Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-09-26
A Shell Skaters a Four and a Half
Inch Armor- Plate into
Atoms.
The Missile is Picked Up Eight
Hundred Yards Beyond the
Target.
4 Costly Experiment by the Ord
nance Department, but with
satisfactory Results.

The Pinch breech loading cast-iron and
/ steel-hooped sea-coast mortar and one Of
the new steel shells. made az the Bethle-
| hem steel works at Bethlehem, Pa. were
tested few days since at Sandy Hook.
TIE mortar was manufactured by the
| Builders iron foundry, Of Providence. II
weighs 1874 tons and Is 10 feet inches
! long, Ii was mounted on an Easton and
Anderson proof carriage.
The hollow shell, 2 feet inches long,
was made Of the very best steel. 1t
weighed 628l5 pounds, and Its power re-
sistanee was l40,0 600 pounds to the squac'
inca. In actual warfare the shell must be
filed with twenty pounds Of powder to
make 1t more destructive. The powder
used was the sphere hexagonal Dupont
make, the same which was tested a week
ago in the big 2 inch rifle gun.
TIE target consisted Of a 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 ahoat The ordnance de-
partment had required this additional
thickness of one extra inch to give the
she'll Il conclusive test The distance be-
tween the target and the muzzIe tthe gun
was $50 feet.
The armoa plate was placed in a reein-
ing position ON heavy supporting cross
beams, backed by thick sand wall Its
surface was covered with planks fastended
to he plate with iron screws.
Capt Heath, assisted hy lIeuts Gibson
and lsissaCk, gave orders at 2 p. m, to
load this formidable engine Of war. The
steel sheet suspended by a derrick was
easily placed into the iron monster, Only
hfty-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
au ordinary friction primer was inserted
and, when all the men were under cover
Capt Heath gave the word 20 FIRE. The
primes, however, missed and second
primer was at once inserted
This time at the word fire a tremend-
GUS defamation followed. It did not re-
semble the roar of the 10 or II inch guns.
which comes in successive vibrations and
makes The earth tremble. 1t was more
like TIE burst of a shot, sharp report chat
in its intensity deatenad the bystanders
Il
smoke lowered around the gun for several
seconds, while pieces of iron and wood
few in great confusion through the air
When the smoke had lifted the mortar re-
manned on its carriage as II nothing had
happened.
A PRETTY DESTRUCTIVE SHOT.
Every body ran 10 the target, 1t was in
ruins. The she'll had struck the 4l8inch
armor plate at the right upper corner and
bad carried away one.elght OF it. The
rest of the armor.table showed numerous
cracks, some of them fvs.eights of an
inch wide Fragments Of steel some
weighing as much as fifty pounds, We're
found in 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 loo d for ii
in the sand wall behind the tar Capt
Heath knew better and he at once sent n
platoon Of soldiers and a cart some 800
Yards away, where the missile was found
buried in the sand
When 1t was brought back for inspec-
ion the pointed top was somewhat tlatten-
I'd and big hole. measuring about one
foot and half in length and four inches
in width, was torn out of IL, The fracture
showed the shell was perfectly solid at the
point. while in the middle the metal app
peared q lIttIe brittle Whether the dem
sity of the she'll was Uneven is difficult to
say, though the cross crack in the middle
indicated this The she'll was in excellent
shane after il had been fired. and proved