Technology

The naval technology of 1890-1920 is a subject few people study, and yet it is so rich and exciting that we want to share in a more inviting and accessible form what we've learned in reading many old manuals and handbooks.  We've hit upon videos and essays as the best ways to bring this rich technological era to light.

Videos

You'll see why I found that making a simulation or game was helpful in showing how fire control instruments worked.  Several of these really can best be described as "computers", but no one really ever considers this period as part of the computing epoch.  Maybe that will change.

The Royal Navy used a variety of sights for aiming torpedoes.  The Torpedo Director Pattern 2006 was deployed around 1908 or so, and probably was used in some WW-I battles.  In its simplest form, it required the user to be near the torpedo tube, and to have a good estimate of the target's heading and speed. 

Like most of my videos, this uses a chalkboarding discussion of the problem to be solved, introduces the sight as an embodiment of a machine capable of solving it, and then demonstrates its use in a simulated torpedo attack.

This video chapter assumes you have a basic understanding of geometry and the principle of similar triangles.

Some ships mounted their torpedo tubes in submerged positions on their broadside. This configuration thwarted the requirement of a simple torpedo director to be mounted on or near the firing tube. The expedient taken was to alter the director with a "tangent bar" which could allow it to be used from a remote position.

You can browse part of the primary source for these first two videos, the Royal Navy's Torpedo Manual of 1909 online.

The Dumaresq was a device invented by Lieutenant John Dumaresq, RN, in 1905 which determined the "range rate" and deflection given the speed and heading of own ship and target ship as well as its bearing. This video chapter assumes a familiarity with vector addition and subtraction with a grasp of coordinate systems.

Long Range Gunfire with the Dreyer Fire Control Table 28:00 85MB

This chapter introduces a marvel of early computing: the Dreyer Fire Control Table Mark III. The Dreyer FCT is housed deep within the ship to convert reports of visual estimates of target range and bearing, as well as observations of where shells fall in relation to the target to a continuous estimation of target range and deflection.  A simulated gunnery engagement shows how these calculations permit a distant, moving target to be taken under fire.

Long Range Gunnery using Director Firing 31:00 96MB

This chapter builds upon the Dreyer Fire Control Table to show how all the guns in the main battery can be fired in harmony using centralized director firing.  This technology relied upon a variety of clever data transmitters and receivers that in many ways suggest a pre-history to local area networking.

Illustration and Analysis of Gunnery Solution vs Reality 6:51  12.7MB

This video offers an "eye in the sky" debriefing of a firing exercise using the systems documented in the previous chapters.  Briefly, the ship to the north trailing a green wake and zig-zagging is the firing ship.  The ship steaming to the south on a course of due east is the target ship.  A translucent ship indicates where the Dreyer FCT's range pencil would be placing the target ship, and other markers indicate the range cuts and salvo patterns made during the action.  Vital communications on board the firing ship are displayed as they occur.

I enjoy presenting this work to interested audiences, whether they are comprised of admirals or geometry students.  If you have such an audience and an occasion where you want something truly different, contact me.

 

Essays and Case Studies

Pictures and videos alone don't always convey the fullest understanding of the subject.

Scientific Topics

Before technology can be studied, one must understand the natural laws that shaped the world in which they functioned.  In a sense, these are "backgrounders".

External Ballistics
By World War I, guns fired at ranges up to 10 miles, and for the first time gunners had to contend with shooting quick-moving aircraft in 3 dimensions. A fairly mature grasp of the science of ballistics was required.

Range Tables
To create accurate sighting equipment, one needed to know everything about the performance of a new gun throughout its entire envelope. This knowledge was acquired by test firings and statistical hocus-pocus and then documented in an artillerist's almanac called a "range table".

Ships, Technologies and Devices

The sophistication of naval technology in this period astonishes most when they first learn its details. Though things were far more advanced in the World War II era, it is worthwhile directing some attention to a precocious period of technological development and attainment that has escaped common notice.

The Design and Weaponry of HMS Colossus (1882)

Rob Brassington contributed this incredible study of a Victorian era battleship. His animations and modeling are supported by an essay that really helps you see how this ship was envisioned to fight.

The Sightsetting Principle

Single guns had sighting telescopes with crosshairs by which they aimed at targets, but before this would work, you had to tell the sight how far away the target was, and how much lateral "lead" you might need. This was called Sightsetting.

Dumaresqs

There were many marks of this clever calculator, including some special-purpose variants.

Shipboard Data Networks
One of the aspects of my studies that has most surprised me is the discovery the remarkable resemblance of a dreadnought to a local area network. Though the terminals in these networks were not as flexible as the computers of our modern day networks (today, we might just say they were "hard wired"), the function and value of these systems allowed an entire ship to operate as a coherent author of destruction.

Rangefinders
With few real exceptions, detection and tracking of an enemy in battle relied on visual means. The primary requirement for shooting effectively is the timely collection of accurate information on the enemy's relative position and motion.

I'm lucky enough to own several rangefinders from the WW-I era, and when friends visit, I drag them out to test them in an occasional episode of something I call The Rangetaker Challenge.

Director Firing

Just as WW-I began, the Royal Navy was equipping its ships with director firing systems which permitted entire batteries of weapons to fire together to better concentrate their fall of shot and facilitate spotting.  Director firing was an idea touched on at several times in the previous 50 years, but most often credit for its successful introduction is accorded to Captain Percy Scott.

Dreyer Fire Control Table
The Royal Navy equipped its capital ships with these plotting and computing "workbenches" and relied on them at Jutland.  Most Dreyer tables had two separate visual plots for recording range and bearing versus time, as well as a Dumaresq, range clock, and other peripherals to relate and clean up the data for generating a continuous estimate of range and deflection to be used by the guns.

Argo Aim Corrector
The Argo Aim Corrector was a system of fire control marketed to the Royal Navy immediately before WW-I, but although portions of its equipment were used sporadically in the Grand Fleet, it was rejected in favor of the Dreyer Fire Control Tables.  It featured an automatic true-course plotting table, a compact and well engineered Argo Clock.

Flag Signaling

When a ship wished to say something to another ship or group of ships, and they were in visible range in good light, flag signals were almost always the means of communication employed, just as they had been for at least a century.

Wireless

Radio was a fairly new technology, but many ships and even some aircraft carried transmitters and receivers to permit long-range coordination (or interference, depending on one's perspective)

Methods of Naval Operation and the Use of Technology

Giving sailors ships and weapons is not where it ends. How were these tools to be used? What training was given to men and how were they told to apply their might against the enemy?

Fleet Maneuvering