of the submarine as a check to the manifestations of sea
power. In truth, there is a vast deal of popular misconception about the
submarine, a name which is really a misnomer. The French are more
precise in their term, a submersible; for, as a matter of fact, the
submarine, or submersible, is in essence a surface craft which is able
to descend beneath the water, proceeding thus for a limited time.

The amount of time which a submersible may run beneath the waves depends
upon her speed. The best of the German undersea boats, it has been
estimated, could not remain under more than three hours at high speed.
They then had to come up, as the navy saying has it, for "more juice."
To be more explicit, a submersible has a mechanical process, a
combination motor and dynamo between the engine, which drives the boat
when it is on the surface, and the thrust block through which the shaft
runs to the propeller. This motor-dynamo, serving as a motor, drives the
boat when she is beneath the water. When the electric power is exhausted
the boat comes to the surface, the motor is disconnected from the shaft
and is run as a dynamo generating power. Twelve hours are required in
which to produce the amount of electricity required for use when the
vessel next submerges. Thus, a great proportion of the time the
submarine is a surface craft.

Again, there are important defects in the lead battery system, which was
generally used in the war. First of all, they are very heavy, and
secondly the sulphuric acid in the containers is liable to escape--in
fact, does escape--when the boat rolls heavily. Sulphuric acid mingling
with salt water in the bilges produces a chlorine gas, which, as every
one knows, is most deadly. Not only this: the acid eats out the steel
plates of a hull.

There is talk of using dry batteries, but these are heavy, too, and
there are evils arising from their use which have made the lead
batteries, objectionable though they may be, preferable in a great
majority of cases. The British have a type of submersible propelled on
the surface by steam.

The Peace Conference at this writing is talking of the advisability of
eliminating the submarine as a weapon of war. Whether by the time this
is read such action will have been taken, the fact remains that before
the submarine could hope to approach in formidability the surface
fighter, she will have to experience a development which at the present
time has not been attained. The