Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-09-07
L|STEN|NG-|N BY
SIGNAL CORPS MEN
REMARKABLE DEVICES BY USE
OF WHICH GERMAN MES
SAGES ARE CAPTURED.
WIRES FAR AWAY TAPPED
Student Army Training Corps Plans
Changed to Conform to Lowered
Draft Aees-SoIdiers Want Lemon
Drops and Soluble Coffee.

Oraft A0eS-SoioIerS want Lemon
Drops and Soluble Coffee.
The listening-in service of the signal
corps of the army is one of it's inter-
esting activities. Information of the
enemy and his movements is always Of
use, and sometimes of great impOr-
lance.
The signal corps operates numerous
listening-in stations close to or within
the enemy's lines, at which, by means
of devices recently perfected. it is able
not only to intercept any radio mes
sage but also to determine accurately
the location of the radio instrument
which transmits it. This information
as to location is transmitted to the
artillery, which proceeds to put the
radio station out of business.
German telephone wires have been
made to divulge their secrets, though
such wires are well within German ter
ritOry where it is impossible to tap
their lines. This is accomplished by
one of the most ingenious instruments
that has been produced. BY means of
it our signal corps man can sit in his
dugout on the front line with re-
ceiver to his ear and hear any tele-
phone message well within the enemy
territory, even though several thou
sand Huns may intervene between him
and the nearest point to the telephone
wires being used by the enemy.
The signal service of the army came
into existence with development of the
telegraph during the Civil war, and
was expanded greatly in the Spanish
American war. It was then mounted
organization, mobile as cavalry, and
used largely to serve the needs Of the
cavalry. 1t developed practically
perfect system for open warfare.
A new system had to be originated
for trench warfare and experts began
the study of this problem and the use
of telephone and telegraph lines and
the radio as soon as the present war
started. Signal corps men were among
the first units sent to France after
the United States entered the war.
The French system of signaling has
been adopted in part, but with many
purely American Innovations. The
whole fighting area within ten miles of
the front lines is a mass of lines OF
information. There is the wire net. or
telegraph and telephone; the radio;
the visual, or searchlight and fire.
works, and the messengers, runners
and motorcyclists.
Plans for the student army training
corps have been changed by the war
department to conform to the lowered
draft ages. The war department will
utilize the plant. equipment and organ
ization of the colleges to maintain a
reservoir of officer material for train
ing as officers anl technical experts
from which it will be possible to meet
the enlarged needs of the various
branches Of the service.
The length of time during which
men will be trained in the colleges will
depend on the needs Of the service. AS
fast as one group of trained men is
drawn from the colleges into the serv-
ice their places will be taken by a
new quota obtained by voluntary in
duction or through the draft. In this
way the educational facilities Of the
country will be used to maintain a
constant supply of men who are
trained to meet the needs Of the army.
Under the regulations selected young
men who are physically fit for mill
tary service, who are eighteen years
of age or over, and who have had a
grammar school education may be In
Quoted as volunteers into the army and
enter upon a course Of special train
ing. Those who have had only gram
mar school education will enter ordl-
narily special training detachments to
be trained along mechanical lines of
military training. Those who prove
in the course Of their mechanical train
ing that they are officer material may
be transferred to unit in one of the
colleges to be prepared to enter cen
trail officers training camp.
Young men who have had high
school education will be allowed to en-
LcT Tile COlloSc 1OI AOie OuN"hNSN
training as officers and as technical
experts of various kinds, according to
their experience and abilities. Those
who show promise under this training
will be kept in college until qualified
to enter an officer training camp or be
sent directly into the service as tech
meal experts; those who do not show
promise under the training will be
sent either to nOncOmmissiOned Off
GERS schools, to the nearest depot bri-
gade or to detachments where men are
trained according to their technical or
mechanical abilities.
Do not use galvanized utensils in
making preserves, jellies or fruit
juices, say department Of agriculture
experts. Some of the zinc with which
the vessels are galvanized may be
changed to salts Of zinc, which will
give the product an acrid and astrin-
gent taste and render it unsuitable for
human use.
Mexican laborers in Texas have de.
veloped the taste for cottage cheese
Government experts have taught them
how to make it. The result is say.
ing in meat.
Why waste potatoes by putting them
in dirty potato cellars? Clean the eel
lars. There never was Il time when
something to eat was so valuable as
now, and when so much effort has
hacn eypended in food production.