Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1890-07-18
DYNAMITE PRoJECTILEs.
The Great Changes Their Use Would Enect
in Naval Warfare.

in Naval Warfare.
The cruiser Vesuvius now only lacks
the testing Of the horse power of her en-
gines to be accepted and placed in COM
mission, the recent trial of her three dy-
Mantle guns having proved wholly sat
isfactory. Indeed, n any thing were
wanting to show the terribly destructive
power of high explosives in warfare, the
result of the explosion of 500-pound
shells during the trial would have sup
piled it. The shell fired from the Vesu-
vius' battery each passed the mile line
and struck close to the buoy mark, and
by mechanical time fuse were allowed
to sink under the water before exploding.
A few seconds after the sea for hun
dred yards around was blown bodily into
the air, while one shell, which exploded
on the surface, seemed to open the sea
to its very bottom. Such an explosion
would mean the utter annihilation of a
ship in the vicinity of which it occurred,
and few such shots directed against a
feet at close range would reduce it to
silence in less time than the Roman
feet in 1858 silenced the Turkish squad
ron by the use of Paixhan shells. The
only drawback to the utility Of the
guns, in fact, is the shortness of their
range, which will prevent their use, un-
supported, against an antagonist armed
with high-powered guns throwing pro-
jectile four or five hundred miles.
H.. ~ Al a. r.. 4 H..
the recent trial, however, with the re-
ported tests in England of an applica-
tion by which dynamite shells can be
discharged with gun-powder from COM
mon artillery, renders it improbable
that the difficulty in firing the explo-
sive, save from pneumatic guns, will not
be overcome. Even if it is not for har.
Dor and coast defense pneumatic guns
will prove of immense value, and prom
ise to rev0lutionize the methods of mod
ern warfare as radically as did the in
PRODUCTION of Paixhan shells in 1S4S, or
that of ironclads few years later. When
attack is made by feet upon coast de-
Tense, the latter nearly always have a
decided advantage in that their location
in harbors or the entrances of rivers
necessitates the close approach of the
| feet to shore. In that event, dynamite
could be used; and while,. generally
speaking, vessel though struck by land
batteries can keep af1oat, as demon.
strated in the bombardment Of Alex
andria, a ship struck by dynamite
she'll would be blown out of water
Land defenses located in harbor where
they could not be successfully shelled
from the sea, would then, bo impregna
BILE, while those constructed on the
banks of the rivers, where the attacking
squadron must come within close range
would bar the progress Of any feet
What changes the use of dynamite
would effect in naval warfare, should its
discharge from ordinary cannon prove
| feasible, 1t would be difficult to deter
mine, though heavy armor would ba
rendered useless, fleets might be com
posed only of small unarmored cruisers
armed with dynamite guns. Numbers
would then be the prime factor in nava
warfare, as bulk is now, though as IL
many naval operations large force O
men is needed, it is not easy to predic
what the new conditions would be. Tha
the use of dynamite on land would pu
an end to war by making the slaughte
intolerable, may be questioned, no i'm
provement in the machinery of war hav
ing had the effect to stop hostility be
tween peoples; but it would probably d,
away with the use of Notifications. Tn,
Franco Prussian and the Russo-Turkisl
wars so demonstrated the value of in
trenchments that Germany and Franc,
have constructed them on large scal
with view to future possibilities, bu
they have hardly been completed befor
melinite and kindred explosives hav
rendered them ineffective. And fore
casts of the results of the use of dyna
mite in warfare, however, are liable t.
correction, but it may be set down a
once that it will not prevent war, an,
that the era of universal peace will no
come through the discovery of new in
struments of death. Chicago Journal.