Defenseless America

ding and accumulating for half a century. It is the most stupendous experiment that the human race has e

strategics. The more that invention, science, and discovery are employed in the development and perfection of

e of calculations based on previous experience in wars whose mechanism was very simple and crude as compared with the present engines of war. But the improvements in weapons employed on terra firma did not constitute so far a step away from experience as e

ion, the a?roplane, instead of putting the balloon out of the race, served only to stimulate higher development

atum in the development of the a?roplane consisted in gre

of the evening, just before sundown. The a?roplane could not go up in a wind. No a?ronaut would have undertaken to go up except when there was no wind.

ighest degree of perfection in the Zeppelin, can travel through still air at a speed of sixty miles an hour, the speed of a gale of wind, and can brave a fifty-mile gale at a speed of ten miles an h

s of the A

opular mind concerning the use and power of high explosives, has led to many strange predictions and weird conclus

ction of warships, coast fortifications, and large cities; for it was claimed that air-craft would be able to drop explosive bombs capable of wrecking the heaviest battleship and of blowi

to the ground, with the bombs they have dropped. Of course, aviators may drop any form of infernal machine which,

f advancing troops, a?rial bombs dropped from a?roplanes may be used with effect, especially in disentrenching an enemy. At sea, too, with the latest types of a?roplane, bombs of sufficient size and weight and power of penetration may be used destructively against unarmored or light-armored war-vessels. A

here is more popular error than concerning the

ng himself into trouble. At another time, a dynamiter entered the Houses of Parliament and exploded ten pounds of dyn

opping bombs, unless the bombs can be made to hit and penetrate the object struck bef

f high explosive is set off on the earth's surface, the ball of incandescent gases bounds upward, spreading out in the form of an inverted cone. While it will blow a hole of considerable size into the ground, still the effect i

e placed a cage containing a rooster and a hen, and another cage containing a dog. The guncotton was hung against the plate and detonated. The effect upon the pla

hundred pounds of compressed guncotton that was exploded against the face of a twelve-inch Kruppized plate. The first shot produced no v

and mounted in the same manner. The projectile contained only twenty-three pounds of Maximite. Yet, as the projectile penetrat

operly confined, as by explosion after penetration, and the utter ineffectiveness of a

ffect upon the ship itself, unless they are made heavy enough and strong enough, with the proper armor-piercing shape, and are dropped from a

veral six-hundred-pound bombs, and exploded them on the Span

Hotel. The magazine probably contained at least a ton of dynamite. A lot of windows were broken in the vicinity, some pers

el a large fleet of airships and blow up British towns with th

asion has come, and what is the result? Four peaceful citizens k

uld carry explosives enough to destroy two houses every day, which would be far more than they could actually average. Yet, if this a?rial fleet should be able to destroy two hundred houses a day, or s

g underlying objects, on account of the high speed at which it must travel to sustain flight. In order to float, an a?roplane must travel about thirty miles an hour. Even at this speed, it is moving forward at the rate of forty-four feet a second, and as a b

, during the first second, while it descends but sixteen feet, it moves forward eighty-eight feet. It falls sixty-four feet the next second, and moves forward eighty-

ch an enormous target that it must fly very high in order to keep out of range of gun-fire. Guns are now made which can reach air-craft at the h

destroy an entire British fortified town like Dover, it would be a good investment. If, however, the loss that it would be able to inflict upon the enemy were only equal to the loss that the British would inflict upon it, then it would be a bad investment, or at lea

of one of the Zeppelins, and, in the attack, should lose one of the Zeppelins, it would not be a profitable raid, for a Zeppelin, being useful fo

or the destruction of men and machinery of an enemy, and not

l fire of the air-man than he presents when fired at horizontally from the earth, because in the one case he is seen end-to, and in the other case side-to. Besides, se

and Dirigi

use of air-craft, whether a?roplane or dirigib

hey have rendered surprises in force practically impossible. Each side has been

e the Zeppelin presents a target enormously larger. It constitutes

the advantage over the Zeppelin, as a target, equal to the difference in size multiplied by the differ

account the fact that a large number of a?roplanes can be built for the cost of a single Zeppelin, and manned with the crew of a s

very efficient indeed, hovering along the battle-front. These dirigibles h

f carrying at least a dozen soldiers each, with the arms and equipment of a raider's outfit, can now be built. Obviously, as a large number of such a?roplanes can be built at the cost of

n the sea as a hawk scans a field for its prey; and as it can carry a wireless apparatus capable of transmitting messages to a distance of two hundred miles or more, it can keep the German fleet cons

cal position submarines, under favorable conditions, can easily be seen at considerable depths below the su

, and for a prospective invasion of England. I think they must have been disappointed in the lack of destructiveness th

e the fight out of them, but it is a very bad plan to frighten the British if it puts more fight in

rld in the development of the a?roplane; but nothing of the sort was done. "We have," as Congressman Gardner says, "been experimen

purchases. The result was that, on the breaking out of the European War, France, for example, had 1,400 a?roplanes, while the United States had but twenty-three, mostly obso

, and one of the latest German a?roplanes with two Mercedes motors, with the intention of building a few of these machines. Then came

all large guns, was originally an American invention, but this Government

e its private builders left it, and it has been develope

this reason that we are able to get a spare part for an automobile that will fit in place perfectly without having it specially made. Before the advent of the interchangeable system of manufacture of firearms, a sportsman in England went to his gunsmith to be measured for a shotgun j

out of business. I went to England with my multi-perforated smokeless-powder grain, which had been adopted by the United States Government, but found it hard to get foreign manufacturers to recognize either the superiority of the multi-perforated grain or of the pure nitro-cellulos

g toward the obtainment of Zeppelins, or any other practical dirigible

eat Britain, 9 dirigibles and 400 a?roplanes; Belgium, 2 dirigibles and 100 a?roplanes; Germany, 40 dirigibles and 1,000 a?roplane

Navy, and to make recommendations. The Board recommended the appropriation of $1,300,000 for that year

ble to prevent surprises in force, and to avoid the deadly ambuscade. The a?roplane is absolutely indispensable for the location of masked batteries. It is impossible, without a?roplanes, even to approximate the number and disposition of troops to which an army may be opposed. It is necessary to have not only a sufficient number of a?roplanes, especially designed and equipped for this purpose, but also other a?roplanes

uture will be fought on a much larger scale. It will be found that the commander who expects to conquer

rted by artillery thundering from hill to hill, but also t

Navy. It is the same million dollars that was cut from last year's appropri

o lead us, both in the character and quantity of naval and military equipment, we are destined always to be weaker than other nations in that equipment; consequently, when war comes, we spend money with the extravagance of frenzy to remedy the defect. We economized before the War of 1812, and during that war we wasted ten times as much as we had saved by our economy. We had disqualified ourselves by our economies to suc

y take adequate measures to forefend ourselves against a repetition of such experiences; and on