The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-08
BICYCLES AND BALLOONS in WAR.
Wheels Used in Practice Maneuvres-
ShrapneI the Enemy of'Atr Ships.

Shrapnel the Enemy of Air Ships.
Washington, Sept. "a jaunt Of
thousand miles through the Rocky
Mountains, LATELY arranged for the bioy-
ole corps of the Twenty fifth Infantry. is
an Illustration of the hold that wheeling
has taken upon the army. Itssssis clear,
too. that in various countries the impress
sion grows that this form of looomotlon
is TO be invaluable. not merely as an ex-
ercise but for actual campaigning against
an enemy. In the programme for the
German manoeuvres this autumn in
Silesia appears list of experiments to
determine whether cyclist infantry can
seize aud hold an important strategic
point, keeping up oommuni cation as they
advance.
In foreign countries attention is given
to French portable military bicycle
which can be taken apart in thirty SEQ
,onds for carrying on the soldiers back,
and even put together again in time as
short. The performance recalls one of
Punch's old pictures of very tall caval-
ryman with very small mount. who
mends matters by footing it, with the
nag under his arm. The portable wheel,
however, Is no Jest, but an important
fact. which makes clear that where the
mnn can go and the horse cannot, nor
even the man astride his wheel, he may
still advance with the latter on his back,
and lose practically no time in getting it
there. For despatch carrying. pressing
forward to seize important points, get
ting on the flank of an enemy and open
ing IRE there, moving in support of a
Held battery that Is going ahead at gal
lop, pursuing a4retreating enemy, and,
finally moving rapidly to the threatened
part of Qualifications, the Importance of
the wheel is not likely to be overestImst-
ed.
The usesof balloons In military opera
tions far antedates that of bicycles, and
has been familiar for generations in actual
war. They were employed in our civil
war for Reconnaissance on the Peninsula
in 1869, and. in fact, were so used By
5ourdan over century ago, at the battle
of FleuruS in 1884 In the French revo-
luton all the republican armies were sup
piled with balloons, and one OF these at
tracted the enemy's fire at the seige OF
Germans in 1870 Is the kstandard illus
tration Of the importanoeAof balloons in
carrying both dispatches and persons
from within invested CITY beyond the
Investing lines.
The construction of great balloon at
Fort Logan with which experiments are
10 DO made revives the interest in this
subieot for our army. At sMendon, in
France, many such experiments have
bsen made by Capt. Renard and others,
while those in England. at Lydd, have
been in the direction. ofIattacking.balloon
with artillery fire. Our Ordnance De-
partmcnt was interested some years ago
In otr fod kx,G
which proposed a pneumatic motive ap-
parasus instead of the electrical one used
by Renard. Years ago eanh CORDS of the
modern French army was supplied with
. captive balloon go uipped with steam
MINDLESS One military use proposed
for balloons has been that of dropping
dynamite or other high explosives from
them upon. the enemy beneath !, whether
his city, his fort, orshis army, and year
age there was talk of such balloon
bsing constructed at Hartford for the
Cubans.
As to the methods of destroying hostile
balloons. exeriments many years ago at
Dangeness and Lydd indicated that
Ehrepnel furnished the best modes of at
tack, within the range of the gun or
howitzer firing it. Some recent exeri-
ments in Russia, Germany, and Aus
tria. taken together, showed that thirty
shYapnel shells fired as q Balloon not
two miles from the firing ground. sue.
ceded In putting twenty five ballssthrough
It,; that twenty-six such shells made
twenty holes In balloon $50 feet high
and somewhat over three miles away
finally, that when the balloon was about
mile high and about three and GUAR.
ter miles awey from the firing ground,
two balls out OF sixty five shells and
three out OF eighty struck it; these
shel Is beingsfrom battery ofseight guns
she balloon. 1t is noted that the eighty
shells represented about 1000 balls, be-
sides pieces of the broken shells. 1t
should be said, however, that the wind
lass was used constantly to change the
position OF the balloon, SO that the gun
ners had to alter their aim
These results Indicate about what ele-
Walton captive balloon must attain in
order to be tolerably safe from dangerous
damage by an eneny's fire. Butnreaching
this safe height and distance from the
enemy decreases thu value OF observa-
tions. and Ii Is found also, In practice.
that the angle Of observation leads to
error In estimates of forces. OF course.
also, there is the great difficulty of using
optical instruments in swaying balloon
but altogether there seems to be a
valuable residue of benefits to be derived
from the balloon, in PLACES where it's uss
is practicable, so that armies will un-
doubtediy continue to avail themselves of
it. while the expert nents to be made in
our own service will be Of interest.
Sir Joseph Archer Crow the Dotad Eno