T ARRIVAL OF THE REALLY LARGE AEROPLANE AS UITE the most notable development in military aviation, according to experts in Europe, and certainly the most significant as indicating the future trend of design, has been the advent of the really large aeroplane, such as the monster built by Sikorsky in Russia, with its pilot's cabin, engine room and passengers' saloon. The world has heard much, too, of the fiveseater Grahame - White biplane which gained a prize not so long ago. Several Sikorsky biplanes are in use with the Russian army at this moment, according to the reports in The Scientific American, the expert of which states that the same tendency towards an increase of size is observable in the case of the aeroplanes used by the armies of all the powers. Thus there are the great two hundred horse-power seaplanes in use by the British naval air service, with their wing areas of 735 square feet and their span of sixty-three feet. Then there is the large two hundred horse-power Sopwith air-boat, recently sold to the German navy, measuring fifty-four feet in span and weighing in flight some 3,500 pounds. Again, there is practically completed in Great Britain a seaplane presumed to be the very largest device of the kind ever sent upwards into the sky. The expert who discusses this departure in military aviation for our New York contemporary elucidates it in this wise: "The use of two or more engines each driving a separate propeller, mounted direct on the engine shaft, is often deprecated on the ground that, if one engine A WEAPON OF WAR should run at a greater number of revolutions than the others, and consequently developing more power at the propeller, stability might be interfered with to a dangerous extent. It is perfectly true that, in spite of the most careful tuning, two engines will rarely be found to be running at exactly the same number of revolutions for any length of time; hence there will usually be some disparity in for there are several cases on record of one chain either breaking or coming off its sprocket; the experience has notably befallen Mr. Alec Ogilvie on more than one occasion, but without causing his machine to lose its balance, though naturally. the motor had to be promptly stopped. "So, too, there is no cause to fear that an aeroplane driven by two motors or more would have its equilibrium seriously THE RUSSIAN AEROPLANE THAT CARRIES SIXTEEN PASSENGERS The use of two ог more engines, each driving a separate propeller, mounted directly on the engine shaft, is given as the secret of the mobility of this contrivance, known by the name of Sikorsky, its inventor. These aeroplanes are said to be accompanying the Russian expedition into Germany. the power they develop, with the result that the propeller revolving at the higher rate will tend to swing the aeroplane round in flight. In former days similar criticism was brought to bear on the Wright aeroplanes, which were driven by twin propellers connected by a chain drive to a single motor, the objection being that in the event of a chain breaking, the other propeller, continuing to rotate, would cause the machine to spin round and probably to upset. Practice, however, has shown that the objection is groundless, ARMORED AEROPLANE OF A TYPE NOW USED IN THE FRENCH ARMY This enormous machine is driven by Gnome motors each of which is said to rotate its own propeller aft of the machines, altho it must be pointed out that the French war office has carefully guarded the secret of the mechanism of this aeroplane, as the British do in the case of their own aerial craft. disturbed in the event of its engines running unequally or even of one stopping altogether. In the latter case the other engine would, of course, have to be stopped forthwith and a glide made to earth, but the slight loss of equilibrium could always be neutralized by operating the rudder. Certainly the Sikorsky, with its four 100-h.-p. Argus motors-which are about to be replaced by two 200-h.-p. Canton-Unné motors-has never given trouble on this score, but has, on the contrary, always given proof of possessing a remarkable degree of stability. Perhaps. the most promising solution of all, and one which seems likely to be adopted with the advent of the dual power-plantconsisting of two motors, either of which would in itself be sufficient to maintain the aeroplané in flight, albeit at reduced speed, would be to couple up the two separate motors by some form of chain transmission, which would do away with uneven running and once and for all eliminate the possibility of stability being upset owing to the failure of one engine. This, at all events, is the solution adopted by Commander Dorand in the large biplane designed for the French aviation corps at the military factory at ChalaisMendon. This enormous machine, measuring no less than 82 ft. in span, is driven by two 100-h.