The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-10-06
GERMAN WRITER DESCRIBES
THEIR GIGANTIC ARTILLERY
French and Belgian Forts Built With Idea That
Guns Could Be Made No Stronger But Ger
man Science Gives Surprise--36 Horses to
Pull One Gun.

time. Genera BrlalmOnt ana the
French military engineers, it is said,
made the mistake of taking it for
granted that the 81 centimetre gun
of the Germans. n their own armies,
were the last work in armament, hav-
ing accepted hat the steel they were
familiar with could not stand a
greater chamber-pressure. That a
heavier piece woul give more pene-
tration than they calculated in their
plans, they are said to have known,
but they accepted hat it would be
impossible to transport such giants.
In view of the fact that ever SO horses
have difficulty moving one Of the Ger
man 42's, this conclusion vas reason
able enough, explained a Dutch artil-
lery officer, but neither General Brial-
mont nor the French engineers could
fOreSee that motor traction would
make such tremendous progress since
the forts they built were planned.
Horses Haul Big Guns.
That the Germans and Austrians
have moved their 42's and 35's. re-
spectively, by horses is a fact. But
this seems to have been done in the
rain where the roads permitted Of no
other course. Invariably they are
moved by powerful traction engines.
which N addition to the piece itself,
pull from three to -four caissons. Re-
Gently a type of traction engine, known
as caterpillar" has been observed,
for use on bad roads and across
Flowed fields. In addition both the
German and Austrian heavy pieces
are mounted on a carriage, the wheels
of which are fitted with f1anges for
use on the railroads. Whether or not
this latter device has been suggested
by the war cannot be said, but a few
day & several heavy German bat
ter1eS were taken in this manner over
the Belgian railroads, the road trac-
tor running on the rails also. Ordi-
nary railroad cars trailing behind the
caissons carried the personnel OF the
batteries.
German Explosive Secret
What sort Of explosive the Ger
is still a mystery. French officers Of
forts bombarded by the Germans
maintain hat the charge Of the pro-
~jectiles is melinite, but others have
expressed the opinion that the ex-
plosive is something entirely new and
that the gases formed by it have
been greater expansion han those
Of nitroglycerine, the strongest high
explosive known. There is no doubt
that the vapors Of the explosive have
a violent toxic effect and nothing but
a strong application of oxygen will
revive those succumbing to them.
The German AZ is made with two
barrels-a long one for fiat range fire
and a short one for high-angle fire. Ir
the former the ballistic charge is
necessarily much stronger, and with
a projectile weighing from 16, 900 tt
!, $4,000 pounds the pressure exerted by
: the explosion upon the chamber wall,
cannot be less than $50 tons to tn,
!, square inch, it is said. The high
| angle for mortar AZ requires smalle.
!, prOpelling charge. The long-barrellet
gun is used against the faces Offered
by Notifications, while the morta:
! drops it's shells from a high elevation
into the fort or redoubt. Their sigh
ranges are said to be, respectively
4 eight and five kilometres, while &C
: cording to the K%oelnische Zeitung tn
flight Of the shell exceeds twelve an
. ten kilometres. The flight of bot
: shells is attended by a number Q
interesting aerial phenomena, whic
so far have been merely limited at b
German experts. One of them, how
ever, is that the gases of the cham
h Der explosion travel ahead of the pre-
jectile for a long distance, but tina
in the end they are left behind b
the shell, first the one and then tn
# other having the greater speed, an in
# diCatiOn, it is seriously maintained
v that the u created by the case
tend to not only support the flight {
# the huge mass of steel charge, bl
II IIdI lucy dCtudlIy accelerate II. II
about 1000 meters the shell leave
" the company of the gases. Odd as
:: must seem the Photographic exper
ments demonstrating this were mac
= by a German ordnance expert durin
is the b~ombardment Of Namur. Such
~ least is the claim Of the German pres
which treats the results obtained vel
~ guardedly.
Sc American Sight Good.
is 1t is of interest to learn that tt
German AZ and the Austrian 35 al
sighted or trained by means of what
N known as the Morris tube, an Amer
De can invention used in fnstructic
Id practice in the United States nav
ad The tube in question lies along IL
barrel and fires a one-pound she'll
IS. weight and charge being in exact pr
he portions to the weight of the probe
It. tile and capacity of charge of IL
nd ! main barrel. A trail OF smoke shoy