Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-06-13
BOOMERANGS
(BrandOn Tracy in Popular Me-
chanicS MagaZine).

tHGDISS -Jd@ dEllltJa
! Never before in the history of the
world have inventors been taken
! seriously by everyone. Fulton
doubtless had a friendly listener
who believed fully in the future Of
steam navigation, though history
says nothing of this. Langley had
| his disciples, even though the great
majority of people scOffed at "a
steam engine with wings" Bell,
! Edison, and the rest of the great
men who have made the world re-
Spect Yankee brains, all had their
| followers, but until today the in
ventOr not only had to produce his
/ goods, but demonstrate them time
and again until he convinced an
unwilling public. However, the
war has changed all this.
Today the attention of three CON
tinents, at least, is focused upon in
vention and inventors. Everyone
looks anxiOusIy for a new weapon
that will Out-devil the Hun, and
/ the inventor profits.
| The failures? Probably no at
! tempt will ever be made to catalOg
/ the inventions that fizzled. ThoI.
sands of them already are shelved.
One natural consequence of the
great desire for epOChaI inventions
| is, however. that some plausible in
ventions viii be tried out in actual
| battle and found wanting, or even
| disastrous.
A shining example Of how
plausible scheme gets by sometimes
is used in action and fails utterly,
was the German infantry attack
upon the French trenches back OF
| Hell's Corner bridge over the User
canal at the Ypres salient. The
bridge, controlled by the French
| guns, was an important Transport
| tatiOn factor-Or would be, the mo-
ment it was usuable for either side.
A concerted attack of two divi-
| sions, supported by the heaviest
! possible fire from the German artil-
| lery. succeeded in forcing the
/ bridge. This, however, meant 10th
| ing until the first two lines of
| French trenches, 100 yards back
of the canal, were taken.
| What was left of the two divi-
| siOns, after facing machine-gun en-
! filade in the crossing, stOrmed the
! trenches. Shooting as they charged
across the 120-yard death strip, the
/ boches swarmed into the first
| trench. Reserves had been rushed
| to meet them. and it looked like the
| direst slaughter. The second the
| two lines ciashed at parapet and
| fire step, queer thing happened,
! Instead of fencing and lungIng with
the bayonets each bOche projected
! his baYOnet like a steel arrow at
! the breast of his poilu adversary,
| A few of the French were pain
fully wounded by this strange at
tack. and a half dozen or so were
| killed outright by lucky hits. but
| in the main the bayonets, though
coming with the force Of a strong
| spring, either were DETECTED entire
| " or caused light flesh wounds.
These did not daunt the poilus, who
returned to the combat with re-
doubled vigor.
Then. of course. the Germans, left
| defenseIess by their trick. paid the
penalty. Thousands were killed. and
a greater portion of the remainder.
after seeing how futile the spring
bayOnet really proved, surrendered
instanter. The attack was a com
plete failure, a boomerang in all
senses Of the word, for after the
first surprise the Huns had nothing
to fall back upon
Thousands of the spring bayonel
guns were captured by the allies.
These possessed. in addition to the
regulation equipment. guard and
spring that released by means OF a
wire arm attached to the trigger
guard For a Suacp of airrIf q- fan
feet the bavonet thus would hv
point foremost, but the force behind
It was not as great as that delivered
by two muscular arms In many
cases the antagonists uniform turn
Ell the point. The allies. after eX-
aiming the weapon and aHalyzing
its possibilities, decided il could
not be made practical