly observed a small
+object looking somewhat like a pleasure boat, floating close to his
+own ship. Before Ensign Howard's order to fire at it could be
+executed, the _Ironsides_ was shaken from bow to stern, an immense
+column of water was thrown up and flooded her deck and engine room,
+and Ensign Howard fell, mortally wounded. The little floating object
+was responsible for all this. It was a Confederate submersible boat,
+only fifty feet long and nine feet in diameter, carrying a
+fifteen-foot spar-torpedo. She had been named _David_ and the
+Confederate authorities hoped to do away by means of her with the
+Goliaths of the Federal navy. Manned only by five men, under the
+command of Lieutenant W. T. Glassel, driven by a small engine and
+propeller, she had managed to come up unobserved within striking
+distance of the big battleship.
+
+The attack, however, was unsuccessful. The _Ironsides_ was
+undamaged. On the other hand the plucky little _David_ had been
+disabled to such an extent that her crew had to abandon her and take
+to the water, allowing their boat to drift without motive power.
+Four of them were later picked up. According to an account in
+Barnes, _Torpedoes and Torpedo Warfare_, the engineer, after having
+been in the water for some time, found himself near her and
+succeeded in getting on board. He relighted her fires and navigated
+his little boat safely back to Charleston. There she remained,
+making occasional unsuccessful sallies against the Federal fleet,
+and when Charleston was finally occupied by the Federal forces, she
+was found there.
+
+In spite of this failure the Confederates continued their attempts
+to break the blockade of their most important port by submarine
+devices. A new and somewhat improved _David_ was ordered and built
+at another port. News of this somehow reached the Federal Navy
+Department and was immediately communicated to Vice-Admiral
+Dahlgren, in command of the blockading fleet. Despite this warning
+and instructions to all the officers of the fleet, the second
+_David_ succeeded in crossing Charleston bar.
+
+This new boat was a real diving submarine boat and though frequently
+called _David_ had been christened the _Hundley_. It had been built
+in the shipyards of McClintock & Hundley at Mobile, Alabama, and had
+been brought to Charleston by rail. On her trial she proved very
+clumsy and difficult to manage. For her first trip a crew of nine
+men volunteered. Not having any conning tower it was necessary that
+one of the hatchways should be left open while the boat travelled on
+the surface so that the steersman could find his bearings. While she
+was on her first trip, the swell from a passing boat engulfed her.
+Before the hatchway could be closed, she filled with water. Of
+course, she sank like a piece of lead and her entire crew, with the
+exception of the steersman, was drowned.
+
+In spite of this mishap the _Hundley_ was raised and again put in
+commission. Lieutenant Payne who had steered her on her first fatal
+trip had lost neither his courage nor faith and again assumed
+command of her. Soon after she started on her second trip a sudden
+squall arose. Before the hatchways could be closed, she again filled
+with water and sank, drowning all of her crew with the exception of
+Lieutenant Payne and two of his men.
+
+Undaunted he took her out on a third trip after she had again been
+raised. Ill luck still pursued her. Off Fort Sumter she was capsized
+and this time four of her crew were drowned.
+
+The difficulties encountered in sailing the _Hundley_ on the surface
+of the water apparently made no difference when it came to finding
+new crews for her. By this time, however, the powers that be had
+become anxious that their submarine boat should accomplish something
+against an enemy, instead of drowning only her own men and it was
+decided to use her on the next trip in a submerged state. Again
+Lieutenant Payne was entrusted with her guidance. Her hatches were
+closed, her water tanks filled, and she was off for her first dive.
+Something went wrong however; either too much water had been put in
+her tanks or else the steering gear refused to work. At any rate she
+hit the muddy bottom with such force that her nose became deeply
+imbedded and before she could work herself free her entire crew of
+eight was suffocated. Lieutenant Payne himself lost his life which
+he had risked so valiantly and frequently before.
+
+Once more she was raised and once more volunteers rushed to man her.
+On the fifth trip, however, the _Hundley_, while travelling
+underwater, became entangled in the anchor chains of a boat she
+passed and was held fast so long that her crew of nine were dead
+when she was finally disentangled and raised.
+
+Thirty-five lives had so far been lost without any actual results
+having been accomplished. In spite of this a new crew was found. Her
+commander, Lieutenant Dixon, was ordered to make an attack against
+the Federal fleet immediately, using, however, the boat as a
+submersible instead of a submarine.
+
+Admiral David Porter in his _Naval History of the Civil War_
+described the attack, which was directed against the U. S. S.
+_Housatonic_, one of the newest Federal battleships, as follows:
+
+     At about 8.45 P. M., the officer of the deck on board the
+     unfortunate vessel discovered something about one hundred yards
+     away, moving along the water. It came directly towards the ship,
+     and within two minutes of the time it was first sighted was
+     alongside. The cable was slipped, the engines backed, and all
+     hands called to quarters. But it was too late--the torpedo struck
+     the _Housatonic_ just forward of the mainmast, on the starboard
+     side, on a line with the magazine. The man who steered her (the
+     _Hundley_) knew where the vital spots of the steamer were and he
+     did his work well. When the explosion took place the ship
+     trembled all over as if by the shock of an earthquake, and seemed
+     to be lifted out of the water, and then sank stern foremost,
+     heeling to port as she went down.
+
+Only a part of the _Housatonic's_ complement was saved. Of the
+_Hundley_ no trace was discovered and she was believed to have
+escaped. Three years later, however, divers who had been sent down
+to examine the hull of the _Housatonic_ found the little submarine
+stuck in the hole made by her attack on the larger ship and inside
+of her the bodies of her entire crew.
+
+The submarines and near-submarines built in the United States during
+the Civil War were remarkable rather for what they actually
+accomplished than for what they contributed towards the development
+of submarine boats. Perhaps the greatest service which they rendered
+in the latter direction was that they proved to the satisfaction of
+many scientific men that submarine boats really held vast
+possibilities as instruments of naval warfare.
+
+France still retained its lead in furnishing new submarine
+projects. One of these put forward in 1861 by Olivier Riou deserves
+mention because it provided for two boats, one driven by steam and
+one by electricity. Both of these submarines were built, but
+inasmuch as nothing is known of the result of their trials, it is
+safe to conclude that neither of them proved of any practical value.
+
+Two years later, in 1863, two other Frenchmen, Captain Bourgeois and
+M. Brun, built at Rochefort a submarine 146 feet long and 12 feet in
+diameter which they called the _Plongeur_. They fitted it with a
+compressed-air engine of eighty horse-power. Extensive trials were
+made with this boat but resulted only in the discovery that, though
+it was possible to sink or rise with a boat of this type without
+great difficulty, it was impossible to keep her at an even keel for
+any length of time.
+
+During the next few years, undoubtedly as a result of the submarine
+activities during the Civil War, a number of projects were put
+forward in the United States, none of which, however, turned out
+successfully. One of them, for which a man by the name of Halstead
+was responsible, was a submarine built for the United States Navy in
+1865. It was not tried out until 1872 and it was not even successful
+in living up to its wonderful name, _The Intelligent Whale_. Its
+first trial almost resulted in loss of life and was never repeated.
+In spite of this, however, the boat was preserved and may still be
+seen at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
+
+In the meantime, an invention had been made by an Austrian artillery
+officer which before long was to exert a powerful influence on
+submarine development, though it was in no sense a submarine boat.
+The manner in which the submarines had attacked their opponents
+during the Civil War suggested to him the need of improvements in
+this direction. As a result he conceived a small launch which was to
+carry the explosive without any navigators. Before he could carry
+his plans very far he died. A brother officer in the navy continued
+his work and finally interested the manager of an English
+engineering firm located at Fiume, Mr. Whitehead. The result of the
+collaboration of these two men was the Whitehead torpedo. A series
+of experiments led to the construction of what was first called a
+"Submarine Locomotive" torpedo, which not only contained a
+sufficient quantity of explosives to destroy large boats, but was
+also enabled by mechanical means to propel itself and keep on its
+course after having been fired. The Austrian Government was the
+first one to adopt this new weapon. Whitehead, however, refused to
+grant a monopoly to the Austrians and in 1870 he sold his
+manufacturing rights and secret processes to the British Government
+for a consideration of $45,000.
+
+Before very long, special boats were built for the purpose of
+carrying and firing these torpedoes and gradually every great power
+developed a separate torpedo flotilla. Hand in hand with this
+development a large number of improvements were made on the original
+torpedo and some of these devices proved of great usefulness in the
+development of submarine boats.
+
+The public interest in submarines grew rapidly at this time. Every
+man who was a boy in 1873, or who had the spirit of boyhood in him
+then,--or perhaps now,--will remember the extraordinary piece of
+literary and imaginative prophecy achieved by Jules Verne in his
+novel _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_. Little about the
+_Nautilus_ that held all readers entranced throughout his story is
+lacking in the submarines of to-day except indeed its extreme
+comfort, even luxury. With those qualities our submarine navigators
+have to dispense. But the electric light, as we know it, was unknown
+in Verne's time yet he installed it in the boat of his fancy. Our
+modern internal-combustion engines were barely dreamed of, yet they
+drove his boat. His fancy even enabled him to foresee one of the
+most amazing features of the Lake boat of to-day, namely the
+compressed air chamber which opened to the sea still holds the water
+back, and enables the submarine navigator clad in a diver's suit to
+step into the wall of water and prosecute his labors on the bed of
+the ocean. Jules Verne even foresaw the callous and inhuman
+character of the men who command the German submarines to-day. His
+Captain Nemo had taken a vow of hate against the world and
+relentlessly drove the prow of his steel boat into the hulls of
+crowded passenger ships, finding his greatest joy in sinking slowly
+beside them with the bright glare of his submarine electric lights
+turned full upon the hapless women and children over whose
+sufferings he gloated as they sank. The man who sank the _Lusitania_
+could do no more.
+
+More and more determined became the attempts to build submarine
+boats that could sink and rise easily, navigate safely and quickly,
+and sustain human beings under the surface of the water for a
+considerable length of time. Steam, compressed air, and electricity
+were called upon to do their share in accomplishing this desired
+result. Engineers in every part of the world began to interest
+themselves in the submarine problem and as a result submarine boats
+in numbers were either projected or built between 1875 and 1900.
+
+One of the most persistent workers in this period was a well-known
+Swedish inventor, Nordenfeldt, who had established for himself a
+reputation by inventing a gun which even to-day has lost nothing of
+its fame. In 1881 he became interested in the work which had been
+done by an English clergyman named Garret. The latter had built a
+submarine boat which he called the _Resurgam_ (I shall rise)--thus
+neatly combining a sacred promise with a profane purpose. In 1879
+another boat was built by him driven by a steam engine. Nordenfeldt
+used the fundamental ideas upon which these two boats were based,
+added to them some improvements of his own as well as some devices
+which had been used by Bushnell, and finally launched in 1886 his
+first submarine boat. The government of Greece bought it after some
+successful trials. Not to be outdone, Greece's old rival, Turkey,
+immediately ordered two boats for her own navy. Both of these were
+much larger than the Greek boat and by 1887 they had reached
+Constantinople in sections where they were to be put together. Only
+one of them, however, was ever completed. Characteristic Turkish
+delay intervened. The most typical feature of this boat was the fact
+that it carried a torpedo tube for Whitehead torpedoes. On the
+surface of the water this boat proved very efficient, but as an
+underwater boat it was a dismal failure. More than in any other
+craft that had ever been built and accepted, the lack of stability
+was a cause of trouble in the _Nordenfeldt II._ As soon as any
+member of the crew moved from one part of the boat to another, she
+would dip in the direction in which he was moving, and everybody,
+who could not in time take hold of some part of the boat, came
+sliding and rolling in the same direction. When finally such a
+tangle was straightened out, only a few minutes elapsed before
+somebody else, moving a few steps, would bring about the same
+deplorable state of affairs. The _Nordenfeldt II._ acted more like a
+bucking bronco than a self-respecting submarine boat and as a result
+it became impossible to find a crew willing to risk their lives in
+manning her. Before very long she had rusted and rotted to pieces.
+In spite of this lack of success, Nordenfeldt built a fourth boat
+which displayed almost as many unfortunate features as her
+predecessors and soon was discarded and forgotten.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Bain News Service.
+
+_An Anti-Aircraft Outpost._]
+
+In the latter part of the nineteenth century the French Government,
+which for so many years had shown a strong and continuous interest
+in the submarine problem, was particularly active. Three different
+types of boats built in this period under the auspices and with the
+assistance of the French Government deserve particular attention.
+The first of these was the _Gymnote_, planned originally by a
+well-known French engineer, Dupuy de Lome, whose alert mind also
+planned an airship and made him a figure in the history of our
+Panama Canal. He died, however, before his project could be
+executed. M. Gustave Zede, a marine engineer and his friend,
+continued his work after modifying some of his plans. The French
+Minister of Marine of this period, Admiral Aube who had long been
+strongly interested in submarines, immediately accepted M. Zede's
+design and ordered the boat to be built. As the earliest of
+successful submarines she merits description:
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_A Coast Defense Anti-Aircraft Gun._]
+
+The _Gymnote_ was built of steel in the shape of a cigar. She was 59
+feet long, 5 feet 9 inches beam, and 6 feet in diameter, just deep
+enough to allow a man to stand upright in the interior. The motive
+power was originally an electro-motor of 55 horse-power, driven from
+564 accumulators. It was of extraordinary lightness, weighing only
+4410 pounds, and drove the screw at the rate of two thousand
+revolutions a minute, giving a speed of six knots an hour, its
+radius of action at this speed being thirty-five miles.
+
+Immersion was accomplished by the introduction of water into three
+reservoirs, placed one forward, one aft, and one centre. The water
+was expelled either by means of compressed air or by a rotary pump
+worked by an electro-motor. Two horizontal rudders steered the boat
+in the vertical plane and an ordinary rudder steered in the
+horizontal.
+
+The _Gymnote_ had her first trial on September 4, 1888, and the
+Paris _Temps_ described the result in the following enthusiastic
+language:
+
+     She steered like a fish both as regards direction and depth; she
+     mastered the desired depth with ease and exactness; at full power
+     she attained the anticipated speed of from nine to ten knots; the
+     lighting was excellent, there was no difficulty about heating. It
+     was a strange sight to see the vessel skimming along the top of
+     the water, suddenly give a downward plunge with its  snout, and
+     disappear with a shark-like wriggle of its stern, only to come up
+     again at a distance out and in an unlooked-for  direction. A few
+     small matters connected with the accumulators had to be seen to,
+     but they did not take a month.
+
+Following along the same lines as this boat another boat,
+considerably larger, was built. Before it was completed, M. Zede
+died and it was decided to name the new boat in his honour. The
+_Gustave Zede_ was launched at Toulon on June 1, 1893; she was 159
+feet in length, beam 12 feet 4 inches, and had a total displacement
+of 266 tons. Her shell was of "Roma" bronze, a non-magnetic metal,
+and one that could not be attacked by sea water.
+
+The motive power was furnished by two independent electro-motors of
+360 horse-power each and fed by accumulators. In order to endow the
+boat with a wide radius of action a storage battery was provided.
+
+The successive crews of the _Gustave Zede_ suffered much from the
+poisonous fumes of the accumulators, and during the earlier trials
+all the men on board were ill.
+
+In the bows was a torpedo tube, and an arrangement was used whereby
+the water that entered the tube after the discharge of the torpedo
+was forced out by compressed air. Three Whitehead torpedoes were
+carried. In spite of the fact that a horizontal rudder placed at the
+stern had not proved serviceable on the _Gymnote_, such a rudder was
+fitted in the _Gustave Zede_. With this rudder she usually plunged
+at an angle of about 5 deg., but on several occasions she behaved in a
+very erratic fashion, seesawing up and down, and once when the
+Committee of Experts were on board, she proved so capricious, going
+down at an angle of 30 deg.-35 deg., often throwing the poor gentlemen on to
+the floor, that it was decided to fix a system of six rudders, three
+on each side.
+
+Four water tanks were carried, one at each end and two in the
+middle, and the water was expelled by four pumps worked by a little
+electro-motor; these pumps also furnished the air necessary for the
+crew and for the discharge of the torpedoes. For underwater vision,
+an optical tube and a periscope had been provided.
+
+On July 5, 1899, still another submarine boat was launched for the
+French Navy. She was called the _Morse_. She was 118 feet long, 9
+feet beam, displaced 146 tons, and was likewise made of "Roma"
+bronze. The motive power was electricity and in many other respects
+she was very similar to the _Gustave Zede_, embodying, however, a
+number of improvements. M. Calmette, who accompanied the French
+Minister of War on the trial trip of the _Morse_, described his
+experience in the Paris _Figaro_ as follows:
+
+     General Andre, Dr. Vincent, a naval doctor, and I entered the
+     submarine boat _Morse_ through the narrow opening in the upper
+     surface of the boat. Our excursion was to begin immediately; in
+     two hours we came to the surface of the water again three miles
+     to the north to rejoin the _Narval_. Turning to the crew, every
+     man of which was at his post, the commandant gave his orders,
+     dwelling with emphasis on each word. A sailor repeated his orders
+     one by one, and all was silent. The _Morse_ had already started
+     on its mysterious voyage, but was skimming along the surface
+     until outside the port in order to avoid the numerous craft in
+     the Arsenal. To say that at this moment, which I had so keenly
+     anticipated, I did not have the tremor which comes from contact
+     with the unknown would be beside the truth. On the other hand,
+     calm and imperturbable, but keenly curious as to this novel form
+     of navigation, General Andre had already taken his place near
+     the commandant on a folding seat. There were no chairs in this
+     long tube in which we were imprisoned. Everything was arranged
+     for the crew alone, with an eye to serious action. Moreover, the
+     Minister of War was too tall to stand upright beneath the iron
+     ceiling, and in any case it would be impossible to walk about.
+
+     The only free space was a narrow passage, sixty centimetres
+     broad, less than two metres high, and thirty metres long, divided
+     into three equal sections. In the first, in the forefront of the
+     tube, reposed the torpedoes, with the machine for launching them,
+     which at a distance of from 500 to 600 metres were bound to sink,
+     with the present secret processes, the largest of ironclads. In
+     the second section were the electric accumulators which gave the
+     light and power. In the third, near the screw, was the electric
+     motor which transformed into movement the current of the
+     accumulators. Under all this, beneath the floor, from end to end,
+     were immense water ballasts, which were capable of being emptied
+     or filled in a few seconds by electric machines, in order to
+     carry the vessel up or down. Finally, in the centre of the tube,
+     dominating these three sections, which the electric light
+     inundated, and which no partition divided, the navigating
+     lieutenant stood on the lookout giving his orders.
+
+     There was but one thing which could destroy in a second all the
+     sources of authority, initiative, and responsibility in this
+     officer. That was the failure of the accumulators. Were the
+     electricity to fail everything would come to a stop. Darkness
+     would overtake the boat and imprison it for ever in the water. To
+     avoid any such disaster there have been arranged, it is true,
+     outside the tube and low down, a series of lead blades which were
+     capable of being removed from within to lighten the vessel. But
+     admitting that the plunger would return to the surface, the boat
+     would float hither and thither, and at all events lose all its
+     properties as a submarine vessel. To avoid any such disaster a
+     combination of motors have been in course of construction for
+     some months, so that the accumulators might be loaded afresh on
+     the spot, in case of their being used up.
+
+     The _Morse_, after skimming along the surface of the water until
+     outside the port, was now about to sink. The commandant's place
+     was no longer in the helmet or kiosque whence he could direct the
+     route along the surface of the sea. His place was henceforth in
+     the very centre of the tube, in the midst of all sort of electric
+     manipulators, his eyes continually fixed on a mysterious optical
+     apparatus, the periscope. The other extremity of this instrument
+     floated on the surface of the water, and whatever the depth of
+     the plunge it gave him a perfectly faithful and clear
+     representation, as in a camera, of everything occurring on the
+     water.
+
+     The most interesting moment of all now came. I hastened to the
+     little opening to get the impression of total immersion. The
+     lieutenant by the marine chart verified the depths. The casks of
+     water were filled and our supply of air was thereby renewed from
+     their stores of surplus air. In our tiny observatory, where
+     General Andre stationed himself above me, a most unexpected
+     spectacle presented itself as the boat was immersed.
+
+     The plunge was so gentle that in the perfect silence of the
+     waters one did not perceive the process of descent, and there was
+     only an instrument capable of indicating, by a needle, the depth
+     to which the _Morse_ was penetrating. The vessel was advancing
+     while at the same time it descended, but there was no sensation
+     of either advance or roll. As to respiration, it was as perfect
+     as in any room. M. de Lanessan, who since entering office has
+     ordered eight more submarine vessels, had concerned himself with
+     the question as a medical man also, and, thanks to the labours of
+     a commission formed by him, the difficulties of respiration were
+     entirely solved. The crew were able to remain under water sixteen
+     hours without the slightest strain. Our excursion on this
+     occasion lasted scarcely two hours. Towards noon, by means of
+     the mysterious periscope, which, always invisible, floated on the
+     surface and brought to the vessel below a reflection of all that
+     passed up above, the captain showed us the _Narval_, which had
+     just emerged with its two flags near the old battery
+     _Impregnable_. From the depths in which we were sailing we
+     watched its slightest manoeuvres until the admiral's flag, waving
+     on the top of a fort, reminded us that it was time to return.
+
+[Illustration: _The Submarine's Perfect Work._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+JOHN P. HOLLAND AND SIMON LAKE
+
+
+The Naval Committee of the House of Representatives of the United
+States in the early part of 1900 held a meeting for the purpose of
+hearing expert testimony upon the subject of submarines. Up to then
+the United States authorities had shown, as compared with the ruling
+powers of other navies, only a limited amount of interest in the
+submarine question. Increased appropriations for the construction of
+submarine boats which were then beginning to become more frequent in
+other countries acted, however, as a stimulus at this time.
+
+The committee meeting took place a few days after some of the
+members of the committee, together with a number of United States
+navy officers, had attended an exhibition of a new submarine boat,
+the _Holland No. 9_.
+
+The late Admiral Dewey gave the following opinion about this
+submarine to the committee, an opinion which since then has become
+rather famous:
+
+     Gentlemen: I saw the operation of the boat down off Mount Vernon
+     the other day. Several members of this committee were there. I
+     think we were very much impressed with its performance. My aid,
+     Lieutenant Caldwell, was on board. The boat did everything that
+     the owners proposed to do. I said then, and I have said it since,
+     that if they had two of those things at Manila, I could never
+     have held it with the squadron I had. The moral effect--to my
+     mind, it is infinitely superior to mines or torpedoes or anything
+     of the kind. With two of those in Galveston all the navies of the
+     world could not blockade the place.
+
+Admiral Dewey's approval of the _Holland No. 9_ undoubtedly exerted
+a considerable influence on the Naval Committee and as a result of
+its recommendations the United States Government finally purchased
+the boat on April 11, 1900, for $150,000. This amount was about
+$86,000 less than the cost of building to the manufacturers, the
+Holland Torpedo Boat Company. The latter, however, could well afford
+to take this loss because this first sale resulted a few months
+afterwards--on August 25th--in an order for six additional
+submarines. The British Government also contracted in the fall of
+the same year for five Hollands. The navy of almost every power
+interested in submarines soon followed the lead of the British
+Admiralty. Submarines of the Holland type were either ordered
+outright, or else arrangements were concluded permitting the use of
+the basic patents held by the Holland Company. It will be noted that
+the United States Government having discovered that it had a good
+thing benevolently shared it with the governments that might be
+expected to use it against us.
+
+[Illustration: Copyright by Munn & Co., Inc.
+
+From the _Scientific American._
+
+_Types of American Aircraft._]
+
+The _Holland No. 9_, as her very name indicates, was one of a long
+line of similar boats. As compared with other experimental submarine
+boats she was small. She was only fifty-three feet ten inches long,
+and ten feet seven inches deep. Although these proportions made her
+look rather thickset, they were the result of experimental work done
+by the builder during a period of twenty-five years. She was
+equipped both with a gasoline engine of fifty horse-power and an
+electric motor run by storage batteries. The latter was intended for
+use when the boat was submerged, the former when she was travelling
+on the surface of the water. She was capable of a maximum speed of
+seven knots an hour. Her cruising radius was 1500 miles and the
+combination of oil and electric motors proved so successful that
+from that time on every submarine built anywhere adopted this
+principle. Two horizontal rudders placed at the stern of the boat
+steered her downward whenever she wanted to dive and so
+accomplished a diver was this boat that a depth of twenty-eight feet
+could be reached by her in five seconds. Her conning tower was the
+only means of making observations. No periscopes had been provided
+because none of the instruments available at that time gave
+satisfaction. This meant that whenever she wished to aim at her
+target it was necessary for her to make a quick ascent to the
+surface. Her stability was one of her most satisfactory features. So
+carefully had her proportions been worked out that there was
+practically no pitching or rolling when the boat was submerged. Even
+the concussion caused by the discharge of a torpedo was hardly
+noticeable because arrangements had been made to take up the recoil
+caused by the firing and to maintain the balance of the boat by
+permitting a quantity of water equal to the weight of the discharged
+torpedo to enter special compartments at the very moment of the
+discharge.
+
+The _Holland No. 9_ was built at Lewis Nixon's shipyards at
+Elizabethport, New Jersey, and was launched early in 1898, just
+previous to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. Although
+numerous requests were made to the United States Government by her
+inventor and builder, John P. Holland, for permission to take her
+into Santiago harbour in an attempt to torpedo Cervera's fleet, the
+navy authorities at Washington refused this permission. Why?
+Presumably through navy hostility to the submarine idea. When the
+_Monitor_ whipped the _Merrimac_ in 1862 the former ship belonged to
+her inventor, not to the United States Government. It would have
+been interesting had Holland at his own expense destroyed the
+Spanish ships.
+
+John P. Holland at the time when he achieved his success was
+fifty-eight years old, Irish by birth and an early immigrant to the
+United States. He had been deeply interested for many years in
+mechanical problems and especially in those connected with
+navigation. The change from the old wooden battleships to the new
+ironclads and the rapidly increasing development of steam-engines
+acted as a strong stimulus to the young Irishman's experiments. It
+is claimed that his interest in submarine navigation was due
+primarily to his desire to find a weapon strong enough to destroy or
+at least dominate the British navy; for at that time Holland was
+strongly anti-British, because he, like many other educated Irishmen
+of that period, desired before everything else to free Ireland. His
+plans for doing this by supplying to the proposed Irish Republic a
+means for overcoming the British navy found little support and a
+great deal of ridicule on the part of his Irish friends. In spite of
+this he kept on with his work and in 1875 he built and launched his
+first submarine boat at Paterson. This boat was far from being very
+revolutionary. She was only sixteen feet long and two feet in
+diameter, shaped like a cigar but with both ends sharply pointed. In
+many respects except in appearance she was similar to Bushnell's
+_Turtle_. Room for only one operator was provided and the latter was
+to turn the propeller by means of pedals to be worked by his feet.
+She accomplished little beyond giving an opportunity to her inventor
+and builder to gather experience in actual underwater navigation.
