Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 214, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1917 — MOST DEADLY AERIAL BOMB [ARTICLE]

MOST DEADLY AERIAL BOMB

Will Explode Six Feet Above Ground, *lo Matter From What Height It May Be Dropped. An aerial bomb which explodes about six feet above the ground, regardless of the height from which It is dropped, has been tested out by the ordnance department, and probably will be manufactured In large numbers!. The novel feature of the bomb, which Is described in Popular Science, Monthly, Is that it explodes before It hits the ground, whether It is dropped from a height of 2,000 or 20,000 feet. The difficulty with bombs used Is that they have been fired by contact with the ground, burying themselves In the earth before exploding. Thus 90 per cent of the force of a bomb dropped on ordinary ground Is expended against earth, Instead of scattering its fragments over a wide area above ground. Inventors have been aware of this deficiency of the pear-shaped bomb for a long time. The idea uppermost In their minds has been to develop a bomb that would explode hea'd high and whose bursting fragments would cover a wide circle before reaching the ground. So far as IS known, no foreign country has such a bomb In Its possession. The bomb which comes closest ~to realizing the maximum of efficiency, as the ordnance department Interprets that term, is this bomb, devised by Mr. Barlow.