The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-23 00:00:00

NEW EXPLOSIVE POWER.

We have received some information on which we
can safely rely, respecting a discovery which is likely
to triumph over the difficulties that have hitherto
seemed insurmountable to those who have previously
pursued their experiments in the department of science
to which it pertains. The discovery relates to a com-
bination of chemical substances so subtle, and
yet,
when brought into action, so immense in their explo-
sive results, as to bid defiance to resistance by oppos-
ing substances, however powerful; while the period
of the explosion can be so nicely regulated as to enable
those who employ them to calculate with precision the
time when the explosion shall take place. The form
of this tremendous missile is globular ; the size of it
regulated to the purpose for which it is to be employed.
It may be propelled from a musket, a cannon, or a
bomb, and may be thrown with the same precision as
common balls or shells. At four yards distance a
ball prepared of the substances we have alluded to,
and after lying in a perfectly quiescent state for
several minutes, split asunder a large tree, in the
presence of our informant. So perfectly harmless is
this extraordinary agent, except under the conditions
which are essential to bringing its occult powers into
action, that the balls may be carried about in the
pocket, or conveyed from place to place, in any num-
bers, in boxes, or barrels, without the slightest dan-
, ger ; it may even be cast down, with any force, upon
iron or stone, and no other effect can be produced
than if the ball itself were a solid mass of stone or
iron. The attention of the Board of Ordnance
has, we understand, been called to this newly dis-
covered application of chemical properties to the
purposes of military operations. Several experiments,
each exceeding the former in the force opposed to the
explosive power, hare been made in the presence of
the Master-General of the Board of Ordnance and
several of the most eminent officers of engineers, and
with the most decided success, both as to the destruc-
tive energies of the explosions, and the precision with
respect to time and place when and where the effects
were to be accomplished. As a final test of the na-
ture and extent of this newly-discovered power, we
understand that the Board of Ordnance has directed
a building to be constructed in the Woolwich marshes
of the strongest description ; its several parts to be
fastened together by bolts and bars so as to bid defi-
ance to any mode of bombardment now in use. The
inventor has, we are assured, requested that no effort
should be spared to render this building impreg-
nable, and places the efficiency of his discovery on
this test. We have given this account as we have
received it, from a source on the integrity and means
of information of which we can rely. The name of
the scientific discoverer has been communicated to us.
Though for obvious reasons we are unable to de-
scribe the elementary parts of the composition, or the
process by which the result is produced, we are
assured that the facts we have stated respecting its
tremendous powers are within the truth. If, in the
approaching trial of its efficiency, to which we have
alluded, it achieves the results predicted by its in-
ventor, we need scarcely say that no discovery in
chemistry since the invention of gunpowder will have
operated so entire a change in the mode of carrying
on military operations, or have caused so salutary a
dread of military bombardment, as this new power
will produce. We have said enough to whet the
curiosity of men of science, and especially of military
men. We shall shortly be in a situation to state
hether failure has exploded the pretensions, or suc-
cess has rewarded the labours, of this new candidate
for fame and fortune.-2 intes.