Слике страница
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small]

One of the mammoth cannon used in field warfare to batter the enemy's works and fortresses. It is mounted on a specially built railway car and is readily moved from one firing position to another.

[graphic][merged small]

French gunners training a machine gun on a hostile aeroplane. These guns have been very successful in bringing German planes to earth and the French artillerymen are very expert in their use.

Now he may be miles from the scene of battle, seated in his tent or in a house, following the movements of the troops on a topographical map and transmitting orders and receiving reports by telephone to and from all parts of the field. Thus an army of hundreds of thousands, operating on a battle front of twenty or thirty miles, is as directly under control of the distant commander-in-chief as was a single regiment in olden times.

NAVAL MECHANICS AND MATHEMATICS

Equally striking has been the transformation of naval warfare. In Nelson's day, and even in Farragut's, the captain or the admiral stood on the quarter-deck, directing the navigation of the ship and the fighting of the crew, while the ammunition was brought to and placed in the guns by hand. Now the commander stands in his armored conning tower, giving commands by telephone, and the ammunition is handled and the guns are loaded by mechanical or electrical devices. The whole battleship is an intricate, elaborate engine or congeries of engines, operated by steam or electricity.

One great cause of the American naval victories in the War of 1812 was their use of sights on cannon. But now

a warship's guns are aimed by machinery, according to elaborate mathematical calculations. Instead of laying hostile ships side by side, gun-muzzles touching, as Paul Jones loved to do, the fighting is conducted at a distance of miles. The huge guns, loaded with smokeless explosives, hurl shells of half a ton weight each a distance of a dozen miles, with force sufficient to pierce the vitals of a ship at seven or eight miles, and with fuse gauged to explode the projectile within a second or two of the appointed time; while the mathematical and mechanical accuracy of the

aiming is so great that at a distance of several miles a shot can be landed within a few feet of any designated point, and that when both vessels are moving at full speed.

TORPEDOES AND SUBMARINES

A hundred years ago the torpedo was a cask filled with powder, which drifted or was thrust against a vessel and

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

SUBMARINE TORPEDO-BOAT OF THE HOLLAND TYPE

a, a, storage-batteries; b, b, main ballast-tank; c, gasolene tank; d, torpedo compensating-tank; e, forward trimming-tank; f, torpedo-tube; g, g, torpedoes; h, conning-tower; j, water-tight hatch on top of conning-tower; k, steering-compass; 1, ordinary steering-rudder, the horizontal diving-rudder not shown; m, screw-propeller; n, after trimming-tank; o, air-compressor; p, combined dynamo and motor; q, gasolene engine; r, r, periscope motors; s, ventilating-tube; t, auxiliary ballasttank; u, adjusting ballast-tank; v, air-storage tanks; w, forward water-tight hatch.

was exploded by percussion caps on contact. Today the torpedo is an elaborate mechanism capable of being dispatched with unerring aim for a great distance. It can

LINE OF TRAJECTORY

BURSTING
POINT

POINT OF IMPACT

THE GROUND COVERED BY SHRAPNEL IS ELLIPTICAL, ABOUT 200 X 25 YARDS

penetrate the hull of an enemy's ship at the range of a mile, and it may explode on contact or be exploded by a time mechanism at the designated second. Such projectiles are These vessels

now discharged from submarine vessels.

range in size up to 5,000 tons, and are capable of cruising

[graphic][merged small]

British advancing over the captured German trenches, after heavy artillery fire had reduced them to tangled ruins and crushed their powers of resistance.

« ПретходнаНастави »