Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 237, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1916 — Page 3

LIGHT RAYS NEW AID IN WARFARE

Englishman Invents Remarkable Engine of War Called "Light-o-Mine.” — IS USED IN FRENCH ATTACKS -Mines Laid In Captured Trenches Are Set Off by Ray of Light When Reoccupied by the * Enemy. - Paris. —Light as an adjunct .and aid of modern warfare is the newest ally of the allies, summoned to aid in the campaign against the central powers by 11. Grindell Matthews, an Englishman. Grindell Matthews* engine of war is called a "light-o-mine,” and comprises an electro-clockwork arrangement that is attached to a series of bombs and which is set oft by a ray of light. The new form of trench lighting, the raiding tactics first carried out by the Britisli and now being engaged in to a great extent by the Russian troops on the French front and by the poilus themselves, avails Itself largely of the use of this “light-o-mine.”

The apparatus itself is about a y ard long and four inches square. It consists ,of a lens at one end, open and resembling a pocket flash lamp. Inside is u dry battery, a sensitized plate and a clockwork, and from that lead wires. When a raid is made on an enemy trench, this apparatus is carried, and with it a line of trench bombs. Now a line of trench bombs consists merely of 20 or 50 or 100 or 200 yards of ordinary iron piping, a little larger, for instance, than gas piping. The piping is cut in suitable lengths—say 10 or 15 feet long each. From each of the ends protrude two bits of wire, the positive and the negative, for the current to be transmitted to detonate the bombs. The piping is packed tightly with alternate chambers of T N T, as the allies’ standard high explosive trinitrotoluol is called, and shrapnel, bits of iron nails and slugs of metal. ♦

Mines Are Planted. The raiding party carrying this equipment and preceded by a wave of grenade throwers, raids the enemy trench after a short but intense bombardment. They bayonet or blow up with grenades the survivors in the trench, then hastily lay this mine of piping, all connected up with the wires, In the bottom of the trench, covering it over with a few spadefuls of earth. The end of the long pipe-line of bombs is attached by wires to the “light-o-mine” apparatus. and this is hidden in the enemy trench, leaving the bull’s-eye lens exposed and pointing back at some object in the Franco-British lines. About this time the German batteries in the rear have been advised that an enemy detachment is occupying a front trench section at that point and a few shells begin to drop in. That is the signal for the raiders to clear out and return to their own positions. Cautiously the enepiy reconnoiters forward when he hears nothing and no shots are fired from the lost trench. Finally he approaches and finds it deserted. The first thing he does Js to clamber over the parapet and look for wires leading across the No Man’s Land to the raiding party’s positions, and finding none, has no suspicion that a mine has been placed in his trench. Troops are sent forward to reoccupy the trench, and just when it is comfortably held by the Germans again, a star shell is sent up from the Fran-co-British position in a line following that toward which the lens of the “light-o-mine” is pointed. The light serves to set off the long line of piping, full of T N T and shrapnel, and the Germans are blown out of the trench. It would not be feasible to detonate the mines by wireless on the principle used by John Hayes Hammond, Jr„ in guiding his manless boat, as in the first place it would thus be necessary to place aerials above the German trenches after a mine were laid and the enemy would notice the uprights

SPEEDING UP THE GUNS IS HOT WORK

This shows one of the ..smaller guns in action during the British offensive on the western front. There is not a minute’s let-up in the work of the ■mailer guns. R'te r hot job for a sumrfTer day.

at once. In the second place the activity of the wireless apparatus of both allled-and German machines overhead. signaling directions tq batteries, would “Jam" the connection necessary to fire the mine by activity. Italian Works Fake. Some years ago an Italian naval officer named Vakittl announced that he had Invented a contrivance for detonating explosives at some distance off by wireless rays. Tests were made as Ostia, (harbor of Route,) and on one occasion he apparently exploded a mine buried on the far side of one of the hills surrounding the harbor. He flashed the rays from an ItalMn warship. Investigation indicated, however, that he used fake mines, prepared automatically so they would explode after a certain time had elapsed. Grinnell Matthews’ proposition is quite different, however, the actual starting of the contrivance for setting off the bomb being begun by the effect of the ray of light entering the eye of the lens, and thence being carried out by the electric battery and the clockwork. The mines can be set off In daylight, ordinary light having no effect on the-16ns. Only if the lens were directed squarely at the sun would it produce the required effect.

