The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-01-09
STUDY WAR ENGINES
Army and Navy Officers Plan
New Death Machines.
Have as Many Ingenious and Eff
Client Inventions to Their Credit
as Have the Officers of Any
Other Nation.
BY EDWARD B. CLARK.
Stan Correspondent of the Western
Newspaper Union.

Newspaper Union.
Neutrality-suspicious. little time ago a
word or two was said publicly about a
new navy torpedo, accurate and serv-
iceable at a range hitherto unthought
of. The navy department naturally
vas displeased because of the public
word spoken of this invention. Not
enough has been said about it to n
able anybody else to seize on the Sc
cret and therefore probably no harm
has been done. The country may not
know it, but army and navy officers
are trying constantly to invent some
thing which will go other nations one
better.
AS the records will show the Ameri-
can officers of the two services have
as many creditable and efficient in
ventions credited to them as have the
officers Of any Of the armies and ma
vies Of other nations and, to make this
stronger, it must be remembered that
u army is a comparatively small af-
fair and our navy stands fourth from
the top of the size and strength list.
There is a hint that if unhappily the
United States in the neal future
should become involved in war a sur
prise or two may be in store for this
country's antagonist or antagonists.
Individual initiative is a common
thing in the war and navy department
and while secrecy as to details shrouds
such matters it is probable that a con
hipf might hrino IN ItOhk .AroakAf-y
new in the shape of devices for de-
lenses and %offenses.
The officers of the service today
largely are students. Things were diff
ferent in the old days. Now in the
first place the officer of today before
he a be promoted has to pass an
examination. Moreover study of mill
tary and naval problems is enjoined,
and againJ moreover, the success of
some officers in inventive lines has
spurred the ambitions of others to
equal or excel their comrades. When
ever a new thing appears in a foreign
field it is the attempt of many men of
the American services to produce
something which will put another
something out OF business.
Not all of the inventions of military
arms have been those of men of the
service, for the American civilian
with his inherited knack for novel
constructive work has created many
things which have been adopted in
some form or another first by the
American army or navy and later,
when the secrets were out, by the 9TH
er armies or navies Of some of the
foreign powers.
The study in the signal service to-
day is directed in large part to the
perfection Of the aeroplane. Every In
cident connected with the air service
in Europe is noted. When it is re-
ported that an aeroplane attack has
failed and any hint is given as to the
reason for the failure, the minds of
the signal service officers are directed
toward the task of making the failure
impossible In our own army.
Armored motor cars are under
study. When the American car finally
is put into service it will be found
very likely that it will do things that
the armored cars now in use in Europe
cannot do, and that it will have con-
trivances possessed by none of the
cars of Europe which will add to its
efficiency. Nothing in the way of sug-
gestion which comes from tina other
side of the water is being lost.
The army and navy have done much
for themselves In the last half century.
The old single-shot br~eech-loading