The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1910-12-01

to ram another, while the lombard
ment OF such vehicle In flight will
be as difficult a matter as cunning
for birds on the wing with an unwieldy
cannon.
Bomb.Dropping lmpraetleable.
As to the dropping of bombs from
aeroplanes. the recent experiments of
Curtiss along this line are regarded
by military men as having been Of
negative character. Curtiss
marked out an area representing the
deck of battleship. and then at
tempted TO drop imitation bombs
within IL. But observers with the Rus
sian fleet during its engagement with
the Japanese can assure the command
ers OF our future acronautical fleets
that no bombs which an aeroplane
could carry would do more than mako
few harmless dents in a great man
of.war.
The aiming of bomb from safe
height IN the afr involves a calcula.
ton more complicated than any popu-
lar writer on the subject seems ever
to have realized. In the first place
different air strata and cross.wise air
currents are met every hundred feet
or so, as is proved by the fluctuations
OF kite strings leading to considerable
| heights. In addition to being played
upon by these irregular and constant
ly changing forces, the bomb dropped
from an aeroplane will in It's descent
describe a curve depending on the ex-
act velocity at which the aerial craft
| Is going when the missile is thrown.
| Furthermore, altitude, velocity Of tho
| target, velocity of the falling bomb,
wind velocity and direction Of aero
plane-not in single plane, as in tho
case OF n ship. but in any Of all pos
slble directlons-most all be taken
into consideration.
Armored automobiles for attacking
nlrships are now being developed by
the military powers, notably Ger
many, which has adopted motor We.
hicle heavily armored and armed with
high-angle guns for firing at balloons
and aeroplanes. These little land
monitors weigh four tons and attain
speed OF 40 miles on good roads,
but our army officers do not think
they would cut much figure over
rough highways.
An airship field gun which can be
brought to bear In any lateral direc-
ton, and which can be elevated to an
| rn Innraaa bnu haan lntaly
turned out by the Krupps. 1t throws
a shell OF SS pounds. And another
recent Krupp invention for use in
such weapons Is flaring shell, de-
signed TO explode balloons by setting
fire to their gas when striking them.
Such inventions appear to be needed
by nations wishing to protect them.
selves against war balloons.
Hard to Hit AeropIanes.
But our aeroplane feet will be much
more difficult to hit than the dirigible
balloons with which they Will be
operated, not only for tho reasons
above stated, but for additional ones
not hitherto taken into consideration.
M. EsnauIt. Pelterie, French expert.
menter, on several occalions this sum-
mer stood behind his aeroplane while
the propeller was going at full speed
and tried to FIRE shots into the stern
of the craft, but all of them were
thrown aside by the column Of air
thrown back spirally by the rapidly
revolving blades. His experiments
seem to indicate that aeroplane opera.
tors will be immune from rear It
tack by rife or machine gun fire.
The French are now paying $1,000
apiece for Wright biplanes and $1,000
for Farmans, while Blerlots. which
we're $1,000 before their makers sue
cess in crossing the channel. imme-
linteiy afterward jumped to $1,000
and are now bringing $1,000.