The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-11-12
GOVERNMENT POWDER.
emokeless Nxplosive for the Navy
Made at Newport
AefetOfore It Was Purchased from
Germany snd England = Some
Points Of Powder
Making.

The navy has started in to make itA
own smokeless powder. For some years
past the government explosives factory
at Newport has been experimenting in
this direction, but only recently have
satisfactory results been obtained.
The next batch distributed by the
bureau of ordnance for use in small
arms will be homemade. Pretty soon
the stuff will be provided for all cali
bers. from the gigantic 13-inch rifled
guns for the new battle ships down to
the machine guns that throw continu-
ous showers of bullets, and the newly
adopted magazine rifles. Hitherto the
smokeless powders employed by the
navy have been purchased from private
manufacturers in Germany and Eng
land.
The Newport works are nearly ready
now to turn out smokeless powder for
all calibers. They will be pure gun
cotton powders, and all of them will
be of the same composition, merely DIFF
fering in the size Of the grains"
But the grains are not grains real
ly; they are long and narrow strips,
looking like nothing so much as thin
ribbons Of the finest. kind of glue. No
person not On expert would for . mo-
ment imagine that they were gunpow-
der. .
The strips are Of varying sizes for
guns Of different calibers, bsing in each
case about as long as the powder cham
ber. They are done up in fagots all
ready to be thrust into the gun.
For example, for sixspounder the
powder strips are six inches long and
one inch wide; they are thinner than
note paper. For small arms the strips
are chopped into little pieces tosload the
cartridges.
The basis Of all amokeless powder u
gun cotton dissolved in nitric acid, the
latter element being afterward fslim-
mated. Smoke slgniHes imperfect
burning.
So, IN order to make q smokeless
powder, 1t Is merely necessary that it
shall be 50 compounded that the entire
mass shall be transformed into gas,
leaving no ash OF residue. With this
result the form Of the grains is impor-
tant, and accordingly one finds these
powders in q great variety Of queer
shapes. For instances, the famous
French "poudre B" looks like yellow
ish brown paper. Anybody would mis-
take 1t for ordinary wrapping paper,
but If you take a scrap of it and touch
It with a match It flares up brilliantly
and is gone in an instant, with no
trace of ash or smoke.
The Germans make their smokeless
powders in rolls like maps. The rolls
are sliced crosswise into long sticks,
which are packed in bundles like tooth
picks for machine gums, while for
small arms the sticks are chopped into
little cubes.
The English ''cordite" resembles
nothing SO much as thick strings o1
black rubber. 1t assumes this shape
through having been forced through q
colander in semi-liquid state.
| Another French smokeless powder il
30 much like old-fashioned molassef
candy that one is tempted to eat it,
One Of the best known smokeless sport
ing powders has the appearance Of
gravel.
The United States army is still ex-
perimenting with smokeleas powders
For its small arms it is now. buying
from . private concern q powder that
comes in the shape Of little brown
hexagons.-N. Y. Journal.
/