Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-27
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set up and running, it tested
under the most arduous of flying conditions. This
required primarily high altitude. The engineers
in charge went to Pixies Peak in Colorado where
they had an altitude Of 1900 feet to start from
Liberty motor had been developed at the
bureau of standards. The scientists of the bureau
attacked the matter of testing the engine along
line of their They recognized the necessity
for tests at a high altitude, but from the purely
scientific standpoint high altitude does not neces-
sarily mean climbing mountain range It repre-
sents simply a low atmospheric pressure and low
temperature. So at the bureau of standards they
have built artificial high altitude chamber, which
is the most successful thing of it's kind in exis-
tence, for testing airplane motors under the con-
dtions of actual flight.
This chamber has heavy alright walls and
mously thick doors. The air pressure within can be
varied to correspond with that found at any height
five thousand feet, or ten or twenty. special
refrigeratng system permits the temperature to be
varied accordingly. Artificial wind currents be
produced at will The whole furnishes means for
testing airplane engines that is much more conven-
lent, accessible and adaptable than any combination
of natural conditions
At the bureau of standards thew believe i'm
pcity that science will win the war. They believe
that only rigid application of scientific method
to process of warfare will bring victory They
point to their system of testing airplane motors
example of the purely scientific method 1t
differs from methods that primarily military
or engineering Both scientist and engineer real
lie that high altitude conditions are needed for
testing engines. The engineer goes to a mountain
peak to find them. The scientist creates them in
his laboratory.
The force of the bureau Of standards has
doubled since the war began. New buildings go
ing up rapidly. There are $50 men at work in
the laboratories, hundreds of them scientific spe
cialists of the first rank Several hundred problems
under investigation touching all of the impor-
tant phases of modern warfare.
Many of these problems cannot even be in
dictated. Others lie in the field that is common
to all the belligerents, that it do harm
to mention them.
Poison gas warfare is a warfare of chemists.
The rapidity with which the allies rallied from
the first German gas attacks due to the fact
that they had chemists in the first line. The rem
edy was found and applied instantly. Within
single day, thousands of adequate masks were
available for the men in the trenches. The prob
lens of gas warfare, on which OR scientists are
at work, include the perfection Of means Of defense,
the development of gases for attack and the
devisng of gastight containers for purposes of
shipment. This last is in itself important and
difficult item Leakage of poison gas is a serious
matter.
One of the most abstruse applications of science
in modern warfare is the location of enemy batter
les by sound 1t is possible to mark down
the of hostile shells from invisible batteries
firing from an unknown distance, simply by means
of the sound waves that come from the exploding
guns The feat requires the application Of the most
advanced principles of physics, and the most deli
hopes to do it more effectively than anyone else
hitherto.
The field of wireless is one where science is
tirelessy at work. One of the most important
achievements Of the bureau of standards the
perfection of means by which the direction of
radio waves can'be determined ship at sea receiv-
ing wireless call tell whether it comes
from east, west, north south. This is a matter
of great practical Importance when submarines send
out fake calls to lure merchant ships to destruction
The naked eye has practically gone out of
in modern warfare means of observation.
Everything of this is done by glasses and sets
of glasses. Until recently, the United States was
not able to make optical glass to compete with
that of Germany. The bureau Of standards solved
that problem An interesting phase of it lay in the
fact that it is exceedingly difficult to manufacture
the clay pots for melting optical glass. Even to-
day, the bureau has to make these pots itself and
turn them to American manufacturers for
marine and trench periscopes, airplane cameras,
range finders and field glasses are going con-
tinually. The submarine periscope being
steadily improved all the world, until quite
suddenly stage reached when in spite of
increased theoretical perfection, results began to
fall off. The bureau found that the most improved
perscopes were literally too good-too perfect in
their adjustment. By Stacking up" and introduce
ing certain minor factors of error. the practical