El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-02-27
A TERRIBLE MISSILE.
Nav Be Used When Arbitration
Fails.
A TERRIFIC WAR PROJECTILE.
Torpedoes That Would Rend Gibraltar and
Blow Up a War Vessel Like a Feather.
The New Gathmann Shell Has Produced
a Sensation.

The New Gathmann Shell Has Produced
| Sensation.
! WASHINGTON, Feb. - Special =
| While ministers of foreign affairs and sen
| ators are talking about general arbitration
and the preachers and good people are
looking to the early coming of the day of
| universal peace, the inventors and hard
| headed and perhaps hard hearted men OF
| affairs go on preparing for war as II
| war were the chief end of man. An IN
| genious Chicago man named Gathmann
| has Just had tested at Indian Head, on the
| Potomac, IL few miles below the national
| capital a new proiectilc which promises to
| revolutioniZe naval warfare and coast de-
| Tense. The navy department people are
wild with delight over it, and the naval
| attaches of foreign governments are IN
| flutter of excitement, each being anxious
| to make the earliest report to his govern
| ment concerning this wonderful American
| invention.
Properties of Gun Cotton.
| Leaving out a lot of technicalities, which
do not understand worry well and which
! l am sure my readers would not wish to
| be bothered with, this new prOjcctilc is a
| thin shell of steel which contains a charge
| of 400 pounds of wet gun cotton. The
| wonder is that so thin shell of steel,
! amounting to no more than two or three
| inches in thickness, will hold such an enor-
| nous quantity of the high explosive.
| But carefully note the description and you
! will see why. First, there is n fuse which
| is so arranged that it burns slowly and at
| u given moment cXplodcs shell OF powder
| and illuminate of mercury. The gases pro-
| duced thereby surround the shell and pro-
| tect it, The explosion of this shell gives
motion to the projectile without explod-
| ing the gun cotton with which the latter
| is loaded. IN fact, the gun cotton cannot
be exploded till the projectile strikes. AS
| long as it is in the gun or flying through
| space with no greater resistance than that
| furnished by the atmosphere, 1t cannot
| explode Wet gun cotton, you may or may
| not know. can be handled with impunity.
1t can only be exploded by very sharp de-
| tonation. Common powder does not ex-
| plode quickly enough to set it off. At the
| mills where it is made the workmen saw
| it up into sections with n band saw. The
| refuse pieces they throw into the fire and
| burn. Yet the explosion of couple OF
| ounces of it would send the whole factory
| to kingdom come.
The momentum given to the unexploded
| projectile is sufficient to carry it six or
| eight miles Whenever it strikes an object,
no matter what that object is, be it IL ship,
| a spar, fort or the water, the explosion
! comes This is brought about by Il second
| airy shell which is attached to the rear end
of the projectile. 1t contains gun cotton
and other explosives The impact of strk
ing causes all the explosives in this second
ary shell to rush to the forward end, much
as all the people in a railway car are
thrown to the front door when there is n
collision. The explosion of the secondary
| shell sets off the 400 pounds of gun cotton
| in the main projectile. Then what hap
pens?
Terrific Conclusion.
| no of nf
these explosions would be total annihild
| ton of any ship struck by the projectile.
If one of these shells strikes the side of the
| largest warship afloat, the vessel will be
lifted right out of the water and thrown
back into the sea broken all to pieces. If
| it alights upon the deck, it would break
| the ship into fragments. If it hits so much
as mast or spar or bOwsprit or anchor
chain, it would mean the same. If it
strikes the water within 200 or 300 feet of
Il ship, every life on board would be lost in
! the conclusion. If the ship We're not torn
| to pieces, all the castings in her would be
broken, all her machinery rendered useless.
| Although the solid shots fired from our
| - and Is inch rifled guns are supposed to
| have Il range of six or eight miles, actually
their effective range is much less. If fired
at an enemy's vessel, a mile is great u
distance would be economical. Any
thing beyond this would be Il simple waste
of ammunition. The vulnerable part of
modern vessel is about 80 feet perpen-
| dicularly and 100 feet in length, where the
machinery This is the target at which
| a solid shot must be fired, the target which
| it must hit if anything is to be accomplish
ed.
The Gathmann she'll, on the other hand,
is an aerial torpedo, and it is deadly if it
strikes any part of the ship, any of its rig
ging or the water anywhere near. There
fore the target is many times greater, and
the range is thereby increased from mile
effectively to three or perhaps four miles.
A hatboat loaded with two or three of
these torpedo throwing guns could defend
any harbor in the world. No fleet would
dare come near them. 1t would be certain
destruction as soon as they came within
range. Naval officers say this shell, this
torpedo thrown through the air from any
modern gun of sufficient size, will revolu-
tiOniZe warfare both upon the sea and at
the coast line.
Novel Sensation.
Gibraltar could not withstand an on
slaught from such tOrrcdoes. Cronstadt,
the citadel of the Russians, would fall be-
fore the terribly destructive power of gun
cotton. 1t is calculated that half dozen
of these guns, carried in submcrging
submarine ships, each equipped with just
enough motive power to enable it to creep
around harbor or roadstead, would be
sufficient to defend any city. They would
be equipped with a gun platform to rise to
the surface for firing, then submCrging out
of harm 5 way. The enemy could not reach
them. At each shot the enemy might get
the range, but before he could send a shot
the torpedo throver would be under water
again. When it came up for the next at
tack, it would be at another spot hun
dreds of rods away. Against such de-
Tense as this no fleet could ODeratc for ev-
cry shot from the aerial torpedo would
mean the destruction of n $4,000, 600 or
S6, 100000 hattleship or cruiser.
The Gathmann shell has produced IA seDs
sation in naval and military circles. Prob
ably ii will do more in the end toward Sc
curing universal peace than all the arbitra
ton treaties yet negotiated or thought of.