Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-26
NEvER-FAillNG FUSE.

Mechanical Apparatus That Acts only
After Certain Distance Is Trsversed-
Gunpowder has made the little fight
ing man Is good as the big man. 1t
seems rs though the perfection OF
cheap mechanical firearms will soon
render the little nation the equal of the
bic nation in the matter of defense at
least 1t has generally been recognized
among military authorities that the
next great advance in their art must
come in the artillery branch Of the
service The central-iirc cartridges,
repeating rifles, te'e,copic and gradu.
ated sights have brought the small arms
nearly up to their highest point of eff
ficiercy. With the artillery accuracy
of range for solid shot and percus-
sion shells, along with rapidly of
firing. have also been acquired. These
are of the greatest benefit to an attack
ing party who have to batter down
cities and Notifications, but they are
of little use in defense against light.
rapidly-moving batteries and masses of
infantry Solid shot and percussion
shell 90 hurting over their heads or
pillow up the ground. Only when "A
lucky shot dismountS a gun or cyplodes
a magazine is any real execution done.
Shrapnel is the most effective missile
for the destruction of mcr- With
shrapnel the great difficulty heretofore
has been the inaccuracy of the fuse.
The ordinary powder fuse is a time fuse.
and even though the utmost care be
taken in its construction, lack of homo
gcneity in material, dampness. etc, will
cause ii 10 vary in time of burning.
When to this is added variations in the
time Of flight of the projectile due 10
variations in the quality and amount
of powder used behind IT, there is an ac-
cumulation of variable conditions that
renders the probability of the shrapnel' 5
explosion any where within i mile of
the desired point inconsiderable. Aper-
feet fuse must. then. be- mechanical
one which will be accurate in its work
irg and not affected by age and moisture
as the chemical fuse is. Ii should also
be a distance-fusc, which will act at the
expiration of a certain distance instead
of a certain time Thus the disturbing
effect of variations in the charge and
the dangers of premature explosion.
along with all the other sources Of in
accuracy are removed.
For twelve years the Berdan grange
finder" has been in use by all Govern
ments. Ii is an arrangement of two
telescopes which, Oh the principle of a
simple prob, m in triangulation tells
the distance of any object within SIX
miles, on a graduated scale. But the
usefulness of the range-finder has been
restricted in cases where shrapnei was
to he fired. because of the inaccuracy
OF the fuse. There was little use in an
officers being able to tell that a battery
wheeling into line i'm front of his posi-
ton was Just 1880 feet away if he
could not depend on the fuses to eX
plode his shrapnel within 1000 feet of
the BATTERY. As the result of six or
seven years work, there has been per-
fcctcd within the last few months a me-
chancal distance-fuse which is compact
in form, cheap and accurate. The COM
bination of this with the range-findcr
VII render the lot of the attacking
party any thing but a happy ono. This
compact and simple little piece of
mechanism swings in a little cavity in
the nose of the she'll and does not turn.
The shell receives twist by the riiling
of the gun and makes just so many
turns for every thousand feet traYcrsed.
no matter what its velocity is. By
means of a neat little train of an end
less screw working in a gear-whecl.
which is also an endless screw and turns
a third Lst.ar. the motion of the she'll is
reduced a thousand times before it
reaches this last gear When the third
gear has been turned certain distance,
determined by properly setting it, a
spring is released and the shrapnel
is exploded. scattering thousand
bullets about the ncighborhood A per-
cusSion cap placed in the nose of the
she'll causes il Ia explode if it hits any
thing in its flight. In practice the fuse
is found 10 work with great accuracy
and the second shot has generally blown
the target entirely to pieces. Three
minutes are generally allowed for bat
terry to swing into line and unlimber.
This gives the defenders time to get
their range and fire three shots. In
practice the first shot has never failed so
to sweep the spot where the supposed
battery was that the other two were I'M
necessary. The Turks are now manu-
featuring these fuses by the thousand.
and many other governments. especially
the smaller ones. are clamoring for
them Ii is claimed that the combina-
ton of these with the range-finders will
give the defending party such an advan-
tagc that nations will let one another
alone. or At least think twice before they
90 forth conquering and to conquer. The
Russian Minister of War. when model
of the apparatus was shown, expressed
his fears that il would be impossible TO
recruit his army if such deadly accuracy
was possible The old officers might
stay. but the young men would seek
some less certain path TO death. The
willy Turk promises 10 snap his finger
in the face of Europe and settle the
Eastern question all by himself if
wear leisure 20 introduce this inven-
ton is given.-N T. Tribune.