Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-07-29
2O,OSO FEET IN A SECOND.
Great Speed Given to Projecti1es-Sever
Thicknesses of Boiler Iron Pierced.

Thicknesses of Boiler Iron Pierced.
From the New York SUM-.
A little man with a. dark mustache,
who stood in the sand at Sandy Hook,
dlved one hand into his coat-pocket
suddenly and fshed out q metal cart
ridge two inches long. 1t was packed
with powder, and had hole through
the center from end to end.
eff you lift that" he said, cit would
fizz away harmlessly, just like a
Fourth OF July fower-pot. Watch
what it does when | let it off IN this
gun-barrel."
A common smooth-bore, breech-
loading gun barrel, that the man had
bought in town for So, lay in the sand.
1t was just four feet long, and had
bore fve-sixteenths of an inch in
| diameter. In front of it, resting right
against the muzzle of the barrel, was a
little square target. 1t 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. 1t 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 abomb-proof nthe sands,
"and here she goes"
He yanked a string that was at
tached to the gun-hammer. There
was an explosion and then thud.
The little man came out from the
shelter of the bomb-proof and picked
up the little target. He got a hammer
and wedge and 1ried it apart. The
steel rod had been forced straight
through seven thicknesses of the boiler
| iron, then it had been turned upward
and broken off. The broken piece was
wedged between the last two boiler
plates. The topmost inch OF it had
penetrated the fiber of the iron per-
pendicularly. The little man gazed at
the ruin of the target in admiration.
"That beats the record all hollow"
he cried, exultantly. 1.-THE best that
anybody has been able to do hereto
fore with cartridge of that size is to
drive steel projectile through an inch
of boiler iron. 1t would burst the gun
to put it to such test with a cartridge
Of ordinary make"
| 1G uOUS0Q D0IlIlu U1O
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
tangled cartridges from his pocket, and
said:
"This thing was invented by man
who invented the multicharge gun.
The idea consists in the character of
the powder used and in the boring Of a
hole through the middle of it after it
has been packed in thecartridge. The
superiority of the cartridge over any
thing that has heretofore been gotten
up in the same line is the immense
power it imparts to the proiectile and
the great reduction of the strain
usually caused upon the gun by the
force of the explosion necessary to fire
proiectile. These results are secured
by arranging the powder so that the
force generated at the moment it is ig-
nited will be comparatively small, and
will increase continually until the
whole charge is consumed. This ar
rangement starts the projectile gently
at first, and then imparts to it
gradually increased motion, and
equalizes the strain upon the walls Of
the guE. To accomplish this, the
powder, which is Of very fine grade, is
packed in the shell in a solid mass,
and then perforated with the central
hole, so that when it is ignited by a.
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 COM
paratively small, the volume Of gas
generated at first is correspondingly
small; but as the combustion pro-
ceeds the fire surface continually in
creases until the entire mass of pow
der is consumed. By properly pro-
portioning the size and shape of the
/ powder cake relatively to the projec-
tile nsed, and to the length Of the bar
rel through which it is to be driven,
the force exerted upon the projectile
by the powder may be regulated prac-
tically at will. and SO as to do themost
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"
GAIL that is necessary is to pierce the
solidly packed powder longltudinally
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 communi-
cate with each other This can be Sc
cured by the introduction into the
powder-cake perforations of number
OF tubes projecting rearwardly from
the cartridge head, so that they will
rest against the breech lock of the can
non, and leave a space between the
lock and the cartridge head. Thecon-
struction insures the instantaneous
and simultaneous ignition of the pow
der perforations at their head. 1t is
essential that the powder-cake be hard
and dense, so that the fire cannot pen
citrate into it, but will burn only on
it's surfaces-that is, as distinguished
/ j. j..