War on the Water - George Griffith / Fred T. Jane

[ffutures]

Someone pointed me at this 1896 article by George Griffith, with illustrations by Fred T. Jane (of Jane's Fighting Ships fame), which I somehow managed to miss when I checked the first volume of Pearson's Magazine for scientific romances. The reason probably being that it isn't so much a scientific romance as a "prediction" of military technology. I've just scanned it and put it on line, please tell me if you spot any errors etc. in the text before I link to it properly.

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/library/warwater/warwater.htm

Comments

[willibald.livejournal.com]

"a torpedo loaded with 500 pounds of gun cotton is rushing towards us at thirty knots an hour."

A knot is a measure of speed not of distance. Griffith has this right in the rest of the artical but makes the mistake in this sentence.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Probably the proofreader or editor rather than Griffith. but since it's on the page it stays in.