of industry involved 

 in the casting, turn- 

 ing - , and assembling of 

 these various types of 

 cannon. Special ma- 

 chinery must be em- 

 ployed in each in- 

 stance where there is 

 a variation in caliber. 

 Complete foundries 

 are given over to the 

 manufacture of the 

 separate parts of the 

 gun and gun carriage. 

 The industrial organi- 

 zation for one size of 

 gun alone is greater 

 today than the total 

 pre-war ordnance or- 

 ganization. 



THE 20-INCH CANNON 

 OF FRANCE 



From the failures 

 of the Germans the 

 French found that the 

 problem of heavy ar- 

 tillery in the field 

 was transportation ; 

 so French artillery ex- 

 perts began at once to 

 try to solve this diffi- 

 culty. They have suc- 

 ceeded in their task. 

 Their triumph is the 

 construction of a rail- 

 road truck upon which 

 is mounted a 20-inch 

 cannon, the heaviest 

 piece of artillery in 

 the world. 



The marvelous man- 

 ner in which the 

 French have overcome 

 the mechanical diffi- 

 culties that hitherto 

 confined heavy artil- 

 lery to fortress or 

 siege operations is a striking example of 

 what French brains are doing in this war. 

 Firing a 12-inch gun from a foundation 

 built along a spur of railway was consid- 

 ered a mechanical impossibility before 

 General Joffre's expert artillerists dem- 

 onstrated the success of the idea. 



It was not only in the construction of 

 these guns that France showed her skill, 

 but in their operation. French gunners 



THE SHOWER BATH 



Judging by this contraption, the French soldier has developed a 

 modicum of Yankee ingenuity. A water-wheel motor operates a 

 hydraulic lift, which supplies a bucket reservoir with the "makings'" 

 of a sprinkle. The apparatus works, but it looks as if it might have 

 been modeled after a comic cartoonist's distorted dream. 



first developed indirect fire — the art of 

 hitting an unseen target — and in this war 

 they have brought indirect fire to tech- 

 nical perfection and even applied its prin- 

 ciples in new ways. 



Undoubtedly, in accounts of present-day 

 battles in Europe, the reader has met the 

 phrase curtain or barrage fire. He may 

 have guessed something of the nature of 

 this artillery expedient. 



335 



