The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-01

 1 other. My information came from MT, h. Colwell who has been the chief ex-
 aminer of that division for many years He tells me that there is great activity i in every branch of war material and
 that the applications for patents are
 numbered by thousands. One branch in
 which new discoveries are being made is i that of trench guns and mortars. These
 are used to throw bombs or shells at i high angles out of our trenches into those l of the enemy. The distance between the two is often but a few hundred feet and the bombs must move at compara- | lively slow speed. This is in striking
 contrast with the guns which send forth proiecties at such velocity that if it could be kept up they would fly around the world in a day and so that they are expected to fly from F to f5 miles
 or more before striking the enemy. These trench guns are of many kinds. In some cases the bombs are attached to the l ordinary rifle being fastened to the end 1 Of the barrel and sent out by portion
 os the force that is spent in firing the proiectffe. Other inventions propose spe- ciai guns and all require new processes and new methods of making.
 i As to the big guns, the patents ap- 1 piled for are largely for parts and the materials used in the making. There are [ shinery. It was at the battle of Bunker Hill that Colonel Prescott, who corn- i manded the Americans, held back his ! men from the British, saying, Don't fire I until you see the whites of their eyes" l That manner of firing is not common
 on the battiefelds of Europe. The mos, of the sighting has to be done at troops who are almost if not altogether out of sight The soldiers shot at maybe faint spots on the horizon, or they may be I on the other side of woodss hill or mountain. The exact location Is fixed by | the atrplanes, which, go fin advance and the wireless telegraph machines. which i they carry post the gunners just where
 to fire. The footing of the modern guns is a question of angles and mathematical 1 caiculation. ard the guns are made and sighted with a view to such conditions. | The patents applied for have to deal with such questions
 l Many of the new inventions relate tc 1, the guns used upon the flying machines and those intended to put the flying ma chimes out of action. The anti-aircrafl l gun belongs to a new field of patents l that has been developed by this war. It has to be fired at aahigh elevation and 1 it must be so mounted that it can be 1 trained around the whole half of cir 1 cle and so, that it can fire at an air plane close to the horizon or one straight 1 overhead. It has to be made with due consideration to the recoil, and so that the force Of the recoil may be distributed, permitting a high-angle fire
 ] The examiners tell me that the mount ring of the guns on the airplanes is bring l ing forth many new discoveries and ap- I plications for patents of one kind or another In some cases the guns are l fired through the hollow tube of the pro pellor shaft. and in others they are SC
 arranged that they shoot right through
 the blades while the latter are going
 around at upward of thousand revolu- l tions minute. In~ths case the move ment of the firing mechanism is syn chronized with that of the propeller shaft | so that the bullet passes between the 1 revolving blades when the gun | is shooting at this wonderful speed.
 1 In striking contrast with mounts oi l this kind are those for the heavy guns Inow carried along with the armies. Some of these go upon railroads and are CSC lattached to the cars that they can be i shot from the road by resting a portion J.of the gun mount on concrete foundations 1 located at strategical points along the I way Some single guns weigh as much l as 100000 pounds each and shoot projec- I tiles weighing upward of 2000 pounds The question of recoil, manipulation apd 1 sighting is bringing in hundreds of ap- piications for patents. st | Among the other curious fields of wal