TRENCH-WARFARE MATERIAL.
Like many of the other war implements produced by the Ordnance
Department for use in France, the weapons employed in fighting from
the trenches were entirely novel to American industry; and in the
production of them we find the same story of the difficulties in the
adoption of foreign designs, of the development of our own designs, of
the delays encountered and mistakes made in equipping a new industry
from the ground up, but, finally, of the triumphant arrival at quantity
production in a marvelously brief time, considering the obstacles which
had to be overcome.
When the movements of armies in the great war ceased and they were
held in deadlock in the trenches, the fighters at once began devising
weapons with which they could kill each other from below ground. For
this purpose they borrowed from the experience of man running back to
time immemorial. They took a leaf from the book of the Roman fire-ball
throwers and developed the hand grenade beyond the point to which
it had been brought in the European warfare of the last century.
They called upon an industry which had once existed solely for the
amusement of the people, the fireworks industry, for its golden rain
and rainbow-hued stars for signals with which to talk to each other by
night. Other geniuses of the trenches took empty cannon cartridges and,
setting them up as ground mortars, succeeded in throwing bombs from
them across No Man's Land into the enemy ranks. They even for a time
resurrected the catapult of Trojan days, although this device attained
no great success. But from all such activities new weapons of warfare
sprang, crude at first, but later refined as only modern science and
manufacture could perfect them.
America entered the war when this development of ordnance novelties
had reached an advanced state. It became necessary for us, then, to
make a rapid study of what had been done and then go ahead with our own
production either from foreign designs or with inventions of our own.
To this end in April, 1917, a few days after we declared war with
Germany, the Trench Warfare Section was organized within the Ordnance
Department and given charge of the production of these novelties. The
section did not entirely confine itself to trench-warfare materials,
since one of its chief production activities was concerned with the
manufacture of the various sorts of bombs to be dropped from airplanes.
Also, at the start of its existence it had charge of the production of
implements for fighting with poison gas and flame. Although in large
part this phase of its work was taken away from it in the summer of
1917 and was later placed under the jurisdiction of the newly organized
Chemical Warfare Service, the Trench Warfare Section continued to
conduct certain branches of gas-warfare manufacture, in particular
the production of the famous Livens projectors of gas and also the
manufacture of the portable toxic-gas sets for producing gas clouds
from cylinders.
All in all, the Trench Warfare Section was charged with the
responsibility of producing some 47 devices, every one of them new to
American manufacture and some extremely difficult to make. The backbone
of the program consisted of the production of grenades, both of the
hand-thrown and the rifle-fired variety, trench mortars, trench-mortar
ammunition, pyrotechnics of various sorts, and bombs for the airplanes,
with their sighting and release mechanisms.
In the production of these new devices there arose a new form of
cooperation between Government and private manufacturers under the
tutelage of the Trench Warfare Section. The manufacturers engaged in
the production of various classes of these munition novelties joined
in formal associations. There was a Hand Grenade Manufacturers'
Association, under the capable leadership of William Sparks, president
of the Sparks-Withington Co., of Jackson, Mich.; the Drop Bomb
Manufacturers' Association, headed by J. L. Sinyard, president of A.
O. Smith Corporation, Milwaukee; the Six-inch Trench-mortar Shell
Manufacturers' Association, R. W. Millard, president of Foster-Merriam
Co., Meriden, Conn.; the Rifle Grenade Manufacturers' Association,
under the leadership of F. S. Briggs, president of the Briggs &
Stratton Co., Milwaukee, Wis.; and the Livens Projector Manufacturers'
Association. A similar association of manufacturers engaged in army
contracts existed in the production of small-arms ammunition; but in
no other branch of the Ordnance Department was the development of such
cooperation carried on to the extent of that fathered by the Trench
Warfare Section.
The existence of these associations was of inestimable benefit
in securing the rapid development, standardization for quantity
manufacture, and production of these strange devices. Each association
had its president, its other officers, and its regular meetings. These
meetings were attended by the interested officers of the Trench Warfare
Section. In the meetings the experiments of the manufacturers and the
short-cut methods developed in their shops were freely discussed;
and, if modifications of design were suggested, such questions were
thrashed out in these meetings of practical technicians, and all of the
contractors simultaneously received the benefits.
The Trench Warfare Section produced its results under the handicap of
being low in the priority ratings, many other items of ordnance being
considered in Washington of more importance than the trench-fighting
materials and therefore entitled to first call upon raw materials and
transportation. In the priority lists the leader of 47 trench-warfare
articles, the 240-millimeter mortars, stood twenty-second, and the
others trailed after.
GRENADES.
The first of the trench-warfare weapons with which the rookie soldier
became acquainted was the hand grenade, since this, at least in its
practice or dummy form, was supplied to the training camps in this
country. To all intents and purposes the hand grenade was a product
of the war against Germany, although grenades had been more or less
used since explosives existed. All earlier grenades had been crude
devices with only limited employment in warfare, but in the three years
preceding America's participation in the war the grenade had become a
carefully built weapon.
The extent of our production of hand grenades may be seen in the fact
that when the effort was at its height 10,000 workers were engaged
exclusively in its manufacture. The firing mechanism of the explosive
grenades which we built was known as the Bouchon assembly. In the
production of this item 19 of every 20 workers were women. In fact no
other item in the entire ordnance field was produced so exclusively by
women. Incidentally, at no time during the war was there a strike in
any grenade factory.
For a long time in the trenches of France only one type of hand grenade
was used. This was the so-called defensive grenade, built of stout
metal which would fly into fragments when the interior charge exploded.
As might be expected, such a weapon was used only by men actually
within the trenches, the walls of which protected the throwers from the
flying fragments. But, as the war continued, six other distinct kinds
of grenades were developed, America herself contributing one of the
most important of them; and during our war activities we were engaged
in manufacturing all seven.
The defensive, or fragmentation, type grenade was the commonest,
most numerous, and perhaps, the most useful of all of them. Another
important one, however, was that known as the offensive grenade, and
it was America's own contribution to trench warfare. The body of the
offensive grenade was made of paper, so that the deadly effect of it
was produced by the flame and concussion of the explosion itself. It
was quite sure to kill any man within 3 yards of it when it went off,
but it was safe to use in the open offensive movements, since there
were no pieces of metal to fly back and hit the thrower.
