Owingsville outlook., 1896-12-31

owned by any other government in
the wnrld. The general principle
of the mechanism u that of "A gi-
gautic steel ~rc- saw. The gun il
siung from one end, and counter
weights from the other. When the
weights are released they sink and
throw the gun into firing position
above the embankment. The recoil
of discharge throws the gun back
out of sight, where it is loaded un-
der shelter.
Then besides these guns on the
Virginia shore, old Fort Washing
ton, on the Maryland side, which
up to few years ago could have
been Knocked To pieces by mod
crn fleet in half dozen shots, now
presents as formidable ii front as
any defensive work Of the kind in
the possession of Great Britain.
The picturesque old fort still
stands with its empty casematcs
and a few rows of antiquatcd guns
lying dismantlcd on the wharf But
two hundred yards further up
stream there is stretch of nice
green turf running gently up from
the waters edge To the top of the
hill, and behind that innocent grass
slope lies a battery of big modern
rifles that could sink IA baitlcship
before she could get within four
miles of the old fort. The battery
on the Virginia side will also be
hidden behind an unpretcntious
grass plot, but underneath that
grass plot thousands of barrels Of
cement are being utilized in build
ing up solid easements sixty to
seventy feet in depth. The details
of the work are being kept secret
SO as to prevent them from falling
into the hands of any foreign pow
cr.
At the navy yard in this city the
gun shops have been working night
and day with three shifts of men
for month. When the extra shifts
were placed at work the middle of
November, they were directed at
finishing up the guns needed for
the armament of the battleship
Iowa, which are now almost ready
for mounting.
Besides this work the Navy De-
partment has been making "a num-
ber Of experiments on Il new pro
iectile, known as the Gathman
shell. The object of this new shell
is to safely fire an immense charge
of high explosive from an ordinary
gun. The explosive shell in use by
the great powers of Europe is SIM
ply a mass of steel intended to
pierce armor and Notifications, and
is aided in its destructive work by
charge of twenty or thirty pounds
of ordinary powder. No one here
tOfore has succeeded in utilizing a
quantity of high explosive, like
gun cotton or nitroglyccrine, in an
ordinary shell, because the charge
would be exploded by the shock
accompanying the discharge of the
gun. But the Gathman shell is a
new departure. Instead of being
an almost solid mass of steel, it is
a mere frame 6 feet long and - in
chos in diameter, carrying 800 to
90 pounds of wet guncotton. 1t
epends for the damage it will dc
.l the shock of the explosion rath-
than on the flying fragments of
,he shell itself.
/ The greatest feature Of this shell
! is that it is open at the rear end,
; being fitted with a piston arrange
lent, which is showed up by the
expansion of the firing charge and
oqualizing the pressure inside and
Inside the thin shell of steel. The
all will not be expected to pierce
ar,1or plates at all, but simply to
h the mark it is aimed at, af-
lrr which the explosion will do the
rest. For 300 pounds of guncottOn
exploded on the deck or against
the side of a modern battle ship
would demolish her. 1t would also
wreck an armored coast defense
turret or blow a whole bastion OF
masonry fort to atoms, to say moth
ing of killing every being within a
wide radius by the shock of the ex.
plosion. In the contest which has
been going on for long time be-
tween guns and armor the Navy
Department believes that in its new
shell it has made the greatest dis,
covery of all in favor of the guns