The evening times., 1896-11-25
GUN WORK NEVER CEASES
Three Shifts Put on at the Navy
Yard Monday.
NEW SHE'LL EXPERIMENTS
This PrOjectile Is Not an ArinOr
Piercer, But Falls Gently Like
Soap Bubble-When 1t Hits,
Though, the Explosion Is Ter
rific-Successful Tests Made.

There have been siuce Monday three
shifts working Ia the gun shop at the Navy
Yard
They are employed on some special ex-
pcriiuruJ.I wurF ON one OF tine Dig tblFtc'h IL
inch laLi,es, and the rest OF the aNtra men
are distributed among eight machines IN
the gur- hop and the gun-carriage mechan-
ism shop. finishing up the work OH the
Iowa's arnmcut.
The work il hcinE done Cliietly and with
out any parade. bat the Iact that IT was
being done AT all aroused considerable
interest amung those who knew. aud has
given rise To the usual question OF in.-
pending war.
The officials at the Navy Yard say that
there is nothing remarkable in this par
tiCular bit of activity, and that IL has 10
International Significance.
WORK ON THE IOWA.
THE work on the Iowa's armament ~
said an officer this morning. lis being
pushed to make up for time lost i'll the
delivery Of certain forgings There was
some delay in placing the contracts, SO
that the contractors thems cl yes re-
hardly TO be blamed. But the yard was
little behiudIand with its portion OF
the vessels equipment. so the work is
being hurried now to bring us right up To
date.
1T is really an economy TO work the
shop at night for this reason. Eight hours
"A day is plenty long enough for man
10 work but when yoI have, IA 81 90 600.
invested in Il single machine, as is
case with some of our big lathcrs. II Is
losing money 10 have II lying idle sixteen
hours day when there is work waiting to
be done. We have arranged the machines,
which are on night work, 50 that they can
he Conncr'cd To dynamos On the electric
light CirCuIt, and run at VIII, without
keeping y steam on the wn"Ic plant.
The most interesting feature Of the night
work, however, L. in connection with an
experimental shell. which, II success
ful as the Navy Department has reason
10 hope. viii make decided change i'll
modern warfare
The new proIectilc is known as the Gath
man shell. 1t is already covered by pat
cnts. It's inventors have satisfied ne
Navy Department by practical experiments
that there is "a great deal Ia be hoped from
it, and they have consequently been granted
the use of certain machines in the gun shop
tupreplre the "Nperimcn'Sun q much larger
scale, sti!l at their own expense.
THE NEW SHELL.
The object of the new shell is to safely
fire an i'm umense charge of high explosive
from IN ordinary gun. The explosive shell
now in use in great guns by all the powers
OF the world is simply p0ndcrous mass Of
steel intended % pierce armUr and fortifi-
cations. anu Is dIltI IN II ttsSTuCllNe WbTk
by charge of twent v ur thirty pounds Of
ordinary powder. Nobody 50 far has sue
ceeded in utilizing any great quantity of
high explosive like gun cotton or nitr =
glycerina. i'll an ordinary shell, because
the shell charge was exploded by the shock
accom- pInyng the discharge Of the gun
Lieut. Zatlnsk'S pneumatic gun was the
nearest approach to success and in its own
field ha been very successful. Charges ofaS
much as Loco pounds of dyna mite and ex-
p.Osive gelatinc have been safely fired in
his projectiles, but the shot has Il compara-
lively short range and very low velocity,
more resembling mortar fire than that of a
rifle. In fact one ~ the air gun pro icCti!es
might almost be dudgcd by an active little
torpedo beat at range of 4 mile or two
Bat the new shell il u daring departure.
II i a mere frame of steel six feet long and
twelve inches in diameter, carrying 200 or
400 pounds II wet gun cotton. II is like Il
soap bubble inflated with hydrogen and de-
pending Tor the damage II viii do ON the
shock "A its explosion rather than on the
flying fra gments of the rhcll itself
The most ingenious feature OF the shell,
however. well as the most da ring. is that
it is open at the rear end. Such thin
shell of steel would be crushed by the iui-
mcnse gas pressure in Tie 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 eqUalIzcs the pressure insice
and outside the thin shell.
WILL NOT PIERCE ARMoR.
Even with this safety device the shell
viii be fired with a much lower velocity
than that of an armor piercing projectilc
II VIII not he 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 animmcnscitem
in using a great gun.
Three hundred pounds Of gun o ton cx-
ploded Gn he deck or against the side of
a modern tattleship would den oliSh her
II would also wreck an arm orcd coast de-
Censc turrct or how a vi ole fastion of a
InaSJnary fort to atoms 70 say Nothing of
killing every feing within a wide radius
by the shock Of lis explosion. The con
test between guns and armnr has gone on
for a long time, and such was the success
i'll pcrfecting armCr plates that mere armor
piercing pro. .CCtilCS Were in daf ger Of Ie-
ing discounted. Something radical had
TO he discovered on the offensive side of