+
+Two years later in 1877 the _Holland No. 2_ was built. In spite of
+the number of improvements represented by her she was not
+particularly successful. Her double hull, it is true, provided space
+for carrying water ballast. But the leaks from this ballast tank
+continuously threatened to drown the navigator sitting inside of the
+second hull. A small oil engine of four horse-power was soon
+discarded on account of its inefficiency.
+
+The experience gathered by Holland in building and navigating these
+two boats strengthened his determination to build a thoroughly
+successful submarine and increased his faith in his ability to do
+so. He opened negotiations with the Fenian Brotherhood. This was a
+secret society founded for the purpose of freeing Ireland from
+British rule and creating an Irish Republic. Holland finally
+succeeded in persuading his Fenian friends to order from him two
+submarine boats and to supply him with the necessary means to build
+them. Both of these boats were built. The lack of success of the
+first one was due primarily to the inefficiency of her engine. The
+second boat which was really the _Holland No. 4_ was built in 1881.
+It is usually known as the _Fenian Ram_, and is still in existence
+at New Haven, Connecticut, where a series of financial and political
+complications finally landed her.
+
+These two boats added vastly to Holland's knowledge concerning
+submarine navigation. A few others which he built with his own means
+increased this fund of knowledge and step by step he came nearer to
+his goal. By 1888 his reputation as a submarine engineer and
+navigator had grown to such an extent that Holland was asked by the
+famous Philadelphia shipbuilders, the Cramps, to submit to them
+designs for a submarine boat to be built by the United States
+Government. Only one other design was submitted and this was by the
+Scandinavian, Nordenfeldt.
+
+William C. Whitney, then Secretary of the United States Navy,
+accepted Holland's design. Month after month passed by wasted by the
+usual governmental red tape, and when all preliminary arrangements
+had been made and the contract for the actual building of an
+experimental boat was to be drawn up, a sudden change in the
+administration resulted in the dropping of the entire plan.
+
+Holland's faith in the future submarine and in his own ability was
+still unshaken, but this was not the case with his financial
+condition. None of the boats he had built so far had brought him any
+profits and on some he had lost everything that he had put into
+them. His financial support, for which he relied entirely upon
+relatives and friends, was practically exhausted. But fortunately on
+March 3, 1893, Congress appropriated a sum of money to defray the
+expenses of constructing an experimental submarine. Invitations to
+inventors were extended. So precarious was Holland's financial
+condition at that time that he found it necessary to borrow the
+small sum of money involved in making plans which he had to submit.
+It is claimed that he succeeded in doing this in a manner highly
+typical of his thoroughness.
+
+He needed only about $350.00 but even this comparatively small sum
+was more than he had. However, he happened to be lunching with a
+young lawyer just about this time and began to tell him about his
+financial difficulties. Holland told him that if he only had $347.19
+he could prepare the plans and pay the necessary fees. And that
+done, he was sure of being able to win the competition. His lawyer
+friend, of course, had been approached before by other people for
+loans. Invariably they had asked him for some round sum and
+Holland's request for $347.19 when he might just as well have asked
+for $350.00 aroused his interest. He asked the inventor what the
+nineteen cents were to be used for. Quick as a flash he was told
+that they were needed to pay for a particular type of ruler
+necessary to draw the required plans. So impressed was the lawyer
+with Holland's accuracy and honesty in asking not a cent more than
+he actually needed that he at once advanced the money. And a good
+investment it turned out to be. For in exchange he received a
+good-sized block of stock in the Holland Torpedo Boat Company which
+in later years made him a multi-millionaire.
+
+Holland's plans did win the competition just as he asserted that
+they would; but, of course, winning a prize, offered by a
+government, and getting that government to do something about it,
+are two different matters. So two years went by before the Holland
+Torpedo Boat Company at last was able to start with the construction
+of the new submarine which was to be called the _Plunger_.
+
+The principal feature of this new boat was that it was to have a
+steam engine for surface navigation and an electric motor for
+underwater navigation. This arrangement was not so much a new
+invention of Holland's as an adaptation of ideas which had been
+promulgated by others. Especially indebted was he in this respect to
+Commander Hovgaard of the Danish navy who, in 1887, had published an
+important book on the subject of double propulsion in submarines.
+Though Holland had made many improvements on these earlier theories,
+he soon found out that even at that there was going to be serious
+trouble with the _Plunger's_ engines. The boat had been launched in
+1897; but instead of finishing it, he persuaded the government to
+permit his company to build a new boat, and to return to the
+government all the money so far expended on the _Plunger_.
+
+The new boat, _Holland No. 8_, was started immediately and completed
+in record time but she, too, was unsatisfactory to the inventor. So
+without loss of time he went ahead and built another boat, the
+_Holland No. 9_, which, as we have said, became the first United
+States submarine.
+
+Two other men submitted plans for submarine boats in the competition
+which was won by the Holland boat, George C. Baker and Simon Lake.
+Neither of these was accepted. Mr. Baker made no further efforts to
+find out if his plans would result in a practicable submarine boat.
+But Simon Lake was not so easily discouraged.
+
+It is very interesting that the United States Navy Department at
+that time demanded that plans submitted for this competition should
+meet the following specifications:
+
+  1. Safety.
+  2. Facility and certainty of action when submerged.
+  3. Speed when running on the surface.
+  4. Speed when submerged.
+  5. Endurance, both submerged and on the surface.
+  6. Stability.
+  7. Visibility of object to be attacked.
+
+In spite of the many years that have passed since this competition
+and in spite of the tremendous progress that has been made in
+submarine construction these are still the essential requirements
+necessary to make a successful submarine boat.
+
+The designs submitted by Mr. Lake provided for a twin-screw vessel,
+80 feet long, 10 feet beam, and 115 tons displacement, with 400
+horse-power steam engines for surface propulsion and 70 horse-power
+motors for submerged work. The boat was to have a double hull, the
+spaces between the inner and the outer hulls forming water ballast
+tanks. There were to be four torpedo tubes, two forward and two aft.
+
+In an article published in 1915 in _International Marine
+Engineering_, Mr. Lake says about his 1893 design:
+
+     The new and novel feature which attracted the most attention and
+     skepticism regarding this design was (the author was later
+     informed by a member of the board) the claim made that the vessel
+     could readily navigate over the waterbed itself, and that while
+     navigating on the waterbed a door could be opened in the bottom
+     of a compartment and the water kept from entering the vessel by
+     means of compressed air, and that the crew could, by donning
+     diving suits, readily leave and enter the vessel while submerged.
+     Another novel feature was in the method of controlling the depth
+     of submergence when navigating between the surface and waterbed.
+     The vessel was designed to always submerge and navigate on a
+     level keel rather than to be inclined down or up by the back, to
+     "dive" or "rise." This maintenance of a level keel while
+     submerged was provided for by the installation of four depth
+     regulating vanes which I later termed "hydroplanes" to
+     distinguish them from the forward and aft levelling vanes or
+     horizontal rudders. These hydroplanes were located at equal
+     distances forward and aft of the center of gravity and buoyancy
+     of the vessel when in the submerged condition, so as not to
+     disturb the vessel when the planes were inclined down or up to
+     cause the vessel to submerge or rise when under way.
+
+     I also used, in conjunction with the hydroplanes, horizontal
+     rudders which I then called "levelling vanes," as their purpose
+     was just the opposite from that of the horizontal rudder used in
+     the diving type of vessel. They were operated by a pendulum
+     controlling device to be inclined so as to always maintain the
+     vessel on a level keel rather than to cause her to depart
+     therefrom. When I came to try this combination out in practice, I
+     found hand control of the horizontal rudders was sufficient. If
+     vessels with this system of control have a sufficient amount of
+     stability, you will run for hours and automatically maintain both
+     a constant depth and a level keel, without the depth control man
+     touching either the hydroplane or horizontal rudder control gear.
+     This automatic maintenance of depth without manipulating the
+     hydroplanes or rudders was a performance not anticipated, nor
+     claimed in my original patent on the above-mentioned
+     combination, and what caused these vessels to function in this
+     manner remained a mystery, which was unsolved until I built a
+     model tank in 1905 in Berlin, Germany, and conducted a series of
+     experiments on models of submarines. I then learned that a down
+     pull of a hydroplane at a given degree of inclination varied
+     according to its depth of submergence and that the deeper the
+     submergence, the less the down pull. This works out to give
+     automatic trim on a substantially level keel, and I have known of
+     vessels running for a period of two hours without variation of
+     depth of one foot and without once changing the inclination of
+     either the hydroplanes or the horizontal rudder.
+
+A great deal of skepticism was displayed for many years towards this
+new system of controlling the depth of submergence. But in recent
+years all the latest submarine boats have been built on this plan.
+
+Who, then, was this mechanical genius who was responsible for these
+far-going changes in submarine construction? Simon Lake was born at
+Pleasantville, New Jersey, September 4, 1866. He was educated at
+Clinton Liberal Institute, Fort Plain, New York, and Franklin
+Institute, Philadelphia. Early in life he displayed a marked
+interest in and genius for mechanical problems. His lack of success
+in the 1893 competition only spurred him on to further efforts. As
+long as the United States Government was unwilling to assist him in
+building his submarine boat, there was nothing left for him except
+to build it from his own means. In 1894, therefore, he set to work
+on an experimental boat, called the _Argonaut, Jr._ According to Mr.
+Lake's description as published in _International Marine
+Engineering_ in a series of articles from his pen the _Argonaut,
+Jr._, was
+
+     provided with three wheels, two on either side forward and one
+     aft, the latter acting as a steering wheel. When on the bottom
+     the wheels were rotated by hand by one or two men inside the
+     boat. Her displacement was about seven tons, yet she could be
+     propelled at a moderate walking gait when on the bottom. She was
+     also fitted with an air lock and diver's compartment, so arranged
+     that by putting an air pressure on the diver's compartment equal
+     to the water pressure outside, a bottom door could be opened and
+     no water would come into the vessel. Then by putting on a pair of
+     rubber boots the operator could walk around on the sea bottom and
+     push the boat along with him and pick up objects, such as clams,
+     oysters, etc. from the sea bottom.
+
+So much interest was aroused by this little wooden boat that Mr.
+Lake was enabled to finance the building of a larger boat, called
+the _Argonaut_. It was designed in 1895 and built in 1897 at
+Baltimore.
+
+Concerning the _Argonaut_ Mr. Lake says in the same article:
+
+     The _Argonaut_ as originally built was 36 feet long and 9 feet in
+     diameter. She was the first submarine to be fitted with an
+     internal-combustion engine. She was propelled with a thirty
+     horse-power gasoline (petrol) engine driving a screw propeller.
+     She was fitted with two toothed driving wheels forward which were
+     revolved by suitable gearing when navigating on the waterbed, or
+     they could be disconnected from this gearing and permitted to
+     revolve freely, propulsion being secured by the screw propeller.
+     A wheel in the rudder enabled her to be steered in any direction
+     when on the bottom. She also had a diving compartment to enable
+     divers to leave or enter the vessel when submerged, to operate on
+     wrecks or to permit inspection of the bottom or to recover
+     shellfish. She also had a lookout compartment in the extreme bow,
+     with a powerful searchlight to light up a pathway in front of her
+     as she moved along over the waterbed. This searchlight I later
+     found of little value except for night work in clear water. In
+     clear water the sunlight would permit of as good vision without
+     the use of the light as with it, while if the water was not
+     clear, no amount of light would permit of vision through it for
+     any considerable distance.
+
+     In January, 1898 [says Mr. Lake], while the _Argonaut_ was
+     submerged, telephone conversation was held from submerged
+     stations with Baltimore, Washington, and New York.
+
+     In 1898, also, the _Argonaut_ made the trip from Norfolk to New
+     York under her own power and unescorted. In her original form she
+     was a cigar-shaped craft with only a small percentage of reserve
+     buoyancy in her surface cruising condition. We were caught out in
+     the severe November northeast storm of 1898 in which over 200
+     vessels were lost and we did not succeed in reaching a harbour in
+     the "horseshoe" back of Sandy Hook until, of course, in the
+     morning. The seas were so rough they would break over her conning
+     tower in such masses I was obliged to lash myself fast to prevent
+     being swept overboard. It was freezing weather and I was soaked
+     and covered with ice on reaching harbour.
+
+     This experience caused me to apply to the _Argonaut_ a further
+     improvement for which I had already applied for a patent. This
+     was, doubled around the usual pressure resisting body of a
+     submarine, a ship-shape form of light plating which would give
+     greater seaworthiness, better surface speed, and make the vessel
+     more habitable for surface navigation. It would, in other words,
+     make a "sea-going submarine," which the usual form of
+     cigar-shaped vessel was not, as it would not have sufficient
+     surface buoyancy to enable it to rise with the seas and the seas
+     would sweep over it as they would sweep over a partly submerged
+     rock.
+
+     The _Argonaut_ was, therefore, taken to Brooklyn, twenty feet
+     added to her length, and a light water-tight buoyancy
+     superstructure of ship-shape form added. This superstructure was
+     opened to the sea when it was desired to submerge the vessel,
+     and water was permitted to enter the space between the light
+     plating of the ship-shaped form and the heavy plating of the
+     pressure resisting hull. This equalized pressure on the light
+     plates and prevented their becoming deformed due to pressure. The
+     superstructure increased her reserve of buoyancy in the surface
+     cruising condition from about 10 per cent. to over 40 per cent.
+     and lifted right up to the seas like any ordinary type of surface
+     vessel, instead of being buried by them in rough weather.
+
+     This feature of construction has been adopted by the Germans,
+     Italians, Russians, and in all the latest types of French boats.
+     It is the principal feature which distinguishes them in their
+     surface appearance from the earlier cigar-shaped boats of the
+     diving type. This ship-shaped form of hull is only suited to the
+     level keel submergence.
+
+In those days submarine boats were a much more unusual sight than
+they are to-day and simple fishermen who had never read or heard
+about submarines undoubtedly experienced disturbing sensations when
+they ran across their first underwater boat. Mr. Lake, a short time
+ago, while addressing a meeting of electrical engineers in Brooklyn,
+told the following experience which he had on one of his trips in
+the _Argonaut_:
+
+     On the first trip down the Chesapeake Bay, we had been running
+     along in forty feet of water and had been down about four hours.
+     Night was coming on, so we decided to come up to find out where
+     we were. I noticed one of those Chesapeake "Bug Eyes" lighting
+     just to leeward of us, and, as I opened the conning tower hatch,
+     called to the men aboard to find out where we were. As soon as I
+     did so, he turned his boat around and made straight for the
+     beach. I thought he was rather discourteous. He ran his boat up
+     on that beach and never stopped; the last I saw of him was when
+     he jumped ashore and started to run inland as hard as he and his
+     helper could go. Finally I learned we were just above the mouth
+     of the York or Rappahannock River and I found a sort of inland
+     harbour back of it. I decided to put up there for the night. Then
+     learning that there was a store nearby, we called after dark for
+     more provisions and I noticed a large crowd there. We got what we
+     wanted, and stepped outside the door. He asked us where we were
+     from. "We are down here in the submarine boat, _Argonaut_, making
+     an experimental trip down the bay." He then commenced to laugh.
+     "That explains it," he said; "just before nightfall, Captain
+     So-and-So and his mate came running up here to the store just as
+     hard as they could, and both dropped down exhausted, and when we
+     were able to get anything out of them, they told a very strange
+     story. That's why all these people are here." This is the story
+     the storekeeper told me: "The men were out dredging and all at
+     once they noticed a buoy with a red flag on it, and that buoy was
+     going against the tide, and they could not understand it. It came
+     up alongside, and they heard a 'puff, puff,' something like a
+     locomotive puffing, and then they smelt sulphur." (The "puff,
+     puff" was the exhaust of our engine and those fumes were what
+     they thought was sulphur.) "Just then the thing rose up out of
+     the water, then the smokestack appeared, and then the devil came
+     right out of that smokestack."
+
+In the January, 1899, issue of _McClure's Magazine_ there appeared a
+profusely illustrated article entitled "Voyaging under the Sea." The
+first part of it, "The Submarine Boat _Argonaut_ and her
+Achievements," was written by Simon Lake himself. In it he quotes
+as follows from the log book of the _Argonaut_ under date of July
+28, 1898.
+
+     Submerged at 8.20 A. M. in about thirty feet of water.
+     Temperature in living compartment, eighty-three degrees
+     Fahrenheit. Compass bearing west-north-west, one quarter west.
+     Quite a lively sea running on the surface, also strong current.
+     At 10.45 A. M. shut down engine; temperature, eighty-eight
+     degrees Fahrenheit.
+
+     After engine was shut down, we could hear the wind blowing past
+     our pipes extending above the surface; we could also tell by the
+     sound when any steamers were in the vicinity. We first allowed
+     the boat to settle gradually to the bottom, with the tide running
+     ebb; after a time the tide changed, and she would work slightly
+     sideways; we admitted about four hundred pounds of water
+     additional, but she still would move occasionally, so that a
+     pendulum nine inches long would sway one eighth of an inch
+     (thwartship). At 12 o'clock (noon) temperature was eighty-seven
+     degrees Fahrenheit; at 2.45 P. M. the temperature was still
+     eighty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. There were no signs of carbonic
+     acid gas at 2.45, although the engine had been closed down for
+     three hours and no fresh air had been admitted during the time.
+     Could hear the whistle of boats on the surface, and also their
+     propellers when running close, to the boat. At 3.30 the
+     temperature had dropped to eighty-five degrees. At 3.45 found a
+     little sign of carbonic acid gas, very slight, however, as a
+     candle would burn fairly bright in the pits. Thought we could
+     detect a smell of gasoline by comparing the fresh air which came
+     down the pipe (when hand blower was turned). Storage lamps were
+     burning during the five hours of submergence, while engine was
+     not running.
+
+     At 3.50 engine was again started, and went off nicely. Went into
+     diving compartment and opened door; came out through air-lock,
+     and left pressure there; found the wheels had buried about ten
+     inches or one foot, as the bottom had several inches of mud. We
+     had 500 pounds of air in the tanks, and it ran the pressure down
+     to 250 pounds to open the door in about thirty feet.
+
+     The temperature fell in the diving compartment to eighty-two
+     degrees after the compressed air was let in.
+
+     Cooked clam fritters and coffee for supper. The spirits of the
+     crew appeared to improve the longer we remained below; the time
+     was spent in catching clams, singing, trying to waltz, playing
+     cards, and writing letters to wives and sweethearts.
+
+     Our only visitors during the day were a couple of black bass that
+     came and looked in at the windows with a great deal of apparent
+     interest.
+
+     In future boats, it will be well to provide a smoking
+     compartment, as most of the crew had their smoking apparatus all
+     ready as soon as we came up.
+
+     Started pumps at 6.20, and arrived at the surface at 6.30. Down
+     altogether ten hours and fifteen minutes. People on pilot boat
+     _Calvert_ thought we were all hands drowned.
+
+The second part of this article was called "A Voyage on the Bottom
+of the Sea." It was written by Ray Stannard Baker, who had been
+fortunate enough to receive an invitation from Mr. Lake to accompany
+him on one of the trips of the _Argonaut_. Any one who has read
+Jules Verne's fascinating story _Twenty Thousand Leagues under the
+Sea_ must be struck immediately with the similarity between Mr.
+Baker's experiences and those of Captain Nemo's guests. It is not at
+all surprising, therefore, to have Mr. Baker tell us that during
+this trip Mr. Lake told him:
+
+     "When I was ten years old, I read Jules Verne's _Twenty Thousand
+     Leagues under the Sea_, and I have been working on submarine
+     boats ever since."
+
+Mr. Baker's record of what he saw and how he felt is not only a
+credit to his keen powers of observation, but also a proof of the
+fact that, in many ways, there was little difference between the
+_Argonaut_ of 1898 and the most up-to-date submarine of to-day. In
+part he says:
+
+     Simon Lake planned an excursion on the bottom of the sea for
+     October 12, 1898. His strange amphibian craft, the _Argonaut_,
+     about which we had been hearing so many marvels, lay off the pier
+     at Atlantic Highlands. Before we were near enough to make out her
+     hulk, we saw a great black letter A, framed of heavy gas-pipe,
+     rising forty feet above the water. A flag rippled from its
+     summit. As we drew nearer, we discovered that there really wasn't
+     any hulk to make out--only a small oblong deck shouldering deep
+     in the water and supporting a slightly higher platform, from
+     which rose what seemed to be a squatty funnel. A moment later we
+     saw that the funnel was provided with a cap somewhat resembling a
+     tall silk hat, the crown of which was represented by a brass
+     binnacle. This cap was tilted back, and as we ran alongside, a
+     man stuck his head up over the rim and sang out, "Ahoy there!"
+
+     A considerable sea was running, but I observed that the
+     _Argonaut_ was planted as firmly in the water as a stone pillar,
+     the big waves splitting over her without imparting any
+     perceptible motion.
+
+     We scrambled up on the little platform, and peered down through
+     the open conning-tower, which we had taken for a funnel, into the
+     depths of the ship below. Wilson had started his gasoline engine.
+
+     Mr. Lake had taken his place at the wheel, and we were going
+     ahead slowly, steering straight across the bay toward Sandy Hook
+     and deeper water. The _Argonaut_ makes about five knots an hour
+     on the surface, but when she gets deep down on the sea bottom,
+     where she belongs, she can spin along more rapidly.
+
+     The _Argonaut_ was slowly sinking under the water. We became
+     momentarily more impressed with the extreme smallness of the
+     craft to which we were trusting our lives. The little platform
+     around the conning-tower on which we stood--in reality the top of
+     the gasoline tank--was scarcely a half dozen feet across, and the
+     _Argonaut_ herself was only thirty-six feet long. Her sides had
+     already faded out of sight, but not before we had seen how
+     solidly they were built--all of steel, riveted and reinforced, so
+     that the wonder grew how such a tremendous weight, when
+     submerged, could ever again be raised.
+
+     I think we made some inquiries about the safety of submarine
+     boats in general. Other water compartments had been flooded, and
+     we had settled so far down that the waves dashed repeatedly over
+     the platform on which we stood--and the conning-tower was still
+     wide open, inviting a sudden engulfing rush of water. "You
+     mustn't confuse the _Argonaut_ with ordinary submarine boats,"
+     said Mr. Lake. "She is quite different and much safer."
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_For Anti-Aircraft Service._]
+
+     He explained that the _Argonaut_ was not only a submarine boat,
+     but much besides. She not only swims either on the surface or
+     beneath it, but she adds to this accomplishment the extraordinary
+     power of diving deep and rolling along the bottom of the sea on
+     wheels. No machine ever before did that. Indeed, the _Argonaut_
+     is more properly a "sea motorcycle" than a "boat." In its
+     invention Mr. Lake elaborated an idea which the United States
+     Patent Office has decided to be absolutely original.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by Bain News Service.
+
+_The Latest French Aircraft Gun._]
+
+     We found ourselves in a long, narrow compartment, dimly
+     illuminated by yellowish-green light from the little round, glass
+     windows. The stern was filled with Wilson's gasoline engine and
+     the electric motor, and in front of us toward the bow we could
+     see through the heavy steel doorways of the diver's compartment
+     into the lookout room, where there was a single round eye of
+     light.
+
+     I climbed up the ladder of the conning-tower and looked out
+     through one of the glass ports. My eyes were just even with the
+     surface of the water. A wave came driving and foaming entirely
+     over the top of the vessel, and I could see the curiously
+     beautiful sheen of the bright summit of the water above us. It
+     was a most impressive sight. Mr. Lake told me that in very clear
+     water it was difficult to tell just where the air left off and
+     the water began; but in the muddy bay where we were going down
+     the surface looked like a peculiarly clear, greenish pane of
+     glass moving straight up and down, not forward, as the waves
+     appear to move when looked at from above.
+
+     Now we were entirely under water. The rippling noises that the
+     waves had made in beating against the upper structure of the boat
+     had ceased. As I looked through the thick glass port, the water
+     was only three inches from my eyes, and I could see thousands of
+     dainty, semi-translucent jellyfish floating about as lightly as
+     thistledown. They gathered in the eddy behind the conning-tower
+     in great numbers, bumping up sociably against one another and
+     darting up and down with each gentle movement of the water. And I
+     realized that we were in the domain of the fishes.
+
+     Jim brought the government chart, and Mr. Lake announced that we
+     were heading directly for Sandy Hook and the open ocean. But we
+     had not yet reached the bottom, and John was busily opening
+     valves and letting in more water. I went forward to the little
+     steel cuddy-hole in the extreme prow of the boat, and looked out
+     through the watch-port. The water had grown denser and yellower,
+     and I could not see much beyond the dim outlines of the ship's
+     spar reaching out forward. Jim said that he had often seen fishes
+     come swimming up wonderingly to gaze into the port. They would
+     remain quite motionless until he stirred his head, and then they
+     vanished instantly. Mr. Lake has a remarkable photograph which he
+     took of a visiting fish, and Wilson tells of nurturing a queer
+     flat crab for days in the crevice of one of the view-holes.
+
+     At that moment, I felt a faint jolt, and Mr. Lake said that we
+     were on the bottom of the sea.
+
+     Here we were running as comfortably along the bottom of Sandy
+     Hook Bay as we would ride in a Broadway car, and with quite as
+     much safety. Wilson, who was of a musical turn, was whistling
+     _Down Went McGinty_, and Mr. Lake, with his hands on the
+     pilot-wheel, put in an occasional word about his marvellous
+     invention. On the wall opposite there was a row of dials which
+     told automatically every fact about our condition that the most
+     nervous of men could wish to know. One of them shows the pressure
+     of air in the main compartment of the boat, another registers
+     vacuum, and when both are at zero, Mr. Lake knows that the
+     pressure of the air is normal, the same as it is on the surface,
+     and he tries to maintain it in this condition. There are also a
+     cyclometer, not unlike those used on bicycles, to show how far
+     the boat travels on the wheels; a depth gauge, which keeps us
+     accurately informed as to the depth of the boat in the water, and
+     a declension indicator. By the long finger of the declension dial
+     we could tell whether we were going up hill or down. Once while
+     we were out, there was a sudden, sharp shock, the pointer leaped
+     back, and then quivered steady again. Mr. Lake said that we had
+     probably struck a bit of wreckage or an embankment, but the
+     _Argonaut_ was running so lightly that she had leaped up jauntily
+     and slid over the obstruction.
+
+     We had been keeping our eyes on the depth dial, the most
+     fascinating and interesting of any of the number. It showed that
+     we were going down, down, down, literally down to the sea in a
+     ship. When we had been submerged far more than an hour, and there
+     was thirty feet of yellowish green ocean over our heads, Mr. Lake
+     suddenly ordered the machinery stopped. The clacking noises of
+     the dynamo ceased, and the electric lights blinked out, leaving
+     us at once in almost absolute darkness and silence. Before this,
+     we had found it hard to realize that we were on the bottom of the
+     ocean; now it came upon us suddenly and not without a touch of
+     awe. This absence of sound and light, this unchanging
+     motionlessness and coolness, this absolute negation--that was the
+     bottom of the sea. It lasted only a moment, but in that moment we
+     realized acutely the meaning and joy of sunshine and moving
+     winds, trees, and the world of men.
