The New York herald., 1922-01-01
American War Inventions
Did Much to Gain Victory

r TIGH technical honors recently
awarded workman for per-
fecting a process that per-
mitted quantity production of shell
cases during the war brings to mind
the many American war inventions
that helped to shorten the great
struggle. Also centering attention
on these devices is the growing
night to end viper warfare-use of
gas, air bombing and submarines
going forward in the arms confer
ence.
Special Correspondence to THE NEW York
HERALD
Copyright, 1921, by THE NEW York HERALD
BY DONALD M'GREGoR.
New York Herald Bureau.
Washington, ID. c., Dec. 81.
- HE United States to-day Is fully at
peace with all the world. 1t is the
first time in a decade. War and
rumors of war have crowded through the
last ten years.
Mexico loomed frst-then American eyes
turned toward Europe-and now peace.
The world readjustinent is now well on the
way. And, with the Washington conference
for the limitation of ornaments making
marked progress toward insuring continued
tranquility among the nations, America now
is able to take stock of what it has done in
the last ten years-take stock of it's de-
velopments in the all-important period
through which it has just passed.
These developments have been in many
lines. but most notably-because of the bust
ness at hand--in the grim art of making
war. Americas war inventions, the story
of how they were brought about. the part
they played in bringing victory to the nation
at arms, will form absorbing chapter in
The histories that will be written in the
future.
Into PIowshares Now
American genius now will turn many of
he developments to peacetme work. Many
of them will remain in arsenals for use il
war ever comes again. They will be
weapons tucked away for an emergency,
which the nation hopes, particularly at this
Christmas time, never will arise.
Save for the bow and arrow virtually
every weapon known to man, some Of them
long regarded as obsolete was employed on
the western front during the world war.
This was due to the fact that the battle
line extended from the sea on the one end
TO a neutral country Switzerland. on the
thnT fhnf hn Hafal NOVA
ments in warfare could not be employed. 1t
led to the special warfare that continued for
so many months and il brought into play all
sorts of weapons, most of them, Of course,
improved upon since they had been used
in the early days
One noticeable instance of this was the
'tin derby" worn by the doughboys in the
trenches, to protect themselves against
enemy fire. This headgear was nothing
more nor less than the armor of the days of
old. Some of the soldiers who served as
snipers went much further than the head
gear. wearing bullet-proof corsets and other
types of armor to the average mind asso-
ciated with the Knights of many years ago.
Hand grenades had been used during the
Napoleonic wars, when there was close
hand-to-hand fighting, but they were i'm
proved upon for the last war and their con-
tents We're explosives far more deadly than
anything known in the old days. Still
hand grenades were not a development of
the world war.
The airplane a combat unit was dis
tinctly a development of the world war. 1t
had been used for scouting duty before the
outbreak Of hostilities, and had been in
cuded in the military scheme. But for use
in dropping bombs and against other air.
craft II was unknown.
War Development Has Much
Increased Since Armistice
The truth is that this development has
progressed more since the armistice than it
did before The ideas, large number of
them, were obtained during the war, but
the end came too soon to put them into
application. The construction Of a 1000
pound bomb, the largest known in military
operations is the work Of recent months