I have said that the huge piece was even sighted by electricity. There
is really nothing strange in the statement, though it may read like a
fairy tale or a metaphor to whoever has never had his attention called
to the subject. In a small way, with the name of its inventor almost
unknown except to his messmates, it is one of the most wonderful, and
one of the simplest, of the modern miracles. As a mere instance of the
wide extent of modern ideas of utility, and of the possibilities of
application of the laws that were discovered and formulated by those
whose names the units of electrical measurements bear, it may be briefly
stated how a group of gunners may work behind an iron breastwork, and
never see the enemy's hull, and yet aim at him with a hundred times the
accuracy possible in the day of the _Old Ironsides_ and the
_Guerriere_.
And first it may be stated that the _range-finder_ is largely a
measure of mere economy. A two-million-dollar cruiser is not sailed, or
lost, as a mere pastime. Whoever aims best will win the fight. Ten years
ago the way of finding distance, or range, which is the same thing, was
experimental.
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