For two weeks after the arrival of the Prairie, with 750 marines, at the island, the vessel was out of communication with the State Department, owing to the cutting of the cables at Santo Domingo. On October 21 dispatches were received, but definite information concerning events on the island, if received, was not given out. The Yankton, from Philadelphia, and the Baltimore, from New York, were ordered, on October 30, to proceed to Santo Domingo, to assist in preserving peace. The Baltimore was to take on board marines from the Prairie at Santo Domingo City and then proceed to Puerto Plata, where the American consulate is threatened by the rebels.

On account of an accident, the Baltimore put in to the Norfolk Navy Yard.

The 3-Gun Turret

It is announced that the Navy Department, following the ideas of Rear Admiral N. C. Twining, has succeeded in remedying the defect in accurate firing of the middle gun in the three-gun turret. On account of this inaccuracy, the Bureau of Ordnance had been considering a change in the plans of the proposed armament for the new battleship Pennsylvania from twelve 14-inch guns mounted three in a turret to ten 15-inch or 16-inch guns mounted two in a turret; but the solving of the difficulty has obviated the necessity for the change.

The new turret, which has just been tested at Indian Head, is to be taken down and removed to the naval gun factory. The turrets designed for the Oklahoma and Nevada will be set up and tested by the new method.

NAVAL ACADEMY

The sixty-eighth year of the Naval Academy began on October 1. Seven hundred and forty-five midshipmen. responded to the roll call, three being absent. The Reina Mercedes, one of the ships captured in the Spanish war, has been roofed over and moored at the Santee's wharf, for use in place of the Hartford.

Lieutenant Yabu, an aviation officer of the Japanese navy, and Captain Takeuchi, naval attaché at the Japanese Legation at Washington, visited the Naval Academy on October I.

The following officers reported to take the instruction in the School of Marine Engineering, of which Lieut. Commander J. P. Morton is the head: Lieut. H. G. Bowen, Lieut. S. E. Holliday, Lieut, J. S. Evans, Lieut. P. H. Hammond, Lieut. Bruce R. Ware, Jr., Lieut. W. R. Furlong, and Ensign H. B. Bird.

The Boxer, one of the old sailing vessels of the navy, arrived at Annapolis October 20, convoyed by the tug Ontario. The Borer is to be used to drill the midshipmen in the older forms of seamanship.

The Army-Navy football game will be played in Philadelphia, November 30.

The first football game of the fourth-class midshipmen, played on the Naval Academy grounds, with Gettysburg College Reserves, resulted in a victory of 13 to o in favor of the midshipmen. The midshipmen made all the scoring in the first half. The game was played in a rainstorm, which rendered the field extremely soggy.

BOOK REVIEWS

CLOWES "NAVAL POCKET BOOK"

Edited by R. C. Anderson. 17th year. W. Thacker & Co., London, E. C., England.

The Naval Pocket Book for 1912 contains its usual encyclopaedic fund of naval information. A number of errors in previous editions have been corrected, and the record of naval increase of the different nations carefully noted.

One of the new features in this edition is the introduction of sketches of the more important classes of ships. Mr. Anderson, in his preface to the present edition, says of this innovation:

"These sketches are intended to give enough detail for recognition, and to show the distribution of the larger guns; while, being drawn to a uniform scale, they give also a rough idea of the size of the ships they represent."

The Naval Pocket Book is so well known to naval men and its usefulness so well recognized that any enlargement on its merits would be superfluous.

Mr. Anderson asks for information concerning any errors that may be detected in the present edition and for sugges tions for next year's issue.

THE ARLINGTON WIRELESS STATION

CHARLES F. THOMPSON

The naval wireless station at Arlington, Virginia, is nearly completed, and is scheduled to begin regular operation during the present month.

There are three skeleton-frame iron towers, arranged in the form of an isosceles triangle, built upon concrete piers, on the brow of a 200-foot eminence overlooking the city of Washington. The main tower is 650 feet high, the other two being each 450 feet in height. The distance between the towers is about 250 feet.

Directly in front of the towers is a two-story brick and cement building, which contains the power plant and operating equipment, in addition to offices and living quarters for the twenty men who will form the operating staff of the station. In the basement of the building are located the large transformers used in connection with the power supply, and also those connected with the transmission system.

The "ground" connection for the station consists of a large number of parallel wires laid in trenches about three feet apart, and buried two feet beneath the surface of the earth. Similar wires are laid at right angles and joined together where they cross, forming a mesh which occupies practically the entire space enclosed by the

towers.

The permanent antennae have not yet been placed in position, but temporary ones have been strung between. the towers, from which the first signals were sent out on the night of October 28. It is reported that these test signals were heard at Mare Island and many other stations throughout the United States, although only threeeighths of the transmitting capacity was used.