AMBASSADOR ON VACATION

William G. Sharp as he appears after having served as ambassador *in the French capital during the larger part of the European war. He is now in this country on leave of absence.

WEDDED IN WAR BY WIRE

Private in Washington National Guard on Border Is Married by Telegraph. - Calexico, Cal.—l. P. Cryster, a private of the Washington National Guard, on duty here, and Miss Florence Sweeney of Duquesne, Pa., were united in marriage by telegraph a few days ago, it was stated here. Ministers and witnesses, it was said, participated in the ceremony here and at Duquesne. Chaplain S. C. Sulliger of Vancouver, Wash., officiated at Calexico. The entire wedding ceremony was repeated by the telegraph between the soldier and his bride in Pennsylvania. The couple, it was stated, had been friends for years. Cryster’s sister was njarrled recently to Miss Sweeney’s .brother and Miss Sweeney then renewed her acquaintance with her brother-in-law. A proposal by mail, followed by a reply of acceptance, was said to have led to the telegraphic marriage.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

TICKLISH WORK ON NIGHT PATROL

British Officer Writes of Thrilling Adventure Between the Lines. GETS INTO CLOSE QUARTERS 1 ' - • Finds Germans Building Redoubt and Returns to Give Range for Machine Guns—Then Watched Stretch-er-Bearers at Work. London.—A British officer writing home tells of a thriHing patrol adventure between the hostile lines at night. IJe says: “The moon was not due to rise till about 11 that night, so I decided to go out at nine. The company sergeant major asked if he could come, so I arranged to take him and one platoon scout from each platoon. Getting out onto No Man’s Land marks a distinct epoch in a man’s training for trench warfare. We each carried a couple of bombs, the men had knobkerrles (spiked clubs) and I had a revolver and dagger, to be on the safe side. But we were out for information, not scrapping. “It was beautifully dark, and, starting from a saphead, clear of our own wire, we crossed the open very quickly, hardly so much as stopping till we were close to the German wires. Now, when we began crawling through the wire F made the sort of mistake one does make until experience teaches. I occupied myself far too mucji with what was under my nose and too little with what lay ahead—'and too little with my compass.

A Little Bit Close. "Suddenly I ran my face against the side of a giant gooseberry with peculiarly virulent prongs, and in that moment a bullet whizzed low over my ly*ad —and —here’s the point—the bolt of the rifle from which that bullet came was pulled back and jammed home for the next shot —as it seemed, right in my ear. We all lay perfectly flat and still. 1 - “Very slowly and quietly I raised my head enough to look around the side of that giant gooseberry, and Instinct made me look over my right shoulder. We were less than ten pacesf rorn the German parapet. I turned my faqg left, so as to look down at the sergeant major’s over my left shoulder. ‘Why, we’re on top of them!’ he breathed to me. I whispered to him ‘Pretty good for a start —a fine place, sergeant major. But we’ll manage to get a bit nearer before we leave ’em, won’t we.’ “It worked like a charm. It was as though his mind were all lighted up, and I could see the thoughts at work there. ‘Oh, come; so it’s all right, after all. DJy officer’s quite pleased. He knew all about it, and it’s just what he wanted; so that’s all right.” “Those were the thoughts. And from that moment he began to* regard the whole thing as a rather creditable lark.

“And the wonderful thing was—there must be something in telepathy, you know —that this change seemed to communicate itself almost instantly to the men crouched round about behind. I’d no time to think of <ie grimness of iti The thought in my mind was: ‘l’ve brought these fellows here in carelessness. I’ll get ’em back with whole skins. What He Wanted to Know. “I whispered to the sergeant major, and very slowly and silently we began to back away. The sentry must have been half asleep, I fancy. My compass showed me we must have been forty or fifty yards left of the jtoint in the German line we wanted; so as soon as we were far enough back we worked slowly up right. And then we found all we’d hoped for. It was a regular redoubt the German was building, and he had nearly a hundred men at work.

