self as much a moral as a mechanical philosopher.

After the conclusion of these experiments, he does not appear to have turned his attention to torpedoes or submarine explosions until the late war was declared between Great Britain and the United States. His mind was engaged by other great and interesting objects. He had in the meantime brought his system of navigation by steam to such perfection, that steamboats were established and running as regular packets upon the Hudson, between New York and Albany, and as ferry-boats across the bays and rivers.

But Mr. Fulton's thoughts upon submarine war took another direction. Having ascertained, by the experiments he had made with his cable-cutter, that powder might be discharged from a piece of ordnance under water with effect, he conceived the idea of forming submarine batteries. With this view, he instituted a number of experiments, to try the practicability and effect of discharging cannon loaded with ball at different depths under

water.

He made a number of calculations on this subject his desire to ascertain what resistance a ball of given dimensions, propelled with a certain velocity, would meet with in passing through a body

of water at a certain depth. The basis he took for these calculations, and the calculations themselves, mark both his ingenuity and his science.

He assumed that a body passing through water would meet with a resistance equal to the force of a column of water of the same diameter as the body moving with the given velocity. He then ascertained what head or height of water would be required to discharge a stream of water, from an orifice at the foot of a perpendicular tube, with the same velocity with which the boat was supposed to be propelled. He then, by the wellknown rules of hydraulics, found what force or power the ascertained head of water would give, and thence formed his estimates as to the resistance with which a body projected in water would

meet.

In this instance, as in others, he is not satisfied with obtaining the information necessary for his particular purpose, but he establishes, from his calculations, a rule which may, by a very brief and simple arithmetical process, afford all the information and accuracy generally necessary for practical purposes.

His first experiment was with a 4-pounder, having the breech, and as much of the gun as is usually within the sides of a vessel, in a water

tight box, and the muzzle stopped with a tompion: the box and gun were then submerged three feet in the Hudson: the gun was fired by dropping a live coal through a tin tube which penetrated the box immediately above the vent of the gun, and rose above the surface of the water: the ball was found to have struck the sand at the bottom of the river, at the distance of forty-one feet from the muzzle. The gun was uninjured. This experiment satisfied him that guns might be placed in a ship, below her water-line, with their breech on board and their muzzles in the water, without any more danger of their bursting than there is when they are fired in the air. This gave him the idea of arming ships with guns to be fired in this way.

He proposed that the muzzle of the gun made for this purpose should recoil through a stuffingbox, and be followed by a valve which would exclude the water when the gun was not protruded. An elegant model of this construction is now in possession of his family.

He next tried the same piece with a pound and a half of powder, and fired it, by means of one of his water-tight locks, when it was entirely in water, three feet below the surface: the ball penetrated eleven and a half inches into a target of pine logs, which had been prepared for the purpose,

and placed beneath the water at the distance of twelve feet from the piece.

His next experiment was with a columbiad carrying an hundred pound ball, fired at the target, as in the last instance: all that we know is that the ball tore the target in pieces, and that the cannon was uninjured.

We have not information that will enable us to give any further details of this experiment; but we know that Mr. Fulton was entirely satisfied with the result. He proposed to use cannon in this way by suspending them, two for instance, from the bows of the vessel. A single shot, as he demonstrates, from a piece of large calibre, which should break into the side of a ship at any considerable depth beneath the water-line, must be fatal to her. And though the range of shot fired through water, may be but a few feet, yet conflicting vessels, whenever they engage yard-arm and yard-arm, with accounts of which our naval heroes have made us so familiar, must be so near as to give effect to a submarine discharge.

Mr. Fulton did not propose that these guns should be always in the water; but that they should be suspended so as to be raised when the vessel was not in action.

The plans for the submarine use of cannon were

submitted to one of our most distinguished naval commanders, who gave them his decided approba

tion.

He expressed a strong opinion that such an attack would be fatal to any vessel exposed to it, and that it would be extremely difficult for an enemy to evade an attempt, made with sufficient resolution, to destroy her by these means.

In 1813, Mr. Fulton took out a patent "for several improvements in the art of maritime warfare, and means of injuring and destroying ships and vessels of war by igniting gunpowder under water, or by igniting gunpowder below a line horizontal to the surface of the water, or so igniting gunpowder that the explosion which causes injury to the vessel attacked shall be under water."

He communicated to Mr. Jefferson an account of his experiments on submarine firing, with drawings of his various plans. Mr. Jefferson expressed himself much pleased with this novel mode of maritime warfare, and assured Mr. Fulton that he would recommend it to the attention of Government.

It is curious to observe how Mr. Fulton's projects grew one out of another: the submarine guns gave rise to the steam man-of-war.