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Show V Our Experiments with. Light as Wars Newest Arm. Auto Searchlight, "Flares," "Star Bombs' "Parachute "Par-achute Rockets" All Sorts of Devices to Reveal, Re-veal, Confuse and Outwit the Enemy, Being Tested by Ihe War Department Depart-ment to Meet the New Conditions Con-ditions of Night Fighting h Trrnrh Warfare, with Night Attacks in Constant Expectation. Rockets Are Sent fj Which Give a Momentary View of the Enemy's Movements. In This I'hoio-rriph I'hoio-rriph a Rocket Is in Position to Be Sent l"p the Moment the Command Is Received Bv Rene Bache are "parachute rockets." "flares." "6tax bombs." and otiier contrivances such as, in different tonus, are now utilized by the contending armies tn Europe. American ingenuity may Improve on some of them. The foreign devices, when found worth while, will be adopted. Take for example the "star bomb." It is a cylinder of thick pasteboard provided pro-vided with a fuse and containing a large number of little paper packets filled with a chemical mixture that burns brightly when ignited. Fired vertically from a wooden mortar, it reaches a height of 1.000 feet, and then explodes, illuminating a square mile of landscape. Of course, the light It gives lasts only for a very few moments, but the illurai- natinn ia TnaHA pang beaches furnish the most ideal some of them. The foreign devices. Vs"" f j kjui isasl stimulus to invention. and it)eof lufe apaper pkes1 tinsel Bj M -v ' 'I Z'? 't " ' 'V 4 feories and methods which had re- brightly when ignited. Fired vertical!) pS -si ' ' ' " "'' , ' ) .' . ' ' . I .... j " . ' ' ' ' J&fom ways that has brought this "blue lights" i frZ'' jt " t:. and in the future no nation whoe burned on the J .. - how the "Parachute Rocket" Is Used in a Night Attack from a Draw- gtarj and naval commanders - have Fourth of July to . ing of an Actual Attack in Flanders. Four of the Grenades Have Just PM fftOe with this new and illuminate streets . , , Burst in the Air Over the Attacking Force, and Their Lights, "Held" pmaHe -weapon can expect to hold and parks. sav At by Parachutes, Are Falling Towards the Ground. The Three Men in t :r! in time of war. for the fact . that fiL- v IH ', - --Ti '; - t te Right Foreground Have Illuminating Grenades on Their Rifles, IK a vasty novel idea, fighting in the light in? JPhK,! ' ' ' V Keadv for Firing. The Havoc Which Is Shown Wrought in the Ranks tears 0f darkness having been give is white. Jfc i 1 of the Advancing Enemv Is Caused bv the Marten Hale Rifle-Grenade, " wional Incident of war- They buror or - :, jf Which Is Imagined Being Fired by Defenders Not Visible in tb Ofee toe importance of training the and by this means , , . . beat means of defense One of the attempts by the French to "r;: army and citizen soldiery in the 3 n- "' : . , . , . 'S, 3 . . ' " again him thus far dis- solve the problem is represented by a ripies of this kind of work in the may be kept lllu- 7,. ' ' ' . ' i Mm i covered is the search- searchlight mounted on rubber-tired mi!iaTd tnrougii ; .Tjrap .; v . . J . . .gHSU' light. In every one of wheels, and which, wheels and all is "ats the experiments now in prog- the night almost ,,-;. . ; -V: . f -llprfVM light. In every one of carried on the "rear platform" of an au- :rder direction of the ?erary ' - -'" ' t. , ; , . ''it." tbe European armies tomobile chassis. Thus the affair may i- tne object of which W to der- . ' ' ;" " ' - - V now in the field, each be dismounted anywhere if desired. ihat methods may most advan- . -";i' r - - X . ' -. , SMS flr BB'i regiment often each The Germans before the beginning of be employed for Illuminating light is carried by fS-S&:: V BaMiLil; -MHf JgB ;" . " battalion h a s its the war hal so far developed the searcb- ;:,;.totlemth night time. For aatlern eoial WjjjjpgjJjj r' searchlight, of he same light idea for war purposes that a sep- furnish an artificial da-.ijgh: gasoline t. ii a t 'jBSjg - , ' fe-iit ,,' . Up' io the time when not in use. may hp elevaTiwhenre ..; :? Mmbaunt whose devices of the propels the ve- H'-." jaflHMfiW'' '-'"'':!bW hH the present war began. quired to such height that the reflector are markedly superior to those of hiele being met- ..' mSBKKmWmWmW''- ' the field searchlight of is thirty feet above the ground high 18-sarvmay gain thereby as im- dentally usea to M. JMjPSBB3g V" the European ugh to overlook any ordinary land- sler munbers of men might give city t0T ' Jfy7JMK " w :,80ns dra by ": War nepartment is now trying "IScial light, indeed, has become one ioos contrivance, jr. ' ' .' - .: . ' " this is the ease to by substituting' for Vhe 'sttpporttog0 struc- Cnort effective instruments of war. but there are not WftkWtV i - some extent. The Ger- ture a light tripod. The idea will he tried Cf- lor example, the case of a Infrequent condi- ' &j,ia .iS?w-.. mans have a search- out in as practical a wav as may be pos- ; 1' troops advancing in the dark- lions under wbicn ( jp. ' - w.?