The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-01-03
FRENCH WAR CHARIOT
Military Automobile Armed
With Rapid Fire Gun.
OF THIRTY HORSEPOWER


MACHINE OF THIRTY HORSEPOWER
It Leaps bitches and M0ws Down q
Battalion I'm Two Minutes - Runs
Lightly, IL Turreted and Invulner.
able - Twenty Ordered For the
French Army-Has Great Speed In
Attack and Flight.
An armored automobile "galloping'
across broken country, leaping bitches
like a hunting horse. impenetrable to
Lebel bullets and shrapnel, firing its
hidden battery at the rate Of GOO rounds
In sixty seconds, moving down a bat.
TALON Of infantry in two minutes and
wiping out a squadron Of dragons at
q hundred yard range. Such Is the
thing Of terror with which the French
army Is providing itself, says a Paris
correspondent Of the New York Amer
lean and Journal.
This sounds, l know, like the 70.
mances Of Jul late Jules Verne or the
English NJ. Wells, but 1t Is all plain
military fact, as witness these details
which NJ. George Lefevre now makes
public in lie Vie au Grand Air.
An order for twenty Of these war
chariots has been placed by the French
government with a French firm. This
order follows q series Of experiments
conducted with great secrecy on a field
Of. military maneuvers and Of which
NJ. Lefevre was a witness. 10 these
experiments all the heads of the mill
tary departments were invited by card,
and by them the most exacting condi-
lions were imposed on the experiment
tiers.
1t was insisted that in a state Of wal
the automobile artillery would not be
able to use the public highways and
that it must be able to come to the
front across any sort of country, that
1t must be %impervious to infantry fire,
that its interior organs must be ef-
fectively protected, that its crew-driv-
ing and flring-must be "out Of hit"
that its running period must be long
and that its wheels must not be at the
mercy of any destructive agent. All Of
these conditions were met in the most
remarkable fashion.
The war automobile, which is Of thir-
ty horsepower, was seen to be COM
pletely incased in armor, yet 1t al as
lightly as a road machine. Neither the
driver nor m%echanician was visible,
while the crew of the mitrailleuse were
likewise Invisible, being concealed in a
revolving turret.
The first test was n Of speed over
every class Of country, the result being
an average rate Of thirty kilometers an
hour. Next came the test Of the ditch.
es. and Glrardot. one of the construct
ors, accomplished the feat of leaping
into and out Of an excavation ten me-
ters deep and twenty meters wide
without break of speed.
Next came a maneuver directed
against a battalion Of infantry. A
Hotchkiss was installed in the turret,
aud the machine. dashing into the in
fantry, with Its turret swinging to ev-
cry quarter, succeeded In firing 1900
rounds In three minutes. It was the
unanimous opinion Of the military
Judges that not a soldier would have
remained to fight after this discharge.
Next a regiment of dragons was
sent charging into the plain. neither the
crew Of the war chariot nor the com
mander Of the dragons having been
Informed Of the foe to be met. The wal
chariot did not see the dragons unit
they were but 800 meters distant. Then
crashing out a hail of p~rojectiles tina
would have swept half the saddle!
clear, 1t fled across country and wa
out Of danger in a minute.
Next came the test of the war auto
mobiles armor. A company Of infan
try was drawn up. the motor car re
naming a stationary target. At tween
ty to thirty meters the Lebel bullet
penetrated the armor, which Is light
supple and wonderfully resisting. A
fifty meters they remained Embedded 4
the plates. At 100 to 100 meters tn
bullets produced a depression and wer
thrown off.
Lastly the tires We're attacked, an
1t was found that even when pierce
with ten bullets they were serviceabl
for twenty minutes or time enough
get out of danger.
Such Is the g arm, nh artillery
great swiftness in attack and fligh
practically invulnerable and capable !
the hands Of a clever handler Of deli,
ering terrific attacks In various part
Of a field Of battle In IN %exceedingl
short time. 1t is to be hoped that thes
new Internal machines will so add I
the horrible prospects of combat thu
war will soon become an impossibilit,
Corn Raising Contest.