“That was good enough for me. All I wanted now was to get my men back safely. I knew the O. C. (officer commanding) had two machine guns trained precisely on the redoubt. All 1 wanted was to make sure their Are was a shade to the left, and every bullet would tell. We should be firing fairly into them, (jgcause the little cross-communication trench we had watched them working in was no more than waist deep; just a short cut foi convenience in night work only. We had ’em. The stationmaster told me the men wanted to bomb ’em from where we were. But that was not my game at all. I saw the last man Intc our sap, and found the O. C. waiting there for me. I’d no sooner given him my news than he was pt the guns. W« trad twenty or thirty rifles leveled on th j same mark, too, and at the O. C.’s signal they all spoke at. once. “The men were* wildly delighted. They had seen the target, lain and watched it. under order nqt-to make a sound. Listening now, the German guns having ceased Are, our sentries could plainly hear groaning and moaning opposite, and see the lights reflected on the German parades moving to and fro as their stretcher-bearers wen! about thelr work.”

Youth Can’t Smile or Flirt Ever.

New York.—Magistrate Krotel sen tenced Philip Levine, eighteen yean old, never to smile or flirt with any girl in the city as long as he lives Levine had been arrested on com plaint of Dora Rubinowitz. who al leged he smiled at her and blew smoke at her in an elevated train.

CAR TO DO IMPORTANT WORK

An Attachment on the Rear Truck Indicates on * Scale Inside a Cabinet in the Car the Degree of Curvature and the Elevation of One Rail Over the Other.

GET DATA ON LINE

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD HAS NEW CLEARANCE CAR. Designed for Important Work in Obtaining Measurements of Distances From Track to Projections— Can Operate Day or Night. A new clearance car has Just been placed in service on the Pennsylvania railroad lines east of Pittsburgh and Erie. It is being run over every division as rapidly as possible in order to secure correct measurements of the distances from the track to projecting portiotft of station buildings, tunnels, bridges and other objects. It Is also designed to indicate automatically whije moving on curves the elevation of the rails and the degree of curvature. The car is built entirely of steel, and is equipped with airbrakes, steam fittings and electric lights. There are two floors, or elevations, both oPthein used for taking measurements from the templets. Clearances are computed troth the center of the wheel truck, over which the main templet is erected. From an elevation of 12 feet above the top of the rails the templet tapers up toward the middle of the car at an angle of 45 degrees. , Immediately in front of the templet is an auxiliary templet designed to measure overhead bridges, tunnels and other objects between elevations 17 and 20. feet above the top of the rails. This templet is capable of being raised to a height of 18 feet by a crank and a ratchet arrangement on the floor of the car. Enclosed in steel cylindrical boxes with translucent glass fronts facing the templets is a series of electric lights which extend from the floor of the car on each side to a height of 15 feet. Light from these makes it possible to take measurements both day and night. Attached to the feelers and the side of the templet are graduated scales which indicate automatically the distance from the rim of the templet to a side or overhead object. In addition, a small board equipped with a set of feelers spaced one inch apart has been provided to measure cornices of roofs, of shelter sheds, or other irregular objects.—From Popular Science Monthly.

Big Ferry.

Railroad car ferry service is now running between Key West and Havaha operated by the Peninsular and Occidental Steamship line. This car ferry has facilities for carrying 30 standard size American freight cars and furnishes a dally service between the ports. Freight in full carload lots is handled expeditiously and safely. Sugar and molasses cars are loaded qt the Cuban mills and forwarded through to destination., while heavy machinery from the United States is loaded at the place of manufacture and carried through to its Cuban des-, tination without transfer. The handling of fruit and vegetables for the northern markets has aLso been greatly facilitated by this service.

Fewer Idle Freight Cars.

