The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-10-22

WORK OF A LYDDITE SHELL AT oMDURMAN.
From a drawing by Frederic Villiers.1
ago If Skaters army had been equipped
with a few lyddite throwing field guns
Lyddite, besides having seven times the
destructive power of dynamite, has the
added advantages of being more cbeaply
manufactured and of being so constituted
that it's handling is not attended with
danger. 1t consists of carbolic acid treat
ed with a small portion of nitric acid, re-
sulting in pieric acid, which is fused by a
secret process. The great destructiyeness
of picric acid and the fact that it is i1npos-
sib1e to handle it in a crude form withous
great danger are known. The lyddite proc
ess so fuses picric acid that the explosive
is handled with safety and it's power in
creased teDfold.
1t is more than likely that the expert
ments with lyddite conducted by the Brit
ish against the dervishes in the Sudan
will result in the adoption of the new ex-
plosive by the great powers of Europe,
instead of dynamite and gun cotton. When
this state of affairs comes about, the peace
rescript of the czar will be no longer a ne
cessity, as the possession Of the explosive
will make warfare SO awful that nc gov
eminent would ever declare war against
another.
But lit lie or no information regarding
the definite properties of lyddite has been
d~iyulged, but its general qualities are
known. Said IN expert connected with
the Armstrong; in a recent interview !:
"These successful experiments with the
new explosive which the Egyptian govern
ment has instructed Kitchener to carry on
in the Sudan undoubtedly mean that a big
revolution in warfare is near at hand, and
the next great war will bring about star
thing revelations"
There have been other explosives devils
ed which have been proved more powerful
than dynamite, just as lyddite has done,
but the trouble with all of these is that
they are too dangerous to handle.
Lyddite is wrapped up in what is term
ed a petroleum heart and in conse-
quence it can be handled without posi-
bility Of its un~intentional explosion. When
placed on a stone slab and burned in the
open air, lyddite will vanish with a bright
flame, but without exploding. 1t is only
when confined in an alright space like the
interior of a torpedo tub or projectile and
exploded by detonation that it is destruc-
tive. Even If struck by a rifle ball it will
not explode.
Another big advantage that lyddite has
over dynamite is that it will not make
gunners sick to handle it. In loading
dynamite the gunners get some Of the
nitroglycerin on their hands, which gives
them nausea until it is washed off.
After the firing Of a dynamite charge
the men are compelled to wait for 30 or 25
minutes to allow the sickening vapors to
pass off before they can approach the gun
to reload. OF course this means SO much
waste of valuable time. But with lyddite
all this is different. In making it clean
and safe its inventor has caused it to lose
none of its power, but rather to augmentit it,
The she'll in which lyddite is packed for
artillery purposes is q long conioal one,
similar in shape to a 6 inch shell. 1t diff
fers from the ordinary s inch shell in hav-
ing its Ease and walls Of unusual thick
ness to obyiate danger Of explosion from
conclusion in firing (