The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-04-02

In tho recently published novel, aWar
of the Worlds, = which describes an attack
by Mnrtians upon tho earth, tho assailants
from the sister planet are represented as
destroying immense numbers of people by
letting loose a cloud of black vapor that
sinks to the ground and smothers to death
every living thing. The author may have
had in his mind bisulphide of carbon, an
extremely explosive substance, which
rcndily resolves itself into a most deadly
| gas when exposed to the atmosphere. This
gas Is heavier than air, ard so sinks. Tho
newly invented "smoko g~renades'' are
filed with chemical substances which on
explosion produce clouds of dense black
smoke. They are intended to be carried in
advance by skirmishers and thrown SO as
to conceal the troops following. A novel
German CONTINUANCE is a bomb which on
exploding scatters highly infiammable
| substances far and wide. a single IN
bursting over O town would set d whole
district on fro at once. This kind of in
fernal machine is designed also for burn
ing ships at sea.
In the words of a naval authority, the
only 6ttemrt thus far made by the United
Stats in the direction of utilizing high
explosives for purposes of naval warfare,
If torpedocs be excepted, is represented by
tho SO called dynamite cruiser Vesuvius,
which is now in the neigbborhood Of Key
West. This vessel has On her forward deck
three 10 inch guns which throw projcctiles
loaded with dynamite a distance of a mile.
The ship is only an experiment, and her
practical utility is regarded by naval au-
thorities as very doubtful. The problem
of throwing high explosives with safety to
those who use them has not yet been solved
satisfactorily. No explosive is good for
fighting purposes that can be touched off
by shock or otherwise than by actual con-
tact with fire. The stuff called explosive
gelatin for example. is the most power
full of all known explosives, being IS times
as strong as eunpowlor. 1t is made by
dissolying gun cotton in nitroglycerin, the
preparation having the consistency of
honey. But it is very unsafe for use in
battle, because a bullet striking it will set
it off by conclusion.
1t is extremely likely that in the next
great war shells that liberate poisonous
gases on explosion will be employed. 1t
has been suggested that bombs loaded with
hydrocyanic acid gas under pressure could
DO thus utilized, releasing such fumes or
bursting as would destroy all life in the
ncighborhood. Tho French melinite has
for it's base a coal tar product termed picric
acid. Its consistency is about that of mo-
lasses, and it is poured into shells and per-
mitted to harden. This stuff is entirely
safe to handle, though three times as pow
erful as ~gunpowder. The fumes set free by
the bursting of a bomb loaded with it are
most deadly. A single one, fred expert
mentally at a vessel on the deck of which
had been placed a number of sheep and
goats, killed by sutfocation all of the ami
mails that were not destroyed by the flying
fragments. If a shell loaded with hydro
cyanic acid gas-this is the same thing as
prussic acid and the deadliest of all poisons
should be fred into a ship and explode
inside of the vessel, pretty nearly every
body on board would surely perish.
A deadly means of defending the Della
ware river will be constructed at Marcus
Hook. Pa. The idea was suggested by Ad-
miral Lace and consists of flooding the
river with petroleum from perforated pipes
| sunk below the water, and setting the oil
ON fire as it rises to the surface, causing a
sheet of fame to ascend many feet above
the 1iasts of the largest vessels afloat. No
vessel could pass through it, as the intense
heat would bend and eat up the strongest
iron plates made, and what remained
would be blown to atoms by heat reaching
the magazines.