-p. Gnome motors, each of which rotates its own propeller aft of the planes. Each engine is installed, one on either side of the central body, in an armor-plated casing, the aviators' seats. being similarly protected, and the two are coupled together by a chain. It is true that this arrangement involves a certain loss of power through friction, but the loss is small and is certainly compensated for by the increased regularity and evenness of running." AVIATION AND WAR would have to be distributed, a process which would involve an increase in the lateral moment of inertia, which is not without its disadvantages, for while an aeroplane possessing considerable lateral inertia is not so prone to assume an unstable position as the result of a gust, it would clearly recover its balance, once this had been lost, more slowly and with greater difficulty. In this respect, fortunately, an increase in the size of aeroplanes has beneficial results, for all these large aeroplanes are stable in the most noteworthy manThis is probably due to the fact wind gusts are nearly always In one other respect is the Sikorsky biplane significant of future developments. Hitherto the pilot while steering and controlling the aeroplane has also at the same time controlled the motor. But it is obvious that with a multiple power plant this is no longer possible, and accordingly on the Sikorsky the pilot operates the aeroplane controls proper, while an engineer is in charge of the motor controls, receiving his orders from the pilot. The growing necessity for some such division of labor has long been apparent in these days, when the length of flight has been increasing so rapidly, and the that ner. GREAT BRITAIN'S LATEST ARMY SEAPLANE Here we have a naval weapon of a type that seems destined, in view of the battle off Heligoland, to affect the destinies of the war in Europe altho the censorship has resolved, it seems, to suppress all facts connected with the experimental use of these devices. pilot, in addition to his other arduous duties, has had to undertake those of navigator. In time to come and for long journeys the control of the giant machines of the future will no doubt be still further subdivided. The pilot will confine his attention purely to the flying and steering of the aeroplane; an engineer will be in charge of the motors; while a navigating officer will map out the course and, if necessary, take the required observations, astronomical or otherwise. That the large aeroplane of the future will be driven by two engines or more seems certain, not only from the point of view of increased reliability, but from considerations of an engineering character. The difficulty of concentrating the enormous weight of a power plant developing, say, 500 horse-power in a single spot without subjecting the machine's structure to excessive and dangerous stresses must be obvious enough, however desirable this arrangement might be in so far as flying efficiency and the behavior of the aeroplane in the air are concerned. For structural reasons, therefore, the most important asses of the machine strictly local and of small extent, so that while a gust striking one wing of an aeroplane of small span might tend to upset it to a dangerous degree, a machine of huge dimensions would only be slightly affected, and 255 would probably sail majestically through gusts and eddies in undisturbed balance. "Speed, it should be observed, has nothing to do with the matter, and happily so, for these huge aeroplanes, carrying their enormous load, are not likely to be fast machines. Unfortunately there is still a disposition in certain quarters to regard speed as the whole soul and being of stability, despite the fact that many stable, while some of the slowest mahigh-speed aeroplanes are notoriously unchines flying to-day are among the most stable ever built. In some respects, indeed, speed is a direct and potent cause of instability, to which more attention might well be paid, since it is by no means unlikely that to it may be ascribed more than one of the accidents which have recently occurred both in this country and abroad. Certain fast aeroplanes, when driven at their top speed, fly with their planes practically horizontal, or at all events forming but a very small angle. with the path of flight, for a properly designed aeroplane wing still exerts appreciable lift when traveling horizontally. Now, as the result of a slight downward gust-and if the planes are flying horizontally, a guest descending at an angle of only two or three degrees would suffice the lift of the planes might momentarily disappear altogether, and the aeroplane would dive nose down and fall like a stone, until balance was recovered by the use of the elevator. But some seconds would meanwhile have elapsed, and the fall in consequence have been through a distance of several hundred feet, with the result that, had the machine been flying near the ground, an accident would have been inevitable. "In regard to three matters improvements are urgently needed; indeed, it would appear to be due to their lack of importance that they have hitherto escaped attention. First, the starting of the engine. To this day the crude and perni cious method of starting the engine uy universally, except only in the case of seaplanes, whose engines are now generally equipped with self-starters, for obvious reasons. There is no reason swinging the propeller is followed almost THE SIKORSKY AEROPLANE PREPARING FOR FLIGHT There is said to be no cause to fear that this aeroplane driven by two motors would have its equilibrium seriously disturbed in the event of its engines running unequally or even of one stopping altogether. S whatever why every aeroplane should not carry a device of one kind or other, compressed air or auxiliary magneto, to enable the engine to be started from the pilot's seat. Swinging the propeller is by no means devoid of danger, for a slight slip may entail death or serious injury. Besides, in the case of an enforced landing, the