Bucknill J.T. Submarine mines and torpedoes, as applied to harbour defence

New York: Wiley, 1889. — 288 p.A specialist ‘how to’ book detailing the methods used to protect vital ports and harbours up to the late 1880s by means of the fast-evolving weapons of submarines, mines and torpedoes. The author, a former Royal Engineers officer, goes into great technical detail on the specifics of mine casings, the quantities of explosives used, electrical mines, and even the personnel best employed to operate the weaponry. The text is well-illustrated by diagrams, plans and maps as well as tables of explosive formulae etc. A ‘must have’ book for all who are interested in the early development of mine and submarine warfare.
Many other authorities have been quoted and are duly acknowledged in the text. My own inventions connected with submarine mining are perhaps noticed too prominently, but it was necessary to illustrate the various and necessary contrivances by some special patterns, and it not unfrequently occurred that I was compelled to describe my own patterns or none at all, the Government gear being treated as secret and confidential. For a similar reason, it being impossible to indicate the defects of our service arrangements with precision, I have been compelled to attack their intricacy in general terms only. On matters connected with the personnel and the purchase of stores, however, it has been possible to go into detail; and if some of the remarks appear to be harsh, my excuse must be that the subjects required it. Minced language is not a desirable form of expression when the writer believes that the efficiency of an important item in National Defence is at stake.