The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-10 00:00:00

NEW WEAPONS FOR WAR'

In the recent great sortie made by the French frcm
Paris, General Ducrot brought into action one of those
new engines of destruction to the invention of whizth
the present war has given so great an impetus (rerinrki
the Pall Mall Gault). This is an armour-plated
locimotive, furnished with two powerful mitrailleurs,
alro protected by armour, and originally intended for
the railway bridge at Point du Jour, whence it was
to throw bullets on to the heights of Sleudon. This
novel machine, wlich weighs altogether only some six
tons, has been manufactured at Call's, the well-known
mechanical engineer of Paris, to whine establishment
the city is so much indebted for the extraordinary
efforts that have been made to supply it with cannon
and other means of defence.
. . . . _

The Praseisn invaidon baa certainly contributed a
great d-al to develop the inventive talents of the French;
for hal dly a day passes without some new implement of
destruction being it.ibinitted to the Government of
National Defence. Under the spur of defeat they
have produced the Marek,lerberg mitrailleur, tiring 256
balls a minute, and the Montigny, firing 480, as wet
as the Daront steam mitrailleur, which discharges no
less than 4,500 in the same space of time, and the
'Faucheu.e " or mower, which is said t, operate with-
out noise, smoke, or fire, to have a range of from 500
to 600 yards, and to cost only 35 f., with all the neces-
sary apparatus for &Inc 300,060 prcjectiles ; so that if
every bullet really hail its billet, the French by em-
ploying this weapon might rid themselves of the whole
of their enemies for something less than 100 f.
In addition to the above, many novel descriptions
of shells have also been proposed, if not actually tried,
among which are the Gaudin tire-bomb, the improved
Meneetrol shell, bombs emitting suffocating vapours,
nd no on.

_
But a recent number of the Gauloia gives an account
of a new projectile far surpaaaing anything yet heard
of for its murderoun eilecta, which, indeed, would seem
to be of co terrible a character that the dreaded Greek
fire must have been child's play compared with it. It
is a rocket, costing little to manufacture and easy to
tire, and is said to have a range of three or four
nide* Exi:eriments with it, conducted by a
Cdmmission consisting of engineer and artillery
officers and profeesors of the Gmservatorie cite Arts
et M(tiers, have given, we are told, the most satis
factory reaulta so far as the destructive properties of
the new projectile are concerned. During one of the
trials, a rocket was fired against a large iron tank filled
with water, causing the liquid to boil over and run
along the ground in a sheet of fire. A violent deton-
ation rent the air, the tank and its supports were
thrown skywards and deacended again, broken into
small fragments. Luckily for the Prussians, and per-
haps for the French too, the Commission were so over.
come, so the Gautois sit) r, by the results of this experi-
ment that they hesitate to recommend the addptidii of
such a terrible weapon for fear ef placing France with
out the ban of civil zed nations.