The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1918-04-06
GIANT HUN GUN
WAS written Of
FOUR YEARS AGO
Arthur Train SketChed Can
I non in Fantastic Story,

lawyer, and smiled the smile Of superior
knowledge and disbelief that greeted
jules Verne's Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea"
They had digested THE Man Who
Rocked the Earth" and didn't believe
1~set' set forth therein possible.
Now America has read that Paris
was bombarded from a point more than
siSty miles away by German guns. In
the eleventh chapter OF Mr.. Trains
story occurs thi, passage
The moon rose over sleeping Paris,
silyering the silent reaches Of the Seine.
flooding the deserted streets with mel
low light yet gently retouching all the
disiigurements Of the siege.
Picture Big Gun.
Behind a small hill within the Ger
mar Qualifications a group OF officers
stood in the moonlight. examining what
looked specifically like the hangar Of
Q small dirigible. Nesting behind the
bill, II cast a black rectangular shadow
upon the trampled sand Of the redoubt
a OF artisans were busy filling a
deep trench through which a huge pipe
led off somewhat sort Of deadly
plumbing, for the house sheltered
monster esnnon reinforced by jackets
Of lead and steel, the whole incased In
bfvrooling apparatus Of intricate manu-
facture. From the open end Of the
house the cylindrical barrel OF the
gigantic engine Of war raised itself into
the air At an angle of 10 degrees, and
from the murzle to the ground below il
was a drop Of more than eighty feet
On a track running off to the north
rested the projeetiles side by side, re-
sembling in the dim Light a row Of
steam boilers in the yard Of a loeomo-
tive factory.
Death Engine Is Ready.
well remarked one Of the officers.
turning to the only one Of his compan-
ions not in uniform, 'Thanatos is ready.
1.-THE man addressed was Won Heck
mann, the most famous inventor Of
military ordnance in the world, already
four times decorated for his services to
the emperor.
"'The labor Of nine years he an
swered with emotion. Nine long years
OF self-denial and unremitting study.
But tonight I shall be repaid-repaid a
thousand times
"Well, shall we start the ballS' asked
4 general, laying his hand on Won Heek-
raann's shoulder. But the inventor
found il so hard to master his emotion
that he could only nod his head. Yet
the ball TO which the general alluded
wa: the discharging of a fiendish war
mschipe toward an unsuspecting and
harmless city alive with sleeping peo-
pie and the emotion OF the inventor
was due to the fact that he had devised
and completed the most atrocious en-
CINE Of death ever conceived by the
mind Of mantle relay gun. .
An emperor himself had placed with
MS own d%ivinely appointed hand, a
ribbon over the spot beneath which his
heart should have been, '''
95 Centimeters Thick.
1.-THE proiectile of this diabolical In
%vention was ninety-five centimeters in
diameter and was itself a rifle mortar
which, in full flight, twenty miles from
The gun and at the top of its trajectory
Exploded in midair, hurting forward its
contained projectile with an additional
velocity of three thousand feet second
Ibis process replaced itself, the final
or core bomb, weighing over three hun
bred pounds and filled with lyddite,
reaching its mark one minute and thin
ty-five seconds after the firing Of the
gun. This browning example of the
human minds destructive ingenuity
had cost the German government five
million marks and had required three
years for its construction
Ignored the Armistice.
The story then goes on TO tell how,
just as the gun was about to be fired,
won Hickman received orders that an
armistice had been declared and he re-
fused TO fire. A general, maddened by
wine, then enters into the tale.
"'To hell with peaceV he beloved
TO hell with peace, I say. Press the
button, Won HeckmannP
az can't the inventor muttered. !
ean't.'
"The general seemed to have gone
mad. Thrusting Won Hickman out oi
The way, he threw himself into a chair
Mt the end of the table, and with a
snarl pressed the black handle OF the
~. So
AT first the night remained still
Then, like the grating Of a COT
fee mill, they heard the faint whirr OF
machinery, a sharper metallic ring o.
steel against steel, followed by a gi-
gantic defamation which shook the
ground upon which they stood. 'f
With a roar like the fall Of a sky
scraper, the first she'll buried itself into
The night. The reverbation was still
echoing among the hills when the sec
ond defamation occurred, shortly fol-
lowed by the third and fourth"
After eight shells had killed a few
rersons In the snhnrhs Of Paris "rhe