A third development was known as the gas grenade. It was built of sheet
metal, and its toxic contents were effective in making enemy trenches
and dugouts uninhabitable. A fourth, a grenade of similar construction,
was filled with phosphorus, instead of gas, and was known as the
phosphorus grenade. This grenade scattered burning phosphorus over
an area 3 to 5 yards in diameter and released a dense cloud of white
smoke. In open attacks upon machine-gun nests phosphorus grenades were
thrown in barrages to build smoke screens for the attacking forces.
As a fifth class there was a combination hand and rifle grenade, a
British device adopted in our program. The sixth class of grenades
was known as the incendiary type. These were paper bombs filled with
burning material and designed for use against structures intended to
be destroyed by fire. Finally, in the seventh class were the thermit
grenades, built of terneplate and filled with a compound containing
thermit, which develops an intense heat while melting. Thermit grenades
were used principally to destroy captured guns. One of them touched off
in the breech of a cannon would fuse the breech-block mechanism and
destroy the usefulness of the weapon.
All of these grenades except the incendiary grenades used the same
firing mechanism, and the incendiary grenade firing mechanism was the
standard one modified in a single particular.
The earliest American requirement in this production was for defensive
grenades, of the fragmentation type. Our first estimate was that we
would need 21,000,000 of these for actual warfare and 2,000,000 of the
unloaded type for practice and training work. But, as the war continued
and the American plans developed in scale, we saw we would require a
much greater quantity than this; and orders were finally placed for a
total of 68,000,000 live grenades and over 3,000,000 of the practice
variety.
By August 20, 1917, the Trench Warfare Section had developed the design
and the drawings for the defensive grenade. The first contract--for
5,000 grenades--was let to the Caskey-Dupree Co. of Marietta, Ohio.
This concern was fairly entitled to such preference, because the
experimentation leading up to the design for this bomb was conducted
almost entirely at its plant in Marietta.
Next came an interesting industrial development by a well-known
American concern which had previously devoted its exclusive energy to
the production of high-grade silverware, but which now, as a patriotic
duty, undertook to build the deadly defensive grenades. This was the
Gorham Manufacturing Co. of Providence, R. I. This firm contracted to
furnish complete, loaded grenades, ready for shipment overseas, and was
the only one to build and operate a manufacturing and loading plant.
Elsewhere contracts were let for parts only, these parts to converge
at the assembling plants later; and such orders were rapidly placed
until by the middle of December, 1917, various industrial concerns were
tooling up for a total production of 21,000,000 of these missiles.
The grenade which these contractors undertook to produce was an
American product in its design, although modeled after grenades already
in use at the front. Its chief difference was in the firing mechanism,
where improvements, or what were then thought to be improvements, had
been installed to make it safer in the hands of the soldier than the
grenades then in use at the front. This firing mechanism with its
pivoted lever was, in fact, a radical departure from European practice.
The body of this grenade was of malleable iron, and the grenade
exploded with a force greater than that of any in use in France.
The remodeling of factories, the building of machines, and the
manufacture of tools for this undertaking, pushed forward with
determined speed, was completed in from 90 to 120 days, and by
April almost all of the companies had reached the stage of quantity
production.
And then, on May 9, 1918, came a cablegram from the American
Expeditionary Forces that brought the entire effort to an abrupt halt.
The officers of the American Expeditionary Forces in no uncertain
terms condemned the American defensive grenade. The trouble was that
in our anxiety to protect the American soldier we had designed a
grenade that was too safe. The firing mechanism was too complicated.
In the operation required to touch off the fuse five movements were
necessary on the part of the soldier, and in this the psychology of
a man in battle had not been taken sufficiently into consideration.
The well-known story of the negro soldier who, in practice, threw his
grenade too soon because he could feel it "swelling" in his hand,
applies to most soldiers in battle. In using the new grenade the
American soldier would not go through the operations required to fire
its fuse. Cases came to light, too, showing that in the excitement of
battle the American soldier forgot to release the safety device, thus
giving the German an opportunity to hurl back the unexploded grenade.
As the result of this discovery all production was stopped in the
United States and the ordnance engineers began redesigning the
weapon. The incident meant that 15,000,000 rough castings of grenade
bodies, 3,500,000 assembled but empty grenades and 1,000,000 loaded
grenades had to be salvaged, and that on July 1, 1918, the production
of live fragmentation grenades in this country was represented by
the figure zero. Some of the machinery used in the production of the
faulty grenades was useless and had to be replaced by new, while the
trained forces which had reached quantity production in April had to
be disbanded or transferred to other work while the design was being
changed.
By August 1 the new design had been developed on paper and much of the
new machinery required had been produced and installed in the plants,
which were ready to go ahead immediately with the production. It is
a tribute to the patriotism of the manufacturers who lost time and
money by this change that little complaint was heard from them by the
Government.
In the production of hand grenades the most difficult element of
manufacture and the item that might have held up the delivery of
completed mechanisms was the Bouchon assembly. There was an abundant
foundry capacity in the United States for the production of gray-iron
castings for grenade bodies, and so this part of the program gave
no anxiety. The Bouchon assembly threatened to be the choke point.
In order to assure the success of defensive-grenade production, the
Precision Castings Co. of Syracuse, N. Y., and the Doehler Die Castings
Co. of Toledo, Ohio, and Brooklyn, N. Y., worked their plants 24 hours
a day until they had built up a reserve of Bouchons and screw plugs and
removed all anxiety from that source. The total production of Bouchons
eventually reached the figure 64,600,000.
The first thought of the Ordnance Department was to produce grenades
by the assembling and quantitative method; that is, by the production
of parts in various plants and the assembling of those parts in other
plants. But, due to delay in railway shipments and difficulties due
to priorities, it was discovered that this method of manufacture,
however adaptable it might be to other items in the ordnance program,
was not a good thing in grenade production; and when the war ended the
tendency was all in the direction of having the assembly contractors
produce their own parts either by purchase from subcontractors or by
manufacture in their own plants.
The orders for the redesigned grenades called for the construction of
44,000,000 of them. So rapidly had the manufacturers been able to reach
quantity production this time that a daily rate of 250,000 to 300,000
was attained by November 11, 1918, and by December 6, less than a month
after the fighting stopped, the factories had turned out 21,054,339
defensive grenades.
It should be remembered that the great effort in ordnance production
in this country was directed toward the American offensive expected on
a tremendous scale in the spring of 1919. Had the war continued the
fragmentation grenade program, in spite of the delays encountered in
its development, would have produced a sufficient quantity of these
weapons.
