Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/502

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��Popuhir Science Monf/il//

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A mammoth tractor of great power and two trailer trucks haul the monster guns to the front over the splendid roads of Flanders — roads that have been reconstructed by the Engineer Corps

��How the British Hauled Their Giant Guns to the Flanders Front

THE transportation of one of the enor- mous guns used in t\.d present war is a task which presents great mechanical difficulties. The weight of the guns and their great length make even their transportation by rail- road anything but a simple matter. But railroads are not always and everywhere avail- able. When the front is ad- vanced, the big guns must be carried on to be used in the following artillery operation.

It would be absolutely im- possible to transport the guns in their entirety. They are taken to pieces and transported. The gun itself, the heaviest part and the one most difficult to manage, is carried upon trailers with broad wheels, pulled by a gigantic tractor re- semljling an overgrown steam roller. The picture shows a twelve-inch naval guti and gives a good idea of the length and caliber of this terrible in- strument of destruction which is capable to hurl tons of steel a distance of many miles.

The roads are excellent, as the Engineers follow up the ad- Swinging

vances and reconstruct them. strip of

���She Weighs One Hundred and Twen ty- six Pounds, But the Paper Held

THE athletic girl in the picture, Miss Lorna E. Stewart, of Kalamazoo, Mich., is not a motion picture star doing some hair-raising melodramatic "stunt." She is merely testing the ten- sile strength of a certain kind of parchment paper by sus- pending her weight of one hun- dred and twenty-six pounds from a loop made from a three- inch strip of that paper.

The paper used in this test was vegetable parchment paper taken but of the stock of a mani'i'acturing concern in Kal- amazjo, Mich. It is intended for important documents, di- plomas or records which are expected to last a great many years without deterioration. Such paper may be boiled, soaked, frozen, buried under- ground and subjected to abuse tliat would destroy orditiary {)aper, without being damaged in the least. Unlike ordinary paper, soaking in water makes the paper tough instead of soft. This is the highest (juality in papers, which range all the way from this to news- print and wrapping, and the familiar l)lotting pajier.

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