Evening star., 1918-11-18
SHRAPNEL.
The War and After.
-BY-
OLIVER OWEN KUHN.

According to aero statisticians and
| others who have become interested in
long distance travelling by airplane
| during the course of the war, the
| transatlantic trip will be accomplished
| in twenty-four hours. Now that mill
| tary aviation for the moment win
cease to attract less attention, be-
levers in the future of the airplane as
a commercial carrier are looking for
ward to the overseas trip.
| From London to Bagdad will take
one and half days; to Calcutta, two
and half. Vancouver may be reach
ed. If we board our airplane ON Mon
day morning, by Thursday morning,
journey from England to New Zealand
will spin out to six days. 1t now takes
over six weeks!
] Until revived during the course OF
! the war steel helmets had not been
used in Europe for two centuries.
| The man having won the Victoria
Cross. the highest military medal be-
slowed by Great Britain, cannot wear
it where he chooses. 1t must be placed
/ in the center of the chest and other
wearer's left arm.
| Much interest has centered in meth
DDS pursued by the allies in cutting
! through German defenseS of barbed
wire in the latest offensives by allied
| armies. That much of the success of
| Gen. Fochs forces was due to ability
| to negotiate the barbed defenses one
admitted by all. In discussing one
unusual French method of cutting
| through the wire one soldier said:
! The old muzzle-loading cannon has
come in quite handy for the French
| army at the front. The grapnel, after
| a long coil of rope has been attached
| to one end of it. Is inserted into the
mouth of the oldfashioned "Archie," :"
the rope being allowed to lie on the
ground in coil. The gun is fired,
the grapnel dutifully shots out. and
gracefully embraces Fritz's wire.
/ The rope which was tied to the
grapnel has been violently dragged
with it, but the other end of 1t still
/ lies on the ground. Two or three
| poilus now take hold OF this and after
| some moments tugging decent
sized open space is made in the Hun
wire.
The chewing of cordite, which be-
workers of England, is said to wreck
| the nervous system.
A strong movement is under way to
wipe out every German name in the
British empire. Already several Brit
mated German names for towns and
commodities.
DO guns have legs?" q small boy
asked of his father.
NO, my son." was the reply.
'Tnen why do guns have breeches?
asked the irrepressible one.
Men aboard submarines never lose
an opportunity to get on deck. Con-
tinuous service within submarine is
extremely exhausting.
The building of a concrete ship, the
concrete being nodded about q series
of steel rods. is comparatively SIM
pie task when compared to the con-
struction of a steel vessel Describing
the construction methods one ship
builder said:
An ordinary steel ship is composed
of plates and bars rfveted up to-
gether with thousands of rivets. The
closing of these is a slow affair and
requires very exact fitting Of the
plates In concrete ships no fasten-
ings are required and the riveting can
be dispensed with entirely. Cement
concrete has the valuable property Of
adhering with great tenacfty to the
smooth surface Of steel. Hence it is
not necessary to join up the steel
rods in any elaborate fashion. The
ends are simply turned back and
hooked roughly together. and that Is
all; the concrete does the rest This
explains the speed with which these
ships can be turned out.
The whole ship is built up from
keel to deck in one progressive opera
ton like building q wall. The tie rods
are put in place between planking. the
desired distance apart, which forms
the mold into which the concrete is
rammed and allowed to set, when the
molds are stripped Off. The. designs
are standardized and the same naoads
can be used for building a hundred
ships as easily as one. Hence the
speed Of building ana reduction Of
cost and simplicity Of the whole
operation"
Diving q big submarine is deli
cate task. There Is story told Of
one submarine captain, exaspefated
with the tactics Of his command, who
| telephoned from the bows Of his sub.
marine to his sub In the stern, sxying:
Fl say! Ny enA1D- -diytne. Nbst'e
&~sAS - <sSAs~
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