of Ellis Island, a large station, solely for the use of immigrant railway passengers. Instead of being taken from the Island in barges and distributed to the various. stations where they are piled indiscriminately into day coaches and left to await the pleasure of the railroad about hauling them on to their destinations, just as if they were so much freight, they are to de despatched west and south at once, or given comfortable quarters till they can go. The initiative of the Pennsylvania in putting a courier-interpreter on each immigrant train, is to be followed; and each of these men is to see that proper arrangements are made for allowing the

poor bewildered creatures to get food en route, and for milk supply for the children. I examined a train last summer fourteen hours out of New York, and found that there had not been a drop of water to drink since the night before, and none of them had had any food except such as they had brought from Ellis Island. The railroads have recognized this as shortsighted policy, and these abuses have been largely discontinued since the great rush of the season was By the time the spring rush is fully on, arrangements will have been made to care for the incoming strangers more considerately.

over.

T

HE new high-speed turbine torpedo recently adopted and now being manufactured for the Government, gives to the United States Navy one of the most powerful and destructive sea weapons in the world. This new submarine missile, owing to the terrific pace it can sustain while in flight through the water, and the long distance it will travel, is to take the place of the Whitehead torpedo formerly in use.

The Bliss-Leavitt Turbine The superior strategic advantages of the Bliss-Leavitt turbine in naval warfare over all other types now in existence, is its surpassing speed and longer range. Four thousand yards is the extreme distance it will travel, 3,500 yards being the guaranteed contract range; at 1,200 yards the speed is 36 knots. The turbine has an excess speed gain of more than 25 per cent, while going double the distance of the latest Whitehead, which has a speed of only 28 knots and a range

of 2,000 yards. The United States Government has authorized several millions of dollars to be expended for the purchase and construction of 400 torpedoes of this type, which in the future will be the only one used in the Navy. Two contracts have been let and two sizes are being made-100 torpedoes of 18-inch diameter, and 300 of 21-inch diameter. The first size can be fired from the existing 18-inch tubes now on our battleships and torpedo-boats. Thirty of the 18-inch and two of the 21-inch have been delivered at the torpedo station at Newport, where officers and men are being instructed in handling the torpedo under actual war conditions. Four of the new battleships recently put into commission-the Pennsylvania, Colorado, West Virginia, and Maryland-have already been equipped with two submerged tubes each for discharging the torpedo below the surface. This feat was not possible in the past with the Whitehead.

Special orders for renewed activity in

torpedo work have been given out by the Navy Department. Undoubtedly the naval battle of the Sea of Japan has afforded our ordnance experts a tactical lesson of great value in this regard. The Japanese were well trained in the use of the torpedo, and the skilful and effective manner in which this weapon was employed points to a long and persistent drilling of both officers and men in times of peace.

Mechanical Details

The high efficiency in speed and range, which are the two distinct revolutionary features embodied in the construction of the Bliss-Leavitt torpedo, are brought about by a superheating process applied to the compressed air, causing greater heat expansion, energy, etc.; and by the employment of a turbine engine. The torpedo is a cigar-shaped shell of steel, 16 feet 9 inches long, weighing about 1,800 pounds, and divided into three parts-first, the "war head," containing the explosive; second, the "air flask," in which compressed air, the motive power, is stored; and third, the "after-body" or "tail," which contains the turbine operating the propellers, the "emersion. chamber" for regulating the depth of the torpedo beneath the surface of the water, and the "gyroscope" gear, by which the the torpedo is automatically

HOISTING UP TORPEDO AFTER FLIGHT TO BE RECHARGED AND FIRED AGAIN.

steered and kept in a straight and proper line during flight. The torpedo is supplied with two heads-one for exercise

CROSS-SECTION OF THE AFTER-BODY OR TAIL-END,
SHOWING MAIN VALVE GROUP.

containing 25 per cent of moisture. The gun-cotton is packed in ten or twelve. layers of blocks 81⁄2 inches square, by 2 in height.

The firing apparatus consists of dry primer gun-cotton charges, made up of a number of cylinders 2 inches in height by 1 11-16 inches in diameter, having a central perforation of 9-16 inch, and per

An

cussion detonators. The last-named are cylindrical copper cases, containing 35 grains of fulminate of mercury, and are primed on top with dry gun-cotton. They are closed at the bottom, and have in the top a fulminate cap connecting by means of a small channel with the interior. anvil which rests on this cap detonates it when the torpedo strikes its foe; and this in turn detonates the fulminate charge, which sets off the wet gun-cotton. To prevent premature explosion, an automatic fan propeller is attached to the end of the war head, which has to run off a screw-thread for a certain distance before the firing pin is released, leaving it free to be driven against the detonator the moment the torpedo delivers its blow. The air flask for storing the compressed air, the motive power, is made of special forged steel turned down to 7-16 inch in thickness, having an elastic limit of 90,000 pounds. The charge of compressed

the flow being so regulated that an even and steady temperature is maintained in the air flask. A vast amount of expansion and additional energy is obtained by this method.

The after-body or tail-end contains the most interesting of all the mechanisms of the torpedo-namely, the wonderful little turbine engine. This consists of two steel wheels 112 and 12 inches in diameter, weighing less than 20 pounds. Eighty-four curved buckets are made. integral with each wheel. Into these rush the air-blasts, causing the turbine to make 10,000 revolutions per minute and developing 130 horse-power. This speed turns the two propeller shafts, which run in opposite directions at about 1,000 revolutions per minute, thus driving the torpedo farther and faster than was possible with the old-style three-cylinder re

up of a series of ingenious and automatic mechanisms operating the vertical rudders, all of which are controlled by a tiny gyroscope turbine, driven at a speed of 18,000 revolutions per minute. This almost human-like pilot always maintains itself in its original position. The gyro wheel is kept spinning in a constant plane, and any deflection of the torpedo changes the relative angular position of the gyro frame and the device which operates the rudder gear. If the torpedo runs wild out of its course, either to the right or left, the gyro, by aid of some delicate and sensitive adjustments attached to the vertical rudders, will instantly correct the deviation by steering the torpedo back again in its straight and proper course.

A very desirable and important feature is incorporated in the gyro steering gear

have been carried on with the new weapon, both at the torpedo station at Newport and at the manufacturers' proving ground in Noyak Bay, Long Island. At the former place the practice boat Vesuvius daily carries out a section from the Seamen Gunners' class for torpedo instruction and drill. Shooting at both moving and stationary targets is gone through with. At Noyak Bay the range has been 1,200 yards, the time in making this distance being 60 seconds and the speed 36 knots.

The torpedo is fired out of a tube 20 feet long, the interior being well greased.

either put the vessel out of action or sink her. Torpedo attacks can now be made at 4,000 yards-almost out of range of gunpowder. The price of the 18-inch is said to be $5,000 each; of the 21-inch, correspondingly more; yet in actual hostilities the possibilities of sinking or disabling a $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 battleship of the enemy, and permitting the capture of 800 to 1,000 men and officers, is considered a war prize well worth its expenditure. All future battleships, destroyers, and submarines of the United States Navy are to be equipped with the new weapon.