Messages from the Marconi station at Glace Bay were read with great clearness, and it is thought that signals were heard from the station in Clifden, Ireland.

The main entrance on the first floor leads directly into the power room, where is located a 200 horse-power Westinghouse synchronous three-phase motor, belted to a 100 kilowatt General Electric alternating current generator. The excitor for energizing the generator field coils is direct connected to the alternating current motor shaft. Mounted upon an extension of the generator shaft is a rotating spark gap of the Fessenden type, containing 48 projections.

Power is brought to the station from the Washington plant by an overhead line at 25 cycles and 6,600 volts. There is a white marble switch-board located in the power room, upon which is mounted an oil switch for starting

the motor, and other switches for control of the power. A complete equipment of measuring instruments is also attached to the switchboard.

Only about one-fourth of the space in the power room is at present being used, it being intended later to install auxiliary apparatus for reserve purposes, and probably a smaller generating unit for use where great range of transmission is not required. A storage battery outfit will also be placed in the power room, which will be used for testing and research work to be conducted in the laboratory.

Adjoining the power room is the operating room, which embodies several new and novel features in wireless operation. On account of the noise made by the running machinery, special efforts have been made to insulate this room, so that it will be as nearly sound proof as possible. There are no windows in the room, but it is well lighted by electricity, and an abundance of fresh air, heated in winter, is supplied by artificial means.

All of the receiving and transmitting instruments are located in this sound proof room, and as messages are received by the wireless operator they will be written by him upon a telautograph and reproduced upon a similar instrument, in the handwriting of the operator, in the next adjoining room.

One of the features of the operating room is an automatic wave finder. This is a newly developed instrument for varying the adjustments at the receiving station so that the operator will be able to pick up stations using different wave lengths without having to be constantly changing the adjustment of his apparatus by hand manipulation.

Next adjoining the wireless room is the Morse operating room, in which is located a complete telegraphic outfit connecting with both of the telegraph companies, as well as with the Navy and other Departments at Washington through government lines.

All wireless messages reproduced in the Morse room will be copied upon a specially designed typewriter, which delivers two copies of each wireless message and deposits a third, or record, copy in a locked metallic case beneath the typewriter.

The telephone switchboard, connecting the several branches in the building with the Washington local and long distance lines, is also located in the Morse room.

The Arlington plant is one of the largest wireless stations that has ever been constructed, and embodies all the latest features of the art that have been developed up to the present time. The completion of this station will be

of great value to the Navy Department for the transmission of messages direct to vessels anywhere within a range of three thousand miles of Washington. The plant will also be used for conducting an elaborate program of experimental research, from which it is hoped to gather much valuable data that will be used advantageously in the design and construction of the large stations in Panama, San Francisco, Honolulu, Guam, and Manila, which have already been authorized.

The Arlington station will send out time signals every day at noon. The signals will come direct from the standard electric clock at the Naval Observatory, and by means of a switch will be connected directly to the wireless transmitter every day at five minutes before 12. Every ship on the Atlantic Ocean, as well as every owner of a wireless receiver in the United States, Canada, and South America, will be able to get correct standard Washington time every day.

Another feature of this station will be the sending out of daily weather bulletins, collected and prepared especially for the benefit of ships at sea. This feature is now being worked out by the Weather Bureau.

The station will also send out special reports of various kinds relating to navigation, and will describe at frequent intervals the location of icebergs and other obstructions in the path of vessels following the ocean lanes and coastwise routes.

The tremendous power required to operate a station of this magnitude would be sufficient to light five thousand 16 candle-power tungsten electric lamps, or to lift a weight of 1,650 tons one foot every minute.

THE BALKAN WAR

The trend of events in Southern Europe, from the beginning of Turkish-Italian hostilities, has been toward war. The Christian inhabitants of Greece and the Balkan States seem to be animated with but a single purpose, the expulsion of the Crescent from Europe. On October 9, little Montenegro declared war against her mighty neighbor. In the daily press this action of Montenegro has been likened to David attacking Goliath. This is hardly a truthful simile, as the Montenegrins knew they were supported by allies, whose combined armies were about equal to those of Turkey.

Turkey, recognizing the impossibility of avoiding the

conflict, mobilized her armies on her threatened frontier and seized Greek ships in Turkish ports for use as transports, thus forcing Greece into a declaration of war. Meanwhile, a hurried peace compact was signed with Italy, by which the Turkish fleet was released for service against Greece. As soon as the peace treaty was signed, the Sultan, taking the initiative, declared war against Bulgaria and Servia.

Austria has mobilized and is holding ready for action four army corps in Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Southern Hungary. Officials in France condemn the criticism by certain French newspapers of England's slowness in agreeing to the collective note of the Powers in their effort to avert war.

