Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 261, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1912 — SHELL TO BLIND BANDITS [ARTICLE]

SHELL TO BLIND BANDITS

French Commission Proposes Unique Weapon That Is Highly Regarded. Paris, France. —The warlike destruction of the Paris bandits several months ago, when a small army was necessary to defeat and kill several terrorists who had turned a house into a fortress, induced the police to evolve some instrument which would protect them from the bullets of similar bandits in the future. The result was the manufacture of a powerful shield designed to protect the policeman’s body in case of future conflicts. M. Lepine, the prefect of police, likewise appointed a commission to study other means of defense and offense in coping with the new type of modern criminal. The commission has proposed a sort of shell, weighing about a pound, which, by a special apparatus, emits a powerful gas which momentarily blinds the bandits and makes effective fighting on their part impossible. Experiments with the new projectile were entirely successful, and the deadly gas shell has taken its place among the 7 instruments of police attack.