[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sin,—The probable utility of
shields in war has been tested to a point not known to you and the writers of the recent letters in the Spectator. General Roy Stone, of Washington, is the inventor of a shield which, after elaborate experiments, was approved by General Mtles, the American Commander- in-Chief. These shields were constructed by the War Depart.. meat with a capacity to cover a force of five thousand men, and were actually despatched to Cuba; they arrived, how. ever, just after the last shot was fired. I have not seen General Stone's shields, but I have during the past week seen a letter from the General in which he describes them as steel plates one-tenth of an inch thick, backed by light planks of pine-wood and compressed cotton. They are said to be quite proof against rifle fire. Each shield, which shelters twenty men, is carried on a pair of wheels, the axles sufficiently wide to make it almost impossible to upset on steep hillsides. The shields are propelled by a ladder 60 ft. long lashed to the centre of the axle. The length of the ladder trailing behind would act as a cee-spring, so as to reduce the jar on the men's arms ; each man palls on a rung as near the axle as possible. Thus with twenty men hauling on the rungs, each of the twenty being under cover, it can be propelled easily up a steep hill. It seems probable that when artillery fire had been more or less silenced a pair of horses could be harnessed, using the ladder as a pole; this shield might then be galloped forward, and a dozen mounted men cantering under its cover could speedily dig a rifle pit. General Stone mentions that the ladders, apart from the facility their rungs offer for pro- pulsion by infantry, are very useful to carry the impedimenta of men on the march, and are also available as scaling ladder. It is unfortunate for us, in these days when the batting has become rather too strong for the bowling, that these shields of General Stone did not secure their baptism of fire in Cuba. But from the tact that the American War Department thought it worth while to construct such mobile shelters for five thousand troops, it is clear that at least in their trials they were not found wanting.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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