A dispatch from Podgoritza stated that the Montenegrin army opened the war against Turkey on October

Prince Peter, the youngest son of King Nicholas, fired the first gun. The Turks quickly evacuated their advanced positions and returned to their entrenchments on Detchitch Mountain, commanding the road to Scutari. After a thirty-hour engagement, the Turkish commander on Detchitch Mountain surrendered to the Montenegrins. On October 16, after several days of hard fighting, the Montenegrins entered the town of Berana, made 1,400 Turkish soldiers prisoners, and captured 14 guns and large quantities of ammunition and supplies. This victory opened the road to Scutari, which was being besieged by the Montenegrins on October 25.

The reply of Greece, Bulgaria, and Servia to the RussoAustrian proposals looking to the avoidance of war between those states and Turkey were delivered to those powers on October 13. The allies claimed that the proposal contained insufficient guarantees for the reforms demanded in the Turkish provinces. The "Pravda," a Servian paper, printed interviews with a number of members of the Servian Parliament, the substance of which was, "What we take we will keep, even if Austria declares that she will not recognize any territorial changes."

Servia was the first of the Balkan states, after Montenegro, to declare war, which was done on October 17. Bulgaria followed suit immediately, and Greece, on the morning of the 18th, sent instructions to her Minister at Constantinople to communicate a declaration of war to the Porte. As before stated, Turkey had anticipated the action of Servia and Bulgaria, by publishing at Constantinople, on October 17, a formal declaration of war and handing the Servian and Bulgarian Ministers their passports. Simultaneously with the Turkish declaration of

war, the Turkish forces on the Servian and Bulgarian frontiers began forward movements, but were at once forced back by the energetic advance of the allies.

On October 19, the Greek troops attacked the Turks entrenched near Meluna Pass, on the northeastern frontier of Greece south of Elassona, and the Servians began an advance on Pristina in the direction of Uskup. On the same date, the Bulgarian army occupied Kourtkala, near Mustafa Pacha, twenty miles northeast of Adrianople.

The Greek steamer Macedonia, which left New York on October 5, arrived at Algiers on October 17, where she found four destroyers, which had been purchased in England by the Grecian Government, waiting to escort her to the Piraeus.

A blockade of the coast of Epirus and the ports of Lemnos was declared by the Greek naval commander whose fleet was mobilized at the Mediterranean end of the Dardanelles, waiting the coming of Turkish war vessels. On October 23 the town of Servia, with twenty-two guns and a large number of prisoners, was captured by the Grecian army.

The Turkish fleet for a short time bombarded the Bulgarian town of Varna on the Black Sea, but later sailed away and was next heard from when the report came from Sofia, on October 22, of the bombardment of Kavarna, an unfortified town on the Bulgarian shore, twenty-eight miles from Varna. The custom house and several buildings were destroyed. The Bulgarian Government has entered a protest concerning the bombardment, claiming it to be a violation of international law. Reports on October 21 showed that the Bulgarians had advanced to the outer defenses of Adrianople, while the Servians had captured Rulya Heights, several miles south of Vranya. The Greek Government declared on the same date an investment of the Turkish coast from the Gulf of Arta to the Port of Goumenitsa.

In Thrace, the Bulgarians won their first victory of important by the capture of Kirk-Kilisseh, with its garrison of between five and ten thousand soldiers. This opened the way to Adrianople. Two outer defense forts of the latter city were reported as captured by the Bulgarians on October 25.

The Servians, on October 23, were in possession of Novipazar and were expected to occupy the town of Kumanova. Pristina had also fallen, but the losses of the Servians are said to have been very heavy. The capture of the town of Verisovits, on October 26, opened the way to a direct attack on Uskup. The seventh regiment of

Servian infantry, after crossing the frontier into Novipazar, was destroyed by the explosion of a Turkish land.

mine.

After the capture of Pristina, the Servians continued their southward movement, occupying Kumanova and other towns, and finally driving the Turks from the strongly-fortified city of Uskup, on October 26. The Montenegrins meanwhile had overcome all resistance to their advance on Scutari, and had laid siege to that town on the same day that the Turks withdrew from Uskup. The Turkish retreat from Uskup is described as a wild scramble for safety. The further advance of the Servians seems to have been checked, temporarily at least; for on November 4 no further southward movement had been reported.

Since capturing, on October 23, the town of Servia, the Greeks have continued their successful march northward, and on November 4 were closing in on Salonica. A Greek army division, under command of General Smolensky, landed at Starvos, on the east side of the Chalcis peninsula, and on November 4 was advancing on Salonica from the east.

On the Adriatic side, the Greeks took possession of the fortified town of Prevesa, which offered no resistance, and drove off the Turkish guards from the heights near the city, capturing four hundred and fifty prisoners. A Turkish gunboat in the harbor was shelled and burned. On November 1, a Greek torpedo boat crept into the harbor of Salonica, under cover of darkness, and sank a Turkish cruiser lying at anchor.

