The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1917-09-11
HOSPITALS KEPT
BY FRENCH F Or
DISABLED GUNS
First-Aid Station Is Battery
Where Tools And Parts
Are Kept
LIGHT, MEDIUM AND
HEAVY SHOPS, PLAN
Whole System, In Its Efficacy
A Miracle OF Modern
Warfare

BEHIND BRITISH LINES N
FRANCE, Sept 10-In war the ques-
tion of wastage of material Is second
only to that of men. Armaments be-
old age and casualties, the big guns
most of all. For gun casualties a reg
ular system of hospitals exists.
The first-aid station is in the bat
terry itself, where, much as a medical
orderly keeps supply of medicine
and bandages, trained artiiiccr
keeps supply of tools and spare
parts He can deal with any trifling
accident that may occur, or replace
any small part that may be broken.
The modern gun or howitzer is a com
plicated piece of mechanism, requir-
ing constant skilled attention If the
best results are to be obtained. This
attention the artifcer supplies.
But should the gun develop n com
plaint beyond the powers Of his tools
ter of shell wound 1t in some vulner-
able part, is removal to hospital be-
comes necessary. Gun hospitals are
workshops, wonderfully organized to
deal with the work that falls to their
lot, and stated by skilled men of the
Ordnance Corps. These workshops
are graded according to mobility, and
are all capable of more or less rapid
transfer from one point to another.
They are styled light, medium, or
heavy according to their powers of
movement and their capacity for deal
ing with work requiring light or heavy
tools.
A Light Ordnance Mobile Work
shop" to give 1t its full title. Is self
contained upon two or three motor
trucks, ingeniously arranged. The
floor of the lorries carries light lathes
and drilling machines, driven by cleo
trlc transmission from the engine of
the automobile, light being furnished
from the same source The trucks look
like ordinary closed motor cars when
travelling but on duty the sides Of the
vans drop down to form platforms
around the machinery, and the inter
iors are transformed into buZ2ing
hives of activity. Their capacity is
limited to the work that can be hand,
led on the comparatively light tools
that they carry.
The next stage Is the Medium Mo
bile Workshop" This IL no longer
self-contnined on motor trucks, ready
TO timber up and be off at moment
II carries machinery that must be un
loaded and installed in some conven
lent shed, The whole is transported
on motor trucks, but the work IL not
carried on In the trucks. There Is q
compact oil engine and dynamo, to be
bolted down to n hastily constructed
foundation. There are lathes, milling
machines, every sort of machine too
that IL to be found In general On
gpeering shop. The whole cOncerl
requires about two days to set up an,
put In running order Nearly every
thing except certain intricate repairs
can be performed here, and II is rare
ly necessary for wounded gun Il
proceed any further.
But, for the accommodation of real
ly bad cases there are few "IIeavl
Mobile Workshops where anything
that IL susceptible of repair may b,
dealt with, These are equipped no
only with heavier. machinery thar
the Medium Workshops, but with elab
crate additional machinery for specia
work, In addition to the big ma
chlneshop, there are pattern.makinl
shops, wheeler's shops. a foundry, ali
compressors, and every sort of devlc,
10 supply the needs of an army tina
fights with highly scientific weapons
The whole outfit is constructed so tina
II may be taken. down and packed
into trucks drawn by great tractor on
gines.
The whole system is miracle o
organization for a war which although
at present mainly one Of position, ma,
at any moment develop into one o
movement. Everything, workshops
included, must be ready to follow M
an advance. Provision of machln,
shops at fixed points might meet tn