Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1918 — Automatic Soldier Made Of Steel Shoots 400 Shots In Any Desired Direction [ARTICLE]

Automatic Soldier Made Of Steel Shoots 400 Shots In Any Desired Direction

“An automatic soldier” is one of the latest developments in weapons of war. A Danish engineer has recently taken out a patent for an apparatus to which he has given this name. It consists of a steel cylinder normally within a larger cylinder, the whole being sunk Into the ground vertically. By means of a mechanism operated by wireless, the inner cylinder rises to a height of IS inches from the ground and simultaneously an automatic rifle mounted on the inner cylinders fires 400 shots in any given direction. The “automatic soldiers” can be controlled from a central position some four or five miles behind the line of defense, according to the Inventor. They may be seen by the enemy only when they rise from the ground. From trials already made it has been shown, so it is reported, that a few hundreds of these steel soldiers can easily defend a position against Infantry attacks, however numerous the opposing force may be. They blaze away their 400 shots without flinching, and never retreat. In order to “automatics” they must be destroyed one by one.