White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1915-01-03
TECHNICAL FALLACIES OF
THE PRESENT WAR.

American, efectually dispute SOME
of the Munchausan stories that have
beer produced as alleged news dis
patches from the seat of war in Eu-
rope. It Is somewhat of a relief to
pursue technical facts as compared
with emanations of distorted imagi-
nations exaggerated by hear-say and
repetition. 1t detracts a little bit
from the real honors of war. Scien-
. tifc American says:
The daily press is complaining of
severe censorship exercised over
news from the seat of war: neverthe-
less, it would be better. in some re-
speets, for the public If the censor's
blue pencil were used ever more
freely than it is.
I'VE refer to the sensational and
misleading technical absurdities
which from time to time are passed
by the censor and permitted to go
broadcast owe the world for the con-
fusion and bewilderment of the pub
lie. which is weary of rumors and
asks only for the facts. If it is the
duty OF the censor to eliminate any
statement which might be of value to
the enemy, surely it is his duty, also,
to cut out of the dispatches exag-
gerated statements as to the nature
and destructive effect of the weapons
which are employed by the com
batants. II these exaggerations could
have any beneficial effect. in stragegy
or tactics, the censor would be fol-
lowing a precedent which has been
employed from time immemorial in
the conduct of war; but no such re-
suit is secured, and it is only the
unsuspecting public hat suffers.
The military censor knows per-
factly well ttDt all the statements
which have been going the round of
the press regarding mobile 16-inch
guns used by the Germans. s%hrapnel
which can annihilate a whole
regiment with a single burst of
shell, h~igh-explosive shells whose
d~eath-dealing gases kill a company
of infantrymen without leaving a
mark upon their bodies; he knows
full we'll, We say, that most II not all,
of this talk is the veriest kind of
rubbish.
That these absurdities are too
often received at their face value is
proved by the number of inquiries
which come to this office, asking for
further details. respecting these ap-
palling weapons of modern warfare.
I'm the first place, then let 1t be
understood that the 16-inch German
mobile siege gun does not exist and
probably never will exist. 1t is pos
sibe that some siege guns of this
caliber have been built for fixed for
t~ification, but certainly never as
A mobile 16-inch siege gun complete
an army in the field. The largest
field siege gun is the huge 11-inch
howitzer or mortar. 1t was a great
feat On the part of the Krupp firm to
introduce a gun of this size, weight
and power, that could be transport
ed with an army over the highways
of a hostile country, and go into
action on its own mount, without
preliminary foundation work for the
reduction of Notifications from five
10 eve miles distant. Broadly
speaking, the weights both of a gun
and its ammunition increase as the
cube of the caliber. This means that
a noble 16-inch siege gun complete
would weigh something over 100 tons
md it's shell would be approximately
one ton in weight. The finest ma
cadam, brick, or concrete roadway
would be crushed down under such
A lode even supposing that traction
engines of sufficient power and num-
Der could be linked up to transport it.
1t may have been done; but we doubt
il.
Another fallacy is tnat the whole
sale humiliation of troops caused by
bursting shrapnel. Mere than once
we have been asked to explain what
kind of a shell 1t is which, in burst
ing, discharges a shower of bullets
which will kill every man within a
~rectangle seventy yards square"
The answer is that 10 such shell has
been invented, and " will be.
The shrapnel shell contains 262 balls
which, when the shell bursts in the
proper position above the enemy's
troops. will cover an area of ground
eliptical in form. The area is.
roughly, about $4,000 square feet.
Now anyone can calculate for himself
that. If the dispersion is fairly even.
there will be an average of one ball
10 each 100 square feet of space