WHAT TO EXPECT IN NEXT WAR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 49, 13 March 1937, Page 17

WHAT TO EXPECT IN NEXT WAR

INVISIBLE SMOKE

Cobweb for Plaiies

jgUMHlNG PLANES spitting fire and death will decide the isstie for tbe next war, writes Max Seydewitz and Kurt Doberer in Death Eays and Otber Weapons. .Tberefore tbe question o t efficacious means of defenCe against aerial attacks figures at the head of the agenda of all armaments discusBions. During the world war the Italian General Staff protected the city of Yenice, which was the' favourite goal of the Austrian raidere, with aerial wire screens. At the firSt alarm, numerous captive balloons equipped with wire screens rose to a certain height aTOund the city, forming a barrier. At first the Austrian? laughed at What they called niedieval taetics, but When their planfeS began to get caught in thd irdn meshes like flies in a cobWeb, and crashed to the ground, they ceased laughing. ^oon the method was adopted by all the b'elligferents. Modern military technique has deviaOd a ittUcb more murderous cobweb for raiding aeroplanes. Its meshes are so narrow that iio plang can dodge thfem. It chokes their motors and makes thfem crash instantly. Naturally, this secret is not easily divulged. Its guardians prfefer to divert publife attention from It by lfetting the papers publish fantastic repOrts about elefetric dfeatbrays and similar mythical weapons. Neveftheless, even a jealously guarded seeret is bound to leak out in the long run. Like an invisible metal fenfee, this new woapott, metallic dust, floatB in the alr. But unlike the wire it does not wind itself around the screws and the sensitive steering organs, It aims at the heart of the plane, namely its motor. Nothing could be more simplo thau the bariic prinCiplo of the invfeution. If 1 you throw a handful of emety ihto the • cylinder of an explosion motor, it is i clogged right away. Naturally, it is , ndt quite so simple to use this method • again st raiding planes, fof even if we ■ sUceeeded in prOjecting sufficient quhn1 qUantities of coarse emery to a ceftair • height, it WOUld not float lh the air but ? dfop to the gfound and never reach thr 1 motor. 3 However science has. established that 1 there is volcanio du&t in the higher at mosphero strata. Thcse particles, ejfect' 4

ed by fire-spitting mduntains, flfut above and with the clouds diiring many wfeeks, forming a mixture of air and dust, a so-called aersol. This WaB the point of departure of the inventors who set out to find a very coarsg emery and a means of processing it in eueh a way that i.t would float in the air for a long time and drop very, vfery Slowly. These particles Would have to be very light and Speciaily shaped. A piecfe of thinly rolled aluminium foil drops much more slowly than an aluminium ball of the same weight. Therefore neither the shape of the volcanic particles nor that of the emery graing sdemed suitn able for the invisible smokfe. Its diminutive particles had to be givfen a shape superior to that of the natural product, physically speaking, perhapsof steel-foil, hard as glaBS, perhaps Of microscopie flat corundum crystals, perhaps .... but here is where, the rnystery, so jealously gmarded by tlie big powefs, begins. We know, however, that numerouS expefiments have been condueted with this smoke. Already in 1034 the Lon don Daily Herald published an interview with a specialist, who had juSt returned from attending Such experiments abfoad and was in a positidn to make positive statement&i It appears that the invisible smoke is suspended in the clouds where it remains floating fof some time, stopping tho motofS of all approaching plhnes.