Special consideration is due the following-named firms for their
efforts in developing the production of defensive grenades:
Caskey-Dupree Co., Marietta, Ohio.
Spacke Machine & Tool Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
Stewart-Warner Speedometer Co., Chicago, Ill.
Miami Cycle & Manufacturing Co., Middletown, Ohio.
American Radiator Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
International Harvester Co., Chicago, Ill.
Doehler Die Castings Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Precision Castings Co., Syracuse, N. Y.
The American offensive grenade was largely the production of the Single
Service Package Corporation of New York, both in the development of
its design and in its manufacture. The body of this grenade was built
of laminated paper spirally wound and waterproofed by being dipped
in paraffine. The top of this body was a die casting, into which the
firing mechanism was screwed. Practically no changes were made in the
design of this weapon from the time it was first produced, and the
production record is an excellent one.
Our earliest thought was that we would need some 7,000,000 of these
grenades and orders for that quantity of bodies were placed in January
and March, 1918, with the Single Service Package Corporation. Then it
became necessary to discover factories which could produce the metal
caps. The orders for these were first placed with the Acme Die Castings
Co. and the National Lead Casting Co. for 3,375,000 castings from each
concern. But these companies failed to make satisfactory deliveries,
and in May, 1918, a contract for 5,000,000 caps was let to the Doehler
Die Castings Co. which reached quantity production in August. After
that the Single Service Package Corporation, the chief contractor,
forged ahead in its work and on November 11 was producing the bodies
for offensive grenades at the rate of 55,000 to 60,000 daily. By
December 6, 1918, the Government had accepted 6,179,321 completed
bodies. The signing of the armistice brought to an end a project to
build 17,599,000 additional grenades of this type.
The production of gas grenades offered some peculiar difficulties.
We set out at first to produce 3,684,530 of them. By January, 1918,
the engineers of the Ordnance Department had completed the plans and
specifications for the American gas grenade, and on February 12, an
order for 1,000,000 of them was placed with the Maxim Silencer Co., of
Hartford, Conn.
The gas grenades were to be delivered at the filling plants complete
except for the detonator thimbles, which seal both gas and phosphorus
grenades and act as sockets for the firing mechanism. It was seen
that the construction of these thimbles might be a choke point in the
construction of grenades of both types, and orders were early placed
for them--1,500,000 to be delivered by the Maxim Silencer Co. and an
equal quantity by the Bassic Co., of Bridgeport, Conn. On December 6,
1918, these concerns had produced 1,982,731 detonator thimbles.
The body of the gas grenade is built of two sheet-metal cups welded
together to be gas-tight. Since, when we started out on this
production, we did not know what kind of gas would be used or at what
pressure it would be held within the grenade, we set the specifications
to make grenade bodies to hold an air pressure of 200 pounds. The
welding of the cups frequently failed to hold such pressure, so that
the rejections of gas-grenade bodies under this test ran as high as
50 per cent. But in June, 1918, the gas for the grenades had been
developed, and we were thereupon able to reduce the pressure of the
standard test to 50 pounds. Under such a test the bodies readily passed
inspection.
In September, 1918, we let additional contracts for gas
grenades--500,000 to the Evinrude Motor Co., of Milwaukee; 500,000 to
the John W. Brown Manufacturing Co., of Columbus, Ohio; and 400,000 to
the Zenite Metal Co., of Indianapolis.
On November 11 gas grenade bodies were being produced at the rate of
22,000 per day, and the total production up to December 6 was 936,394.
The phosphorus grenade was similar to the gas grenade in construction.
The plans and specifications for this weapon were ready in January,
1918. In February the following contracts were let: Metropolitan
Engineering Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., 750,000; Evinrude Motor Co.,
Milwaukee, 750,000; Zenite Metal Co., Indianapolis, 500,000. On
December 6, 1918, these concerns had delivered a total of 521,948
phosphorus grenade bodies.
The difficulties which had been experienced in the production of gas
grenades were repeated in this project. The Evinrude Co. was especially
quick in getting over the obstacles to quantity production. The
Metropolitan Engineering Co. was already engaged with large orders for
adapters and boosters in the heavy-gun ammunition manufacture for the
Ordnance Department and found that the order for phosphorus grenades
conflicted to a considerable extent with its previous war work. The
matter was thrashed out in the Ordnance Department, which gave the
priority in this plant to the adapters and boosters, with the result
that this firm was able to make only a small contribution to the total
production of phosphorus grenade bodies.
The development of thermit grenades was still in the experimental
stage when the armistice was signed. There was no actual production
in this country of grenades of this character. In October, however,
the development of the grenade in design had reached a stage where we
felt justified in letting a contract for 655,450 die-casting parts to
the Doehler Die Castings Co., at its Toledo plant, and for an equal
number of bodies with firing-mechanism assemblies to the Stewart-Warner
Speedometer Corporation at Chicago.
The incendiary grenade not only did not get out of the development
stage, but even a perfected model was regarded as of doubtful value by
the officers of the American Expeditionary Forces. Nevertheless, the
Chemical Warfare Service was of the opinion that such a grenade should
be worked out, and an order for 81,000 had been given to the Celluloid
Co., of Newark, N. J. Experimental work was progressing satisfactorily
when the armistice was signed.
When the war ended, we were adapting to American manufacture a
combination hand and rifle phosphorus grenade, borrowed from the
English. The body of this grenade was built of terneplate and it had a
removable stem, so that it could be thrown by hand or fired from the
end of a service rifle. The American Can Co. built 1,000 of these to
try out the design and strengthen the weak features.
-----------------------+----------------+--------------+--------------
Article. | Completed to | Completed to |Sent overseas.
| Nov. 8, 1918. |Feb. 1, 1919. |
-----------------------+----------------+--------------+--------------
Dummy hand grenade | 415,870 | 415,870 |
Practice hand grenade | 3,605,864 | 3,605,864 |
Defensive hand grenade | 17,477,245 | 25,312,794 | 516,533
Offensive hand grenade | 5,359,321 | 7,000,000 | 173,136
Gas hand grenade | 635,561 | 1,501,176 | 249,239
Phosphorus hand grenade| 505,192 | 521,948 | 150,600
Thermit hand grenade | | |
-----------------------+----------------+--------------+--------------
NOTE.--In above figures all grenades are unloaded with the
exception of those sent overseas, which were loaded.
