Stories of Inventors Part 7

A railroad bridge across the Schuylkill at Philadelphia was judged inadequate for the work it had to do, and it was deemed necessary to replace it with a new one. The towers it rested upon, therefore, were widened, and another, stronger bridge was built alongside, the new one put upon rollers as was the old, and then between trains the old structure was pushed to one side, still resting on the widened piers, and the new bridge was pushed into its place, the whole operation occupying less than three minutes. The new replaced the old between the pa.s.sing of trains that run at four or five-minute intervals. The Eads Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi at St. Louis, was built on a novel plan. Its deep foundations have already been mentioned. The great "Father of Waters" is notoriously fickle; its channel is continually changing, the current is swift, and the frequent floods fill up and scour out new channels constantly. It was necessary, therefore, in order to span the great stream, to place as few towers as possible and build entirely from above or from the towers themselves. It was a bold idea, and many predicted its failure, but Captain Eads, the great engineer, had the courage of his convictions and carried out his plans successfully. From each tower a steel arch was started on each side, built of steel tubes braced securely; the building on each side of every tower was carried on simultaneously, one side of every arch balancing the weight on the other side. Each section was like a gigantic seesaw, the tower acting as the centre support; the ends, of course, not swinging up and down. Gradually the two sections of every arch approached each other until they met over the turbid water and were permanently connected. With the completion of the three arches, built entirely from the piers supporting them, the great stream was spanned.

The Eads Bridge was practically a double series of cantilevers balancing on the towers. Three arches were built, the longest being 520 feet long and the two shorter ones 502 feet each.

Every situation that confronts the bridge builder requires different handling; at one time he may be called upon to construct a bridge alongside of a narrow, rocky cleft over a rus.h.i.+ng stream like the Royal Gorge, Colorado, where the track is hung from two great beams stretched across the chasm, or he may be required to design and construct a viaduct like that gossamer structure three hundred and five feet high and nearly a half-mile long across the Kinzua Creek, in Pennsylvania.

Problems which have nothing to do with mechanics often try his courage and tax his resources, and many difficulties though apparently trivial, develop into serious troubles. The caste of the different native gangs who worked on the twenty-seven viaducts built in Central Africa is a case in point: each group belonging to the same caste had to be provided with its own quarters, cooking utensils, and camp furniture, and dire were the consequences of a mix-up during one of the frequent moves made by the whole party.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BEGINNING AN AMERICAN BRIDGE IN MID-AFRICA]

And so the work of a bridge builder, whether it is creating out of a mere jumble of facts and figures a giant structure, the shaping of glowing metal to exact measurements, the delving in the slime under water for firm foundations, or the throwing of webs of steel across yawning chasms or over roaring streams, is never monotonous, is often adventurous, and in many, many instances is a great civilising influence.

SUBMARINES IN WAR AND PEACE

During the early part of the Spanish-American war a fleet of vessels patrolled the Atlantic coast from Florida to Maine. The Spanish Admiral Cervera had left the home waters with his fleet of cruisers and torpedo-boats and no one knew where they were. The lookouts on all the vessels were ordered to keep a sharp watch for strange s.h.i.+ps, and especially for those having a warlike appearance. All the newspapers and letters received on board the different cruisers of the patrol fleet told of the anxiety felt in the coast towns and of the fear that the Spanish s.h.i.+ps would appear suddenly and begin a bombardment. To add to the excitement and expectation, especially of the green crews, the men were frequently called out of their comfortable hammocks in the middle of the night, and sent to their stations at guns and ammunition magazines, just as if a battle was imminent; all this was for the purpose of familiarising the crews with their duties under war conditions, though no enlisted man knew whether he was called to quarters to fight or for drill.

These were the conditions, then, when one bright Sunday the crew of an auxiliary cruiser were very busy cleaning s.h.i.+p--a very thorough and absorbing business. While the men were in the thick of the scrubbing, one of the crew stood up to straighten his back, and looked out through an open port in the vessel's side. As he looked he caught a glimpse of a low, black craft, hardly five hundred yards off, coming straight for the cruiser. The water foamed at her bows and the black smoke poured out of her funnels, streaking behind her a long, sinister cloud. It was one of those venomous little torpedo-boats, and she was apparently rus.h.i.+ng in at top speed to get within easy range of the large wars.h.i.+p.

"A torpedo-boat is headed straight for us," cried the man at the port, and at the same moment came the call for general quarters.