On July 1 the net surplus of freight ears on the railroads of tfce United. States and Canada was 52,116. as compared with 55,224 on June 1. the exception of the latter date, July 1 shows the largest surplus this year, these returns having shown a net shortage as recently as March 1. The following table gives the total surpluses and shortages of all classes of cars as reported each month this, year: Net 1916. Surplus. Shortage. Surplus Jdly 1 » 67,0 H 14,898 52,116 June 1 67-58 S» 12.344 55.244 May 1 . 59.657 29,050 30,607 April 1 46,921 43.27 1 3,650 .March 1 41,724 62,275 *20.551 1 52,449 30.964 21,485 January 1 ...68,700 21,745 46,955 •Net shortage.

Railroaders Long in Service.

Of the’ enginemen assigned to the Black Diamond express of the Lehigh Valley road, when it was instituted, 20 years ago, four are still in active service. Two have been promoted pnd five have left the service. TbojiaS Farljpy is still on the same run .irnfl has missed few trips. The three-iion-ductors originally chosen to sei*v® on the express are atili at this work.

With All Attachments Working Automatically It Is Possible to Take Clearance Measurements While ths Car is Running.

LINK GREECE WITH EUROPE

Last Strip of Line Necessary for the Connection Has Been Put Into Place. It is Interesting to report the completion of the remaining strip of unconstructed road necessary to the final linking up of Greece with the rest of Europe, writes Consul General Weddall from Athens. This gap of some 56 miles has at last been closed and the stretch of new roadway was thrown open to traffic in May of this year. The result of the completion of this work to Greece can hardly he overestimated. As soon as the war is ended, through trains will be run from Paris and other European capitals to Athens-Piraeus. The time from Paris will be shortened to some 60 hours, it is thought, and through dining and sleeping cars of the Compagnie Intennationale des Wagons Llts et des Grands Express Europeens will run over the lines. This hitherto missing link In communication lay between Gilda, on the Saloniki-Monastir line, and IPappapuli, on the Thessalonian frontier. Temporary bridges of wood will span streams and valleys until permanent steel and concrete structures replace them after the war. Twenty powerful American locomotives, now ready at Athens, will draw these trains at high speed through the picturesque -Vistritza valley and along the Aegean coast to their destination.

WAS FIRST AMERICAN LINE

Ground Broken for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Some Eightyeight Years Ago. The first railroad, system in North America, the Baltimore and Ohio, had its beginning 88 years ago, when ground was broken at Baltimore. The fourth of July of that year was a memorable one in the Maryland metropolis, and all business was suspended, while men from all over the state took part in the parade. The ground-breaking ceremony was conducted by Charles CarrolT of Carrollton, the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who was then ninety-two years old. As he drove the spade into the earth the venerable statesman exclaimed: “I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the Declaration of Independence, If second even to that.” The city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland each contributed half a million dollars toward the construction of the railroad. Horses were used at first to draw the cars, and the first American-built locomotive was constructed by Peter Cooper for this line. The railroad was a development of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company. which in turn had its origin In the Potomac company, of which Washington was the first president.

Wind-Swept Railroad.

Early in June a windstorm of such extraordinaryviolenceswept-over eon* tral Illinois that it blew the ChicagoSt. Louis Midnight special—five cars and a locomotive —off the track. The derailment of trains on’standard-gauge tracks by winds is most unusual, although it is not uncommon in the case of light, narrow-gauge roads. Symons’ Meteorological Magazine tells of a railroad that runs for 36 miles along the Atlantic coast of Ireland, and that is a part of the West Glare railroad system. Probably nd other railroad in the British Isles is exposed to such tremendous Prior to 1909 as many as five trains had been blown oft the tracks and demolished, although fortunately without loss of life. ' In 1909 the line was equipped With a pressure tube anemometer, or wind gauge, with an electrical attachment that gives two warnings in the station master’s house at Qullty: the first when the velocity of the wind reaches 65 miles an hour, the second when it reaches 85 miles an hour. At the first warning. 2.400 pounds of movable ballast, kept for the purpose at every station, is placed on each vehicle of every train. When the second signal comes, all trains are stopped until the storm abates. Since the apparatus was Installed, in December, IftX). there has been only one derailment by the wind, and that was caused by some one’s deliberately disregarding iSie signals.—Youth’s Companion.

