Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-07-21
SMokELESS POWDER.
A Remarkable Compound Soon to be
Used in Our Navy.

a xtemarkaOle COMPOUND SOOh ~ DC
Used in Our Navy.
It has been remarked that gunpow-
der Is to the gun what the soul is to
the body. 1t gives it life and makes
1t of some account. 1t is the means to
an end Gunpowder drives the shot
that the man behind the gun aims at
The enemy, and enables him, if he be as
skilful as most of the marksmen in
the United States Navy are, to demol-
ish his target, whether it be bird or
q man or ship or a fort.
Ordinary gunpowder, the kind one
buys in store, is mechanical mix
ture OF rs parts of saltpetre, Is parts
of charcoal and 10 parts of sulphur
The properties such a mixture posses
ses may be altered to any desired ex-
tent by changing these proportions;
the method of treatment also modifies
the character Of the resulting powder,
and the size and shape of the grain
likewise influence the action of gum
powder.
To manufacture gunpowder quanti-
ties of each ingredient are thoroughly
mixed in the proper proportions, in
machine called a mixer; the compost
ton resulting from this is known as
green powder. Green powder must be
subjected to the incorporation process,
an extremely dangerous one, for it is in
the incorporating room that nearly all
powder mill explosions occur.
The green powder is put into tub,
where heavy runners of three or four
tons weight grind it into a homogene-
GUS mixture. After incorporation the
mill cake" as it ia called, is crushed
between gun metal rollers, then it is
subjected to different treatment, ac-
cording to the kind of powder to be
produced, whether grain, pebble or
prismatic. GranulGted powder is the
ordinary grain gunpowder of COM
merce. Pebble powder or giant pow
der, or blasting powder-for all three
are practically the same-is quite like
grain powder, except that each grain
Is of the average size of pebble Pris-
matte powder is the kind used in our
service to drive shot home, therefore a
short description of it may not be un-
interesting.
The powder charges for guns of the
United States Navy are made up OF
heXagonal prisms of brown gunpow-
der. Brown gunpowder contains usual
y about 50 parts of nitre, three parts
of sulphur and fifteen parts of under
burned charcoal which accounts for
the chocolate color of the powder.
Prismatic powder passes through the
same process as other powders, only
the grains are pressed into prisms by
hydraulic machinery instead of being
separated and glazed. The prisms thus
formed are one inch high and three
quarters of apunch on the sides; there
is round hole, half an inch in dame
ter, through the middle of each hexa-
gon.
Smokeless powder is SO called be-
cause when exploded it produces no
Bmoke. AS a matter of fact, however,
light, thin, transparent vapor is usu-
ally seen, but it quickly disappears.
Smokeless powders, from the nature of
the ingredients employed in making
them, leave no residue when exploded,
the products of the combustion being
gaseous, whereas in ordinary gun pow
ders, whether black or brown, the
products are partly gaseous and partly
solid the solid parts being visible in
the deposit left in the bore of the gun,
In the bits of fire blown out of the muz-
Ele at the time of discharge and in the
thick, heavy smoke that hangs about,
obscuring the view.
Japanese Babies.