War Is a Thousand Infernos

The means proposed to accomplish this would immediately and automatically materialize reality by the application of an existent, concrete force—the brutal fact versus abstract theory.

So soon as either the entente allies or the central powers should develop and adopt the invention described the war would end. To continue would result in the sure and speedy annihilation of the nations against which it might be employed.

Human resistance to this terrific instrument of death and devastation would be physically impossible. It could not be checked or combated by any means now in existence. And it would be as irresistible as it would be effective.

War is without reason or excuse; a horror greater than a thousand infernos, real or Dante-pictured. Engines of slaughter have been the creations of a war-mad people. They are symbols of a barbaric blood lust—without the pale of civilization and Christianity.

Yet we have wars. And as a natural accompaniment there are employed the most improved death-dealing machines of the age.

Men Mere Pawns Now

In ancient times men fought man to man, with the strength and sinews of their arms, with skill and might of sword and lance, hand to hand. And prowess and brawn and stamina and mastership—individual supremacy in generalship—won their battles, much as they are won today in the boxing ring. In modern warfare men are merely pawns, their fighting ability supplanted by the destroying capacity of machinery. And there have recently been produced such tremendous and before undreamed-of instruments of destruction that the world stands paralyzed with amazement and horror at the havoc they work.

However, even though it seem a paradox, it remained for the nation most disposed to peace to create a yet greater agency of destruction than any thus far contrived. Not one which merely will surpass present weapons in degree, but one which will out-Herod Herod in battle equipment, one which will prove an all-efficient means of widespread annihilation on a gigantic scale; against which no army or nation could survive, and against which there could be offered no adequate defense or protection.

Either Side Could End It

And it is now possible for either of the principals at war readily and quickly to devise and construct an effective equipment of such destructive apparatus in sufficient numbers to bring the enemy nation to cry for peace. It would make little or no difference as to the fact of terminating hostilities if both factions should equally so equip themselves at the same time, since the equipment to which I refer could not effectively be employed either in offensive or defensive operations against similar equipment. The nation first perfecting and adopting it would have the advantage in that they would be in a position to name the terms of settlement.

Practically no new thing in the arts and sciences would need to be invented or created for the production of such an engine of destruction. The various fundamental elements and essential parts required in its construction already are developed and generally in use. It remains only for the designer, the artisan, the electrician and the manufacturer to cooperate in producing and assembling them into a composite whole.

Employ Aircraft for Demolition

It may be conceded that the bomb air raids by dirigibles thus far have failed of decisive results; that they have only added to the general suffering and horror of it all. And—here is the point:

These same air craft might readily be converted into means by which cities and forts and munitions factories could be reduced to beds of whitened ashes and which could exterminate every living thing from the face of the earth.

One single demonstration of the stupendous demolition made possible by such a weapon would be all sufficient to bring the opposing forces instantly to sue for terms of peace.

Although several devices might be employed for this purpose, I shall cite but one to show how readily either enemy faction could establish a method of warfare which would make for the immediate termination of war.

A Vast Incendiary Arc

An airship of the gas or Zeppelin type developing 200 to 400 horsepower could be equipped with a high voltage electrical generator. For the project intended almost the full energy of the engines might be devoted to driving the dynamo, since the speed of the craft in operation would be a secondary consideration.

From a suitable reel in electrical connection with the dynamo thin wires would be lowered until their nether ends reached to within a certain distance from the ground or the tops of the buildings of a city. Through these suspended wires there would be discharged several million volt currents of electricity.

Between the lower ends of the wires and the earth there would then be formed a tremendous arc, which would consume with its terrific heat not only every human being and living thing, but also every building and every atom of combustible material over and near which this incendiary arc should pass.

The destructive radius would be at least 75 to 100 yards from the electrical generation of engines of, say, 200-horsepower, although with engines of 500-horsepower the radius of incendiary effect might easily be 200 to 300 yards, or even more; especially if the wire area were extended by the use of stretcher bars under the airship.

A highly sensitive automatic regulator controlling the reels constantly would adjust the length of the lowered wires to maintain a proper distance between the discharge ends of the wire and the earth to produce and preserve an uninterrupted arc.

If the craft were provided with auxiliary engines for motive power, it might travel with considerable speed, sweeping a path clean of every form of life and every vestige of man’s creation. Also, such a craft could sail at a great height—sufficiently high, in fact, to be barely visible to the naked human eye, and certainly well beyond the range of antiaircraft guns.

Surrender Swift and Final

Two or three such arcships side by side traveling parallel with an enemy’s lines would leave in their wake a mass of smoldering ruins of bomb-proof trenches, supply trains. munition wagons, gun carriages, fences, homesteads and villages, and strewn through all the charred and fire-shriveled bodies of soldiers fallen helpless before this irresistible and all-consuming force.

Particularly if such an arcship raid were made at night the chances of repulsing or even reaching the enemy fleet would be practically nil.

No sane government would hesitate about flying the white flag in face of such a grewsome cataclysm. Surrender, swift and final, would be the only human alternative.

Burning Helpless Women

Moving in squadrons or line abreast, a fleet of these aircraft could sweep over large cities, even such as London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Rome, Petrograd or Constantinople, and leave them a blackened, smoking and lifeless ruin.

Perhaps not even the most war-crazed power ever would venture such an immeasurable and unpardonable outrage against mankind, involving as it would the burning of helpless women and children and noncombatants.

And yet such heinous offenses against civilization and the once recognized rules of war have been and still are being committed. Even though it be on an insignificant scale as compared with the possibilities of the device suggested for the arc craft, yet one may not forget that such incendiary raids are being carried on to the limit of the means thus far developed. What they might attempt with more destructive agencies is seriously open to question.

The Humanitarian Side

However, it is largely due to the fact that the aerial raids with present equipment do not make for decisive results that the powers continue to tolerate such revolting tactics of warfare, electing to take the gambler’s chance of escape in future.

But—and this is the humanitarian side to this suggested engine of annihilation—if either belligerent should equip and place in active service an effective fleet of these arc-producing, incendiary air craft and should make due announcement to enemy nations of a proposed raid upon its cities or its forces in the field, such an act would be equivalent to serving notice of a demand for surrender—and beyond peradventure it would promptly and unconditionally be accepted.