Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/236

 220 Popular Science Monthly

A Dinner Served in Gondolas on a

��River of Champagne

THE dinner being served in the accom- panying photograph is probably the wettest on

��record. It literally floated on champagne (the stage variety). As one might suppose] the novelty is the product of the com- bined imagi- nations of a motion-pic- turedirector and his tech- nical assis- tant. The scene repre- sents a ban- quet in a recent Fox produc- tion.

A table was con- structed with a canal about a foot wide running round it. The ends of the canal were ex- tended into the kitchen where a water wheel lifted the liquid from the lower end of the canal to the higher end. The gondolas were loaded with meats and viands at this end and sent on their journey.

���The gondolas loaded with dainties float from the kitchen to the guests and back again, on a flowing river of "stage" champagne

��Fighting German Machine-Guns with the French "37"

THE great work of the French "75" in counterbalancing the mass of Ger- man artillery in the present war has justly made it famous. But in that work it has had a smaller ally, not so well known though de- serving of most honorable mention. This r is the French "37," a small quick-firing cannon which advances with

��the skirmishing first line, seeking to destroy

the German machine-guns.

A machine-gun destroyer it is in very

truth. Germany relies on machine-guns

and artillery to hold a battle line. Machine- guns and light artil- lery, then, retarded the advances of the French — until they answe red cannon with cannon in the famous "75" and the distin- g u i s h e d

"37."

A more beautiful weapon than the "37" for fill- ing the rigid require- ments of a skirmishing cannon is not to be found any- where. It ably meets the first requisite of portability; the gun and mounting can be quickly taken apart and carried over the most shell- torn ground by the six or eight members of its crew. It is accurate — a French officer says there exists no other gun more ac- curate! It will hit the muzzle of a machine gun at a distance of a mile. And its speed of fire is remarkable. A well trained crew, can fire thirty-five high-explosive shells, of nearly one and a half inches diameter, every minute, while they are crouched upon the ground to conceal themselves from the

���enemy

��This French portable, quick-firing cannon advances with the skirmish line to destroy the enemy's machine-guns

��Military ex- pediency pre- vents the pub- lic from know- ing the details ofthismachine, but when the story of this war is told, the "37" will not be found wanting.

�� �