The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-04-16
Powder For the Big Guns.

Powder For the Big Guns.
1t is singular thing that gunpowder re-
| manned practically unchanged and unim-
proved for more than 400 years after its
| discovery by the Europeans. Some re-
fnements of manufacture were introduced
it was made less bulky and more clean
! ~; but its components were the same and
! its expansion about the same. Military
| powder, as we know IL today, is the in
vention and perfection of decade Great
minds have been bent upon it. much mon
! ey has been spent on it; much money has
| been made out of it. Without it modern
! ordnance would be comparatively worth
! less. With it, the amount of damage of
whlch the thirteen-inch gun is capable
| is a matter of conjecture only. A prac-
! teal demonstration of the effect of a shell
packed by this modern explosive would
! De given many times during a war be-
tween Spain and this country. To this
possible struggle the military men of Eu-
rope are now looking. In fact, they talk
Of little else.
The man who invented smokeless pow
ger was German named Dittmar He
| came TO America with his secret and tried
to sell it, but nobody would buy until ire
worth was proved Dittmar built some
works and endeavored to show its value.
not success. Much was printed abollt
out tailed. The smokeless powder was
II and enormous force was claimed for
IT, but It was all on paper. 1t was not
any good, and there is now no powder of
the smokeiess kind that is OF any good TO
the army or navy.
The United States have as good ord
nance powder as is to be found in the
Their possession of this modern explosive
in its state of highest development is due
wholly to the skill, patience and liberal
ity of Dupont. 1t should be said that
big-gun powder is a German invention.
The German government made the powder
and it guarded the secret of manufact-
ure with jealous care. Dupont tried in
vain to purchase the formula. The serv-
ants of the autocracy were incorruptible.
Possibly his French name had something
to do with his failure. He did manage
to get a sample of the powder With this
as his model, he began TO experiment. He
was not Immediately successful. His work
extended over some years and bled him
heavily. He hit upon the secret after ma
ny disappointments, howevere, and then
improved upon his discovery. Today his
product is as good as that of any German
y.
now common to a half-dozen of the Euro
pean governments. Probably their form
ulae of all came from Dupont. 1t is not
known generally that the United States
contain but two factories capable of man
ufac turing the ordnance powders. One is
owned by the Dupont-Nemours Company,
and is at Wilmington, Del. The other is
owned by the California Powder Compa-
ny at Santa Cruz, Cal. The Dupont peo- |
pie and the Santa Cruz people are related
by blood and marriage. The companies |
are practically one.
$3.50
Of powders now made there are probably !
a hundred kinds. They may be divided, |
however, into three classes-blasting, |
sporting and military. The military pow
ders look as little like ordinary gun /
powder as it is possible to conceive. That. /
intended for the thfrty-calibre rifles, with |
their lead-pencn bullets and 2000-yard /
zone of fire, is a very good imitation of 1
clean, yellow, well-grained sand. Then,
there is powder intended for similar use !
that is of a redish brown, and is cut into
thin minute squares. Powder to be used
in certain of the field guns looks like
nothing in the world so much as sheet
glue, one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and
broken into irregular bits. The powder
for the Hotchk1ss gun is in blocks one
fourth of an inch square and as solid as
qoal There is a spheroidal kind. whose
grain is something larger than an ordinary
marble II looks like a bit of lead harden
I'd into globular form. This is also a field
piece powder. The thirteen-inch guns
AXE the brown prismatic and the black
1rismatic, The black. which is the quick
sr of the two, is used merely for purposes
If ignition. These powders are called
'prismatic" because they are many-sded,
ike a prism. Each grain has hole
through its center, also an aid to general
gnition A grain of these powders IS one
nch in height and two inches in circum-
erence These explosives are Of saltpeter
md charcoal bases. They make much !
noke and much noise.
The charge for a thirteen-inch gun is
600 pounds. This will be composed of $50
POUNDS of brown prismatic and $50 pounds {
4 black prismatic, which Is inserted be-
lind the printing. The discharge Of this
evice is made practically symmetrical
nd instantaneous. It's effect, Of course,
5 Titanic.