As the men ran to their stations the word was pa.s.sed from one to the other, "A Spanish torpedo-boat is headed for us."

With haste born of desperation the crew worked to get ready for action, and when all was ready, each man in his place, guns loaded, firing lanyards in hand, gun-trainers at the wheels, all was still--no command to fire was given.

From the signal-boys to the firemen in the stokehole--for news travels fast aboard s.h.i.+p--all were expecting the m.u.f.fled report and the rending, tearing explosion of a torpedo under the s.h.i.+p's bottom. The terrible power of the torpedo was known to all, and the dread that filled the hearts of that waiting crew could not be put into words.

Of course it was a false alarm. The torpedo-boat flew the Stars and Stripes, but the heavy smoke concealed it, and the officers, perceiving the opportunities for testing the men, let it be believed that a boat belonging to the enemy was bearing down on them.

The crews of vessels engaged in future wars will have, not only swifter, surer torpedo-boats to menace them, but even more dreadful foes.

The conning towers of the submarines show but a foot or two above the surface--a sinister black spot on the water, like the dorsal fin of a shark, that suggests but does not reveal the cruel power below; for an instant the k.n.o.b lingers above the surface while the steersman gets his bearings, and then it sinks in a swirling eddy, leaving no mark showing in what direction it has travelled. Then the crew of the exposed wars.h.i.+p wait and wonder with a sickening cold fear in their hearts how soon the crash will come, and pray that the deadly submarine torpedo will miss its mark.

Submarine torpedo-boats are actual, practical working vessels to-day, and already they have to be considered in the naval plans for attack and defense.

Though the importance of submarines in warfare, and especially as a weapon of defense, is beginning to be thoroughly recognised, it took a long time to arouse the interest of naval men and the public generally sufficient to give the inventors the support they needed.

Americans once had within their grasp the means to blow some of their enemies' s.h.i.+ps out of the water, but they did not realise it, as will be shown in the following, and for a hundred years the progress in this direction was hindered.

It was during the American Revolution that a man went below the surface of the waters of New York Harbour in a submarine boat just big enough to hold him, and in the darkness and gloom of the under-water world propelled his turtle-like craft toward the British s.h.i.+ps anch.o.r.ed in mid-stream. On the outside sh.e.l.l of the craft rested a magazine with a heavy charge of gunpowder which the submarine navigator intended to screw fast to the bottom of a fifty-gun British man-of-war, and which was to be exploded by a time-fuse after he had got well out of harm's way.

Slowly and with infinite labour this first submarine navigator worked his way through the water in the first successful under-water boat, the crank-handle of the propelling screw in front of him, the helm at his side, and the crank-handle of the screw that raised or lowered the craft just above and in front. No other man had made a like voyage; he had little experience to guide him, and he lacked the confidence that a well-tried device a.s.sures; he was alone in a tiny vessel with but half an hour's supply of air, a great box of gunpowder over him, and a hostile fleet all around. It was a perilous position and he felt it.

With his head in the little conning tower he was able to get a glimpse of the s.h.i.+p he was bent on destroying, as from time to time he raised his little craft to get his bearings. At last he reached his all-unsuspecting quarry and, sinking under the keel, tried to attach the torpedo. There in the darkness of the depths of North River this unnamed hero, in the first practical submarine boat, worked to make the first torpedo fast to the bottom of the enemy's s.h.i.+p, but a little iron plate or bolt holding the rudder in place made all the difference between a failure that few people ever heard of and a great achievement that would have made the inventor of the boat, David Bushnell, famous everywhere, and the navigator a great hero. The little iron plate, however, prevented the screw from taking hold, the tide carried the submarine past, and the chance was lost.

David Bushnell was too far ahead of his time, his invention was not appreciated, and the failure of his first attempt prevented him from getting the support he needed to demonstrate the usefulness of his under-water craft. The piece of iron in the keel of the British wars.h.i.+p probably put back development of submarine boats many years, for Bushnell's boat contained many of the principles upon which the successful under-water craft of the present time are built.

One hundred and twenty-five years after the subsurface voyage described above, a steel boat, built like a whale but with a prow coming to a point, manned by a crew of six, travelling at an average rate of eight knots an hour, armed with five Whitehead torpedoes, and designed and built by Americans, pa.s.sed directly over the spot where the first submarine boat attacked the British fleet.

