photo #8535146

Meeting War's Emergencies with Ingenious Inventions" - November 1915 Since Europe has been merged in hostilities, scarcely a month has passed unmarked either by the development of some new agent of destruction, or the introduction of some new medium of defense. The creative genius of half the world has been concentrated in an effort to make war more terrible on the one hand, and safer on the other. And first, one belligerent and then the other has met crucial emergencies by ingenious, no to say startling, inventions. The apparent deadlock on the western frontier has presented a perplexing situation. For months the armies have fought battles more sanguinary than Waterloo without making progress except in terms of yards. Trench warfare has been responsible for this. Any kind of an offensive movement has meant heavy losses. To make the trench less secure for the enemy is an object which each of the belligerents is striving to accomplish. A step in this direction is found in the work of a British inventor who has developed a wheeled body shield that affords immunity from rifle bullets and shrapnel when advancing upon fortified positions.