RIFLE GRENADES.
In the construction of our rifle grenades there was another unfortunate
experience due to a faulty design. The rifle grenade fits in a holder
at the muzzle of an ordinary service rifle. When the rifle is fired
the bullet passes through a hole in the middle of the grenade, and
the gases of the discharge following the bullet throw the grenade
approximately 200 yards. Any man within 75 yards of an exploding rifle
grenade is likely to be wounded or killed. The rifle grenade is used
both as a defensive and offensive weapon, since the firer is well out
of range of the exploding missile.
In developing a rifle grenade for American manufacture our engineers
adopted the French Viven-Bessiere type. The French service ammunition
is larger than ours, and it was therefore necessary to design our
grenade with a smaller hole. But in the anxiety to produce this weapon
in the shortest time possible the models were not sufficiently tested,
and no consideration was taken of the difference in design between
a French bullet and an American bullet. The result was that the
French grenade did not function well with our ammunition, due to the
splitting of the Springfield bullet as it passed through the grenade.
The result was that in May, 1918, several months after the manufacture
of this grenade had been in progress, the entire undertaking was
canceled pending the development of new designs; and 3,500,000
completed grenades had to be salvaged.
[Illustration: LEFT TO RIGHT--DEFENSIVE HAND GRENADE, OFFENSIVE HAND
GRENADE, GAS HAND GRENADE, PHOSPHORUS HAND GRENADE.]
[Illustration: THROWING A HAND GRENADE. FIRST OPERATION: WITHDRAWING
THE COTTER PIN.]
[Illustration: THROWING A HAND GRENADE. SECOND OPERATION: RELEASING THE
GRENADE AND FIRING LEVER.]
[Illustration: V. B. RIFLE GRENADE, LIVE, MARK 1.]
[Illustration: V. B. RIFLE GRENADE, MARK 1, AND DISCHARGER.]
[Illustration: 6-INCH TRENCH MORTAR SHELL.]
The original contract for rifle grenades had been let to the
Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. of Pittsburgh. This called
for the production of all parts by the Westinghouse Co. and the
assembling of them in the Westinghouse plant to the number of 5,000,000
grenades. But there was such a diversity of material employed in the
manufacture of rifle grenades that succeeding contracts were let for
parts and for assembling separately.
After the rifle grenade had been redesigned new contracts were let
for a total of 30,115,409 of them. In August, a few weeks later, the
daily production of these grenades in the various plants had reached
a total of 130,000 and by the end of October the daily production was
250,000. The goal toward which this production was aiming was the
expected spring offensive of the American Expeditionary Forces in 1919.
We should have met this event adequately because, while only 685,200
American rifle grenades had actually been shipped overseas when the
fighting ceased, we had 20,000,000 of them ready for loading at that
time and the production was already heavy and constantly increasing.
Special consideration is due the following-named firms for their
efforts in developing the production of rifle grenades:
Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Briggs & Stratton Co., Milwaukee, Wis.
Holcomb & Hoke, Indianapolis, Ind.
Stewart-Warner Speedometer Corporation, Chicago, Ill.
Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Co., Milwaukee, Wis.
American Radiator Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
Link-Belt Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
Doehler Die Castings Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.
TOXIC GAS EQUIPMENT.
America entered the war nearly two years after the Germans had made
their first gas attack. In those intervening months gas warfare had
grown to be a science in itself, requiring special organizations with
each army to handle it.
The employment of toxic gas had developed along several lines. The
original attack by the Germans upon the mask-less Canadians at Ypres
had been in the form of a gas cloud from projectors, these latter being
pressure tanks with nozzle outlets. For some time the Germans continued
the use of gas solely by this method. Retaliation on the part of the
allies quickly followed. However, the employment of gas cloud attacks
involved great labor of preparation and was absolutely dependent
upon certain combinations of weather conditions. In consequence, the
launching of a gas attack in this form could not be timed with regard
to other tactical operations. Therefore the allies were put to the
necessity of developing other means of throwing toxic gases, and this
they did by inclosing the gas in shell shot from the big guns of the
artillery, in grenades thrown by hand from the trenches, and--most
effectively of all--by the agency of an ingenious invention of the
British known as the Livens projector.
The Livens projector was deadly in its effect, since it could throw
suddenly and in great quantity gas bombs, or drums, into the enemy's
ranks. It is notable that although the British used this device with
great success throughout much of the latter period of the war, and
though the French and Americans also adopted it and used it freely,
the Germans were never able to discover what the device was that
threw such havoc into their ranks, nor were they ever able to produce
anything that was similar to it. The Livens projector remained a deep
secret until the close of hostilities, and the Government offices in
Washington, where the design was adapted to American manufacture, and
the American plants producing the parts, were always closely guarded
against enemy espionage.
Without going into details of the construction of the Livens projector
it may be said that it was usually fired by electricity in sets of 25
or multiples thereof. The drums, which were cylindrical shell about
24 inches long and 8 inches in diameter, were ejected from long steel
tubes, or barrels, buried in the ground resting against pressed-steel
base plates. At the throwing of an electric switch a veritable rain
of these big shell, as many as 2,500 of them sometimes, with their
lethal contents, would come hurtling down upon the enemy. The Livens
projectors could throw their gas drums nearly a mile.
The projector was entirely a new type of munition for our manufacturers
to handle. The Trench Warfare Section of the Ordnance Department
took up the matter late in 1917 and by May, 1918, had designed the
weapon for home manufacture. Early in June the contracts were allotted
for barrels and gas drums, or shell. The production of barrels was
exclusively in the hands of the National Tube Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa.,
and the Harrisburg Pipe & Pipe-Bending Co., of Harrisburg, Pa. These
companies reached the production stage in August, 1918, and completed
about 63,000 barrels before the armistice was signed. Their respective
plants reached a daily production rate of approximately 600 barrels per
day.
Somewhat later in the spring of 1918 the contracts for base plates, on
which the barrels rest when ready for firing, muzzle covers, and for
various other accessories were closed. Over 100,000 base plates were
produced by the Gier Pressed Steel Co., of Lansing, Mich., and the
American Pulley Co., of Philadelphia, Pa. The Perkins-Campbell Co.,
of Philadelphia, built the muzzle covers, 66,180 of them. Cartridge
cases were manufactured by Art Metal (Inc.), of Newark, N. J., and the
Russakov Can Co., of Chicago, the former producing 288,838 and the
latter 47,511.
