By the respectful distance at which they generally kept their ships from our shores, and the precautions they took whenever they approached them, evidently showed that they were afraid of Fulton. On these accounts there was no opportunity of doing anything with the common torpedo. During the war, several partial, and ineffectual attempts were made upon the enemy's vessels, by different enterprizing individuals. It is very possible that the dread of what might be done by Mr. Fulton, who they knew was a resident of New York, and had there been trying experiments with sub-marine explosions, determined the British to direct their hostilities to other parts of the U. S., rather than to that port. But Mr. Fulton's plan for sub-marine warfare, met with no countenance, (mth tlie exception of the torpedo-boat, built to accompany the steam frigates) from the government.
He had not been able to inspire the executive officers with any confidence in them. The unfavorable opinion of some of our gallant naval commanders, was calculated to have great influence against any reliance on Mr. Fulton's machines. No system was arranged for preparing or employing them. Attempts, which were made, were conducted by persons who were entirely inexperienced in the use of torpedoes, and had none of the qualifications for such an enterprize but courage. Under such circumstances, nothing but failures were to bo expected. Had Mr. Fulton's proposition to organize a marine corps, to be practised and instructed in the use of torpedoes been adopted, the war might have afforded an opportunity of giving them such a trial as would have been decisive as to their utilitv.
But Mr. Fulton's thoughts on sub-marine warfare 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 sub-marine 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 his ingenuity and science.
He assumed, that a body passing through water, would meet with a resistance equal to the force of a column 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 body was supposed to be propelled. He then, bv the well-known rule of hydraulics, found what force or power the ascertained head of water would give, and thence formed his estimate as to the resistance which a body projected in water would meet with. In this instance, as in others, he was not satisfied with arriving at the information necessary for his particular purpose; but he established 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 four pounder having tlie 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 composition. The box and gun were then submerged three feet in the Hudson. The gun was fired by dropping a live coal thorugh 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 muzzle 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 the purpose, should recoil through the stuffing box, and be followed by a valve which should exclude the water when the gun is not protruded. An elegant model on 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 the 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.