---. ... : ' ' '? !. light car specially de- slble on the Texas border. We may have f the donble-niileir vmn lr it cannot be salts I " . ' siirned for mountain to use if in Mpvien A "Star Bomb." the Cross Section Shows the Arrangement of the Separate Charges of Illuminant, Which, as Discharged, Furnish Fur-nish a Succession of Brilliant Flashes. how the "Parachute Rocket" Is Used in a Night Attack from a Drawing Draw-ing of an Actual Attack in Flanders. Four of the Grenades Have Just Burst in the Air Over the Attacking Force, and Their Lights, "Held" by Parachutes, Are Falling Towards the Ground. The Three Men in t te Right Foreground Have Illuminating Grenades on Their Rifles, Ready for Firing. The Havoc Which Is Shown Wrought in the Ranks of the Advancing EnemyIs Caused by the Marten Hale Rifle-Grenade, Which Is Imagined Being Fired by Defenders Not Visible in tbe Drawing. continuous for any length of time that may be required by discharging dis-charging a series of such bombs at regular and brief intervals. For a similar purpose "flares" are employed, which are fireworks fire-works pure and simple, being much like the "blue lights" burned on the Fourth of July to illuminate streets and parks, save for the fact. that the light they give is white. They burn for quite a while before be-fore going out. and by this means a battle front may be kept illuminated illu-minated through the night almost as brightly as by day. The field searchlight search-light i3 carried by an automobile of a pattern specially special-ly constructed for the purpose, the gasoline that propels the vehicle ve-hicle being incidentally inci-dentally used to generate electricity electri-city for the light. It is most ingenious ingen-ious contrivance, but there are not Infrequent conditions condi-tions under which it cannot be satis factorily utilized for instance, in a. region of excessively exces-sively bad roads, n r- in thickly NrvER in the whole course of cry has "Necessity, the Mother ol Invention," proved so fruit ful is :be present European war. Its j:3nds o.' miles of networks 0f op-Lsk op-Lsk uuataos furnish the most ideal i -proving grounds for new weapons t f;rse and defense. Day and night :':rti their stern problems ;o serve i : ideal stimulus to invention, and Le of the results have upset military Lories and methods which had re-r.:ri re-r.:ri unchangad in principle for Tains Its lesson from these phe-titis, phe-titis, the United States Government feietivefy engaged in the preliminaries ii riding oar own army wMb new i . -s Thkh have turned the tide of aJ; lor one side or the other in be. The most novel and remarkable I tee is I0M light io various forms, is different ways to surprise, fcr..;. confuse and outwit the enemy. ly great armies marched and feat during the day and rested at it- Now officers and men engaged neat trench sieges fight in relays L--J the whole twenty-four hours. It labptatJon of artificial light in many ways that has brought this re::, and in the future no nation whose fcarj and naval commanders - have petted practise with this new and pUasle weapon can expect to hold b :t3 In time of war. Is a wholly novel idea, fighting in - ::'tjrs of darkness having been r--"i an occasional Incident of warts war-ts serely. But it has come to stay, P our own military authorities fully ke the importance of training the army and citizen soldiery' in the ftdples of this kind of work in the -?3r. the experiments now In prog-JrL prog-JrL :rr direction of the Secretary t ir. the object of which is to deter-- vhat methods may most advan-be advan-be employed for Dlamtoatine ! '! battle in the night time. For jBt-Sghtnig is not done in the dark. v;. "s of searchlights and many o! firework contrivances are em-,0 em-,0 furnish an artificial daylight; -M combatant whose devices of the . ire markedly superior to those of -iiTPrsary may gain thereby as im-an im-an advantage a3 better artillery -ater numbers of men might give (.'"'5cial light, indeed, has "become one i,.;:,"054 effective instruments of war. --i.'r, or example, the case of a ; . oops advancing in the dark-, dark-, :j t the double-quick across a clear ?.!?. a 8urprise attack; the men i.:. "5'Me to the foe. But it seems arnillS has been given; for sud-3ndreds sud-3ndreds of searchlights are '...- .upon em, with such a blinding , ; nat whole brigades are thrown . ror,fusion. , ; wnfusion is even greater than if tj.