The task of overcoming the main Turkish force fell to the lot of the Bulgarians. On October 20, the first attack was made on the forts of Adrianople. Two of the outer defenses were captured, but the determined resistance of the Turkish army inside the walls caused the Bulgarians to adopt siege tactics, rather than a direct assault. At the time of this writing, the Turks are still in possession of the city; but it is completely surrounded by the Bulgarian army. Leaving a sufficient force for the siege of Adrianople, the main Bulgarian army advanced on Kirk-Kilisseh, which they captured after two days of hard fighting, driving the enemy back to their strongly fortified position at Lule-Burgas. On October 27, the Turks abandoned Eski-Baba, a town near Adrianople. Five days of what is described as terrific fighting were consumed in routing the Turks from Lule-Burgas, but the defeat was complete. The Turkish retreat was a wild flight of unresisting soldiers for safety within the entrenchments of Tchatajla.

On November 4, the Bulgarian line of battle stretched from Rodosto, on the sea of Marmora, to the shore of the Black Sea, completely isolating Constantinople from communication with Thrace and Macedonia.

The final line of entrenchments at Tchorlu, behind which the defeated army of the Sultan has taken refuge, extends from Silivri, on the Sea of Marmora, to Kara Bournou, on the Black Sea. These intrenchments were intended to be an impregnable line of fortifications; but, on account of the neglect of the Turkish government to keep them in repair, it is doubtful if they will be able to withstand for any length of time the fire of the Bulgarian artillery.

It is early to predict any results of the present war, except that in all probability Turkish influence will be c'iminated from European affairs. Austria is expecting territorial aggrandizement; while the Balkan allies are openly boasting, "What we take we will keep."

THE BALKAN NAVIES

ARTHUR B. UPSHUR

From the time of the Greeko-Turkish war of 1879 until very recently, the slumbers of the Greek and Turkish navies have been deep and uninterrupted, but in the last twelve months both nations seem to have awakened to a realization of what is now about to take place. Turkey ordered a Dreadnought of the latest type in England, and Greece placed a similar order in Germany. Neither of these ships can be completed for a year yet.

Turkey has always been a great believer in patching up war ships, one of the most noteworthy cases being the Messudiyeh, built in England in 1874, and armed with twelve 10-inch muzzle loaded guns and propelled by a single screw with a speed of thirteen knots an hour. In 1902, she was refitted at Genoa with new guns, two 9.2-inch being in two turrets fore and aft. The old armor was left aboard, but two sets of triple expansion engines were put in place, and a speed of sixteen knots secured. This was the first case on record of a single screw ship being converted into a twin screw.

Three battleships were built in England in 1867-1871, reconstructed in 1890 to 1897, and again were improved in 1904-1897 at Genoa, Italy.

Still other old ships, on account of engine troubles, or the lack of engines (it is said that Turkish government officials have gone so far as to sell the engines of their battleships), had to be reconstructed at Constantinople, Italian mechanics being sent there from Ansaldo & Co., Genoa.

Turkey possesses three cruisers of comparatively modern type, the Medjidieh, built in Philadelphia in 1903, and the Hamdich and Drama. These ships are of small fighting power, but the Medejidieh can at least run away

her speed on trial was 22 knots. There are a halfdozen modern gunboats in the navy, these ships being about the only ones to play any part in the war with Italy. One of them was sunk by the Italians at Prevesa, September 30, 1911.

The largest ship in the Greek navy is the Averoff, an armored cruiser built in 1907-1911. This ship is supported by three so-called battleships, built in 1889 and modernized in 1899. These are the Psara, Spetsai, and Hydra, of a displacement of 5,000 tons each. As possible opponents of these, Turkey has the two superannuated German battleships Weissenburg and Kurfurst Friedrick Wilhelm, renamed the Hairredin Barbarosse and Torgud Reis, which she purchased in 1910 for $4.500,000, and which were reported at that time to be worth about half that price. An interesting fact about these ships is that their main battery is arranged in accordance with the present Dreadnought style, all turrets being on the centre line and all their main battery guns may be fired on either broadside. These ships were built in 1891. Their main battery consists of six II-inch guns, and three turrets.

The Greek navy, in addition to the vessels already mentioned, has a number of old ships twenty-five to forty years old, which have never been reconstructed. The best of them is the Nauarchos Miaulis, built in France in 1879. Four destroyers were bought in England just prior to the declaration of the present war.

The Allies, Bulgaria and Roumania, possess practically no navies; that of the former consisting of a gunboat of 700 tons, which at times is used as the royal yacht, and a paddle wheel yatch, called the Alexander I. Roumania has a small cruiser, Elisabeta, and a diminutive gunboat.