The Elliott Ear Protector acts on an entirely different principle and it reduces the noise of a heavy express rifle to a mere thump, like striking the fist on a wooden table. It takes all the sting out of the shot.

A man who was a gunner at the front during the war tells me that his ears are quite right owing to his having used the Elliott Ear Protectors, whereas a man standing next to him had an ear drum burst after a few shots.

The principle of this protector is to let the sound strike the side of the tube of the outer ear, instead of directly on the ear drum. The protector closes the ear tube so that only a very minute, hair-like pa.s.sage remains, through which a whisper can come, but any big volume of sound is checked, like a crowd trying to push through a narrow door and allowed only to dribble in one at a time.

Even the small amount of sound which does get through is impinged on to the sides of the outer ear pa.s.sage. None reaches the drum of the ear direct, but indirectly by the action of a rubber diaphragm.

The result is arrived at as follows:

A short celluloid rod has a hair thin hole running down it, but not quite reaching the far end. It enters a hole of the same size running across the tube.

There is a soft India rubber disc at each end of the rod, the transverse hole being between the two discs.

In use this rod is inserted into the ear till the uppermost disc just closes the pa.s.sage into the external ear, and the lower disc cuts off access to the ear drum.

Any sound reaching the ear can therefore only pa.s.s down this hair thin pa.s.sage in the rod and into the s.p.a.ce between these two rubber diaphragms.

The sound cannot reach the ear drum. It pa.s.ses through the transverse hole into the s.p.a.ce between the two discs.

No sound reaches the ear directly. It only hears the vibration of the inner rubber diaphragm and the diaphragm receives only a very minute part of the original sound which reaches the ear.

The minute hole in the rod allows of the entry and escape of the outer air. Thus each side of the ear drum receives an equal pressure of the external atmosphere.

When very heavy gunfire has to be withstood, care must be taken that the outer disc fits airtight into the tube of the ear. A little vaseline or other antiseptic ointment round the edge of this disc makes an airtight joint, or a third rubber disc is added, but the two discs are ample for pistol shooting.

The ear protector is easily kept clean and antiseptic by washing occasionally in a weak antiseptic solution.

There is no inconvenience in wearing these ear protectors and they are not very noticeable.

With some other forms of protectors, made of hard vulcanite which are forced in to make an airtight closure, pain and soreness arise if they are worn for any length of time and this unyielding vulcanite may displace the anvil and bones of the middle ear, or a sore may be caused and set up grave inflammation. Any ear plug which requires forcing or stretching the ear pa.s.sage is dangerous or painful to wear.

CHAPTER XLIV

EYESIGHT

The back sight of a revolver is held further from the eye, as compared with a rifle back sight, and the object to be hit is under fifty yards'

distance. The eyes best suited for pistol shooting therefore are those of moderately long sight, the normal eye in fact.

A near-sighted man, without gla.s.ses, has difficulty in seeing the back sight although the range, twenty to fifty yards, would suit his eyes better than rifle shooting at long ranges of eight hundred and one thousand yards.

If a near-sighted man wears gla.s.ses the difficulty of seeing equally well at varying distances comes in.

Men who have worn gla.s.ses all their lives cannot be made to realize that they cannot adjust their focus.

They, unfortunately, have never experienced the blessing of being able to see a thing close and at a distance with equal distinctness.

Most of them can read without gla.s.ses, in fact they take off their gla.s.ses if they want to examine anything minutely which they hold in their hands.

For seeing anything further off they wear gla.s.ses (but gla.s.ses are only a compromise). The gla.s.ses are made to enable them to see objects clearly across the street, or to see a motor car before it runs them down.

Anything further is more or less blurred, the further it is the more blurred it looks.

If their gla.s.ses were correct for one thousand yards they would b.u.t.t their heads into everything at fifteen yards off.

It is always best when driving to treat any one wearing gla.s.ses very carefully, to remember he can only see in front of him; sideways of his direct vision he may be as blind as a bat or a horse with blinkers on.

It is on account of this that so many people wearing gla.s.ses are run over.

When in addition to this they cross a road holding an umbrella well before their gla.s.ses, it is best to stop the horse and wait till they are across.

This adjusting of a gla.s.s for a fixed distance can be seen with deer-stalking telescopes and Zeiss gla.s.ses.

When spying for a deer one makes a mark on the draw tube to suit one's usual spying distance, which is about one thousand yards.

One can see deer clearly with this adjustment from the one thousand back to about three hundred yards, but for a closer view you have to readjust the focus.

If with the focus correct for the one thousand yards you attempt to look at an object only as far off as your back sight or even your front sight, you will see only an indistinct blur.

A near-sighted man, shooting a pistol full arm stretch, without his gla.s.ses, sees his back sight a blur and his front probably not at all, and the target like a post impressionist picture.

If he puts on gla.s.ses to see his hind sight properly, his front sight will not be distinct, and the target still more indistinct.

I think for a near-sighted man it is best to have gla.s.ses made so that he can see his front sight very clearly.

Then he would see the man target at twenty-five meters quite well enough to be able to hit it. It is not necessary for him to see his back sight distinctly.

A good pistol-shot does not focus his eyes on his back sight. That comes in line by itself when he gets into the mechanical lift of his arm.

As I have already mentioned a long-sighted man can continue pistol shooting without wearing gla.s.ses after he needs them for reading. But a long-sighted man is apt, when he finds he begins to see the hind sight of his rifle not as clearly as formerly, to use gla.s.ses. Then he has all the insurmountable imperfections of a gla.s.s which cannot accommodate itself to varying distances like the eye can.

Instead of wearing gla.s.ses all he needs to do is to shift his hind sight forward on the barrel till he can see it distinctly.

The long-sighted pistol-shot does not have this difficulty. He holds his pistol so far from the eye that the back sight is right for his long sight.

It is a most extraordinary thing that men who have such bad eyesight that they have to wear very strong gla.s.ses and even then blink and are half-blind in the sunlight, can shoot very well in those dark coal cellar shooting galleries.

A clerk who, when writing, puts his nose right down on the paper, holding his head on one side, in fact a man semi-blind and suffering with extreme myopia made extraordinary good scores with a miniature rifle in a coal cellar shooting gallery, at a minute stationary bull's-eye.

A cellar in which a normal-eyed man would not be able to shoot or to see his sights!

He is longing to get to the open air ranges with a full charge rifle, but I discourage him all I can as I know he will be painfully disillusioned of his skill in rifle shooting.

It is the abnormal conditions of a coal cellar gallery which suits his abnormal vision. A normal sighted person would only blind himself by trying to imitate him.