AN EYE FOR TANKS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10377, 7 April 1927, Page 7

AN EYE FOR TANKS.

ADVANCE IN MECHANICAL WARFARE.

Scientists are experimenting with an invention described as “the greatest step in mechancal warfare taken past the purely experimental stage.” -It is a device termed the “eye” to be attached to the mechanism of a j tank to indicate the position of the ‘ machine on a scale map of the territory it is traversing. ! Every turn in the machine’s course is indicated instantly by a' change in j the line drawn by a stylus pen across : the face of the map as the tank I moves. To reach a given spot it is only necessary to drive the machine . so that the line drawn by the stylus I crosses that spot on the map. It I makes the driver of the tank almost independent of vision. The apparatus is controlled by a gvroseopic compass mounted on the rear of the tank. The stylus is geared to the mechanism of the machine so that its rate, of travel across the map coincides with the rate of travel of the tank across it. With the device in place the oper ator of the tank can be armoured completely against anything but artillery fire, and he can then drive his machine through mist, darkness, poison gas, or rain and hail without ever having to expose himself in the slightest to take bearings, or even . to see the ground which he is traversing. _