America's war for humanity related in story and picture, embracing a complete history of Cuba's struggle for liberty, and the glorious heroism of America's soldiers and sailors . , as it frequently does, several forts within it, as well as several minefields, which are all so placed as to be covered by the fire of the guns, inorder to prevent them being removed or destroyed by counter-mines. The defenses of Havana form a coast fortress of this sort, commanding channel which is very easily defended. The American vessels, toattack it, will have to steam inshore and engage in long-range f
America's war for humanity related in story and picture, embracing a complete history of Cuba's struggle for liberty, and the glorious heroism of America's soldiers and sailors . , as it frequently does, several forts within it, as well as several minefields, which are all so placed as to be covered by the fire of the guns, inorder to prevent them being removed or destroyed by counter-mines. The defenses of Havana form a coast fortress of this sort, commanding channel which is very easily defended. The American vessels, toattack it, will have to steam inshore and engage in long-range fire, whenthey will not be able to do very great harm, or they will have to take up aposition closer still, come to anchor, and pour in a rain of shell. Theunsteady platform of a ships deck is not conducive to good shooting, thoughthey may be helped by something wonderful in the way of a range-finderwhich the United States ships are believed to possess. The Spaniards are not known to have any system of range-finding instru-ments in use, and will have to pick up their distances by means of rangingshots. There is a belief that no nation is so well equipped in this respect as. 346 AMERICAS WAR FOR HUMANITY. ourselves. A special department in Woolwich Arsenal is devoted to themanufacture of these instruments, and, for a wonder, it is not at the inspec-tion of the wandering foreigner, while the principle of the Watkin position-finder is kept a secret even from the bulk of those who would have to put itto practical use. The ordinary range-finder consists of a telescope, with adrum marked in hundreds of yards fitted below it, and a sliding-bar whichenables the instrument to be adjusted to the height above-tide at which it ismounted. Without going into further details of a technical character, itmay be said that when the telescope is focused on the target the drum showsthe yards in the range, and an arc on the base of the instrument, which cor-responds with the arc on the guns, gives th
Size: 1314px × 1901px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectspanish, bookyear1898
