Daily camera., 1898-09-08
THE MODERN BULLET
Deadly Missiles That Are Fired by
Modern Guns.
How Q Regiment of Soldiers Would
Be Moved Down by . VOlley
from the Latest Cannon
and Rifles.

It has been said that the new army
rifle is ''humane"-that 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 a lead pencil,
leaves the gun with velocity of half a
mile second, with a pressure behind it
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 a 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 ont 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, a German mill
tary surgeon, writing of the recent
civil war in Chilli says; "The Balma-
cedists. who were no towards, declared
that their astonishment, caused by the
terrible storm of projeetiles, left them
unable to use their own weapons" In
a battle the rifles described will be sup
plemented by improved Gatling guns,
which fire 1000 shots a minute, with a
muzzle velocity of a quarter of 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 a six-gun battery
of these small breech-loading cannon, q
couple of Gatlings, and q regiment of
700 infantry armed with Krag-Jorgen-
sen rifles. A hostile force of twice the
strength approaches to within a dis
tance of 1900 yards: The range being
carefully calculated, allowing for the
expansion of the cones Of fire from the
artillery, the six cannon will cover
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 10,Soe messengers of
death among them. In the same min
ute two Gatlings deliver 2,oO0 shots, and
the 1000 rifles discharge 14,oOo projac-
tiles. In 60 seconds the space occupied
by 1,5oo men has been swept by tre=
mendous storm of 26,sOO missiles, and
two-thirds of the oncoming soldiers are
laid low. One more minute, with an
other such discharge, and few survivors
are left to tell the tale of the disaster
Boston Transcript.
How Gold was round on KlOndikN,