The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-15
ARE URGING USE OF STEEL HELMETS AND
 PROTECTIVE ARMOR
France, Russia and Germany Have Been Experiment. ing Along This Line.
 Doctors Indorse Idea

London, August 1.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press s.)-The London news papers are urging upon the British gov ernment the advisability of adopting the steel helmet, as well as some simple form of protective breast armor for the troops in France and Flanders France, Russia and Germany have been experimenting along this line for sometime, and France has recently definitely adopted a light steel helmet suggesting In design the headpiece worn by men-at-arms six cen turies ago.
 "One of the most remarkable features of this war" remarks the Times, "has been the return to older, if not to an- cient, methods. The steel fort has been discredited and the earthwork justified; the strength and direction of the wind has become a leading factor once again, as it was in the days of bows and arrows, since aeroplanes are effected by the wind and gas attacks determined by it; hand grenades, bombs and catapults have as- stunned real importance Finally, the question of armor for the fighting man himself has come up for consideration"
 The value of a light protective armor is attested in several recent articles in the British medical journals. Dr. Devraigne, a French army surgeon. discusses in the Lancet the result of his tests of the new French helmet and gives it his unquai- fled indorsement. "The soldier who wears . helmet" he says. "escaped light wounds of the head, and even wounds that would in ordinary circumstances have been se- were greatly mitigated. The helmet frequently turns off the bullet in other
 .1z t. 0fl ceases it is perforated but acts as heavy drag upon the force of the projectile so that hair and dirt are not driven into the tissues of the head.'
 Dr. A. J. Hewitt. chief surgeon Of the warship Pegasus in her fight with the Koenigsberg. writes in the Journal of the Royal Medical Service urging the adoption of some kind of protective armor by the navy. One of the remark able features of the wounds which came under his observation, he says, was the smaller penetrating power of the fragments of projectiles in open spaces like the upper deck. The dan ger zone so far as life was concerned seemed to be confined to a small area around the bursting space and though the initial velocity of the fragments seemed to be very great it diminished rapidly. perhaps owing to their irreg- ular shape
 "One seaman" writes Dr. Hewitt, ''had his right arm so shattered that complete amputation was necessary, but fragment of the same shell hit the brass buckle of his belt breaking 1t but not even bruising the abdomen. Small fragments were also the cause of the loss of four eyes. but l am of the opinion that a pair of motor gog- gles would have saved all these A case of injury to the jugular vein hxy ri ip1a nf he1 probably could have been stopped by a linen collar.
 "In my opinion coat of light chain armor, or ever leather, with a pair oi goggles made from toughened motor screen glass, would be invaluable to captains of destroyers. navigators and others in exposed positions who are