The Romance of Modern Invention: Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c.Williams, Archibald
Science
The Romance of Modern Invention: Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c.
Williams, Archibald
Inventions
“Undoubtedly the best piece of work done by the car so far was its
trial trip with the trailer, when it blew up the mines at Klein Nek.
These mines were laid some eight months previously, and had never been
looked to in the interval. There had been several bad storms, the
Boers and cattle had been frequently through the Nek, it had been on
fire, and finally it was shelled with lyddite. The mines, eighteen in
number, were found to be intact except two, which presumably had been
fired off by the heat of the veldt fire. All the insulation was burnt
off the wires, and the battery was useless. It had been anticipated
that a dynamo exploder would be inadequate to fire these mines, so a
250 volt two h.p. motor, which happened to be in Pretoria, weighing
about three or four hundredweight, was placed on the trailer; a
quarter of a mile of insulated cable, some testing gear, the kits of
three men and their rations for three days, with a case of gasolene
for the car, were also carried on the car and trailer, and the whole
left Pretoria one morning and trekked to Rietfontein. Two of us were
mounted, the third drove the car. At Rietfontein we halted for the
night, and started next morning with an escort through Commando Nek,
round the north of the Magaliesburg, to near Klein Nek, where the road
had to be left, and the car taken across country through bush veldt.
At the bottom the going was pretty easy; only a few bushes had to be
charged down, and the grass, &c., rather wound itself around the
wheels and chain. As the rise became steeper the stones became very
large, and the car had to be taken along very gingerly to prevent
breaking the wheels. A halt was made about a quarter of a mile from
the top of the Nek, where the mines were. These were reconnoitered,
and the wire, &c., was picked up; that portion which was useless was
placed on top of the charges, and the remainder taken to the car. The
dynamo was slid off the trailer, the car backed against it; one wheel
was raised slightly and placed against the dynamo pulley, which was
held up to it by a man using his rifle as a lever; the other wheel was
on the ground with a stone under it. The balance gear being free, the
dynamo was excited without the other wheel moving, and the load being
on for a very short time (that is, from the time of touching lead on
dynamo terminal to firing of the mine) no harm could come to the car.
When all the leads had been joined to the dynamo the car was started,
and after a short time, when it was judged to have excited, the second
terminal was touched, a bang and clouds of dust resulted, and the
Klein Nek Minefield had ceased to exist. The day was extremely hot,
and the work had not been light, so the tea, made with water drawn
direct from the boiler, which we were able to serve round to the main
body of our escort was much appreciated, and washed down the surplus
rations we dispensed with to accommodate the battery and wire, which
we could not leave behind for the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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