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Show If? WWW FMF ill j w -ffcLww C HEf N THE earIy part of last June a y$jjpj' , SrouP ot United States army offl-fj$im? offl-fj$im? J Bp: ' cers st00d watching an aeroplane lljjt as It soared aloft from the Army (WfpfMjl Aviation school at College Park, 4s?xVS Md' The machine carried two IMabj? SI men' Capt- Charles De Forest J&'SSj Chandler: commandant of the i-sff school, and Lieut. Thomas De Witt ?.';ipN'''E Milling, one of the army aviators, naiti who acted as pilot. Between the knees of Captain Chandler was strapped a queer-looking object, resembling somewhat some-what a large inverted telescope with a disk-like attachment at the near end. When the aeroplane had reached a height of 600 feet and was skimming along at a speed of fifty miles an hour, suddenly above the roar of the engine en-gine there came to the watchers below a quick ripping rip-ping sound. At the same instant a score of little dust clouds spurted up from the ground a few hundred hun-dred feet away. This was repeated twice. Then as the aeroplane glided to earth, at the spot where the dust had arisen, the officers ran forward to meet it. On the ground lay a piece of cheese cloth, three yards by fifteen, punctured with numerous small holes. And then the secret was out. The curious-looking curious-looking object carried by the passenger was an aeroplane gun and the piece of cheese cloth was the target at which he had aimed while flying above at almost a mile a minute. S!!::;?r nel of land defenses, with- , S..,. .. . .ff f - TKi . out endangering the aero- rsss8& Jfe. - plane or its crew, It being ' ' X-r? I lmm I practically impossible to i&t .iff! ' '' ' V&CSr3 J" attack successfully the ' i ifliV ItlAI rapidly-moving aeroplane ' s- T S K $ """"v 1 tfV' from below. v The gun also iU$g , opens a new field of at- yTSi'f . tack and defense in that Pj- yfAs JirSl it will be used as an ef- Wq wt ,4' XVA Active weapon against lSw-; iinf zWP h4 ther aerop,anes simiiariy ltnMil "ft-lVV &S- 2&t - armed. It means , that WrV( Sry'f ?TA hereafter unarmed aero- U ,OC2fe A Planes will no longer be Jr$ - T used in war, even for ll -"T"-; W7tf - i IX scouting purposes. Vff V'f?Ql ' &JL A new 75-millimetre v'$arA s"vlfk f A? Tp' struction of aeroplanes, JrJ --'UaXM' v v Cjp has Just been tested at XojgSgj Ai.H' toiks. To-'on, France and proved HTi7 . satisfactory. "V struction of aeroplanes, has just been tested at -- - Tc'on, France and proved XY satisfactory. TELEPATHY AMONG ANIMALS Birds arid beasts receive information through the medium of earth vibrations, John D. Quack-enbos, Quack-enbos, M. D., writes in the North American Review. Re-view. Certain game birds and animals are sensitive sensi-tive to the faintest earth tremor, and are approached ap-proached only by the hunter who steps slowly and carefully, without jarring the surface of the ground. The nature of the vibrations also conveys con-veys a notion of the direction from which the danger is coming, and wild game depend as much on their apprehension of this as upon detection by the ear. When it comes to cosmic vibrations,, the subtle movements communicated to the earth's crust by the tides or the pull of heavenly bodies, animals are mysteriously affected as to appetite, sleep, nervous poise and possibly procreation pro-creation and migration. Recent experiments have proved moths and other insects to be capable of thought transference transfer-ence so far-reaching as to impress their fellows miles away with a knowledge of their whereabouts. where-abouts. It is well known to whalers that a cetacean struck by a harpoon has power instantly to convey con-vey intelligence of the presence of an enemy to a spouting school a half mile distant, so that the individuals composing it immediately disappear llri rfek ' s ' II three-quarters inches in diameter 111 1 1 - - " HI at tlle Dreecn and two and seven-Ill seven-Ill ' ' 111 eighths inches at the muzzle end llrll:' ' ' III of the gun. The grooves in the lll 1 ' 111 steel jacket have full access to the Ills E" i fcfS & ' 111 atmosphere at the breech, thus 1111 If ' ' h- ' ' 111 forming a series of inclosed air Ml' IIWl ' fa 111 ducts running the entire length of lllllli E I '' ' ' ' III the barrel. Each time the gun is HI H ' ' I II III fired the ejectr action of the distil dis-til 1 V.'' ' ' ' 1' I 111 cnarge blast sucks through these III I 'SSii. ' , . , - ' t W 111 ducts, from the rear, a draft of air III v - 111 which serves to carry off the heat 111 J' As', ' ? liHll transmitted to the jacket from the lfl j.w' Tw ' &Jt& '111 Darrel- The cooling is automatic llll V 1.1"'' Jr - TZy$ fill ln actlon' without the use of water llllkV ' ' ! f Vf Jill or other cooling liquid and withoc I III HP mecnanfsm or movinS Parts. As llll v ; J1 l-!,4 Mi J&f 111 aluminum has six times the heat II " VYfc 1H conductivity of steel and but one- II ' " ' -cF - third lt3 weiSht' this yery effective HI' ; " ' st1 I 111 metnod 01 cooling the gun adds lHl ' - f 1 HI but a few Pounds to the total III ' 1 -4 - '- Il HI weight carried. HI Y ' jd I 111 Another novel feature which dif- lli s- - y ,-4 -f ' ' i&i HI ferentiates the Lewis gun from all 111 'JJyA s 'mt -fm other gas-operated guns is the ,11 ' ' i ty'a-" - ( small inclosed operating spring which is locatetd near the trigger-piece trigger-piece at the breech far removed HQU2LD from all injurious heat effects. The if one trout in a pool has caught a glimpse of him all are instantly apprised of his presence, so that his most attractive lures are offered in vain. What one knows all know at the same moment through an interchange of subconscious states. Aristotle noticed that the female partridge par-tridge is affected by a distant male bird through what he described as a breeze from the male's direction. Some twenty years ago the late Austin Corbin purchased 25,000 acres of farm and wood land in New Hampshire and stocked the estate known as Blue Mountain park with elk and deer. In 1S97 is was predicted that