Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-03
MILITARY SCIENCE.

III seems to be the general opinion among
united States army officers that the devel.
opment OF military science in the immedi.
ate future Will be in the direction of sim.
pllhed Notifications, greater utilization OF
the bicycle and the extended use of some
form of automatic gun. The modern army
engineer sees little use in raising great
mounds or earth such as used to be done
when hasty and even permanent works
were needed. The bigger the earthwork the
greater the mark for the enemy's guns A
hole in the ground has been The theoretical
formula for fort building and now that we
possess field pieces with disappearing car
riages 1t can be practically carried out A
gun that is capable of rising out of an in
nocent looking hole. pouring forth great
volleys of death-dealing bullets and then
sinking out of sight, leaving hardly a trace
OF its presence and certainly nothing to fire
at is certainly formidable enough to invest
the new theory with all needful logic 1t
would be to an enemy what the hollow road
near Waterloo was to the cuirrassers of
Napoleon.
In his last report, General Miles recon-
mcnded the greater use- Of the bicycle for
military purposes. He even intimated the
desirability of establishing a completely
equipped bicycle corps. This has been
openly discussed at Governors Island and
Is accepted there as his opinion of the most
probable advance of the near future So
far, bicycles have been used in the army
for orderly or despatch duty. A much sim
pier form OF wheel will have to be
adopted, however, before bicycling be-
comes factor in army life. The present
diamond frame machine is, despite it's light
ness, much too cumbersome. Captain Gerard
has overcome the difficulty in France by
inventing a special form of folding bicycle
1t has proved to be well adapted for general
use. Twenty-Five men of the Eighty
seventh infantry recently made a successful
tour of 1,2OO miles on it. each man getting
off his wheel and carrying it on his back over
rough places, 300 separate times during
the Journey
The rifle of the future will be the auto
matte rifle. This is the conclusion of mill
tary men not only of this but OF other
countries. General Willie, n German army
expert on the subject OF fire arms says
decisively that it will ultimately be the
rifle in general use by the armies of the
world. Its particular point of merit is it's
capacity for doing away with the mechanical
operation of loading. In effect it does it's
own loading, leaving the soldier free to
attend to the business of firing, thus con-
centrating his attention on his opponent and
rendering his aim surer. AS pointed out
by General Willie the force of the reCoil of
the automatic gun is employed for charg-
ing and closing the breech and the firer
has only to let off the shot in order to again
load the weapon, so that the number of
shots discharged without an effort is pre-
clsely the same as the total contents of the
magazine. The only comparatively weak
part of the automatic gun lies in its springs
but as they have been found after tests made
in Austria to withstand the wear and tear
of from 10000 to 14,000 discharges, this
does not count for much.
THEODORE WATERS