The Holland boat _Fulton_ had already travelled the length of Long Island Sound, diving at intervals, before reaching New York, and was on her way to the Delaware Capes.

She was the invention of John P. Holland, and the result of twenty-five years of experimenting, nine experimental boats having been built before this persistent and courageous inventor produced a craft that came up to his ideals. The cruise of the _Fulton_ was like a march of triumph, and proved beyond a doubt that the Holland submarines were practical, sea-going craft.

At the eastern end of Long Island the captain and crew, six men in all, one by one entered the _Fulton_ through the round hatch in the conning tower that projected about two feet above the back of the fish-like vessel. Each man had his own particular place aboard and definite duties to perform, so there was no need to move about much, nor was there much room left by the gasoline motor, the electric motor, storage batteries, air-compressor, and air ballast and gasoline tanks, and the Whitehead torpedoes. The captain stood up inside of the conning tower, with his eyes on a level with the little thick gla.s.s windows, and in front of him was the wheel connecting with the rudder that steered the craft right and left; almost at his feet was stationed the man who controlled the diving-rudders; farther aft was the engineer, all ready for the word to start his motor; another man controlled the ballast tanks, and another watched the electric motor and batteries.

With a clang the lid-like hatch to the conning tower was closed and clamped fast in its rubber setting, the gasoline engine began its rapid phut-phut, and the submarine boat began its long journey down Long Island Sound. The boat started in with her deck awash--that is, with two or three feet freeboard or of deck above the water-line. In this condition she could travel as long as her supply of gasoline held out--her tanks holding enough to drive her 560 knots at the speed of six knots an hour, when in the semi-awash condition; the lower she sank the greater the surface exposed to the friction of the water and the greater power expended to attain a given speed.

As the vessel jogged along, with a good part of her deck showing above the waves, her air ventilators were open and the burnt gas of the engine was exhausted right out into the open; the air was as pure as in the cabin of an ordinary s.h.i.+p. Besides the work of propelling the boat, the engine being geared to the electric motor made it revolve, so turning it into a dynamo that created electricity and filled up the storage batteries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAKE'S SUBMARINE TORPEDO-BOAT _PROTECTOR_ This boat is designed to travel on the surface, or fully submerged, or on the ocean's bottom. She is provided with wheels that support her when on the bottom, and with a divers' compartment from which divers can work on submarine cables or the enemies' explosive mines.]

From time to time, as this whale-like s.h.i.+p plowed the waters of the Sound, a big wave would flow entirely over her, and the captain would be looking right into the foaming crest. The boat was built for under-water going, so little daylight penetrated the interior through the few small deadlights, or round, heavy gla.s.s windows, but electric incandescent bulbs fed by current from the storage batteries lit the interior brilliantly.

The boat had not proceeded far when the captain ordered the crew to prepare to dive, and immediately the engine was shut down and the clutch connecting its shaft with the electric apparatus thrown off and another connecting the electric motor with the propeller thrown in; a switch was then turned and the current from the storage batteries set the motor and propeller spinning. While this was being done another man was letting water into her ballast tanks to reduce her buoyancy. When all but the conning tower was submerged the captain looked at the compa.s.s to see how she was heading, noted that no vessels were near enough to make a submarine collision likely, and gave the word to the man at his feet to dive twenty feet. Then a strange thing happened. The diving-helmsman gave a twist to the wheel that connected with the horizontal rudders aft of the propeller, and immediately the boat slanted downward at an angle of ten degrees; the water rose about the conning tower until the little windows were level with the surface, and then they were covered, and the captain looked into solid water that was still turned yellowish-green by the light of the sun; then swiftly descending, he saw but the faintest gleam of green light coming through twenty feet of water. The _Fulton_, with six men in her, was speeding along at five knots an hour twenty feet below the s.h.i.+ning waters of the Sound.

The diving-helmsman kept his eye on a gauge in front of him that measured the pressure of water at the varying depths, but the dial was so marked that it told him just how many feet the _Fulton_ was below the surface. Another device showed whether the boat was on an even keel or, if not exactly, how many degrees she slanted up or down.

With twenty feet of salt water above her and as much below, this mechanical whale cruised along with her human freight as comfortable as they would have been in the same s.p.a.ce ash.o.r.e. The vessel contained sufficient air to last them several hours, and when it became vitiated there were always the tanks of compressed air ready to be drawn upon.

