Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-03-05
TRENCH MENACE
BUILT IN IOWA
INVENTION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS
MAN BEING TESTED FOR
4 WAR USES.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT
CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS
"Pusher Would Enable Gases and
High Explosives to BE Piped to Enc
my Trenches Without Hindranes--
Can Penetrate Anything But Solid
Rock.

Council Bluffs, March 5.-One Coun-
Gil Bluffs man, Captain Carter, retired
regular army officer. "a year or more
ago developed a device for aiming
aerial torpedoes and bombs from
swiftly flying aeroplanes that is now
being used by the entente aviators,
and another bluffs firm appears to be
on the point of diverting an ingenious
and useful device from it's peaceful
purpose of laying gas and water SER
vice pipes and having it transferred
into a. new and deadly engine of trench
warfare on European battlefields
Ittis4the. giant pusher' for the de-
velopment and marketing Of which j..
G. Harding retired from the city coun'
Gil after more than half a dozen years
Of service and established a factory on
South Main street. The function OF
the machine Is to send water or gas
pipe, from the smaller-sized up to two
inches in diameter, through the solid
earth to any distance required without
disturbing street pavements or digging
bitches across lawns. All the often
required is an initial trench just long
enough to admit section, OF the pipe
to be used. This is forced thru the
earth in the direction desired and joint
after point is added until the required
length OF the line is reached An IN
genious cutting point is attached to the
hole considerably larger than the dia-
meter of the pipe, removing the friction
and permitting the easy passage OF the
joints that are successfully coupled on.
Tho "pushern exerts such tremendous
power that a two-inch pipe may be
driven thru the hardest ground at the
rate Of ten feet minute.
Son Has Idea.
Alderman Hardings son. young
man with the inventive bug working
strong In his BRAIN, more than a; year
ago began to think about applying the
"pusher'' to trench warfare and de-
veloped a special cutting point that
would penetrate soil as firm as the
.halky formations on the battle front
N France and Belgium. He got into
communication with the English gov
ernment by way Of Canada. A num-
Der of the '.pushers' were sent to the
Dominion and were tried out under
hardest conditions. Weaknesses that
were developed were corrected anu
some changes made in cutting points.
and now the negotiations have reached
a stage where the agents of the Brlt-
ish government in Canada are inquir-
ing as to the capacity OF the plant
to turn out the "pushers" in large
quantities. 1t Is even intimated that
some OF the samples" sent to Can
ada have found their way to the bat
tlef,elds and have been the means OF
doing some things to the Germans
In Ordinary soil two-inch pipe
could be thrust thru the ground
and into the hostile trench several
hundred feet away without danger OF
attracting the least attention, and be-,
come the avenue thru which many
forms OF destructive energy could ne
forced deadly gases, high explosives
and infammable compounds. One
man with the "pusher'' could mine
large area OF enemy trenches in a sim
gle night and without giving the
slightest warming. Machine guns could
pour streams Of bullets thru these pipes
that could enfllade other trenches. Nj
troglycerin could be pumped thru them,
and they could be used in many ways
to impress the enemy that another ne"
Yankee machine was on the job.
The newly developed point per-
mits the "pusher' to send the pipe
thru anything but solid rock.