+
+     A minute light twinkled out like a star, and then another and
+     another, until the boat was bright again, and we knew that among
+     the other wonders of this most astonishing of inventions there
+     was storage electricity which would keep the boat illuminated for
+     hours, without so much as a single turn of the dynamo. With the
+     stopping of the engine, the air supply from above had ceased; but
+     Mr. Lake laid his hand on the steel wall above us, where he said
+     there was enough air compressed to last us all for two days,
+     should anything happen. The possibility of "something happening"
+     had been lurking in our minds ever since we started. "What if
+     your engine should break down, so that you couldn't pump the
+     water out of the water compartments?" I asked. "Here we have
+     hand-pumps," said Mr. Lake promptly; "and if those failed, a
+     single touch of this lever would release our iron keel, which
+     weighs 4000 pounds, and up we would go like a rocket."
+
+     I questioned further, only to find that every imaginable
+     contingency, and some that were not at all imaginable to the
+     uninitiated, had been absolutely provided against by the genius
+     of the inventor. And everything from the gasoline engine to the
+     hand-pump was as compact and ingenious as the mechanism of a
+     watch. Moreover, the boat was not crowded; we had plenty of room
+     to move around and to sleep, if we wished, to say nothing of
+     eating. As for eating, John had brought out the kerosene stove
+     and was making coffee, while Jim cut the pumpkin pie. "This isn't
+     Delmonico's," said Jim, "but we're serving a lunch that
+     Delmonico's couldn't serve--a submarine lunch."
+
+     By this time the novelty was wearing off and we sat there, at the
+     bottom of the sea, drinking our coffee with as much unconcern as
+     though we were in an up-town restaurant. For the first time since
+     we started, Mr. Lake sat down, and we had an opportunity of
+     talking with him at leisure. He is a stout-shouldered, powerfully
+     built man, in the prime of life--a man of cool common sense, a
+     practical man, who is also an inventor. And he talks frankly and
+     convincingly, and yet modestly, of his accomplishment.
+
+     Having finished our lunch, Mr. Lake prepared to show us something
+     about the practical operations of the _Argonaut_. It has been a
+     good deal of a mystery to us how workmen penned up in a submarine
+     boat could expect to recover gold from wrecks in the water
+     outside, or to place torpedoes, or to pick up cables. "We simply
+     open the door, and the diver steps out on the bottom of the sea,"
+     Mr. Lake said, quite as if he was conveying the most ordinary
+     information.
+
+     At first it seemed incredible, but Mr. Lake showed us the heavy,
+     riveted door in the bottom of the diver's compartment. Then he
+     invited us inside with Wilson, who, besides being an engineer, is
+     also an expert diver. The massive steel doors of the little room
+     were closed and barred, and then Mr. Lake turned a cock and the
+     air rushed in under high pressure. At once our ears began to
+     throb, and it seemed as if the drums would burst inward.
+
+     "Keep swallowing," said Wilson, the diver.
+
+     As soon as we applied this remedy, the pain was relieved, but the
+     general sensation of increased air pressure, while exhilarating,
+     was still most uncomfortable. The finger on the pressure dial
+     kept creeping up and up, until it showed that the air pressure
+     inside of the compartment was nearly equal to the water pressure
+     without. Then Wilson opened a cock in the door. Instantly the
+     water gushed in, and for a single instant we expected to be
+     drowned there like rats in a trap. "This is really very simple,"
+     Mr. Lake was saying calmly. "When the pressure within is the same
+     as that without, no water can enter."
+
+     With that, Wilson dropped the iron door, and there was the water
+     and the muddy bottom of the sea within touch of a man's hand. It
+     was all easy enough to understand, and yet it seemed impossible,
+     even as we saw it with our own eyes. Mr. Lake stooped down, and
+     picked up a wooden rod having a sharp hook at the end. This he
+     pulled along the bottom....
+
+     We were now rising again to the surface, after being submerged
+     for more than three hours. I climbed into the conning-tower and
+     watched for the first glimpse of the sunlight. There was a sudden
+     fluff of foam, the ragged edge of a wave, and then I saw, not
+     more than a hundred feet away, a smack bound toward New York
+     under full sail. Her rigging was full of men, gazing curiously in
+     our direction, no doubt wondering what strange monster of the sea
+     was coming forth for a breath of air.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE MODERN SUBMARINE
+
+
+Holland and Lake must be considered the fathers of the modern
+submarine. This claim is not made in a spirit of patriotic
+boastfulness, though, of course it is true that the latter was an
+American by birth, and the former by choice, and that, therefore,
+we, as a nation, have a right to be proud of the accomplishments of
+these two fellow-citizens of ours. Without wishing to detract
+anything from the value of the work done by many men in many
+countries towards the development of the submarine after and
+contemporaneously with Holland and Lake, it still remains true that
+the work which these two did formed the foundation on which all
+others built. To-day, no submarine worthy of the name, no matter
+where it has been built and no matter where and how it is used, is
+without some features which are typical of either the Holland or
+Lake type. In many instances, and this is true especially of
+submarines of the highest type and the greatest development, the
+most significant characteristics of the Holland and Lake boats have
+been combined.
+
+During the years that followed the small beginnings of Holland and
+Lake, vast and highly efficient organizations have been built up to
+continue and elaborate their work. Death claimed Mr. Holland shortly
+after the outbreak of the great war, on August 12, 1914. Mr. Lake in
+1917 was still personally connected with and the guiding spirit of
+the extensive industrial establishments which have been created at
+Bridgeport, Conn., as a result of his inventions. He, too,
+surrounded himself with a corps of experts who in co-operation with
+him have brought the Lake submarines to a point of perfection which
+at the time of the _Argonaut's_ first trip would have appeared all
+but impossible.
+
+Roughly speaking, the beginning of the twentieth century may be called
+the turning point in the history of submarine invention and the
+beginning of the modern submarine. Although, as we have heard, various
+governments, especially those of France and the United States,
+interested themselves in the submarine question and appropriated
+small sums of money towards its solution previous to 1900, it was only
+after that year that governmental interest and influence were set to
+work with determination and purpose on behalf of submarine inventors.
+Quite naturally this resulted in increased popular interest.
+Experimental work on and with submarines no longer had to rely
+exclusively on private capital, frequently inconveniently timid and
+limited, but could count now on the vast financial resources of all
+the great nations of the world. This also made available the unlimited
+intellectual resources of serious scientists in every part of the
+universe. Mechanical and electrical engineers, naval designers and
+constructors, active men of finance and business, and quiet thinkers
+and investigators in laboratories began to interest themselves in the
+further development of the submarine.
+
+The United States for a number of years after its adoption of the
+Holland type remained true to its first choice. Between 1900, when
+the first Holland boat was bought by the United States Government,
+and 1911 all the United States submarine, boats were of the Holland
+type. In the latter year, however, it was decided to give the Lake
+boat a trial and since that time a number of boats of this type have
+been built. In all essential features both the Holland and Lake
+boats of later days were very similar to the original boats of these
+two types. In all the details, however, immense progress was made.
+Each new boat thus became greatly superior to its predecessors. This
+was especially true in regard to size and speed and the improvements
+made in these two respects naturally resulted in a corresponding
+increase in radius of activity. The passing years also brought a
+wonderful refinement of all the technical details of the submarine
+boats. Practically every feature was developed to a remarkable
+degree. There is, indeed, a great difference between the submarine
+boats of the early twentieth century which had to rely on their
+conning-tower for steering, and more recent boats with their
+wonderful periscopes and gyro compasses. Similar progress was made
+in the development of the means of propulsion. The engines used for
+surface travelling became more powerful and efficient. This was also
+true of the electric motors, batteries, and accumulators employed
+in the submerged state. The problem of ventilation likewise has been
+worked out to such an extent that in the most modern submarines most
+of the inconveniences experienced by the crews of earlier boats have
+been removed. This perfection of technical details which was thus
+gradually approached also permitted a very considerable increase in
+the fighting power of submarine boats. The number of torpedo tubes
+was increased and it became possible to carry a larger reserve stock
+of torpedoes. Submarines of to-day furthermore carry guns varying in
+calibre, attaining in some instances four inches, and when in later
+years it became evident that one of the most dangerous enemies of
+the submarine was the airplane, some of the boats were equipped even
+with anti-aircraft guns.
+
+[Illustration: Copyright by Munn & Co., Inc. From the _Scientific
+American_.
+
+_Modern German Airplane Types._]
+
+In the United States Navy the submarine has never been popular.
+Indeed it is by no means certain that in comparison with other
+navies of the world the United States was not better off in
+underwater boats in 1911 than she was three years later when the
+warcloud broke. The bulk of our naval opinion has always been for
+the dreadnoughts. A change of political administration at Washington
+in 1912 gave a temporary setback to naval development, and the
+submarines, being still a matter of controversy, languished. Few
+were built and of those few many showed such structural weakness
+that the reports of their manoeuvres were either suppressed, or
+issued in terms of such broad generality that the public could by no
+possibility suspect, what all the Navy knew to be the fact, that the
+submarine flotilla of the United States was weak to the point of
+impotence.
+
+Happily we had nearly three years in which to observe the progress
+of the war before becoming ourselves embroiled in it. During this
+period our submarine fleet was somewhat increased, and upon our
+actual entrance upon the struggle a feverish race was begun to put
+us on an equality with other nations in underwater boats. It would
+have been too late had any emergency arisen. But Germany had no
+ships afloat to be attacked by our submarines had we possessed them.
+Her own warfare upon our merchant shipping could not be met in kind,
+for submarines cannot fight submarines. We have, therefore, up to
+the present time, not suffered from the perilous neglect with which
+we long treated this form of naval weapon.
+
+Indeed the submarine fleet of the United States Navy at the
+beginning of the war was so inconsiderable that foreign writers on
+the subject ignored it. In 1900 we had purchased nine of the type of
+submarines then put out by the Holland Company. One of these, the
+first in actual service, known as the "Baby" Holland was kept in
+commission ten years and upon becoming obsolete was honoured by
+being taken in state to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and there
+mounted on a pedestal for the admiration of all comers. She was 59
+feet long and would make a striking exhibit placed next to one of
+the new German submersible cruisers which exceed 300 feet and have a
+displacement of 5000 tons. These first Holland ships which long
+constituted the entire underwater force of the United States were
+but trivial affairs compared with the modern vessel. Their
+displacement was but 122 tons, their engines for surface navigation
+were of 160 horse-power, gasoline, and for underwater navigation 70
+horse-power, electric. They carried but one torpedo tube and two
+extra torpedoes and had a radius of action of but 300 miles. At that
+time in fact the naval theory was that submarines were coast defence
+vessels altogether. After this war they are likely to form part of
+the first battle line of every navy. Yet these pioneer vessels
+established their seaworthiness well in 1911, when four of them
+accompanied by a parent ship to supply them with fresh stocks of
+fuel and to render assistance in case of need, crossed the Pacific
+Ocean under their own power to the Philippines. This exploit tended
+to popularize these craft in the Navy Department, and soon after
+larger vessels known as the "Viper" class were ordered. One of these
+was called the _Octopus_, the first submarine to be fitted with twin
+screws. In many ways she represented a distinct advance in the art
+of submarine construction. She was in fact the first vessel built
+with the distinct idea of being a cruising, as well as a harbour
+defence ship. Her type proved successful in this respect. The
+_Octopus_ further established a record for deep sea submergence in
+1907 when she descended to a depth of 205 feet off Boston, returning
+to the surface in entire safety.
+
+The ability to withstand the pressure of the water at great depths
+is a vital quality of a successful submarine. One American submarine
+narrowly escaped destruction because of structural weakness in this
+respect. She had by accident descended a few feet below the normal
+depth at which such boats navigate. The water pressure affected the
+valves which refused to work and the vessel slowly sank deeper and
+deeper. At a recorded depth of 123 feet the sinking of the vessel
+became so much more rapid that the crew with frantic endeavours
+sought at once to stop the leaks and pump out the water which had
+entered. At that depth there was a pressure of 153-1/2 pounds upon
+every square inch of the surface of the submarine. This the workers
+at the one hand pump had to overcome. It was a savage and a
+desperate struggle but the men finally won and the vessel regained
+the surface. As a result of this experience every navy prescribed
+submergence tests for its submarines before putting them into
+commission. How to make these tests was perplexing at first. A
+government did not want to send men down in a steel casket to see
+just how far they could go before it collapsed. But if no observer
+accompanied the ship it would be impossible to tell at what depth
+leakage and other signs of weakness became apparent. An Italian
+naval architect, Major Laurenti, whose submarines are now found in
+every navy of the world, invented a dock in which these tests can be
+made up to any desired pressure while the observers inside the
+submarine are in communication with those without and the pressure
+can be instantly removed if signs of danger appear. In the United
+States Navy boats to be accepted must stand a pressure equivalent to
+that encountered at 200 feet. In the German navy the depth
+prescribed is 170 feet. Under normal conditions submarines seldom
+travel at a depth of more than 100 feet although the "F-1" of the
+United States Navy accomplished the remarkable feat of making a
+six-hour cruise in San Francisco Bay at a depth of 283 feet. At this
+depth the skin of the ship has to withstand a pressure of no less
+than 123 pounds per square inch.
+
+Specific information as to the nature of submarine construction in
+the United States since the beginning of the war in 1914 is
+jealously guarded by the Navy Department. In broad general terms the
+number of ships under construction is revealed to the public, but
+all information as to the size of individual vessels, their armour
+or the qualities of novelty with which every one hopes and believes
+American inventive genius has invested them, are kept secret. The
+_Navy Year Book of 1916_ summarized our submarine strength at that
+time as follows:
+
+                                               _Displacement_
+
+  Submarines fit for action                42   15,722 Tons
+     "       under construction            33   21,093  "
+     "       authorized and appropriated
+             for                           30   22,590  "
+                                          ---   ------
+             Total                        105   59,405  "
+
+In addition thirty-seven more had been authorized by Congress
+without the appropriation of money for them. By this time however
+these appropriations have been made together with further heavy
+ones. While figures are refused at the Navy Department, it is
+declared that while the United States in 1914 was the last of the
+great powers in respect to submarine strength provided for, it is
+now well up to the foremost, even to Germany.
+
+Great Britain like the United States continued for many years to
+build submarines of the Holland type. Naturally all the recent
+improvements were incorporated in the British boats. Very little,
+however, is known concerning the details of the more recent
+additions to the British submarine flotilla because of the secrecy
+maintained by the British authorities in war time.
+
+At the beginning of the present war, the British navy possessed 82
+active submarines of 5 different classes. They were all of the
+Holland type, but in each class there were incorporated vast
+improvements over the preceding class. Displacement, size, motive
+power, speed, radius of action, and armament were gradually
+increased until the "E" class contained boats possessing the
+following features: Submerged displacement, 800 tons; length 176
+feet; beam 22-1/2 feet; heavy oil engines of 2000 H.-P.; electric
+engines of 800 H.-P.; surface speed 16 knots; submerged speed 10
+knots; cruising range 5000 miles; armament: 4 torpedo tubes, space
+for 6 torpedoes, and two 3-inch quick-firing, high-angle,
+disappearing guns; armoured conning-towers and decks; wireless
+equipment; 3 panoramic periscopes.
+
+At the same time 22 other submarines were said to be in course of
+construction. Some of these were of the "F" class (Holland type),
+similar to the "E" class except that every single characteristic had
+been greatly increased, in many instances even doubled. In addition
+to the "F" class Holland-type boats, there were also under
+construction a number of boats of different types designated
+respectively as "V," "W," and "S" class. The "V" class were of the
+Lake type, the "W" of the French "Laubeuf" type, and the "S" class
+of the Italian "F. I. A. T." or Laurenti type; both of the last
+named were adaptations of the Lake type.
+
+France, which was for many years the prodigal of the nations when it
+came to submarine building has continued this tendency. In a way
+this liberal expenditure of money did not pay particularly well.
+For, although it resulted in the creation of a comparatively large
+submarine fleet, this fleet contained boats of every kind and
+description. Quite a number of the boats were little more than
+experiments and possessed not a great deal of practical value. The
+manning and efficient handling of a fleet having so little
+homogeneity naturally was a difficult matter and seriously
+restricted its fighting efficiency.
+
+At the outbreak of the war France had 92 submarines in active
+service, belonging to 12 different classes. In addition there had
+also been built at various times 5 experimental boats which had been
+named: _Argonaute_, _Amiral Bourgeoise_, _Archimede_, _Mariotte_,
+and _Charles Brun_. The majority of the boats belonging to the
+various classes were of the Laubeuf type, an adaptation of the Lake
+type made for the French navy by M. Laubeuf, a marine engineer. In
+their various details these boats vary considerably. Their
+displacement ranges from 67 tons to 1000 tons, their length from 100
+feet to 240 feet, their beam from 12 feet to 20 feet, their surface
+speed from 8-1/2 knots to 17 1/2 knots, their submerged speed from 5
+knots to 12 knots, the horse-power of their heavy oil engines from
+1300 to 2000 and that of their electric motors from 350 to 900. Some
+of the boats, however, have steam engines, others gasoline motors,
+and still others steam turbines. The cruising range of the biggest
+and newest boats is 4000 miles. Armament varies with size, of
+course, the latest boats carrying 4 torpedo tubes for eight 18-inch
+torpedoes and two 14-pdr. quick-firing, high angle, disappearing
+guns.
+
+Nine more submarines were in course of construction at the outbreak
+of war, most of which were of the improved "Gustave Zede" class.
+During the war French shipyards were chiefly occupied with capital
+navy ships and it is not thought the submarine strength has been
+much increased.
+
+Of the great naval powers, Germany was, strangely enough, the last to
+become interested in the building of a submarine fleet. This, however,
+was not due to any neglect on the part of the German naval
+authorities. It is quite evident from the few official records which
+are available that they watched and studied very carefully the
+development of the submarine and growth of the various submarine
+fleets. During the early years of the twentieth century, however, the
+Germans seemed to think that most of the boats that were being built
+then had not yet passed through the experimental stage and they also
+apparently decided that it would be just as well to wait until other
+nations had spent their money and efforts on these quasi experimental
+boats. Not until submarines had been built in the United States,
+England, and France which had proved beyond all doubt that they were
+practicable vessels of definite accomplishments, did the Germans
+seriously concern themselves with the creation of a German submarine
+fleet. When this period had been reached they went ahead with full
+power, and with the usual German thoroughness they adopted the best
+points from each of the various types developed by that time. The
+result of this attitude was a submarine boat built at first
+exclusively by Krupp and known as the "Germania" type. It was this
+type which formed the basis of the German submarine which has become
+known so extensively and disastrously during recent years. In most
+respects this type is perhaps more similar to the Lake type than to
+any other, although some features of the Holland type have been
+incorporated as well.
+
+At the beginning of the war Germany was credited with only thirty
+submarines. Six more were then rapidly approaching completion and
+the German naval law passed some time before provided for the
+building of seventy-two submarines by the end of 1917. It is
+believed in fact that by that time the Germans had not less than two
+hundred _Unterseeboots_.
+
+From the very beginning the Germans have designated their submarines
+by the letter "U" (standing for _Unterseeboot_) followed by numbers.
+The first boat was built in 1905 and was named "U-1." It was a
+comparatively small boat of 236 tons displacement. The motive power
+on the surface was a heavy-oil engine of 250 H.-P. Under water the
+boat was driven by electric motors of a little more than 100 H.-P.
+Submerged the "U-1" was capable of a speed of 7 knots only, which on
+the surface of the water could be increased to 10. Her radius of
+action was about 750 miles. Only one torpedo tube had been provided.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by the British._]
+
+From this boat to the modern German submarine was indeed a long step
+taken in a comparatively short time. Not very much is known
+regarding modern German submarines, but the latest boats completed
+before the war were vessels of 900 tons displacement with heavy-oil
+engines of 2000 H.-P. and electric motors of 900 H.-P., possessing a
+surface and submerged speed of 18 and 10 knots respectively and a
+cruising radius of 4000 miles. They had four torpedo tubes for eight
+torpedoes, two 14-pdr. quick-firing guns, and two 1-pdr. high-angle
+anti-aircraft guns. Naturally they were also equipped with all the
+latest improvements, such as wireless apparatus, panoramic
+periscopes, armoured conning-towers, and decks. Since the outbreak
+of the war the Germans have built even more powerful submarine boats
+whose perfections in regard to speed, radius of action and armament
+became known through their accomplishments. Of these we will hear
+more in a later chapter.
+
+At just what period of the war the Germans woke up to the vital
+importance to them of an enormous submarine fleet is not known. It
+may have been immediately upon the amazing exploit of Captain
+Weddigen in the North Sea. At any rate the war had not long
+progressed before the destruction caused by German submarine attacks
+began to awaken the apprehension of the Allies and neutral nations.
+Retaliation in kind was impossible. The Germans had neither
+merchant nor naval ships at sea to be sunk. The rapidity with which
+the volume of the loss inflicted upon merchant shipping grew
+indicated an equally rapid increase in the size of the German
+underwater fleet. Neutrals were enraged by the extension by the
+Germans of the areas of sea in which they claimed the right to sink
+neutral ships, and their growing disregard for the restraining
+principles of international law. How greatly they developed the
+submarine idea was shown by their construction in 1916 of vessels
+with a displacement of 2400 tons; a length of 279 feet, and a beam
+of 26 feet; a surface speed of 22 knots, cruising radius of 6500
+miles, mounting 4 to 8 guns and carrying a crew of from 40 to 60.
+But it was reported that two vessels designed primarily for surface
+cruising, but nevertheless submersible at will, had been laid down
+of 5000 tons, a length of 414 feet, and a radius of 18,000 to 20,000
+miles. These "submersible cruisers" as they were called, mounted 6
+to 8 guns, 30 torpedo tubes, and carried 90 torpedoes. What part
+vessels of this type shall play in war is still to be determined.
+
+Of the smaller naval powers, Italy comparatively early had become
+interested in the building of submarines. Most of her boats are of
+the Laurenti type--which is a very close adaptation of the Lake
+type. Russia and Japan, especially the latter, built up fairly
+efficient underwater fleets. The lesser countries, like Austria,
+Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Spain have concerned
+themselves seriously with the creation of submarine fleets. The
+submarine boats of all of these countries in most instances were
+either of the Lake or Holland type though frequently they were built
+from plans of English, French or German adaptations rather than in
+accordance with the original American plans.
+
+The exact number of submarines possessed now by the various navies
+of the world is a matter of rather indefinite knowledge. Great
+secrecy has been maintained by every country in this respect. From a
+variety of sources, however, it has been possible to compile the
+following list which at least gives an approximate idea of the
+respective strength of the various submarine fleets at the beginning
+of the war. The numbers assigned to each country are only
+approximate, however, and include both boats then in existence or
+ordered built: United States 57; Great Britain 104; France 92;
+Germany 36; Italy 28; Russia 40; Japan 15; Austria 12; Holland 13;
+Denmark 15; Sweden 13; Norway 4; Greece 2; Turkey 2; Brazil 3; Peru
+2.
+
+Having traced the development of the submarine from its earliest
+beginnings to recent times we are naturally now confronted with the
+question "What are the principal requirements and characteristics of
+the modern submarine?"
+
+The submarine boat of to-day, in order to do its work promptly and
+efficiently, must first of all possess seaworthiness. This means
+that no matter whether the sea is quiet or rough the submarine must
+be able to execute its operations with a fair degree of accuracy and
+promptness and must also be capable of making continuous headway.
+Surface and underwater navigation must be possible with equal
+facility and it is necessary that a state of submergence can be
+reached without loss of time and without any degree of danger to the
+boat's safety. At all times, travelling above water or below, the
+submarine must possess mechanical means which will make it possible
+to control its evolutions under all conditions. Furthermore, the
+ability of the submarine to find and to observe objects in its
+vicinity must not be greatly reduced when it is in a submerged
+position. In the latter it also becomes of extreme importance that
+the provisions for ventilation are such that the crew of the
+submarine should lose as little as possible in its efficiency and
+comfort. A fair amount of speed both on and below the surface of the
+water is essential and the maintenance of the speed for a fairly
+long period of time must be assured.
+
+In regard to their general outward appearance, submarines of various
+types to-day vary comparatively little. In many respects they
+resemble closely in shape, torpedo boats--the earlier submarines
+particularly. In size, of course, they differ in accordance with the
+purposes for which they have been designed. As compared with earlier
+submarines the most notable difference is that modern submarines
+possess more of a superstructure. Almost all of them are built now
+with double hulls. The space between the outer and the inner hull is
+utilized primarily for ballast tanks by means of which submergence
+is accomplished and stability maintained and regulated. Some of
+these tanks, however, are not used to carry water ballast, but serve
+as reservoirs for the fuel needed by the engines. The stability of
+the submarine and the facility with which it can submerge also
+depend greatly on the distribution of weight of its various parts.
+This problem has been worked out in such a way that to-day there is
+little room for improvement. Its details, however, are of too
+technical a nature to permit discussion in this place.
+
+Hydroplanes both fore and aft are now generally used to assist in
+regulating and controlling stability in the submerged state. The
+motive power of the modern submarine is invariably of a two-fold
+type. For travelling on the surface internal combustion engines are
+used. The gasoline engine of former years has been displaced by
+Diesel motors or adaptations of them. Although these represent a
+wonderful advance over the engines used in the past there is still a
+great deal of room for improvement. The opinions of engineers in
+this respect vary greatly, American opinion being generally
+unfavourable to the Diesel type, and whether the final solution of
+this problem will lie in the direction of a more highly developed
+motor of Diesel type, of an improved gasoline engine, or of some
+other engine not yet developed, only the future can tell. Simplicity
+of construction and reliability of operation are the two essential
+features which must be possessed by every part of the power plant of
+a submarine. For underwater travel electric motors and storage
+batteries are employed exclusively. These vary, of course, in
+detail. In principle, however, they are very much alike. Although
+this combination of electric and oil power is largely responsible
+for having made the submarine what it is to-day, it is far from
+perfect. Mechanical complications of many kinds and difficulties of
+varying degrees result from it. Up to comparatively recently these
+were considered insurmountable obstacles. But engineers all over the
+world are giving their most serious attention to the problem of
+devising a way to remove these obstacles and continuous progress is
+made by them.
+
+As an immediate result of the development of motive power in the
+submarine its speed both on and below the surface of the water as
+well as its radius of action has been materially increased. To-day
+submarines travel on the water with a speed which even a few years
+ago would have been thought quite respectable for the most powerful
+battleships or the swiftest passenger liners. And even under water,
+submarines attain a velocity which is far superior to that of which
+earlier submarines were capable on the surface of the water. How
+immensely extended the radius of action of the submarine has become
+in recent years, has impressed itself on the world especially in the
+last few years. Both English and French submarines have travelled
+without making any stops from their home ports to the Dardanelles
+and back again. And used to, and satiated as we are with mechanical
+wonders of all kinds the whole world was amazed when in 1916 German
+submarines made successful trips from their home ports to ports in
+the United States and returned with equal success. This meant a
+minimum radius of action of 3500 miles. In the case of the German
+U-boat which in 1916 appeared at Newport for a few hours, then
+attacked and sank some merchantmen off the United States coast and
+later was reported as having arrived safely in a German port, it has
+never been established whether the boat renewed its supplies of food
+and fuel on the way or carried enough to make the trip of some 7000
+miles.
