The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-13
ISrREScHISe rooLs FOR ARMY.
Some Foreign Implements Described and the Tests Being Made by Our War De- partment.

tests With aluminium equipment have
 resulted so successfully. 1t now appears
 that our infantry soldiers will be able
 to carry intrenching tools similar to
 those used in foreign armies and yet
 maintain q reduction in the weight of
 their present outfit. The designing of
 an implement which will be useful to
 the soldier in the formation of nasty en-
 trenchments. but which will not add
 materially to the weight of his present
 paraphernalia, has long been the ambi-
 ton of those whose duty 1t Is to pre-
 scribe changes in our military furnish
 ings. At the present outlook every
 soldier may be furnished with a light tool to be not only reserved for actual campaigning, but which will always be a convenience about camp, to the reg ulars and militiamen alike. for chop- ping wood, pitching tents and the va rious other emergencies which contin- ually present themselves. especially at the more unsettled posts.
 An illustrated report has lately come from Europe describing the entrench- ing implements used in the leading ar. mics of the old world. According to a foreign report, the French infantry has an instrument which may be used eith- CT as spade, hatchet or a saw. This Is paddle-shaped, measuring twenty Inches in length and weighing only one and one-third pounds. One side of the blade of the spade is ground to sharp edge and the other is filed into saw teeth. The metal Is thick enough bod fly for chopping the heavy trunks of trees. Each French infantry company carries thirty-two of these spades, be- sides eight picks, three hatchets, four miners picks and jointed saw, the Alpine soldiers also being furnished with bill-hooks which resemble butch ers' cleavers hooked slightly at the end and used for chopping small branches. The picks and hatchets are similar in style to those used by our la borers, although the heavier of them weigh but a little over a pound and a half. These utensils are supplied with leather cases and are strapped to the knapsacks of the soldiers to whose lot 1t falls to carry them. Each of the six teen squads comprising French com pany is furnished two spades and eith- CT a miners pick, a hatchet or jointed saw, carried by the men in turn. The jointed saw when unfolded is over four feet long, and instead of having han dles is made with a ring at either end and through which stick of wood may be passed. This replaces the long, lumbersome cross-saw used for cutting heavy pieces of timber preferred in the manufacture of Notifications. The French propose to make their in trencfrfng tools even lighter by the use of hollow aluminium for handles in- stead of wood.
 The English have adopted two very novel combinations, one in the form of a shovel and pick and the other of a pick and hatchet. In the former the pick is supplied by the T-shaped ham, dle, the whole measuring only two feet in length and weighing less than three pounds. These are carried in skeleton leather cases at the waists of the men, with their handles uppermost that they may not interfere with the marching. They are carried alternately by half of the men.
 The Germans have not yet seen fit to make combination implements, but each-F company carries one hundred spades, ten picks and five hatchets. The spades are similar in general form to the French spade-saw hatchet, being short and .paddle-shaped. The hatchet is like our ordinary carpenters hatch ct, but the pick is heavier than that used in France. The foot soldiers car- ry their intrenching implements at their waists with the handles down. Similar tools are used in all of the well organized European armies. In the Italian infantry several men of each battalion are especially detailed as pi- oneers to carry the tools, their arms and other equipment being made light CT. Each front rank man of the Aus trian army carries a small spade, the only fertilization, implement used in that country while the Belgian outfit includes spades, picks, hatchets, bill hooks and even hand-saws. Eighty light spades and twenty light hatchets are distributed in a Russian company, each soldier carrying his implement at his waist. The Spanish engineer SOL diers are furnished only with large spades, which are strapped diagonally across their backs.
 Although this report furnishes in teresting study for those who are de- signing improvements here. it however suggests but few points which have not already been conceived by the inven- tive brain of the American, while it shows by comparison that that organ has run in deeper channels than any of foreign growth. Most of the instru- ments submitted to the ordnance bureau have been invented by some of our army officers. who well understand their use. Before being considered by the bureau they are sent out into the field for practical test, to be reported by the soldiers who actually use them. One of the staff officers of the war de- partment has submitted combina- tion, spade-hatchet, similar to that of the French, without the saving attach ment. Another design is in the shape of 8 pickax, whose blade folds over, forming a spade. A combination cam teen and spade is also among the nu- merous inventions sent in for trial. These are all found to have their vir-