The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1914-10-11

motor traction would make such ire
mendous progress since the forts thew
built were planned.
lhat the Germans have moved their
42's and 35s, respectively. by horses
is fact. But this seems to have been
done in terrain where the roads per
mitted Of no other course. Invariably
| they are moved by large traction en-
gines, which in addition to the piece
Itself pull from three to four caissons.
Recently a type of traction engine,
known as 'caterpillar,' has been OBJ
served for use on bad roads and
across plowed fields. In addition both
the German and Austrian heavy pieces
are mounted on a carriage, the wheels
of which are fitted with flanges for
use on the railroads Whether or not
this latter device has been suggested
by the war cannot be said, but a few
days ago several heavy German bat
teries were taken in this manner over
the Belgian railroads, the road tractor
railroad cars trailing behind the Gals
sons carried the personnel of the bat
teries
What sort of explosive the Germans
use in the 42-centimetre shells is still
mystery. French officers of forts
bombarded by the Germans maintain
that the charge of the projectile is
meli1ite, but others have expressed
the opinion THAT the explosive is some
thing entirely new and that the gases
formed by it have even greater ex-
pansion than those of tro-glyceri1e,
the strongest high explosive known.
There is no doubt that the vapors of
the explosive have a violent toxic ef-
feet and nothing but strong appIica-
ton of oxygen will revive those sue
cumbing to them.
The German AZ is made with two
barrels-a long one for flat range
fire, and a short one for high-angle
fire. In the former the ballistic
charge is necessarily much stronger,
and with a projectile weighing from
1000 TO 1900 pounds the pressure ex.
erted by the eXpiosiOl upon the cham
Der walls cannot be less than 1870
tons to the square inch it is said.
The high-angle mortar AZ requires a
slightly smaller propelling charge.
The long barrelled gun is used against
the faces offered by Notifications,
Al
from high elevation into the fort or
redoubt. Their sight ranges are said
to be respectively, and 5 kilometres,
while according to the Koelnische
Zeitung the flight of the shell exceeds
twelve and ten kilometres. The flight
of bOtn shells Is attended by a num-
Der of interesting aeriai phenomena,
which SO far have been merely limited
at by German experts. One of them,
however, is that the gasses of the
chamber explosion travel ahead of the
projectile for a long distance, but that
in the end they are left behind by the
shell, first the one and then the 9th
er having the greater speed, an indi-
the vacuum created by the gases tend
to not only support the flight of the
huge mass of steel charge, but tina,
they actually accelerate it. At about
2000 metres the shell leaves the com
pany of the gases. Odd as it must
seem the Photographic experiments
demonstrating this We're made by n
German ordnance expert during the
bombardment of Namur. Such at
least, is the claim of the German press
which treats the results obtained very
guardedly.
1t is of interest to learn that the
German AZ and the Austrian 35 are
sighted or trained by means of what
is known as the Morris tube, an Amer
lean invention used in instruction
practice in the United States navy.
The tube in question lies along the
barrel and fires a oae-pound shell
weight and charge being in exact pro
portions to the weight of the proiec-
tile and capacity of charge of the main
barrel A trail of smoke shows the
path of the one-pound shell and so es-
tablishes more or less accurately
what the trajectory course of the
16OO-lb. projectile will be. When the
piece has been "shot in" by means OF
the tube the actual charge is fired with
what results Liege, Namur, Givet, Ma
nonvllers, Longwy and Montmely will
attest
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