[Illustration: EIGHT-INCH LIVENS PROJECTOR, MARK II, WITH POWDER CHARGE
AND SHELL.
Vertical cross section as laid in the ground ready for firing at 45°
elevation.]
[Illustration: EFFECTS OF LIVENS PROJECTOR SHELL.]
The Ensign-Bickford Co., of Simsbury, Conn., produced 334,300 fuses for
Livens shell; the Artillery Fuse Co., of Wilmington, Del., assembled
26,000 firing mechanisms; the E. I. du Pont Co., at its Pompton Lakes
(N. J.) plant, manufactured 20,000 detonators, and 487,350 detonators
were produced by the Aetna Explosives Co., at Port Ewan, N. Y.; while
the American Can Co., at Lowell, Mass., assembled 256,231 firing
mechanisms.
Shear wire pistols were used in the operation of the Livens projector.
The Edison Phonograph Co., of Orange, N. J., produced 181,900 of these,
and the Artillery Fuse Co., of Wilmington, Del., 11,747. The adapters
and boosters of the shell were all built by the John Thompson Press, of
New York. The Waterbury Brass Goods Co., of Waterbury, Conn., made the
fuse casing. Adapters and boosters to the number of 334,500 were turned
out by the former, and 299,900 fuse casings by the latter.
The manufacture of gas drums for the projectors was delayed for some
time because of difficulties in welding certain parts of the drums.
Acetylene and arc welding processes were tried out, and a good many
shell were made by such welding; but the lack of expert welders for
these processes, and the rejections of shell due to leakage in the
welded joints, caused the manufacturer to turn to fire welding, the
process for which had been developed by the Air-tight Steel Tank Co.,
of Pittsburgh, Pa. At the time the armistice was signed the welding
problem had been overcome and the production was going forward at a
rate to meet the requirements of the expected fighting in the spring of
1919. The shell delivered were produced as follows:
By the Federal Pressed Steel Co., of Milwaukee, Wis., 5,609; by the
Pressed Steel Tank Co., also of Milwaukee, 20,536; by the Air-tight
Steel Tank Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., 600; by the National Tube Co., of
Pittsburgh, 27,098; by the Truscon Steel Co., of Youngstown, Ohio,
19,880. The entire Livens shell program, as it existed in November,
1918, called for the production of 334,000 shell.
TRENCH MORTARS.
The production of trench mortars was not only an important part of our
ordnance program but it was an undertaking absolutely new to American
experience. Not only did we have to produce mortars, but we had to
supply them with shell in great quantities, this latter in itself an
enterprise of no mean proportions.
Some seven different types of mortars were in use when we came into the
war. Our ordnance program contemplated the manufacture of all seven
of them, but we actually succeeded in bringing only four types into
production. These four were the British Newton-Stokes mortars of the
3-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch calibers, and the French 240-millimeter
mortar, which had also been adopted by the British. As usual in the
adoption of foreign devices, we had to redesign these weapons to make
them adaptable to American shop methods. We encountered much difficulty
throughout the whole job, largely because of insufficient information
furnished from abroad, and because in spite of this handicap we had
to produce mortars and ammunition that would be interchangeable with
French and British munitions stocks.
The first one of these weapons which we took up for production here
was the 3-inch Newton-Stokes. The first contract for the manufacture
of mortars of this size was placed with the Crane Co., of Chicago, on
November 8, 1917, for 1,830 mortars. This concern at once arranged with
the Ohio Seamless Tube Co., of Shelby, Ohio, for the drawing of steel
tubes for the mortar barrels. This latter concern, however, was already
handling large contracts for the Navy and for the aircraft program,
and these operations took priority over the mortar contracts. But the
Crane Co. took advantage of the interim to build the accessories for
the weapons--the tripods, clinometers, base plates, and tool boxes.
In the spring of 1918 the company received the first barrel tubes and
began producing completed weapons. But when these mortars were sent to
the proving ground the test-firing deformed the barrels and broke the
metal bases. Finally it was decided that the propelling explosive used
was not a suitable one for the purpose. Another was substituted. The
new propellant permitted as great a range of fire without damage to the
mortar in firing.
The Crane Co. was eventually able to reach a production of 33 of the
3-inch mortars a day, and up to December 5, 1918, it had built 1,803
completed weapons, together with the necessary tools and spare parts.
In the early fall of 1918 an additional contract for 677 of these
mortars was placed with the Crane Co. and another for 2,000 mortars of
this size with the International Harvester Co., of Chicago. Neither of
these two latter contracts ever came to the production stage.
A few days after the original contract for 3-inch mortars was let the
Trench Warfare Section took up the matter of producing ammunition for
these weapons. Two sorts of shell were to be required--live shell
filled with high explosive and practice shell made of malleable
iron. The original program adopted in November, 1917, called for the
production of 5,342,000 live shell for the 3-inch mortars and 1,500,000
practice shell.
[Illustration: 3-INCH STOKES TRENCH MORTAR.]
[Illustration: 4-INCH STOKES TRENCH MORTAR AND AMMUNITION.]
[Illustration: 6-INCH SUTTON TRENCH MORTAR.]
[Illustration: 11-INCH SUTTON TRENCH MORTAR.]
The plan was adopted of building these shell of lap-welded, 3-inch
steel tubing, cut into proper lengths. The contracts for the finished
machined and assembled shell were placed with the General Motors
Corporation at its Saginaw (Mich.) plant, with H. C. Dodge (Inc.),
at South Boston, Mass., and with the Metropolitan Engineering Co.,
of Brooklyn, N. Y. In order to facilitate production, the Government
agreed to furnish the steel tubing. For this purpose it ordered from
the National Tube Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1,618,929 pieces of steel
tubing, each 11 inches in length, and from the Allegheny Steel Co.,
at Brakenridge, Pa., 2,332,319 running feet of tubing. These tube
contracts were filled by the early spring of 1918.
The railroad congestion of February and March, 1918, held up the
delivery of tubing, but the assembly plants utilized the time in
tooling up for the future production. All the plants thereafter soon
reached a quantity production, the General Motors Corporation in
particular tuning up its shop system until it was able to reach a
maximum daily production in a 10-hour shift of 35,618 completed shell.
