Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-31
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Tuesday, July 31, 1883.

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 It is faVorite theory that the more terri rible and destructive weapons of war become the less damage will bs done by war. If this theory is sound we may expect that wars will 1 soon be very short and not very destructive, for the inventors have been during the last few years busy in turning out weapons which are calculated to do immense damage to life and property. Perhaps by and by we shall have no wars at all, each nation being fur nished with weapons which a foe will not con- slider 1t safe to face.
 One of the latest candidates for the favo r of the Peace societies is the multi-charge gun noticed in these columns the other day. which is to be tested at Sandy Hook this week. This weapon is the result of long series of experiments, and it is claimed to be the most powerful and destructive weapon of warfare ever constructed. It is made of cast iron and steel. is twenty five feet ieng and weighs twenty-five tons. Although it's cali bre is only six inches, ,itis believed that it will accomplish as much work as 8 seventeen inch Armstrong gun weighing one hundred and nine tons. The multi-charge feature of the gun consists of series of four supple mental power chambers or pockets along the lower surface of the bore. These cham bers will hold charges of powder which will be exploded in succession after the usual charge in the breech has been fired. The maximum quantity of powder to be used in single charge gun of equal calibre is thirty four pounds behiad projectile weighing seyenty-fve pounds, V hile in this gun total of one hundred and thirty pounds of powder will be used, of which eighteen pounds con stitutes the breech charge and twenty-eight pounds the charge of each pocket or cham Der. Owing to this distribution of the pow der it is asserted that the pressure on the walls of the gun, as compared with that in single charge guns, will be much reduced The shot will be from eighteen to twenty four inches long and is expected to have a velocity of 5000 feet per second, gain of fifty per cent over that attained by the guns in present use, while in the matter of pene- trating force the multi.charge gun, it Is claimed, will show gain, calibre for calibfe, of about -25o per cent. Slow burning pow der will be used in the breech. When the
 
 fshed by expansion resulting from the dis placement of the shot, and just at the instant when the shot has passed the first pocket, Q charge of quick burning powder in that pocket will be ignited which will raise the pressure again to the initial force. When this pressure is reduced by the further progress of the ball and the resulting greater expansion of the force of powder the charge in the second pocket becomes ignited and so on with the remaining pocket charges. Thus continuous pressure of about 3O, 900 pounds to the square inch will be kept up between the hfeech and the hnuzzfe.
 It is claimed that this interesting and in genious weapon will carry shot ten miles and perhaps further. And this shot within a reasonable range will go through almost anything that stands in it's way. If the weapon works as well as it is expected to the inventor will doubtless make . good thing out of it, for almost all the nations are now struggling to get the advantage of each other in deadly weapons and shot-proof ironclads, and will welcome such valuable addition to their equipments.