Evening star., 1938-10-09
Science Already Is Enlisted to
FIGHT the Worlds Next War
Researchers, Cast in Contradictory Roles, Brew
Both Destruction and Safety in Perfecting
Armies Efficiency.
By Ho,Oard ". BIakesIee and Stephen J. McDonoueh.

this year by an eminent scientist, DR.. Percy
Bridsman of Harvard. University's high
pressure laboratory.
DR.. Bridgman was not even thinking of
war. He told the engineers that "it is not
possible to increase the resistance of hol-
low cylinder to internal pressure by more
than a strictly limited amount even by
making the walls infinitely thick"
In other words, gun barrel mile thick
would not be much stronger than one far
smaller. But DR.. Bridgman explained in
pressure experiments, he found a way
around this trouble by making the cylinder
conical or cork-shaped
The rumors about the military cork
shaped gun said it would not shoot straight.
At the University of Iowa Prof Edward
Barlow, former president of the American
Chemical Society, made a new kind of
dynamite out Of corn two years ago. He
was not planning for war, but for new out
lets for Iowas corn. The Russians for
time were interested in this new explosive.
but at last reports had dropped it,
As war weapon it went on laboratory
shelf, marked prospects poor That, how
ever, was the history Of mustard gas and
other products of science.
Science has produced one new, and COM
mercially used explosive, since the World
War This is the nitramon of the Du Pont
Co. 1t is more powerful than TINT. 1t was
supposed to be a peace" explosive because
neither red-hot irons nor rife bullets will
detonate the stuff
1t, too, lies on the reserve shelf Of war
pecularities may find some unusual battle
or defense use.
OF truly staggering war possibilities is
the discovery of entirely new ways to make
the raw materials of explosives recently
found at Purdue University. Through this
discovery alcohol and parrafins can be
treated with nitrogen. Enormous quantities
of cheap parafiin and alcohol are available.
Parafin is new in explosives.
1t was the Napoleonic Wars which Great
ed the beet sugar industry. European coun-
tries cut of from sugar imports, turned to
their scientists to get it from beets
Germany has already repeated that his
tory by making sugar from woodland
from waste wood at that.
But this laboratory miracle now goes
farther than sugar The man who started
1t during the World War, and brought 1t to
commercial fulfillment in peacetime re.
Gently, DR.. Friedrich Bergius, has carried
it on to the point of making alcohol, acetic
acid and other fermentation products.
Alcohol can 60 two ways for war-as a
fuel for the new arms or into explosives.
Reports of disease germ warfare have
been headlined. But Washington and Euro
pean authorities alike declare these are
wild dreams 1t would take book to tell
all the practical difficulties in the way of
that kind of war
But Capt. Haldane says it may be prac-
ticable to drop crop pests from planes.
That idea has not received much publicity.
Its military value would be in tying up
certain number of persons, in long war,
to tight the pests. 1t might reduce food
supplies.
Late in the World War the American
military authorities added psychologists to
their staffs. This move is up again, with
both support and criticism.
From England and America both come
proposals to add physiology to the winning
Of wars. Scientists claim little effective
study has been made of nervous strain of
vibrating machinery on q soldier In q
mechanized unit
Would Measure Stamina.
The idea is based on the proposition
that "the man who wins a battle is first
of all the man who does not become q
casualty, but, secondly, he is the man who
an hour longer than his opposite number"
This Is another way Of saying that medi-
cal science will do more in future wars
than in past.
OF the present weapons it Is the opinion
Of the Washington experts that the air
plane is the single most powerful influence
on war. More intensive work, they state,
has been done on the plane than any other
military instrument.
For dropping bombs new types Of sights
have been developed. These have mechan.
ical calculators capable of measuring speed,
altitude, wind drift and other factors to
increase the accuracy and the automatic
dropping Of bombs.
Camera Spies on Hidden Troops.
Recent advances in photography, spon-
sored to a large extent by the United States
Army Air Corps, make it possible, by TAX
ing colored pictures from the air, to spot
troops and machines invisible to the eye.
It is declared this can be done despite the
best natural cover and camounage.
Both here and abroad there is no word
Of better war gas than mustard. A few
new gases have been invented since the
World War, such as a nourine mixture at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
which can be exploded by the heat of .
human hand. But it, and the others re-
ported, have shown none OF the stability
needed for war. In addition, many gases
have been reported as new and more dread
full than mustard, and they proved to b
chemicals investigated and discarded -
inadeo,iatH n, Ef1e World War