at Washington. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he was in command of the Eagle and later was assigned to service in the office of the assistant secretary of the navy. Soon after his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-commander in 1899 he was appointed to the command of the cruiser Dolphin, which is used as the president's private yacht. Later, advanced to the grade of commander, he had charge of the cruiser Cleveland. At the time he was selected for his present detail he was acting as the president of the naval board of inspection and survey. Captain Southerland, who is about fifty-five years of age, has had nineteen years of sea service during his career and approxi

mately an equal amount of duty ashore.

Captain Austin M. Knight who, in accordance with the new sentiment for younger men, has been assigned to the command of the Washington, is about fifty-seven years of age, and is another officer who has had much to do with the technical side of naval administration, for until a few weeks ago he was president of the board of naval ordnance, with offices at the navy department in Washington. Captain Knight was born in Massachusetts, but was appointed to the Naval Academy from Florida in 1869. He graduated as midshipman in 1873, was made an ensign the year following, a master in 1879, a junior lieutenant in 1883 and a full lieutenant two years

later, finally being advanced to the grade of lieutenant-commander in 1899. During his early career he spent considerable time in the Pacific and is thus conversant with conditions in the western ocean. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he was on the Puritan and saw active service during the conflict in connection with the blockade on the north coast of Cuba and the Porto Rican expedition. After the war he was for several years head of the department of seamanship at the Naval Academy, and during the summer of 1901 was at the Naval War College. Captain Knight is. Captain Knight is accounted an authority on seamanship and is the author of "Modern Seamanship."

Captain Charles Ward Bartlett, aged fifty-seven, is the new commander of the first class battleship Ohio, and is representative of the class of energetic, capable and resourceful officers who are henceforth to be picked for the important fighting commands in the navy. Captain Bartlett was appointed to the Naval Academy from Massachusetts in the summer of 1867 and graduated as midshipman in 1871, was promoted to ensign the following year, and to the grade of lieutenant in 1875. His advance to the rank of captain came in 1882 and promotion to lieutenant-commander in 1899. In his early years in the service this officer was attached successively to the Wabash, Saratoga, Constellation and other famous ships of the old navy. He had several different periods of service. at the Naval Academy, interspersed with intervals of sea service on both the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1901 he was attached to the naval station at Cavite in the Philippines, and a few years ago was in command of the monitor Florida. Captain Bartlett's most

recent service has been as assistant to the chief of the bureau of ordnance of the Navy Department—a branch of the service that has been conspicuous in the public eye of late years owing to the growing importance of the question of armor and armament on our warships.

Captain Thomas B. Howard who was, not so very long ago, in command of Admiral Dewey's famous flagship, the cruiser Olympia-now the station ship at the Naval Academy-and who has been more recently on waiting orders, has drawn the prize of detail as commander of the newly commissioned Tennessee. Captain Howard was born in Illinois, but was one of the appointments at large to the Naval Academy, which institution he entered in the year 1869, graduating four years later. In 1874 he was an ensign, and five years later had advanced to the grade of master. He attained to the junior lieutenancy in 1883 and lieutenant two years later. His promotion to lieutenant-commander came in 1899. He was with Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay, on the Concord. He was on the Charleston at the battle against the insurgents in Manila in 1899 and later took command of the monitor Monadnock in the Philippines. He had command of the monitor Puritan at the time of the presidential inauguration of 1901, and later commanded the practice ship Chesapeake on its annual cruise with the midshipmen from the Naval Academy. Still later he was in command of the monitor Nevada.

Thus, while the fleet on its voyage to

Pacific will be commanded by younger men, still, it will be seen that these new officers are, after all, men of experience experience and judgment-men who have already made records for themselves.

is and what it proposes to do, is a strenuous friend in time of need, in war.

As yet untried, but being eagerly examined and tested, in this connection, is a strange, weird and wonderful camera called a Telephot Vega, made abroad, and of which there is one solitary specimen in this country, now being tested by the Signal Corps. The writer had the good fortune to be present and to assist in making the first tests of this remarkable instrument, and, imperfect and much to be improved as the results are, they show the wonderful capability of this instrument, or others which may come after it and which will be better, as this is better than anything hitherto imagined for the purpose.

The end to be gained in this cameraand let it be said, in any camera which will give accurate information regarding

the whereabouts and range of an enemy who is not visible to the eye-is a large, clear, magnified picture. Those of you who are photographers will at once think of telephoto attachments for cameras. The trouble with these attachments is that the images they yield are not very sharp, will not stand magnification and cannot be made at speed. The lens forms an image, as in the usual camera, and, with the telephoto attachment, this image is spread out, or magnified. A loss. of light and illumination results, and a time exposure, or at most a slow snap shot, is indicated. Finally, the image is hard to focus, the instrument delicate of adjustment, and delicate and sensitive to such influences as wind or vibration.

The Telephot Vega goes at the matter in a new way. It is a well known scientific fact, of course, that the longer the focus of a lens, the larger the resulting image-the size of the image bears the same relation to the size of the object, that the focus of the lens, does to the distance of the lens to the object. Why then, not use a long focus lens and get a large image in the first place, rather than a telephoto? The difficulty is one