The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-28


this condition 1t is the safest explosive
known. In one of the naval intelli-
gence publications it is stated that the
English government tested the safety
of gun cotton containing 80 per cent
moisture by burning bonfires in two
lots of ton each. In one case the ex-
plosive was in disks in a closed tank,
and in the other it was divided among
! eighty closed packages. In both cases
the gun cotton burned away without
explosion.
In order to explode moist gun cotton
a special kind of primer or detonator
must be used, consisting of a disk Of
dry gun cotton, and this dry gun cotton
is exploded by q illuminate of mercury
fuse fired by electricity. These disks
of gun cotton may be made of any
size Usually they are about four inch
| es in diameter and an inch thick, with
hole in the center. Several disks of
wet gun cotton are placed one over the
| other; near the top is put one layer or
! disk of dry cotton, then the electric
! primer Is lowered into the charge
| through the hole, and the entire car
fridge is carefully sealed up with a
watertight head through which the
electric wires lead which are to be
| spliced to the wires leading to the fir
| ing battery. 1t is of the utmost i'm
portance to keep this dry gun cotton
dry. Should it get wet the fuse would
be imperative. When gun cotton is
used to charge the war heads of torpe-
does the gun cotton is usually moulded
to fit the form of the chamber designed
to hold it.
Gun cotton is not SO extensively used
for commercial submarine operations
as some of the nitro-glycerine com
pounds, mainly because of the difficult
ty of preparing it for firing. Nor is it
so terrible in its explosive action as
some of them. A form of gelatine
seems to be generally preferred. One
of these now on the market is called
Repauno gelatine. 1t is described as a
high explosive powder, having a gel
tinous consistency. 1t is, therefore,
sticky and very dense or heavy-two
very advantageous features in certain
classes of work. The higher grades
have very extraordinary disruptive
power. 1t is decidedly plastic. This,
with its density, renders it particularly
suitable for submarine work, where the
flow of water is strong, because it will
adhere firmly together even should the
coverings of the charges get damaged
or removed, and it is not disintegrated
by water.
Another high explosive is forcite. 1t
closely resembles explosive gelatine
cellulose being used instead of nitro
cellulose. Some forcite contains 95 per
cent. of glycerine, and other grades
less, incorporated with a mixture of
nitrate of soda, sulphur and wood tar
with a little wood plup added. 1t
burns in the open air, explodes in con-
fined places, and water has no action
on it.
There are many other explosives
suitable for submarine uses, some of
them of a greater explosive strength
than dynamite, others less. Some years
ago General Abbot of the United States
army carefully investigated the prop
critics Of several kinds of high explo-
sives, and gave as the results of his ex-
periments the following relative
strengths under water Of certain ones
of them per pound, assuming dynamite
No. 1, that described above, as 100:
Blasting gelatine, 142; forcite gelatine,
1888; gun cotton, wet, 81: nitro-glycer-
inc, 81; gunpowder, 20 to 40. There
We're some other interesting data re-
ported by General Abbot concerning
high explosives. His experiments led
him to believe that in order to wound
the bottom Of a man-of-War Of 5000
tons, armored with nine inches of iron,
an explosive must produce a pressure
of $500 pounds per square inch, that
$500 pounds would be fatal to an ordi-
nary double bottonled ironclad. How
ever, all scientific investigators in this
direction, as well as in other theoreti-
cal directions, pertaining to the force
which high explosives exert, are not by
any means in agreement. Referring to
some of the results of the researches
of Colonel BuckniH of England into the
relative strengths of high explosives, it
is noticed that he gives the following
relative horizontal distances and
charges necessary to infiict a fatal blow
on a modern ironclad:
Distance in feet.... 10 20 40 so