might be any one of the following four combinations: gunnery and navigator, gunnery and first lieutenant, engineer and navigator or engineer and first lieutenant. It is believed that interest in engineering among officers will be revived, created or stimulated by the publishing by the department of a definite statement showing under what conditions of satisfactory general service and amount of duty of the various kinds that an officer must have, this to insure that he will not be hampered in preferment for promotion if he be disposed to follow engineering work. It has been previously stated that the reviving or creation of interest in engineering, in the cases of the enlisted man, is not ordinarily necessary, for his interest and desire for knowledge does not, ordinarily, go beyond the engineering department. It is, however, frequently necessary to stimulate the man's interest. To stimulate his interest, the engineer officer and his assistants should study the man's personal characteristics and decide on the best method of handling him, for some men will act carefully and thoroughly on a suggestion, even endeavoring to forestall the issuance of definite instructions, whereas others will require a cussing out" and the other men of the engineering department will be graded all the way between the two extremes. The end to be arrived at is to endeavor to get the work done, done willingly and at the same time boosting the job, the division officer, the engineer officer, the captain and the ship. In the study of the individual to ascertain the correct method of handling him, and the final decision as to the method, his contentment and desire to accomplish will be stimulated by being bossed in the exact manner desired by him; now, if during this character study period, a decision be reached as to just the kind of duty for which the man is best fitted and along just what line he is striving and then assign him to it (there is, ordinarily, a niche somewhere on board ship into which each man can be happily fitted), a tremendous stimulation will have been administered. One of the other papers states that it is impossible for an individual to apply himself with higher than average efficiency day in and day out without growing stale. This is true unfortunately and therefore, a periodic stimulus must be administered. In gunnery we have target practice. The gun or turret crew qualifies for prize money and additional compensation on short range battle practice. In another paper, it has been recommended that the present method of figuring engineering competitions be discontinued and that long range battle practice be coupled with a full power and economical speed trial with full allowances for them and the ships score be a combination of the engineering and gunnery scores. It is believed that this is only proper, for, if the engineers cannot place the ship for the use of its guns then the value of the guns is reduced accordingly. It is believed that there should be a competition in the engineering department on which to base awards of prize money and extra compensation corresponding in effect to short range battle practice. The competitions might well be held semi-annually, thus periodically furnishing a stimulus to personnel to actually get all machinery in its most efficient physical condition and therefore its most efficient operating condition as well as to study the method of how to operate most efficiently. Along this general line a competition was recently held in the destroyer force, Atlantic fleet, in evaporator operation and the scores were published giving the standing by ships and evaporator operators. The results of this test were very interesting, in spite of the fact that perhaps many of the operators were inexperienced, but this test would appear to show conclusively that operators of machinery and apparatus afloat are not generally well instructed in their duties nor are they themselves studying and working intelligently toward increasing operating efficiency. It is very probable that if another competitive test is held within two or three months, the results will be striking. Thus it is, that physical condition and operating efficiency of machinery can be materially improved by a demonstration of such condition or efficiency and further improved by a competitive demonstration of such conditions and efficiencies. The engine, pump, boiler and other engineering machinery on board ship is designed to have a certain water rate, evaporative efficiency, etc., and upon completion, test of the new machinery develops a certain efficiency which is established as the standard for that piece of machinery. A test of the individual machine at some subsequent time will determine its relative efficiency. Would it be a stimulant to a machinist's mate to know that if his pumps or his generators operated on test to say ninety-five (95%) per cent of the standard efficiency that he would have five ($5) dollars per month added to his pay for the succeeding six months or that Tom Smith on the sister ship in charge of the same machinery only obtained ninety (90%) per cent efficiency on his pumps or generators? What efforts would be made to keep his pump water end valves tight, his piston rings and plunger packing in good condition, his steam valve mechanism in working order, the stroke of the pump properly adjusted? What thought would the machinist's mate give to getting or keeping the pump in perfect condition, what amount of study would he make of the details of the pump? If the thought, study of and work on the pump were extended to all enginering machinery on the ship coupled with the stimulus of knowledge of the approach of the efficiency test and the desire to obtain the addition of a definite sum of money to his pay what would be the effect on the enginering efficiency of the ship, the fleet and the navy, and hence the efficiency of the whole navy? It would mean that the machinery of the navy was being operated by a force of thinking men, each striving to excel with semiannual outbursts of enthusiasm causing increased thought, extra study and work with perhaps a falling back in efficiency subsequent to passing the peak of the tests, but never reverting even to the standard of efficiency that existed prior to the test. The effect would be marked. There would be less navy yard work to be performed with the incident expenditures of funds reduced, the operating cost of ships, in fuel, water and oils, would be reduced, the steaming radius of ships increased and the vessels of the fleet better fitted for the supreme moment than could be effected in any other manner! The cost of the additional pay and prize money would be almost nothing as compared to the immense saving that would be netted to the government, in expenditures for repairs and extra fuel, etc. In fact the additional advantage of a force of harder thinking and more resourceful men plus the additional steaming radius and reliability of each ship would have a sufficient military value to discount all thought of cost. The task of planning, preparing for and holding the proposed efficiency tests is acknowleged to be a large one but the difficulties are not unsurmountable, in fact no additional apparatus to that now on board each ship is considered necessary, other than some means of actually measuring the total water used (not make up feed water) in driving the ship at designated speeds, necessary deductions being made therefrom, to obtain the water rate of the main engines, all other tests may be made at anchor. It is, indeed, unfortunate that to date satisfactory steam flow meters have not been devised for marine use; however, there is nothing new in making efficiency tests of machinery with such apparatus as is now in the main, provided, for various individuals have on their own initiative been engaged in such investigations of heat losses for many years. The purpose of this paper is to propose and discuss in general terms, the scheme of holding periodic efficiency tests of machinery with its attendant rewards to officers and men, this system with the proposals made elsewhere in this issue of the institute to supplant the present system of engineering competitions and thereby to establish a competition directly productive of real efficiency entirely through the education of the operating force into a thinking, working, boosting bunch of men. [COPYRIGHTED] U. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE, ANNAPOLIS, MD. NIGHT SCOUTING WITH LISTENING DEVICES All methods of scouting in use to-day rely upon the actual sighting of the enemy ships. This fact makes it practically impossible to scout during night or while in a fog. The chances for a successful search are also considerably reduced by the haze or mist which frequently reduces the visibility to five or even two or three miles. When darkness comes on, when fog is encountered or when the visibility is so decreased by mist that the area between any two ships on the scouting line cannot be covered, not only must the scouting line cease its advance, but it must retire at the assumed speed of the enemy. The fact that we can scout but 12 hours in 24 on the average in itself reduces the efficiency of the search by one-half. In addition to this, heavy fogs are very frequent off the North Atlantic and the Pacific Coasts of the United States, and in the North Atlantic misty weather prevails almost continually. The difficulty of scouting off the North Atlantic Coast was one of the most important facts demonstrated by the fleet maneuvers held in August, 1916; for a period of four days the visibility varied from four to eight miles and efficient scouting operations by the defending force were consequently impossible. A typical search by the out and in method is shown in Fig. 1. At daylight a line of six scouts spaced at 40 miles is in position AF. During the daylight period of 12 hours it advances at the speed of 20 knots a distance of 240 miles to a position A'F'. Then, as scouting during darkness with the vessels spaced at 40 miles is impossible, the line must retire at 10 knots, the assumed speed of the enemy, for 12 hours. By daylight a retirement of 120 miles has been completed and the line is in position A"F". During the entire period of 24 hours only 120 miles have been made good to the front, although 360 miles have been steamed at the average |