The Meeker herald., 1898-08-06
sMoKELEss POWDER.
A Remarkable Compound Soon to
b Used In Our Navy.
se~. interesting Parti.siars Of Its
AaausastaPe-at 10 Ear superior
to the Drswn Powder
/ How Used.

L How Used.
It haS been remarked that gunpowder
is to the gun what the soul is to the
body. 1t gives it life and makes it OF
some account. 1t is the means 10 an
end. Gunpowder drives the shot that
the man behind the gun aims at the
enemy, and enables him, if he be as
skillful as most of the marksmen in
the United States navy are. to demoiis''
! his target, whether it be a bird or man
or ship or fort.
Ordinary gunpowder, the kind one
buys in store, is mechanical mixture
| of rs parts of saltpetre, Is parts of char
coal and 10 parts ofsulphur. The prop
critics such mixture possesses may be
altered to any desired extent by chang
! ing these proportions; the method OF
treatment also modifies the character
of the resulting powder, and the SIZE
and shape Of the grain likewise inau-
ence the action of gunpowder.
To manufacture gurPowder quanti-
ties of each ingredient are thoroughly
mixed in the proper proportions, in
\ machine called 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 Eomogene-
Gus mixture. After incorporation the
mill cake" as it is 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
prisnutic. Granulated 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
short description Of it may not be un-
interesting.
The powder charges for guns of the
United States navy are made up of hex
agonal prisms of brown gunpowder.
Brown gunpowder contains usually
about SO parts of nitre, three parts OF
sulphur and Is parts OF underburned
charcoal, which accounts for the choc-
olate color of the powder. Prismatie
powder passes through the same proc
ess as other powders, only the grains
4 are pressed into prisms by hydraulic
machinery instead of being separated
and glazed. The prisans thus formed
are one inch high and three-quarterAo OF
an inch on the sides; there is a round
hole, half an inch in diameter, through
the middle OF each hexagon.
Powder charges for all our guns moi
using fixed ammunition with metallic
cartridges are put up in woolen serge
cartridge bags, the priSms forming the
charge being carefully piled up in lay
ers of the diameter CT the chamber c.
the gun, oze on top of the other, sc
that the holes in the piles will be coin
cideat. Brown prismatic powder ig.
mites slowly; it is, therefore, necessary
to put into each cartridge prism OF
two OF quick-burniug black powder ii
the center of the bottom layer, next tc
the breech plug. By this means the
fame is quickly distributed through the
entire charge. Each full charge in it:
bag is kept in a copper cylinder with re
movable heads. The cylinder is passet
from the magazine of the ship up tc
the gun, where the ends are removed
and the charge pushed into the gur
chamber. All the powder charges in
service on board our ships are brown
prisInntic, though smokeless powder is
being tried, with view to its Adoption
Smokeless powder is SO called because
when exploded it produces no smoke
AZ o matter Of fact, however, light
thin, transparent vapor is usually seen
but it quickly disappears. Smokelcs.
powders, from the nature of the in
gradients employed In making them
leave no residue when exploded, til,
products of the combustion being gas
eous. whereas in ordinary gunpowders
whether black OF brown, the product.
are partly gaseous and partly solid, thi
solid PARTS being visible in the deposi
left in the bore of the gun, in the bit!
of fire blown out of the muzzle1 attth,
time Of discharge and in the thick
heavy smoke that hangs about, obscur
ing the view. lrsi-'
| The composition of the smokeles
powder 'uxed In our navy is not know,
except that guncottou is the prineipn
Ingredient; in all powders of this clas
some high explosive like guncotton
nitroglycerin, the picrates or combi
nation of those is employed as base
The smokeless powder made at Newpor