El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-01-26

/ quenchable; nothing viii put Il out.
Water in any quantity has no ef-
feet on II whatever.
! The Crusaders Of the middle ages, in
| their encounters with the Saracens
whom today we call Turks-found
! themselves opposed by. an instrument
of destruction wholly unfamiliar, and
to which they gave the name of
] Greek fire" This stuff, loaded into
/ prO5ectiles which were the original
| incendiary bombs, was a bituminous
/ fluid Of unknown composition: but
what made IL most alarming was that
water would not extinguish its flames.
Surely very interesting Is the fact
I OF the up to date 'flammenwerfer,"
or flame protector "a recent German
war invention which our own armies
viii utilize in France). is of a SINH
lar nature. For this idea modern
military science is going back to the
days Of Richard Occur de Lion when
( the Saraecns got the petroleum from
their Greek fire from the oil wells OF
Rumania-
TerrOrizes the Enemy.
Why does the German systematic
cally resort to what he calls "schreck-
lichkeit," or frightfulness2 It is be-
cause he appreciates the military i'm
portance OF terrorizing the enemy.
The idea, in its way, is correct
enough. The ruthless rape of Bel
GUM. with all its devilish Pruss:an
savagery, has 50 appalled, Holland.
Norway and Denmark (perhaps even
Sweden) that they have not dared to
resent openly the most outrageous
injuries at the kaiser's hands. It was
meant TO be an object lesson to neu-
Let America look outlr said Will
liam. the wicked, TO our ambassador,
James Gerard
Worse Than Apaches.
Were England out Of the war, and
our fleet smashed-the latter not IN
likely, inasmuch as Germany is far
stronger on the seas than we-our
people might experience such ex-
tremes Of frightfulness as not even
Belgium has known. For the Prus-
sian is in effect an Apahce Indian
equipped with all the resources of
modern science. and he is no whit less
ruthless.
An object lesson. Belgium style, at
our expense would so frighten all
South America that our baby sister
republics on that continent could
hardly be expected TO offer any Sc
rious resistance to Hun invasion and
Hun control.
Destruction OF human life in bat
tie. relatively TO the forces employed.
is less today than in earlier times
But the demolition OF material things
of property IN one form or another
is incomparably greater. because Of
the destroying power Of high ex-
In the civil war we knew no more
powerful explosive than black gun
powder, Of which 81 percent is inert
and useless. Whence the smoke IT
gives off when burned, which repre-
sents the unconsumed residue. Wei
were still using this obsolete kind of
powder IN our guns on land and sea
at the time Of the Spanish war. The
Spaniards were provided with smoFe-
less powder, but we had none In the
sea fight off Santiago our ships were
blinded by the smoke Of their own
cannon
Smokeless powder is a high explos-
i've, as powerful as dynamite. 1t is
made by soaking cotton previously
treated with nitric acid in a mix,
ture OF ether and alcohol The result
is horny substance that can be
nodded into spaghetti, to be cut Up
in little pieces for rifle cartridges. or
into long rods. to be similarly chopped
up for big guns.
Each Has It's High Explosive.
The base OF most of the high ex-
plosives used in the present war is
carbolic acid, derived from coal tar.
Carbolic acid. when treated with
nitric acide. yields picric acid. which
is the 'lyddite" Of the British, the
''melinite" OF the French, the 'shi-
nose" Of the Japanese. and the dun
mite" employed by our own army and
navy.
From coal tar are obtained benzene
and toluene- which, treated with nitric
acid, furnish some OF the most for
midable high explosives One of
them, called ct. n. T." (short for tri-
nitro-toluene), is now largely used
for filling projectiles and subma-
rfnn mines
spaniards First to Experiment.
The Spaniards were first to make
experimental tests lat Madrid) of the
modern scientific hand bomb loaded
with high explosive. One such mis-
sile was thrown into a fenced inclos-
ure 40 yards in diameter, in which
had been placed 90 dummy men.
Inspection Of the injuries inflicted
showed (according to the official re-
port) that nine Of the dummy men
were KILLED" and an additional a
rendered hors de combat This, as
the incidental Generalization Of the
remainder"
Being at that time engaged IN hos
tilities with the Riff Arabs, the
Spaniards armed one of their regi-
ments with these bombs, the de-
the enemy that they were soon glad
to acknowledge themselves beaten
and to sue for peace.
Bombs Of crude pattern were IN
common use as long ago as the Ma
poleonic wars, and even earlier. Some
times they were called sgrena des,"
and the men who carried and threw
them were known as -grenadiers"
and "bombardiers" They were load
ed with gunpowder and set off by
lighting a fuse-an operation some
what perilous. and also uncertain, in
asmuch as the fuse was liable to go
out In our own civil war bombs OF
the same primitive kind were en-
ploved-
The up to date hand bomb. contain
ing two or three ounces of high ex-
plosiTe, is either spherical and a little
bigger than baseball, or else a short,
stout cylinder. In the latter case it
s provided with rope tail, by which
it may be thrown and explodes on
impact If spherical. 1t has a sort OF
trigger, which Is released when the
bomb is cast. the burst occurring ex-
actly five seconds later.
All projectiles, of whatever de-
scription, that explode on impact. are
set off by percussion caps that contain
illuminate of mercury. The latter. by
the way. was one Of the first high
explosives to be discovered. and il is
today the most powerful and most
sensitive Of them all
This illuminate is made by treating
alcohol and mercury with nitric acid.
So extremely sensitive is il that II
can safely be used only in very small
quantities. One is surprised, then,
to learn that this is the explosive
which causes children's Fourth of
IsrfJy fornadoeE 70 On chang" q min