Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-11
No Wonder Germany Quit
NUMBER FORTY

The Allies went Germany ore
better in almost everything they at
tempted" said Major Frank e.
Mahin, of the Army Recruiting Sta
ton, 1926 Market street, Harrisburg.
''In spite of the advantage they had,
by reason of years of preparation,
and their much-vaunted superiority
in pure and applied sciences, the
Boche completely fell down in some
of the departments of the great
game; or at best, made crude at
tempts when compared with that
accomplished by the Allies. One field
in which the Allies were supreme,
was in that of sound ranging. By
this system, through use of delicate
instruments, we could determine al
most the exact position of an enemy
battery, simply from the sound of
it's firing. A wonderful feature of
the system was, that the more deli
cate and expensive instruments
used, could be located safely in the
rear; while the more important
in that they were placed near the
front and were first to detect the
sound, upon which the functioning
of the whole system depended, had
practically no intrinsic value. To
describe the workings of the system,
with all details of the instruments
used, and the principles involved,
would require a knowledge such as
warrants n foot or two of scholastic
degrees after ones name. Briefly
the story is this: Placed near the
front, at sufficient intervals, and at
points of which the map locations
were known, were at least three
sound detectors-the instruments
just referred to. When a Boche gun
fired the sound came to these de-
tectors, possibly reaching all at the
same time, but generally at inter
walls of few seconds, or fractions
thereof. These detectors were con-
nected by wire to n central station,
where through electric current, the
other instruments recorded the de-
tected sounds and measured the in
tervals between in fractions of sec
onds. BY use of principles Of
physics, time measurements thus re
corded, were translated into units
| of distance, and corrections were
| made for direction and velocity OF
wind and humidity. With higher
mathematics applied, the data thu:
| obtained, determined the curve,
called an hyperbole, upon which the
| source of sound must be. At least
| two curves were determined, and it
| followed, since that point lay on
| both, it must be at their interseC-
| ton. On an ingeniously arranged
board, upon which the detectors' po-
| sitions were located, as we'll as ref
erence points of the map of that
! locality, these curves were plotted,
| and one was able to imm ediately
! tell lust where the Boche gun was.
| Our guns then could be brought up
| and fired at will. Up to the time we
1 entered the war, our French ana
! British Allies had been working out
and applying this system. Room for
improvement was found in nearly
all of the instruments used, and
! eXperts of our Bureau of Standards
went to work on the problems. They
| finally designed and built a set
which was adopted as a standard
! and we were in fair way of being
we'll equipped. So far as I've ever
heard, the enemy had nothing :,
compare with this system; or, If he
had, it was a crude affair, judging
from the results he was able to at
tain. AS will be readily seen, the
| Boche had no chance to effectualiy
/ conceal his batteries. He could
| hide them from the eyes of our
aviators, and their cameras; he
might conceal the flash of dis
charge, but he could not mufIie the
| sound. When u batterys location
| is known, it can be destroyed at
will. It was sure to be located, foI
the alert and almost infallible III
strumental watchmen were on the
job twenty-four hours a day, and
Mr.. Boche was certainly up against
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