THE NEW BAYONET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9164, 12 August 1908, Page 4

THE NEW BAYONET.

The British Army is to have a new bayonet, longer than the one now in use, and an English manfacturing firm is executing an order for 50,000 of the weapons. A most interesting article on their manufacture appears in the London "Daily Mail." The most wonderful thing about the factory is said to be the machinery for turning out the accessory parts. The machines are fed with long steel rods, and unminded, eat them up and turn out beautifully finished bolts and screws. They reverse themselves, pick the steel up, turn it about, grind it out. cut it, and drop it into a box completed. The material is not touched by hand. The tests to which the bayonets are subjected begin with the striking test. The blade is fixed to a steel arm and struck hard against a log of woud. Then come the bending tests. It is bent round in a vice, and then bent while in a vertical position by a heavy weight and lever. It must be capable of raising the weight and resuming its upright position. This all takes place when the weapon is in the rough state. When it is finished it undergoes twenty-three tests for accuracy and strength. The finished weapon is slightly curved, the cutting edge being rounded away to the point. It is sharp down one side, and for a few inches on the other, and the hilt is shaped to the hand.