Weekly journal-miner., 1917-03-28
LAND TORPEDO NEW
 WAR TERROR
SHELTER FINANCIER IS INVENTOR OF DEADLY MACHINE THAT HELPS BRITISH DENT GERMAN LINES IN FRANCE.
(From Saturdays Dally.)

I
 rout of German forces in the western
 war theatre was explained in part
 here yesterday by A. B. Lcmmons
 who IS here in connection with the
 financing of the proposed Prescott
 shelter, as a possible direct result oi
 the use within the past 30 days of the Lennon land torpedo, sold over a
 month ago by Lemmons to the Brit
 ed the status of the shelter proposi-
 ton and begged to be allowed to re-
 main silent on this subject until the
 return next week of J. E. Russell, his
 attorney, with the papers in the case.
 He was willing. however, to discuss
 the torpedo.
 According to the inventor, the new
 est terror of the trenches is a wheel,
 five feet in diameter, and having a
 steel tread AZ inches wide. The rim
 is made hollow to contain l& pounds
 of nitroglyccrine. The four spokes
 carry packages of gun-cotton. Around
 the hub is huge shrapncl shell. The
 interstices between the hub, the
 spokes and the rim are occupied by
 four cans of dynamite and four tanks of asphyxiating gases, held under pressure of 1000 pounds to the square inch. The entire charge of explosives is set off by means of two dctonators, the invention of Sir Hiram Maxim, the famous expert in ballistics.
 The method of propulsion of the torpedo is no less unique than its general form. For sending it on its death crrand, the wheel is balanced nicely in a sort of cradle, on a slcdge similar to those used by Eskimos. By means of triple expansion engine, actuatcd by compressed air, the wheel is rcvolved at a tremendous rate of speed, the maximum of which is 1000 miles an hour at the pcrimctcr of the wheel The distance the wheel is to travel regulates the speed at which it is rcvolvcd prior to its release. AI clockwork is the means of fixing the time of the discharge of the huge cx- plosivc store.
 For firing, the torpedo is rcvolvcd in its cradle, and at the proper speed, is allowed to drop from its supports to what is called Blackboard" This board is covered with a coating of stout rubber on which the tractivc force of the spinning wheel is applied, in order to add horizontal to the rotary movement Of the apparatus. The wheel, on dropping to the kick board, shoot forward, held in a true course by means of its own tremcnd- ous gyroseopic force The speed across ordinarily smooth ground can be made that of the maximum rotary speed, or 1000 miles on hour.
 The torpedo is for use chiefly at night. Rushing on through the dark ness, it dcvastates all that comes in | its path-it passes through all sorts of barbed-wirc entanglcments like a hot knife through slab of butter | Striking anything as solid as wall of l moderate height, however, its incon- ceivably great tractivc power causes 1t to climb up the surface and sur mount the wall. The drive of the | spinning spokes against the air causes it immediately to seek the earth level, however, and for this reason, it fol- lows irregularities of the surface, even to spinning down into cight-foot trenches and down and up the walls of shell craters and mine holes.
 The force with which the torpedo strikes a solid horizontal body is 16,- GOO tons. The total expansive force of the explosive charge is in excess of l50000 tons. It can readily be seen, the inventor explains, how the explosion of the Lennon land tor pcdo in German trench, crowded with men, will result in scattering of fragments of the kaiscr's forces, and the fact that the torpedo is used al night, and always cxplodcs, adds ter TOT of the unknown to that of sudden death and widespread destruction. but the British Tommics know what it is that hits the bochc Notifications, for in the dark and at such tremendous speed, it is i'm. possible 10 see the whirling dcStruc. ton that dcSccnds even into the most constructed trenches.
 Some of the torpedocS arc fitted with soythc-likc knives. three to a side and fastened near the hubs. At rotary speed of from 300 to 1000 miles an hour. these knives will eat through an iron bar as though it were made of cheese. The principal use of the kniic-armed wheels is to now down cavalry.
 Two other remarkable inventions of Nlr. LcmmonS' have been offered to -hc British government, but have not , been accepted yet because the ad- nlralty cannot take the ships off duty ong enough to install them. One is l magnetic torpedo catcher and the other Is mnc-swccpcr.
 All riohtS to tho land tornsd,, ha,c