The casting of malleable iron bodies for the practice shell of this
caliber was turned over to the Erie Malleable Iron Co., of Erie, Pa.,
and to the National Malleable Castings Co., with plants at Cleveland,
Chicago, Indianapolis, and Toledo. The former concern cast 196,673
bodies and the latter 1,015,005. The Gorham Manufacturing Co., of
Providence, R. I.; the Standard Parts Co., of Cleveland, Ohio; and
the New Process Gear Corporation, of Syracuse, N. Y., machined and
assembled the practice shell. When the armistice was declared, these
three contracts were approximately seven-tenths complete.
We were dissatisfied with our 3-inch shell, for the reason that they
tumbled in air and were visible to the eye. The French had developed a
mortar shell on the streamline principle which was invisible in flight
and had twice the range of ours. Had the war continued the Trench
Warfare Section would have produced streamline shell for mortars.
The second mortar project undertaken was the manufacture of the
240-millimeter weapon. This was the largest mortar which we produced,
its barrel having a diameter of approximately 10 inches. It proved to
be one of the toughest nuts to crack in the whole mortar undertaking.
The British designs of this French weapon we found to be quite unsuited
to our factory methods, and for the sake of expediency we frequently
modified them in the course of the development. The total contracts
called for the production of 938 mortars.
It was obvious that the manufacture of this and of other larger mortars
would fall into three phases. The forging of barrels, breechblocks,
and breech slides was a separate type of work, and we allotted the
contracts for this work to the Standard Forging Co., of Indiana Harbor,
Ind. The machining of these parts to the fine dimensions required by
the design was an entirely separate phase of manufacturing, and we
placed this work with the American Laundry Machine Co., of Cincinnati.
Still a third class of work was that of assembling the completed
mortars, and this contract went to the David Lupton Sons Co., of
Philadelphia, who also engaged to manufacture the metal and timber
bases and firing mechanisms. These big mortars had to have mobile
mountings, and the contract for the mortar carts we placed with the
International Harvester Co., of Chicago. These contracts were signed in
December, 1917.
The Lupton plant had difficulty in securing the heavy machinery
it needed for this and for other mortar contracts, its machinery
being held up by the freight congestion. Early in 1918 the American
Expeditionary Forces advised us to redesign the 240-millimeter mortar
to give it a stronger barrel. Consequently all work was stopped until
this could be done. The first mortars of the new design to be tested
were still unsatisfactory with respect to the strength of the barrels;
and as a consequence the Standard Forging Co. urged that nickel steel
be substituted for basic open-hearth steel as the material for the
barrels. This change proved to be justified.
There was also trouble at the shops of the American Laundry Machine
Co., its equipment not having the precision to do machining of the
type required in these weapons. Accordingly a new machining contract
was made with the Symington-Anderson Co., of Rochester, N. Y., which
concern was eventually able to reach a production of 20 machined
barrels per week.
In all we produced 24 of the 240-millimeter mortars in this country.
Certain of the parts were manufactured up to the total requirements
of the contracts, but others were not built in such numbers. The
International Harvester Co. built all 999 carts ordered.
The production of shell for these big mortars was another difficult
undertaking. After consultation with manufacturers we designed shell of
two different types. One of these was a shell of pressed plates welded
together longitudinally; and a contract for the production of 283,096
of these was placed with the Metropolitan Engineering Co. The other
form was that of two steel hemispheres welded together. The Michigan
Stamping Co., of Detroit, undertook to build 50,000 of these.
These shell contracts were placed in December, 1917. The Michigan
Stamping Co. had to wait five months before it could secure and install
its complete equipment of machinery. It was September before all of
the difficulties in the Detroit plant's project could be overcome and
quantity production could be started. The concern eventually, before
and after the signing of the armistice, built 9,185 shell of this type
at a maximum rate of 56 per day.
Greater promise seemed to be held forth by the Metropolitan Engineering
Co.'s project to build shell of pressed-out plates, electrically
welded. The Government undertook to furnish the steel plates for this
work and secured from the American Rolling Mills Co., of Middletown,
Ohio, a total production of 6,757 tons of them. The Metropolitan
Engineering Co. had great difficulty in perfecting a proper welding
process; and the concern lost a great deal of money on the contract,
yet cheerfully continued its development without prospect of recompense
in order that we might have in this country the knowledge of how to
build such shell. In all, including production after the armistice was
signed, the Metropolitan Engineering Co. built 136,189 shell bodies of
this size at a maximum rate of 987 per day.
During the summer of 1918 a single-piece shell body of the
240-millimeter size, produced by a deep-drawing process, was worked
out. A contract for 125,000 of them was given to the Ireland & Matthews
Manufacturing Co., of Detroit, Mich. The armistice brought this
contract to an end before it had produced any shell of this new and
most promising type.
Early in 1918 we received the first samples of the 6-inch trench
mortar. By April all the plans were ready for American production.
Again this work was divided by types. The National Tube Co., of
Pittsburgh, contracted to build 510 rough forgings of mortar barrels
at its Christy Park plant. The Symington-Anderson Co. undertook to
machine these barrels. The David Lupton Sons Co. agreed to assemble the
mortars, as well as to produce the metal and timber bases for them.
The first machined barrels reached the Lupton plant in June and
found bases ready for them. But, as the assembling was in progress,
the American Expeditionary Forces cabled that the British producers
of mortars had changed their designs, and that we must suspend our
manufacture until we also could adopt the changes. The altered plans
reached us some weeks later; yet, nevertheless, we were able to make
good our original promise to deliver 48 of the 6-inch Newton-Stokes
mortars at the port of embarkation in October, 1918.
Meanwhile we had increased the contracts by an additional requirement
of 1,577 mortars of this size. The National Tube Co. eventually
reached a maximum daily production of 60 barrel forgings. The
Symington-Anderson Co. machined the barrels finally at a 33-per-day
clip. As many as 11 proof-fired guns per day came from the David Lupton
Sons Co.
An interesting fact in connection with the production of shell for the
6-inch mortars is that they were built principally by American makers
of stoves. The 6-inch mortar-shell bodies were of cast iron instead
of steel, and thus were adaptable to manufacture in stove works. Each
shell weighed 40 pounds without its explosive charge. Such shell were
used at the front for heavy demolition purposes.
The contracts for these shell were placed in March, 1918. The Trench
Warfare Section was immediately called upon to secure favorable
priority for the pig iron required for this purpose. The various
stove works did not have the necessary machinery for building these
shell, and so a special equipment in each case had to be built. At the
tests the first castings which came through the foundry were found to
leak, and this required further experiments in the design, holding up
production until July, 1918.
