Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-07-12
BORROWE's DYNAMITE GUN.
What, Possibly, Was Meant by Re-
port That 1t Got "Jammed.-
NeW York Sun.

New York SUM
The use OF the Sims dynamite gun,
which did such effective work in the first
days battle near Santiago, under COM
mand Of Sergeant Hallett Alsop Borrowe,
has been watched with the greatest inter
est 1t is the only one in actual use by
General Skaters forces, and the report
that q charge had become TANNED and
rendered the gun useless after some hours
Of effective service has given rise 10
many conjectVres.
Inventor Sims, who resides in Newark.
says that although he has received no In
formation on the subject other than that
printed in the daily papers he believes
that he understands what happened to
the gun. 1t was one of the six that were
turned out and shipped to Tampa without
having been subjected to the final tests.
1T is impossible" Mr.. Sims says. from
the nature Of the manufacture of the
weapon, 10 tool out the inside of the
barrels, and sometimes the first few shots
cause a scaling off of fine particles OF
steel and create a little roughness."
Such a roughness might have occurred
near the gas check i'm the proJectile bar
rel not far from the breech block by rea-
son of this scaling, and the projectile
might have become damned just at the
entrance to the barrel As neither Ser
geant Borrowe nor any of his squad was
familiar with the mechanism OF the wea-
pom, and they were under fire at the time,
they might have become somewhat un-
steady when they failed to release the
projectile. To understand fully how this
could occur, it is necessary to understand
something OF the construction Of the
gun. The bTeech where the prOpeildnt is
placed is separated from the projectile
by q long cushion of air. At the rear end
Of the projectle is arranged rod, fash
Toned SO as 10 act as q ruddpr to guide
the projectile in its flight. If the charge
was damned in the vicinity of the breech
block a rope could have been fastened
to this rod and the prQjectile pulled back
through the breech Of tina gun. If 1t was
damned too far forward to permit Of this
method, the projectIle could have been
pushed back out of the chamber. 1t IS
possible that the crew Of the gun did not
care To adopt this latter method, but
according to Inventor Sims they would
not have been i'm the slightest dam
ger. The point Of the projectie
is cut off, and attached to II is
small windmill. Behind this windmill,
in a cavity Is a metal ball, followed IN
turn by three percussion caps attached TO
the chamber of explosives. which are usu-
ally composed of illuminate of mercury
and gun-cotton near the centre of the
projectile. When the projectie starts on
its flight the windmill begins 10 revolve.
and by this action unscrews itself 1t
usually drops off at distance OF about
200 feet from the gun. This releases the
ball, which, however, cannot get out OF
its cavity, but may play around over the
exposed caps. When the projectile strikes
the ball is forced on one or more OF the
caps and the explosion follows.
In a test that was made by the inventor
last week it was found that they could
throw charge with accuracy II distance
Of two miles and half, which Is half a
mile further than Mr.. Sims mad previous
ly guaranteed.
OF the six guns that were made for the |
government three are on board one Of the |
ordinance trains i'm the vicinity of Tampa, |
two others are with General Nunez. who |
started out two weeks ago TO join Gomez, |
and the other is still in the vicinity of |
Santiago. Work on ten more of them Is \
being pushed rapidly, and they Will be- |
ready for delivery within two weeks.