services of some bystander have generally to be requisitioned for. the purpose-obviously an unsatisfactory proceeding. An experience which once befell A A BRITISH MILITARY EXPERT ON THE one is familiar with smokeless powder ible extension of the fronts. At Gravelotte 180,000 Germans attacked on a front of eleven miles. At Diamond Hill 16,000 British attacked a front of twenty miles. At Mukden 310,000 men LL laymen have heard of those three arms of the service, the infantry, the artillery and the cavalry, but respecting the latter the greatest confusion still exists among those unfamiliar with the practical application of the principles of war. The functions of cavalry, notes that renowned British military expert, Spenser Wilkinson, in the London Post, are to help the commander-in-chief and the infantry. Cavalry helps the general by finding out what the enemy is doing, it protects the infantry from surprise, and it pursues the enemy when defeated. It can no longer, in the opin- regulate more or less mechanically the cisive battles and meant merely to de ion of the General Staff, play a dominant part in the main battle. "The great decisive cavalry charge on the main battlefield is a thing of the past." But the adoption of the rifle (in the American Civil War) conferred upon cavalry the power of anticipating the enemy in a vital position and of holding it until the arrival of reinforcements. The cavalry experience in modern wars is from time to time crystallized into summaries. Thus in 1870 "of thirteen attempts to use cavalry on the battlefield against infantry two only achieved any real measure of tactical success; one was partially successful, the remainder were all failures." The experience of the Russo-Turkish War, in 1877, led its best historian to conIclude that the shock action of cavalry on the battlefield was at an end. The South African War revealed the possibility of mounted men riding rapidly across fire-swept zones. The Burghers made no less than sixteen charges on this principle, from which some have drawn the inference that cavalry can dispense with the arme blanche. But General Altham and the General Staff hold the proper inference to be that these charges would have been still more effective if the Burghers had been able to use the sabre or the lance. In the Russo-Japanese War there was only one instance of cavalry shock action, the charge of two Cossack squadrons at Telissu. "The artillery perhaps gives the most striking revelation of the development of tactics during the last forty years. Every there have been two phases since 1870. arrangements for a frontal attack, that is, * General suited by them to the conditions before attack his whole front must be, not merely contained, but attacked with de- Very remarkable are the modern THE PRINCIPLES OF WAR HISTORICALLY ILLUS- were deployed for attack on a semi-circle having a circumference of eighty miles. It would be a mistake to suppose that great extensions like these are normal. Their causes have been admirably analyzed by Mr. Bürde in his too little known "Tactical Principles." He showed that in South Africa the Boers had no intention of fighting dewide frontages were used because the lay the British advance, while the British, as General Altham well points. out, were content with demonstration against the Boer front, trusting to envelopment to cause the enemy to retreat and not aiming at his destruction. Mr. Bürde gives good reason for thinking that in Manchuria the wide frontages were due to the fact that both armies were tied down to a single line of railway. In the discussion of movements by land and sea General Altham rightly insists that "possession of sea command is an essential which must be possessed before the Expeditionary Force can safely use the highways of the ocean." "A soldierly spirit is in truth the keynote, the foundation-stone of all training. Without it we build but on sand. With it an army can achieve all. It was that spirit which rendered the stubborn thin red line invincible in the Peninsula and at Waterloo and won its recognition as the best infantry in Europe. It was that spirit which enabled the British regiments despatched by a careless nation to a distant theater of war without transport, supplies, clothing, hospital, or trained staff, to endure through that terrible winter in the Crimea and attain final victory. That spirit conquered India in the dark days of the Mutiny. It inspired Sir R. Buller's troops to disregard all their checks and disappointments, and made possible the relief of Ladysmith. It enabled the weary and war-worn British infantry to do that dullest of all work, blockhouse duty, cheerily and uncomplainingly throughout the long-draggedout months of the last phase of the South African War." DIETING THE FORCES AT THE FRONT 257 HOW EUROPEAN WAR DEPARTMENTS SOLVE THE FOOD PROBLEMS OF ARMIES IN THE FIELD UCH has appeared in the de- amount of which that can be mespatches from the European theater of war respecting the famished condition of men on the march. Now the ration of the soldier on field service, explains that high authority, Colonel Charles H. Melville, of the Royal Army medical corps, is always and inevitably a compromise between the amount that he needs and that which the supply authorities can see their way to providing.