The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-20
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Wars Most Fearful Weapon.
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Special to the Globe.
LONDON, Sept. 18.-Hudson Maxim
has made it possible for every vessel
to carry around with it an equipment
of submarine mines. He has put it in
the power of every fort to be able to
shoot these submarine mines at any
vessel His newest shell, if exploded
upon the deck or within the interior of
the Blake, the big English warship
that went to America in 1898, would
destroy that craft in five seconds.
These fearful weapons of war con-
sist of shells which penetrate the sides
of vessels before bursting, instead of
bursting at the moment of contact as
has generally been the case. The two
explosives are known as melin1te ano
maXimite. and the dreadful havoc they
may create has been told in the accom-
panving statement, which, in accord
ance with his ordinary custom of deal
ing with newspapers, Mr. Maxim die
tated to a stenographer and then sign
ed. Mr. Maxim also gave me his pho-
toeranh as the representative of the
Leslie syndicate. and I forward 1t to
YOU together with this statement;
There can be no doubt as to the
frightful slaughter that would be eff
fected by melinite, for one smell purst-
ing inside a cruiser would destroy the
shin. But until chemists can invent
high explosive that will penetrate ar
NOR we fear the navy will have TO
continue to use powder as an explo-
sive: for, owing to its slow burning
quantities, the she'll gets inside the ship
before it bursts. At the same time, If
chemists can discover a high eXpio-
sive. non-explosivce, and a sale explo-
sive-which is a contradiction Of terms
then we shall all be made happy. I
shall be glad to explain high eXplo-
sive shell, as we'll as high explosives,
which will penetrate armor, and which
will not explode until after the shell
has passed through the armor.
Now, in the first place, wet COM
pressed gun cotton is very powerful
high explosive, as powerful as No. 1
dynamite. This explosive can be shot
through arnlor of any thickness which
the projectile is capable of penetrat-
ing and without exploding. There is
also another high explosive known as
maximite invented by ne-United
States patent No. 544924-which is con-
siderably more powerful than wet gun
cotton, weight for weight, as well as
having a specific gravity about three
tenths higher than wet gun cotton,
| which gives 1t much higher force
than gun cotton per unit of volume.
"Maximite is the title which was first
applied by me to this explosive, which
| is prepared as follows: A nitrogelatine
! is prepared consisting of so to So per
cent nitroglycerine, and 15 to 20 per
| cent of soluble pyroxylin. This is
frozen to render it stiff, and then re-
duced to sawdust by a gang of saws.
About rs to so parts of this explosive
! sawdust is mixed and thoroughly in
| corporated with about 20 to rs parts of
| finely pulped tri-nitro- cellulose, the
whole being saturated with water. The
object of the fibrous tri-nitro-cellulose
| is to absorb and hold water, and thus
lessen the sensitfveness of the COM
pound. The compound may be packed
| into shells to density of about IA,
| holding about Is per cent of water, the
excess of water being poured off. Pro-
| jectiles filed with maximite may be
| thrown from ordnance at service
velocities with perfect safety, and fired
| through armor without exploding until
| it has passed entirely through, to be