The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-09-29
TERRIBLE WAR ENGINES.
NEW GUNS TO THROW DYNAMITE
CONSTRUCTED.
wonderful Results shown In the Tests
Made by Uncle sam Evolution
and Success.

WASHINGTON, Sept. l9,-The War
Department has been notified by
Manager Phipps, president of the
Ordinance Board which conducted the
recent tests of the dynamite gun bat
teries at Sandy Hook, N. Y, that the
guns worked well and that all the re-
uuirements of the contract had been
met. Consequently the battery and
plant will be accepted and the Pneu-
matte Dynamite Company will be paid
S16O 900 for one S-inch and two l5.inch
guns. with all of the boilers, COM
pressers and machinery, the shells used
in the test and ten reserve projectiles
with each gun. This experiment hav-
ing resulted we'll work will be pushed
on the dynamite gun battery for San
Francisco hlrbor.
During the testing of the guns, as u
last experiment a l5-inch full.caliber
projectile, containing 800 pounds of
nitrogelatin, one of the strongest of ex-
plosives, and weighing 1850 pounds, W as
fired 24O0 yards, or about one and half
miles, to sea, from pneumatic gun at
Sandy Hook. The cap in the end of the
proiectile had been set to explode two
seconds after the cartridge struck the
water, and at that time 1t was figured
that the gigantic affair would sink at
least lS feet from the surface. For a
nome mt after n thin stream of spray
told the watchers at Sandy Hook that
the projectile had struck the water
there was dead silence.
Then a low roar could be heard, and a
second later the earth fairly trembled,
as the army experts and the men who
have spent nearly a million dollars in
perfecting the pneumatic gun saw full
acre OF water rise in solid column to a
height estimated at anywhere from 100
to 800 feet. and then slowly fall back
again. For three minutes after the ex-
plosion the air over the spot where the
proiectile struck was filled with spray,
and ten minutes after the haze had dis.
appeared the water for half mile
around was seething mass OF foam.
The experiment was only one of five,
made before the officers of the Board of
Ordnance and the Board of Fortifica-
tions of the United States army, but it
was the most important one; IN fact 1t
was the most important experiment of
its kind ever attempted in this country.
No one else has ever dared to attempt
to explode 500 pounds of dynamite,
either from "a gun or in any other way,
and tue experiment marks the begin
ming of a new era i'll the history OF
explosives.
The idea of the pneumatic gun
originated some twelve or fourteen
years ago, and from the start nothing
has been spared to make the invention
success. Lieutenant Zaliuski was the
first to design the gun. and he formed n
company which spent hundreds of
dollars trying to perfect it.
Four or five years ago the gun was so
near completion that contract was
made with the Government to put three
of them at Sandy Hook. For the past
few weeks experiments have been going
on before the United 5 ates army
officers.
The wonderful mechanism OF the pneu-
matte guns fairly delighted the scientific
men. Only two OF the three were used,
Dut DOM Woikeu WIN WoIucilui pre-
csion. The guns a'e worked entirely
by electricity, and rs he name implies
the power to send the enormous pro-
jectiles is gained from compressed air
The guns and gun carriages weigh to-
gether iorty-two tons, and are set on q
depressed foundation. Beside the CUR
is "a little stand on which the man who
works the weapon stands. BY means o.
two cranks and lever he gains com
plete control OF the enormous mass o
iron and steel, and with one twist OF ont
of the former can send the entire gun
carriage and ALL noiselessIy anC
smoothly around complete circle il
fifty-two seconds. Another crank will
set the gun proper at any angle, while ;
twist OF the lever releases the compressed
air and sends the projectile flying int