The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-06-12
MOST TERRIBLE OF GUNS.
VIII Sink Big Ships at Ten Miles
Range.
Hurts Five Hundred Pounds of Ex-
plosive with Deadly Accuracy-A
Terrible Weapon.

Maxim, the gun maker, and DR.. Schup-
phaus. the gunpowder expert, have just
invented a new cannon and torpedo pow
der which will knock all modern war
vessels to pieces like eggshells. This big
gun will throw huge cannon ball full OF
ex plosives ten miles, and where 1t strikes
1t will smash into kindling wood every
thing within hundreds of feet
In fact, this new terror doesn't even
have to hit warship to do this. LII the
shot lands in the water near by it will
sink the ship and stun everybody on
board from the force of the concussion.
The discovery is called "The Maxim
Schupphaus system of throwing aerial
torpedoes from guns by means OF spe-
cial powder which starts the projectile
with low pressure and increases its We
locity by keeping the pressures well up
throughout the whole length OF the gum"
Patents on the system have been taken
out in the United States and European
countries.
The special powder employed is almost
pure gun-cotton, compounded with such
. small per cent. OF nitrO-gl ycerlne as TO
possess none OF the disadvantages OF
nitro-glycerine powders, and preserved
from decomposition through a slight ad-
mixture OF urea. 1t is perfectly safe to
handle, and can be beaten with heavy
hammer on an anvil without exploding.
THE SECRET OF IL ALL.
The secret of its remarkable power lies
in a simple mathematical truth which no
one had previously thought OF. High
explosive powder is now loaded into can
non in the form of strips, small cuOes or
solid cylindrical rods from one-haif 10
three-fourths of an inch in diameter, sew
eral feet in length. and looking Ike
bundle of sticks of dark beeswax. When
the powder is touched OFT the ends and
circumference OF each rod OF powder lg-
mite instantaneously and burn toward the
center.
The volume of gases generated by COM
bustion grows constantly less, because
the burning surface Is less, and as IT Is
the volume of gas which gives velocity to
the proiectile shot from the gun, loss OF
velocity is the inevitable result. The
projectile does not go SO far as 1t would II
the pressure OF the gases had increased,
or had at least been maintained.
In each piece OF the Maxim-Schupp-
haus powder is a lot OF small holes run
ming through the entire length OF the rod.
When the powder Is igplted the flame
spreads instantaneOusly, not only over
the circumference of each rod, but
throughout the perforations as well.
These little holes are burnt out with
such rapidity that the difference in the
volume of explosive gases generated at
the beginning and at the end OF the bore
of the gun is about In the ratio OF sixteen
to one.
The projectile therefore leaves the gun
with terrific velocity, and each little hole
in the rods of the powder does its share
toward hurrying it on its mission OF de-
struction miles away from the scene.
With big gun the havoc wrought by
this new wonder of modern ordnance
would be incalculable. Five hundred
day into City Hall Park from some
point over beyond Coney Island would
wine out the entire structure.
HURLED IT EIGHT MILES.
This new death-dealing powder has
been fired in field-guns and in the heavy
coast-defense rifles at Sandy Hook with
surprising results. From ten-inch gun.
loaded with LIS pounds of this powder, a
projectile weighing 81 pounds was
thrown eight miles out to sea. The pres
sures on the rods of powder were more
uniform than any yet recorded. which is
most important point in deciding the
value of high Explosive powder. With
out uniform presSureS accuracy OF aim Is
impossible.
In order to observe the effect of the
combustion of the powder due to these
little holes bits of the powder were ex-
amined, which, having been purposely
fired in q gun of too small caliber, had
fallen into the sea aud subsequently been
washed ashore by the waves. The holes
in these pieces were about one-Quarter OF
an inch in diameter. showing that the
burning surface in each perforatlon had
already increased eight times.
To test the efficiency OF the system In
torpedo service the inventors constructed
gun on a new model. The gun was OF
four-inch caliber and threw projectiles
weighing fifty pounds, containing nitro
CelaIine or Maximlte, new, high ex-
plosive invented by Mr.. Maxim, nearly
as powerful as nitro-gelatine and safer to
handle. The damage done was confined
to sandbank in the neighborhood OF
their works, but even with SO small pro-
jectile sand was thrown as high as q
church steeple. The record OF pressures
and velocities was fully as good as that at
Sandy Hook.
To test by large gun the actual de-
etructive work of this new powder would
be impossible in civilized community.
The force of the high explosive thrown
would be loo great. 1t would be neces-
sary to withdraw to the great Sahara Des-
ert the wilds OF Siberia or some equally
unfrequented locality in order to see just
what would happen if 500 pounds of eX-
plosive should hit something. Even in
Sahara some wandering caravan or ex-
ploring party thirty or forty miles off
might be missing after the discharge.
TERRIBLE GUN.
The big gun which Messrs. Maxim and
Schupphaus propose to construct will be
twenty-inch gun especially adapted for
coast defense. This gun will show some
2 will ,Af hn htxsl
that is, composed of many pieces of steel
bound togetber-but will consist of a
single thin steel tube about thirty feet
long, with walls not over two inches in
thick ness, in marked contrast with the
mortars, whose walls are made eight or
ten inches thick in order to resist the
pressure of the discharge. The recoil of
the gun will be offset by hydraulic buff
fers underneath containing water and oil.
When the gun is fired some of this oil
and water will be displaced by the shock
and will rise into the side-chambers. The
entrance of tue water and oil into the
cham bers will SO compress the air in
them that on the cessation of the recoil
the air will force the water and oil back
into the buffers and the gun will again be
In position for firing. On account of the
simplicity of its construction aud the
lighlness of its walls this gun will not be
expensive to build.
A twenty-inch gun of this type. using
the new powder. could be planted at the
entrance OF New Y FORK HarbOr. either in
Fort Washington or Fort Wadsworth and
command the entire sea for radius OF
ten miles. So uniform are the pressures
and velocities obtained that wonderful
accuracy of fire is possible. 1t would only
be necessary to train the gun upon any
snip sighted by the range Under within
this radius TO insure its complete destruc-
ton.
The quantity of explosive thrown
To NJ r