[4V50 Gary]

The story continues:

"Getting the right measure for the mixture was Kuizon's business [Kuizon was the son of a pharmacist]. It was all trial and error. When there was an error, the cartridge would blow up the gun. Powder flashes would come out between the bolts and burn his hands. One morning he broke three rifles in succession, burning his hands three times and jolting his shoulder so badly his toes ached.

"'Sir, I do not like this work, sir,' he admitted finally. 'I will put the rifle on a table sir, and test by long distance, sir.'

"Finally we managed to dragoon an apothecary's scales and after a few more tests 'by long distance' no more rifles blew up. Using this ammunition was haard on our buns, but it worked and killed a Jap to beat hell. The boys liked them because mine powder gave the bullets so much power they never had to figure windage."

The above was from Ira Wolfert's American Guerilla in the Philippines and is based on the experience of Lt. Ilif David Richardson, USNR. There are other things like distilling alcohol for vehicle fuel, restoring telegraph lines by straightening out barbed wire and using soda bottles for insulators, printing currency (they had a jeweler who engraved - they didn't have to worry about counterfeiting because no one else had paper), improvised uniforms, etc. A book like this would be banned by an authoritarian government.