Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1913 — TO CURB THE DIRIGIBLES [ARTICLE]

TO CURB THE DIRIGIBLES

German Invention That Is Considered . by Military Men to Be of lm- ' mense Importance.

The German paper Schuss and Waffe describes a bullet named for its inventor, Lentz, for which great things are claimed in the way of destroying dirigible balloons, which will undoubtedly appear in the next war between nations of the first rank. Instead of being a shell fired from a howitzer, like other projectiles of this Bort, this bullet can be made up into cartridges for the ordinary rifle. Two prongs are held in slots in the bullet while it is in the barrel of the rifle, but fly out when it is in the air. When. It p.ntftra a balloon the strain on these prongs releases a spring, which explodes a primer, setting the gas on fire. While a dirigible might escape the few shellß fired at it by a cannon, it would hardly hope to pass unhit through the hail of bullets fired by a regiment; and one such bullet exploding within its envelope would destroy the balloon, as the unfortunate Wellman balloon exploded last year.