The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-10-30
SWIFT PRoJecrlLEs.
0oving ut the Rate Of $1,000 Feet Per
Secoud-Ssvsa Thicknsssss Of Boiler Iron
Pierced.

Secoud-Ssvsa Thicknsssss Of Boiler Iron
Pierced.
A little man with dark moustache,
who stood in the sand at Sandy Hook.
Owed one hand into his coat pocket sud-
denly and fished out metal cartridge
two inches long. It was packed with
powder, and had hole through the
center from end to end.
IF you Lit that" he said, lit would
fizz away harmlessly. just like Fourth
of July flower-pot. Watch what it does
when l let it off in this gun-barrel.
A common smooth-bore, breech-load-
ing gun-barrel, that the man had bought
in town for two dollars, lay in the
sand. 1t was just four feet long. and
had bore five-sixteenths Of an inch in
diameter. In front of it, resting right
against the muzzle of the barrel. was .
little square target. It was made of
nine sheets of boiler iron screwed to
gether tightly. Each sheet was one
quarter inch in thickness. The little
man fitted the cartridge in the breech,
and right ahead of it laid thin rod Of
tempered steel. It was nine inches long,
and weighed nine and one-half ounces.
There is nine-tenths Of an ounce Of
powder in that cartridge" he said as he
got into a bomb-proof on the sands,
"and here she goee."
He yanked string that was attached
to the gun-hammer. There was an ex-
plosion and then 3 thud. The little man
came out from the shelter of the bomb
proof and picked up the little target.
He got hammer and . wedge and
pried it apart. The steel rod had been
forced straight through seven thick
nesses of the boiler iron, then it had
been turned upward and broken of.
The broken piece was wedged between
the last two boiler plates. The topmost
inch of it had penetrated the fiber of the
iron perpendicularly. The little man
gazed at the ruin of the target in adj
miration.
''rhat beats the record all hollow"
he cried, exultantly. 1.-THE best that
anybody has been able to do heretofore
with a cartridge of that size is to drive
a steel projectile through an inch of
boiler iron. 1t would burst tho gun to
put it to such q test with cartridge of
ordinary make"
He lodged behind the bomb-proof
again and tried it with an ordinary
cOarse-grain cartridge. There was a
big explosion when he yanked the string.
and through the peep-holes of the bomb
proof the spectators saw the gun barrel
blown to flinders. The little man fished
up another of the new-fangled cartridges
from his pocket, and said:
''This thing was invented by the man
who invented the multicharge gun. The
idea consists in the character of the
powder used and in the boring of hole
through the middle of it after it has
been packed in the cartridge. The SUI
periority of the cartridge over anything
that has heretofore been gotten up in
the same line is the immense power it
imparts to the projectile and the great
reduction of the strain usually caused
upon the gun by the force Of the explO-
sion necessary to fire a prOjectile. These
results are secured by arranging the
powder so that the force generated
at the moment it is ignited will be
comparatively small, and will in-
crease continually until the whole
charge is consumed. This arrangement
starts the projectile gently at first, and
then imparts to it gradually increased
motion, and equalizes the strain upon
the walls of the gun. To accomplish
this, the powder, which is of very fine
grade, is packed in the shell in solid
mass, and then perforated with the GEN.
trail hole, SO that when it is ignited by
primer it will throw stream of fire
downward through this perforation.
The stream of fire ignites the powder
along the internal walls of the perfora-
ton, and, as this perforation is compar-
atively small. the volume of gases gen.
Grated at first is correspondingly small;
but as the combustion proceeds the fire
surface continually increases until the
entire mass of the powder is consumed.
BY properly prOportioning the size and
shape of the powder cake relatively to
the prOiectile to be used, and to the
length of the barrel through which it is
to be driven, the force exerted upon the
projectile by the powder may be regu-
lated practically at will, and so as to do
the NEST effective work in any given
case"
"Can this principle be applied to
cannon as well as to small arms?" was
asked.
Certainly" the little man replied.
"All that is necessary is to pierce the
solidly packed powder longitudinally
with a number of holes instead of one,
and then make corresponding holes in
the head of the shell, and arrange the
head SO that the holes can commune
cate with each other. This can be Sc
cured by the introduction into the pow
der-cake perforations of q number of
tubes projecting resrwardly from the
cartridge head, SC that they will rest
against the breech lock of the cannon,
and leave q space between the lock and
the cartridge head. The construction
insures the instantaneous and simulta-
neous ignition of the powder perfora-
tons at their head. It is essential that
the powder-cake be hard and dense, 50
that the fire can not penetrate into it,
but will burn only on its surfaces-that
is, as distinguished from cakes made of
granular powder, which, though solid
in form, are granular in structure, and
burn in all directions through their mass.
This method will maintain the maximum
pressure uniform all the way to the
muzzle. and overcome the inertia of the
projectile. instead of applying . maxi
mum pressure suddenly before the in
ertia Of the heavy projectile is overcome.
and suffering reduction of velocity
thereby.
1--WE haven't tested the cartridge in .
cannon yet," the little man said, "but
With small arms we have propelled a
projectile 20,0SO feet per second. and
that beats the record for speed. as the !
nerforation of the boiler.iron plate beats [