The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-10-10
sMoKELEss POWDERS
Rapidly Coming Into Use Both for
Small Arms and Artillery,


While the tremendous charges of great
bodies of cavalry undoubtedly formed a
leading feature OF the lata German manmu-
vres, suggesting how much is expected OF
mounted troops in the future, yet upon thu
whole the most important result effected
was the demonstration OF the great eifec'
tiveness of the so-called smokeless and nose
less powder, II is not too much to say that
the final man1uvres at Hanover, In which
the Tenth corps, using smokeleSs cartridges
defeated the Seventh corps provided with
the ordinary black powder shows that the
new compound is necessity for warfare
hereafter. II was found that the Tenth
corps almost held the SevSnta at Its mercy
since II @ Iuld maneuvre alike in front and
ON the flank Of its opponent without allow
ing the latter to properly judge OF the hiring
distances from sound or smoke both beng
so slight,
The first general information obtained in
regard TO the smokeles powders was in con-
nec,ion with the I.ebel rifle, the new small
calibre r, psating ~ m of the French, which
created such an Ncitement few years ago,
and practically dictated rccon ,truction to
small arms throughout EUROPE. AT that
time neither tho Austrian Mannlicher ride
nor the German repeater used smokeless
powder. 1t is under, TODD of course, that
the words "sinokeless' and "noiSeless' are
used in comparative sense, as there Is some
smoke and some noise in Nearly all these
powders. 1t has been said, however that
the report Of single Lsbel riffs cannot be
heard at dist ,Ice If more than twenty OF
thirty yards, that it may be said to make no
smoke and that tn recoil is OF
no consequence whatever. lhe pow,
der is sail to bo secret compound
of gun cotton AID c'llodon, and its
exact composii n is p rhaps the only secret
now remaining in regard to the Lebel rifle.
The Germans began with the use OF the Dut-
tinhofer seml-sniokeless powder and have
also made limitations of the Freuca powder as
nearly as ii can DO found out. The Russians
have tried new powder, made by the Och
tenski factory, in imitation OF the Duttin-
hofer, aud its manufactures insist that it is
superior to the latter in ballistic properties;
that it has a little higher initial velocity.
weight for wei hit with less pressure on the
bore. This may be the reason why the Rus
slams have come to the use OF the small cal
ibre, which could only have the required
efficiency with one of t'e new compounds,
as otherwise the bore would foul too rap
idly.
The English also have obtainsd smoke
less and noiseless powder, invented by the
wellknown artilleriss Capt. Noble of the
Elswick works, a neutrality-suspicious..
A British military authority says that its
use has almost been decided upon, both for
small arms and Tor machine ana qulck-nrlnS
guns 1t sps ks of the pJwder as "a curious
grayish- 10 king material, in long threads or
whipcord-like FORM presumably from the
shapei it assumes under hydraulic pressure.
Its action is most startling AT
300 yards range not sound is
heard when a volley is fired with it.
and only faint haze arises which is almost
imperceptible, while shower of bullets
is seen to fall upon the targets, an effect
produced seemingly without a cause" Care.
sul experiments will be made with it at
| Lydd. In their quick firing guns, the
British at Shoeburyness have use the Chill
worth smokeless powder with great
effect. obtaining very high initial
velocity. In rapid-fire cannon, as in
magazine small arms the value of smokeless
powders is obvious because the peculiar ad-
vautages of these weapons might otherwi 9
be largely counierbalanced by smoke. Of
all the new powders Schultze's is perhaps
the best known. Nearly, or quite all, APP
pear to depend on the union of nj rous
compounds of some sort with other sub
stances. Some will n It keep in all climates,
and some will give out an uncomfortable
odor Their introduction will perhaps call
for some new studies in t,ctics, as certain
movements now depending on the cover of
smoke cannot rely hereafter on this pro-
| tecting mantle. But just at present the
| tactic Il considerations seem to be less i'm
portant to our country than the procuring
| of the powde as efficient as the new ones
which are finding favor in Europe