ely thin armor. Besides these guns there were a few ten and
twelve-inch rifles of cast-iron, and hence of unreliable and inferior
material; some old smooth-bore cannon, converted into rifles by
wrought-iron linings; and a number of mortars and pieces of small
calibre, altogether contemptible in the light of the advances made in
the art of war during the last quarter of a century.

Meanwhile the inventors were not idle, and the press fairly teemed with
novel suggestions for the defense of the city. It was proposed to run
all the oil stored in the Williamsburgh refineries into the lower bay,
and set it on fire when the enemy's fleet appeared.

The _Herald_ suggested the raising of a regiment of divers to live in a
submarine fort, the guns of which should be arranged to fire upwards
into a vessel floating above, and immediately offered to contribute
$250,000 to begin the construction of such defenses.

General Newton proposed the building of continuous earthworks on both
shores of the bay and Narrows, behind which a broad-gauge railroad
should be constructed. On the track he placed heavy platform-cars, each
car carrying one heavy gun. Embrasures were made at regular intervals
along the embankment. His idea was, that if a hostile vessel made her
way into the Harbor, the gun-cars should move along behind the
earthworks, keeping abreast of the ship, and thus pour into her a
continuous fire. Measures were promptly taken to follow this plan.

Mr. T.A. Edison announced that he had invented everything which, up to
that time, any one else had suggested. He invited all the reporters to
Menlo Park, and, after elaborately explaining the merits of a new
catarrh remedy, showed some lines on a piece of paper, which, he said,
represented huge electro-magnets, which he proposed to set up along the
coast, say, near Barnegat. When the enemy's iron ships appeared, he
proposed to excite these magnets, and draw the vessels on the rocks.
Somebody said that this notion had been anticipated by one Sindbad the
Sailor, whereupon Mr. Edison denounced that person as a "patent pirate."
He also said that these magnets would be exhibited in working order next
Christmas Eve.

Professor Bell proposed the "induction balance," as a way of recognizing
the approach of the enemy's iron vessels. He went down the Bay with his
instrument, and sent back some telegrams which were alarming, until it
was discovered that the professor had made a slight error in th