Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1879-06-28
THE GRECIAN FIRE.

| spread terror and Consideration in the
ranks of au enemy has been exhibited at
| Frogmoor, by the inventor, Mr.. c. j.
O'Hara, of New Orleans, in the presence
of several distinguished military men,
one of whom was Gen. Eeauregard. Tho
exhibition of this terrible and seemingly
irresistible instrument Of death and dos
truction is reported by tho New Orleans
Democrat as very satisfactory. That pa
| per gives the following description of the
inventors claims and the projectiles that
may be of interest to our readers:
| The shell is an ordinary cast iron cyl
iuder, and in this case to fit three-inclr
or ten.poundcr Parrot gun, the shoulder
or point OF which is semi spherical. The
fuse or percussion cap is substituted by a
metallic cone, an inch in diameter at the
base and about half an inch thick from
base to apex. THIS cone, which is of
| highly tempered steel, is groved from
base 10 apex into an octagonal shape,
presenting much similarity to n screw
| hole scamcr, the function of which it in
decd performs. The shell contains some
liquid compost tlou known only to the
| inventor, which concussion causes to ex-
plode and to tear the shell into fragments
| the liquid igniting anything inf'ammable
with which it comes in contact. The
reamcr is capable ofperforating iron sew
era1 inches thick, and from, its peculiar
construction will enter iron plating
placed at a very small angle.
Tho target used yesterday, however,
| was a veTitacle ono, eight feet square,
and composed of four inch pine scantlipg,
clad with street rail road iron, which Va
| ries from one to two inches in thickness.
Behind the target lot OF shavings, chips
ard other combustible matter had been
heaped.
The firing was done Mt one hundred
yards the first shot striking the target,
perforating the iron and wood and break
ing the she'll iuto fragments and igniting
instantly, the combustiblc MATERIAL
Some of the pieces Of the armor were pro-
iectcd 4 distance CT one hundred yards
beyond the target, one piece of which
bore the well-defned imprint of one Of
thc sides Of the reamcr.
A second shot missed the mark, prob
| ably owing to the fact that the tlangs of
| Mr.. OTIara's shells are not wide enough
to fill the grooves of the Parrots riding,
which is one of the requisites of momen-
tum and accuracy, aud yet the shell OK
ploded on striking the ground beyond the
target. TIE third shell pierced the tar
get, as in the first case, exploding few
yards beyord it, and scattering tho in
tlammablc liquid among the grass and
| weeds, whore it continued to burn for
some time.
A forth shot was fred, this time into
tho water Of Bayou st. John, at Il de-
preston of about twenty degrees, the
shell striking the water about seventy
yards from the gun, exploding in the wa
ter, scattering its fragments and ricoclet-
ting only the fangc, which whirred its
way into the swamp. This last expert
ment was made in the presence of Col. J.
B. Walton, who had been prevented until
then from attending the tests.
As to tho result, Mr.. o Hara has the as
scrtion of Gen. Beauregard that it is 4
success, Mr.. O'Hara having performed
with his projectile all that he claimed to
be able to do under the circumstances.
Regarding the capability of Mr. O O'Hara's
proiectile to pierce ar,nor at an angle-in
other words, to avoid glancng-and his
assertion that on shipboard or in case.
notes it would be impossible to extin-
guish the material contained in his pro-
jectiles, there are no means of determine
ing at present; but yesterdays expert
ments will doubtless prompt such a re-
port to the Secretary of War that ought
to afford the inventor an opportunity Of
| experimenting with his projectiles scion-
tifically and thoroughly, and on large
scale