Temperance

A 8 HEALTH OFFICERS SEE IT. Dr. Haven Emerson, health commissioner of New York city: “It Is, as I conceive It, the duty of departments of health to teach, teach, teach, persuade, demonstrate, exhibit, exhort, prove that alcohol as a beverage oi In patent medicines is a menace to personal and community health, is a common source of Mckness and death, is blocking the path of preventive medicine and Is a menace to the physical and social development of the nation." Health Commlslsoner Ford of Cleveland, O.: "Teaching the effects of alcohol la a public health function. There is nothing more Important than this question.’’ Dr. J. N. Hnrty, secretary Indiana state board of health: “We know that alcoholic liquor is a vile and evil thing. It Is a horrible thing from an economic and social point of view; It is always and everywhere injurious from the physical standpoint. Every drop is a poison. Its use is always injurious, and if I had the poWer I would close every public saloon as a public dope shop." Dr. John Dill Robertson, health commissioner of Chicago: “In the city of Chicago, where the death rate is approximately 100 a day, it is safe to say that at least 25 per cent of these deaths are caused direct-' ly or indirectly by alcohol.. Alcohol produces acute inflammation of the stomach, hemorrhage of the pancreas, heart disease, cancer of the stomach, Bright’s disease, fatty liver, hardened liver, inflammation of the nerves, epilepsy, hardening of the arteries and a multitude of other afflictions of the body. Those are known medical facts. It is not only a causative factor in the diseases and afflictions mentioned, but it invades the mental man and product insanity.” The New Jersey Health Officers’ association passed a resolution recommending tjjat campaigns of publicity be by the state and local departments of health for the purpose of Informing the public of the dangers attending the use of alcoholic beverages. ’ The Vermont state board of health is planning an anti-alcohol crusade similar to that of New York city. Other city and state health boards are also incorporating anti-alcohol work as a regular part of health department programs.

DOES IT? “Beer promotes efficiency,” says the advertisement of a certain brewing company. Someone replies as follows: , ___ 2 “If you were about to have a dangerous surgical operation would you jirefer to have the surgeon take a few glasses of beer just before the operation, to ‘promote efficiency T “If you were about to take a trip on a railroad, would you prefer to have the engineer and the telegraph operators and the switchmen along the line take a few beers while you were on your way, to ‘promote efficiency?’ “If you are business man, do you prefer to have your employees ‘rush the can’ occasionally, to *promote efficiency.’ “Remember, you can get just as drunk on beer as you den on whisky. BOTTLES SPARCE. A chemist in Chicago, who is experimenting with a formula for making catchup .and other preparations in tablet form, explained to a friend that this change was all “because of prohibition.” “Second-hand bottles are used to a great extent by manufacturers of many of these products, said the chemist, “and the spread of prohibition is making it almost impossible io secure bottles for this purpose.”

NO REAL OBSTACLE. Sumptuary legislation? Yea. Curtailment of the citizen’s personal prerogative? Y es. -- We used to halt at ■ this rock, too. And it is still there. But how easy it is to go around it and find out what is on the other side. How much more is on the other side than on the tide whlch.-only, we have seen up to now.—Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle (oldest newspaper in the South.*, which has taken its stand for national prohibition). * PERSONAL RIGHTS CHAMPION. Obedient to the conservation ideal, society steadily declines to tolerate -humanity’s waste of itself in sensuality. This aligns against the drinker and the liquor maker and vender today persons and institutions that a generation ago were also stout champions of “personal rights.*—Christian Science Monitor. DRINKERS NOT WANTED. “If we could, we would keep nar man in our employ who drank at aft. Sober men are -safer and-the better always. The total abstainer is decidedly better than the one who drinks even moderately.”—The Buckeye Rolling Mill Company, Steubenville, O. VIOLATES LAW. ‘.J Champion of Fair Play: - “There is not a licensed, saloon keep* er In the state who does not lay him* ■elf Hable to prosecution a doxea times a day.”