SOUNDS OF BATTLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3246, 16 June 1911, Page 2

SOUNDS OF BATTLE.

HEARD AT LONG RANGE

The report of a battle reaches the world over in these days of the reign of the newspaper, but without any such outside aid it can be heard far beyond the scene of actual strife. The reports of the guns themselves, the real sounds of battle, go far out into space, and can be distinguished a long way from the point of conflict. Professor W. F. Sinclair says that there is nothing unusual in the hearing of artillery at a distance of sixty miles. The Bombay time guns and salutes are often heard at the northern Mahim, a distance of over fifty miles. The guns are—or were at the time when the observations were made—very modest affairs, old-fashioned twentyfour or thirty-two pounders loaded with four or five pounds of coarse black powder, not all of which was burnt. The largest target of the fortress and turret ships at Bombay was easily distinguishable from mere salutes and time guns, not merely as a louder sound, but bv felt in the chest when the others could only be' heard. The sound produced by modern powder is probably very different from that of the old biack "powder, so that an army in action at the present time may be relied upon to make its voice heard. The “din o’f battle” is not a figure of speech.