Evening star., 1936-03-08

Akron, weighing 24O,OOO pounds, had total
lifting power of 100000 pounds - that is, it
could carry 10000 pounds of fuel. weapons
and war materials We will see and hear
much more about these huge ships.
Automatons have taken over most of the
pencil-and-paper work that formerly had to
be done by army officers in hurry under fire.
One of these thinking machines" is able to
turn its telescope eye upon distant plane,
and within 80 seconds automatically train on
it battery of high-angle guns that will harry
the plane with hurricane of STEEL shot up
ward at the rate of ton minute.
The officers in charge of this artillery may
be half mile from the mechanical eyes that
aim the gun.
Great secrecy surrounds the new develop
ments in gunnery and ordnance. Marvellous
alloys with special properties have practically
eliminated corrosion and failure under high
heat. Armor- piercing shells now have per-
cussion caps that make explosions certain on
impact.
The sensation of the next war, if it is not
the aerial torpedo, will likely be the long
range of the huge guns that will be ready
The astonishing development of the World
War was Germany's big Bertha" This
monstrous siege gun sent l2-inch shell into
the stratosphere, where the rarefed atmo-
sphere ten miles or more above the earth
offered little resistance to the 9O-mile journey
of this screaming agent of death.
The inhabitants of Paris were terrorized by
this storm of destruction from out the heav-
ems. Easter Sunday morning 100 helpless
non-combatants in the Church of St. Gervais
were instantly killed. No other known gun
ever had a range of more than Is miles, So far
away was this death-dealing super engine
that its operators had to allow for the curva-
ture of the earth and the speed of the earth's
rotation.
When the war ended, the only result of an
energetic search for the secret of Big Bertha
was the discovery of the guns emplacement
more than 80 miles from Paris
Although the Germans have kept their
secret well, the next war will disclose even
bigger and more accurate cannon hurting their
shells through the unresisting stratosphere
with deadly precision.
No less disturbing are the various new
methods of using rays and beams to rout an
enemy. One new beam of force, similar to the
so-called death ray" of scientific romance,
may destroy soldiers miles away, or bring
down an airplane like duck on the wing
The inventor asserts that this aggregation of
intense short waves will penetrate armor-
plate but it must be generated at stationary
power plant, which makes it wholly defen-
sive weapon.
Experiments disclose that radio waves"
used for the electrocution of destructive in
sects may be so ampli6ed that they will kill
human beings. The enemy must enter an elec-
trio field between huge electrodes, and it is
the rapid oscillation of high-voltage energy
across this field that does the job.
Radio waves already employed in hospitals
can create in patient temperature of lis
degrees - deadly if maintained. In laboratory
experiments, the electrostatic field set UP by
an 8OO0-volt stream of energy has killed
insects instantly and will kill any person VINO
remains in the area for very long. The swift
of polarity changes from positive to negative
Continued on page I3)