+
+One other important feature without which submarines would have
+found it impossible to score such accomplishments is the periscope.
+In the beginning periscopes were rather crude appliances. They were
+very weak and sprung leaks frequently. Moisture, formed by
+condensation, made them practically useless. In certain positions
+the image of the object picked up by the periscope became inverted.
+Their radius of vision was limited, and in every way they proved
+unreliable and unsatisfactory. But, just as almost every feature of
+submarine construction was gradually developed and most every
+technical obstacle overcome, experts gradually concentrated their
+efforts on the improvement of periscopes. Modern periscopes are
+complicated optical instruments which have been developed to a very
+high point of efficiency. A combination of prisms and lenses makes
+it possible now to see true images clearly. Appliances have been
+developed to make the rotation of the periscope safe, prompt, and
+easy so that the horizon can be swept readily in every direction.
+Magnification can be established at will by special devices easily
+connected or disconnected with the regular instrument. The range of
+vision of the modern periscope is as remarkable as its other
+characteristics. It differs, of course, in proportion to the height
+to which the periscope is elevated above the surface of the water.
+In clear weather a submarine, having elevated its periscope to a
+height of 20 feet can pick up a large battleship at as great a
+distance as 6 miles, while observers on the latter, even if equipped
+with the most powerful optical instruments, are absolutely unable to
+detect the submarine. This great distance is reduced to about 4000
+yards if the periscope is only 3 feet above the surface of the water
+and to about 2200 yards if the elevation of the periscope is 1 foot.
+But even the highly developed periscope of to-day, usually called
+"panoramic periscope," has its limitations. The strain on the
+observer's eyes is very severe and can be borne only for short
+periods. In dirty weather the objectives become cloudy and the
+images are rendered obscure and indefinite, although this trouble
+has been corrected, at least in part, by forcing a strong blast
+through the rim surrounding the observation glass. At night, of
+course, the periscope is practically useless. Formerly a shot which
+cut off the periscope near the water's edge might sink the boat.
+This has been guarded against by cutting off the tube with a heavy
+plate of transparent glass which does not obstruct vision but shuts
+off the entrance of water.
+
+Important as the periscope is both as a means of observing the
+surroundings of the submarine and as a guide in steering it, it is
+not the only means of accomplishing the latter purpose. To-day every
+submarine possesses the most reliable type of compass available. At
+night when the periscope is practically useless or in very rough
+weather, or in case the periscope has been damaged or destroyed,
+steering is done exclusively by means of the compass. The latest
+type in use now on submarines is called the gyroscope compass which
+is a highly efficient and reliable instrument.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Exterior of First German Submarine._]
+
+In the matter of ventilation the modern submarine also has reached a
+high state of perfection. The fresh air supply is provided and
+regulated in such a manner that most of the discomforts suffered by
+submarine crews in times past have been eliminated. The grave danger
+which formerly existed as a result of the poisonous fumes, emanating
+from the storage batteries and accumulators, has been reduced to a
+minimum. In every respect, except that of space, conditions of life
+in a submarine have been brought to a point where they can be
+favourably compared with those of boats navigated on the surface of
+the water. Of course, even at the best, living quarters in a
+submarine will always be cramped. However, it is so important that
+submarine crews should be continuously kept on a high plane of
+efficiency that they are supplied with every conceivable comfort
+permitted by the natural limitations of submarine construction.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Interior of First German Submarine. Showing Appliances for
+Man-Power._]
+
+Submarine boats so far have been used almost exclusively as
+instruments of warfare. One of their most important features,
+therefore, naturally is their armament. We have already heard
+something about the use of torpedoes by submarines. The early
+submarines had as a rule only one torpedo tube and were incapable of
+carrying more than two or three torpedoes. Gradually, however, both
+the number of torpedo tubes and of torpedoes was increased. The
+latest types have as many as eight or ten tubes and carry enough
+torpedoes to permit them to stay away from their base for several
+weeks. In recent years submarines have also been armed with guns.
+Naturally these have to be of light weight and small calibre. They
+are usually mounted so that they can be used at a high angle. This
+is done in order to make it possible for submarines to defend
+themselves against attacks from airships. The mountings of these
+guns are constructed in such a way that the guns themselves
+disappear immediately after discharge and are not visible while not
+in use. Though mounted on deck they are aimed and fired from below.
+As part of the armament of the submarine we must also consider the
+additional protection which they receive from having certain
+essential parts protected by armour plate.
+
+All these features have increased the safety of submarine navigation
+to a great extent. In spite of the popular impression that submarine
+navigation entailed a greater number of danger factors than
+navigation on the surface of the water, this is not altogether so.
+If we stop to consider this subject we can readily see why rather
+the opposite should be true. Navigation under the surface of the
+water greatly reduces the possibility of collision and also the
+dangers arising from rough weather. For the results of the latter
+are felt to a much lesser degree below than on the surface of the
+water. Many other factors are responsible for the comparatively high
+degree of safety inherent in submarines. Up to the outbreak of the
+present war only about two hundred and fifty lives had been lost as
+a result to accidents to modern submarines. Considering that up to
+1910 a great deal of submarine navigation was more or less
+experimental this is a record which can bear favourable comparison
+with similar records established by overwater navigation or by
+navigation in the air.
+
+To the average man the thought of imprisonment in a steel tube
+beneath the surface of the sea, and being suddenly deprived of all
+means of bringing it up to air and light is a terrifying and nerve
+shattering thing. It is probably the first consideration which
+suggests itself to one asked to make a submarine trip. Always the
+newspaper headlines dealing with a submarine disaster speak of those
+lost as "drowned like rats in a trap." Men will admit that the
+progress of invention has greatly lessened the danger of accident to
+submarines, but nevertheless sturdily insist that when the accident
+does happen the men inside have no chance of escape.
+
+As a matter of fact many devices have been applied to the modern
+submarine to meet exactly this contingency. Perhaps nothing is more
+effective than the so-called telephone buoy installed in our Navy
+and in some of those of Europe. This is a buoy lightly attached to
+the outer surface of the boat, containing a telephone transmitter
+and receiver connected by wire with a telephone within. In the event
+of an accident this buoy is released and rises at once to the
+surface. A flag attached attracts the attention of any craft that
+may be in the neighbourhood and makes immediate communication with
+those below possible. Arrangements can then be made for raising the
+boat or towing her to some point at which salvage is possible. An
+instance of the value of this device was given by the disaster to
+the German submarine "U-3" which was sunk at Kiel in 1910. Through
+the telephone the imprisoned crew notified those at the other end
+that they had oxygen enough for forty-eight hours but that the work
+of rescue must be completed in that time. A powerful floating
+derrick grappled the sunken submarine and lifted its bow above
+water. Twenty-seven of the imprisoned crew crept out through the
+torpedo tubes. The captain and two lieutenants conceived it their
+duty to stay with the ship until she was actually saved. In the
+course of the operations one of the ventilators was broken, the
+water rushed in and all three were drowned.
+
+In some of the Holland ships of late construction there is an
+ingenious, indeed an almost incredible device by which the ship
+takes charge of herself if the operators or crew are incapacitated.
+It has happened that the shock of a collision has so stunned the men
+cooped up in the narrow quarters of a submarine that they are for
+quite an appreciable time unable to attend to their duties. Such a
+collision would naturally cause the boat to leak and to sink. In
+these newer Holland ships an automatic device causes the ship, when
+she has sunk to a certain depth, registered of course by automatic
+machinery, to start certain apparatus which empties the ballast
+tanks and starts the pumps which will empty the interior of the ship
+if it has become flooded. The result is that after a few minutes of
+this automatic work, whether the crew has sufficiently recovered to
+take part in it or not, the boat will rise to the surface.
+
+This extraordinary invention is curiously reminiscent of the fact
+chronicled in earlier chapters of this book that the most modern
+airplanes are so built that should the aviator become insensible or
+incapacitated for his work, if he will but drop the controls, the
+machine will adjust itself and make its own landing in safety.
+Unaided the airplane drops lightly to earth; unaided the submarine
+rises buoyantly to the air.
+
+In recent years there have been developed special ships for the
+salvage of damaged or sunk submarines. At the same time the navies
+of the world have also produced special submarine tenders or mother
+ships. The purpose of these is to supply a base which can keep on
+the move with the same degree of facility which the submarine itself
+possesses. These tenders are equipped with air compressors by means
+of which the air tanks of submarines can be refilled. Electric
+generators make it possible to replenish the submarine storage
+batteries. Mechanical equipment permits the execution of repairs to
+the submarine's machinery and equipment. Extra fuel, substitute
+parts for the machinery, spare torpedoes are carried by these
+tenders. The most modern of them are even supplied with dry dock
+facilities, powerful cranes, and sufficiently strong armament to
+repel attacks from boats of the type most frequently encountered by
+submarines.
+
+There are, of course, many other special appliances which make up
+the sum total of a modern submarine's equipment. Electricity is used
+for illuminating all parts of the boat. Heat is supplied in the same
+manner; this is a very essential feature because the temperature of
+a submarine, after a certain period of submergence, becomes
+uncomfortably low. Electricity is also used for cooking purposes.
+
+Every submarine boat built to-day is equipped with wireless
+apparatus. Naturally it is only of limited range varying from one
+hundred and twenty to one hundred and eighty miles, but even at that
+it is possible for a submarine to send messages to its base or some
+other given point from a considerable distance by relay. If the
+submarine is running on the surface of the water the usual means of
+naval communication-flag signals, wig-wagging or the semaphore, can
+be employed. The submarine bell is another means for signalling. It
+is really a wireless telephone, operating through the water instead
+of the air. Up to the present, however, it has not been sufficiently
+developed to permit its use for any great distance. It is so
+constructed that it can also be used as a sound detector.
+
+Some submarines, besides being equipped with torpedo tubes, carry
+other tubes for laying mines. In most instances this is only a
+secondary function of the submarine. There are, however, special
+mine-laying submarines. Others, especially of the Lake type, have
+diving compartments which permit the employment of divers for the
+purpose of planting or taking up mines.
+
+Disappearing anchors, operated by electricity from within the boat,
+are carried. They are used for steadying the boat if it is desired
+to keep it for any length of time on the bottom of the sea in a
+current.
+
+From this necessarily brief description it can be seen readily that
+the modern submarine boat is a highly developed, but very
+complicated mechanism. Naturally it requires a highly trained,
+extremely efficient crew. The commanding officers must be men of
+strong personality, keen intellect, high mechanical efficiency, and
+quick judgment. The gradual increase in size has brought a
+corresponding increase in the number of a submarine's crew. A decade
+ago from 8 to 10 officers and men were sufficient but to-day we hear
+of submarine crews that number anywhere from 25 to 40.
+
+In spite of the marvellous advances which have been made in the
+construction, equipment, and handling of the submarine during the
+last ten years, perfection in many directions is still a long way
+off. How soon it will be reached, if ever, and by what means, are,
+of course, questions which only the future can answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ABOARD A SUBMARINE
+
+
+Submarines have been compared to all kinds of things, from a fish to
+a cigar. Life on them has been described in terms of the highest
+elation as well as of the deepest depression. Their operation and
+navigation, according to some claims, require a veritable
+combination of mechanical, electrical, and naval genius--not only on
+the part of the officers, but even on that of the simplest
+oiler--while others make it appear as if a submarine was at least as
+simple to handle as a small motor boat. The truth concerning all
+these matters lies somewhere between these various extremes.
+
+It is quite true that except on the very latest "submerged cruisers"
+built by the Germans, the space for the men operating a submarine is
+painfully straitened. They must hold to their positions almost like
+a row of peas in a pod. From this results the gravest strain upon
+the nerves so that it has been found in Germany that after a cruise
+a period of rest of equal duration is needed to restore the men to
+their normal condition. Before assignment to submarine duty, too, a
+special course of training is requisite. Submarine crews are not
+created in a day.
+
+What the interior of the new German submarines with a length of 280
+feet, and a beam of 26 feet may be, no man of the Anglo-Saxon race
+may know or tell. The few who have descended into those mysterious
+depths will have no chance to tell of them until the war is over.
+Nor is it possible during wartimes to secure descriptions even of
+our own underwater boats. But the interior of the typical submarine
+may be imagined as in size and shape something like an unusually
+long street car. Along the sides, where seats would normally be, are
+packed wheels, cylinders, motors, pumps, machinery of all imaginable
+kinds and some of it utterly unimaginable to the lay observer. The
+whole interior is painted white and bathed in electric light. The
+casual visitor from "above seas" is dazed by the array of machinery
+and shrinks as he walks the narrow aisle lest he become entangled in
+it.
+
+Running on the surface the submarine chamber is filled with a roar
+and clatter like a boiler shop in full operation. The Diesel engines
+are compact and powerful, but the racket they make more nearly
+corresponds to their power than to their size. On the surface too
+the boat rolls and pitches and the stranger passenger, unequipped
+with sea legs grabs for support as the subway rider reaches for a
+strap on the curves. But let the order come to submerge. The Diesels
+are stopped. The electric motors take up the task, spinning
+noiselessly in their jackets. In a moment or two all rolling ceases.
+One can hardly tell whether the ship is moving at all--it might for
+all its motion tells be resting quietly on the bottom. If you could
+disabuse your mind for a moment of the recollection that you were in
+a great steel cigar heavy laden with explosives, and deep under the
+surface of the sea you would find the experience no more exciting
+than a trip through the Pennsylvania tubes. But there is something
+uncanny about the silence.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_A Torpedo Designed by Fulton._]
+
+Go forward to the conical compartment at the very bow. There you
+will find the torpedo chamber for the submarine, like the cigar to
+which it is so often compared, carries its fire at its front tip.
+The most common type of boat will have two or four torpedo tubes in
+this chamber. The more modern ones will have a second torpedo
+chamber astern with the same number of tubes and carry other
+torpedoes on deck which by an ingenious device can be launched from
+their outside cradles by mechanism within the boat. In the torpedo
+chamber are twice as many spare torpedoes as there are tubes, made
+fast along the sides. Here too the anchor winch stands with the
+cable attached to the anchor outside the boat and an automatic knife
+which cuts the cable should the anchor be fouled.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_The Method of Attack by Nautilus._]
+
+Immediately aft of the torpedo chamber, cut off by a water-tight
+partition, is the battery compartment. It gets its name because of
+the fact, that beneath the deck which is full of traps readily
+raised are the electric storage batteries of anywhere from 60 to 260
+cells according to the size of the boat. This room is commonly used
+as the loafing place for the crew, being regarded as very spacious
+and empty. In it are nothing but the electric stove, the kitchen
+sink, the various lockers for food and all the housekeeping
+apparatus of the submarine. Mighty trim and compact they all are.
+The builder of twentieth century flats with his kitchenettes and his
+in-door beds might learn a good deal from a study of the smaller
+type of submarine. Next aft come the officers' staterooms, rather
+smaller than prison cells, each holding a bunk, a bureau, and a
+desk. Each holds also a good deal of moisture, for the greatest
+discomfort in submarine life comes from the fact that everything is
+dripping with the water resulting from the constant condensation of
+the air within.
+
+The great compartment amidships given over to machinery is a place
+to test the nerves. The aisle down the centre is scarcely two feet
+wide and on each side are whirling wheels, engines, and electric
+motors. Only the photographs can give a clear idea of the crowded
+appearance of this compartment. It contains steering wheels, the
+gyroscopic compass, huge valves, dials showing depth of submergence,
+Kingston levers, motor controllers, all polished and shining, each
+doing its work and each easily thrown out of gear by an ignorant
+touch.
+
+The author once spending the night on a United States man-of-war was
+shown by the captain to his own cabin, that officer occupying the
+admiral's cabin for the time. At the head of the bunk were two small
+electric push buttons absolutely identical in appearance and about
+two inches apart. "Push this button," said the captain genially, "if
+you want the Jap boy to bring you shaving water or anything else.
+But be sure to push the right one. If you push the other you will
+call the entire crew to quarters at whatever hour of night the bell
+may ring."
+
+The possibility of mistaking the button rested heavily on the
+writer's nerves all night. A somewhat similar feeling comes over one
+who walks the narrow path down the centre of the machinery
+compartment of a submarine. He seems hedged about by mysterious
+apparatus a touch of which, or even an accidental jostle may release
+powerful and even murderous forces.
+
+While the submarine is under way, submerged, the operator at every
+piece of individual machinery stands at its side ready for action.
+Here are the gunner's mates at the diving rudder. They watch
+steadily a big gauge on which a needle which shows how deep the boat
+is sinking. When the required depth is reached swift turns of two
+big brass wheels set the horizontal rudders that check the descent
+and keep the boat on an even keel. Other men stand at the levers of
+the Kingston valves which, when open, flood the ballast tanks with
+water and secure the submergence of the boat. Most of the underwater
+boats to-day sink rapidly on an even keel. The old method of
+depressing the nose of the boat so as to make a literal dive has
+been abandoned, partly because of the inconvenience it caused to the
+men within who suddenly found the floor on which they were standing
+tilted at a sharp angle, and partly because the diving position
+proved to be a dangerous one for the boat.
+
+In the early days of the submarines the quarters for the men were
+almost intolerable. The sleeping accommodations were cramped and
+there was no place for the men off duty to lounge and relax from the
+strain of constant attention to duty. Man cannot keep his body in a
+certain fixed position even though it be not rigid, for many hours.
+This is shown as well at the base ball grounds at the end of the
+sixth inning when "all stretch" as it was in the old time underwater
+boats. The crews now have space in which to loaf and even the strain
+of long silent watches under water is relieved by the use of talking
+machines and musical instruments. The efficiency of the boat of
+course is only that of her crew, and since more care and more
+scientific thought has been given to the comfort of the men, to the
+purity of the air they breathe, and even to their amusements, the
+effect upon the work done by the craft has been apparent. Ten years
+ago hot meals were unthought of on a submarine; now the electric
+cooker provides for quite an elaborate bill of fare. But ten years
+ago the submarine was only expected to cruise for a few hours off
+the harbour's mouth carrying a crew of twenty men or less. Now it
+stays at sea sometimes for as long as three months. Its crews number
+often as many as fifty and the day is in sight when accommodations
+will have to be made for the housing of at least eighty men in such
+comparative comfort that they can stand a six months' voyage without
+loss of morale or decrease in physical vigour.
+
+It is, of course, very rare that a civilian has the chance to be
+present on a submarine when the latter is making either a real or a
+feigned attack. Fred B. Pitney, a correspondent of the New York
+_Tribune_, was fortunate enough to have this experience, fortunate
+especially because it was all a game arranged for his special
+benefit by a French admiral. He writes of this interesting
+experience in the _Tribune_ of Sunday, May 27, 1917, and at the same
+time gives a vivid description of a French submarine.
+
+It appears that Mr. Pitney was on a small vessel put at his disposal
+by the French Ministry of Marine to view the defences of a French
+naval base. This boat was attacked by what seemed to be an enemy
+submarine, but later turned out to be a French one which was giving
+this special performance for Mr. Pitney's information. We read:
+
+     Our officers were experts at watching for submarines, and though
+     the little white wave made by the periscope disappeared, they
+     caught the white wake of the torpedo coming toward the port
+     quarter and sheered off to escape it. The torpedo passed
+     harmlessly by our stern, but the adventure was not ended, for
+     hardly a minute later we heard a shot from off the starboard
+     quarter and, turning in that direction, saw that the submarine
+     had come to the surface and was busily firing at us to bring us
+     to.
+
+     We stopped without any foolish waste of time in argument. I asked
+     if a boat would be sent to us, or if we would have to get out our
+     boat.
+
+     "They carry a small folding boat," said the officer to whom I had
+     been talking, "but we will have to send our boat."
+
+     While we were getting our boat over the side, the submarine
+     moved closer in, keeping her gun bearing on us all the time, most
+     uncomfortably. The gun stood uncovered on the deck, just abaft
+     the turret. It was thickly coated with grease to protect it when
+     the vessel submerged. It is only the very latest type of
+     submarines that have disappearing guns which go under cover when
+     the vessel submerges and are fired from within the ship, which
+     makes all the more surprising the speed with which a submarine
+     can come to the surface, the men get out on deck, fire the gun,
+     get in again and the vessel once more submerges.
+
+     I was in the first boatload that went over to the submarine. From
+     a distance it looked like nothing so much as a rather long piece
+     of 4x8 floating on the water, with another block set on top of it
+     and a length of lath nailed on the block. It lost none of these
+     characteristics as we neared it. It only gained a couple of ropes
+     along the sides of the 4x8, while men kept coming mysteriously
+     out of the block until a round dozen was waiting to receive us.
+     The really surprising thing was that the men turned out to be
+     perfectly good French sailors, with a most exceedingly polite
+     French lieutenant to help us aboard the little craft....
+
+[Illustration: _The Capture of a U-Boat._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+     The vessel we were in was a 500-ton cruising submarine. It had
+     just come from eight months' guarding the Channel, and showed all
+     the battering of eight months of a very rough and stormy career
+     with no time for a lie-up for repairs. It was interesting to see
+     the commander hand the depth gauge a wallop to start it working
+     and find out if the centre of the boat was really nine feet
+     higher than either end. We were fifty-four feet under water and
+     diving when the commander performed that little experiment and we
+     continued to dive while the gauge spun around and finally stopped
+     at a place which indicated approximately that our back was not
+     broken. I suppose that was one of the things my friend the
+     lieutenant referred to when he said life on a submarine was such
+     a sporting proposition.
+
+     We boarded the submarine over the tail end and balanced our way
+     up the long narrow block, like walking a tight rope, to the
+     turret, where we descended through a hole like the opening into a
+     gas main into a small round compartment about six feet in
+     diameter exactly in the midship section, which was the largest
+     compartment in the ship. Running each way from it the length of
+     the vessel were long corridors, some two feet wide. On each side
+     of the corridors were rows of tiny compartments, which were the
+     living and working rooms of the ship. Naturally, most of the
+     space was given up to the working rooms.
+
+     The officers' quarters consisted of four tiny compartments, two
+     on each side of the after corridor. The first two were the mess
+     room and chart room, and the second pair were the cabins of the
+     commander--a lieutenant--and his second in command, an ensign.
+     Behind them was an electric kitchen, and next came the engines,
+     first two sets of Diesel engines, one on each side of the
+     corridor, each of four hundred horse-power. These were for
+     running on the surface. Then came four bunks for the
+     quartermasters and last the electric motors for running under the
+     surface. The motors were run from storage batteries and were half
+     the power of the Diesel engines. The quarters of the crew were
+     along the sides of the forward corridor. The floors of the
+     corridor were an unbroken series of trap doors, covering the
+     storage tanks for drinking water, food, and the ship's supplies.
+     The torpedo tubes were forward of the men's quarters. Ten
+     torpedoes were carried. The ammunition for the deck gun was
+     stored immediately beneath the gun, which was mounted between the
+     turret and the first hatch, abaft the turret. Besides the turret
+     there were three hatches in the deck, one forward and two aft.
+
+     There were thirty-four men in the crew. The men are counted every
+     two hours, as there is great danger of men being lost overboard
+     when running on the surface, and in bad weather they are
+     sometimes counted as often as every half hour.
+
+     The turret was divided in two sections. In the after part was the
+     main hatch and behind it a stationary periscope, standing about
+     thirty inches above the surface of the water when the deck was
+     submerged and only the periscope showing. There was no opening in
+     the forward section of the turret, but the fighting periscope,
+     which could be drawn down into the interior or pushed up to ten
+     feet above the surface when the vessel was completely submerged,
+     extended through the top.
+
+     For two hours, turn and turn about, the commander and his second
+     stand watch on the iron grips in the turret, one eye on the
+     periscope, the other on the compass. And this goes on for weeks
+     on end. It is only when they lie for a few hours fifty to
+     seventy-five feet below the surface that they can get some rest.
+     And even then there is no real rest, for one or the other of them
+     must be constantly on duty, testing pipes and gauges, air
+     pressure, water pressure, and a thousand other things.
+
+     When we dropped through the hatch into the interior of the
+     submarine and the cover was clamped down over our heads the
+     commander at once ordered me back into the turret.
+
+     "Hurry, if you want to see her dive," he said.
+
+     I climbed into the after section of the turret and fastened my
+     eye to the periscope. Around the top of the turret was a circle
+     of bulls' eyes and I was conscious of the water dashing against
+     them while the spray washed over the glass of the periscope. The
+     little vessel rolled very slightly on the surface, though there
+     was quite a bit of sea running. I watched the horizon through the
+     periscope and watched for the dive, expecting a distinct
+     sensation, but the first thing I noticed was that even the slight
+     roll had ceased and I was surprised to see that the bulls' eyes
+     were completely under water. The next thing there was no more
+     horizon. The periscope also was covered and we were completely
+     beneath the surface.
+
+     "Did it make you sick?" the commander asked, when I climbed down
+     from the turret, and when I told him "no" he was surprised, for
+     he said most men were made sick by their first dive.
+
+     The thing most astonishing to me about that experience was how a
+     submerged submarine can thread its way through a mine field. For
+     though the water is luminous and translucent one can hardly make
+     out the black hull of the boat under the turret and a mine would
+     have to be on top of you before you could see it. The men who
+     watch for mines must have a sense for them as well as
+     particularly powerful sight.
+
+     We continued to dive until we were sixty-eight feet below the
+     surface, too deep to strike any mine, and there we ran tranquilly
+     on our electric engines, while the commander navigated the vessel
+     and the second in command opened champagne in the two by four
+     mess room. After half an hour of underwater work we came near
+     enough the surface for our fighting periscope to stick twenty
+     inches out of the water and searched the lonely horizon for a
+     ship to attack.
+
+     It was not long before we sighted a mine trawler, steaming for
+     the harbour, and speeded up to overtake her.
+
+     "Pikers!" said our commander, as we circled twice around the
+     trawler; "they can't find us."
+
+     Five men on the trawler were scanning the sea with glasses
+     looking for submarines. We could follow all their motions, could
+     tell when they thought they had found us and see their
+     disappointment at their mistakes, but though we were never more
+     than five hundred yards from them, I did not think they were
+     pikers because they did not find us. I had tried that hunt for
+     the tiny wave of a periscope.
+
+     "No use wasting a torpedo on those fellows," said our commander.
+     "We will use the gun on them."
+
+     "How far away can you use a torpedo?" I asked.
+
+     "Two hundred yards is the best distance," he said. "Never more
+     than five hundred. A torpedo is pure guesswork at more than five
+     hundred yards."
+
+     We crossed the bow of the trawler, circled around to her
+     starboard quarter and came to the surface, fired nine shots and
+     submerged again in forty-five seconds.
