National Affairs: Garden Hose

“Garden Hose”At Fort Tilden (near Manhattan) anti-aircraft gunners prepared to test a new “sightless” 50-caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine gun. Instead of aiming and firing at the target by the aid of sights, a gunner firing the new weapon simply turns it like a garden hose upon aircraft overhead and sprays them with a stream of 450 bullets per minute, every fifth bullet being a flaming “tracer bullet” which indicates the

path of the others. The new gun has a vertical range of 15,000 feet, and a horizontal range of 27,000 ft. Its flaming “tracer shots” will serve the added purpose of setting fire to enemy aircraft. Its projectiles will pierce armor plate one inch thick at 12,000 feet. Each weighs about a quarter of a pound.

Gardeners who have attempted to down elusive butterflies with a hose opined that even with the new gun anti-aircraft marksmen will scarcely have it all their own way; shook their heads doubtfully even when informed that the tracer bullets will be visible to a height of 7,500 ft. at night and 6,000 ft. by day.