Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-09-21
American Ingenuity
Making Itself Felt
IN Making Big Guns

Central France, Sept. 6.--American
ingenuity, is fast making Itself felt in
the construction of field guns in the
vast workhouse of the ordnance branch
of the American army here.
One OF the American designs which
has won strong favor with :ae French
experts is the split trailer" which ex-
tends back of the gun from the wheels
down to the ground! From the earliest
days of gunnery this trailer has been
single piece. But the Americans have
split 1t in two from the ground up. so
that two great legs spread out back
ward from the cannon.
The results have been astonishing.
permitting an ordinary field piece to
be elevated to 80 degrees or almost
straight up.
adopted as the standard French model,
and 1t is going into all the new guns
made at French arsenals. Onicial
photographs made by the ordnance
branch are now going forward for pub
lie exhibition in America showing this
split trailer firing at an elevation OF
73.40 degrees.
Here could be seen also every form
Of the death dealing machine-gun
which became such formidable weap-
on in the present war.
This is an age OF mechanical war
fare" saidthe officer as he pointed out
the different types, French. English,
American, as well as German and Aus
trian. There were no machine guns
used in the civil war: only few In the
Spanish American and Boar wars:
more in the Russo Japanese and Balk-
an wars: and now they have developed
to foremost place as an effective and
deadly means for warfare"
Most Of the nations are making two
forms OF these machine guns the heavy
type weight about 80 pounds, mounted
on a tripod and drawn by mule. and
the lighter automatic rifle. weighing
about Is pounds. fred from the should
er like an ordinary rife, and carried
by hand as It is not much heavier than
the standard 10-pound rifle. Both
types OF these guns fire steady streams
of lead as the belt OF bullets are fed
into the reservoirs. the only limit being
the amount Of ammunition which can
becarried. with each automatic rife
are three men. one to Are and two to
keep UP the steady feeding OF ammuni-
ton.
gun makes favorable appearance In
this array OF makes from all the ma
t,cnr. y TO coming over in large guam
titles now, and most OF the American
divisions now arriving come with their
machine gun section equipped with the
new American model. At the training
camps the tests have given the best
results, but the real test OF battle ac-
ton Is still to come, as most OF the oil
visions on the fighting line obtained
the macfinegun equipment before
the new model was ready.
In this same arsenal one could com =
pare the rifles and bayonets OF all the
combatant troops The American bay
onet looked like a long. sharp-edged
knife. Put the French hayonet was
moro like slender rapier. two feet
long AMI without cutting edge. meant
for stabting. The Russian bayonet
has no sharp point hn. Is like screw
driver with n fiat edge, cutting and
stabbins at the same time.
And besides the guns OF, all kinds Is
tho ammunition stored In vast q,,an :
titles In arsenals and warehouses and
In huge parks and ammunition dumps
all the way from the coast up to the
fighting front The great stacks OF
shells arc very orderly in arrangement.
each stack representing carload, and
each graded by caliber and lot-number,
Each lot OF shells differs siishtiy in
power. and the only way 70 insure nn-
form accuracy In the Are Of o battery
is to keep it supplied with the same lot
OF shells.
Separate from the shells, are the
fuses and grenades kept IN small de-
tached lots owing TO their highly eS-
plosive character. In one OF these
grenade dumps there were rs different
kinds OF gas. hand and rife rrcnades.
There are now some $500 men, for
Nmcrly skilled mechanics In large AM
o~ican factories. who arc enlisted SOL
dIers carrying on th,s hure work OF
keeping up the supply Of guns and
ammunition. Realizing the need OF
hish!y skilled men for this work In
France. special recruiting campai@n
"es carried onVin many ofS tho. AHrr-
lean Industrial ssentrfS i1st s !: =
results shown IN the equipment az The
ordnance branch With = stan of skilled
tt, MI ( sit