Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-28

rushing along at full speed the Colt was
fired with sucn precision of aim that an en-
envy who would have faced 1t at a distance
of 800 yards would have been cut down
platoon after platoon. If care he exercised
In aiming ii. he gun will carry with effect
at range of almost one mile
The Automobile and Bicycle Squad
To see the automobile and bicycle squad
of the Illinois guard operating Jointly is an
interesting example of the possibilities of
the new era of military science. To see the
cyclists ride over corn hills and jump their
wheels over tree branches and stumps half
loot nigh is not more surprising than to
witness the Hghtning-like rapidly with
when the automobile gun squad will by
means of their special tools, demolish a
fence and rebuild it after the automobile
battery has passed through. There is even
an ambulance corps attached. composed
OF several of the strongest wheelmen, who
have been trained by long practice to carry
wounded soldier off on their backs while
mounted on their wheels quite as easily as
the ordinary expressman transfers sack
of flour.
The Famous Bicycle Trip.
The service which the present pilgrim
age to Washington is expected to perform
in demonstrating the value of the automo-
bile as an adjunct of warfare was accom-
plished in similar degree for the bicycle
by the trip of the bicycle corps of the
Northwestern Military Academy, under the
command of Maj. Davidson from Chicago
to Washington in the summer of 1897 when
a message was carried from Maj. Gen. ]. R.
Brooke to Secretary of War r. A. Ager
The trip of over $50 miles Of billy and
mountainous country and 500 miles of level
and rolling roads was made in fifteen days
and five hours The actual running time
was fourteen days and five hours, making
an average of nearly ffty-nine miles per
day
,-;,1.
service in all kinds of weather together
with the fact that each bicycle weighed
about twenty-four pounds the men ar
rived in Washington in better condition
than when the start was made, there hav-
ing been an average gain of one and one
half pounds in the weight of each rider.
The tents used on this first trip to the
national capital were made that they
could be erected between the wheels, using
the wheels tent posts. and the cooking
utensils were made entirely of aluminium
as are those in use on the trip now in
progress The present trip is in a measure
supplementary to the one made three years
ago. One of the principal objects of that
expedition was to ascertain whether it was
necessary to have wheel built expressly
for military purposes if it was to be sub
jected to hard usage, and one of the in
veStigations of especial value on the jaunt
now in progress will be the determination
of the qualifications necessary to fit an
automobile bile battery for service in the
field and also on the march.
Upon the arrival of the auto battery in
Washington Major Davidson will give eX-
hihitionS before the ordnance board of the
War Department. and 1t is possible that
the outcome of this object lesson will be an
adoption of the automobile as a gun plat
form for flying batteries in the United
States army. Thus far the only automo-
bes in the service of the War Department
those purchased some time ago by
the signal service and sent to Fort Myer.
These are destined. however, simply for
the conveyance of the officers and equip