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Machine gun with plastic bullets
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TOPICS.
Machine Gun With Plastic Bullets.-A machine gun, which uses plastic pellets and compressed air instead of expensive bullets and gunpowder, yet provides all the racket and recoil vibrations of a war-time anti-aircraft weapon, has been developed by engineers of the Edison General Electric Appliance Company for Uncle Sam to use in training his soldiers at less cost. This gun which operates by electricity, will fire 606 rounds of the plastic bullets per minute, the same rate as the so-calibre Browning machine gun. Whereas 50 calibre bullets cost approximately 30 cents each, making the cost $180 per minute for operation of the Browning gun, the plastic pellets cost less than one cent each and can be used over and over again, with an occasional soap and water washing. The gun is built to actual size and appearance of the Browning type. It is handled exactly like one except that its operation is on a scale of I to 30. Thus when fired at miniature buildings and tanks or airplanes zooming across the sky at a distance of 50 feet it simulates firing an actual gun at 500 yards. Pellet velocity and trajectory are according to scale, hence the trainee learns correctly to “lead” a moving target and to aim his gun by the stream of white pellets which become fluorescent at night in the “black light” of an ultra-violet spotlight attached to the gun. Fluorescent targets are also used at night. -4mplified “explosions” of compressed air accustom the trainee to the distractions of actual muzzle blast and the recoil, and recordings of dive bombers and other battle sounds produced by a loud speaker tend to eliminate the jitters he might otherwise experience in his first combat firing. The training gun can be used indoors or out. It can be mounted on standards for use on the ground or on a truck or combat car. Engineers perfected the gun sometime ago. Since then General Electric has made many which are now in use by trainees of Army anti-aircraft units, ground forces, mechanized and air forces in camps all over the country. R. H. 0. ARMY AND NAVY NOTES.
The Camera Lucida as an Aid in Aerial Photographic Mapping.-H. T. U. SMITH and H. J. PETERSON. (The MilitaryEngineer, vol. xxxv, no. 214.) In planimetric mapping from vertical aerial photos, either by radial line method or by less exact methods, a moderate degree of enlargement or reduction is frequently necessary in transferring detail from the photo to the compilation sheet. This is commonly done by either interpolative sketching, or by the use of an overhead reflecting projector. The latter is preferable for precision work but has the disadvantage of high cost and lack of portability. It is possible, however, to obtain essentially the same results with the far more compact and less expensive camera lucida. This instrument is widely used in the biological laboratory and in general microscopy, but seems to have escaped the attention of photogrammetrists.
TOPICS.
Machine Gun With Plastic Bullets.-A machine gun, which uses plastic pellets and compressed air instead of expensive bullets and gunpowder, yet provides all the racket and recoil vibrations of a war-time anti-aircraft weapon, has been developed by engineers of the Edison General Electric Appliance Company for Uncle Sam to use in training his soldiers at less cost. This gun which operates by electricity, will fire 606 rounds of the plastic bullets per minute, the same rate as the so-calibre Browning machine gun. Whereas 50 calibre bullets cost approximately 30 cents each, making the cost $180 per minute for operation of the Browning gun, the plastic pellets cost less than one cent each and can be used over and over again, with an occasional soap and water washing. The gun is built to actual size and appearance of the Browning type. It is handled exactly like one except that its operation is on a scale of I to 30. Thus when fired at miniature buildings and tanks or airplanes zooming across the sky at a distance of 50 feet it simulates firing an actual gun at 500 yards. Pellet velocity and trajectory are according to scale, hence the trainee learns correctly to “lead” a moving target and to aim his gun by the stream of white pellets which become fluorescent at night in the “black light” of an ultra-violet spotlight attached to the gun. Fluorescent targets are also used at night. -4mplified “explosions” of compressed air accustom the trainee to the distractions of actual muzzle blast and the recoil, and recordings of dive bombers and other battle sounds produced by a loud speaker tend to eliminate the jitters he might otherwise experience in his first combat firing. The training gun can be used indoors or out. It can be mounted on standards for use on the ground or on a truck or combat car. Engineers perfected the gun sometime ago. Since then General Electric has made many which are now in use by trainees of Army anti-aircraft units, ground forces, mechanized and air forces in camps all over the country. R. H. 0. ARMY AND NAVY NOTES.
The Camera Lucida as an Aid in Aerial Photographic Mapping.-H. T. U. SMITH and H. J. PETERSON. (The MilitaryEngineer, vol. xxxv, no. 214.) In planimetric mapping from vertical aerial photos, either by radial line method or by less exact methods, a moderate degree of enlargement or reduction is frequently necessary in transferring detail from the photo to the compilation sheet. This is commonly done by either interpolative sketching, or by the use of an overhead reflecting projector. The latter is preferable for precision work but has the disadvantage of high cost and lack of portability. It is possible, however, to obtain essentially the same results with the far more compact and less expensive camera lucida. This instrument is widely used in the biological laboratory and in general microscopy, but seems to have escaped the attention of photogrammetrists.