Because of the many troubles encountered in this work the various stove
makers in the summer of 1918 formed an association which they called
the Six-inch Trench-mortar Shell Manufacturers' Association. This
association held monthly meetings and its members visited the various
plants where shell castings were being made. The United States Radiator
Corporation, the Foster-Merriam Co., and the Michigan Stove Co., were
especially active in improving methods for making these shell.
The various concerns producing 6-inch mortar shell and the amounts
turned out were as follows:
Foster Merriam Co., Meriden, Conn. 33,959
U. S. Radiator Corporation, Detroit, Mich. 240,700
Globe Stove & Range Co., Kokomo, Ind. 17,460
Rathbone, Sard & Co., Albany, N. Y. 97,114
Michigan Stove Co., Detroit, Mich. 100,000
The following concerns shortly before the armistice was signed received
contracts for the production of 6-inch mortar shell, orders ranging in
quantity from 50,000 to 150,000, but none of these concerns started
production:
Wm. Crane Co., Jersey City, N. J.
Frontier Iron Works, Buffalo, N. Y.
Henry E. Pridmore, (Inc.), Chicago, Ill.
Best Foundry Co., Bedford, Ohio.
McCord & Co., Chicago, Ill.
It was not until July, 1918, that the plans were ready for the 4-inch
Newton-Stokes trench mortars. The American Expeditionary Forces
estimated that they would require 480 of these weapons. A total of
500 drawn barrel tubes was ordered from the Ohio Seamless Tube Co.,
of Shelby, Ohio. This concern was able to ship one-fifth of its order
within 10 days after receiving it. The barrels were sent to the Rock
Island Arsenal for machining. The Crane Co., of Chicago, held the
contract for building the bases, tripods, spare parts, and tools, and
also for the assembling of the completed mortars. This factory was
already equipped with tools for this work, since it had been building
similar parts for 3-inch mortars. Consequently, the Crane Co., in
August, almost within a month of receiving its contract, was producing
completed 4-inch mortars and sending them to the Rock Island Arsenal
for proof firing. The Ohio Seamless Tube Co. reached a high daily
production of 83 barrel forgings per day; the Rock Island Arsenal, 10
machined barrels per day; and the Crane Co., 19 assembled mortars per
day.
[Illustration: 240-MILLIMETER TRENCH MORTAR.]
[Illustration: 240-MILLIMETER TRENCH MORTAR SHELL.]
We planned to build only smoke shell and gas shell for the 4-inch
mortars. Large contracts for various parts of these shell were placed
and the enterprise was gaining great size when the armistice was
declared, but no finished smoke shell and only a few gas shell for
4-inch trench mortars had been produced. The contracts for the smoke
shell were let in October, 1918, and work had not started further
than the procurement of raw material before the armistice came. A
large number of contractors expected to produce the parts for the
4-inch gas shell, and considerable of the raw materials were actually
produced; but only one of the machining and assembling contractors, the
Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co., actually completed any of these shell, and
production at this plant did not start until December 5, 1918.
_Production of trench mortars and trench-mortar ammunition._
TRENCH MORTARS.
-----------------------------+------------------+-----------------+----------
| Completions to | Completions to | Shipped
Character. | Nov. 11, 1918. | Feb. 1, 1919. | overseas.
-----------------------------+------------------+-----------------+----------
3-inch | 1,609| 1,830| 843
4-inch | 444| 778|
6-inch | 368| 500| 48
240-millimeter (9.45 inches) | 29| 30|
-----------------------------+------------------+-----------------+----------
TRENCH-MORTAR AMMUNITION.
-----------------------------+------------------+-----------------+----------
| Completions | Completions | Shipped
Character. | to Nov. 11 | to Feb. 1 | overseas
| 1918 (unloaded). |1919 (unloaded). | (loaded).
-----------------------------+------------------+-----------------+----------
| _Rounds._ | _Rounds._ | _Rounds._
3-inch live | 3,136,275 | 3,741,237 | 157,785
3-inch practice | 607,178 | 782,340 |
4-inch gas | | 212 |
4-inch smoke | | |
6-inch live | 292,882 | 492,404 |
240-millimeter (9.45 inches) | 67,829 | 131,124 |
-----------------------------+------------------+-----------------+----------
TOXIC GAS SETS.
Another extensive project in the trench-warfare program was the
manufacture of the so-called toxic gas sets. Each set consisted of
a one-man portable cylinder equipped with a nozzle and a firing
mechanism. Each set was ready for firing as soon as it was placed in
position.
In August, 1918, the toxic-gas-set project was taken up by the
Trench Warfare Section. Contracts for cylinders were awarded to the
Ireland-Matthews Manufacturing Co., of Detroit, Mich., who produced
13,642 cylinders, and to the American Car & Foundry Co. at its Milton,
Pa., plant, which concern turned out 11,046 cylinders.
The Pittsburgh Reinforcing, Brazing & Machine Co. produced 9,765 valves
for the cylinders in two months after receiving the contract. The Yale
& Towne Manufacturing Co., of Stamford, Conn., which received the
contract for nozzles on September 5, 1918, manufactured 20,501 of them
before the armistice was signed; and J. N. Smith & Co., of Detroit,
Mich., who did not receive their contract until September 26, built
3,252 nozzles before the fighting stopped. The Liquid Carbolic Co.,
of Chicago, and the Ruud Manufacturing Co., of Pittsburgh, had the
contracts for the firing mechanism; but none of these was produced
because at the time the armistice was signed the firing mixture to be
used with the cylinders had not been developed.
In connection with the production of materials for gas warfare the
Ordnance Department also designed several types of containers for the
shipment of poison gas, these including not only the portable cylinders
but larger tanks and even tank cars.
PYROTECHNICS.
A few years ago, when we allowed the adventurous American boy to blow
off his fingers and hands by the indiscriminate use of explosives
in celebrating the Nation's birthday, we had an extensive fireworks
industry in this country. But the spread of the sane Fourth reform
had virtually killed this manufacture, so that when we entered the
war there were only three or four plants in the United States making
fireworks. These concerns kept the trade secrets closely guarded.
However, as we approached the brink of hostilities it was evident we
would have to build up a large production capacity for the pyrotechnics
demanded by the various new types of fighting which had sprung into
existence since 1914. Fireworks were extensively used principally for
signaling at night and as an aid to aviators in the dark.
