Thomas W. Corbin

“ In the olden times warfare was supported by a single trade, that of the armourer. Nowadays the whole resources of the greatest manufacturing nations scarcely suffice to supply the needs of their armies. So much is this the case that no nation can possibly hope to become powerful in a military or naval sense unless they are either a great manufacturing community or can rely upon the support of some great manufacturing ally or neutral. ”

“ We have pictured to ourselves the molecule of methane: let us do the same with ethane. Imagine two carbon atoms side by side linked together or hand in hand. Each will be using one of its hooks to grasp one hook of its brother atom. Hence each will have three hooks to spare on to which we can hook a hydrogen atom. Thus we get two of carbon and six of hydrogen neatly and prettily linked up together. The atoms form an interesting little pattern and to build up the various paraffin molecules with a pencil and paper has all the attractions of a puzzle or game. ”

“ People often ask how quickly electricity travels, as if when we sent a telegraph signal along a wire a little bullet, so to speak, of electricity were shot along the wire like the carriers of the pneumatic tubes in the big drapers' shops. That is quite a misconception, for in reality the circuit of wire is more like a pipe full of electricity, and when we set a current flowing what we do is to set the whole of that [Pg 160] electricity moving at once. ”

“ Thus the idea of an armoured vehicle came to be associated with the idea represented in the centipede tractor and the result was the tank.
Why not armour a large centipede, said someone? Make it very big and strong. It will trample down the barb-wire entanglements as if they were grass. If made long enough and rightly balanced it will pass over the trenches like a moving bridge. Nothing but a direct hit from a heavy gun will do it much harm. ”

“ Everyone has noticed the way in which a ship throws up a wave at its bows, and that bow-wave, as it is termed, represents so much energy being wasted. The power of the engines is absorbed to a certain extent in making that wave. It is impossible to make anything which when forced through the water will not make some wave, but certain forms cause less of it than others, and the designer of a ship seeks to find that form which will make the smallest bow-wave. ”

“ If it is not a ship that you are attacking but, say, an earthwork or an arrangement of trenches, then you do not need to penetrate steel armour and your shell can be thinner and of lighter construction. It still needs to be strong, however, for it has another function besides simply carrying the explosive. It must hold the force of the explosion in for a moment while it gathers force so that when the hour comes the pent-up energy may strike all round with the utmost violence. Even the most powerful explosives are comparatively feeble if they go off in the open. ”

“ Iron is one of the most plentiful things in the world. Deposits running into millions of tons are to be found in many parts, but it is practically always in the form of ore, that is to say, in combination with something else generally oxygen and sometimes oxygen and carbon. The former sort of ore is called oxide of iron and the latter carbonate of iron, and both of them bear not the slightest resemblance to the metal. They are just rocks which form part of the earth's crust, and it is only the metallurgist who can tell what they consist of. ”

“ Thus, to review the whole class of ships of which we have been speaking, we may say that there are the destroyers, all the more recent of which are about 1000 tons but diminishing as we go backward in time to about 350 or 400; the flotilla leaders about twice the size of the largest destroyers; and the destroyer-destroyers nearly twice as large as the flotilla leaders: all are characterised by high speed and by guns just large enough for the work for which they are intended. All are armed, too, with the deadly torpedo for attack upon larger ships than themselves. ”

“ They can, on occasion, produce soldiers by the million of the very highest and most efficient type, but they never feel quite that pride and patriotic fervour over their soldiers that they do over their ships of war and their sailors.
The guns, therefore, with which the ships are armed, always form a subject of great interest, especially those large ones which constitute the armament of the Dreadnought battleships and battle-cruisers.
Let us first consider what is required in a naval gun, for it must be remembered that the naval and military weapons are different in some respects. ”

“ Every molecule of water has two atoms of hydrogen linked up with one of oxygen, but sodium does not like two atoms of hydrogen: it insists on having one only. Accordingly the oxygen atom from the water, together with one of the hydrogen atoms, join forces with the sodium atom into a molecule of a new substance, a most valuable substance in many manufactures, called Caustic Soda, while the odd atom of hydrogen, deprived of its partners, has nothing left to do but to cling for a while to the cathode and finally float up and away. ”

“ The gun is itself operated by the engine with the result that a bullet can only be shot forth during those intervals when neither blade of the propeller is in the way. The propeller is moving so fast that it cannot be seen and the bullets are flying out in a continuous rattle, yet every bullet passes between the blades and not one ever touches.
It is easy to see that when an aeroplane is manned by a single man, as is often the case, he must have his hands very full indeed, what with the machine itself and the gun as well. ”

“ When a gun is fired the explosion not only drives the shell forward but equally drives the gun itself backward. The backward energy of the recoil is precisely equal to the forward energy of the shell. The two are equal but in opposite directions. In like manner a rocket ascends because the hot gases from the paper cylinder blow forcibly downwards, thereby producing an equal reaction upwards.
Now the plane of a flying machine is held with its forward edge a little higher than its rear edge, so that as it is pushed along it tends to catch the air and throw it downwards. ”

“ The body of a shell is made of steel of a fairly strong variety. That is to say, it is stronger than that used for shipbuilding and for bridges and such work: but it is less so than some of the higher grades of steel, such as that used for making wire ropes. Owing to so much of this steel being rolled during the war, "shell quality" has come to be as well known to the general engineer as any of the many varieties which he has been accustomed to since his apprentice days. Many people wondered, at one time, why the cheaper and more easily worked cast iron could not be used for shells. ”

