Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/279

 Rh a submarine should be the post of observation from which information should be telephoned to the submarine as to the position of an enemy. He evidently had little trust in periscopes, and overlooked the dangers to which the observers in the car of the balloon would be exposed from an enemy's gun-fire. Quite recently a proposal has been made by M. Santos Dumont to use airships as a defence against submarines; his idea being that a dirigible airship of large dimensions and moving at a considerable height above the surface of the sea, could discover the whereabouts of a submarine, even at some depth below the sin rare and could effect its destruction by dropping high explosive charges upon the helpless vessel. Here again, the inventor, in his eagerness to do mischief, has not appreciated adequately the risks which the airship would run if employed in the manner proposed, as submarines are not likely to be used without supporting vessels. Hitherto, submarines themselves have been armed only with torpedoes, but it has been proposed recently to add guns, and this can be done, if desired, in vessels possessing relatively large freeboard. No doubt if gun armaments are introduced, the tendency will be to further increase dimensions and cost, and the decision will be governed by the consideration of the gain in fighting power as compared with increased cost.

Apart from the use of submarine vessels for purposes of war, their adoption as a means of navigation has found favor in many quarters. Jules Verne in his 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea,' has drawn an attractive picture of what may be possible in this direction, and others have favored the idea of combining the supposed advantages of obtaining buoyancy from bodies floating at some depth below the surface with an airy promenade carried high above water. Not many years ago an eminent naval architect drew a picture of what might be accomplished by utilizing what he described as the 'untroubled water below' in association with the freedom and pure air obtainable on a platform carried high above the waves. These suggestions, however, are not in accord with the accepted theory of wave motion, since they take no note of the great depths to which the disturbance due to wave-motion penetrates the ocean. The problems of stability, incidental to such plans, are also of a character not easily dealt with, and consequently there is but a remote prospect of the use of these singular combinations of submarine and aerial superstructures. There is little likelihood of the displacement of ocean steamships at an early date by either navigable airships or submarines, and the dreams of Jules Verne or Santos Dumont will not be realized until much further advance has been made in the design and construction of the vessels they contemplate.