New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-28
VEL0CiIY or 4 RIFLE BULLET.

PROFESSOR SPICES EXPERIMENTS AT COOPER UNION.
Professor Robert Spice, the Brooklyn chemist
and physicist appeared last evening at the Cooper IN
stute IN lecture projectiles The great hall was
crowded IN every part-many standing In the aisles.
When the wellknown face Of Mr. Cooper appeared the
audience as usual. gave him very hearty welcome,
and the applause renewed when on the irtroduc-
ton OF Professor Raymond the lecturer came forward
The task which Professor Spice was 10 accomplish was
10 determine the actual velocity OF rifle bullet fired
across The stage The distance measured on the plat
form was thirtythrce feet which the lecturer explained
was shorter than usual. the ordinary distance used
in determining this question was about 200 feet
To carry this performances out he had secured
the cooperation OF Lieutenant L. L. Merriam, oil the
DooAlyn BIB Regiment who has gained some repnta-
ton at the Creedmoore Range, as evidenced by the
medals which he In the first place Professor
spice explained the apparatus 10 he used He called the
attention of The audience TO mahogany base l. inches
by Is inches on which placed two levers which
cl1ss underneath the points Que of these wires was
connected with pendulum attached 10 an Atwood
rents the lever connected with tne pendulum
came down the glass precisely at the beginning Of
somew nat similar ca the old Morse alphabet. COnse
quenty The distance from the beginning 81 one line 10
the beginning Of the next represented Second OF time.
1he sec nd lever exact opposite. had a spring a.
acbed end, which kept the point of the glass.
also had two electro magnets one at each end which
had electro currents passed through of different
strengththo weaker cUrren tending 10 pull the lever
keep II elevated. In addition 20 this the current from
The stronger magnet passed through loose wire rest
ing ON TWO eioruies Of mercury, ;nf immo intelv IN
'front.' OF this wire TO rtst the nuZzle or tie rihe
The akcT cure nj passed through precisely similar
o wrc alse two glOhulcs Oi mercury. which wire
p iced thrtyrhree feet distant from the hrs WIRE
Lieutenant Merriam now came forward and loaded
his rife. 10 was regular Cre"dnOOr - callbre, 81
inch barrel, and placed IN 10 a cnrtrdg" containing .
400 grain BAH and is grains OF powder; explaining that
this nj "a full charge Ho then took his position.
The object To shoot away wires the mercury
A hex OF sand was placed 70 receive the ball.
nj linn mn lnetW Il.fz
On s striking the nth second the plate of smoked glass
was drawn along by the descent OF weight on the top
OF column o. sand which ran out of n tube On tue
sixth second Lieutenant Merriam pulled the trigger and
both wires vanished. On the first wire being broken
the of corresponding lever descended the
glass but Immediately rose again by the action OF "a
spring. when the bullet broke the second wire. The
consequence of this that the poni connected with
while the other point beng kept down during the SWING
of the pendulum, scraped "A longer space.
ip'h 'nr ku9' va ~ ~ PiaN'u
opticon, projecting magiiued image OF the lines
the screen. The relative lengths OF these
lines ascertained thus Obviating any source ~
error In measuring the miuute lines on the smoked
glass. This method OF measuring the lengths was
claimed 10 be original by the Professor.
Or this measurement II was found that the shorter
line inches long, and the other line feet
inches These plumbers WIRE brought down To the
common fraction " inches. the result giving 40
how many times the former Was contained In the
latter. and the fraction thus obtained clearly the
fraction second that the bullet took pass from
wire to the Other-that ~, 2a of second Multi
plying the distance between the wires (33 ieet) as
above hy the denuminat9r OF the above traction the
velocity OF the bullet la feet was obtained, namely
T26 feet IN a second.
The result was long applauded; and the lecturer TO
make matters sure, determined 20 peat the
ment. The second attempt was equally successful.
Professor Spice then proceeded to give Illustrations
experiments OF the welknown ma g1cinns showing "
science ana art are resored TO to deceive the senses
His performances and explanations were OF great inter
est To his hearers