260 



Popular Science Monthly 



Adjusting screw 



The Giant Periscope. It Peeps 

 Over Tree Tops Like a Giraffe 



'""P^HE old French saying, "Be 

 X silent; your enemies are listen- 

 ing!" might well be paraphrased by 

 the Germans to read, "Lie low; the 

 English are looking!" Like the 

 person "from Missouri," the British 

 officer must see his way very 

 clearly. For this reason, perhaps, 

 the periscope is put to more strenu- 

 ous service among the English 

 troops than among any of the 

 other belligerents. 



The accompanying il- 

 lustrations show a pole 

 periscope of a late de- 

 sign, which is ex- 

 tensively used by k 

 the English and also 

 by the Italians, be- ^ 

 cause it enables an 

 officer to peep over 

 tall obstacles, 

 whether mountain 

 peaks or merely tree 

 tops. The height to 

 which it can be run 

 up depends upon 

 the number of sec- 

 tions of which it is 

 made. The sections 

 telescope into the 

 bottom tube when 

 not in use and dur- 

 ing transportation, 

 for which a tiny two-wheeled 

 used. The truck is often run 

 the protection of a tree, and 

 spikes are nailed in the ground to 

 hold the apparatus close against 

 the tree-trunk. It is the work of 

 but a moment to turn the crank 

 and send the telescoped sections 

 up, into the air until the top 

 peeps out over the tree top. 

 In one village on the Somme, a 

 periscope of this kind, set up in a 

 little protected cove, kept the 

 Allied armies informed of every 

 movement of the Germans, who 

 were behind massive entrench- 

 ments at that particular spot. 

 The body of the truck is built so 

 low that it can be easily concealed 

 by brush. 



upper sigtit 



An Ambulance with Its 

 Own Traveling Kitchen 



ACH of the new mo- 



E 



Upper 

 signt 

 piece 



Supporting 

 rings 



Drawing table 



Lower sight, piece 



The pole periscope in position. 

 It may be folded up in a truck 



truck is greatest 

 up under master's point of view 



United States Army Am- 

 bulance Corps has its 

 traveling kitchen. These 

 units have taken over the 

 front-line trench work for- 

 merly performed by the 

 Red Cross. 



The vehicles of each 

 unit consist of twenty 

 Ford ambulances and of 

 two one and one-half-ton 

 trucks to carry baggage 

 and supplies. One of 

 these trucks hauls behind 

 it the traveling kitchen 

 which is mounted on a 

 light four-wheeled trailer 

 on which is carried a field 

 range with all the neces- 

 sary stew kettles, roast 

 pans and the like to 

 serve three meals a 

 day to the forty-fi\'B 

 men comprising a sec- 

 tion. The traveling 

 kitchen makes each 

 unit independent of 

 its base for cooked 

 meals, provided its sup- 

 ply of food does not 

 run out. This is an 

 advantage of the 

 importance from the quarter- 



An American ambulance with its own traveling kitchen 

 which is mounted on a very light four-wheeled trailer 



