Imperial Valley press., 1941-08-27
by Peter Edison -.
The Inside Track in Washington

WASHINGTON, Aug. 81 = One
of the more amazing and frightful
aspects about the science" of mod
ern war is the way it has of deyel-
oping while in progress. And the
uncensored reports of observers re-
turning to the United States bear
proof that every day, in every way,
it is becoming Worser and Worser.
The case of airplane speed and
armament is a perfect example Of
wars increasing efficiency. 1t was
only two years ago that the shoot
in the lovely harvest season OF 80
in the lovely harvest season og 80
an airplane that could do $50 miles
an hour was all right. Today it
must do 400 to 450, or be shot down.
Airplane engines that could rate
1000 or 1900 horsepower could get
by, but today 1000 hp. is mini
mum, and 2500 or better must be
achieved soon if there is to be ST.
periority in the air. Planes that
could climb to 10000 feet were safe
in SO, but today they must reach
10000. Two machine guns and one
cannon made combat planes pretty
formidable in the old days, but to-
day they pack three or four cannons
and six or eight machine guns.
Newest device of death and de-
struction is repeatedly the acoustic
or harmonic mine. 1t is a successor
to the magnetic mine, which be-
came obsolete as soon as the mag
netic belt was invented and all
ships were equipped with this ring
of cables through which a current
was passed to set up an induction
field that would counteract the
magnetic field of the mine, making
it harmless.
Not much is known about the
acoustic mine, but the principle of
its operation is fairly simple. In
stead of being set off by the ships
natural magnetic field, it is set off
by the vibration of the ships en-
gine, the transmission of sound
waves through water.
1t being practically impossible to
build a yibrationless or perfectly
silent ship, licking this acoustic
mine may be a lot harder than
overcoming the magnetic mine One
report in Washington is that the
Germans have discontinued using
the magnetic mine at sea, convert
ing those on hand into land mines
to drop by parachute from bomb
ing planes.
THIS MOTOR MISS NO MISS
Another ingenious use of sound
waves has been figured out by the
German technicians. When German
bombers first came over England,
it was noticed their engines, in
stead of having a steady, even
roar, seemed to exhaust uneyenly
and at variable pitch. British plane
builders were at first inclined to
scoff, saying the Nazis didn't know
how to build good motors. But
when the British plane detecting
devices tried to pick up German
planes by means of mechanical ears
and radio listening posts, it was
found that this uneven beat of
the German motors made extreme
ly difficult the task of telling
quickly the height of an attacking
bomber. Now, it is understood, Brit
ish bombing plane engines are also
being re-geared to give off the un-
even drone beat SO as to throw off
German listening posts.
Chatter about the mysterious
Sperry bomb sight, perfected for
use by U. s. bombers, has Of course
been limitless. Hailed as the great
est secret weapon of the present
war, it enables bombers to drop
their eggs in pickle barrels from,
$1,000 feet with uncanny regularity
It has been generally assumed that
this device was given TO the British
but there now comes from England
reports that . the Sperry bomb