Prepare Gas Bombs For Future Bandits.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 27, 1912:
Paris Police Test New Gun to Hurl Missiles That Will Asphyxiate.
STEEL SCREEN IS INVENTED
Behind This Several Men Can Advance Toward Bandits' Lair and Use New Weapon on Them.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PARIS, Oct. 26.— The sound of continuous firing coming from the former hospital of L.a Patrio in the peaceful neighborhood of the Jardin dos Plantes one morning this week, alarmed and attracted a large crowd of passers-by, who were apprehensive of another siege of bandits.
    They were reassured, however, to find that it was only Prefect Lepine, the Detective Chief, M. Guichard, the Director of Investigations, M. Hamard, and other leading police officials testing new weapons and apparatus which had just been devised to meet any such outbreak in the future.
    The principal weapon tested was a gun for firing asphyxiating bombs. This arm, though very powerful, weighs only twenty pounds, shoots to a distance of over 300 yards small metal balls, which on exploding let loose blinding and suffocating gas, guaranteed to cause the most desperate bandit to fly for his life into the open air. Despite the fragility of these bombs, it is found that they will penetrate a wooden door or even a thin brick partition before exploding. The kick of the gun, which would otherwise be a serious matter, owing to the weight of the bombs, has been neutralized by an ingenious arrangement of springs and wheels in the butt.
    Another important help to the police in engagements, similar to those at Choisy-le-Roi and Nogent, is a kind of large movable steel screen, formed of jointed sections and moving easily on wheels. This will serve as a shield for several policemen together.
    At the next siege M. Lepine will send several men, armed with the new gun, right up to the walls of the bandits' stronghold. Under cover of this shield, when as near as possible, they will launch bombs which, it is predicted, will force the inmates of the house to come out if they wish to preserve their consciousness.