The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1871-11-02

In accoedaDcs with arrangements made BY
Gen. A. A. Humphreys sngineer-in- chief Of
the United States army, n inspection Of the
forts and government works in the vicinity
of New York Was begun On "Wednesday
morning. The 0enesal vas accompanied By
the Secretary of Wa, General Belknap and
General Sherman. The programme was
that the party should 6rse visit The gigantic
work undeztaken By 0snsFal Newton Ct He'll
Gate, and thence proceed 70 Willeit's Point,
witness the manner in which the torpedoes I;
are Manufactured, and ahRward experiments |
by The general In charge Of the battalion Of
engineer II tn t place, the blowing up Of
various torpedoes, and q review Of the gar |
rison BY General Sherman. Having |!
thoroughly inspected the works II Hell Gate,
for the account Of which We have no room, the
party embarked for Willett's Point, where
the visitors ..ese met BY Geneai Abbott,
commanding the battalion of engineers At
Willett's Point, accompanied BY his staff,
consisting Of Colosel w. ]. Tvining, Cap
tain A. Mckenzie, Captain W. C. Raymond,
Colonel 8. n. Mansfield, Lieutenants Huer,
Davis, Post, Human, Marshall, Willard
and DR.. Byrnes, who i attached to the sta
ton, Gen. Sherman and the Secretary Of
War greeted these officers and the whole
company started for the interior. At about
hundred yards from the pier three c0mpa
mics of the battalion were drawn up in Line
and received the visitors with presented arms,
and AZ General Sherman passed along the
lines he saluted the soldiers in that cheerful
and soldier-like manner 50 peculiar to him.
General Abbott said he proposed to show
them various experiments at the manufac-
roty where the torpedoes were made for the
harbor d. fences before he proceeded to give
the entertainment in the bay. He then led
the way to one of the Laboratories post.
Here the whole party gathered round him
while he explained first the competition Of
the most explosive materials, euch ~
''dualine," California powder" and the or
binary mortar powder. He next described
| to General Sherman the manner in which he
constructed torpedoes, which was to make
box of wood two inches thick and dove
tailed in at the corners-0f various sizes,
| according to the size of the cartridge used
and then the manner in which he placed the
electric wires in the interior, with fn!minat-
ing fuses at various psrts, 50 that the whole
should be ignited At the same instant.
Following this an electric battery was pro-
duced, and be commenced BY igniting small
quantities of the compositions. He frst ig-
nited piece Of gun cotton lying loose on q
piece of board, which simply famed up like
piece of paper, but when he applied de-
tonating fuse to similar quantity it dis
charged as heavily - cannon. He next
tried "dualine in the same manner, and
thus made the generals stand back; for of all
matter for internal machines this compost
ton would be the worst and most destructive.
Gomerz's fuse was tried, and created great
excitement when it lgnited two heaps OF
power at a considerable distance from each
other at the same moment.
This part of the programme being conclud-
ed, Gen. Abbott arranged that Secretary
Belknap, Generals Sherman, Humphreys
and Mcdowell should enter his barge, and
the remainder of the visitors should return
to the steamer for the purposes of Witnessing
the experiments he was about to make with
torpedos between Fort Schuyler and Willet's
p, It, This was carried out, and the General
and part of his staff proceeded out on the
bay with the materials necessary to carry out
the project.
| TORPEDO NO. /.
which was made up of 100 pounds Of powder
was sunk in thirty-three feet OF water, and
attached to General AbbOtt's barge BY means
Of the electric cable. At a given signal, the
steamer sheered out OF the way, snd warned
all passing vessels, the barge containing the
four gentlemen above alluded to, was pulled
off to safe distance and the crowd cs beard
the steamer, composed partly of ladies, Ia
ken ON board at Williu's Point, who had
been invited to partake Oh the elegant lun-
cheou provided by General Humphreys, be-
came excited, and in few seconds q terri
BILE report was heard, three immense columns
of water assembled into the air at different
angles, boiling the water and - they fell a
beautiful rainbow was formed BY the falling
spray. The sensation on board the steamer
was as though the boat had been struck from
beneath, while the collapse of the water Gre
ated second and distinct conclusion through
the air.
TORPEDO NO. 2
consisted Of four pounds of gun cotton in a
wooden frame, and sunk thirty-three feet
also. When the spark was applied, scarcely
any report was heard, but the water boiled
violently, and the shock felt on the water was
terrific, showing that this would have done
fearful execution to the bottom Of craft
sailing over it.
was 100 pounds of common mortar powder
sunk to the depth o, seventy feet. After the
fire had been applied, one might imagine
there was q whirlpool, or boiling spring.
The water did not ascend very high, but the
shock was that of . hundred pieces Of ar
:illery being discharged together, and caused
the ladies to start and the timbers Of the
steamer to creak.
TORPEDO NO. 4
created great excitement and some little
alarm. Fifteen minutes elapsed before it
was ready, and then everybody wanted to
know why the generals rowed 20 far of, and
why General Abbott kept 70 far away
with his battery. The torpedo was COM
posed OF 100 pounds of powder, placed only
eight feet under the surface. One
Of these tried some time ago threw the
water up distance of 267 feet, according
to the instruments employed for measuring
these things. and this fact being
made known it left an uneasy impression.
Every precautiou having been taken, General
Abbott rowed of and applied the spark.
Anything more grand and At the same time
more terrible than this could scarcely be con-
ceived. The instant the fire was communi-
Gated. body of water, such a. 10 represented
! in eastern prints caused BY water spouts,
ascended al least about two hundred feet in
| the air, carrying with it portions Of the tor
pedo frame, which it scattered far and near,
throwing some pieces 800 yards. A large
whirlpool was also formed at it, base, the
influence of which was felt in the barge at q
great distance. This one gave general sa,is-
faction, Major King asserting that if n ves-
sci had been over it it would have broken it
in two. The explosion Of small raft CON-
pleted the experiment..
The visitors were then taken on shore to
the parade ground for the purpose OF witness
ing full dress parade and q review Of the
soldiers at the garrison by General Sherman.
Benedict ArsolA's Masie Reek.
A Norwich C. paper tells the following
story:
There was recently exhumed from the
garnet of an uptown mansion, curiosity OF
no little local as we'll a general antiquarian
interest-namely, the veritable music book
which benedict Arnold used and sung from
when he was young man and resident OF
this town. The book, now in possession Of
Gurdon Ford, of Brooklyn, through presen-
tation Of Daniel Colt, has Arnold's name
written in a bold, clear hand across the title
page, while the music (also manuscript
is written in part in Arnold'- hand, and a
part. doubtless by his mother. The latter
was a good woman, and letters from her to
her con are extant, in which she exh0ets him
to flee temptation and live godly snd up
right life.
Ressa0saos Gala.
Most New Workers have 1t one time or an |
other been diverted with the shouts OF the |
walters At q cheap restaurant, who yell out
in awful haste, with wonderful oral phone |