tailieunhanh - An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 102

An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 102. This one of a kind encyclopedia presents the entire field of technology from rudimentary agricultural tools to communication satellites in this first of its kind reference source. Following an introduction that discusses basic tools, devices, and mechanisms, the chapters are grouped into five parts that provide detailed information on materials, power and engineering, transportation, communication and calculation, and technology and society, revealing how different technologies have together evolved to produce enormous changes in the course of history | PART FIVE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY armour which looked and was made up in the same way as that of five hundred years before. The infantryman soon needed a machine gun lighter than the Maxim Hotchkiss and Vickers a British derivative of the Maxim which were found to be somewhat unwieldy in the front-line trenches. The first solution to this and for its time a very successful one was the light machine gun developed by the American Colonel which was adopted by the British at the end of 1914. The Lewis gun was gas operated using a piston in the cylinder under the barrel and a sliding and rotating bolt it used drum magazines and weighed only 28lbs compared to the 31kg 68lbs of the Vickers. It was also like the Vickers adapted for aircraft armament. The French answer was the Chauchat also later used by the Americans but this had a reputation for mechanical unreliability and was replaced in the French army shortly after the end of the war. The Americans produced the Browning automatic rifle BAR which they would continue to use in the Second World War. The most horrific weapon to be used during the war was undoubtedly gas. The use of burning sulphur to give off noxious gases had been known about in ancient times and during the latter stages of the American Civil War stinkshells to give off offensive gases were considered. There is evidence that the Japanese used burning rags impregnated with arsenic against the Russians in 1904-5. The use of poisonous gas in war had been banned by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 but this did not deter the Germans from beginning to experiment with it in late 1914. This work was spearheaded by Dr von Trappen assisted by Professor Fritz Haber famous for the Haber process see pp. 223-4 . They looked initially at irritants especially xylyl bromide a tear-producing agent using artillery shells as the means of delivery. The first significant use of it came in the German offensive against the Russians at Lodz at the end of .