220 Popular Science Monthly 



A Dinner Served in Gondolas on a 



River of Champagne 



THE dinner being served in the accom- 

 panying photograph is probably the 

 wettest on 



record. It 

 literally 

 floated on 

 champagne 

 (the stage 

 variety). As 

 one might 

 suppose] the 

 novelty is 

 the product 

 of the com- 

 bined imagi- 

 nations of a 

 motion-pic- 

 turedirector 

 and his tech- 

 nical assis- 

 tant. The 

 scene repre- 

 sents a ban- 

 quet in a 

 recent Fox 

 produc- 

 tion. 



A table 

 was con- 

 structed 

 with a canal about a foot wide running 

 round it. The ends of the canal were ex- 

 tended into the kitchen where a water wheel 

 lifted the liquid from the lower end of the 

 canal to the higher end. The gondolas 

 were loaded with meats and viands at this 

 end and sent on their journey. 



The gondolas loaded with dainties float from the kitchen to the 

 guests and back again, on a flowing river of "stage" champagne 



Fighting German Machine-Guns with 

 the French "37" 



THE great work of the French "75" in 

 counterbalancing the mass of Ger- 

 man artillery in the present war has 

 justly made it famous. But in 

 that work it has had a 

 smaller ally, not so well 

 known though de- 

 serving of most 

 honorable 

 mention. This r 

 is the French 

 "37," a small 

 quick-firing 

 cannon which 

 advances with 



the skirmishing first line, seeking to destroy 



the German machine-guns. 



A machine-gun destroyer it is in very 



truth. Germany relies on machine-guns 



and artillery to hold a battle line. Machine- 

 guns and 

 light artil- 

 lery, then, 

 retarded the 

 advances of 

 the French 

 — until they 

 answe red 

 cannon with 

 cannon in 

 the famous 

 "75" and 

 the distin- 

 g u i s h e d 



"37." 



A more 

 beautiful 

 weapon 

 than the 

 "37" for fill- 

 ing the rigid 

 require- 

 ments of a 

 skirmishing 

 cannon is 

 not to be 

 found any- 

 where. It 

 ably meets the first requisite of portability; 

 the gun and mounting can be quickly 

 taken apart and carried over the most shell- 

 torn ground by the six or eight members of 

 its crew. It is accurate — a French officer 

 says there exists no other gun more ac- 

 curate ! It will hit the muzzle of a machine 

 gun at a distance of a mile. And its speed 

 of fire is remarkable. A well trained crew, 

 can fire thirty-five high-explosive shells, of 

 nearly one and a half inches diameter, 

 every minute, while they are crouched upon 

 the ground to conceal themselves 

 from the 



enemy 



This French portable, quick-firing cannon advances with 

 the skirmish line to destroy the enemy's machine-guns 



Military ex- 

 pediency pre- 

 vents the pub- 

 lic from know- 

 ing the details 

 ofthismachine, 

 but when the 

 story of this 

 war is told, the 

 "37" will not be 

 found wanting. 



