The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-11-28

adaptability and consider its future as
an instrument of war.
| THE DYNAMITE GUN.
Up to within the past year dynamite
had attracted most attention as an ex-
plosive to be used in torpedoes.
These, as is well known. were either to
he stationary and fired by electricity at
such time as vessel were to pass over
them. or they were to be shot OFT from
an attacking ship, or from shore
against hostile fleet and to be driven
under water by means of either COM
pressed air or electricity. But while
the importance of the torpedo system
can scarcely be overestimated, it can
hardly be said to promise such results
as may fairly be expected 10 come from
that engine of destruction, the dyna-
mite gun. This weapon is a long met
al tube strung in a swivel on a tripod.
Connected with 1t is a receiver for COM
pressed air. superheated steam, or some
other highly elastic gas. The proiec-
tile fired from the gun is an elongated
shell with wooden tail-piece which
acts as rudder, much as the feathered
portion of an arrow directs its course The
shell is loaded with certain amount
of dynamite, carefully packed in such a
manner as to be least affected byy shock
from the rear. All being ready, the
shell is elected by suddenly permitting
the compressed air to force it from the
gun. Heretofore the great problem in
dynamite has been the difficulty of firing
it from cannon without causing
it to explode in the gun. Being so
much more powerful than gunpowder
it is corresponding!y quicker in its ex-
plosive alton. So quick is it, in fact,
that as yet the skill of man has been
unable to make metal capable of
withstanding its force, and the most
powerful and tenacious Krupp or Whit
worth cannon, if loaded with dynamite,
would be shattered like glass.
SHELLS.
In using it az an explosive for shells
the difficulty in getting it out of the
gun without exploding has been from
the sensitiveness to shock. When gun
powder has been used it has been found
to he SO sudden in its action as to in
variably explode the shell in the gun.
Compressed air has therefore been SUBJ
stituted for gunpowder. Compressed
air or steam being slower in its action
than powder. as has been demon
strated. starts the shell more gradually
and with less shock, and the dynamite
does not explode until il strikes the
target. BY the recent trials at Fort
Hamilton. New York Harbor, it has
been quite thoroughly demonstrated
that dynamite may be thrown from
gun without exploding in the barrel;
that shell constructed as described
can be thrown nearly half mile as
accurately as from an ordinary rifle
cannon, and that with 500 pounds pres
sure of ar shot weighing upward of
thirty five pounds and containing seven
teen pounds of dynamite can be thrown
nearly two miles. and further that dy-
Mantle invariably explodes on striking
a solid obje t. and that its explosion is
with great and destruc-
tive effect. But the point now remains
10 be proven. to-wit: the measure of
The destructiveness of explosion of dy-
Mantle aga INST the side of modern
steel-clad war ship. In other words,
how many feet thickness of steel or
wiou- hit iron can be smashed with a
hundred pounds of dynam te exploding
against Its SIDE? Every miner or
quarryman who has had any experience
with giant" knows the value of hav-
ing his charge of powder well warmed
up and tightly rammed into the blast
hole and well wedged in, tamped with
sand or water, in order to get its best
eaest; he also knows how little effect is
produced by cold dynamite exploding
IN the open air.
CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS.
Now the question is whether charge
Of rather cold dynamite fired against
the side of ship in shell will not lose
, very large portion of its power on &C
count Of lack of compression ard being
warmed. The friends of the
dynamite gun claim that the velocity |
Of the shot str king the ship will amount
10 many tons and equal Just that |
of tamping. If that be true. |
here are great probabilities that the
lyman te gun, properly constructed |
and handled, would DESTROY the heayi- |
sst ironc.ad afloat. To prove conclu-
siveIy what can be done, the inventors |
and proprietors of the gun are to build |
! second Of larger dimensions at once.
It is to have diameter of six inches and |
be capable Of susi aiming a pressure of |
!. 200 pornds to the inch and throwing
. prois1tile containing 100 pounds Of |
iyneaite. Should it be success the |
i9 of its triumphant trial will witness
ne virtual destruction of the monster
'teel-clad navies Of Europe as COM
,letely as the sinking of the wooden
umDcrland by the lron-clat Merrimac
vas the death kncll to the .soaken
walls of old England" Another of its
'aects will be to render war less likely
o occur ON account of its increased de-
tructis eness, and to put cheap and
Effective weapon in the hands o. poor
nd weak nations, aud thus enable
hem to defend themselves against
more powerful neighbors. That the
'un Is to be success is believed by the
rmy officers and other experts who
ave witnessed its trial, and in the last
lumber of the Army and Nacy journal
be most sangulne hopes of its future
re entertained. &C ere,Gnd Lead. r.
For seventy years three stalks OF