The flames of warfare
QUESTION Who invented the flamethrower used in World War II? Were they effective? Are they still used by military forces today? In 1901, German engineer Richard Fiedler developed two models, though it would take around another 12 years for these to be developed to the point where they could be used in the field.
The Kleinflammenwerfer, or small flamethrower, could be carried by one man. It used pressurised air to throw a stream of burning oil up to 60ft for about two minutes, though not in a single stream.
Each time the operator wanted to fire a new stream, he had to replace the ignition device.
The Grossflammenwerfer, or large flamethrower, needed more than one person to carry it, but could throw its stream of burning oil almost twice the distance and maintain a single burst for up to 40 seconds.
Both weapons were introduced to World War I in 1914. A significant part of the effectiveness of the weapon was its psychological impact. Its first use against British troops was at Hooge Crater in the Ypres Salient on July 30, 1915.
The weapon was soon in use with all the combatant armies except the U.S. Army, which didn’t develop a model until 1940. Allied designs were copies of the original German Flammenwerfer.
The British experimented with large models, assembling the components in the trenches. First used in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, they were highly effective at clearing frontline trenches, but had a serious lack of mobility.
It wasn’t until 1917 that the British developed a portable model.
Use of flamethrowers was more widespread in World War II, with technological advances making the weapons lighter and the development of reusable ignition devices making them more efficient.
The Americans used them in large numbers in the Pacific theatre to clear the well dugin Japanese fixed defences. The flamethrower continued in use throughout the Korean and Vietnam wars, but the increased mobility of modern infantry and a reduced dependence on fixed defensive lines resulted in their falling out of favour with most modern armies.
The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, signed in Geneva on October 10, 1980, and which came into force in 1983, put an end to the use of the flamethrower by all signatories.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION
word capitalism? Did Adam Smith ever use the THE Latin root of the word ‘capital’ is
capitalis — ‘of the head’. Its use in trade and finance originated with the medieval trade in livestock. The terms chattel (goods, animals or slaves) and cattle have the same origin. ‘Capitalism’ used to describe an economic and political system came much later.
Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 1723 and died in Edinburgh in 1790, long before the term was coined.
In his seminal work The Wealth Of nations (1776), he advocated ‘a system of natural liberty’, which we might recognise as capitalism.
He believed in a free market economy, able largely to regulate itself, a system he referred to as the ‘invisible hand’.
He recognised the enemies of the system, such as vested interests and monopolies, and outlined the appropriate roles of government, namely defence, justice, the creation and maintenance of public works that contribute to commerce, education, the maintenance of the ‘dignity of the sovereign’ — activities that had to be financed by fair and clear taxation.
The word ‘capitalism’ for the system wasn’t used by German economist, philosopher, social and political theorist Karl Marx (181883), either.
He spoke about ‘capital’ in terms of the relationship between owners (capitalists) and workers (proletarians).
The first recorded use of the word ‘capitalism’ can be found in William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel The newcomes (1855), though it’s clear from its context it refers to finance capital, not a system of social organisation.
It was firmly introduced in its modern, systematic context in Werner Sombart’s 1902 classic, Modern Capitalism.
Alison Murray, St Andrews, Fife.
QUESTION
What is Kanban? KAnBAn is a Japanese word for ‘visual signal’ or ‘billboard’. It was originally a scheduling system for streamlining manufacturing projects, socalled justintime (JIT) manufacturing, and has since been applied to the construction industry, software development and even personal time management.
It was developed in the late Forties when managers from Toyota recognised the efficiency of supermarkets’ systems.
They recognised that grocery items were restocked by their store’s inventory, not their vendor’s supply. Only when an item was close to being sold out did the clerks order more. The grocers therefore had an inbuilt ‘justintime’ system.
Toyota’s engineers pioneered a new method to match inventory with demand and achieve higher levels of efficiency and throughput.
The result was Kanban — a basic, but effective, time management system. A grid is drawn up which may include any number of systems reflecting how work flows through any particular business.
At its most basic, it could have ‘Backlog’ ‘To Do’, ‘In Progress’ and ‘Completed’. As jobs move to the last part, more is pulled in at the start.
Oliver Jacobsen, Coventry.
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