90 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



merely from the standpoint of the magnitude of the service 

 rendered. By way of record of American participation in the 

 war we have photographs showing every structure erected in 

 France, beginning with the docks of debarkation, and leading 

 on up to gun emplacements at the front. All the details of 

 modern warfare are preserved for future information and 

 instruction; how trenches are built, how barbed wire is wound 

 and supported, how telephone lines are strung, how gas attacks 

 are launched and met, how guns are camouflaged. Thanks to 

 photography there can henceforth be no excuse for ignorance 

 of the full meaning of waging war. 



The most novel feature of this record work is probably the 

 use of the moving picture, which has practically come into being 

 since the Spanish War and the Boer War. Through its use 

 vivid records of all military operations are available in our war 

 colleges for instruction and study. Preparation, training, and 

 even " going over the top " are all faithfully delineated. Just 

 as in the industries moving pictures are furnishing the most 

 valuable records of construction methods and operations, so 

 it has been in the war. Take, for instance, that real epic in 

 cinematography, the story of the 1 4-inch naval guns; the con- 

 struction of their railway mountings in Philadelphia, their 

 transportation across the ocean, their assembly at a French 

 port, their cautious creeping over French railway bridges, their 

 detours around the too short French tunnels, until finally we 

 see them in action against the Metz-Meziers railway. It may 

 well be questioned whether the only adequate history of the 

 war will not after all be the photographic one. 



Other war-time uses of moving pictures must not be over- 

 looked. Instruction in the use of machine guns, trench mor- 

 tars, even in the handling of an airplane, has been made more 

 vivid and more interesting, and so more easily grasped by the 

 student when given through clever moving pictures. And their 

 help in keeping up the morale of the men by supplying healthful 

 amusement must by no means be forgotten, with a Y. M. C. A. 

 budget for moving pictures of nearly two and a half millions. 



