Evening star., 1942-01-20
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study

IN LABORATORY, rieio
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
Elastic armor for both soldiers and
civilians may result from experiments
Just reported by three British doctors.
It long has been known, report Drs.
A. M. Black, P. Delisle Burns and Sidney
Zukerman in the latest issue Of the Brit
ish Medical Journal received here. that
missiles entering the body at high speed
cause far greater damage to bones and
tissue than theoretically is justified.
1t looks as II there had been an ex-
plosion in the flesh. Cavities are found
much larger than the size of the bullet
or fragment. Bones are found broken
which have not been touched. Flesh
around the wounds is reduced to pulp.
The physicians undertook to solve the
paradox for the Ministry Of Home De-
fense. Col. P. Libessant, foremost small
arms expert of the Free French forces
now in London, devised rifle with
which a steel ball three thirty seconds
of an inch in diameter, could be fired at
speeds ranging from 300 to 5000 feet a
second. The speed could be precisely
controlled by setting a mechanism. The
weight Of the ball was very close to the
average of. that of the flying splinters
which have caused many casualties In
air raids.
They fired these bullets at blocks of
gelatin with about the same consistency
as human flesh, living and dead rabbits,
and chunks Of beef. Up to about $500
feet per second. they found, the expert
mental wounds were about what would
be mathematically calculated. Beyond
that the cavities, or areas Of pulped flesh,
become greater and greater. Rabbit
bones were broken q third of an inch
away from the path Of the bullets.
What happens. >they concluded. is that
the body cells themselves, microscop-
ically small, become secondary bullets
They are shot of sideways at tremendous
velocities In the path of the bullet or
fragment. They hit other cells which,
in turn. become bullets themselves. The
result is considerable crushing of flesh
In the First World War, they say, the
Germans were often accused by army
doctors OF using dumdum bullets. These
charges were Indignantly denied. Ger
man Army doctors conducted a series OF
experiments to show that bullets fired at
high speeds might have much the same
effects as dumdums Their findings were
disbelieved at the time, but now appear
to have been right.
Among these findings, the British doc
tors report, was the fact that a skull
seldom is fractured by the impact of a
bullet. The crack comes only a second
or so after the missil has passed through
1t. This agrees with the present dis
coveries
The effect. they found. depends a
great deal on the elasticity OF the tissue.
Must.es, nerves or blood vessels seldom
seriously are injured. They have the
elasticity to take the blows of the BULLET
cells" and bounce back into shape. Flesh
fares the worst.
But the most remarkable finding of all
came from the experiment Of firing bull
let's into chunks OF beef. Where this
was protected by skin the explosion
effect was greatly reduced The same
was true for projectiles fired into dead
rabbits. Skin Is elastic. The probability,
they conclude. Is that this elasticity
takes up a good deal of the shock On
tIo al q
ed by films Of rubber seemed just as
badly mutilated
This raises the question, the British
Medical Journal comments editorially,
as to whether tight underclothing and
a thickness and elasticity similar to
those Of human skin. might not furnish
considerable protection. The suggestion
might be tried out, it is proposed, with
thin elastic stockings
Such armor, of course, would have no
ability to stop bullets, but it might
greatly dissipate the internal explosive
effect. The skin Of man or animal. it Is
suggested, is product Of long natural
evolution as armor and hitherto through
all the Years of the human race has not
been appreciated.
While the tests do not dispose entirely
Of the charge that in the last war Ger
man troops violated international con-
ventions by using "dumdums," the doc
tors report, the fact remains that most
Of the injuries reported by the army
surgeons of IS years ago can be explained
by the present experiments.
A wave Of fresh research, set in mo-
ton by wartime demands, is sweeping
through the whole field Of chemistry,
DR.. William A. Hamor, director of the
Mellon Institute Of Industrial Research,
has just reported to the American
Chemical Society.
American companies, he found, have
increased their research personnel II
per cent In the last two years. Approx
mately 10000 research scientists now
are employed by 1850 companies About
100000 new chemical products have
come from researches in the Nations
chemical laboratories in Is years.
Close to 1000 scientists, DR.. Hamor
found, ale at work for the National De-
fense Research Committee in institu-
tions throughout the country. 1t Is es-
timated also that l, 400 out Of 400 pro-
feSsional physicists are investigating
problems Of national defense.