the extinct carnivores, whose natural food is venison, would return to the region. Not long afterward the presence of pumas, or mountain lions, was reported in the park and vicinity, and the black bear lynx and" wildcat are conspicuously in evidence today. Careful examination of the target showed that out of the lull magazine of fifty cartridges discharged dis-charged by the gun operator, forty-five shots had hit the mark. The other five shots, the gunner explained, had been sent into a nearby fish-pond in order that he might get, by the splash of the water, an instantaneous report of the accuracy of his aim. The fact that this was the first time the gun had been taken aloft, together with the trueness of the aim as shown by the examination examina-tion of the target, spoke emphatically then and there of the great possibilities of fleets of aeroplanes aero-planes loaded with these rapid-fire guns, soaring over a column of the enemy's troops. The potential result of swooping air-craft, armed arm-ed to the teeth with death-dealing bullets, is staggering stag-gering to ordnance officers of the army and navy who discuss it. "Where will this lead?" thiy ask. It is possible that the air is to harbor the greatest destructive forces in modern warfare? There seems nothing to prevent it. This remarkable aeroplane gun is the invention of Lieut.-Col. Isaac N. Lewis of the United States army coast artillery corps. Curiously encugh, the gun was designed primarily for infantry and cavalry use. Later, however, Colonel Lewis was impressed with its possibilities for use in aeroplanes. aero-planes. Heretofore the difficulties which have stood in the way of serviceable guns for aeroplanes haie been difficulty in manipulation, too great tfeighl, terrific recoil which would knock the fra'.I crafl out of gear, and flame from the rifle which would endanger the machine. In the Lewis gun these difficulties are eliminated. elimi-nated. There Is no smoke no flame- Only the sound of the explosion tells that the grm has been fired. There is no recoil and the gun is so balanced bal-anced by the magazine that the aim la not even interrupted while the gun is being fired. It can I be fired at as high a rate as 750 shots a minute, but the rate may be reduced to 350 shots per minute, or to any number between these limits, by a simple adjustment of the gasport valve controlling con-trolling the admission of the gas to the piston cylinder. When firing at full speed it takes approximately ap-proximately four seconds to discharge a magazine maga-zine of fifty cartridges, and the empty magazine may be replaced by a full one within two seconds. It might naturally be supposed that such rapidity rapid-ity of firing would soon overheat the barreJ, of the gun and render it temporarily useless. One of the distinguishing features of the gun. however, how-ever, Is a device whereby the barrel is kept continually con-tinually cool by automatically produced blasts of air. The barrel of the gun is surrounded by a close-fitting aluminum Jacket, cylindrical in form and having some twenty deeply-cut longitudinal grooves extending from breech to muzzle. Outside Out-side of this jacket is a light steel tube, three and temper of this spring cannot be affected af-fected by either direct or transmitted heat, no matter of rapid and long-continued firing. The development tests of the gun, which have been in progress for two years, show that the barrel does not become overheated under continuous con-tinuous fire at full speed, and that it will not therefore be necessary to carry along an extra barrel when on the firing line. Since no cooling water is necessary, and no special mount except a small stake or "cowboy" mount weighing abou? eight pounds, the field equipment of the Lewis gun is reduced to a minimum. The gun may be fired from any natural support found in the field, such as a rock, log, stump, tree or mount of earth. It is even possible to empty a magazine while holding the gun to the shoulder or from the hip, as the recoil effect is scarcely noticeable. It is a matter of note that one of the most conspicuous things on the battlefield, in South Africa was the jet of steam from the boiling water which was being used on the barrels of the rapid fire guns for cooling purposes. The gun is simplicity itself. It has only forty-seven forty-seven parts, as compared with twice that number for other rapid fire guns. On the battlefield or in the air where tools are necessarily scarce, and where they are needed more than anywhere else when they are wanted, the Lewis gun would certainly cer-tainly cause no worry, should some piece of the mechanism be broken or otherwise get out of working order, since the only tool required to dissemble or assemble the gun is the point of a bullet. The sustained rapidity of fire of which the gun is capable makes it a far more dangerous and effective weapon than any bomb-dropping device as yet devised. The accuracy of the firing of the Lewis aeroplane aero-plane gun on its first test was not only surprising surpris-ing in itself, but has aroused attention on the part of our army and navy experts to the fact that our battleships and the disappearing gun batteries bat-teries of our coast defenses are completely un- prepared for attack from the air. In the opinion of many, including Colonel Lewis, who Is also the inventor of the Lewis depression position finder now employed in the coast artillery service, serv-ice, it marks the beginning of a development that Is destined to produce radical changes in our land defense and coast armaments, both for offense and defense. According to Colonel Lewis, an aeroplane costing cost-ing not more than $5,000 will easily be able to carry the gun, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, the gun operator and the pilot. At a height of one mile or greater, and while moving at a speed of fifty miles per hour, it will be possible with this gun to pour In the most destructive fire upon the deck and fire control masts of battleships, and f |