National Defense: When Better Sights Are Made

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Proving that ordinary people can sometimes make monkeys out of brass hats, a Tennessee medical lieutenant and a National Guard artillery captain made a better anti-tank gun sight for $1.40 than Ordnance and artillery experts had made for $640.

Lieut. Charles R. Yancey and Captain Lowell Bean put together a practical sight for a 75-mm. gun from two lengths of iron pipe (cost: $1), two 15¢ mirrors, 10¢ worth of adhesive tape. In casual tests during maneuvers in Tennessee, a gun with their sight got more hits than one with a complicated, expensive, and unsatisfactory affair which the Army had adapted to anti-tank use. General Staff officers and high-ranking artillerymen promptly beat a path to the doors of Yancey & Bean, decided their gadget was worth looking into.