Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-23

closely resembles some huge and dangerous indus
trial operation. The attacking infantry hardly
more than the hand labor which must accompany
every industrial process Skilled labor, and picked
labor, in a new sense of the word, they certainly
are; but by their own unaided devotion and hero
ism they can achieve little nothing. They DO
not go forward to an unknown problem, but
which science has studied and solved before they
start. L
The precision of every movement in time and
place must be of truly marvellous delicacy. for
days before avators have crossed and the
ground taking thousands of photographs. From
these photographs a detailed map of the terrain
made Already, science must have perfected the
engines of those airpanes, standardized the cloth
of their wings, calculated their stability and wind
resistance, cast and ground the optical glass for
their wonderful cameras, senstized the glass plate
which blink at a countryside six thousand feet
below for fraction of second and carry away
clear and detailed copy of it for all time Even the
tin drums in which the volatile gasoline for the air
plane motors brought across the represent
expert study and patient experiment
Then comes the artillery PREPARATION. Every
she'll that Is fired stands for months of improve
ment in the art of making high explosives. The
great are fired from miles behind the lines at
invisible targets, guided by a maze of mathematical
calculations that allow for everything down to the
force of the breeze that rustes the treeptops The
time fuse Is so decatey set that the shell can be
exploded within any desired distance Of the ground
In order to a hit, the power must explode
just hard enough, the fuse must burn just fast
enough. the wind resistance must be Just strong
enough the angle of the gun must be true to a
hair.
Before the men go the top. watches are set
to the split fraction of a second. Then the mighty
machine really begins to work. The curtain of
she'll fire moves to certain point and the fol-
low on. At given second, the infantry advances,
and before they reach the wall of fire 1t leaps
ward. securing fire begins to drop protecting
their TANKS. The whole moves forward like wave
until the objective is reached and the curtain fire
stretches forward to break up counter-attacks.
Every calculation must be made to the foot and the
second, but when they made the casualties
Of the attacking force are unbelievably low. Sci
ence means safety in warfare.
When the new position is established perhaps
there is gas attack. One of the gases used is
odorless, colorless, deadly. 1t be present In
appreciable amounts without being detected by
eye But science is ready. An apparatus
has been perfected, whose exact nature cannot be
disclosed, which will detect this gas where little
is present that even a chemical test would show q
blank. Gas masks to neutralze 1t have been made
and provided The gas attack is repulsed, but not
in the trench. 1t was repulsed a month before in
the laboratory
The fundamental change IN modern warfare, the
change from the personal to the impersonal, from
in America. Scientific investigation along recog-
nized lines and promising new ones is going for
ward night and day. A great part Of this work is
being done at the federal bureau of standards
where $50 scientists and their assistants push
ing work on several hundred problems. Something
of what they are doing will be told in the next
article