FRANCE'S ARMORED FIGHTING MACHINES. In the matter of movable guns, the French and Germans both had them mounted on armored trains. One such train used by the French included armored locomotive, flat cars on which were mounted the guns in "barbettes," or steel turrets, and completely protected armored cars, used to transport troops or detachments of men. A feature of the train was the observation tower. It was mounted upon what would ordinarily be the cab of the locomotive. Such towers have in one form or another become very common in the war. One type resembles the motortruck ladder and platform devices used by the man who repairs electric lights and wires in our city streets. Another is patterned after the hook and ladder truck of the fire department. The tower, or ladder, is raised after the fashion of the ladders in fighting a fire. A couple of soldiers turn a crank, and the ladders are raised to a perpendicular position and extended high into the air on the sliding or telescope principle. The German and Austrian engineers also utilize observation ladders of a less complicated mechanical nature. In use, and with a soldier perched on top of them, they remind one of the toy devices with which we played as children, using the slotted acrobats to do wonderful things atop the "ladders." The ladders are carried in short sections, which may be fastened together in a variety of ways, but a good idea of the manner in which the ladders are used may be obtained if you can imagine a letter Y made of ladders and turned upside down, with a soldier standing on top of it. THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATIONS. And making observations is a highly important matter in modern warfare; more important than it was in the old days. The long-range guns are aimed and their fire directed by observation and calculation. The gunner cannot see the target he is required to hit. His job is a mechanical one--perhaps it would be better to say scientific--for he must read mathematical calculations and interpret them into accurate gun action. The guns may be on one side of a hill and the enemy on the other, and they may be miles apart, yet the gunner must be able to get the range. His efforts are directed by observers in aeroplanes or balloons, and the range is established by calculations, so that the gunner must be proficient in geometry, trigonometry and mathematics generally. Not all the great guns in the war when it started were owned by the Germans, for England had 100-ton Armstrong pieces which were capable of hurling a 2,200-pound projectile; but it was the modification of the design of the large caliber guns and the method of mounting them, which permitted them to be drawn wherever needed, that gave Germany such an advantage.