United States. Navy; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
American Society of Mechanical Engineers: William Leroy Emmet, engineer
with the General Electric Company. He designed and perfected the
development of the Curtis Turbine and was the first serious promoter of
electric propulsion for ships. Spencer Miller, inventor of ship-coaling
apparatus and the breeches-buoy device used in rescues from shipwrecks.
From the American Society of Aeronautic Engineers: Henry Alexander Wise
Wood, engineer and manufacturer of printing-machinery and student of
naval aeronautics. Elmer Ambrose Sperry, founder of Sperry Electric
Company, designer of electric appliances and gyroscope stabilizer for
ships and airplanes.
Just what service this board has performed is in the keeping of the
government. But that it has been a distinguished service we may not
doubt. Seated in their headquarters at Washington, their minds centred
upon the various problems of the sea which the war brought forth, they
have unquestionably exerted a constructive influence no less vital than
that played by the officers and men of the navy on the fighting front.
Only one announcement ever came from this board, and that was when
William L. Saunders gave forth the statement that a means of combating
the submarine had been devised. This early in the war. Doubt as to the
strict accuracy of the statement came from other members of the
Inventions Board, and then the whole matter was hushed. Mr. Saunders
said nothing more and neither did his colleagues.
But whether emanating from the lucubrations of Mr. Edison's board, or
wherever devised, we know that the American Navy has applied many
inventions to the work of combating the under-sea pirate. A type of
depth-bomb was developed and applied. This is one of the most efficient
methods of beating the submarine that has yet been found. Explosive
charges are fitted with a mechanism designed to explode the charge at a
predetermined depth below the surface of the sea. The force of the
explosion of a depth charge dropped close to a submarine is sufficient
to disable if not sink it, and American boats have been fitted with
various interesting means of getting these bombs into the water.
Smoke-producing apparatus was developed to enable a vessel to conceal
herself behind a smoke-screen when attacked by submarines and thus
escape. Several types of screen have been invented and applied in
accordance with the character of the vessel. After a study of the
various types of mines in existence, there was produced an American mine
believed to involve all the excellent points of mines of whatever
nationality, while another extraordinary invention was the non-ricochet
projectile. The ordinary pointed projectile striking the water almost
horizontally is deflected and ricochets. A special type of shell which
did not glance off the surface of the ocean was developed early in 1917
and supplied to all vessels sailing in the war zone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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