South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-08-01
Speaking of Guns
Part III
Part ii.
BY WOODS HUTCHINSON VI. d.

The belt or blanket Of air which
surrounds our earth is believed to
be only about Is or 90 miles in
height or thickness. so that as soon
as a cannon ball I'm its fight reaches
a height OF IS miles or more, It en-
tiers "a region where the air is so eX-
tremely thin as TO offer almost no
resistance TO its passage. and If it
goes UP II miles. il viii get outside
of the air blanket entirely and go
skimming along through the ether.
This was the method adopted in
the original English 30-mile gun.
The muzzle of the gun was elevated
sufficiently 10 hurl the projectile
rapidly up 10 d height of nine or
ten miles at which elevation il
reached a level Of such thin rare
air, with such low resistance. that
it would travel on Q given impulse
or initial velocity. three or four
times as far as il would say within
q mile Of the earth's surface. II you
want a gun TO shoot 90 miles you
elevate the muzzle "A little more yet
increase the size Of the charge, and
consequently the velocity of the
projectile when it leaves the muzzle,
and hump il up 20 a height some
where from 10 10 10 miles, where
il will skim along as il were upon
the surface of the belt of air like a
ia
All this however Of course, makes
any calculation of even approx
mately where the shell viii land
quite out of the question.
But when the new Frightfulness
Of Treitschke and Won Hindenburg
was introduced this difficulty disap-
peared. What they wanted 10 bonn
bard was not an army or a fort, but
"a whole nation or a city; and they
set their engineers to work 10 con-
struct q gun which would land a
shell somewhere in France al a
distance OF a hundred kilometers
or about SO miles. The result as all
the world knows was a brilliant and
gratifying success. The 10th or 18th
shell fired struck a church on Good
Friday filled mostly with women and
children. and killed and wounded a
hundred and fifty Of them. Scarcely
a week later, another one struck
children's hospital and killed and
mangled about 40 OF the little ones
in their beds with their attendant
nurses. This last shot was said 20
have been fired by the crown prince
himself, who expressed great delight
and chivalrous pleasure al the sue
cess OF his Workmanship
Now comes one Of the interesting
scientific features As soon as the
French airmen had succeeded in To-
eating this monster child-killer. in
the forest of st. Gobain and the dis
lance from Paris was made known,
an English scientist, Prof Malloek.
was asked 10 say what would be the
/ initial velocity required. what height
would the shell! reach in the course
OF its flight. what would be the
1 angle of elevation required for the
muzzle OF the gun, and what prob
ably was the length Of the gun. He
figured out the problem and replied
that II would require an initial
velocity Of between four or five thou
sand feet per second. that is 20 say.
about a mile per SECOND. That the
height 20 which the projectile would
/ rise. would be about 7 6 miles. that
I the length of the gun would be
about 20 feet and its angle OF ele-
walton about so degrees. that is 20
say. a little over half a right angle.
, He sent this calculation 70 the Eng
. lish Scientific Journal Nature.
Just as the number Of the journal
| containing IL was about 10 go 20
press. there came a report from a
{ French artillery ofhcer who had
I been made prisoner by the Germans
and had seen the great gun and seen
+ it fired lie reported that the initial
velocity was exactly as Mallock cal
/ culaUeG, 1000 feet 10 the second
that the angle OF elevation was 55
/ degrees against Aallock's 50-that
I tie height 20 which the projectile
rose was rs miles as against NAL
/ locks land that the length OF
I the gun was so feet i'm place OF 20.
+ The weight of the shell $50 pounds
against Mallock's 400. II was rather
a neat little biz OF scientific prophecy
F fuldllsd.