What the Spanish-American War taught naval designers

How did the Spanish-American War influence rangefinders and naval fire control?

Less directly than expected; its battles emphasized mobility and secondary batteries, while fire-control ideas were already developing from other experience.

The Spanish-American War's close-range battles did less to drive rangefinding than the question assumes. Fire-control development belonged to a longer line reaching back to Lissa and contemporary gunnery thinking. The 1898 war instead made a stronger impression through strategic mobility and secondary armament. The discussion then turns to Dreadnought's requirement for six guns firing ahead to support ranging during a chase, which helps explain the historical wing-turret arrangement. A hypothetical alternative with superfiring triple 14-inch turrets becomes a separate design argument about how Britain might have set a much higher entry standard for rival dreadnought programs.