+
+     The prey secured, we ran submerged through the mine field and
+     past the net barrier to come to the surface well within the
+     harbour and proceed peacefully to our mooring under the shelter
+     of the guns of the land forts.
+
+Life and work on a German submarine is known to us, of course, only
+from descriptions in German publications. One of these appeared,
+previous to our entry in the war, in various journals and was
+translated and republished by the New York _Evening Post_. It reads
+partly as follows:
+
+     "U-47 will take provisions and clear for sea. Extreme economical
+     radius."
+
+     A first lieutenant, with acting rank of commander, takes the
+     order in the grey dawn of a February day. The hulk of an old
+     corvette with the Iron Cross of 1870 on her stubby foremast is
+     his quarters in port, and on the corvette's deck he is presently
+     saluted by his first engineer and the officer of the watch. On
+     the pier the crew of U-47 await him. At their feet the narrow
+     grey submarine lies alongside, straining a little at her cables.
+
+     "Well, we've our orders at last," begins the commander,
+     addressing his crew of thirty, and the crew grin. For this is
+     U-47's first experience of active service. She has done nothing
+     save trial trips hitherto, and has just been overhauled for her
+     first fighting cruise. Her commander snaps out a number of
+     orders. Provisions are to be taken in "up to the neck," fresh
+     water is to be put aboard, and engine-room supplies to be
+     supplemented.
+
+     A mere plank is the gangway to the little vessel. As the
+     commander, followed by his officers, comes aboard, a sailor hands
+     to each a ball of cotton-waste, the sign and symbol of a
+     submarine officer, which never leaves his hand. For the steel
+     walls of his craft, the doors, and the companion-ladder all
+     sweat oil, and at every touch the hands must be wiped dry. The
+     doorways are narrow round holes. Through one of the holes aft the
+     commander descends by a breakneck iron ladder into the black hole
+     lit by electric glow-lamps. The air is heavy with the smell of
+     oil, and to the unaccustomed longshoreman it is almost choking,
+     though the hatches are off. The submarine man breathes this air
+     as if it were the purest ozone. Here in the engine-room aft men
+     must live and strain every nerve even if for days at a time every
+     crack whereby the fresh air could get in is hermetically sealed.
+     On their tense watchfulness thirty lives depend.
+
+     Here, too, are slung some hammocks, and in them one watch tries,
+     and, what is more, succeeds in sleeping, though the men moving
+     about bump them with head and elbows at every turn, and the low
+     and narrow vault is full of the hum and purr of machinery. In
+     length the vault is about ten feet, but if a man of normal
+     stature stands in the middle and raises his arms to about half
+     shoulder height his hands will touch the cold, moist steel walls
+     on either side. A network of wires runs overhead, and there is a
+     juggler's outfit of handles, levers, and instruments. The
+     commander inspects everything minutely, then creeps through a
+     hole into the central control station, where the chief engineer
+     is at his post. With just about enough assistance to run a fairly
+     simple machine ashore the chief engineer of a submarine is
+     expected to control, correct, and, if necessary, repair at sea an
+     infinitely complex machinery which must not break down for an
+     instant if thirty men are to return alive to the hulk.
+
+     Forward is another narrow steel vault serving at once as
+     engine-room and crew's quarters. Next to it is a place like a
+     cupboard, where the cook has just room to stand in front of his
+     doll's house galley-stove. It is electrically heated, that the
+     already oppressive air may not be further vitiated by smoke or
+     fumes. A German submarine in any case smells perpetually of
+     coffee and cabbage. Two little cabins of the size of a decent
+     clothes-chest take the deck and engine-room officers, four of
+     them. Another box cabin is reserved for the commander--when he
+     has time to occupy it.
+
+     At daybreak the commander comes on deck in coat and trousers of
+     black leather lined with wool, a protection against oil, cold,
+     and sea-water. The crew at their stations await the command to
+     cast off.
+
+     "Machines clear," calls a voice from the control-station and
+     "Clear ship," snaps the order from the bridge. Then "Cast-off!"
+     The cables slap on to the landing-stage, the engines begin to
+     purr, and U-47 slides away into open water.
+
+     A few cable-lengths away another submarine appears homeward
+     bound. She is the U-20 returning from a long cruise in which she
+     succeeded in sinking a ship bound with a cargo of frozen mutton
+     for England.
+
+     "Good luck, old sheep-butcher," sings the commander of U-47 as
+     the sister-ship passes within hail.
+
+     The seas are heavier now, and U-47 rolls unpleasantly as she
+     makes the light-ship and answers the last salute from a friendly
+     hand. The two officers on the bridge turn once to look at the
+     light-ship already astern, then their eyes look seaward. It is
+     rough, stormy weather. If the egg-shell goes ahead two or three
+     days without a stop, the officers in charge will get no sleep for
+     just that long. If it gets any rougher they will be tied to the
+     bridge-rails to avoid being swept overboard. If they are hungry,
+     plates of soup will be brought to them on the bridge, and the
+     North Sea will attend to its salting for them.
+
+Frequently this "meal" is interrupted by some announcement from the
+watch, such as: "Smoke on the horizon off the port bow." Then--so we
+are told:
+
+     The commander drops his plate, shouts a short, crisp command,
+     and an electric alarm whirs inside the egg-shell. The ship buzzes
+     like a hive. Then water begins to gurgle into the ballast-tanks,
+     and U-47 sinks until only her periscope shows.
+
+     "The steamship is a Dutchman, sir," calls the watch officer. The
+     commander inspects her with the aid of a periscope. She has no
+     wireless and is bound for the Continent. So he can come up and is
+     glad, because moving under the water consumes electricity, and
+     the usefulness of a submarine is measured by her electric power.
+
+     After fifty-four hours of waking nerve tension, sleep becomes a
+     necessity. So the ballast-tanks are filled and the nutshell sinks
+     to the sandy bottom. This is the time for sleep aboard a
+     submarine, because a sleeping man consumes less of the precious
+     oxygen than one awake and busy. So a submarine man has three
+     principal lessons to learn--to keep every faculty at tension when
+     he is awake, to keep stern silence when he is ashore (there is a
+     warning against talkativeness in all the German railway-carriages
+     now), and to sleep instantly when he gets a legitimate
+     opportunity. His sleep and the economy of oxygen may save the
+     ship. However, the commander allows half an hour's grace for
+     music. There is a gramophone, of course, and the "ship's band"
+     performs on all manner of instruments. At worst, a comb with a
+     bit of tissue paper is pressed into service.
+
+Another American who suffered an enforced voyage on an
+_unterseeboot_ made public later some of his experiences. His
+captor's craft was a good sized one--about 250 feet long, with a
+crew of 35 men and mounting two 4-1/2 inch guns. She could make 18
+knots on the surface and 11 submerged and had a radius of 3200 miles
+of action. Her accommodations were not uncomfortable. Each officer
+had a separate cabin while the crew were bunked along either side of
+a narrow passage. The ventilation was excellent, and her officers
+declared that they could stand twenty-four hours continuous
+submergence without discomfort, after that for six hours it was
+uncomfortable, and thereafter intolerable because of the exudation
+of moisture--or sweating--from every part. At such times all below
+have to wear leather suits. The food was varied and cooked on an
+electric stove. The original stores included preserved pork and
+beef, vegetables, tinned soups, fruits, raisins, biscuits, butter,
+marmalade, milk, tea, and coffee. But the pleasures of the table
+depended greatly on the number of their prizes, for whenever
+possible they made every ship captured contribute heavily to their
+larder before sinking her. Of the tactics followed the observer
+writes:
+
+     It appears that 55 per cent., or more than half, of the torpedoes
+     fired miss their mark, and with this average they seem satisfied.
+     Once they let go at a ship two torpedoes at 3000 yards' range,
+     and both missed, the range being too long but they did not care
+     to come any nearer, as they believed the ship to be well armed.
+
+     They prefer to fire at 500 to 700 yards, which means that at this
+     range the track or "wake" of a projectile would be discernible
+     for, say, twenty-five to thirty seconds--not much time, indeed,
+     for any ship to get out of the way. At 100 yards' range or less
+     they do not care to fire unless compelled to, as the torpedo is
+     nearly always discharged when the submarine is lying ahead of the
+     object, _i. e._, to hit the ship coming up to it; it follows that
+     a gun forward is more useful than one aft, the gun aft being of
+     real service when a submarine starts shelling, which she will do
+     for choice from aft the ship rather than from forward of her,
+     where she would be in danger of being run over and rammed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SUBMARINE WARFARE
+
+
+At the moment of writing these words the outcome of the greatest war
+the world has ever known is believed by many to hang upon the
+success with which the Allies can meet and defeat the campaign of
+the German submarines. The German people believe this absolutely.
+The Allies and their sympathizers grudgingly admit that they are
+only too fearful that it may be true.
+
+To such a marvellous degree of military efficiency has the ingenuity
+of man brought these boats which so recently as our Civil War were
+still in the vaguest experimental stage and scarcely possessed of
+any offensive power whatsoever!
+
+Nevertheless these machines had reached a degree of development, and
+had demonstrated their dangerous character so early in the war that
+it was amazing that the British were so slow in comprehending the
+use that might be made of them in cutting off British commerce. It
+is true that the first submarine actions redounded in their results
+entirely to British credit. In September of 1914 a British submarine
+ran gallantly into Heligoland Bay and sank the German light cruiser
+_Hela_ at her moorings. Shortly after the Germans sought retaliation
+by attacking a British squadron, but the effort miscarried. The
+British cruiser _Birmingham_ caught a glimpse of her wake and with a
+well-aimed shot destroyed her periscope. The submarine dived, but
+shortly afterwards came up again making what was called a porpoise
+dive--that is to say, she came up just long enough for the officer
+in the conning tower to locate the enemy, then submerged again.
+Brief, however, as had been the appearance of the conning tower, the
+British put a shell into it and in a few minutes the submarine and
+most of her crew were at the bottom of the sea.
+
+Soon after followed the attack upon and sinking of the three
+cruisers by the submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander
+Otto von Weddigen, the narrative of which we have already told. But
+while after that attacks upon British armed ships were many,
+successes were few. There were no German ships at sea for the
+British to attack in turn, but some very gallant work was done by
+their submarines against Austrian and Turkish warships in the
+Mediterranean and the Dardanelles. All this time the Germans were
+preparing for that warfare upon the merchant shipping of all
+countries which at the end they came to believe would force the
+conclusion of the war. It seems curious that during this early
+period the Allies were able to devise no method of meeting this form
+of attack. When the United States entered the war more than three
+years later they looked to us for the instant invention of some
+effective anti-submarine weapon. If they were disappointed at our
+failure at once to produce one, they should have remembered at least
+that they too were baffled by the situation although it was
+presented to them long before it became part of our problems.
+
+About no feature of the war have the belligerents thrown more of
+mystery than about the circumstances attending submarine attacks
+upon battleships and armed transports and the method employed of
+meeting them. Even when later in the war the Germans apparently
+driven to frenzy made special efforts to sink hospital and Red Cross
+ships the facts were concealed by the censors, and accounts of the
+efforts made to balk such inhuman and unchristian practices
+diligently suppressed. In the end it seemed that the British, who of
+course led all naval activities, had reached the conclusion that
+only by the maintenance of an enormous fleet of patrol boats could
+the submarines be kept in check. This method they have applied
+unremittingly. Alfred Noyes in a publication authorized by the
+British government has thus picturesquely told some of the incidents
+connected with this service:
+
+     It is difficult to convey in words the wide sweep and subtle
+     co-ordination of this ocean hunting; for the beginning of any
+     tale may be known only to an admiral in a London office, the
+     middle of it only to a commander at Kirkwall, and the end of it
+     only to a trawler skipper off the coast of Ireland. But here and
+     there it is possible to piece the fragments together into a
+     complete adventure, as in the following record of a successful
+     chase, where the glorious facts outrun all the imaginations of
+     the wildest melodrama.
+
+     There were suspicious vessels at anchor, one moonless night, in a
+     small bay near the Mumbles. They lay there like shadows, but
+     before long they knew that the night was alive for a hundred
+     miles with silent talk about them. At dawn His Majesty's trawlers
+     _Golden Feather_ and _Peggy Nutten_ foamed up, but the shadows
+     had disappeared.
+
+     The trawlers were ordered to search the coast thoroughly for any
+     submarine stores that might have been left there. "Thoroughly" in
+     this war means a great deal. It means that even the bottom of the
+     sea must be searched. This was done by grapnels; but the bottom
+     was rocky and seemed unfit for a base. Nothing was found but a
+     battered old lobster pot, crammed with seaweed and little green
+     crabs.
+
+     Probably these appearances were more than usually deceitful; for
+     shortly afterward watchers on the coast reported a strange
+     fishing boat, with patched brown sails, heading for the suspected
+     bay. Before the patrols came up, however, she seemed to be
+     alarmed. The brown sails were suddenly taken in; the disguised
+     conning tower was revealed, and this innocent fishing boat,
+     gracefully submerging, left only the smiling and spotless April
+     seas to the bewildered eyes of the coast guard.
+
+     In the meantime signals were pulsing and flashing on land and
+     sea, and the U-boat had hardly dipped when, over the smooth green
+     swell, a great sea hawk came whirring up to join the hunt, a hawk
+     with light yellow wings and a body of service grey--the latest
+     type of seaplane. It was one of those oily seas in which a
+     watcher from the air may follow a submarine for miles, as an
+     olive green shadow under the lighter green. The U-boat doubled
+     twice; but it was half an hour before her sunken shadow was lost
+     to sight under choppy blue waters, and long before that time she
+     was evidently at ease in her mind and pursuing a steady course.
+     For the moment her trail was then lost, and the hawk, having
+     reported her course, dropped out of the tale.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by U. & U.
+
+_A British Submarine._]
+
+     The next morning in the direction indicated by that report
+     several patrol boats heard the sound of gunfire and overhauled a
+     steamer which had been attacked by a submarine. They gave chase
+     by "starring" to all the points of the compass, but could not
+     locate the enemy. A little later, however, another trawler
+     observed the wash of a submarine crossing her stern about two
+     hundred yards away. The trawler star-boarded, got into the wake
+     of the submarine and tried to ram her at full speed. She failed
+     to do this, as the U-boat was at too great a depth. The enemy
+     disappeared, and again the trawlers gathered and "starred."
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Sectional View of the Nautilus._]
+
+     In the meantime, certain nets had been shot, and, though the
+     inclosed waters were very wide, it was quite certain that the
+     submarine was contained within them. Some hours later another
+     trawler heard firing and rushed toward the sound. About sunset
+     she sighted a submarine which was just dipping. The trawler
+     opened fire at once without result. The light was very bad and it
+     was very difficult to trace the enemy, but the trawler continued
+     the search, and about midnight she observed a small light close
+     to the water. She steamed within a few yards of it and hailed,
+     thinking it was a small boat. There was a considerable amount of
+     wreckage about, which was afterward proved to be the remains of a
+     patrol vessel sunk by the submarine. There was no reply to the
+     hail, and the light instantly disappeared. For the third time the
+     patrols gathered and "starred" from this new point.
+
+     And here the tale was taken up by a sailor who was in command of
+     another trawler at the time. I give it, so far as possible, in
+     his own words.
+
+     "About 4 o'clock in the morning I was called by Deckhand William
+     Brown to come on deck and see if an object sighted was a
+     submarine. I did so, and saw a submarine about a mile distant on
+     the port bow. I gave the order, 'Hard a-starboard.' The ship was
+     turned until the gun was able to bear on the submarine, and it
+     was kept bearing. At the same time I ordered hands to station,
+     and about ten minutes afterward I gave the order to fire. The
+     submarine immediately altered her course from W. to N. N. W., and
+     went away from us very fast. I burned lights to attract the
+     attention of the drifters, and we followed at our utmost speed,
+     making about eight knots and shipping light sprays. We fired
+     another shot about two minutes later, but it was breaking dawn,
+     and we were unable to see the fall of the shots. After the second
+     shot the submarine submerged. I hoisted warning signals and about
+     half an hour later I saw a large steamer turning round, distant
+     between two and three miles on our starboard beam. I headed
+     toward her, keeping the gun trained on her, as I expected,
+     judging by her action, that she had smelt the submarine. When we
+     were about a mile and a half from the steamer I saw the submarine
+     half a mile astern of her. We opened fire again, and gave her
+     four shots, with about two minutes between 'em. The submarine
+     then dodged behind the off quarter of the steamer."
+
+     He paused to light his pipe, and added, quite gravely, "When she
+     had disappeared behind the steamer I gave the order 'Cease fire,'
+     to avoid hitting the larger vessel."
+
+     I made a mental note of his thoughtfulness; but, not for worlds
+     would I have shown any doubt of his power to blast his way, if
+     necessary, through all the wood and iron in the universe; and I
+     was glad that the blue clouds of our smoke mingled for a moment
+     between us.
+
+     "I saw two white boats off the port quarter," he continued. "But
+     I paid no attention to them. I ordered the helm to be
+     star-boarded a bit more, and told the gunner to train his gun on
+     the bow of the steamer; for I expected the submarine to show
+     there next. A few minutes later she did so, and when she drew
+     ahead I gave the order to fire. I should say we were about a mile
+     and a quarter away. We gave him two more shots and they dropped
+     very close, as the spray rose over his conning tower. He altered
+     his course directly away from us, and we continued to fire. The
+     third shot smothered his conning tower with spray. I did not see
+     the fourth and fifth shots pitch. There was no splash visible,
+     although it was then broad daylight; so I believe they must have
+     hit him. A few moments after this the submarine disappeared.
+
+     "I turned, then, toward the two white boats and hailed them. The
+     chief officer of the steamer was in charge of one. They were
+     returning to their ship, and told me that we had hit the
+     submarine. We escorted them through the nets and parted very good
+     friends."
+
+     "But how did you get the scalp of this U-boat?" I asked.
+
+     "We signalled to the admiral, and sent the Daffy to investigate.
+     She found the place, all right. It was a choppy sea, but there
+     was one smooth patch in it, just where we told 'em the submarine
+     had disappeared; a big patch of water like wavy satin, two or
+     three hundred yards of it, coloured like the stripes on mackerel,
+     all blue and green with oil. They took a specimen of the oil."
+
+     "Did it satisfy the Admiralty?"
+
+     "No. Nothing satisfies the Admiralty but certainties. They count
+     the minimum losses of the enemy, and the maximum of their own.
+     Very proper, too. Then you know where you are. But, mind you, I
+     don't believe we finished him off that morning. Oil don't prove
+     that. It only proves we hit him. I believe it was the 'Maggie and
+     Rose' that killed him, or the 'Hawthorn.' No; it wasn't either.
+     It was the 'Loch Awe.'"
+
+     "How was that?"
+
+     "Well, as Commander White was telling you, we'd shot out nets to
+     the north and south of him. There were two or three hundred
+     miles, perhaps, in which he might wriggle about; but he couldn't
+     get out of the trap, even if he knew where to look for the
+     danger. He tried to run for home, and that's what finished him.
+     They'll tell you all about that on the 'Loch Awe.'"
+
+     So the next day I heard the end of the yarn from a sandy-haired
+     skipper in a trawler whose old romantic name was dark with new
+     significance. He was terribly logical. In his cabin--a
+     comfortable room with a fine big stove--he had a picture of his
+     wife and daughters, all very rigid and uncomfortable. He also had
+     three books. They included neither Burns nor Scott. One was the
+     Bible, thumbed by his grandfather and his father till the paper
+     had worn yellow and thin at the sides. The second, I am sorry to
+     say, was called _The Beautiful White Devil_. The third was an odd
+     volume of Froude in the _Everyman_ edition. It dealt with the
+     Armada.
+
+     "I was towin' my nets wi' the rest o' my group," he said, "till
+     about 3 o'clock i' the mornin' on yon occasion. It was fine
+     weather wi' a kind o' haar. All at once, my ship gaed six points
+     aff her coorse, frae S. E. to E. N. E., and I jaloused that the
+     nets had been fouled by some muckle movin' body. I gave orders to
+     pit the wheel hard a-port, but she wouldna answer. Suddenly the
+     strain on the nets stoppit.
+
+     "I needna tell you what had happened. Of course, it was
+     preceesely what the Admiralty had arranged tae happen when
+     gentlemen in undersea boats try to cut their way through our
+     nets. Mind ye, thae nets are verra expensive."
+
+A different situation, however, has lately developed in the more
+unequal fight between submarines and merchant vessels. There the
+submarine unquestionably has gained and maintained supremacy. Two
+factors are primarily responsible for this: lack of speed and lack
+of armament on the part of the merchantman. Of course, recently the
+latter condition has been changed and apparently with good success.
+But even at best, an armed merchantman has a rather slim chance at
+escape. Neither space nor available equipment permits a general
+arming of merchantmen to a sufficient degree to make it possible for
+the latter to attack a submarine from any considerable distance.
+Then, too, what chance has a merchant vessel unprotected by patrol
+boats to escape the torpedo of a hidden submarine? How successfully
+this question will finally be solved, the future only will show. At
+present it bids fair to become one of the deciding factors in
+determining the final issue of this war.
+
+The first authentically known case of an attack without warning by a
+German submarine against an allied merchantman was the torpedoing of
+the French steamship _Amiral Ganteaume_ on October 26, 1914, in the
+English Channel. The steamer was sunk and thirty of its passengers
+and crew were lost. A number of other attacks followed during the
+remainder of 1914 and in January, 1915. Then came on February 3,
+1915, the now famous pronouncement of the German Government
+declaring "all the waters around Great Britain and Ireland,
+including the whole of the English Channel, a war zone," and
+announcing that on and after Feb. 18th, Germany "will attempt to
+destroy every enemy ship found in that war zone, without its being
+always possible to avoid the danger that will thus threaten neutral
+persons and ships." Germany gave warning that "it cannot be
+responsible hereafter for the safety of crews, passengers, and
+cargoes of such ships," and it furthermore "calls the attention of
+neutrals to the fact that it would be well for their ships to avoid
+entering this zone, for, although the German naval forces are
+instructed to avoid all violence to neutral ships, in so far as
+these can be recognized, the order given by the British Government
+to hoist neutral flags and the contingencies of naval warfare might
+be the cause of these ships becoming the victims of an attack
+directed against the vessels of the enemy."
+
+This was the beginning of the submarine controversy between Germany
+and the United States and resulted in a note from the United States
+Government in which it was stated that the latter viewed the
+possibilities created by the German note
+
+     with such grave concern, that it feels it to be its privilege,
+     and, indeed, its duty, in the circumstances to request the
+     Imperial German Government to consider before action is taken the
+     critical situation in respect of the relation between this
+     country and Germany which might arise were the German naval
+     forces, in carrying out the policy foreshadowed in the
+     Admiralty's proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the
+     United States or cause the death of American citizens:--To
+     declare and exercise a right to attack and destroy any vessel
+     entering a prescribed area of the high seas without first
+     certainly determining its belligerent nationality and the
+     contraband character of its cargo would be an act so
+     unprecedented in naval warfare that this Government is reluctant
+     to believe that the Imperial Government of Germany in this case
+     contemplates it as possible.
+
+After stating that the destruction of American ships or American
+lives on the high seas would be difficult to reconcile with the
+friendly relations existing between the two Governments, the note
+adds that the United States "would be constrained to hold the
+Imperial Government of Germany to a strict accountability for such
+acts of their naval authorities, and to take any steps it might feel
+necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to
+secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged
+rights on the high seas."
+
+It is not within the province of this book to go in detail into the
+diplomatic history of the submarine controversy between Germany and
+the United States. Suffice it to say, therefore, that from the very
+beginning the controversy held many possibilities of the disastrous
+ending which finally came to pass when diplomatic relations were
+broken off between the two countries on February 3, 1917, and a
+state of war was declared by President Wilson's proclamation of
+April 6, 1917.
+
+The period between Germany's first War Zone Declaration and the
+President's proclamation--two months and three days more than two
+years--was crowded with incidents in which submarines and submarine
+warfare held the centre of the stage. It would be impossible within
+the compass of this story to give a complete survey of all the
+boats that were sunk and of all the lives that were lost. Nor would
+it be possible to recount all the deeds of heroism which this new
+warfare occasioned. Belligerents and neutrals alike were affected.
+American ships suffered, perhaps, to a lesser degree, than those of
+other neutrals, partly because of the determined stand taken by the
+United States Government. On May 1, 1915, the first American
+steamer, the _Gulflight_, was sunk. Six days later the world was
+shocked by the news that the _Lusitania_, one of the biggest British
+passenger liners, had been torpedoed without warning on May 7, 1915
+and had been sunk with a loss of 1198 lives, of whom 124 were
+American citizens. Before this nation was goaded into war, more than
+200 Americans were slain.
+
+Notes were again exchanged between the two Governments. Though the
+German government at that time showed an inclination to abandon its
+position in the submarine controversy under certain conditions,
+sinkings of passenger and freight steamers without warning
+continued. All attempts on the part of the United States Government
+to come to an equitable understanding with Germany failed on account
+of the latter's refusal to give up submarine warfare, or at least
+those features of it which, though considered illegal and inhuman by
+the United States, seemed to be considered most essential by
+Germany.
+
+Then came the German note of January 31, 1917, stating that "from
+February 1, 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with every available
+weapon and without further notice" in certain minutely described
+"prohibited zones around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the
+Eastern Mediterranean."
+
+The total tonnage sunk by German submarines from the beginning of
+the war up to February 1, 1917, has been given by British sources as
+over three million tons, while German authorities claimed four
+million. The result of the German edict for unrestricted submarine
+warfare has been rather appalling, even if it fell far short of
+German prophesies and hopes. During the first two weeks of February
+a total of ninety-seven ships with a tonnage of about 210,000 tons
+were sent to the bottom of the sea. Since then the German submarines
+have taken an even heavier toll. It has, however, become next to
+impossible, due to the restrictions of censorship, to compute any
+accurate figures for later totals, though it has become known from
+time to time that the Allied as well as the neutral losses have been
+very much higher during the five months of February to July, 1917
+than during any other five months.
+
+[Illustration: (C) U. & U.
+
+_U. S. Submarine H-3 Aground on California Coast._]
+
+The figures of the losses of British merchantmen alone are shown by
+the following table:
+
+                                        Ships
+                              Over 1,600      Under 1,600
+  Week ending--                  Tons.           Tons.       Total.
