| Show NOW FOB FOR NOISELESS GUNS Austrian Government is Experiment ExperimentIng Ing With a Novel Invention Vienna Correspondence of Omaha Bee BeeThe BeeThe ee The military authorities here are making experiments with a view to overcoming over the sound caused by the thedIs discharge dIs harge of ot rifles and heavy ordnance It Is believed that they have proved so far successful and that we shall shan soon have added to the terrors of war what will probably be a soundless as W we now have a smokeless powder The arrangement is supposed to be beade made ade through ll a discovery dl overy in tics which allows of f the too reversing and andS S suppression of the sound created by the discharge arge of the gun This Is done by means of certain mechanical arrange arrangements arrangements ments meats in the barrel of the weapon and is Ii said to be one of the most marvel ous inventions of ot the century It is likely to be applied In many other ways for lor tb suppression of sound as alJ well as In connection with artillery The invention Is practically a necessity sity alty to t modern mod rn armies and navies at the present moment mom nt unless war is to Become more horribly destructive and I costly than it is at present It has 1188 been developed particularly to offset the advantage of a new neu ne tion made by General Gilleta Gillet of the ItalIan war department dep who has suc sue succeeded eded in producing an instrument called caned the telemeter with which he claims to be able to locate the position of guns gun or riflemen whose discharges may be invisible not only to the naked eye but also to field glasses glas es This acute Instrument denotes pre precisely the direction from which the sound soun of the th detonation proceeds a awell as aa aswell well welt as the approximate distance at which the firing tirIng has taken place The Italian war office has construct constructed I ed od a 8 number of these Instruments at the military engineering ering works of PaVin Pavia which It has made extensive and very satisfactory experiments with The laws governing verning the transmission of pf sound are re well wen known When Wn the flash or smoke accompanying the re report report report port of ofa a rifle Is seen it Is quite easy to judge its approximate distance In yards by by the num ber her of seconds a which elapse b between twe n sighting the flash and hearing the re report report port This however is only a rough roup method of calculation and there ar are ant disturbing factors to take tak Into account the first of which to occur Is the tion and the force of the wind which is 13 s blowing at the time When the flash fla h of or smoke accompany lug ing the report bf of a rifle the only means by which the position of the he firer may be located is the Intensity of the sound There are many causes which may modify this intensity such for instance as the distance of the Sound Bound the amplitude of the vibrations set up the direction of the wind sound Bound being always better propagated with favorable wind and more intense than han when It Is s contrary To go even further the density of ot air at the place of report must be considered S To take an example It Is well wen known that hat on high mountains where the air airs Is s more d than on level ground the he discharge of a gun produces but buta a feeble sound The velocity of sound also naturally depends upon its vio lence ence A remarkable observation was made I by Captain Perry P rry during one of his Arctic expeditions It was found by persons stationed st at quite a dis I tance from the guns that the report i of the cannon was heard before the order to fire was given by b the officer in I charge Some military critics expressed a i doubt that General telemeter I could be of m oh practical use except I on a perfectly clear day when no wind was blowing but the fullest tests have proved Its invaluable qualities At midday a cannon Is fired In Rome from the castle of St Angelo to an announce flounCe the hour of noon When the wind is In the favorable quarter the I report shakes windows of houses fully a mile away and when it is in the op opposite opp opposite I p site direction the report at that dis distance distance tance is almost inaudible while the distance remains the same The instrument has been be n tested at this point under all circumstances It I has been shown able to gauge the strength of or the wind and indicate the variations In the strength of the report I likely to be produced by variations in inthe inthe the winds strength I Of Ot course Its success has greatly dis discounted discounted discounted counted the use of smokeless powder on which the Austrian government has relied so 50 much On this account the soundless powder tests are being rap nap idly pushed forward |
