The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-26
IS AUSTRIAN Gun
75-Mile Cannon Made in Fa-
nous SkOda Factory.
Allies COncede It's One of
Greatest Surprises Of War.
(By the Associated Press.)

Geneva, Monday. March 25.-The
long range guns bombarding Paris,
according to Vienna dispatch re-
ceived here, are of Austrian manu-
facture, having been built at the
Skoda factory. The gun itself is not
new, but its novelty comes from new
used in the gun. There are said to
be only two or three of the guns.
Shell Weighs $50 Pounds.
London, March 26.-In the "mys-
terry gum the name generally given
to the weapon with which the Ger
mans are bonn barding Paris, a dis
lance estimated at rs miles, it is
frankly conceded by experts the enc
my has sprung one of the greatest
surprises of the war. General Sir
Desmond O'Callaghan. formerly presi-
dent of the army ordnance commit
tee says of the German guns:
1.-The projectiles must have been
fired from longer and heavier guns
and with a more powerful propellant
than we have knowledge Of"
From Paris has come the suggestion
that the extraordinary range of the
gun is due to the projectiles being
provided with a second charge which
eXplodes when the first stage of the
flight is completed, giving it fresh
General O'Callaghan as is also the
variant of it that the projectile is
fitted with a propeller enabling it to
continue its journey when it is not
longer driven by the projecting force
TT would SEEM" says General
O'Callaghan. THAT a new departure
in balIistics can alone explain the
enormous range which is three times
that of anything hitherto accom-
plished. One expert estimates that
the weight of the projectile is about
$50 pounds and that it leaves the gun
with a muzZle velocity of about 1000
feet per second. The gun having an
very quickly takes the projectile into
stratum of rarefied air in which re-
sistance is greatly minimized."
Minimize Effectiveness.
The strain upon the gun, he says
must be enormous and probably it
would be unable to survive more than
a hundred rounds at the most, the
cost of each being nearly 1000
pounds. All the experts agree that
such a tremendous range even ap-
proximate accuracy is out of the ques-
ton and therefore, the gun is only
a vast scale. like Paris. The object
aimed at, they say, is rather more
moral than material but in both re-
spects the gun is likely to prove less
effective than airplane raiders
Recognized Make of Gun.
The German mystery gun was first
identified as probably being ans~5sSs-
trian Skoda in Associated PresS dis
patches from Washington last Satur-
day. Ordnance experts of the allied
missions here, on reading of the long
range bonn bardment of Paris, de-
clared that if the shells actually were
being thrown by a gun, it undoubt-
eddy was the Skoda as that was the
only gun they knew of susceptible to
such long range developments. They
did not consider, however, the pos
sibility of the shells being thrown
such an unheard of distance by a new
gas
The principal factories of the great
Skoda works are in Prague, Posen,
Bohemia, altho since the war a num-
Der of plants have been established in
other cities. 1t was reported from
Posen a few weeks ago that during
the strike in that city the works had
been shut down for a week. It is
known that the Austrian army has
been well supplied with Skoda guns
and many of them have been moved
from Italy to the western front