Except for the hum of the motor and the slight clank of the steering-gear, all was silent; none of the noises of the outer world penetrated the watery depths; neither the slap of the waves, the whir of the breeze, the hiss of steam, nor rattle of rigging accompanied the progress of this submarine craft. As silently as a fish, as far as the outer world was concerned, the _Fulton_ crept through the submarine darkness. If an enemy's s.h.i.+p was near it would be an easy thing to discharge one of the five Whitehead torpedoes she carried and get out of harm's way before it struck the bottom of the s.h.i.+p and exploded.

In the tube which opened at the very tip end of the nose of the craft lay a Whitehead (or automobile) torpedo, which when properly set and ejected by compressed air propelled itself at a predetermined depth at a speed of thirty knots an hour until it struck the object it was aimed at or its compressed air power gave out.

The seven Holland boats built for the United States Navy, of which the _Fulton_ is a prototype, carry five of these torpedoes, one in the tube and two on either side of the hold, and each boat is also provided with one compensating tank for each torpedo, so that when one or all are fired their weight may be compensated by filling the tanks with water so that the trim of the vessel will be kept the same and her stability retained.

The _Fulton_, however, was bent on a peaceful errand, and carried dummy torpedoes instead of the deadly engines of destruction that the man-o'-war's man dreads.

"Dive thirty," ordered the captain, at the same time giving his wheel a twist to direct the vessel's course according to the pointing finger of the compa.s.s.

"Dive thirty, sir," repeated the steersman below, and with a slight twist of his gear the horizontal rudders turned and the submarine inclined downward; the level-indicator showed a slight slant and the depth-gauge hand turned slowly round--twenty-two, twenty-five, twenty-eight, then thirty feet, when the helmsman turned his wheel back a little and the vessel forged ahead on a level keel.

At thirty feet below the surface the little craft, built like a cigar on purpose to stand a tremendous squeeze, was subjected to a pressure of 2,160 pounds to the square foot. To realise this pressure it will be necessary to think of a slab of iron a foot square and weighing 2,160 pounds pressing on every foot of the outer surface of the craft. Of course, the squeeze is exerted on all sides of the submarine boats when fully submerged, just as every one is subjected to an atmospheric pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch on every inch of his body.

The _Fulton_ and other submarine boats are so strongly built and thoroughly braced that they could stand an even greater pressure without damage.

When the commander of the _Fulton_ ordered his vessel to the surface, the diving-steersman simply reversed his rudders so that they turned upward, and the propeller, aided by the natural buoyancy of the boat, simply pushed her to the surface. The Holland boats have a reserve buoyancy, so that if anything should happen to the machinery they would rise unaided to the surface.

Compressed air was turned into the ballast tanks, the water forced out so that the boat's buoyancy was increased, and she floated in a semi-awash, or light, condition. The engineer turned off the current from the storage batteries, threw off the motor from the propeller shaft, and connected the gasoline engine, started it up, and inside of five minutes from the time the _Fulton_ was navigating the waters of the Sound at a depth of thirty feet she was sailing along on the surface like any other gasoline craft.

And so the ninety-mile journey down Long Island Sound, partly under water, partly on the surface, to New York, was completed. The greater voyage to the Delaware Capes followed, and at all times the little sixty-three-foot boat that was but eleven feet in diameter at her greatest girth carried her crew and equipment with perfect safety and without the least inconvenience.

Such a vessel, small in size but great in destructive power, is a force to be reckoned with by the most powerful battle-s.h.i.+p. No defense has yet been devised that will ward off the deadly sting of the submarine's torpedo, delivered as it is from beneath, out of the sight and hearing of the doomed s.h.i.+ps' crews, and exploded against a portion of the hull that cannot be adequately protected by armour.

Though the conning-dome of a submarine presents a very small target, its appearance above water shows her position and gives warning of her approach. To avoid this tell-tale an instrument called a periscope has been invented, which looks like a bottle on the end of a tube; this has lenses and mirrors that reflect into the interior of the submarine whatever shows above water. The bottle part projects above, while the tube penetrates the interior.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPEEDING AT THE RATE OF 102-3/4 MILES AN HOUR]

The very unexpectedness of the submarine's attack, the mere knowledge that they are in the vicinity of a fleet and may launch their deadly missiles at any time, is enough to break down the nerves of the strongest and eventually throw into a panic the bravest crew.