Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-10-16
THE WONDER OF THE AGE

10 die IN their trenches, standing bold
upright and still holding their rifles
IN firing attitude" remarked Lon
don paper the other day, and another
correspondent quotes an American
member of the Crois Rouge us having
seen "thc German trenches ms the
French guns had left them, but with
dead IN such posture as the world
has never seen since the DESTROYING
angels passed over the Phillistine
camp in that avenging night of Scrip-
ture, u silent company of ghosts"
But there is no secret about what
is now an open secret, says the New
York Herald. "Turpinite," the latest
French "hell-producer," is the inyen-
ton of NJ. Turpin, the parent" in
ventor of melinite and lyddite, which
latter Is merely so named because tho
hrst experiments were made in
Lydd, in Kent, in presence of the
French inventor. How far this tur-
pinite has been or is being used by
the French artillery is not known.
and may not be exactly known till
after the war, but one of the salient
FEATURES of this novel terror is thnt
lat canot be fired from an ordinary
Held gun, and for its use guns of par
ticular and difficult construction are
required. The handling of these guns
is at present confined to specialists.
Had the successful experiments car
ricd out ut Chalons-sur- Marine taken
place earlier, the result of this war
in so far MS its primary stages were
concerned, might well have been diff
| fcrcnt.
So lethal in its effect is the new
shell on explosion that should it's use
become widespread whole armies
| indeed, entire nations, would be com
plctcly cNtcrminatcd in the course of
few weeks
Nj. Turpin is not only remarkable
man, he is also man who for many
years long nursed II serious prudrc
and who considered that he had been
deeply wronged in connection with
the discovery of his previous invcn-
tons melmite and lydditc. lie be
came restful and suspicious, and de
termined to discover some new cxplo-
slvc that would completely throw into
the shade his previous discoveries.
which had been improved" by
French tcchnicinns.
For ye airs he worked in his quiet
country home, some twenty miles from
Paris, and II is not long since the
Frcnc government made him the
"amcndc honorable" This Modified
him considerably, and he offered his
new discovery to his coutry; but
France had for years been cutting
down her military expenditure,
while Germany had been steadily in
crcasing hers. In such circum-
stances there was little money to
spend on experiments with explo-
sives, and the outbreak of war found
France not ncarl 30 prepared with
artillery in munitions, in reserve
forces as was Germany.
M. Turpin, however, used ms he was
to war Office representations, had
had II special gun and shells made
ION his own" and conducted expert
ments on the Atlantic coast before
carefully selected and invited GERS.
A man who witnessed one of these
earl demonstrations of the possibili-
S'No va Abi DiiiNt W lflc DullN
Express n description of its terrible
effects:
"On stretch of sand 500 yards from
high water level II temporary sheep
fold had been erected, about 400
wooden hurdles. In this space were
some dozen sheep and couple of
aged and worn out horses.
Soma or thn horqnge unq contnuI nll,,
munching away at some hay i'm II
trough, the other was rubbing him
self against one of the hurdles, while
the sheep were huddlcd together in
| one corner.
"This was what ! saw through my
glasses when, from behind ridge
! some $500 yards away, there came n
sharp, loud thud and the shrieking
sound of small shell, just as if
! somebody had taken piece of silk
and rapidly torn it in two. 1t was
the same tearing sound, only louder.
There was an explosion in the
open space in the middle Of the i'm
proviscd sheep pen. The sheep were
still all muddled in n corner some
distance Off, one of the horscse was
apparently leaning up against the
railing, while the other one that had
been munching hay at the trough,
lay on his side.
"When, ten minutes later, reached
the pen the sheep looked for all the
world as if they had been suddenly
petrifcd. They were mostly standing
up one against the other.
"Three or four were lying down,
but all were dead, with their eyes
open and lower lips hanging.
| at was absolutely CHASTITY. Yet Of
all animals only the old horse
that had been munching hay was hit
by n fragment of the shell. The
other old horse was half leaning, half
leaning up against the fence, his fore
legs stetched out forward, his hind
feet doubled up on the sand beneath
him. Both had been killed instantly
"There was faint odor in the air
which / can only describe as that
given off by methylated spirit yet
mixed with n pungent smell of men
thol.
There was no wind at the time
| the air being practically still