Miniature Fort
Item
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Miniature Fort
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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A Miniature Fort for Every Soldier. He can carry it with him when he goes out to lick the Germans
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Caption: The upper picture shows the portable fort in use. Below is a diagram showing its ingenious construction
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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A MAN down in the well-known city
of Myrtle, Miss., has evolved a
truly beautiful modification of the
many portable breastworks and builet
stoppers, in that he has added to this
laudable effort, also a battery
of revolvers, making the whcle
merely a miniature Maubeuge or
Namur.
The invention consists of a
steel plate that in operative
position, stands vertical,
staunchly facing the
foe. This plate and
also the decoy plate in
front of it are pierced
with port-holes for the
revolvers which are
mounted in battery
behind it. The decoy
plate, located a short
distance ahead of
the main plate, is Pp
backed by coil
springs. This is one of
the important points.
‘What happens?
Sit back and hold
tight while we tell
you that the springs
back of the front
or decoy plate are
compressed bv the
blow of the bullet fired by incautious
Hans or Fritz, whereupon the recoil of
the springs hurls back plate and bullet,
promptly smiting said Hans or Fritz
on the rebound, with his own bullet!
With the breast-work raised to its
vertical position, covering two soldiers,
there appear, swinging from their clips,
with their muzzles pointing grimly
through the port-holes as the carronades
of Bainbridge pointed through the sides
of the old “Constitution,” six revolvers,
which the inventor says are “preferably
of the automatic type.” He doesn’t
know that automatic revolvers outside
of a freak type built years ago in Eng-
land, are largely figments of the inaccurate
newspaper man’s imagination, automatic
pistols being more generally used. Still
thisirventor specifies automatic revolvers,
and we let him have his way.
Let an incautious Teuton dare to stick
s0 much as a finger from his shelter, and
the two soldiers start the
six automatic revolvers
going, something like
the Swiss Bell Ringers
playing The Chimes of
Normandy.
If, in spite of this ter-
rible instrument of de-
fense, the foe still insists
on coming over, the in-
ventor has arranged it
to fold down flat on the
ground, the revolvers
pivoting to lie out of
the way, and the
whole covered up
by the then prone
decoy plate. The
inventor calls atten-
tion to the fact that
in this position it
is not in the way
of retreating troops.
‘What would they be
doing out ahead of
such a fort? Echo
does not answer.
The device is said
to be light and easily carried. Imagine
any one lugging a little steel fort that
can resist mauser bullets!
The inventor says that these portable
breastworks are really intended for use
during a retreat. The troops can stop
at any point, erect these breastworks
and open fire on the enemy by means of
the revolvers. Alas! he does not state
what happens if the enemy unfairly stops
300 yards away, beyond which pistols
are not accurate. He fails to mention
one very great advantage of his shield,
during a retreat. Here it is: So long as
the troops continue to carry them there
will be no danger of their breaking into
a run and turning the retreat into
a rout.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1918-08
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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265
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 93, n. 2, 1918
