STOKES GUN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1717, 26 May 1917, Page 4

STOKES GUN.

Accounts of recent fighting on the British front have referred to the deadly work of our Stokes gun. A “sinister weapon” a special correspondent has called it. “It sends up into the air, like a group of lead pencils, a flight of bombs which sail down on to their objective with deadly accuracy and a terrible explosive effect,” was his description of its action. The Times’ correspondent has written of the “coruscations of a hail of Stokes bombs . most awe-inspiring both in appearance and effect.” At the front the gun has been regarded for many months with increasing enthusiasm. Officers and men have said that it is by far the most effective short-range weapon we possess. A wounded soldier wrote home: ‘■‘Tell dad to let Mr Stokes know that I saw the way his gun blew the Huns to blazes. The Germans can’t stick it at any price. All you could hear was, ‘Bring up the Stokes guns and get them in action.’ The boys thought I was mad, for every time a Stokes shell burst I kept shouting, ‘Another one from Ockham.’ ”

Mr Wilfred Stokes, the inventor of the gun, lives at Ockham, near Ripley, Surrey. He has said that had it not been for Mr Lloyd George’s foresight his invention might have gone on the scrap-heap.

Asked by a Daily Mail reporter how he came to invent the gun, Mr Stokes said: “A friend of mine came back froih France and told me he was convinced that this war was a battle of wits, and that the side which could produce the most effective death-dealing machines would win. I am a peaceful man, and had never wished to invent a gun that would so much as lift an eyebrow, but this idea just came to me after what my friend had said. A good dead of experimenting, chiefly on my own ground at Ockham, ended in the production of the present gun, the chief characteristics of which are simplicity, lightness, and quickness in tiring.” COUGHS AND COLDS. GOOD HOME-MADE REMEDY. (By a Qualified Chemist). Never neglect a cold. Tackle it right at the start. Colds neglected leave the lungs weak; then serious chest trouble, such as bronchitis, asthma, or dread consumption makes its appearance, and the trouble becomes mucli more difficult to cure. Here is a recipe easily prepared at home, that gives relief and'comfort from the first dose. It cuts phlegm, soothes inflamed .throats, and stops a cough or cold in a way that surprises folk. You can feel it doing you good all the way down.

Obtain from your chemist or store a bottle of Hean’s Essence; take home and mix with water and sugar as per easy directions. This will give you a pint of the finest cough remedy you can obtain. Even wliooping cough is promptly relieved by it. It will also save 10s for your pocket. Economical mothers use Ilean’s Essence because of two reasons: Ist, quality; 2nd, economy.

Try Mean's Essence at diii'C. Take a bottle home and mix according to the easy directions on label. Sold by most chemists and stores, or post free promptly on receipt of price, 2s, from Hean’s Pharmacy, Wanganui. Wherever yon buy, be sure yon get MEAN'S, the original and genuine cough mixture essence. —Advt.