The Engineer Department brought out a modification of the design of the existing line of gasoline-driven shovels by applying caterpillar traction to the larger sizes, thus doing away with the labor required to plank up and block shovels that move on wheels.
When we entered the war, the explosive trinitrotoluol was standard for our Army for mining and demolition purposes. The Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Engineer Department, developed an explosive which is cheaper than T. N. T. and promises to replace it for engineering operations.
We also improved the devices commercially used in electrical detonation of distributed charges, our improved detonators being more certain and reliable than anything in use.
Commercial machines for detonating as many as 250 standard No. 8 caps were developed for the Panama Canal, but the machines in common use had seen little improvement for 25 years. As a result of the development by the Engineer Corps, a machine capable of detonating 120 caps was obtained, weighing no more than the 30-cap commercial blasting machine and costing slightly less.
A second machine was developed, capable of exploding 500 caps, at a price not greatly above the price of a 30-cap commercial machine. Mining engineers who saw this development stated that it would have a high commercial value, as these improved machines would make electric blasting more positive and dependable than any other form of detonation, as well as making it possible to set off a large series of charges simultaneously. The Panama Canal machine weighed 35 pounds and cost $126. Our 500-cap machine weighed 30 pounds and cost $35. The du Pont 30-cap machine weighed 25 pounds and cost $25. Our small machine weighed 20 pounds, cost $22.50, and would fire 120 caps.
In addition to this there might be mentioned other projects developed primarily for war purposes but which will be available for the industrial uses of peace. These included portable well-drilling outfits of a new type, alcohol stills of a small size for the utilization of waste products in small units, sound reducers on the exhaust pipes of gasoline engines, air strainers to minimize the chances of dust and grit entering gasoline engines. When the war ended we were working on the problem of hastening the setting of concrete and were also studying the production in this country of photographic colors and tone chemicals formerly secured only from Germany.
In general, mention should be made of the exhaustive tests in many industries conducted by the Engineer depot and by special detachments of Engineers. Tests were made of hundreds of pieces of apparatus, and these tests led to many improvements in American manufacture. Illustrating how these tests were regarded by individual concerns, the Cleveland Tractor Co., after a test of its equipment conducted by Army Engineers, stated: "Our people consider this test to be the most valuable ever undertaken by this company." This is indicative of benefits scattered throughout American industry by the engineering war tests.
While practically all of the research work which resulted in the developments and improvements noted was conducted by Engineer officers while on duty at the General Engineer Depot in Washington, since the transfer of the functions of the General Engineer Depot to the Division of Purchase, Storage and Traffic, November 1, 1918, much of this research work has been and still is being carried on by the latter division.
For handling Engineer materials there were established the General Engineer Depot at Washington, D. C, embarkation depots at South Kearney, N. J., and Norfolk, Va., and shipping depots at Baltimore, Md., Philadelphia, Pa., Jacksonville, Fla., New Orleans, La., and Mobile, Ala. In addition, subdepots were organized at all of the divisional camps and cantonments.
The war demanded the production in America of quantities of precision instruments. These were required not only by the Ordnance Department for the equipment of artillery with sights and indirect fire-control apparatus but also by the Engineer Corps, the Signal Corps, the Bureau of Aircraft Production, and the Medical Department. These instruments were such things as aneroid barometers, pocket compasses, measuring tapes, surveyors' equipment generally, map-drawing outfits, draftsmen's supplies, and so on. For a large period of the war the procurement of precision instruments was in the hands of the General Engineer Depot. Later, when the War Department's supply activities were being consolidated, the purchasing of precision instruments, except the highly technical sound-ranging devices, was taken over by the Director of Purchase and Storage, the organization of the General Engineer Depot going along in the transfer. The development and the production of searchlights and sound-ranging apparatus remained in the hands of the Engineer Corps.