“ Hence every engine ought to run perfectly smoothly. As a matter of fact, however, no engine ever does. There are certain limitations to man's skill and at the high speed of a fast-running engine, such as is to be [Pg 167] found on a destroyer, for example, some little irregularity is sure to make itself felt by a slight vibration in the floor. It may be hardly perceptible to the senses, but to a spring whose natural frequency happens to be just that same speed or nearly so, it will be very apparent and in a few seconds that spring will be responding quite vigorously. ”

“ Embodied in the harness is a lock which can be instantly undone, by a simple movement of a lever in the hand, and by its aid the man on touching earth or on alighting upon anything solid can release himself instantly, after which the parachute can sail away whither it will, but he will be safe and sound. ”

“ On the other hand, the effect of gliding at a very high speed over a perfectly smooth track, for that is in effect what it is, is very exhilarating, which to some extent compensates for the other drawbacks.
Moreover, the handling of such a machine in the air, particularly if a fight is included in the programme, appeals strongly to the sporting instincts of young men, so much so that during the War, in spite of the dangers and hardships, and the continual loss of life, there was never a dearth of men anxious to become pilots. ”

“ If, then, our gun is placed low down, as it must be on a ship, to get the longest range we must point it more or less upwards because otherwise the shell will fall into the water before it has reached its target. When we do that we complicate matters somewhat, for [Pg 124] gravity tends to reduce the velocity while the shell is rising and to add to it again while it is falling. We need not go too deeply into that, however, so long as we realize that, whatever the conditions may be, the shell in actual use has to follow a curved course, first rising and then falling. ”

“ You have of course seen how a magnet can act upon a piece of iron at a distance. You may, too, have tried the experiment of jerking a magnet past a piece of wire, thereby generating an electric current in the wire. Both those things need, for explanation, that we assume the existence of a something invisible and undetectable by our senses between the magnet and the iron and between the magnet and the wire, by which the action of one is conveyed to the other. So people imagined another Ether capable of acting like a link between the magnet and the iron and between the magnet and the wire. ”

“ No doubt not a few of my readers have had the experience of being awakened from their beauty sleep by the cracking of the anti-aircraft guns and have seen their shells bursting like squibs in the air. ”

“ For the purpose for which we require the fire, namely, to heat the room, the chief feature about this process is not what is formed in the shape of gas, for that simply goes off up the chimney, but the heat which is liberated. We believe that in some mysterious way the heat is locked up in the coal. Latent is the term we use, which means hidden: in other words we believe that the heat is hidden in the coal: we cannot feel it or perceive it in any way, but it comes out when we let the carbon combine with the oxygen. ”

“ To descend, the position of the plane is made still flatter, the reaction is reduced still more and gravity has its way once again, bringing the machine to earth.
In other words, the machine acts under the influence of two forces: the downward pull of gravity and the upward reaction due to the action of the machine in throwing the air downward. The former never varies, the latter can be varied by the pilot at will: he can increase it by increasing the speed or by increasing the tilt of his plane or planes: he can reduce it by diminishing the speed or the tilt. ”

“ If you imagine for a moment a plane or flat surface of which the earth's axis forms a part you will see that wherever that plane cuts the surface of the earth will be a line in a north and south direction. Consequently, if any horizontal object has its axis in that same plane it, too, will always point north and south. A wheel, small but heavy, is therefore mounted with its axis supported horizontally upon a little metal raft floating in a trough of mercury and driven round at a very fast speed by a small electric motor fixed in it. ”

“ To get the best result you instinctively reach as far back as ever you can and then reach forward as far as you are able, so that the ball shall have as long a journey as possible in your hand. Perhaps you do not know it but all the time you are moving your hand with the ball in it you are putting energy into that ball, which energy carries it along after you have let go of it. And it is just the same with the shell in the gun. So long as it is in the gun energy is being added to it but as soon as it leaves the muzzle that ceases. ”

“ As a straightforward, simple, forward-pushing device it is equal to anything that a fish possesses. It has to be given that one duty, however, and no other, the steering being the task of a separate device, the rudder. There again, too, we see how nature does two things with one kind of mechanism while we have to use two, for the fish steers itself to right and to left with its tail in a vertical plane, but if it wants to steer upwards or downwards it twists its tail over somewhat towards a horizontal plane. ”

“ A great part, too, of the velocity of a naval shell is required for the penetration of the armour, whereas against forts or earthworks it is sufficient if the shell "gets there."
Moreover, generally speaking, it is possible to get much nearer to a fortress or entrenched position for the purpose of attacking it than it is to an enemy ship on the sea. Except for the occasional help of a mist there is no "cover" to be obtained at sea, while on land the ground must be very flat indeed if there is no low hill or undulation behind which a gun can be set up unnoticed. ”

“ If the Austrians had only had such as those the Belgians would have had plenty of time to prepare for them at Antwerp, whereas it was the quickness with which they brought up their heavy guns that astonished everyone and took their opponents by surprise.
The secret of this astonishing performance lies in the fact that they were not guns at all but howitzers, which instead of being long, slender tubes are short, fat ones, and that involves a different idea in gunnery altogether. The "gun" fires at an object. The howitzer fires its shell upwards with the purpose of dropping it upon the object. ”