* The latter, again, is always a compromise between the amount that can be furnished from local resources and that which the transport can provide carriage for. These three factors make a graduated scale in which the soldier's needs stand at the top and the capabilities of the transport at the bottom. The actual ration, therefore, that the man in the ranks receives lies some where between the two extremes just stated, and more often below than above the mean of the two. All countries lay down scales of rations for field service, graduated, in some cases, according to the amount of work that the soldier will be called on to perform; but it is not to be supposed that any commander would recognize this scale as absolutely binding upon him should the local resources enable him to increase, or other exigencies compel him to diminish, the actual amounts prescribed by the Regulations. These scales must be looked on as being merely guides to the average amounts that have to be calculated for, principally with a view to transport, not by any means as Procrustean rules to which the appetites of the army are compelled to conform. It may often occur that at the very time when the troops are being called on for extreme exertions the difficulties of transport and supply may be so great that the ration may have perforce to be reduced to a level insufficient to meet the physiological demand. A striking instance of this occurred in the German campaign in Southwest Africa (1904-1906), where it was frequently found impossible to supply the movable columns with even a reduced (two-thirds) ration. The condition of affairs in such cases is aggravated by the fact that the difficulty of transport does not apply equally to all constituents of a ration. Fresh meat can be driven "on the hoof," and preserved meat is peculiarly portable; but the carbohydrate foodstuffs do not possess the former advantage, and are, besides, extremely bulky. Under such circumstances the men may be reduced to a ration consisting largely of meat, the * MILITARY HYGIENE AND SANITATION. By Charles H. Melville. London: Edward Arnold. Our favor. "All rations, whether normal or special, must rely for the greater part of the energy which they supply on a basis of meat, fresh or preserved, and bread or biscuit. As regards fresh meat, our issue is greater than that of any other European army. This difference is, in my opinion, entirely in One pound of fresh meat (14 pounds including bone) is not in any way an excessive allowance for an actively employed young man. From the physiological point of view the processes of metabolism should be kept at a high level, to enable the individual to face the mental and physical stress of active service. "Whatever may be the theoretical advantages of a low protein diet in the case of the sedentary man, I am absolutely to the incessant physical and mental strain certain that for the fighting man, exposed of war, the only suitable ration is that which contains a large amount of protein, and, further, I am certain that that protein should be furnished, as far as possible, in the form of fresh meat. Unfortunately, the conditions under which the British Army campaigns are not such as to facilitate the issue of fresh meat, while, when this is possible, the meat supplied is often coarse and tough in fiber, and tasteless. The chief defect is, however, in the direction of fat. The German report on the campaign in Southwest Africa allows only I per cent. of fat in the fresh meat supplied, or about half that given by Atwater for 'very lean' side of beef. This defect can be met by a special issue of fat, either as such-e. 9. lard, kidney fat, etc. or in the form of bacon or cheese. The issue of mincing machines will do much to overcome the toughness and coarseness of the fiber." The German War Department has its own preserved-meat factories, situated at Mainz and Spandau; but it does not in rely entirely on this source of supply,. the open market being also utilized. The army factories manufacture two kinds of preserved meat-beef in boubeef or mutton, with bacon, vegetables, illon, and Gulasch, a sort of stew of etc. Beef must be of the first quality only, from animals four to seven years old, and of these only the fore-quarters are used. In both the French and German armies the meat is well cooked before tinning, and the bouillon is added to the meat in the tin, the whole being seasoned; in the latter case vegetables are included. In the French ration the meat is pressed into the tins and the bouillon concentrated. The French use pork as well as beef for the preparation of a ration of this kind. In these armies the aim seems to be to procure a complete ration, as opposed to the meat portion of a ration only. Under the strict rules that can be enforced in a Government factory this is no doubt feasible, but dealing in the open market the purchaser is often apt to be defrauded in the matter of this class of preparation. The Germans in Southwest Africa found that a tin reputed to hold 400 grammes of mixed preserves sometimes contained only 100 grammes meat, with a few vegetables floating in 300 grammes of fluid. The relation of bread to biscuit is much the same as that of fresh meat to preserved meat. The younger men can, as a rule, consume all their biscuit ration; but older men and officers find considerable difficulty in doing so. The present ration biscuit, weighing two ounces, is an excellent specimen of its kind, but presents the natural difficulty of being hard, and taking time to masticate. The French army makes use