389 



Seventy thousand tons of ice, valued at $100,000, which, owing to the difficulty of handling, 

 had to be left to melt in the sun after fire had destroyed the buildings in which it was stored 



in an Encounter Between Fire and 

 Ice, the Fire Won 



A BOLT of lightning during a heavy 

 rainstorm near Warnertown, Pa., re- 

 cently, struck one of two huge icehouses. 

 The resulting fire soon spread to the other 

 icehouse, and in a short time even the 

 inside partitions in the buildings were half 

 burned out, surrounded with ice though 

 they were. All that remained after the fire 

 were two huge mountains of ice which, 

 owing to insurance laws and other difficul- 

 ties, were left to melt in the sun. 



Who Would Fear Bullets in an 

 Armor Like This? 



THE United States is equipping 

 every soldier with an exact du- 

 plicate of the British type helmet 

 made of shrapnel-proof but not 

 rifle-proof steel. This helmet 

 weighs only two pounds, two 

 ounces, and is considered by the 

 Government to be superior to 

 the French and German hel- 

 mets. In the opinion of the 

 United States Government, the 

 various types of helmets rank in 

 the order of British, German, 

 and French. The German hel- 

 met covers more of the head and 

 is a better protection in that re- 

 spect, but the German shape 

 helmet cannot be made of the 

 high grade material of the 

 British helmet. The French 

 type helmet is inferior to the 

 other two both in shape and 

 in resistance to shrapnel bul- 

 lets. The German helmet 

 weighs considerably more 

 than the British, which is a 



The steel helmets, body 

 armor and necklets with 

 which soldiers will be 

 equipped for special work 



disadvantage considering all the other 

 weight the soldier is required to carry. The 

 minimum thickness of high grade steel 

 which would resist rifle bullets is .15 of an 

 inch. This is four times as thick as the 

 present helmet steel, which is considered 

 too thick for practical purposes. 



In addition to helmet protection, when 

 especially difficult and hazardous operations 

 over No Man's Land are contemplated, the 

 soldiers will be equipped with body armor. 

 This body armor consists of slightly curved 

 steel plates sewed in a canvas sack, ex- 

 tending down to the knees and protecting 

 the soldier fro'm bursting shrapnel, 

 but not from rifle or machine-gun 

 bullets. This body armor, which 

 weighs only sixteen pounds, three 

 ounces, is strapped over the shoulders 

 and around the body. 



Gas masks will of course be 

 furnished for special operations, 

 and eventually a limited quan- 

 tity of necklets will be provided 

 which are made up of twenty- 

 four layers of Japanese silk 

 which surround an inner lining 

 of Japanese silk waste, the 

 whole being encased in a canvas 

 cover. This necklet protects 

 the upper chest, the back of the 

 head, and the sides of the face. 

 Neither the necklet nor the 

 body armor will be furnished 

 every soldier, but will be kept 

 in store and supplied for espe- 

 cially difficult work only. 



Heavier body armor, which 

 would be proof against rifle 

 bullets as well as shrapnel, has 

 been tried by all the belligerent 

 nations but so far has not been 

 generally adopted because it 

 weighs fifty-five pounds. 



