Salt Lake Telegram | 1909-04-17 | Page 10 | Guns to Fight Aeroplanes

GUNS TO FIGHT AEROPLANES One woe doth tread upon upu another's heel The development of the aeroplane became so pronounced last year that th there re began to be a great fear of ther the r destruction that might follow the perfection or near perfection of the invention and so the Krupps went to w work rk to invent a gun that would he be able to meet this new possible force The rhe idea was to invent a agun agun agun gun which could shoot straight up UI in the air and which could be shifted readily from side to side for sighting It is said they have accomplished this with wonderful skill r The e gun gUll is to 0 be used in heavy automobiles or on onh h Trains q and is a marvelous improvement over the old old- time mortar It can ean be elevated to any extent J sighted by means of mirrors and swung on Ii an axis J permitting of ofa a complete revolution while the reh recoil re rc- h coil is well cared for The rhe present field gun of the German arm army r which r i ali ean can be he raised on a spring so as to be in the position I t V I of a mortar has been bee adapted to the same sam work and andt t the tho account says that the invention even e with no nok 1 k- k aeroplane to lire fire at can be bc made a n great improvement improve improve- ment over high angled fire on shore or afloat It is intended to fire shells which will leave ave u a light trail of smoke as the they ascend so that their course may be clearly seen and md the next shot directed direct cd thereby And there is another mother terrible feature still These same shots fired nearly perpendicularly are arc liable to come down and kill the gunners or wreck the boats automobiles which carry the gun or make a af f of a company or lc regiment of soldiers The Japanese will ivill want to know all about these devices for the new while they were bombarding Port fort 1 Arthur they had a very cry difficult problem to solve T They eY had had- to teJ rune have lookouts on the heights to note where the shells would fall and to signal to the soldiers soldiers soldiers sol sol- sol sol- diers who were firing the mortars which way to hang change the sight to get more perfect work It took them several lays days and cost them many lives but when they got the exact range the they made a plowed field of Port Arthur in a little while and the very vc-ry terror of their slots did as HS much toward causing the thc surrender of that place as the actual fatalities