+
+  March  4                         14              9           23
+  March 11                         13              4           17
+  March 18                         16              8           24
+  March 25                         18              7           25
+  April  1                         18             13           31
+  April  8                         17              2           19
+  April 15                         19              9           28
+  April 22                         40             15           55
+  April 29                         38             13           51
+  May    6                         24             22           46
+  May   13                         18              5           23
+  May   20                         18              9           27
+  May   27                         18              1           19
+  June   3                         15              3           18
+  June  10                         22             10           32
+  June  17                         27              5           32
+  June  24                         21              7           28
+  July   1                         15              5           20
+  July   8                         14              3           17
+  July  15                         14              4           18
+  July  22                         21              3           24
+  July  29                         18              3           21
+  Aug.   5                         21              2           23
+  Aug.  12                         14              2           16
+  Aug.  19                         15              3           18
+  Aug.  26                         18              5           23
+  Sept.  2                         20              3           23
+  Sept.  9                         12              6           18
+  Sept. 16                          8             20           28
+  Sept. 23                         13              2           15
+  Sept. 30                         11              2           13
+  Oct.   7                         14              2           16
+  Oct.  14                         12              6           18
+  Oct.  21                         17              8           25
+  Oct.  28                         14              4           18
+  Nov.   4                          8              4           12
+  Nov.  11                          1              5            6
+
+The table with its week by week report of the British losses is of
+importance because at the time it was taken as a barometer
+indicative of German success or failure. The German admiralty at the
+moment of declaring the ruthless submarine war promised the people
+of Germany that they would sink a million tons a month and by so
+doing would force England to abject surrender in the face of
+starvation within three months. During that period the whole
+civilized world looked eagerly for the weekly statement of British
+losses. Only at one time was the German estimate of a million tons
+monthly obtained. Most of the time the execution done by the
+undersea boats amounted to less than half that figure. So far from
+England being beaten in three months, at the end of ten she was
+still unshattered, though sorely disturbed by the loss of so much
+shipping. Her new crops had come on and her statesmen declared that
+so far as the food supply was concerned they were safe for another
+year.
+
+During this period of submarine activity the United States entered
+upon the war and its government immediately turned its attention to
+meeting the submarine menace. In the first four months literally
+nothing was accomplished toward this end. A few submarines were
+reported sunk by merchantmen, but in nearly every instance it was
+doubtful whether they were actually destroyed or merely submerged
+purposely in the face of a hostile fire. Americans were looked upon
+universally as a people of extraordinary inventive genius, and
+everywhere it was believed that by some sudden lucky thought an
+American would emerge from a laboratory equipped with a sovereign
+remedy for the submarine evil. Prominent inventors indeed declared
+their purpose of undertaking this search and went into retirement to
+study the problem. From that seclusion none had emerged with a
+solution at the end of ten months. When the submarine campaign was
+at its very height no one was able to suggest a better remedy for it
+than the building of cargo ships in such quantities that, sink as
+many as they might, the Germans would have to let enough slip
+through to sufficiently supply England with food and with the
+necessary munitions of war.
+
+Many cruel sufferings befell seafaring people during the period of
+German ruthlessness on the high seas. An open boat, overcrowded with
+refugees, hastily provisioned as the ship to which it belonged was
+careening to its fate, and tossing on the open sea two or three
+hundred miles from shore in the icy nights of midwinter was no place
+of safety or of comfort. Yet the Germans so construed it, holding
+that when they gave passengers and crew of a ship time to take to
+the boats, they had fully complied with the international law
+providing that in the event of sinking a ship its people must first
+be given an opportunity to assure their safety.
+
+There have been many harrowing stories of the experiences of
+survivors thus turned adrift. Under the auspices of the British
+government, Rudyard Kipling wrote a book detailing the agonies which
+the practice inflicted upon helpless human beings, including many
+women and children. Some of the survivors have told in graphic story
+the record of their actual experiences. Among these one of the most
+vivid is from the pen of a well-known American journalist, Floyd P.
+Gibbons, correspondent of the Chicago _Tribune_. He was saved from
+the British liner, _Laconia_, sunk by a German submarine, and thus
+tells the tale of his sufferings and final rescue:
+
+     I have serious doubts whether this is a real story. I am not
+     entirely certain that it is not all a dream and that in a few
+     minutes I will wake up back in stateroom B. 19 on the promenade
+     deck of the Cunarder _Laconia_ and hear my cockney steward
+     informing me with an abundance of "and sirs" that it is a fine
+     morning.
+
+     I am writing this within thirty minutes after stepping on the
+     dock here in Queenstown from the British mine sweeper which
+     picked up our open lifeboat after an eventful six hours of
+     drifting, and darkness and baling and pulling on the oars and of
+     straining aching eyes toward that empty, meaningless horizon in
+     search of help. But, dream or fact, here it is:
+
+     The first-cabin passengers were gathered in the lounge Sunday
+     evening, with the exception of the bridge fiends in the
+     smoking-room. _Poor Butterfly_ was dying wearily on the
+     talking-machine and several couples were dancing.
+
+     About the tables in the smoke-room the conversation was limited
+     to the announcement of bids and orders to the stewards. This
+     group had about exhausted available discussion when the ship gave
+     a sudden lurch sideways and forward. There was a muffled noise
+     like the slamming of some large door at a good distance away. The
+     slightness of the shock and the mildness of the report compared
+     with my imagination was disappointing. Every man in the room
+     was on his feet in an instant.
+
+     I looked at my watch. It was 10.30.
+
+     Then came five blasts on the whistle. We rushed down the corridor
+     leading from the smoking-room at the stern to the lounge, which
+     was amidships. We were running, but there was no panic. The
+     occupants of the lounge were just leaving by the forward doors as
+     we entered.
+
+     It was dark when we reached the lower deck. I rushed into my
+     stateroom, grabbed life preservers and overcoat and made my way
+     to the upper deck on that same dark landing.
+
+     I saw the chief steward opening an electric switch box in the
+     wall and turning on the switch. Instantly the boat decks were
+     illuminated. That illumination saved lives.
+
+     The torpedo had hit us well astern on the starboard side and had
+     missed the engines and the dynamos. I had not noticed the deck
+     lights before. Throughout the voyage our decks had remained dark
+     at night and all cabin portholes were clamped down and all
+     windows covered with opaque paint.
+
+     The illumination of the upper deck, on which I stood, made the
+     darkness of the water, sixty feet below, appear all the blacker
+     when I peered over the edge at my station boat, No. 10.
+
+     Already the boat was loading up and men and boys were busy with
+     the ropes. I started to help near a davit that seemed to be
+     giving trouble, but was stoutly ordered to get out of the way and
+     get into the boat. We were on the port side, practically opposite
+     the engine well. Up and down the deck passengers and crew were
+     donning lifebelts, throwing on overcoats, and taking positions in
+     the boats. There were a number of women, but only one appeared
+     hysterical....
+
+     The boat started downward with a jerk toward the seemingly hungry
+     rising and falling swells. Then we stopped and remained suspended
+     in mid-air while the men at the bow and the stern swore and
+     tusselled with the lowering ropes. The stern of the boat was
+     down, the bow up, leaving us at an angle of about forty-five
+     degrees. We clung to the seats to save ourselves from falling
+     out.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Salvaging H-3, View I._]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Salvaging H-3, View II._]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Salvaging H-3, View III._]
+
+     "Who's got a knife? A knife! a knife!" bawled a sweating seaman
+     in the bow.
+
+     "Great God! Give him a knife," bawled a half-dressed, gibbering
+     negro stoker who wrung his hands in the stern.
+
+     A hatchet was thrust into my hand, and I forwarded it to the bow.
+     There was a flash of sparks as it crashed down on the holding
+     pulley. Many feet and hands pushed the boat from the side of the
+     ship and we sagged down again, this time smacking squarely on the
+     billowy top of a rising swell.
+
+     As we pulled away from the side of the ship its receding terrace
+     of lights stretched upward. The ship was slowly turning over. We
+     were opposite that part occupied by the engine rooms. There was a
+     tangle of oars, spars and rigging on the seat and considerable
+     confusion before four of the big sweeps could be manned on either
+     side of the boat.
+
+     The gibbering bullet-headed negro was pulling directly behind me
+     and I turned to quiet him as his frantic reaches with his oar
+     were hitting me in the back.
+
+     "Get away from her, get away from her," he kept repeating. "When
+     the water hits her hot boilers she'll blow up, and there's just
+     tons and tons of shrapnel in the hold."
+
+     His excitement spread to other members of the crew in the boat.
+
+     It was the give-way of nerve tension. It was bedlam and
+     nightmare.
+
+     We rested on our oars, with all eyes on the still lighted
+     _Laconia_. The torpedo had struck at 10.30 P. M. It was thirty
+     minutes afterward that another dull thud, which was accompanied
+     by a noticeable drop in the hulk, told its story of the second
+     torpedo that the submarine had despatched through the engine room
+     and the boat's vitals from a distance of two hundred yards.
+
+     We watched silently during the next minute, as the tiers of
+     lights dimmed slowly from white to yellow, then a red, and
+     nothing was left but the murky mourning of the night, which hung
+     over all like a pall.
+
+     A mean, cheese-coloured crescent of a moon revealed one horn
+     above a ragged bundle of clouds low in the distance. A rim of
+     blackness settled around our little world, relieved only by
+     general leering stars in the zenith, and where the _Laconia's_
+     lights had shone there remained only the dim outlines of a
+     blacker hulk standing out above the water like a jagged headland,
+     silhouetted against the overcast sky.
+
+     The ship sank rapidly at the stern until at last its nose stood
+     straight in the air. Then it slid silently down and out of sight
+     like a piece of disappearing scenery in a panorama spectacle.
+
+     Boat No. 3 stood closest to the ship and rocked about in a
+     perilous sea of clashing spars and wreckage. As our boat's crew
+     steadied its head into the wind a black hulk, glistening wet and
+     standing about eight feet above the surface of the water,
+     approached slowly and came to a stop opposite the boat and not
+     six feet from the side of it.
+
+     "What ship was dot?" The correct words in throaty English with a
+     German accent came from the dark hulk, according to Chief Steward
+     Ballyn's statement to me later.
+
+     "The _Laconia_," Ballyn answered.
+
+     "Vot?"
+
+     "The _Laconia_, Cunard Line," responded the steward.
+
+     "Vot did she weigh?" was the next question from the submarine.
+
+     "Eighteen thousand tons."
+
+     "Any passengers?"
+
+     "Seventy-three," replied Ballyn, "men, women, and children, some
+     of them in this boat. She had over two hundred in the crew."
+
+     "Did she carry cargo?"
+
+     "Yes."
+
+     "Well, you'll be all right. The patrol will pick you up soon."
+     And without further sound save for the almost silent fixing of
+     the conning tower lid, the submarine moved off.
+
+     There was no assurance of an early pick-up, even tho the promise
+     were from a German source, for the rest of the boats, whose
+     occupants--if they felt and spoke like those in my boat--were
+     more than mildly anxious about their plight and the prospects of
+     rescue.
+
+     The fear of some of the boats crashing together produced a
+     general inclination toward further separation on the part of all
+     the little units of survivors, with the result that soon the
+     small craft stretched out for several miles, all of them
+     endeavouring to keep their heads in the wind.
+
+     And then we saw the first light--the first sign of help
+     coming--the first searching glow of white brilliance, deep down
+     on the sombre sides of the black pot of night that hung over us.
+
+     It was way over there--first a trembling quiver of silver against
+     the blackness; then, drawing closer, it defined itself as a
+     beckoning finger, altho still too far away yet to see our feeble
+     efforts to attract it....
+
+     We pulled, pulled, lustily forgetting the strain and pain of
+     innards torn and racked from pain, vomiting--oblivious of
+     blistered hands and wet, half frozen feet.
+
+     Then a nodding of that finger of light--a happy, snapping,
+     crap-shooting finger that seemed to say: "Come on, you men," like
+     a dice-player wooing the bones--led us to believe that our lights
+     had been seen. This was the fact, for immediately the coming
+     vessel flashed on its green and red side-lights and we saw it was
+     headed for our position.
+
+     "Come alongside port!" was megaphoned to us. And as fast as we
+     could we swung under the stern, while a dozen flashlights blinked
+     down to us and orders began to flow fast and thick.
+
+     A score of hands reached out, and we were suspended in the husky
+     tattooed arms of those doughty British jack tars, looking up into
+     the weather-beaten, youthful faces, mumbling thanks and
+     thankfulness and reading in the gold lettering on their pancake
+     hats the legend "H. M. S. Laburnum."
+
+Of course, the submarine fleets of the various navies paid a heavy
+toll too. It has become, however, increasingly difficult to get any
+accurate figures of these losses. The British navy, it is known, has
+lost during 1914, 1915, and 1916 twelve boats, some of which
+foundered, were wrecked or mined while others simply never returned.
+The loss of eight German submarines has also been definitely
+established. Others, however, are known to have been lost, and their
+number has been greatly increased since the arming of merchantmen.
+In 1917 it was estimated that the Germans lost one U-boat a week and
+built three.
+
+Just what sensations a man experiences in a submerged submarine that
+finds it impossible to rise again, is, of course, more or less of a
+mystery. For, though submarines, the entire crew of which perished,
+have been raised later, only one record has ever been known to have
+been made covering the period during which death by suffocation or
+drowning stared their occupants in the face. This heroic and
+pathetic record was written in form of a letter by the commander of
+a Japanese submarine, Lieutenant Takuma Faotomu, whose boat, with
+its entire crew, was lost on April 15, 1910, during manoeuvres in
+Hiroshima Bay. The letter reads in part as follows:
+
+[Illustration: (C) International Film Service, Inc.
+
+_U. S. Submarine D 1 off Weehawken._]
+
+     Although there is, indeed, no excuse to make for the sinking of
+     his Imperial Majesty's boat and for the doing away of
+     subordinates through my heedlessness, all on the boat have
+     discharged their duties well and in everything acted calmly until
+     death. Although we are departing in pursuance of our duty to the
+     State, the only regret we have is due to anxiety lest the men of
+     the world may misunderstand the matter, and that thereby a blow
+     may be given to the future development of submarines. While going
+     through gasoline submarine exercise, we submerged too far, and
+     when we attempted to shut the sluice-valve, the chain in the
+     meantime gave way. Then we tried to close the sluice-valve, by
+     hand, but it was too late, the rear part being full of water, and
+     the boat sank at an angle of about twenty-five degrees.
+
+     The switchboard being under water, the electric lights gave out.
+     Offensive gas developed and respiration became difficult. The
+     above has been written under the light of the conning-tower when
+     it was 11.45 o'clock. We are now soaked by the water that has
+     made its way in. Our clothes are very wet and we feel cold. I
+     have always expected death whenever I left my home, and therefore
+     my will is already in the drawer at Karasaki. I beg,
+     respectfully, to say to his Majesty that I respectfully request
+     that none of the families left by my subordinates shall suffer.
+     The only matter I am anxious about now is this. Atmospheric
+     pressure is increasing, and I feel as if my tympanum were
+     breaking. At 12.30 o'clock respiration is extraordinarily
+     difficult. I am breathing gasoline. I am intoxicated with
+     gasoline. It is 12.40 o'clock.
+
+Could there be a more touching record of the way in which a brave
+man met death?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+More interest in submarine warfare than ever before was aroused in
+this country when the German war submarine U-53 unexpectedly made
+its appearance in the harbour of Newport, R. I., during the
+afternoon of October 7, 1916. About three hours afterwards, without
+having taken on any supplies, and after explaining her presence by
+the desire of delivering a letter addressed to Count von Bernstorff,
+then German Ambassador at Washington, the U-53 left as suddenly and
+mysteriously as she had appeared.
+
+This was the first appearance of a foreign war submarine in an
+American port. It was claimed that the U-53 had made the trip from
+Wilhelmshaven in seventeen days. She was 213 feet long, equipped
+with two guns, four torpedo tubes, and an exceptionally strong
+wireless outfit. Besides her commander, Captain Rose, she was manned
+by three officers and thirty-three men.
+
+Early the next morning, October 8, it became evident what had
+brought the U-53 to this side of the Atlantic. At the break of day,
+she made her re-appearance southeast of Nantucket. The American
+steamer _Kansan_ of the American Hawaiian Company bound from New
+York by way of Boston to Genoa was stopped by her, but, after
+proving her nationality and neutral ownership was allowed to
+proceed. Five other steamships, three of them British, one Dutch,
+and one Norwegian were less fortunate. The British freighter
+_Strathend_, of 4321 tons was the first victim. Her crew were taken
+aboard the Nantucket shoals light-ship. Two other British
+freighters, _West Point_ and _Stephano_, followed in short order to
+the bottom of the ocean. The crews of both were saved by United
+States torpedo boat destroyers who had come from Newport as soon as
+news of the U-53's activities had been received there. This was also
+the case with the crews of the Dutch _Bloomersdijk_ and the
+Norwegian tanker, _Christian Knudsen_.
+
+Not often in recent years has there been put on American naval
+officers quite so disagreeable a restraint as duty enforced upon the
+commanders of the destroyers who watched the destruction of these
+friendly ships, almost within our own territorial waters, by an
+arrogant foreigner who gave himself no concern over the rescue of
+the crews of the sunken ships but seemed to think that the function
+of the American men of war. It was no secret at the time that
+sentiment in the Navy was strongly pro-Ally. Probably had it been
+wholly neutral the mind of any commander would have revolted at this
+spectacle of wanton destruction of property and callous indifference
+to human life. It is quite probable that had this event occurred
+before the invention of wireless telegraphy had robbed the navy
+commander at sea of all initiative, there might have happened off
+Nantucket something analogous to the famous action of Commodore
+Tatnall when with the cry, "Blood is thicker than water" he took a
+part of his crew to the aid of British vessels sorely pressed by the
+fire of certain Chinese forts on the Yellow River. As it was it is
+an open secret that one commander appealed by wireless to Washington
+for authority to intervene. He did not get it of course. No
+possible construction of international law could give us rights
+beyond the three-mile limit. He had at least however the
+satisfaction when the German commander asked him to move his ship to
+a point at which it would not interfere with the submarine's fire
+upon one of the doomed vessels, of telling him to move his own ship
+and accompanying the suggestion with certain phrases of elaboration
+thoroughly American.
+
+The rapid development of submarine warfare naturally made it
+necessary to find ways and means to combat this new weapon of naval
+warfare. Much difficulty was experienced, especially in the
+beginning, because there were no precedents and because for a
+considerable period everything that was tried had necessarily to be
+of an experimental nature.
+
+To protect harbours and bays was found comparatively easy. Nets were
+spread across their entrances. They were made of strong wire cables
+and to judge from the total absence of submarines within the
+harbours thus guarded they proved a successful deterrent. In most
+cases they were supported by extensive minefields. The danger of
+these to submarines, however, is rather a matter of doubt, for
+submarines can dive successfully under them and by careful
+navigating escape unharmed.
+
+The general idea of fighting submarines with nets was also adopted
+for areas of open water which were suspected of being infested with
+submarines. Recently, serious doubts have been raised concerning the
+future usefulness of nets. Reports have been published that German
+submarines have been fitted up with a wire and cable cutting
+appliance which would make it possible for them to break through
+nets at will, supposing, of course, that they had been caught by the
+nets in such a way that no vital parts of the underwater craft had
+been seriously damaged. A sketch of this wire cutting device was
+made by the captain of a merchantman, who, while in a small boat
+after his ship had been torpedoed, had come close enough to the
+attacking submarine to make the necessary observations. The sketch
+showed an arrangement consisting of a number of strands of heavy
+steel hawsers which were stretched from bow to stern, passing
+through the conning tower and to which were attached a series of
+heavy circular knives a foot in diameter and placed about a yard
+apart. Even as early as January, 1915, Mr. Simon Lake, the famous
+American submarine engineer and inventor, published an article in
+the _Scientific American_ in which he dwelt at length on means by
+which a submarine could escape mines and nets. One of the
+illustrations, accompanying this article, showed a device enabling
+submarines travelling on the bottom of the sea to lift a net with a
+pair of projecting arms and thus pass unharmed under it.
+
+[Illustration: (C) International Film Service, Inc.
+
+_Submarine Built for Spain in the Cape Cod Canal._]
+
+Many other devices to trap, sink or capture submarines have been
+invented. A large number of these, of course, have been found
+impracticable. Others, however, have been used with success. Few
+details of any of these have been allowed to become known.
+
+The most dangerous power of submarines, is their ability to approach
+very closely to their object of attack without making their presence
+known to their prey. This naturally suggested that a way be found to
+detect the presence of submarines early enough to make it possible
+to stave off an attack or even to assume the offensive against the
+underwater boat. A recent invention, the perfection of which is due
+to the work of Mr. William Dubilier, an American electrical
+engineer, and of Professor Tissot, a member of the French Academy of
+Science, is the microphone. Few details are known about this
+instrument except that it records sound waves at as great a distance
+as fifty-five miles. This would permit in most cases the calling of
+patrol boats or the use of other defensive means before the
+submarine would be able to execute an attack.
+
+At the present moment it would appear that the most dangerous enemy
+of the submarine yet discovered is the airplane or the dirigible.
+Some figures as to the mortality among submarines due to the efforts
+of aircraft have been published in an earlier chapter. The chief
+value of aircraft in this work is due to the fact that objects under
+the water are readily discernible at a considerable depth when
+viewed from a point directly over them. An illustration familiar to
+every boy is to be found in the fact that he can see fish at the
+bottom of a clear stream from a bridge, while from the shore the
+refraction of the water is such that he can see nothing. From the
+air the aviator can readily see a submarine at a depth of fifty feet
+unless the water is unusually rough or turbid. The higher he rises
+the wider is his sphere of vision. With the lurking craft thus
+located the airman can either signal to watching destroyers or may
+bide his time and follow the submarine until it rises to the
+surface, when a well placed bomb will destroy it. Both of these
+methods have been adopted with success. For a time the submarines
+were immune from this form of attack because of the difficulty of
+finding a bomb which would not explode on striking the surface of
+the water, thus allowing its force to be dissipated before it
+reached the submarine, or else would not have its velocity so
+greatly checked by the water that on reaching the submarine the
+shock of its impact would not be great enough to explode it at all.
+Both of these difficulties have been overcome. The new high
+explosives have such power, taken in connection with the fact that
+water transmits the force of an explosion undiminished to a great
+distance, that many of them exploding at the surface will put out of
+action a submarine at a considerable depth. Furthermore bombs have
+been invented, which being fired, not merely dropped from an
+airplane, will go through the water with almost undiminished
+momentum and explode on striking the target, or after a period fixed
+by the assailant. Other bombs known as "depth bombs" are fitted with
+flanges that revolve as they sink, causing an explosion at any
+desired depth.
+
+About the actual achievements of the airplane as a foe to submarines
+there hangs a haze of mystery. It has been the policy of the Allied
+governments to keep secret the record of submarines destroyed and
+particularly the methods of destruction. But we know that a few have
+met their fate from bolts dropped from the blue. In _The Outlook_
+Lawrence La Tourette Driggs, himself a flying man of no contemptible
+record, describes the method and result of such an attack. After
+recounting the steps by which a brother airman attained a position
+directly above a submerged submarine preparatory to dropping his
+bomb, he says:
+
+     Down shot his plummet of steel and neatly parted the waters ahead
+     of the labouring submarine. But it did not explode. I could see a
+     whirling metal propeller on the torpedo revolve as it sank. It
+     must have missed the craft by twenty feet.
+
+     Suddenly a column of water higher than my position in the air
+     stood straight up over the sea, then slipped noiselessly back. By
+     all that is wonderful how did that happen?
+
+     As we covered the spot again and again in our circling machines,
+     we were joined by two more pilots, and finally by a fast clipper
+     steam yacht. The surface of the water was literally covered with
+     oil, breaking up the ripple of the waves, and smoothing a huge
+     area into gleaming bronze. Here and there floated a cork belt,
+     odd bunches of cotton waste, a strip of carpet, and a wooden
+     three-legged stool. These fragments alone remained to testify to
+     the _corpus delicti_.
+
+     "Philip," I said half an hour later, as the hot coffee was
+     thawing out our insides, "what kind of a civilized bomb do you
+     call that?"
+
+     "That bears the simple little title of trinitrotoluol; call it T.
+     N. T. for short," replied Sergeant Pieron.
+
+     "But what made it hang fire so long?" I demanded.
+
+     "It's made to work that way. When the bomb begins sinking the
+     little propeller is turned as it is pulled down through the
+     water. It continues turning until it screws to the end. There it
+     touches the fuse-pin and that sets off the high explosive--at any
+     depth you arrange it for."
+
+     I regarded him steadfastly. Then I remarked, "But it did not
+     touch the submarine. I saw it miss."
+
+     "Yes, you can miss it fifty yards and still crush the submarine."
+     He took up an empty egg shell. "The submarine is hollow like
+     this. She is held rigidly on all her sides by the water. Water is
+     non-compressible like steel. Now when the T. N. T. explodes, even
+     some distance away, the violent expending concussion is
+     communicated to this hollow shell just as though a battering ram
+     struck it. The submarine can't give any because the  surrounding
+     water holds her in place. So she crumples up--like this."
+
+     Pieron opened his hand and the flakes of egg shell fluttered down
+     until they struck the floor.
+
+Gunfire undoubtedly is still the most reliable preventive against
+submarine attacks. Comparatively small calibred guns can cause
+serious damage to submarines even by one well directed shot.
+Submarines have been sunk both by warships and merchantmen in this
+way and many more have been forced to desist from attacks. Not every
+merchantman, of course, can be equipped with the necessary guns and
+gunners. Neither equipment nor men can be spared in sufficient
+quantities. But the efficiency of gun protection has been proved
+beyond all doubt by many authentic reports of successful encounters
+between armed merchantmen and submarines in which the latter were
+defeated.
+
+Ramming, too, has been advocated and tried. It is, however, a
+procedure involving considerable danger to the attacking boat. For
+one thing all the submarine has to do is to dive quick and deep
+enough and it is out of harm's way. Then, too, the chances are that
+the submarine can launch a torpedo in time to reach the ramming
+vessel before the latter can do any damage.
+
+[Illustration: _A Critical Moment._
+
+_Painting by John E. Whiting._]
+
+There have been reports of submarine duels between Austrian and
+Italian submarines in the Adriatic in which it was claimed that in
+each at least one submarine was destroyed, and, at least, in one
+instance both the duellists were sunk. Generally speaking the fact
+has been established, however, that submarines cannot fight
+submarines with any degree of success, except in exceptional cases
+and under exceptional conditions.
+
+Since the outbreak of the war between the United States and Germany
+the question of combating the submarine has become more acute than
+ever. The latest development has been along negative rather than
+affirmative lines. It has apparently been decided that none of the
+devices, known at present and capable of destroying submarines, is
+sufficient either alone or in combinations to defeat the submarines
+decisively. The best means of balancing as much as possible the
+losses which German submarines are inflicting on the shipping
+facilities of the Allies at the present seems to be the unlimited
+and prompt building of large fleets of comparatively small ships. If
+this can be accomplished in time, the German submarines undoubtedly
+will find it impossible to destroy a tonnage sufficient to exert any
+great influence on the final outcome of the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FUTURE OF THE SUBMARINE
+
+
+The world will not always be at war. Interminable as the conflict by
+which it is now racked seems, and endless as appear the resources of
+the nations participating in it, the time must come when victory or
+sheer exhaustion shall compel peace. People talk of that peace being
+permanent. That is perhaps too sanguine a dream while human nature
+remains what it is, and nations can still be as covetous, ambitious,
+and heedless of others' rights as are individuals. But beyond doubt
+a prolonged period of peace awaits the world. What then is to be the
+future of the aircraft and the submarine which had to wait for war
+to secure any recognition from mankind of their prodigious
+possibilities?
