The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1885-07-04
MAN TARGETS.
A New and Novel Piece of Mech
anism.
An Industry at the Arsenal and Armory at
Rock Island,

Rock ISLAND, ILL.,, June GA new in
dustry has been started at the Rock Island
Armory and Arsenal. 1t is the manufac-.
ture of man targets for use in the regular
Army. These targets are made of steel
and as near the form of an averaged-sized
man as can be outlined with steel. They
are made in three positons-upright, at a
front, then in.the position of firing with
arms raised as if holding musket Col
onel Flagler invented the machine that
works the steel to the proper shape. The
steel frame is covered with cloth in such
manner thatat distance etheresemblance of
a man is marked-and what is important,
it can be told just in what part the "man"
is hit-arm, leg, breast, stomach, neck,
shoulder or head. Four hundred of these
steel targets are being made, requiring the
use Of lOS,O00 pounds Of steel. In the tar
get practice they will be placed in squads,
other forms in which soldiers move in the
opening of an engagement. The practice
will commence at a range of two hum
dred and fifty to three hundred
yards, and then be gradually increased
to long distances. The targets will
be sent to military posts at which
such practice can be best carried on. The
only drawback to the effectiveness Of this
practice is;in the fact that the steel-man
targets can not fire back; if they could,
the soldiers who are firing at them might
not be SO expert. In Andrew Jackson's
duel with Dickinson in 1906 ,Jackson's
Dickinson was practicing daily, and could
hit pullet in the head at SO many PAGES
every time" "Does the pullet have pistol
in, his hand to fife 'back?" asked jackson.
"No," was the reply of the astonished
friend. "Then l don't care how much he
practices. And jackson killed Dickinson
in the duel. When the war of the rebellion
opened the best weapon In the world was
the "Springfield musket," whichw effec-
tive for thousand yards, but no soldier
could load and fire that musket once minf
ute even in fight. The soldiers carried
but forty rounds in their cartridge boxes.
Now, think of the difference. The army
musket of to-day can be fired twenty
four times a minute, and is effective
for destruction of life at distance of two
miles. That is the reason why they are
making the man-targets at the
arsenal and armory at Rock Island.
The old style of close work in battle is at
an end, and one can be informed at the ar
senal that artillery shields have become a
necessity fTs the proteQtion Of ganners.
With the effective muskets of the present
day battery would be deprived of it's
men by the sharp shooters of the enemy
as far as they could be seen,
and be unable to do anything
in return, for the old methods of
supporting and protecting battery by in
fantry, keeping back the infantry on the
other side, is at an end. The enemy needn't
be within mile of the battery, and yet
pick off its men with the new weapons and
the use of glasses. So shields of steel,
thick enough to be impervious to bullets
which can be placed before battery of
Gattling guns, or a new steel gun, light
breech loading, but of good range, and
thus protect the gunners from long range
infantry, have become necessity.