Balloons used to test air currents during the training of gunners
Contenuto
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Titolo
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Balloons used to test air currents during the training of gunners
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Article Title and/or Image Caption
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Will That Shell Hit the Mark? It Depends on the Wind
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extracted text
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IF you want to hit the target with a bullet, an arrow, or
even a stone, you must allow for the wind. When ar-
rows were used in warfare, the air currents were tested by
experienced men, who determined the “windage” by throw-
ing tufts of grass into the air and observing their drift.
But that is not accurate enough for the modern artillery-
man. What good is a tuft when the range of fire is five, ten,
twenty miles? For the purposes of modern artillery practice,
a method for testing the air currents has been evolved
that is thoroughly scientific and surprisingly accurate.
Small rubber balloons
filled with hydrogen, and
of a conspicuous red, are
sent up, and their course is
closely observed through the
telescope of a transit instru-
ment. The vertical rise of
a balloon of that type under
given conditions is known.
The angle of deviation for
different heights is ascer-
tained at intervals of a few
seconds. These data are
carefully recorded by the
observer, and from them
the angle of correction is
computed —that is, the angle
between the true sighting
line of the gun and the line
in which the gun must be
pointed to hit the target.
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Lingua
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eng
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Data di rilascio
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1939-01
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pagine
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15
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Diritti
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Public domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by
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Davide Donà
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Marco Bortolami (editor)
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