Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-09-24
A Shell Shaft RS Four and a-Half
Inch Armor-Plate into
Atoms.
The Missile is Picked Up Eight
Hundred Yards Beyond the
Target.
A Costly Experiment by the Ord
nance Department, but with
Satisfactory Results.

The l2-inch breech loading cast-iron and
steel hooped sea-coast mortar and one of
the new steel shells, made at the Bethle-
hem steel works at Bethlehem, Pa. were
tested few days since at Sandy Hook.
The mortar was manufactured by the
Builder iron foundry, of Providence. 1t
weighs 1214 tons and Is 10 feet 9 inches
long. 1t was mounted on an Easton and
Anderson proof carriage.
The hollow shell, 2 feet 9 inches long,
was made of the very best steel. 1t
weighed $685. pounds, and its power re-
sistance was 100000 pounds to the square
inch. In actual warfare the she'll must be
filed with twenty pounds Of powder to
make it more. destructive. The powder
used was the sphere hexagonal Dupont
make, the same which was tested a week
ago in the big ~ inch rife gun.
TIE target consisted of steel armor
plate 10 feet long. feet wide and Al
inches thick, or one inch heavier than the
average armor plates on the deck of any
man of-war afoat. The ordnance de-
partment had required this additional
| thickness of one extra inch to give the
| shell conclusive test. The distance be-
| tween the target ana the muzzle of the gun
was $50 feet,
| The armor plate was placed In reclln-
| ing position on heavy supporting cross
beams, backed by thick sand wall. Its
surface was covered with planks fastended
to the plate with iron screws.
Capt. Heath, assisted by Lleuts. Gibson
and Lissaok, gave orders at 2 P. m, to
| load this formidable engine of war. The
steel sheel, suspended by derrick was
easily placed into the iron monster. Only
| ffty-one pounds of powder instead OF the
full charge of eighty pounds were used, the
testing officers considering the amount
sufficient.
After the breach block was screwed fast
an ordinary friction primer was inserted
and, when all the men were under cover,
Capt, Heath gave the word to fire. The
primes, however, missed and second
primer was at once inserted.
This time at the word fire tremend
Gus defamation followed. 1t did not re-
semble the roar of the 10 or II inch guns,
which comes in successive vibrations and
makes the earth tremble It was more
like the burst of shot, sharp report that
in its intensity deafened the bystanders
for a moment Enormous volumes Of
smoke lowered around the gun for several
seconds, while pieces of iron and wood
flew in great confusion through the air.
| When the smoke had lifted the mortar re-
manned on its carriage as if nothing had
happened.
PRETTY DESTRUCTIVE SHOT.
Every body ran to the target. 1t was IN
ruins. The shell had struck the 43lnch
armor- plate at the right upper corner and
had carried away one-eight of it. The
rest of the armor-table showed numerous
cracks, some of them fve-eights of an
inch wide. Fragments Of steel some
weighing as much as fifty pounds, were
| found ia the neighborhood of the target at
| distances varying from five to forty yards,
while pieces of wood had even been thrown
as far as $50 yards. The destruction was
complete.
The shell, however, could not be found,
some of the spectators even looked for 1t
in the sand wal! behind the target Capt
| Heath knew better and he at once sent a
platoon of soldiers and "art some 800
yards away, where the missile was found
| buried in the sand.
When it was brought back for inspec-
ton the pointed top was somewhat iatten-
! ed and big hole, measuring about one
foot and a half in length and four inches
in width, was torn out Of 1t. The fracture
showed the she'll was perfectly solid at the
point. while in the middle the metal ap-
peared little brittle Whether the dem
siiy of the shell was uneven is difficult to
say, though the cross crack in the middle
indicated this. The shell was In txcellent
shape after it had been fired, and proved
beyond peradventure that had it fallen on
the deck of an ironclad it would not only
have killed many of the crew when it ex
ploded, but would also have demolished
the deck armor and perhaps finally gone
through to the keel.
AvELoC1TY OF 032 FEET.
The initial velocity of the shell was $50
feet per second. No pressure gauge was
inserted, but it is improbable the actual
pressure was more thar % 900 pounds to
the square inch at the breech of TIE NOR
tar. The result was so satisfactory that
there was no necessity for firing another
shot.