The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-05-03
+ BY Oscar King Davis. }

the munitions factories at Magde-
burg. whether powder cases or pro
jectiIcS There We're guns. alSO,- by
the score and hundred; and great
torpedo tubes for submarines, and
rifle cartridges by the million. and
supplies OF copper and brass and
other war materials that seemed to
be never ending. We got a glimpse
OF the effect OF the Hindenburg or
der for the production OF all posi-
bic war supplies. and we saw one lit
tie part Of Germany At work fulfill
ing that order.
one of the strongest impressions
about Germany's condition which l
took with me to Berlin was that she
was very short of copper. l had
heard that story from all sorts and
conditions OF men everywhere | went
outside OF Germany. 1t stood 10 rea-
son. also, because il was known that
Germany possessed no considerable
original source of copper OF her own,
and she was using immense Quanti-
ties Of munitions in which copper
was an important component part,
she must be getting very hard up.
Also there was the talk about the
census of copper throughout Ger
many. and the taking OF every kind
OF copper utensil from the kitchen
OF every individual, rich or poor, and
the copper roofs from the houses and
{ the public buildings, and all that. SO
that I Went to Magdeburg with that
impression strongly in mind, and
very curious to see what Germany
was doing for substitutes.
Therefore ii was with no small
surprise that | observed, i'll the first
plant we went through, a very lavish
use of brass. And immediately aft
erward | saw 4 thing which has not
even Yet been explained to my salts
faction. That was the production of
solid brass torpedo tubes in appar-
emily unlimited quantities. There
was one factory in which special at
tention seemed to be devoted TO the
making of these torpedo tubes for
submarines. Each tube is at least
twenty feet long. and they are two
feet or more III diameter. They were
cast out of brass. and as far as |
could learn no section Of them was
made OF steel or other metal. 1t was
my understanding that in our own
service and in those Of other coun-
tries such tubes We're made chiefly of
steel Thousands of pounds of brass
We're used in each of these German
tubes. There must have been fifty
of these tubes under construction at
once in that one plant, and some
tons,of copper went into them. l
asked the Major from the General
Staff where they got SO much copper
He replied with a laugh:
"Oh. our enemies gave il TO US. We
b1y-.a first class pOnpar. mine in Ser
bia. you know"
Besides this liberal use of brass
we Saw them making shells--powder
cases-Iiterally by the million. And
here was another thing which was
decidedly surprising 10 me. We saw
them making brass powder cases for
fixed ammunition for guns of all cali
bres, even up TO the great 42-centi-
meter fellows which had wrought
such devastation in the early days in
Belgium. knew that in the Ameri-
can service the use of fixed ammuni-
Jion-that is, Of solid cartridges in
which the projectile Is fixed in the
brass powder case-had been discOn-
tinued for guns of larger calibre than
seven inches some years ago, and l
have been informed since that our
services have not used fixed ammu-
milton even In the finch guns for
considerable number of years. Con-
sequently. / was not a little surpris-
ed at finding the Germans rolling
out these huge brass powder cases,
and in apparently endless numbers.
l asked my guide in this particular
plant a great many questions about
these huge powder cases, most of
which were not answered. The one
l most desired to have answered was
how this fixed ammunition was more
seryiceable than the combination of
powder bags and separate projectiles
used in our own service. The eX-
PLANTATION was not forthcoming. l
knew that the Germans had been
hard put TO it for powder bags. Their
supply of cotton was evidently less
than their supply Of copper and
brass. But they had told me with en-
thusiasm of the use Of wood pulp to
replace jute and cotton, and of the
manufacture of all sorts of bags for
military uses out of paper. They
had told me specifically that no more
cotton or jute bags were used for
trench construction, and that all
sandbagS were now made OF paper.
But no one would go into detail
about this fixed ammunition for me.
1t was suggested that they had
found that ammunition kept better
under the open weather storage con-
ditions at the front when the pow
der charge was protected by brass
cases than when in paper bags. Or
course. that would enable the Stor-
age OF ammunition in the open, and
il is notorious that vast quantities OF
il are so stored But vast quanti-
ties are also stored underground,
protected from the rain and the
snow.
But whatever the reason for this
prodigal use OF copper. the fact re-
mains that ii WAS being made, ana
that our conductors merely laughed
when we commented upon il. There
upon it was suggested by one of the
skeptical foreign CORES spondents that
the whole thing was just stall TO
create the impression in our minds
that they had an unlimited supply OF
copper But | for one could hardly
credit even German ingenuity with
such a device, involving as it would
the setting up OF whole munitions
plants and equipping them with ma
chinery for the production of pow
der cases out of brass. just 10 i'm
press occasional travelling newspaper
men. What difference could il make
whether We We're impressed of not?
The English and the French were
not going TO alter their production
Of munitions On the reports we might
be able to make of any such inspec-
ton of German production as our
German conductors were permitting
us TO make.
And then We SAW them turning out
copper jacketed bullets literally by
the million for use by the Turks in
rifles captured from the Russians.
Hindenburg had taken the rifles in
the early days OF the war, and now
he was furnishing ammunition for
them. They told US that they ship
ped these cartridges to the Turks at
the rate of 100000 day In the
| American service We have not used
copper jacketed bullets for years.
The Spaniards did not use them i'll
, our little war OF nineteen years ago.