"ZEBRA" UNIFORMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2420, 27 March 1915, Page 35

"ZEBRA" UNIFORMS

HOW TO MAKE OUR MEN INVISIBLE. .Correspondents 'of the London "Times" recently raised the question as to. whether khaki is the best protective colour for soldiers. The outstanding opinion is that tie colour of the uniform is-not so important as the breaking up of the colours and outline. Mr. R. L. Pocock F.R.S., superintendent of the Zoological 'Gardens, who has made a life study of the protective colouration of birds and animals, interviewed, said that he entirely agreed with correspondents who suggested the breaking .up of outline.' He is inclined to t'hink that a uniform shade of colour, however, .neutral, is always less effective 'than a- variegated -surface. "The zebra, with its vertical and horizontal stripes," ho said, "when standing under foliage is quite invisible. The stripes blend with the light and sliado. There is abundant ovidence of big-game hunters that its black ahd ...white, stripes in-the-open blend to a uniforin grey. In the gardens we have a zebra in the same enclosure as an ordinary grey donkey. From a distance one can see the donkey with ease when the parti-colourod zebra is invisible. No protective colouring of uniform is of much use when the wearer is in movement." ~.... Mr. Pocock suggested that the invisibility of the soldier could be attained by the elimination of shadows ."We see thing by light and shadow," he said. "Look at. anyone's face and note how tho. shadows give it shape. Nature, when she protects animals, paints out tho shadows. In modern trenches tho heads and upper part of the men most need 'invisibility' protection. If a band of light colour ran under tho peak of the soldier's cap it would 'paint out' tho shadow. I would suggest that thb experiment, should bo tried of black and wliite stripes on tho cap, running to tho edge, so that they, came to an end on .the outline as they do in the zebra."