+
+Of the future of the aircraft there can be no doubt. Its uses in
+peace will be innumerable. Poor old Count Zeppelin, who thought of
+his invention only as a weapon of war, nevertheless showed how it
+might be successfully adapted to the needs of peace merely as a
+byproduct. As for the airplane both for sport and business its
+opportunities are endless. Easy and inexpensive to build, simple to
+operate with but little training on the part of the aviator, it will
+be made the common carrier of all nations. Already the United States
+is maintaining an aerial mail service in Alaska. Already too, bi-
+and triplanes are built capable of carrying twenty-five to thirty
+men besides guns and ammunition. It is easy to foresee the use that
+can be made of machines of this character in times of peace. Needing
+no tracks or right of way, requiring no expensive signalling or
+operative system, asking only that at each end of the route there
+shall be a huge level field for rising and for landing, these
+machines will in time take to themselves the passenger business of
+the world.
+
+But the future of the submarine is more dubious. Always it will be a
+potent weapon of war. It may indeed force the relegation of
+dreadnoughts to the scrap heap. But of its peaceful services there
+is more doubt. That it can be made a cargo carrier is unquestionably
+true. But to what good? There is no intelligent reason for carrying
+cargoes slowly under water which might just as well be carried
+swiftly on the surface unless war compels concealment. Underwater
+navigation must always be slower and more expensive than surface
+navigation, nor does it seem probable that the underwater boats can
+ever equal in size ordinary ships, though undoubtedly their present
+proportions are going to be greatly increased.
+
+As a result of the German submarine campaign it is possible that the
+United States may develop a fleet of underwater merchantmen to
+circumvent the enemy while this war continues, though there has been
+but little discussion of it. But even so, commonsense would indicate
+that such a fleet would be abandoned on the restoration of peace. If
+anything is to be done toward making the submarine a vessel of
+ordinary everyday use the present double system of motors--the
+Diesels for surface navigation and the electric for submerged
+service--will have to be abandoned. Inventors however are diligently
+working on this problem to-day. Indeed so well known and successful
+a builder of submarines as Mr. Simon Lake seemed to have faith in
+their possibilities as merchant craft. As early as February, 1916,
+he announced that he had taken out a patent on a new form of
+cargo-carrying submarine which he described as made up of "nests of
+light-weight circular tanks of comparatively small diameter
+surrounded by a ship-shape form of hull." What advantage was to
+accrue from this type of vessel Mr. Lake has not explained. However
+the Germans who seemed to originate everything successfully
+demonstrated that the merchant submarine was a practicable and
+useful craft with which to beat the blockade.
+
+This was proved by the two successful trips made by the unarmed
+German merchant submarine _Deutschland_ between Germany and the
+United States in 1916. Loaded with a cargo of dyestuffs and
+chemicals she left Bremen on June 14, 1916, and arrived in Baltimore
+early in July. After a short stay, during which she took on a full
+return cargo, consisting chiefly of rubber and metal, she started on
+August 1, 1916, for her return trip to Bremen where she arrived
+safely soon after August 15, 1916. Once more, in October of the same
+year she made a successful round trip, docking this time in New
+London. There was considerable talk about additional trips by other
+German merchant submarines, but none of them were ever carried out.
+It has never become known whether this was due to the loss of these
+merchant submarines or to political relations between Germany and
+the United States which were then gradually assuming a less friendly
+form.
+
+[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service.
+
+_A Submarine Built for Chili, Passing through Cape Cod Canal._]
+
+Of course, it is true that such boats are blockade runners and in a
+way, therefore, part and parcel of warfare. But they are unarmed
+merchantmen just the same and their exclusively mercantile character
+has been officially acknowledged by the United States Government.
+Under conditions of peace, however, it is very doubtful whether
+submarine merchantmen would pay, nor does it seem as if they
+possessed any advantages at all over surface merchant vessels.
+Nevertheless they represent an entirely new development of submarine
+navigation and, therefore, deserve attention.
+
+During her stay in the United States, very few people were permitted
+to get more than a glance of the _Deutschland_. As a result,
+comparatively little became known regarding her mechanical details.
+The _Scientific American_, however, in its issue of July 22, 1916,
+gives a fairly detailed description of this first merchant
+submarine.
+
+From this account we learn that the _Deutschland_ conforms rather
+closely to the typical German naval U-boat. The hull proper consists
+of an internal cigar-shaped, cylindrical structure, which extends
+from stem to stern, and in its largest diameter measures about
+twenty feet. Enclosing this hull is a lighter false hull, which is
+perforated, to permit the entrance and exit of the sea-water, and is
+so shaped as to give the submarine a fairly good ship model for
+driving at high speed on the surface and at a much lesser speed
+submerged. The upper portion of the false hull does not present such
+a flat deck-like appearance as is noticeable in the naval U-boats.
+In fact, the whole modelling of the _Deutschland_, as compared with
+the naval boats, suggests that she has been fulled out somewhat,
+with a view to obtaining the necessary displacement for cargo
+carrying.
+
+     The interior cylindrical hull is divided by four transverse
+     bulkheads into five separate water-tight compartments.
+     Compartment No. 1, at the bow, contains the anchor cables and
+     electric winches for handling the anchor; also general ship
+     stores, and a certain amount of cargo. Compartment No. 2 is given
+     up entirely to cargo. Compartment No. 3, which is considerably
+     larger than any of the others, contains the living quarters of
+     the officers and crew. At the after end of this compartment, and
+     communicating with it, is the conning tower. Compartment No. 4 is
+     given up entirely to cargo. Compartment No. 5 contains the
+     propelling machinery, consisting of two heavy oil engines and two
+     electric motors. The storage batteries are carried in the bottom
+     of the boat, below the living compartment. For purposes of
+     communication, a gangway, 2 feet 6 inches wide by 6 feet high, is
+     built through each cargo compartment, thus rendering it possible
+     for the crew to pass entirely from one end of the boat to the
+     other.
+
+     The length of the _Deutschland_ is about 315 feet; beam 30 feet,
+     and draught 17 feet. For surface propulsion and for charging the
+     batteries, the boat carries two 4-cylinder, Diesel, heavy-oil
+     motors of about 600 H. P. each. The speed at the surface is from
+     12 to 13 knots; and submerged it is 7 knots. At the surface the
+     displacement of the boat is about 2000 tons, and she has a cargo
+     capacity of about 700 tons.
+
+     The freeboard to the main deck, which runs the full length of the
+     boat, but is only about 5-1/2 feet wide, is about 6 feet, and the
+     cockpit at the top of the conning tower is about 15 feet above
+     the water. This cockpit, by the way, is suggestive of the
+     protection afforded a chauffeur in an automobile, there being a
+     shield in front of the quartermaster, so shaped as to throw the
+     wind and spray upwards and clear of his face.
+
+     Two periscopes are provided; one at the forward end of the
+     conning tower, and the other, of larger diameter, being forward
+     and on the starboard of the conning tower. An interesting feature
+     is the two folding, steel, wireless masts, about 50 feet in
+     height, both of which fold aft into pockets built in the deck of
+     the ship. The forward one of these masts carries a crow's nest
+     for the lookout.
+
+The commander of the _Deutschland_, Captain Paul Koenig, was before the
+war a popular captain of North German Lloyd liners. He has published a
+very vivid and interesting account of the _Deutschland's_ trip, the
+_Voyage of the Deutschland_. In this book, he tells us how he was
+offered this novel command while the plans were still being drawn and
+that he immediately accepted, making, however, the proviso "if the
+thing really comes off."
+
+The men, backing the venture, lost no time and, so Captain Koenig
+tells us,
+
+     in less than two months a telegram called me to Berlin to an
+     important conference. Here I looked at sketches, plans, and
+     working drawings until my eyes swam. Four more months passed
+     which I utilized to the full. I then went to Kiel and saw a
+     remarkable framework of steel slowly take shape upon the stocks
+     across the way at Gaarden. Rotund, snug, and harmless the thing
+     lay there. Inside it were hidden all the countless, complicated,
+     and powerful features of those sketches and working drawings. I
+     cannot boast that the reality as executed in steel and brass was
+     any easier to grasp than the endless network of lines and circles
+     which had bewildered me when inspecting the blueprints.
+
+     Those of you who have seen illustrations and photographs of the
+     interior of the "central station" or the "turret" of a submarine,
+     will understand what I mean. And should you have entered a
+     submarine itself and felt yourself hopelessly confused by the
+     bewildering chaos of wheels, vents, screws, cocks, pipes,
+     conduits--above, below, and all about--not to speak of the
+     mysterious levers and weird mechanisms, each of which has some
+     important function to fulfill, you may find some consolation in
+     the thought that my own brains performed a devils' dance at the
+     sight.
+
+     But after this monster, with its tangle of tubes and pipes, had
+     been duly christened, and its huge grey-green body had slid
+     majestically into the water, it suddenly became a ship. It swam
+     in its element as though born to it--as though it had never known
+     another.
+
+     For the first time I trod the tiny deck and mounted the turret to
+     the navigation platform. From here I glanced down and was
+     surprised to see beneath me a long, slender craft--with gracious
+     lines and dainty contours. Only the sides, where the green body
+     vaulted massively above the water, gave an indication of the huge
+     size of the hull. I felt pride and rapture as my eye took in this
+     picture. The fabric swayed slightly beneath my feet--an
+     impressive combination of power and delicacy.
+
+     And now I know that what had at first seemed to me nothing more
+     than the product of some mad phantasy on the part of the
+     technicians was in reality a ship. It was a ship in which oceans
+     might be crossed, a real ship, to which the heart of an old
+     sailor like myself might safely attach itself.
+
+     Then came a short period of trial trips and diving tests, all of
+     which were carried off successfully, and at last the day of
+     departure arrived. As soon as the last escort had turned around a
+     final diving test was ordered.
+
+     Instantly the response came back from the turret and the central
+     station, and the men hurried to their posts. The oil engines were
+     still hammering away at a mad rate. I left the manhole of the
+     turret. The cover was battened down, the engines stopped at the
+     same moment.
+
+     We felt a slight pressure in our ears for a moment. We were cut
+     off from outside and silence reigned. But this silence was merely
+     an illusion--and was due to the change.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_A Submarine Entrapped by Nets._]
+
+     "Open the diving-valves! Submerge!"
+
+     The valves were flung open and the compressed air escaped hissing
+     from the tanks. At the same time a gigantic, intermittent
+     snorting ensued, like the blowing and belching of some
+     prehistoric monster. There was an uncomfortable pressure in our
+     ears, then the noise became more regular, followed by a buzzing
+     and a shrill hum. All the high notes of the engines in the
+     central station intermingled and made a bewildering noise. It was
+     like a mad diabolical singsong. And yet it was almost like
+     silence after the dull, heavy pounding of the oil-motors--only
+     more insistent and irritating. The penetrating hum in the various
+     vents announced the fact that the diving mechanism was in
+     operation. It moaned and sang lower and lower in the scale of
+     tones. These slowly diminishing and steadily deepening tones
+     give one the physical feeling of mighty volumes of water pouring
+     in and flooding full.
+
+     You have the sensation of growing heavier and sinking as the boat
+     grows heavier and sinks, even though you may not be able to see
+     through the turret window, or the periscope, how the bows are
+     gradually submerged and the water climbs higher and higher up the
+     turret until all things without are wrapped in the eerie twilight
+     of the depths.
+
+     The faithful lamps burned, however, and then a real silence
+     suddenly ensued. There was no sound but the gentle trembling
+     rhythm of the electric engines.
+
+     I then gave the order:
+
+     "Submerge to twenty meters!"
+
+     "Both engines half steam ahead!"
+
+     I was able to follow our submersion by means of the manometer.
+     Through flooding the tanks, the boat is given several tons
+     over-weight and the enclosed ship's space is made heavier than
+     the displaced quantity of water. The titanic fish, therefore,
+     began to sink downward in its element, that is to say, it began,
+     in a certain sense, to fall. At the same time the electric
+     engines are put into motion and the propulsive force of the
+     propellers acts upon the diving rudders and causes the sinking to
+     become a gliding. After the required depth has been
+     reached--something which may easily be read from the manometer
+     that records the depth--all further sinking may be stopped by
+     simply lightening the hull, which is done by forcing out some of
+     the water in the submarine's tanks. The furious growling of the
+     pump is always a sure sign that the required depth is being
+     approached. The noise ceased, only the electric motors continued
+     to purr, and the word came from the central station:
+
+     "Twenty meters--even keel!"
+
+     "Rudder set!"
+
+     So we forged ahead at a depth of twenty meters. Of course we are
+     "blind" under such conditions and can regulate our movements only
+     by means of the depth recorder and that precious little jewel of
+     the boat, our compass. No ray of light reached us any longer from
+     without, the periscope was submerged long ago and the steel
+     safety covers over the windows were closed. We had been
+     metamorphosed completely into a fish.[1]
+
+         [Footnote 1: (C)]
+
+Orders were then given to rise again. The _Deutschland_ carried out
+this manoeuvre with the same facility with which she had taken the
+initial dive of her long voyage. In record time the ballast tanks
+were emptied and the change from electric motors to oil engines was
+completed without further loss of time. The boat was started at top
+surface speed towards her ultimate goal, the United States.
+
+On the following day the _Deutschland_ barely escaped running foul
+of a British submarine chaser, disguised as a neutral merchantman. A
+quick dive alone saved her. When she came up again a wild storm and
+a heavy sea were raging. Even before the change from the electric
+motors to the oil engines had been completed, another dangerous
+looking vessel appeared and before long was recognized as a hostile
+destroyer by Captain Koenig. He tells us that he "Made one jump into
+the turret and slammed the cover fast."
+
+     "Alarm! Dive quickly! Flood!"
+
+     "Set diving rudder!"
+
+     "Twenty meters' depth!"
+
+     The commands were uttered in almost one breath. But the execution
+     of them!
+
+     To attempt to dive with such a sea running was sheer madness, as
+     experience has taught us. What was I to do? The destroyer might
+     have seen us already!
+
+     Well, we knew we must get under--and as quickly as possible.
+
+     The men in the central below me were working away in silent
+     haste. All the exhausts were opened wide, the compressed air
+     hissed from the tanks--the diving vents were chanting in all
+     possible keys.
+
+     I stood with my lips pressed together and stared out of the
+     turret window upon the tossing sea, and watched for the first
+     sign of our going down. But our deck remained still visible and
+     we were continually lifted into the air by some wave. There was
+     not a moment to be lost.
+
+     I ordered the diving rudder to be set still more sharply and both
+     engines to drive ahead with full power.
+
+     The whole vessel quivered and thrilled under the increased
+     pressure of the engines and made several leaps. She staggered
+     about in the furious seas--but still seemed loath to leave the
+     surface. Then she gave a jerk and her bows suddenly dipped and
+     cut into the flood. She began to sink into the depths at an
+     ever-increasing angle. The coming daylight vanished from the
+     windows of the turret, the manometer in rapid succession showed
+     2--3--6--10 meters' depth. But the angle of the boat also began
+     to increase.
+
+     We staggered about, leaned back, slipped off our feet. We then
+     lost our footing entirely--for the floor of the _Deutschland_
+     slanted sharply toward the front. I was just able to catch hold
+     of the ocular or eye-piece of the periscope. Down in the central
+     the men were hanging on to the hand-wheels of the diving rudder.
+     A few terrible seconds passed thus.
+
+     We had not yet seized the full significance of this new situation
+     when there came a severe shock. We were hurled to the floor and
+     everything that was not fastened down went flying in all
+     directions.
+
+     We found ourselves in the queerest attitudes--and stared into one
+     another's faces. There was a grim silence for a moment, then
+     First Officer Krapohl remarked dryly:
+
+     "Well, we seem to have arrived!"
+
+     This broke the ghastly tension.
+
+     We were all rather pale around the gills, but at once tried to
+     get our bearings.
+
+     What had happened?
+
+     What had caused this unnatural inclination of the boat? And why
+     were the engines above us raving at intervals in a way that made
+     the whole boat roar from stem to stern?
+
+     Before any of us had arrived at any solution of the mystery, our
+     Chief Engineer, little Klees, had jumped up from his crouching
+     position, and, swift as lightning, had swept the engine-signal
+     dial around to "Stop!"
+
+     And suddenly there was a deep silence.
+
+     We slowly assembled our proper legs and arms and thought hard
+     over what had happened.
+
+     The vessel had slanted down toward the bows at an angle of about
+     36 degrees. She was standing, so to speak, on her head. Our bow
+     was fast upon the bottom of the sea--our stern was still
+     oscillating up and down like a mighty pendulum. The manometer
+     showed a depth of about 15 meters.[2]
+
+         [Footnote 2: (C)]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Diagram of a German Submarine Mine-Layer Captured by British._]
+
+However, the _Deutschland_ finally worked herself free and soon was
+again on the surface. Luck must have been with her, for she had
+suffered no damage and, in spite of the mountains of water which she
+must have thrown up, the hostile destroyer had not discovered her.
+Once more she was off on her way.
+
+So the days went by and before long the merchant submarine had
+passed, without having been detected, beyond the territory in which
+British patrol boats were operating. Then came a succession of
+uneventful days and fine weather. Practically every day diving tests
+were made. One of these the captain describes as follows:
+
+     During these experimental diving tests we were treated to a
+     spectacle of fairy-like loveliness.
+
+     I had set the rudder in such a way that the turret was travelling
+     about three yards under water. Overhead the sun shone brilliantly
+     and filled the deeps with a clear radiance. The pure water was
+     luminous with colour--close at hand it was of a light azure blue,
+     of fabulous clearness and transparent as glass. I could see the
+     entire boat from the turret windows. The shimmering pearls of the
+     air-bubbles which rise constantly from the body of the craft
+     played about the entire length of the vessel from deck to bows,
+     and every detail stood out in miraculous sharpness. Farther ahead
+     there was a multi-coloured twilight. It seemed as if the prow
+     kept pushing itself noiselessly into a wall of opalescent green
+     which parted, glistening, and grew to an ethereal, rainbow-like
+     translucency close at hand.
+
+     We were spell-bound by this vision of beauty. The fairy-like
+     effect was increased by medusae which, poised in the transparent
+     blue, frequently became entangled in the wires of the mine-guards
+     or the railings and glowed like trembling fires of rose, pale
+     gold, and purple.[3]
+
+         [Footnote 3: (C)]
+
+But less pleasant things were in store for the _Deutschland's_ crew.
+The nearer the boat came to the region of the Gulf Stream, the more
+violent the weather became. Though she still ran most of the time on
+the surface, it became necessary to keep all openings battened down.
+Even the manhole, leading to the turret, could be kept open only
+for short periods. Naturally the temperature was rising all the
+time. It was midsummer and the Gulf Stream contributed its share of
+warmth. No wonder, therefore, that Captain Koenig compares conditions
+below decks to a "veritable hell," and then continues:
+
+     While in the Gulf Stream we had an outer temperature of 28 deg.
+     Celsius. This was about the warmth of the surrounding water.
+     Fresh air no longer entered. In the engine-room two 6-cylinder
+     combustion motors kept hammering away in a maddening two-four
+     time. They hurled the power of their explosions into the whirling
+     crankshafts. The red-hot breath of the consumed gases went
+     crashing out through the exhausts, but the glow of these
+     incessant firings remained in the cylinders and communicated
+     itself to the entire oil-dripping environment of steel. A choking
+     cloud of heat and oily vapour streamed from the engines and
+     spread itself like a leaden pressure through the entire ship.
+
+     During these days the temperature mounted to 53 deg. Celsius.
+
+     And yet men lived and worked in a hell such as this! The watch
+     off duty, naked to the skin, groaned and writhed in their bunks.
+     It was no longer possible to think of sleep. And when one of the
+     men fell into a dull stupor, then he would be aroused by the
+     sweat which ran incessantly over his forehead and into his eyes,
+     and would awake to new torment.
+
+     It was almost like a blessed deliverance when the eight hours of
+     rest were over, and a new watch was called to the central or the
+     engine-room.
+
+[Illustration: Redrawn from _The Sphere_. Permission of _Scientific
+American_.
+
+_A Submarine Discharging a Torpedo._]
+
+     But there the real martyrdom began. Clad only in an undershirt
+     and drawers, the men stood at their posts, a cloth wound about
+     their foreheads to keep the running sweat from streaming into
+     their eyes. Their blood hammered and raced in their temples.
+     Every vein boiled as with fever. It was only by the exertion of
+     the most tremendous willpower that it was possible to force the
+     dripping human body to perform its mechanical duty and to remain
+     upright during the four hours of the watch....
+
+     But how long would we be able to endure this?
+
+     I no longer kept a log during these days and I find merely this
+     one note: "Temperature must not rise any higher if the men are to
+     remain any longer in the engine-room."
+
+     But they did endure it. They remained erect like so many heroes,
+     they did their duty, exhausted, glowing hot, and bathed in sweat,
+     until the storm centre lay behind us, until the weather cleared,
+     until the sun broke through the clouds, and the diminishing seas
+     permitted us once more to open the hatches.[4]
+
+         [Footnote 4: (C)]
+
+The _Deutschland_ was now near her goal. Without any trouble she
+entered Hampton Roads and was docked at Baltimore. There her cargo
+was discharged and her return cargo loaded. This latter operation
+involved many difficulties. During her stay a United States
+Government Commission made a detailed inspection of the
+_Deutschland_ to determine beyond all question her mercantile
+character. But at last the day of departure, August 1, had arrived.
+Properly escorted she made the trip down the Patapsco River and
+Chesapeake Bay. On her way down she made again diving trials which
+Captain Koenig describes as follows:
+
+     In order to see that everything else was tight and in good order,
+     I gave the command to set the boat upon the sea bottom at a spot
+     which, according to the reading upon the chart, had a depth of
+     some 30 meters.
+
+     Once again everything grew silent. The daylight vanished the
+     well-known singing and boiling noise of the submerging vents
+     vibrated about us. In my turret I fixed my eyes upon the
+     manometer. Twenty meters were recorded, then twenty-five. The
+     water ballast was diminished--thirty meters appeared and I waited
+     the slight bump which was to announce the arrival of the boat at
+     the bottom.
+
+     Nothing of the sort happened.
+
+     Instead of this the indicator upon the dial pointed to 32--to
+     33--to 35 meters....
+
+     I knocked against the glass with my finger--correct--the arrow
+     was just pointing toward thirty-six.
+
+     "Great thunder! what's up?" I cried, and reached for the chart.
+     Everything tallied. Thirty meters were indicated at this spot and
+     our reckoning had been most exact.
+
+     And we continued to sink deeper and deeper.
+
+     The dial was now announcing 40 meters.
+
+     This was a bit too much for me. I called down to the central and
+     got back the comforting answer that the large manometer was also
+     indicating a depth of over forty meters!
+
+     The two manometers agreed.
+
+     This, however, did not prevent the boat from continuing to sink.
+
+     The men in the central began to look at one another....
+
+     Ugh! it gives one a creepy feeling to go slipping away into the
+     unknown amidst this infernal singing silence and to see nothing
+     but the climbing down of the confounded indicator upon the
+     white-faced dial....
+
+     There was nothing else to be seen in my turret. I glanced at the
+     chart and then at the manometer in a pretty helpless fashion.
+
+     In the meantime the boat sank deeper; forty-five meters were
+     passed--the pointer indicated forty-eight meters. I began to
+     think the depth of the Chesapeake Bay must have some limit; we
+     surely could not be heading for the bottomless pit? Then--the
+     boat halted at a depth of fifty meters without the slightest
+     shock.
+
+     I climbed down into the central and took counsel with Klees and
+     the two officers of the watch.
+
+     There could be only one explanation; we must have sunk into a
+     hole which had not been marked upon the chart.[5]
+
+         [Footnote 5: (C)]
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_A German Submarine in Three Positions._]
+
+When orders were now given to rise, it was found that the exhaust
+pumps refused to work. After a while, however, the chief engineer
+succeeded in getting them started. They reached the surface after
+about two hours of submergence.
+
+It was dark by the time the merchant submarine was approaching the
+three-mile limit. Outside of it hostile warships were lying in wait.
+That the _Deutschland_ escaped them well illustrates the fact that
+submarines may be kept by various means from entering a bay or a
+harbour, but that to blockade their exit is practically impossible.
+This is how Captain Koenig speaks of his escape.
+
+     We knew that the most dangerous moment of our entire voyage was
+     now approaching. We once more marked our exact position, and then
+     proceeded to make all the preparations necessary for our breaking
+     through.
+
+     Then we dived and drove forward. All our senses were keyed to the
+     utmost, our nerves taut to the breaking-point with that cold
+     excitement which sends quivers through one's soul, the while
+     outwardly one remains quite serene, governed by that clear and
+     icy deliberation which is apt to possess a man who is fully
+     conscious of the unknown perils toward which he goes....
+
+     We knew our path. We had already been informed that fishermen had
+     been hired to spread their nets along certain stretches of the
+     three-mile limit; nets in which we were supposed to entangle
+     ourselves; nets into which devilish mines had very likely been
+     woven....
+
+     Possibly these nets were merely attached to buoys which we were
+     then supposed to drag along after us, thus betraying our
+     position....
+
+     We were prepared for all emergencies, so that in case of extreme
+     necessity we should be able to free ourselves of the nets. But
+     all went well.
+
+     It was a dark night. Quietly and peacefully the lighthouses upon
+     the two capes sent forth their light, the while a few miles
+     further out death lay lowering for us in every imaginable form.
+
+     But while the English ships were racing up and down, jerking
+     their searchlights across the waters and searching again and
+     again in every imaginable spot, they little surmised that, at
+     times within the radius of their own shadows, a periscope pursued
+     its silent way, and under this periscope the _U-Deutschland_.
+
+     That night at twelve o'clock, after hours of indescribable
+     tension, I gave the command to rise.
+
+     We Had Broken Through!
+
+     Slowly the _Deutschland_ rose to the surface, the tanks were
+     blown out and the Diesel engines flung into the gearing. At our
+     highest speed we now went rushing toward the free Atlantic.[6]
+
+         [Footnote 6: (C)]
+
+The homeward voyage was completed without untoward incident and long
+before the month had ended, the first--and probably last--merchant
+submarine was again safe and snug in her home port.
+
+The cargo-carrying submarine, however, is by no means the only type
+of underwater vessel engaged in peaceful pursuits which has been
+suggested so far. Mr. Simon Lake, the American submarine engineer
+and inventor, has frequently pointed out the commercial
+possibilities of the submarine.
+
+In the early part of 1916 a series of articles from his pen appeared
+in _International Marine Engineering_. They contained a number of
+apparently feasible suggestions looking towards the commercial
+development of the submarine.
+
+First of all he tells of experiments made with submarines for
+navigation under ice. The proper development of this idea, of
+course, would be of immense commercial value. Many harbours in
+various parts of the world are inaccessible during the winter months
+for vessels navigating on the surface. Navigation on many important
+inland lakes likewise has to be stopped during that period.
+Submarines, built so that they can safely travel under the ice,
+would overcome these conditions and would make it possible to use
+most ice-bound ports throughout the entire year at least in Mr.
+Lake's view.
