Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-07-13

such a cylinder should be so con
structed that when given force
was exerted upon it from within it
would give way. The force that
drove out the head of the cylinder
would then act directly upon the
projectile. The pressure exerted
by gunpowder upon thirteen.
inch projectile is about $4,000
pounds per square inch.
Ii then, the head of the liquid
air cylinder were constructed to
yield when a pressure of $4,000
pounds was suddenly applied
from within, the power of gun
powder would be equaled. The
sudden increase of pressure in the
cylinder from 10000 pounds to
the bursting force of $4,000
pounds could be produced simply
by means of an electric spark ex
ploded in a wad of cotton saturat.
ed with turpentine and placed in
the cylinder.
The experience of a piece of
iron gas pipe that was blown into
atoms in Mr.. Tripler's yard by
means of few drops of liquid air
inclosed in it, while the miniature
explosion shook the ground like
an earthquake, is an earnest OF
what is to be expected from the
explosion of a heavy shell, tor
pedo or mine filled with gallons
of the Titanic liquid.
Just where the limit of its pow.
er should be placed it is difficult
to guess. But one is tempted bv
the wonders already soliditied into
fact in Mr.. Tripler's laboratory to
picture the scene at Santiago har
Dor if Admiral Sampson could
now employ liquid air as he may
be able to employ it few months
hence.
The Iowa or the Oregon runs
within range of the batteries, and
the discharge of great rifle in
one of her turrets sets the water
around the ship shivering and
splits the air with thunder. But
no smoke comes from the airy
explosion that has hurled the
huge shell with inconceivable We
locity. Against the blue sky its
rapid flight is silhouetted in a
graceful curve that seems to the
charmed retina of the Watchers
eyes to be swiftly drawn by an in.
visible pencil. 1t rises above the
forts and over the intervening
hills, devouring mile after mile of
atmosphere in its apparently end
less career, until suddenly it dips
into the narrow basin of the har-
Dor and swoops with lightning
speed upon its quarry - the big,
steel. bulging flagship of the enc
my, lying in the midst of his fleet,
and in the fancied security of the
protecting heights.
A downward, crashing stroke,
which breaks the backbone of the
ship, an explosion like the clap of
doom, and the luckless vessel flies
in a hundred pieces, while
her consorts have their masts
loose, their guns dashed
from their mountings and jammed
in the turrets or pitched headlong
overheard by the awful, reverber-
ating shock.
If this be thought too strong a
description to apply to the explo-
sion of any projectile that could
be hurled from a gun, yet it would
hardly suffice to picture the effects
that might be wrought with a
mine or torpedo charged with
hogshead of liquid aid and explod
ed in the midst of a fleet of war
ships. In a contracted bay like
that of Santiago or Havana the
explosion Of such an engine would
bare the bottom of the harbor at
the point where the energy was
applied, and hurl up the water as
it leaped in the He'll Gate explo-
sions few years ago, "in spectral
hills" hundreds of feet high, while
ships not touched by the direct force
of the blow would be dashed upon
the rocks or bedded, half wrecked,
on the sand banks and shadows.
The power of dynamite would be
cast into the shade, and bombs
containing a pailful of liquid air
would suffice, if dropped into.a
mined channel, to explode every
iron devil6sh that lufked beneath
its surface.