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Show 14 THE CITIZEN Luminous Camoflage and a Phantom Paris The next war will not be a war of frightfulness in which enemy aviators will terrify and destroy by means fo the most powerful engines conceivable, but it will be a conflict wherein wiser nations will remain on an intelligent defensive, matching $heir scientific wits against powers of greater magnitude and defeating by means of technical trickery any repetition of the il- legitimate assaults by which the central powers endeavored to force civilization to bow to their will. This is the thesis of the highest French military experts, if secret documents of the French war office, which have come into the possession of a correspondent of the New York Herald, are correctly interpreted. These documents, of a highly confidential character, outline the progress which has been made in the art of military camouflage, and they indicate that the war defense of the future will be marked by three distinct phases of artistic trickery. 1. There will be the creation of fake areas in unimportant districts to represent vital or strategic areas such as munition making towns or military headquarters. This plan proved its possibilities just before the conclusion of the armistice in November, 1918, when the French military authorities constructed on the outskirts of Paris a duplicate of the street lighting system of the town of St. Denis, including the munition factories of This, when illuminated at night, provided so attractive a contrast to the darkened real St. Denis that the German airmen were completely deceived and scores of their bombs were dropped in the midst of fields far away from the busy suburb at which the German pilots aimed. The only real damage done was the smashing of a few hundred electric light globes. fake Paris was actually started, . A but the signing of the armistice rendered unnecessary this tremendous expenditure, although the military experts agree that had the .war continued the German fliers would have been considerably mystified by the appearance of fake Parises in various parts of France, while the real capital would have slumbered peacefully in its enforced darkness. 2. Instead of darkening towns or factories when an enemy aeroplane attack is impending, the intruders of the future will be fought by light-ple- nty of light which will surround his plane with a luminous cloud thousands of candlepower in strength, blinding the pilot and gunner and making the attainment of any definite target impossible. This is known as the system of luminous camouflage, distinctly a French creation, and was used during the final month of the war for the protection of important factories in eastern France. The Heralds documentary evidence, supported by the admission of those who developed the scheme,, indicates that the use of this measure was envisaged as an alternative to the crea ' Au-berville- i ies were found brilliantly illuminated at St. Denis groups of strong lights were erected at the fake city; likewise, to imitate railway stations, with their incoming trains, huge squares, brilliantly lighted, were placed at accurate distances from the river bank. It was planned to have searchlights, moving at a speed of about ten miles an hour, send their beams horizontally between camouflaged rows of timber, thus simulating the operation of trains to and from the fake station areas. Of course it cost money; every phase of the war cost money, but expense was a minor consideration if the future of France and the allied cause could be saved. The scheme ' was proved to be feasible, for the cleverest French aviators, like their German opponents, were constantly mystified by he appearance of Aubervillers factor ies several miles from the position shown on the military maps. There must have been a lot of head scratching in the German aviation camps when the first of the bemuddled pilots returned to report his success in bombing the great munition center. The engineers promptly completed their plans for the building of the fake Paris. A comfortable, really very peaceful bend of the river near Conflans was selected, not differing greatly in length or width from that of the Seine in the heart of Paris. A glare of light on one bank and presto! the enemy mistakes it for the Gare dOrsay, with its brilliantly lighted substation, the Gare des Invalides, only a kilometer further along. In Paris the railway stations were the chief worry of the protection experts during the war. Despite the lighting restrictions and threats of punishment it wTasPoissy-en-Franc- tion of deceptive targets or fake cities, and could even have been put into operation for Paris at less expense than the more imaginative plan. So far had the preparations gone that the French army now has thousands of projevtors in stock, ready with a few adjustments to send up cones of intense light rays which by an easily calculated system of day diffusion could be so arranged as to leave Mother Earth, or at least any important portion of her surface, hidden in absolute darkness as far as hovering airmen might see. Nevertheless, beneath the ray cones factories could work at full blast, street lights could blaze without restriction, and even the taxicabs along the Champs Elysees could be equipped with strong searchlights without fear of discovery trom above. Finally, a system of obscurity 'well known camouflage, through chemical combinations which evolve dense clouds of vapor, will be used in future wars to completely cover whole cities in the event of daylight attacks from the air. Experiments conducted along the Seine recently showed that this phase of the science of aerial de3. fence has progressed so far that clouds sufficiently obscuring can be created in five minutes which will defy the skill of any aerial bomber. Of course, his bombs may drop. on important positions, but the chances are against this occurring as often as if he were provided with a plainly visible target and accurate knowledge of his distances. The project of creating false cities to misdirect the attention of enemy aviators appears, on its surface, as fantastic as anything ever imagined by Jules Verne. But when closely studied, it was found to have a peculiar charm, so peculiar in fact that although it was shelved several times, it was and put into operfinally ation. Its promoters based their hope of success on the fact that enemy aviators, when desiring to locate a French town, invariably did so by means of stream contours, which in aerial photographs showed up clearly when other characteristics were dimmed by clouds of camouflage. Noticing that along the course of the Seine there are numerous bends which bear a great similarity to the contour of the Seine at Paris, it was suggested that one of these positions be chosen, free of any houses or miiltary buildings, and a false Paris built. Cost calculations, however, delayed this project, but it was decided to experiment on a smaller scale near where a replica of the munition making district of St. Denis and the adjoining factories of Aubervillers was proposed. But it was not to be a replica in the ordinary sense of the word, for camouflage is the art of making things seem like what they are not. So the French experts decided merely, to lay out (on paper) the street lighting system of St. Denis and then erect street lamps at regular intervals corresponding to the St. Denis original. Wherever factor anti-aircra- ft . - 1 e neni II m r We Advertiser of (ooday ed Poissy-en-Franc- e never possible to induce the empty to obey the rules and darken thef" tions when the Gothas began to about the city. 'for co For this reason the greatest (.source was taken to accurately represent twere distances between the false stati nothing c of the Conflans plan, and while aj,05 t0 thousand street lights sufficed iort8 St. Denis experiment, the complex .'?th of the more elaborate scheme W(ndl8COve have involved millions if Paris myrfc0 rv of small streets, each with a ffcwfc01 in ble beacons, and the score of glart railroad stations and centers like Opera, the Etoile, etc., were faithful oc0a?ic imitated. One thing is certain, n Pey-;financial division of the French t n op staff must have breathed a sigh ofi01, lief when the armistice caused u knew abandonment of the idea and its rg gation to the dusty shelf where it x locate remain until Europes next turmoil t their minds some expert of its existence. nIghl No less lacking in its imaginatii Btatio tront quality is fhe idea of hiding well ligt 11 ed areas , from the gaze of spying at men by blinding them with a confu ei!e ' ing concentration of more intense lum ' nation. The French apparatus for dt yiAA fusing the ray cones was primary - ' very simple. Twrelve strips of wot or metal were merely bound togetlu n 8 to form an inverted cone, easily trail: portable and easily attachable to an; building or in the center of a fiel some distance awray from a battery fc which the enemy was seeking. This cone wTas lined with ordinal; dinlj jute or balloon cloth, painted black the outside and white on the insidt and the light was furnished by a hui servi dred electric lamps of one hundret soup rite candle power each. Later the strengt: It' of the light cones was increased an; more elaborate apparatus planned, bur grea whe Who c r fort let At ance Plus ly o lady He pap toss ill is looking geri for immediate action and re- HP II ll ing sults, is paging more attention to quality It of is the adve- rtisement that reaches the right people that is the most effective. S i Ik fou A i doc than to quantity circulation. e, tail the .wit we am , act . or in th ev th of In nc ox gi |