So They Become Targets.

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 69

So They Become Targets.

Searchlights are, of course, of great use in both land and sea warfare. Troops thus keep an eye on the enemy at night- time, and cruising squadrons in this way spy upon the rival fleet.

Naturally enough, however, when a battleship turns her searchlight on the foe she at once reveals her own position, and becomes a target for the armour-piercing projectiles of her antagonists. Now comes along an inventor who will light up the enemy's fleet without the ships being able by the illumination given to lo-

cate their adversary. This is done by means of acetylene gas. A specially made shell is filled with calcium carbide and fired in the direction in which the enemy's fleet is supposed to be. When the shell sinks beneath the waves it rises again and floats. Through small holes provided the water has entered, and this, acting upon the carbide, makes-the gas. An automatic electrical arrangement lights the burner, and then the flame burns away brilliantly, water failing' to extinguish it. As you see in the little sketch, the sea is lit up for a considerable distance around, and, out of the darkness, big shells soon begin to drop within the area of light.