- '.C. ot field artillery had opened r-.ueir ranks. They al"e so blinded .; sadden and intense glare that I, their sense of direction; they fc . now which way to march. If t r;t; "O'hing to do but to sit down (,., lhey would not recover their k;;r several minutes. For the time fr Jey are helpless. ' they continue te march, t;-1. lmP'Jlse under such circum-liij.J8 circum-liij.J8 l mov( toward the light, as fctsth"1? lnsect8 would do. Tbey j. ' behind the light is the enemy, tv ,, '"Wife somewhat the same as ' me insects seems to actuate v;' in full view, and their 'litll 7 Uluminated, while their kis Invisible, thov ar- mowed t --o.esale by shrapnel, rif.c bullets r;I w1Iie'3M tire. -'u" Departments experiments te-, j, " conducted for some weeks fc'-aln18 on the grounds of the r,r, i"acks in Washington. They tatiJeen transferred to the artil-at artil-at Tobyhanna Pa and a M fck"Ce thr'y wUI be continued L tie T rhd 0f F0rl Kanl HOUg- ..' relas border, expanded to a :.,more practical scale. '! oar -Br ' new invention:- are being 6 m':, on,' searchlight:!, but vari-' vari-' InaUn firo'vorks designed for "8 Purpoeee. Among the latter best means of defense again him thus far discovered dis-covered is the searchlight. search-light. In every one of light. In every one of the European armies now in the field, each regiment often each battalion has its searchlight, of the same mobility as a field gun, and considered equally indispensable. Up to the time when the present war began, the field searchlight of the European armies was commonly mounted on wagons drawn by horses. Even to-day this is the ease to some extent The Germans Ger-mans have a searchlight search-light car specially designed de-signed for mountain work horsedrawn and Phe weighing less than 1,000 pounds. Its "carriage," on which the mirror- mounted Powerful Searchlights Mounted on Motor Cars Designed for That Purpose Are a Useful Feature of Army Equipment. The U-ited States Government Is Experimenting with Them. Here an Auto-Searchlight Is Being Run Up the Steps of the Army War College to Test Its Usefulness Over Rough Ground One of the attempts by the. French to solve the problem is represented by a searchlight mounted on rubber-tired wheels, and which, wheels and all, is carried on the "rear platform" of an automobile au-tomobile chassis. Thus the affair may be dismounted anywhere if desired. The Germans before the beginning of the war had so far developed the searchlight search-light idea for war purposes that a separate sep-arate searchlight corps was created. A Teuton invention was the telescoping searchlight tower, which, collapsed when not in use. may be elevated when required re-quired to such height that the reflector is thirty feet above the ground high enough to overlook any ordinary landscape. land-scape. Our War Department is now trying to improve upon this tower searchlight by substituting for the supporting structure struc-ture a light tripod. The idea will be tried out In as practical a way as may be possible pos-sible on the Texas border. We may have to use it in Mexico. It may be said in conclusion that, while there are very many purposes for which searchlights may be usefully employed in warfare under modern conditions, one of the most important of them, for the defensive, consisfs-in illuminating points (especially defiles) over which attackers must advance, in order that the latter may be brought under fire at the earliest possible moment, and to observe the effect ef-fect of the fire. On the other hand, searchlights may be used to prevent defenders from Improving Im-proving their intrenchments or other works under cover ot darkness; to light up defensive w-orks or other artillery targets, and to assist an attacking column col-umn by illuminating rough ground or artificial ar-tificial obstacles. Among other uses of the military searchlight should be mentioned that of confusing the view of balloonists aloft. The same remark might apply to aeroplane aero-plane observers, hut flying machines do not often ascend in the night time. Searchlights are kept dark during the field artillery duel that usually precedes an infantry engagement. They are used tinder such circumstances only after the artillery tire has ceased, and when the enemy is advancing. From what has been said it appears that the new art of fighting with light Is both offensive and defensive. Light, under up-to-date military conditions, is in a way a w-eapon of war just as much so as the rifle or the machine gun. If. once drawn into international conflict, we are not to be beaten, we must learn how to use it. Which, in a word, represents repre-sents exactly the problem that Uncle Sam is now trying to solve. wooded country. reflected by Its horizontal rays are mST ob. .oTiT:. 