One of the men to foresee this need was Lewis Nixon, who had long been
in the public eye and was known especially for his advocacy of an
American merchant marine. He organized a pyrotechnics concern known as
the Nixon Fulgent Products Co., built a plant at Brunswick, N. J., and
was ready to talk business with the Government when the war began.
Also there had long been in existence that perennial delight of
children and adults alike known as Paine's Fireworks, whose spectacular
exhibitions are familiar to most city dwellers in the United States.
This concern had its own manufacturing plant, which was ready to expand
to meet Government war requirements.
In addition, two other concerns of the formerly declining industry were
ready to increase their facilities and produce pyrotechnics for war
purposes. These were the Unexcelled Manufacturing Co., of New York, and
the National Fireworks Co., of West Hanover, Mass. The four concerns
proved to be able to meet every war requirement we had.
Prior to the war some few military pyrotechnics had been procured
by the Signal Corps, the Coast Artillery, the Engineer Corps, and
also by the Navy; but on September 27, 1917, the design of all Army
pyrotechnics was centralized in the Trench Warfare Section.
Much experimentation was necessary before specifications could be
prepared, since the entire fire-signaling field had long been in
confusion. We had made our own designs and were proceeding with
production in the spring of 1918, when the American Expeditionary
Forces made the positive recommendation that the entire French program
of pyrotechnics be adopted by the United States. This meant a fresh
start in the business, but nevertheless pyrotechnic devices were
developed to meet all of our needs. These devices included signal
rockets, parachute rockets, signal pistols and their ammunition,
position and signal lights, flares, smoke torches, and lights to be
thrown by the V. B. discharger, the French device attached to the end
of the rifle in which a rifle grenade fits.
At the outset of our efforts we started to build signal rockets,
position lights, rifle lights, signal lights, and lights for use with
the Very signal pistol. The Very signal pistol, which we adopted first,
had the caliber of a 10-gauge shotgun, and its cartridges resembled
shotgun shells in appearance, although containing Roman candle balls of
various colors instead of leaden shot. The orders from abroad in the
spring of 1918 changed the caliber of the Very pistol to 25 millimeters
and brought into our requirements some 16 different styles of star
and parachute cartridges. In addition to these, there were required
about 20 styles of star and parachute cartridges for the French V.
B. discharger. The recommendations from France brought in 13 new
styles of signal rockets, as well as smoke torches, wing-tip flares
for airplanes, parachute flares for lighting the ground under bombing
airplanes, and also 12 styles of cartridges for a new 35-millimeter
Very pistol for the use of aviators.
After we received these instructions there was great uncertainty here
as to the quantity of each item that should be produced; and this
matter was not settled until August 5, 1918, when an enormous program
of requirements was issued. At first it seemed that the Government
itself must build new factories to take care of these needs, but a
careful examination showed that the existing facilities could be
expanded to take care of the production. The placing of contracts in
this undertaking was under way when the armistice stopped the work.
The following table indicates the size of the pyrotechnic undertaking
and also what was accomplished. All of this production came from the
plants of the four companies which have been named. In addition to
the fireworks themselves, accessories were produced by a number of
other concerns. The Japan Paper Co., New York City, manufactured and
imported from Japan approximately 3,000,000 paper parachutes. The
Remington Arms Co., New Haven, Conn., built about 2,500,000 10-gauge
signal-pistol cartridges, except for the stars they contained.
The Empire Art Metal Co., College Point, N. Y., produced nearly
2,000,000 Very pistol cartridge cases. The Winchester Repeating Arms
Co., Bridgeport, Conn., supplied nearly 5,000,000 primers for these
cartridges. Rose Bros. & Co., Lancaster, Pa., produced 65,600 silk
parachutes for Very cartridges. Cheney Bros., South Manchester, Conn.;
D. G. Dery (Inc.), Allentown, Pa.; Stehli Silk Corporation, New York
City; Sauquoit Silk Co., Philadelphia; Lewis Roessel & Co., Hazleton,
Pa.; Schwarzenback-Huber Co., New York City; and the Duplane Silk
Corporation, Hazleton, Pa., produced a total of 1,231,728 yards of silk
for parachutes to float airplane flares. The parachutes themselves for
the airplane flares, a total of 28,570 of them, were manufactured by
the Duplane Silk Corporation; Folmer-Clogg Co., Lancaster, Pa.; and
Jacob Gerhardt Co., Hazleton, Pa. The Edw. G. Budd Manufacturing Co.,
Philadelphia, built 41,020 metal cases for the airplane flares.
--------------------------------+-----------+---------------+--------------
Articles. | Ordered. | Completed to | Completed to
| | Nov. 8, 1918. | Feb. 1, 1919.
--------------------------------+-----------+---------------+--------------
Signal rockets | 615,000 | 437,101 | 544,355
Position lights | 2,072,000 | 1,187,532 | 1,670,070
Rifle lights | 55,000 | 55,000 | 55,000
Signal lights | 3,110,000 | 2,661,008 | 2,710,268
V. B. cartridges | 1,215,000 | 110 000 | 673,200
Very cartridges, 25-millimeter | 300,000 | |
Smoke torches | 500,000 | 31,000 | 188,102
Wing-tip flares | 112,000 | 70,000 | 100,865
Airplane flares | 50,083 | 2,100 | 8,000
--------------------------------+-----------+---------------+--------------
We also contracted for the production of many thousands of Very signal
pistols. Before the original program was canceled the Remington Arms
Co. had produced 24,460 of the 10-gauge pistols in contracts calling
for a total output of 35,000.
In August, 1918, we let contracts for 135,000 of the 25-millimeter
pistols and for approximately 30,000 of the 35-millimeter pistols. The
A. H. Fox Gun Co. completed 4,193 of the smaller pistols and the Scott
& Fetzger Machine Co. turned out 7,750 of them. Other concerns which
had taken contracts but had not come into production when the armistice
was signed were the National Tool & Manufacturing Co., the Doehler Die
Castings Co., the Hammond Typewriter Co., and Parker Bros.
Considerable experimental work of an interesting nature was carried out
looking toward the development of incendiary devices. Three types of
flame projectors, flaming bayonets, an airplane destroyer, incendiary
darts, and the smoke knapsack were among the projects undertaken.
Owing in large measure to changes in requirements by the American
Expeditionary Forces none of these devices was actually turned out on
any considerable scale.