Daily camera., 1898-07-22
THE MODERN BULLET
Deadly Missiles That Are Fired by
Modern Guns.
How . Regiment Of Soldiers Would
Be Moved Down by . Volley
from the Latest Cannon
and Rifles.


1t has been said that the new army
rifle is humane it punctures
clean holes, and is less likely to inflict
dangerous injury. According to the
best evidence, however, the fact is very
much the other way. The new-style
bullet, very long and with diameter
about the same as that of lead pencil,
leaves the gun with velocity of half
mile second, with pressure behind 1T
of 10000 pounds per square inch. Four
miles from the muzzle of the weapon, it
is travelling at the rate of 400 yards
second, and will penetrate the abdomen
of man who happens to be in the way.
Owing to its velocity, and to its rotary
motion of 400 revolutions second, it
develops an explosive energy when it
strikes anything at moderate range,
splintering bones into small pieces and
effectually destroying any organ like
the liver or kidney.
Owing to these conditions, man who
is hit in an arm bone or leg bone by
bullet from modern rifle must in near
ly every instance die or submit to ampu-
tation. A hole through an important
blood vessel, being punched cleanly out,
results in profuse and dangerous hem
orrhage right away SO that the victim
is likely to die before surgical aid can
arrive. Much valuable information in
this line has been obtained by firing ex-
perimentally at corpses at various
ranges, and observing the character of
the injury inflicted, 1t has been found
in this manner, incidentally, that one of
these bullets will pass through seven
men stood in line, The French have
done a good deal of experimenting
with silhouette soldiers, cut out from
boards and fired at from given distances
From the resulting hits they have tried
to reckon casualty percentages.
Under modern conditions troops
within firing distance of an enemy will
have to meet veritable hail of bullets.
A modern rife is able to deliver 40 shots
minute. Herr Prinz, German mill
tary surgeon, writing of the recent
civil war in Chill, says; "The Balma-
cedists, who were no towards, declared
that their astonishment, caused by the
terrible storm of projectiles, left them
unable to use their own weapons" In
battle the rifles described will be sup
plemented by improved Gatling guns.
which fire 1000 shots minute, with a
muzzle velocity of quarter of a mile a
second, and an effective range of ~,
miles. Under such circumstances, obvi
ously, it will not be possible for mill
tary commanders to risk their troops in
the open, inasmuch as to do so would be
wholesale suicide,
To illustrate the destructiveness of
modern weapons on land, let it be sup
posed that a command is well posted
and concealed with six-gun battery
of these small breech-loading cannon, a
couple of Gatlings, and regiment of
700 infantry armed with Krag-Jorgen-
sen rifles. A hostile force of twice the
strength approaches to within dis
tance of 5000 yards. The range being
carefully calculated, allowing for the
expansion of the cones of fire from the
artillery, the six cannon will cover a
line of LAO yards. At the word firing
begins, and in one minute 36 shrapnel
are hurled at the advancing foe. They
are burst 200 yards in front of the en-
emy, scattering 10000 messengers of
death among them. In the same min
ute two Gatlings deliver 1000 shots, and
the 1000 rifles discharge $4,000 projec-
tiles. In 60 seconds the space occupied
by 1900 men has been swept by tre
mendous storm of 26,sO0 missiles, and
two-thirds of the onconlfng soldiers are
laid low. One more minute, with an
other such discharge, and few survivors
are left to tell the tale of the disaster
RoSton TranScrint