The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-03-21
The Dynamite Gun.

New York SIM.
A machine that looked like a 40
foot brass pipe mounted on steel
girder such as lie on the elevated
railroad pillars, rested in the centre
of the machine shop of the Delama-
ter Iron Works yesterday. The
machine is the barrel and carriage
of the new four-inch dynamite pneu-
matte gun, which, when completed,
is expected to sink, on occasion, the
largest man-of-war afoat and ami
hilate it's crew. The gun is con
structed of brass and steel, fitted in
the most accurate manner at the
joints, and capable of sustaining a
pressure of l ,0OOpounds to the square
inch. 1t weighs but ton, and may
be carried by small gunboat.
The projectile is nothing more nor
less than dynamite cartridge en-
cased in soft metal within a shell of
brass and fitted with wooden tail.
1t weighs about 100 pounde.
The soft metal filing protects the
dynamite from ordinary accidents.
But when the projectile, flying at
speed, strikes, head on, against a
resisting surface, a hard metal pin
EMBEDDED in the soft metal and not
touching the dynamite is forced into
the illuminate at the head of the
cartridge and discharges the dyna-
mite.
In order that wind currents may
not interfere in the precision Of the
firing, the centre of gravity is near
the forward end of the projectile
The wooden tail acts as a rudder,
the wind veering the tail around and
throwing the head into the wind in
proportion to the strength Of the
current, thus maintaining an alb
solutely straight course.
The gun is constructed with a
powerful air chamber capable of
storing an immense force of com
pressed air.
The gunner sights with telescope
sights with hair lines, and with the
pressure of a finger discharges the
compressed air into the barrel, and
starts the projectiIe on its flight.
The great length of the tube is re
CURED to economic all the force Of
the air, which is less rapid in its
action than gun-powder.
"This gum" said Mr.. HinsdaIe,
who is experimenting the construc-
ton, "will throw the cartridge three
miles with a precision never attained
with gunpowder. An ordinary pro-
iectile loses power with each yard it
travels from the gun. The cartridge
arrives ready for business, no mat
ter how far it goes"
"Supposing cartridge landed on
the deck of the Thunderer, what
would happen?"
"The vessel would be shattered
and sunk by the explosion, and
every living being upon the deck
would be blown to atoms. Whether
any one below the deck would live
to drown in the sinking vessel I can
not state"
Suppose a shot from the enemy
struck the launch carrying the dy-
Mantle cartridge?"
''Well, the boat might be sunk by
the shot, but unless a cartridge was
struck so as to explode the illuminate
the dynamite would not explode.
The government is experimenting
at Fort Hamilton with a 2-inch gun,
and some wonderful execution has
been done. The guns may be
manufactured in any well-equipped
machine shop, and cost but 4 song
in comparison with the enormous
guns turned out by Krupp and at
Woolwich. The same principle is
applicable to field guns to be used in
land engagements. A few dynamite
cartridges exploded in brigade
would have the effect of a powder
mill explosion upon the troops"
Apropos of the proposition to erect
memorial to Dickens, a CORES
pendent of London daily paper
quotes a PASSAGE from the novelist