As for its - ebmposition, the fofmulas ate the moSt impdrtattt ihilitary secret of all dbuntries, aiid no wonder, for this new weapon may xevolutionise aerial warfare. When the floating .duSt is absorbed by. the motor, ,the plane mnst stop and no inanoeuyre, howfever skilful, can take it Ottt Of the inffefeted zdtte. it mftlSt latid- Immediately, the motdr mxist bfe dismantlfed and thoroughly feleaned, unless more complicdted repairs are required. Theffe afe two possibilitieB..of projectiiig the drUbkfe into the ai?. It • may be pfojected" upWafd ffoiii the grouiid. At the prOSdnt Stand Of tfechniqufe it is poSsible to time the expiosiak of any projectile, ao that the shells carrying this dust could be made to explode at the desired altitude, either as soon "as a raid is signallfed 6f during thg at'tack. Their effeet would naturally be much more violent than that of ordinary shells. 'i A seco'nd possibility would seem to Consist in strewing the dUSt out frOm planes at a ceTtain altitude. A fdw squadrons would suffice tO erect an invisible but impenetrable barrier around the most exposed and Vulnefable pdints bf a" centre. Nb plane with explosion niotofs could pass through it, unless the pilot know the ekafet height of the screen and maflaged to keep above it, Which, however, Is not an easy manOfetiVTe for a heaVy bombfer. Naturally the method .holds the same

dangers for those who apply it, who miisi keep out of ihe cloud themselves. At the same int'erview it was stated luat seven out of the nine planes. ttsed for these experimenta ,wete . f orfefed to mnd immediately, when they attfempted to fly through the Sitioke barrier. Two years late? Mr. Baldwitt Was - askfed lh' thg Hdttsg df CommbnS whethfer he had sbmething to say rogarding this neWeSt defehce weapon. He regretted that he was nnable to answfer the question, but added that he wished to advise the members not to swalldw fatttastit re-. ports without a grain of Bait. H® fiirther added that sheh Methods of defenfefe were the object of constaht ¥6search and that valuable progresB had been achieved, but, that it would not be in the public intferfest to divulge the lides along which this feseafch pro-. fefeeded; Translatfed from thfe diplbmatic ihto plain langtiage, He 'said that t'hfe invifeible sinoke was a concrete fk'Ct, that it could be hung up like a ourtain around the island, but that nobody could say Whether the attafekiiig fdrce would hot ultiinately be abie to prbfect ibself agaiust it. This weapon is equally destraCtive to all internal combustion .motdrs in which a mixture of fuel and &ir is bumed in the eylinders. ■ Id this respect all types of engines resemblS ohe another, feven though some of them are prodf agaibst electric disturbances. There is only one engine that does not inhaje the outsidfe air and Would therefore seem to be irbnibne from fetich dangei'S, find that is the good Old steam engine. Its eylinders wofk on steam ifl a CloSed cirfeuit, So that the buter air is prevented from Teaching the heart of the motor. But modern technique has discarded the steam engim. as obsolete for aeroplanes. Only quite recently has the necessity of devising effeotive means of protection against the meta,llio smoko made them tum their attention once more to StCam. . ' Seveiral projects for such engines have already been worked out. Germany knows the seeret .of invisible smoke and has for some time past dovoted epeclai attfentien to the problem of steam eilgides for aetopiaties. People Whb read abotit it in the neWspapers have considered the idea absurd or misunderstood its significance. But those who are aware Of thfe importance of tlife new weapon in a future war will approciato- Gefmuny's* ell'drts in this direction.

% Many wbnien have becomfe dr utik on business; they love the § g feeling of authotity and Importance that it givfes them, says to-day, g New York. They prize sfeeing their names on letterittg ott the olfice S ^ doors atid owning a vice-preSiden t 's title as very f ew men wbUld db. ^ ^ After all, men have had all their li^fes to get used to the idfea bf '?. 5 being paid fbr their day's wo¥k. Thfe woman who is a happy slave 0 , 0 to her career is jealoiis of its ieast pferogatives. Shfe gloats over 0 ; £ji minor triumphs like a bdy fejoicing over the ability to shave. g , g Women are in the odolesfeent stage of business sufeeess— and While S O they are still naive enough to enjoy it, men are very generous in 8 S giving them a large share of the committee johs and trado-associa- « . jxj tion-offtce titleS which the busy man considers frankly a nuiSance. 8 t