The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-19
NEW WAR PRoJEcTmE.
Charge of High Explosive to BE
Fired From an Ordinary Gun.

Fired From an Ordinary Gun.
Washington Special St Louis Globe-
Democrat.
There have been since Monday three
shifts working in the gunshop at the
navy yard. They are employed on some
special experimental work on one of the
big 1S-inch lathes. and the rest of the ex-
ira men are distributed among eight ma
chimes in the gunshop and the gun car
riage mechanism shop, finishing on the
work on the Iowa's armament. The work
is being done quietly and without any
parade, but the fact that it was being
done at all aroused considerable interest
among those who knew, and has given
rise to the usual question of impending
war. The officials at the navy yard say
that there is nothing remarkable in this
particular bit of activity and that It has
no international significance
The work on the Iowa's armament"
said an officer this morning; sis being
pushed to make up for time lost in the
delivery of certain forgings. There was
some delay iii placing the contracts, so
that the contractors themselves are hard
ly to be blamed. But the yard was a
little behind with it's portion of the YES
ried now to bring US right up to date"
The most interesting feature of the
night work, however, is in connection
with an experimental shell, which, if as
successful as the navy department has
reason to hope, will make a decided
change in modern warfare The new.
proJectlle is known as the Gathman shell
IL Is already covered with patents. Its
inventors have satisfied the navy DEPART
mene by practical experiments that there
Is q great deal to be hoped from it, and
they nave consequently been granted the
use OIL certain machines in the gun shop
70 prepare the experiments on a much
larger scale, still at their own exnense
Inc object of the new shell is to safely
llre an immense charge of high explosive
from an ordinary gun. The explosive
smell now in use in great guns by all the
powers OF the world is simply a ponderous
mass OF steel intended TO pierce armor
ana fortlflcations, and is aided in it's de-
structlVe work by charge of twenty or
thirty pounds Of ordinary powder. No
oody, so far, has succeeded in utilizing
any great quantity of high explosive like
gun cotton or nitro-glycerine in an or
binary shell, because the shell charge was
exploded by the shock accompanying the
discharge of the gun.
But the new she'll is a daring departure.
lt is mere frame of steel six feet long
and twelve inches in diamter, CARRYING
800 or 400 pounds of wet gun cotton. 1t is
like soap bubble inflated with hydrogen.
and depending for the damage it will do
on the shock of its explosion rather than
the flying fragments of the shell itself.
The most ingenious feature of the she'll
however, as well as the most daring, is
that 1t is open at the rear end. Such a
thin shell of steel would be crushed By
the immense gas pressure in the chamber
of the gun. But the inventor has fitted
a piston arrangement into the open rear
end This is showed up by the expansion
of the firing charge, and equalizes the
pressure inside and outside the thin shell.
Even with this safety device, the shell
will be fired with much lower velocity
than that of an armor-piercing projectile.
1t will not be expected to pierce armor
plates at all, only to reach its mark, after
which the explosion will do the rest. This,
of course, means economy in the fighting
charge of powder, which is an immense
item in using a great gun.
Three hundred pounds of gun cotton ex-
ploded on the deck or against the side of
modern battle ship would demolish her.
1t would also wreck an armored coast
defense turret or blow a whole bastion of
a masonry fort to atoms, to say nothing
of killing every being within a wide radius
by the shock of its explosion.