+
+Ever since Mr. Lake began inventing and building submarines he has
+been interested in the possibilities which submarines offer for the
+exploration of the sea-bottom and for the discovery of wrecks and
+recovery of their valuable cargoes. His first boat, the _Argonaut_,
+as we have heard, possessed a diving chamber for just such purposes.
+He has continued his investigations and experiments along this line,
+and in these articles he shows illustrations of submarine boats and
+devices adapted for such work. Properly financed and directed, the
+recovery of cargoes from wrecks undoubtedly would not only bring
+large financial returns to the backers of such a venture, but also
+do away with the immense waste which the total loss of sunken
+vessels and cargoes inflicts now on the world. Submarines in peace
+may yet recover for the use of man much of the wealth which
+submarines in war have sent to the bottom of the sea. Marine
+insurance, too, would be favourably affected by such an undertaking.
+
+Still one other commercial submarine boat is advocated by Mr. Lake.
+This is to be used for the location and collection of shellfish on a
+large scale. Of this vessel its inventor says:
+
+     The design of this submarine oyster-dredging vessel is such that
+     the vessel goes down to the bottom direct, and the water is
+     forced out of the centre raking compartment so that the oysters
+     may be seen by the operator in the control compartment. With only
+     a few inches of water over them, headway is then given to the
+     submarine and the oysters are automatically raked up, washed, and
+     delivered through pipes into the cargo-carrying chambers.
+     Centrifugal pumps are constantly delivering water from the cargo
+     compartments, which induces a flow of water through the pipes
+     leading from the "rake pans" with sufficient velocity to carry up
+     the oysters and deposit them into the cargo holds. In this manner
+     the bottom may be seen, and by "tracking" back and forth over the
+     bottom the ground may be "cleaned up" at one operation.
+
+     This boat has a capacity of gathering oysters from good ground at
+     the rate of five thousand bushels per hour. The use of the
+     submarine will make the collection of oysters more nearly like
+     the method of reaping a field of grain, where one "swathe"
+     systematically joins on to another, and the whole field is
+     "cleaned up" at one operation.
+
+Man's greediness for profit has already driven the salmon from the
+rivers of New England where once they swarmed. Mechanical devices
+for taking them by the hundreds of thousands threaten a like result
+in the now teeming rivers of Washington and British Columbia. Mr.
+Lake's invention has the demerit of giving conscienceless profiteers
+the opportunity to obliterate the oyster from our national waters.
+
+[Illustration: Permission of _Scientific American_.
+
+_Sectional View of a British Submarine._]
+
+It does not appear, however, that, except as an engine of war the
+submarine offers much prospect of future development or future
+usefulness. And as we of the United States entered this war, which
+now engages our energies and our thoughts, for the purpose of making
+it the last war the world shall ever know, speculation on the future
+of the submarine seems rather barren. That does not mean however
+that there will be a complete stoppage of submarine construction or
+submarine development. War is not going to be ended by complete
+international disarmament, any more than complete unpreparedness
+kept the United States out of the struggle. A reasonable armament
+for every nation, and the union of all nations against any one or
+two that threaten wantonly to break the peace is the most promising
+plan intelligent pacifism has yet suggested. In such an
+international system there will be room and plenty for submarines.
+
+Indeed it is into just such a plan that they intelligently fit.
+Though not wholly successful in their operations against capital
+ships, they have demonstrated enough power to make nations hesitate
+henceforth before putting a score of millions into ponderous
+dreadnoughts which have to retire from submarine-infested waters as
+the British did in their very hour of triumph at Jutland. They have
+not nullified, but greatly reduced the value of overwhelming sea
+power such as the British have possessed. A navy greater than those
+of any two other nations has indeed kept the German ships, naval and
+commercial, locked in port. But less than two hundred inexpensive
+submarines bid fair to sweep the seas of all merchant ships--neutral
+as well as British unless by feverish building the nations can build
+ships faster than submarines can sink them. Huge navies may
+henceforth be unknown.
+
+The submarine has been the David of the war. It is a pity that its
+courage and efficiency have been exerted mainly in the wrong cause
+and that the missiles from its sling have felled the wrong Goliath.
+
+Aircraft and submarine! It is still on the cards that when the
+definitive history of the war shall be written, its outcome may be
+ascribed to one or the other of these novel weapons--the creation of
+American inventive genius.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+A
+
+  _Aboukir_, 235, 236
+
+  Aerial mail service, 362
+
+  Aerial instruction, 109-121
+
+  Aerial Coast Patrol Unit, 188
+
+  Aerodromes, 170
+
+  Airplane costs, 224, 225
+
+  American aviators in France, 109, 111, 174
+
+  American Flying Corps, 175
+
+  Andre, General, 267-269
+
+  Andree, Polar expedition, 41, 56, 57
+
+  Anti-aircraft guns, 128, 129, 144-147, 150, 151, 169, 172, 173, 211,
+    230, 297, 305
+
+  Antwerp, 195
+
+  "Archies," _see_ anti-aircraft guns
+
+  Arlandes, Marquis, d', 29
+
+  Archimedes, 19
+
+  Army Aviation School, Mineola, 188
+
+  Arras, 185
+
+  Astra-Torres, 81
+
+  Austrian, submarine, U-11, 190;
+    seaplane, 191;
+    warships _vs._, British submarines, 334;
+    submarines, 261, 360;
+    submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Aviation, in England, 104, 105, 106;
+    in France, 104-106;
+    Germany, 104-106, 108;
+    Russia, 106;
+    United States, 182-190, 194, 202, 221
+
+  "Avro" machines, 148
+
+
+B
+
+  Baker, Ray Stannard, quoted, 287-293
+
+  Ball, Captain, 212-214
+
+  Baltic, 157
+
+  Bauer, Wilhelm, 253, 254
+
+  Belgium, 18, 108, 184, 196
+
+  Belgium, mapping coast of, 150
+
+  Berlin, 65, 74, 75, 156, 357
+
+  Besnier, wings, 16
+
+  Blanchard, aeronaut, 35
+
+  Bleriot, aviator, 35, 95, 109;
+    airplane, 186
+
+  Blockade, United States, 10
+
+  Boelke, Lieutenant, 118-120;
+    story of air duel of, 214-216
+
+  Brazil, submarine strength of, 307
+
+  Briggs, Commander, 148
+
+  Bristol, biplane, 126
+
+  British, 105, 147, 149, 151, 152, 164, 166, 171, 183, 188, 190, 334;
+    Admiralty, 236, 272;
+    Navy, 195, 274;
+    Royal Flying Corps, 105, 106, 164, 166, 167, 174, 212;
+    Royal Naval Air Service, 150, 200;
+    submarine strength, 301, 302
+
+  Brussels, 165
+
+  Bushnell, David, 246-249, 263
+
+
+C
+
+  Calmette, M., 267-270
+
+  Canada, airplane factories in, 107
+
+  Caproni, airplanes, 204, 228
+
+  Cayley, Sir George, 36, 83
+
+  Channel, English, 30, 35, 55, 144, 324, 340, 341
+
+  Chanute, 90
+
+  Chapman, Victor, 176, 179, 180, 214
+
+  Charles, M., 25;
+    balloon, 31
+
+  Churchill, Winston, 155
+
+  Civil War, 5, 7, 10, 61, 260, 261, 333
+
+  _Clement-Bayard II._, 56
+
+  Coffin, Howard E., 202
+
+  Congress of the United States, 182, 187, 194, 196, 201, 221, 276, 301
+
+  Congressional Committee, 204
+
+  _Cressy_, 235, 236
+
+  Curtis, Glenn, 83, 98
+
+  Cuxhaven, 8, 108, 132, 148, 149, 150, 155
+
+
+D
+
+  Dardanelles, 157, 190, 310, 334
+
+  Da Vinci, Leonardo, 15
+
+  Day, J., 242-246
+
+  "D. H. 5," 126
+
+  Denmark, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Department of Aeronautics, 182
+
+  Deutsch, Henry, prize for aviation, 39, 46-50
+
+  _Deutschland_, The, 13, 364-378
+
+  Dewey, Admiral, 271, 272
+
+  Diesel motor, 308, 309, 319, 325, 363, 366
+
+  Douaumont, 162
+
+  Drachens, 220
+
+  Drebel, Cornelius, 238-240
+
+  Driggs, Lawrence La Tourette, 358, 359
+
+  Dubilier, William, 357
+
+
+E
+
+  Eiffel Tower, 42, 46-49, 51. _See also_ Santos-Dumont
+
+  Emperor of Germany, 65, 69, 72
+
+  England, 73, 75, 95, 105, 108, 142, 147, 166, 182, 184, 194, 201,
+    202, 207, 209, 240, 251, 253, 303, 345
+
+  Essen, 8, 108
+
+  Expeditionary Army, 106
+
+
+F
+
+  Faotomu, Lieutenant Takuma, 352, 353
+
+  Farman, 95, 108, 218
+
+  Farragut, Admiral, 132
+
+  Fiske, Rear-Admiral, 155, 157, 206
+
+  Flanders, 6, 148
+
+  Flechette, 138, 186
+
+  Fokker, 126, 128, 163, 170, 171, 212
+
+  Fort Myer, 96, 97
+
+  _Foucault_, submarine, 191
+
+  France, 59, 80, 81, 95, 104-106, 111, 120, 133, 142, 147, 167, 180,
+    182, 183, 195, 199, 200-202, 208, 209, 214, 240, 251, 254, 295,
+    303, 343
+
+  Franklin, Benjamin, views of balloons, 24;
+    letters, 32, 33
+
+  French, airplanes at Battle of Somme, 198;
+    Commission to United States, 196;
+    guns, 147;
+    improve on German airplane, 204;
+    inspection of captive Zeppelin, 81;
+    standardize their airplanes, 104;
+    submarine, 309;
+    submarine strength, 302, 303
+
+  French, General Sir John, 3-5, 106
+
+  Friedrichshaven, 8, 70, 75, 76, 108, 147
+
+  Fulton, Robert, 251, 252, 253
+
+
+G
+
+  George, Lloyd, 210
+
+  German, Admiralty, 190;
+    air champion, 214;
+    air raids on England, 207;
+    attempt to starve England, 194;
+    fleet, 183, 184;
+    submarine attacks on allied shipping, 305;
+    submarine destroyed by bombs, 191;
+    submarines _vs._ international law, 192;
+    submarine strength, 303-305
+
+  German U-boats, 188, 206, 236, 304, 310, 314, 333, 336, 338
+
+  Germany, 61, 62, 69, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 81, 97, 104, 105, 106, 108,
+    121, 133, 142, 146-149, 157, 171, 183-185, 193, 198, 200, 210, 235,
+    280, 297, 310, 341, 361, 364
+
+  Ghent, 165
+
+  Gibbons, Floyd P., 347-351
+
+  Giffard, dirigible, 37, 38, 41, 43
+
+  Grange, de la, Lieutenant, 196, 199
+
+  Great Britain, 57, 58, 105, 106, 120, 142, 143, 157, 191, 192, 202,
+    203, 204, 207, 310, 341, 343
+
+  Great War, 3, 12, 72, 80, 98, 103, 159
+
+  Greece, submarine strength of, 307
+
+  Grey, C. G., quoted, 189
+
+  Gross, dirigible, 77, 78
+
+  Guynemer, Captain Georges, 211, 212, 214
+
+  Gyroscope compass, 312
+
+
+H
+
+  Hartlepool, 208
+
+  Harvard University, 175, 176
+
+  Harwich, 208
+
+  Heligoland, 155-157, 202, 333
+
+  _Hogue_, 235, 236
+
+  Holland, 150, 235;
+    submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Holland, John P., 241, 274-277, 294;
+    submarine, 294-296, 298, 301, 302, 304, 306, 313
+
+  Holland Torpedo Boat Company, 272, 277, 298
+
+  Hotchkiss, 147
+
+  _Housatonic_, U. S. S., 259, 260
+
+  Hydro-airplane, 160, 189, 190, 206, 225
+
+  Hydroplane, 280, 308
+
+
+I
+
+  Icarus, 14
+
+  Immelman, Captain, 119, 212-214
+
+  Instruction, in aviation, 111-118;
+    of American aviators, 11
+
+  _Ironsides_, 256, 257, 295
+
+  Italy, 81, 343;
+    submarine strength of, 306
+
+  Italian submarines, 360
+
+
+J
+
+  Japan, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Japanese submarines, 352
+
+  Joffre, General, 4, 196
+
+  Jutland, battle of, 12, 381
+
+
+K
+
+  Kaiser, 78. _Also see_ Emperor of Germany
+
+  Kiel, 9, 108, 155-157, 183, 195, 202, 230, 253, 314, 367
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard, 80, 166, 226, 227, 346
+
+  Kitchener, Lord, 58
+
+  Kitty-Hawk, 89, 94
+
+  Kluck, General von, 3, 4
+
+  Koenig, Captain Paul, 367-377
+
+  Krebs, 39
+
+
+L
+
+  Lafayette Escadrille, 121, 175, 176, 216
+
+  Lake Constance, 62, 148
+
+  Lake, Simon, 278-295, 356, 364, 378-380;
+    submarine, 294-296, 302, 304, 306, 317
+
+  Lana, Francisco, 17
+
+  Lancaster, F. W., 144
+
+  Langley, Professor Samuel, 82, 83, 84, 183
+
+  _La Patrie_, 55
+
+  _La Republique_, 55
+
+  Latham, 95
+
+  Laurenti, Major, 300;
+    submarine, 302, 306
+
+  Lebaudy Brothers, 54;
+    airplane, 56, 78
+
+  Le Bris, 86-88
+
+  Lee, Ezra, 249, 250
+
+  Lewis gun, 217
+
+  Liberty motor, 222, 226;
+    plane, 127
+
+  Liege, 159
+
+  Lilienthal, Gustav, 84
+
+  Lilienthal, Otto, 84-86, 90
+
+  Lilienthals, 88
+
+  Lille, 185
+
+  London, 9, 134, 142, 156, 208, 209, 230
+
+  Lufbery, Captain Raoul, 121, 180
+
+  Lunardi, aeronaut, 30
+
+  _Lusitania_, 193, 210, 263, 343
+
+
+M
+
+  McConnell, Sergeant James R., 160
+
+  Marne, battle of, 5, 183, 196
+
+  Maxim, Sir Hiram, 83
+
+  _Merrimac_, 12
+
+  Meuse river, 4, 161
+
+  _Monitor_, 12
+
+  Mons, battle of, 3, 5
+
+  Montgolfier Brothers, Jos. & Jacques, 20, 22;
+    balloon, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 30
+
+  Moranes, 186
+
+
+N
+
+  Namur, 4
+
+  Napoleon, 99, 108, 252
+
+  Naval Committee, House of Representatives, 271, 272
+
+  Navy Department of U. S., 188, 189, 278, 298, 300, 301
+
+  Navy Department, Civil War, 256, 257
+
+  Navy, Secretary of, 187, 194, 222
+
+  Needham, Henry Beach, 166
+
+  Nieuport, airplane, 140, 163, 186;
+    town of, 150, 151, 154
+
+  Nordenfeldt, Swedish inventor, 263, 264, 275
+
+  North Sea, 6, 76, 144, 149, 154, 156, 157, 187, 188, 190, 235, 236, 305
+
+  Norway, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Noyes, Alfred, quoted, 335-340
+
+
+O
+
+  Ostend, 9, 150, 151, 191, 194, 200
+
+
+P
+
+  Paris, 3, 23-25, 28, 48, 50-53, 61, 110
+
+  Parseval, dirigible, 77, 78
+
+  Parseval-Siegfeld, 141
+
+  Pau, 110
+
+  Pere Galien, 17
+
+  Periscopes, 296, 305, 310, 311, 326-328, 333, 366
+
+  Petersburg, 6
+
+  Pilcher, Percy S., 84, 86, 88
+
+  Pitney, Fred B., quoted, 323-328
+
+  Porter, Admiral David, 259
+
+  Prince, Norman, 176, 180, 216-221
+
+
+R
+
+  Rees, Major L. W. B., 174
+
+  Renard, 38, 42, 43
+
+  Richmond, 6
+
+  Roberts Brothers' balloon, 34, 35
+
+  Rockwell, Kiffen, 176-179, 214
+
+  Royal Aerial Factory, 105
+
+  Rozier, Pilatre de, 27, 29;
+    death of, 30
+
+  Rumsey, Adjt., quoted, 217-220
+
+  Russia, 81, 106, 203, 254;
+    submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Russian ships sunk in Baltic, 157;
+    submarine sunk by bombs, 190
+
+
+S
+
+  Santos-Dumont, 34;
+    quoted, 38, 39-47, 48-50, 51-54, 59, 60, 62, 63, 88, 95
+
+  Scarborough, 208
+
+  Schutte-Lanz, dirigible, 77, 79
+
+  Schwartz, David, 63
+
+  Scott, Lieutenant, 133
+
+  Seaplanes, 105, 106, 108, 143, 149, 150, 154, 188, 191, 225, 236
+
+  _Severo Pax_, 77
+
+  Sikorsky, airplanes, 203
+
+  Sincay, Lieutenant de, 191
+
+  Sopwith, biplane, 126, 219
+
+  "S. P. A. D.," 217
+
+  Spain, 81;
+    submarine strength of, 306
+
+  St. Louis Exposition, 54
+
+  St. Petersburg, 63
+
+  Submarine, controversy between U. S. and Germany, 342;
+    cruise on, 323-331;
+    interior of, 318-323;
+    losses, 351-354;
+    tenders, 316;
+    strength of different countries, 306, 307;
+    ventilation, 239, 240, 307, 312;
+    war zones, 342, 343
+
+  Submarine warfare, allied losses, 344;
+    British losses, 344, 345;
+    neutral losses, 344
+
+  Submarines:
+    _Argonaut_, 282-295, 379
+    _David_, 256, 257
+    "E" class, 301
+    _Fenian Ram_, 275
+    "F-1," 300
+    "F" (Holland type), 301
+    German type, 304
+    _Gustave Zede_, 266, 267
+    _Gymnote_, 265, 266
+    _Holland No. 2_, 275
+    _Holland No. 4_, 275
+    _Holland No. 8_, 278
+    _Holland No. 9_, 271-273, 278
+    _Hundley_, 258-260
+    _Intelligent Whale_, 261
+    _Le Diable Marin_, 254
+    Laurenti type, 306
+    _Morse_, 267-270
+    _Mute_, 253
+    _Narval_, 267, 270
+    _Nautilus_, 252
+    _Nordenfeldt II._, 264
+    _Octopus_, 299
+    _Plongeur_, 260
+    _Plunger_, 277, 278
+    _Resurgam_, 263
+    "S" class, 302 (Laurenti or "F. I. A. T." type)
+    _Turtle_, 247, 249, 275
+    "U-3," 314
+    "U-20," 330
+    "U-47," 328-331
+    "V" class (Lake type), 302
+    "W" class (Laubeuf type), 302
+    "Viper" class, 299
+
+  Submarines, aircraft as enemy of, 357, 358;
+    armament of, 312;
+    (general topic), 159, 188, 190-195, 209;
+    marksmanship, 322;
+    microphone, 357;
+    motives powers of, 308, 309;
+    precautions and devices against, 345, 346, 355, 361;
+    requirements of modern, 307-317
+
+  Sweden, submarine strength of, 306, 307
+
+  Switzerland, 150
+
+
+T
+
+  Taube, 126
+
+  Thaw, Lieutenant William, 214
+
+  Tissot, Professor, 357
+
+  Torpedo chamber, 320;
+    plane, 156, 157;
+    tubes, 298, 301, 303-306, 312, 315, 317, 320, 353
+
+  Trocadero, 49-51
+
+  Tulasne, Major, 196, 199
+
+  Turkey, submarine strength of, 307
+
+  Turkish, 177, 188, 334
+
+
+U
+
+  U-53, 12, 206, 353, 354
+
+  U-Boat attacks on, allied merchantmen;
+    _Amiral Ganteaume,_ 340;
+    _Gulflight_, 343;
+    _Lusitania_, 193, 210, 263, 343;
+    _Laconia_, 347-351;
+    _Strathend_, 354;
+    _West Point_, 354;
+    _Stephano_, 354;
+    _Bloomersdijk_, 354;
+    _Christian Knudsen_, 354;
+    in general, 346-354
+
+  United States, 56-58, 81, 91, 94-96, 103, 107, 111, 120, 142, 158,
+      166, 180, 182, 185, 187, 193, 194, 200, 202, 209, 221, 228, 230,
+      239, 260, 261, 271, 295, 297, 301, 303, 310, 334, 341, 343, 345,
+      361, 364, 365, 381;
+    government of, 96, 272, 273, 276, 296, 343;
+    declares war upon Germany, 342;
+    Navy, 297, 298, 300, 354;
+    submarine strength, 350
+
+
+V
+
+  Vanniman, 57, 159
+
+  Vaux, 162
+
+  Venice, 108
+
+  Verdun, 6, 55, 161, 162
+
+  Verne, Jules, 40, 262, 287
+
+  Vickers, gun, 217;
+    scout airplane, 126, 131, 147, 164
+
+  Vicksburg, 6
+
+  Viney, Lieutenant, 191
+
+  von Bernstorff, Count, 353
+
+
+W
+
+  Wanamaker, Rodman, 160
+
+  War, Department of, 101;
+    Secretary of, 187, 194, 222
+
+  War zones, 341, 342
+
+  Warneford, sub-Lieutenant R. A. J., 164, 165, 214
+
+  Washington, D. C., 96, 97, 204
+
+  Washington, General George, 247
+
+  Watt, James, 19
+
+  Weddigen, Captain, Otto von, 236, 305, 334
+
+  Wellington, 108
+
+  Wellman, Walter, 56, 57, 159
+
+  White, Claude Graham, 128
+
+  Whitehead torpedo, 261, 262, 264, 266
+
+  Wilhelmshaven, 132, 156, 157, 183, 195, 230, 353
+
+  Winslow, Carroll Dana, 111, 115, 116, 139
+
+  Woodhouse, Henry, 190
+
+  Wright Brothers, 14, 43, 58, 60, 64, 83, 84, 87, 89, 90-95, 97,
+    98, 109, 111, 183
+
+  Wright, Orville, 74, 75, 88, 99-102
+
+  Wright, Wilbur, 88, 91, 96, 97
+
+
+Z
+
+  Zede, M. Gustav, 265, 266, 303
+
+  Zeebrugge, 8, 9, 150, 151, 153, 155, 195, 200, 230
+
+  Zeppelin, Count, von, 28, 34, 38, 50, 54, 59-65, 68-77, 79, 105, 362
+
+  Zeppelin, Eberhard, 64
+
+  Zeppelin disasters:
+    _Zeppelin I._, 66-69
+      _IV._, 66, 72
+      _L-I_, 76
+      _L-II_, 67
+
+  Zeppelin raids, 9, 208, 209
+
+  Zeppelins, 8, 60, 62, 65-81, 100, 101, 104, 105, 108, 133, 134,
+    148-150, 164, 165, 208
+
+
+
+
+_A Selection from the Catalogue of_
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+Complete Catalogues sent on application
+
+
+  THE MAKING OF A MODERN ARMY
+
+  And Its Operations in the Field
+
+  A Study Bated on the Experience of
+  Three Years on the French Front
+  1914-1917
+
+  Rene Radiguet
+  General de Division, Army of France
+
+  Translated by
+  Henry P. du Bellet
+  Formerly American Consul at Rheims
+
+  _12{o}. 18 Illustrations and Diagrams. $1.50 net.
+  By mail, $1.65_
+
+The younger Americans who are now in training for active service in
+the field, and particularly those who have secured commissions as
+officers or who are preparing to compete for such commissions, will
+have a very direct interest in the instructions and suggestions
+presented by General Radiguet in regard to the organization of an
+army and the method of its operations in the field. General
+Radiguet's treatise is based upon a varied experience in the
+campaigns of the present war.
+
+The old text-books must be put to one side. The methods of
+organization and the methods of fighting have alike changed. It is
+only those who have had responsibilities as leaders in the present
+war whose instructions can be accepted as authoritative.
+
+
+
+
+  LIFE AT THE U. S. NAVAL ACADEMY
+
+  The Making of the American Navy Officer:
+  His Studies, Discipline, and Amusements
+
+  By
+
+  Ralph Earle
+  Rear-Admiral, U. S. N.
+  (Formerly Head of the Department of Ordnance and
+  Gunnery, U. S. Naval Academy)
+
+  With an Introduction by
+  Franklin Roosevelt
+  Assistant-Secretary of the Navy
+
+  _12{o}. 73 Illustrations and a Map. $2.00 net
+  By mail, $2.20_
+
+This book follows the boy's procedure in entering and his first
+summer's course, after which it takes the midshipman through the
+course, not by years, but by clear discussions of the various
+activities that make up his daily life. The recitations, drills,
+practice cruises, physical training, medical care, athletics,
+recreations, and the career that the Navy affords one after
+graduation are related in a manner that will make the midshipman's
+life easily understood by his parents and friends, and also show the
+boy intending to enter the Academy just what he may expect there.
+
+_At All Booksellers_
+
+
+
+
+  WEST POINT
+
+  An Intimate Picture of the National
+  Military Academy, and of the Life
+  of the Cadet
+
+  By
+
+  Robert C. Richardson, Jr.
+
+  Captain, 2d Cavalry, U. S. A.; Aide-de-Camp to Major-General
+  Thomas H. Barry
+
+  Foreword by
+
+  Major-General Hugh L. Scott
+  Chief-of-Staff, U. S. Army
+
+  _12{o}. 32 Illustrations, $2.00 net
+  By mail, $2.20_
+
+The book, while of interest to all who have attended the
+institution, is addressed primarily to the general public so that
+that public may become better acquainted with the aims and ideals of
+their National Military Academy. To the prospective cadet the book
+is invaluable as a foretaste of the duties, responsibilities, and
+privileges obtaining at West Point.
+
+
+
+
+  TACTICS AND DUTIES FOR TRENCH FIGHTING
+
+  By
+
+  Georges Bertrand
+  Capitaine, Chasseurs, de l'Armee de France
+
+  and
+
+  Oscar N. Solbert
+  Major, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.
+
+  _16{o}. 35 Diagrams. $1.50 net. By mail, $1.65_
+
+  000.7                (OD)              1st Ind.
+
+War Department, A. G. O., December 21, 1917--To Major O. N. Solbert,
+Corp of Engineers, Office of the Chief of Engineers.
+
+1. The manuscript forwarded with this letter has been examined in
+the War College Division and the opinion given that it has
+exceptional merit, presenting the principles governing trench
+warfare in such a clear and logical manner that the publication,
+with some changes and additions,[7] will be of considerable value to
+our Officers.
+
+         [Footnote 7: These changes have been made.]
+
+2. You are directed to confer with the Chief of the War College
+Division regarding the effecting of the changes desired.
+
+  By order of the Secretary of War
+                         (Signed) F. W. Lewis
+                                          Adjutant General.
+
+
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+
+New York London
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Aircraft and Submarines, by Willis J. Abbot
+
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