0witrsuchadaZ,lingelfect. that objects further in the rear, .mport- Jt in he observed, cannot be seen. 3 Under theslTnd certain other circurn-stances circurn-stances when the searcfiUgM on whee cannot be used to advantage at trie r30 must often have happened during dur-ing the recent advance of the German armies through Galicia and toward War Mother means of illumination must be employed for J&'JSg snicuous among them is the military pSuleTocket, which in not fastened to a stick, but is discharged fiom a pistol. The pistol Is fired in such a way as to discharge the rocket at an angle O? about 45 degrees. If BenT .up W vertically, the war firework ould illuminate a less area of territory. II " ot more horizontally it would stay in the air for a less length of time. But properly managed, the burning (a paper envelope containing a chemical powder) will be held in the air. suspended sus-pended by a parachute that opens When the rocket bursts, for forty seconds yielding an illumination brilliant enough to enable anybody within IMW on the ground to read small print, trje narachiite. though itself of paper, serves as a reflector, throwing all rays downward in the form of a cone. . A war rocket of this kind weighs only 8ix ounces. Thus a soldier can carry a number of them conveniently in his knapsack. Of course, to use them, he must tarry a rocket-pistol also, hut this sort, of firearm weighs not more than three and a half pounds. For emergency work In night hattle, and for fighting in darkness at close quarters, the combatants in the European war are using "flares," which (easily stowed in the knapsack) can be thrust, at an instant's notice into sockets connected con-nected with polished metal reflectors of small size. With such help, when ignited, even a single one ot them will afford a surprising illumination the soldier who holds the reflector being himself, of course, invisible. Balloons also are used for dropping paper parachutes of large size, each one carrying a fire cartridge ot brilliancy enough to illuminate a whole landscape for a minute, or more perhaps disclosing disclos-ing the previously unsuspected position of a hostile battery of artillery. The light thus afforded does not reveal to view the balloon, which remains invisible, invis-ible, and therefore safe against attack by gun-fire. Or there may be, suspended from the balloon, a great hiirror-rctlector, beneath be-neath which the cartridges are set off by touching an electric button. This is the so-called "aerial searchlight." which, without revealing the position of the balloon, bal-loon, hidden in the darkness of the sky, spreads an illumination far and wide. If, in case we are obliged to fight, these new contrivances of warfare are not to frighten us out of our wits by mere reason of their unfamilitarity, it. is necessary that our troops Shall be specially spe-cially trained in the business of using such devices. Our soldiers have customarily cus-tomarily been taught to fight with powder pow-der and guns; they must learn how to fight with light. They have beeu instructed in-structed in fighting by day; they must know how to fight by night. It. is necessary that this shall be a part of the education of every recruit in our army, in particular, it is requisite that our troops of all arms infantry, cavalry and artillery shall be provided without delay -with field searchlights, in order that an outbreak of war may not find them unprepared in one of the chief essentials for fighting under modern con-i ditions. Invisibility Is the keynote of modern warfare. To win. the lighting man must not be seen by his adversary. Hence the development of night-fighting. Never in the history of war has the surprise attack at-tack cut so large a figure as in the present pres-ent conflict. Darkness, for such purposes, is the best help. Advantage is taken of the cover of night for the advance, of large bodies of troops, for flank movements, move-ments, for the emplacing of artillery, for the construction of cover, for the bringing bring-ing up of munitions. The Zeppelins are night-birds. Against the man who fights in the dark the most effective weapon is light. The at can be detached on an over-steep road and transported separately from the "limber," which conveys the power supply apparatus. Ordinarily, however, the searchlight .machine Is of automobile pattern the gasoline fuel, as already stated, being used incidentally, with the help of special spe-cial apparatus, to generate electricity for Ihe light. The largest field searchlight? are thirty Inches In diameter, but most of them are smaller. As a rule their reflectors re-flectors are of glass backed with silver, hut metal compositions and even gold are sometimes employed. Metal has the advantage of being less fragile; it is also lighter in weight. But the surface has constantly to be repolished, as well as cleaned, and it yields a les.s brilliant ray. Besides, in a fog it quickly acquires a film of moisture that, diminishes the efficiency of the searchlight. Uncle Sam prefers the glass mirror The War Department has provisionally adopted a pattern of "auto-sear(hlight" for held use which consists of a motor car with power and light-generating apparatus ap-paratus and a "trailer" (hat. is simply a standard artillery caisson carrying a 30-inch 30-inch reflector. This machine has been run experimentally experiment-ally over plowed fields, (o prove its usefulness use-fulness in a difficult "terrain." and. with the same idea in view, it has been driven up the rather steep steps of the War College, in the grounds of the Arsenal Barracks at Washington, |
