The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-07-19
TEE ExPLosIYB BULLET.
A. Fearful Instrument OF Warfare.,

..
The last and most destructive of the death
dealing projectiles is the explosive bullet, de-
signed by Pertuiset, and e1eouted,b by French
artisan in the celebrated firearms factory OF
Devisme, and Is thus described In the Last
number OF the Army and Navy Journal:
Externally quite similar to the original
Minie, cyIindric-c -conical mass Of lead, It is
discovered, by unscrewing Of its length about
midway, to be internally magazine OF fhlmf-
nate The explosive compound dynamite
powder, condensed powder, or whatever 1t
may be-has an explosive force six times that
of gunpowder. Experiments which have been
made under the patronage OF the Russian.
Prussian and Austrian Governments, and labs
by our own War Department, demonstrate
not only its effectiveness, but the singular
properties It's inventor has given to 1t. "Being
given the distance Of the target, it's density,
the quantity OF charge In the gun, and tne
same of the ingredients constituting the pro-
iectile.n he has established most exact reaa-
tion. by accurate calculation, between the
force necessary to explode the pro]ecttle AND
its penetration before eubjectiOn to this pres
sure. Thus the magazine can be 30 constitu-
ted that the passage Of the bullet through
sheet of paper will explode 1t, or 30 tnat Sne
severe impact OF iron or hard wo9a Is 81 nssueo go .
sured that ga ball which would not explode In
the body of soldier or horse, II not at1
very limited distance, would explode In the
more resisting body of an ammunition wagon
Though N. Pertuiset is the inventor oS the
particular missile to which our attention has
been drawn, by singular propriety Of ctreum-
of the Bonaparte family, appears to have been
its inspirer. From little pamphlet, badly
translated from an essay on explosive projec-
tiles, written by the Prince, we are not sur
prised to learn that its author entertained the
Idea quite number Of years ago, and even
applied to Devisme to make him q gun OF par
tIcular calibre, suiIed to hollow prolectile Of
copper. or of an alloy oflead and antimony. The
fact of Demisme's declining to produce the
arm defeated the Princes purpose: ;:ai,
The ethics of slaughter are defined In no
recognized code, but there is pretty general,
accord among nations that explosive bullets
shall not be used in small arms. Our readers
have not forgotten the convention into which,
at the instance Of Russia, the promin emit ma
tIons of Europe entered q year or two ago.
During our own war there was an occasional
suggestion OF such missiles being used, but we
prefer to believe that the few cited instances
were altogether imaginary. We know that
an invention of this nature-whether Per-
tuiset's or not we are uncertain-was offered
to the Confederates and declined, on the
score of pure sentiment, by the board OF ex-
amining officers; and, II our memory ls not at
fault, the Internal missile was considered IN a.
similar spirit BY our War Department; .o,,..uo
made OF the Ordnance Department at Wash
ington, the purpose Of experiments seems to
have been 10 demonstrate its utility in explod-
ing caissons, artillery wagons, &c. The twen-
ty-seyen shots, made at all sorts OF targets,
proved the excellence Of the illuminate for such
purposes. We are very sure that no civilized
government will be disposed TO adopt an e1-
posive missile tor any other purpose. y Despite
the partisanship of Prince Pierre, In letter
to his imperial cousin, Napoleon rejected 1t at
once.