Kitabı oku: «The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 47, September 30, 1897», sayfa 6
The cloth is intended to be used as a padding or interlining for the soldiers' uniforms, and its inventor hopes to make the cloth so thin and flexible that it can be worn without inconvenience.
It has already been tested, and the results were highly satisfactory.
The test was made at Fort Sheridan, near Chicago, and it was decided to use the Krag-Jorgensen gun against it.
The inch steel bullet thrown by this rifle has, it is said, been known to pierce through armor-plate. It has made its way through twenty inches of packed sand, pierced twenty-two inches of oak timber, and fired from a distance of six hundred yards it will pass through five feet of earth.
The cloth stood the test of these terrible bullets wonderfully well. Five thicknesses of the material were used for the test, all the pieces being exactly the same size, and laid together in one compact pad.
The first shot was made at a distance of four hundred yards. It was found that the bullet had pierced through the first thickness of the cloth, but had become flattened out against the rest.
When the bullet was removed from the cloth it was said to have looked like a mushroom, the end that had first touched the cloth being flattened.
The experiments were continued at shorter and shorter range, but the cloth was never quite pierced through.
The military men who witnessed the trial were amazed at the results.
Colonel Hall, who conducted the experiments, said that he thought that the cloth might perhaps be penetrated at a distance of fifty yards, but even so, there was no doubt that it would afford immense protection for soldiers engaged in actual warfare.
The material of which the cloth is made is a secret. Father Casimir will only say that it is made of silk. He keeps it so closely covered that no one has had an opportunity of examining it.
He evidently has the most absolute faith in the qualities of his invention, for he is anxious that the authorities of Governor's Island, New York, shall make a test of his invention, and offers, to envelope himself in the cloth and let the soldiers fire at him.
He wishes to sail for Europe and give exhibitions of his invention in various cities.
If the Governor's Island test takes place, regular army rifles are to be used, and the only precaution the priest will consent to is, that the soldiers shall first fire at an animal, enveloped in the bullet-proof cloth. When it is found that the creature escapes unhurt, the priest insists that he shall be allowed to become the target.
G.H. Rosenfeld.○
