MODERN WARFARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13782, 22 June 1908, Page 5

MODERN WARFARE.

ELECTRIC QUICK-FIRERS. 1200 PROJECTILES A MINUTE. NO EXPLOSIVES NEEDED. By Telesraph.— Association.—Copyright. . (Received June 21. 4.40 p.m.) Paris, June 20. The French Government are having a test made with electric quick-firers, the invention of an engineer at Dijon, named Putease. It is claimed that the guns are capable of discharging 1200 projectiles a minute without the aid of explosives. 1 What the ware fa re of the future is going to be it is difficult to foretell. It is only a short time since Colonel Maude lent the great weight of his name to the statement that ail electric gun had been invented with which, it almost appeared possible that London might be bombarded , from Berlin or Paris. So vast would be the destruction of property caused by the new weapon that Colonel Maude, aghast as he well might be ; asked whether science was not about to make war impossible. In an article in the Contemporary he states that the tone of much of the correspondence he has received has led him "reluctantly to the conclusion that hopes for the coming of the millennium were premature, and that many ages of bloodshed and strife will probably intervene before the spirit of contradiction from which ultimately all wars arise is sufficiently laid to afford prospect of a reign of settled peace." But lie persists in his main contention, apparently indicating the commencement of a new era destined to revolutionise war and concurrently finance. The immediate and practical value of the new weapon lies far less in the possibilities of extreme velocities and ranges than in its extraordinary adaptability to all the circumstances of war, whether on sea or land, as they may arise. Unlike the ordinary high'velocity gun of the present day, the trajectory of which can only be modified by alterations in the weight of the charge not usually undertaken in the field, the control of the new weapon is so complete that it can deliver its projectiles at any required velocity from, say, lOOf.s. up to its extreme power, which, as I have said, may, reach 60,000 degrees; nor is it confined to the use of projectiles of fixed weight for each type of gun: but it can throw shells of any weight most convenient for the purpose of the moment, and can be made so light in proportion to r its power that it may be looked upon as capable of fulfilling in one single form all the functions of mountain artillery, howitzers, and field artillery, whilst the source of the power necessary for its use can be packed like an ordinary ammunition waggon, and the power itself can be transmitted through field cables to any reasonable distances."