Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-02-01
SCIENCE HANDMADE
OF THE GOD OF WAR
Necessity of Victory Mother OF
Many Inventions of De-
structiveness


mother of many inventions of destructive
ness throughout the bloodstained pages OF
world-hlstory Out of the strategic and tacti-
cal necessities Of winning campaigns have
developed agencies or instruments for win
ming them
The present war has contributed, in the
''geophone," one brilliant invention. The
Armageddon Is essentially artillery war,
backed by trenches, mining and sapping.
'Entente control of the seas and coyness
of the Teuton battle fleet behind Kiel has
except for the ruthless U.boat drive on com.
merce, confined action to the land Trench
strategy has evolved on an enormous scale,
superseding the melee and thick of battle
action of yore. Trench warfare Is snuous
and slow. For its advancement of lines, its
"nbbng," IL requires the almost continuous
fusilade of the Busy Berthas. Jack Johnsons
and forty-two centimeter guns, as well as of
smaller ordnance.
The essentially ballistic chat is projectile
or missile) character OF ultra.modern war.
fare makes the determination of the
position of hostile guns of vital impor-
tance. Tho army which can unerringly fix
the place OF the enemy fire within a certain
radius can silence It, The "geophone' Grom
two Greek words signifylng oarth-sound) Is
an infallible index of the emplacement OF
enemy guns SO far as the public knows, the
"geophone" Is the unique invention of the
present conflict and It's devsing is in response
to a definite need owing to the trench and
artillery warfare being waged "over there
II serves two important missions. It's DELI
cate mechanism records for distance of
from 200 to 500 feet the presence of miners
or sappers thus serving warning Of subter-
ranean advancement Of trench lines. Separate
blows of the pick and scrapes Of the spade
can be distinctly heard from the enemy front
It's mechanism is also adjustable to determine
distance and position of enemy guns. Five
sound-receiving stations, senstively set, are
arranged in a semiclrcle. Thus five points
are hit with sound waves of varying ntens-
ties when German gun Is fired.
How Geophone Works
From, this data 1t is merely a mathemati-
cal problem to plot the curve, the center Of
which gives the place of the German gun in
operation and by supplementary reckoning
the distance. As the trajectory. force and
carrying capacity of ordnance are scientih-
cally scheduled II only remains to utilize the
proper piece to silence the enemy. Camou-
nage Is of no avail
For the 'geophone" and supplementary de-
vices now at Pershings command the En-
tente for Democracy is indebted 10 Amer
lean scientists, Though IL is the single sig
nal invention this war has furnished, so far
as the military authorities have confided in
the public, other inventions perfected by
American brains and skill have been adapted
to the uses of the war. The names of
Wright and Curtlss are associated with the
airplane as indlssoluby as those of Holland
and Lake with the submarine
The tank is only the application of the
relatively recently developed American farm
tractor 10 military uses. Some of them in
use We're made in the Middle West in the bg
agricultural implement factories. And right
IN the same section the plants busy in peace
times in making wire fencing and chicken net
nave been doing their bit for Allied victory
by manufacturing wire entanglements, which
nave been used on Il large scale in this war
particularly in n deadly form. charged with
electric current. Barbed wire entanglements
as an outer protection of trench lines ana
IN other positions were first used in modern
warfare by the Japanese in the Russo
Japanese war. The idea was speedily
grasped by the German general staff and
with the adjunct of electriRcation was
utilized after the rush into Belgium and
northern France to protect strategic posi-
tions gained and those obtained from sys-
tematic digging in.
Entanglements on the scale the Germans
used proved serious and irritating barrier
TO Anglo-French progress in various sectors
Infantry sorties against desired obiectives
were futile. The electrified barbed wire not
only made attack vain but rendered sur
prises out of the question.
The tank grew out of a new military necas.
sity in this war. The first tanks used In
the battle of the Somme, September 1915
not merely joted hard the Prusslan faith in
the absolute efficiency of wire entanglements
but threw amazement, CONSERVATION and
fear into the German ranks They created a
terror which must have been akin to that
of the enemies Of Cyrus or Xerxes when the
formidable. panoplied war elephants moved
down all in their path.
Tanks VS.. Tangles
In the first year of the war Kitchener and
French urged the production of some device
for smashing down. wholesale, barbed wire
and machine-gun emplace
ments of the foe. Colonel Swinton. known
as the writer of ingenious war probIems 4,
the form of short Stories then Assistant Sec
retary of the War Council. proposed armored
cars. Almost simultaneously officers of the
Royal Naval Air Service from their expert
ence in scouting, suggested the same thing.
War Office and Admiralty appointed EXPERTS
Many of the experiments were made in
American factories. In June, 1915, Viscount
French, then commanding the British Expe- |
Force in France sent an urgent
call for speeding up of the experiments.
Theory and test decided in favor of on |
adaptation of some of the principles of the |
American farm tractor, as against a swift
light bodied heavily armored car Bulk was
n prime necessity for smashing operations
Capacity for riding over rough ground and
Land was essential. The caterpillar tractor
Of high power considerable mass and proner |
carrying capacity for machine guns and |
crews was the type selected, The yiable |
feature of this type was its power of travel |
ing like the caterpillar or measuring worm. |
by means of internal driving wheels, movinp |
over an endless self-ald track, precisely ths |
principle used for difficult kinds of ditching |
and plowng In the United States The re-
suit was motor that did not worry about |
roadability. l
The name tank grew out of NECESSARY |
secrecy in constructing the weapons and |
training their operators. 1t had, perforce |
to be a largely shared secret and a thrilling |
one to boot, but for once German espionage |
was inefficient The foe knew nothing of the |
great engines which were to end the menace |
Of electric wire entanglements. masked bat |
etc, until the Big Wiliesp (carrvjny |
two Hotchl<ss and several machine g,,nsS |
and "MacTavishes" carrying only machine |
guns) rumbled over every obstacle |
But in the long months of building. as.
sembling and testing the things had to have
some designation "Landshps'' was proposed |
but discarded as too revelatory In communi
cations that might be intercepted. Certain
material used in connection with them was
labeled "Eor drinking purposes only, This
suggested the term tank" and tank II has
been. Tanks were required for water il,
Mesopotama The first consignment sent |