The Ideal Aerial Bomb 



It explodes six feet above the ground regard- 

 less of the height from which it is dropped 



K 



The bomb is six 

 feet six inches 

 long. The diam- 

 eter of the head 

 is six inches 



N aerial bomb 

 which explodes 

 about six feet 

 above the ground, re- 

 gardless of the height 

 from which it is 

 dropped, has been 

 tested out by the Ord- 

 nance Department and 

 probably will be manu- 

 factured in large num- 

 bers. It is the inven- 

 tion of Lester P. Bar- 

 low, a former coal 

 passer in the United 

 States Navy who later 

 joined Villa's forces in 

 Mexico and was at the 

 head of railroad shops 

 where the rebel chief 

 had his artillery ammu- 

 nition made. While there he conceived the 



idea and partially perfected the device. 

 The novel feature of the bomb is that 



it explodes before it hits the ground, 



whether it is dropped from a height of two 



thousand feet or twenty thousand feet. 



The difficulty with bombs used in the past 



is that they have been fired by contact 



with the ground, 



burying them- 

 selves in the earth 



before exploding. 



Thus ninety per 



cent of the force 



of a bomb dropped 



on ordinary 



ground is ex- 



p e n d e d 



against earth, 



instead of 



scattering its 



fragments 



over a wide 



area above 



ground. 

 Inventors 



have been 



aware of this 



deficiency of 



the tear- 

 shaped bomb The fin . like device at the top of each bomb is a stabil- 



for a long izer which keeps it true to its course during its flight 



The detonating 

 rod sets off the 

 detonator as 

 soon as its point 

 touches the earth 



time. The idea upper- 

 most in their minds has 

 been to develop a bomb 

 that would explode head 

 high and whose bursting 

 fragments would cover a 

 wide circle before reach- 

 ing the ground. So far as 

 is known no foreign coun- 

 try has such a bomb in its 

 possession. The bomb 

 which comes closest to 

 realizing the maximum 

 of efficiency, as the 

 Ordnance Department 

 interprets that term, is 

 this bomb devised by 

 Mr. Barlow. 



The above-ground ex- 

 plosion is made possible 

 by a rod that protrudes 

 from the point of the 

 bomb after it has been 

 dropped from the aircraft carrying it. This 

 is about six and one-half feet long. As 

 soon as its point touches the earth it sets 

 into operation a detonator containing about 

 two hundred grains of fulminate of mercury 

 which immediately sets off the explosive. 



The bomb 

 weighs about 

 one hundred 

 pounds. It 

 contains 

 about forty 

 pounds of 

 trinitrotoluol 

 and the steel 

 casing and 

 other metal 

 parts of the 

 bomb, which 

 are blown in- 

 to fragments 

 by the explo- 

 sion, have a 

 total weight 

 of about sixty 

 pounds. The 

 bombs can be 

 manufac- 

 tured at a 

 cost of about 



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