of a pain biscuité, which is simply bread desiccated by prolonged heating. HOW THE BRITISH SOLDIER GETS A BITE Here we see the famous Tommy Atkins or rather a detachment of the royal engineers camp in England. The ration served these troops is held by experts to be the best in all Europe from the standpoint of nourishment. SHIPPING BREAD TO THE FRONT Here we have a typical scene during the last war in the Balkans. the men in the field are not invariably the sort of hard biscuit about the tales of battle which circulate among those who stay at home. Such a bread has, doubtless, many advantages over biscuit, but possesses one marked disadvantage, and that is its friability. A biscuit can be carried in the haversack, and small pieces broken off at intervals and chewed. Dried bread in the haversack rapidly gets reduced to the condition of powdered crumbs, and is then of no further use to anybody. The portability of biscuit is its great recommendation. "Potatoes dried in chips are extremely useful. They keep well and can be easily fried or mashed, and make thus an excellent addition to the meat ration. Great care must be taken in allowing the men to eat uncooked fresh vegetables. The methods of intensive cultivation in vogue in certain countries in respect of these foodstuffs are such that disease is almost certain to result if they are eaten raw. The consumption of salads or of thinskinned fruits such as strawberries should be forbidden, and the rule as far as pos sible enforced. "Some special form of fat ration is the general rule. In the French army this takes the form of lard or suet; in the German, of kidney fat; in the Austrian, of marrow fat or lard. Some such issue is most certainly necessary, since the meat usually procurable on service, whether fresh or tinned, does not furnish nearly enough of this important source of energy. It must be remembered that the common foodstuffs, milk and butter, which in peace-time supply so large an amount of the fat consumed, are rarely procurable in the field, owing to their lack of portability. The best form which the fat issue can take is that of bacon or cheese. These articles have the advantage that the former can be eaten with relish cold, which is hardly the case with lard or suet, whilst the latter, cheese, is also edible raw. At the same time they provide a certain amount of protein. In the case of cheese this protein is different from that of flesh meats, so that with the issue of this substance an important The loaves sent to which we read in variety is introduced as regards this particular food principle. The importance of variety, especially in the case of proteins, has already been mentioned. "Sugar is given in all rations, but, except in the case of our army, in absolutely insufficient quantity. Jam seems not to be allowed by any foreign nation a remarkable omission, since, in addition to the sugar present, some of the more acid jams have a marked antiscorbutic action. In Southwest Africa the Ger man troops found the augmented ration of 40 grammes of sugar too small. There is not the slightest doubt that in this respect our ration is far superior to any other. The advantage of sugar lies in the fact it can be absorbed with the least possible alteration. There is no necessity for prolonged process of metabolism. "Coffee is a less convenient article from the supply point of view than tea, since the ration is twice the weight of the tea ration. In addition, the preparation of coffee is a more difficult process. If the berry is issued unground, then coffeemills must be supplied." Reserve rations are carried either by the soldier on his own person or packed in the regimental transport. They are intended to be used only by superior order, and when the connection with the normal chain of supply is broken. The conditions under which such rations will be needed are likely to be much more frequent in the wars of the future than in those of the past. Forty or fifty years ago the exigencies which demanded the issue of the reserve ration were chiefly due to difficulties of transport and rapid movement of the troops. Such occasions will also undoubtedly occur in the future, tho the introduction of mechanical transport may be expected to render them. less frequent. The increased range of modern armaments and the prolonged nature of modern battles will, however, give rise frequently to situations in which the men at the front may have to depend for all their food during a period of two or three days on the supplies which they carry on their own persons. There is no doubt that the provision of a good reserve ration would facilitate the solution of many strategical and tactical problems. The first point to be considered is the amount of energy that will be demanded of the man and the amount that can be supplied in the ration. The latter will depend, to a certain extent, on the weight which the man can afford to carry, the length of time that the ration is expected to lastin other words, the number of rations that must be carried. The amount of energy required from the man will probably be, for reasons already stated, somewhere about 4,500 to 5,000 calories per diem. Since, by the terms of the problem, the ration is required to meet a brief emergency, some assistance may be expected from the tissue reserves of the body, and it will be unnecessary, therefore, to replace completely all the day's expenditure by means of the ration. |