The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-10
THE EARTHQUAKE GUNS
SECRETS OF THE sO-CALLED DY-
Mantle CRUISER vEsUyIUs.
Her ProjectiIes Are Loaded with
Gun Cotton and Fired with Conn
pressed Air-Bnilder Darling.
Ner YORK Herald.

the little Nesuvfus at Santiago science won
one of its most notable fights of the cen
fury 1t is a fight that dates back many
years. for into this victory enter the ele-
rnents Of compressed air high explosives
elimination of gun recoil and the develop
ment in the science of gunnery believed
practically impossible. All these things Mr..
Theodore s. Darling, president of the Pneu-
matte Torpedo and Construction Company,
which owns the patents and makes the guns
similar to those aboard the vesuvius, con-
templates with that satisfaction that comes
from success after long continued effort.
Years ago in Detroit, Mich, Mr.. Darling,
John B. Moloney. then one of Detroits most
prominent citizens, and now a resident of
New York, and others became interested in
a queer pneumatic gum designed by a Mr..
Mefford. Of Ohio, the gun from which really
has sprung the wonderful pneumatic guns of
to-day. Year after year went by and grad
ually the men who were interested with Mr..
Darling dropped away from the invention,
until at last he was the only one left to care
Tor 1t. He never lost heart, and pushed on
steadily, until now he is the oldest and the
largest stockholder in the gun company, and
president besides.
To-day Mr.. Darling is in communication
with the leading nations of the world in
reference TO supplying them with his pneu-
matte guns. Outside the United States, Eng
land is the only country which possesses one
OF the so-called dynamite guns, a fifteen
inch specimen being located at Milford
Haven in that country, Mr.. Darling is fully
convinced that before very long period
his gun will be part Of the artillery of sew
eral great nations. The action Of the We
suyius at Santiago has brought about this
state Of affairs 1t is the greatest object
lesson in the power of modern explosives
that has yet been afforded.
one of the most surprising things that de-
velops in Mr.. Darling's statement concern
ing the gun is that the guns aboard the We
suvius are not dynamite guns at ALL In fact,
there Is not heavyweight of dynamite
aboard the ship. The shells contain. besides
while very high explosive, is not the equal
OF dynamite. There is almost as much differ
ence between gun cotton and regulation dy-
Mantle as there is between gun cotton and
powder, and the former has fifty times the
explosive power of the latter.
At the present time there are dynamite
guns at Fort Hancock, Sandy Hook N j.
and the Preside, at San Francisco A rep
resentative of the company making these
where he has been experimenting a
thorough examination of the guns there,
and placing them in the very best condition.
a fact not hitherto announced is that the
government is about to add battery of
these terrible weapons to the Notifications in
Boston harbor, and the preliminary steps
toward such establishment were taken
Saturday. June %. Just how large the bat
terry at Boston will be has not been definite
ly decided.
THE COMPRESSED AIR GUN.
Few people realize just what the dynamite
gun, asAit is generally known, really is and
how 1t is operated. The scientific features
OF 1t have never been understood, and Mr..
Darling for the first time here reveals the
exact facts. sse
THE three guns on the vesuvius." said
Mr.. Darling, ARE by no means representa-
tive of what our pneumatic gun can ac-
complsh. They are the onfyxguns q sthe
ssxtthat are stationary and they were built
thai way as an experiment. You know we
sold her to the government: You see. the
Vesuyius represents certain stage OF de-
SsP b Of the non A he but nn os
know that we can make our guns revolve
the same as any other gun aboard ship, and
have just as good an effect.
THE guns of the vesuvius are fifty-fve
feet long, fifteen inches in diameter Of the
ameter of the muzzle. lnasmuch as they
cannot be moved about they are trained by
the man who steers the vessel: From these
three guns can be discharged fifteen pro-
jectiles in ten minutes One of these pro-
Jectiles weighs, when charged. 1000 pounds,
and mas range q more fna N 4S yaT6s
degrees This projectile carries 200 pounds
of high explosive. There are two sizes of
spoken, and the eight-inch, the latter carry
ing 100 pounds of high explosive and having
q range of 5000 yards when discharged at
the same elevation as the ten-inch.
THE guns aboard the Vesuvius do not fire
dynamite. The explosive is gun cotton. The
only other explosive in the shells besides
the gun cotton is located in the fuse. This
fuse is made of bronze. In 1t IS a copper
she'll containing thirty-seven grains Of full
quarter long. three-eighths of an inch in
diameter The fuse weighs twenty pounds
inches in diameter To the end of it is at
tached a brass case containing printing
charge Of two and half pounds of dry gun
cotton. The illuminate of mercury is used
to explode the gun cotton, and the mercury
itself is fired by means of a small cap,
which is exploded when the automatic
mechanism OF the shell releases a hammer
.'Reaily, You see. the vesuvius is not a
dynamite cruiser at all, though we all call
her so. Neither are our guns as used aboard
her dynamite guns. 1t is only when we have
our guns on land that we use as an explo-
siye a nitrogeatin that can be clasSed as
dynamite. This explosive consists OF 81 per
cent nitrogycerin, per cent. dry gun cot
bon Donate pct Of c magnesia That is the explosive
we use at Sandy Hook and at the Preside
The guns that form these batteries are fifty
feet from breech to muzzle The shell of the
gun is two inches in thickness, forty-two
Inches in diameter at the breech and about
twenty at the muzzle. This is the diameter
of the shell of the gun and not the diameter
of the bore.
GUN-COTTON PROJECTILES
I'm these guns we use two sizes of pro-
jectiles, 15-inch and s-inch as a rule. though
at Sandy Hook we use sizes that vary from
six to fifteen inches. We are enabled to do
this by means of what are popularity known
as wooden shoes, a sort of interior casing
Of the gun which is fastened to the projec-
tile, this latter resting directly on these
wooden shoes, which lessen the bore of the
gun in size so that projectile and bore fit
After the projectiie has left the gun, these
wooden shoes fall away from It. but it has
lost nothing in force and has gained Just as
much power as IL ii had been fired from a
gun whose original caiiber ftted it,
II seems to Lnat our gun must he
claSsed among the highest Developments of
modern science. None can deny that gun
merry Is q science, and, therefore the man
who solves the problem of gunnery, finding
8 solution that brings increased power and
added knowledge. contributes more than a
mite 10 the scientific world. / think that
when you take our gun In its entirety and
look at its erect, and then follow 1t through
detail by detail. you will find a wonderful
object lesson.
i have told how the projectfles are made
and the details regarding the barrel of the
gun, but the way TO thoroughly understand
what the gun really is is TO 60 down i'm the
bowels OF the vessel to the steam engine
that runs our air compressor. AS fast as the
air is compressed it is stored in wrought
iron or steel reservoirs, located in Chambers
under the gun platform, The air is con-
Quoted from these reservoirs by means OF
pipes UP through the carriage and thence
through large facing that completely COW
na huF Of fne