MASSACRE AS A FINE ART.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12430, 22 January 1915, Page 2

MASSACRE AS A FINE ART.

THK GERMAN SCIENTIST IX WARFARE. EXTRAORDINARY SERIES OF APPLIANCES.

(By J. W. Hicks, F.R.A.S.)

The chagrin which the German feels at the non-success of his deep-laid plans must be doubly mortifying when he considers that included in his war equipment are the pick of the latest armament devices. His superiority in the matter of heavy field and siege ordnance lias been the subject of much comment, but there are numerous other directions in which the thorough and up-to-date nature of tlie German preparation for conquest is all too Every battery of German artillerv is provided with a wonderful stereo-tele-scope, the production of the well-known Jena firm of 'Zeiss. This, remarkable instrument can be used" from behind cover, and cannot be seen by the enemy. The outstanding feature of this telescope lies in its two slender arms, which may bo likened to the antenna; of an insect. ■ The onerator can make accurate observations of the range of the_ enemy while safely hidden behind a tree or a haystack. 'All that- is necessary is that the ends of the two slender telescope arms, which may lie moved 1!1 any direction, shall be allowed an uninterrupted'view. ' . Another novelty in -sights is llse d 111 directing-gun-fire." When a shell is fired, the rifling of the pun causes it. to deviate from the in which it is discharged. This new .sight automatically allows for this deviation when the .gun' is elevated, thus saving tlietime needed for a second operation. FUSES AND AIR BOMBS.

Krupp has produced what' is claimed . to be a successful clockwork fuse 20 per cent, more accurate than those irenerallv employed. Fuses are used Vvith shrapnel shell, which they serve to explode, and thus scatter the shrapnel bullets at the proper moment. -It the enemy is. at a-range, of. 6000. yards, for instance, it is necessary to burst a shrapnel shell at about 200 yards short of this. Fired from a modern fieldgun, the shell takes less than a second to cover this 200 yai'ds. -. .■ • If the shell bursts beyond the desnea. 1 ran»e .'the bullets' spread harmlessly over the'ground to the rear' of-the'enemy, and if it bursts short, the bullets «ul probably have so small p, striking enas to do little or no damage, the'claims of the Essen firm can be substantiated, it has been -successful m making a distinct improvement in fuses. In a matter of bombs, and appliances for bomb-dropping, we are we.l aware that the German has been tar t'rcm idle. . A bomb which is to be used for attacking dirigible balloons is made in th? form of a torpedo. "■ Attached by a wire to the tail end of this bomb is a wooden cross. When the bomb penetrates the balloon fabric the cross is arrested, am. the consequent pull on thp wire, served to operate a fuse to burst the shell ana destroy l the dirigible. AIRCRAFT DESTROYERS.

A second device for destroying airships consists of a shell with a very sensitive nose-fuse. On striking tm! fabric sulphuric acid and. explosives are released. Still another anti-airslup shell has a holloiv rear part containing a wire rope, to which a number ot' boons are attached. When firedi the rear part of ths shell becomes detached, and the hooks serve to tear the balloon if it should ba hit. ■ , . , Accurate bomb dropping from aeroplanes is a matter of extreme difficulty, it might ai first appear that a bomb thus dropped would (".11 vertically downwards.. This is far from being the case. The bomb leaves the aeroplane with a forward velocity equal to the speed, of the aeroplane, and so its path to the earth is considerably curved.. For instance, a bomb dropped from an aeroplane living at sixty miles an hour, at a height of 3000 feet', would fall at a horizontal distance -U)0 vards away. The ingenious German device to adjust tli.s" -i . mini or an engineer named Bendemanns. His applianceconsists of ail r.ir-gun, suppled with compressed air, which pushes the bomb out from the'back of the aeroplane with the same velocity as that at which the aeroplane is travelling. The two .velocities thus neutralise one another, and the bomb is made to fall exactly at the spot over which the aviator is flying. INGJ"].\M()US DEVICES.

The German is not content with hand signals.irom aeroplanes engaged in reconnaissance operations. Many of his aeroplanes are fitted with wireless installations.. ■ Although the apparatus used is necessary sma'ii, the .instruments are reported to bo capable of transmitting messages infm a "distance of thirty miles. A cruder form of signalling' adopted is by means of puffs of powdeerd chalk or soot. The means of signalling in this way is through the engine exhaust, and it is said to be a quite efficacious method. By employing. a new metal in the. construction of gun-shields, the German is enabled to give his gunner additional projection. A compound shield, made of steel backed with a lighter metal known as 'duralumin," is found to be capable of resisting the penetration of bullets better than a shield made entirely of steel, which is generally used. For the same protection as is given by an all-steel shield a shield made of a combination of the two metals would only have three-quarters the weight of the former. Krupp's illuminating projectile has already been heard of in the field. T!m consists of a. shell containing two illuminating bodies provided with parachutes. A bursting charge in the center cf the shell serves to expel the parachutes as desired to illuminate the field of operations; Magnesium enters into the composition or the illuminant. ...... A night-sight for rifles is the invention of a German doctor. Tim arrangement consists of a lit Lie electric lamp fitted in a box at the muzzle-end of the rifle-barrel. The light from the lamp serves to illuminate a : white plate, against which the back-sirdit of the rifle 'is silhouetted, and by this means correct elevation can bo "cured by th ; infantryman when engaging an enemy in the dark. This synopsis by no means exhausts the rew and ingenious devices which the German has produced to enable -hini tj? wage his world-war., but it will be sufficient, perhaps, to indicate that the present conflict has occupied the ,attention of German war scientists for several years past, and that manv minds hvae been at work .in order to secure a German victory.