Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-03-12

into smokeless powder d..
wholly into gaseous produn,s onnnosing
sessing high ballistic efloisrn ana pos.
formula Is secret. . The
Inc advantages of all smokele., a..
uers are manifold. Their comnara pvw-
sh,okeiessness and noiselessnsss awe
nor their chief merits. They ar. ate
ms. entirely safe to handle. hao.. ale
,ney VIII not explode unless cnnsle
anu set on with strong prirnan hed
limited they burn slowly. They A.
ioui the barrel of gun. and 4, nt
primer rs strong enough they nrs ane
y go on" They can be varisd sure
10 ne slow or quick burning. ~ as
Inc use of the smokeless ro
which is now for the first time JJ"ue'.
onicially for the general use of ~ ' ,.led
IS going to make great diffcrar.'y'
tine conditions Of the next 500
In our last war ships had To fyh, nnsnt
after the first five minutes Of f,ri, p',na
cause the smoke obscured the 80 ~
This was very dangerous in ma,n,,.y'
ing, and in great naval bat,ios en'
ships sometimes ran each other dor ef
iired on each other. The ndnirai %
great difficulty communicative "a Hal
the ships Of the fleet, and so,na,,o
the smoke was so dense tina, ZINES nss
the guns could not see each othsr ~
serious mistakes occurred. wiz anu
new powder fighting will be don we
pain view. and 1t is probable tha ~
uriiibook VIII have to be overh,,n'
soon to make allowance for tba ea.i
with which signals can be used s@ss
Mess some great emerea1cv IL,
an international war. should arisa A.
supply OF smokeless powder will ho "
creased gradually. at first ,Inder 80"
tract with private manufactures a.,
the navy VIII continue to use tho oo,"
bination of black and brown povdor ,''
time. The brown prlsmatlc norsy
has taken the place OF the bloci, IVY,
der for everything but ivnltiny nv,
brown powder comes in hexarons oa4S
perforated in the middle. very ais
ent from the grains or cubes Of ~ VI,
black powder and still more unIILo ,a a
long strips or hbrous forms in ,r., He
the smokeless powders are made tn
hexagonal grains are not b,nSs;
loose, but are confined in a canvas ta.
A load is prepared with the aid a,
wooden frame on which are norn,.s
upright wires. The powder grains ava
strung on these wires one at Tim.
and as their shape is exact thew AZ H..
gether closely. 1t takes about COO bs,.
agonal grains to make charge for IN,
of the larger guns. When the char,
has been built up. an Inverted can,s,
bag is fitted over 1t, the frame Is tn,r
ed upside down, and the wires A.,
withdrawn, This leaves the grains IN
compact mass IN the bag The fan
| of the bag Is tied up, and the bay {,
| dropped in cartridge shell.
1t takes $50 pounds of powder to nah,
| a charge for one of the lg inch gr,,
| These guns could be fired ten ,lns, =,
! hour in actual service, and IA cash !,
| the big battleships mounts four Of me
| big guns that part Of the armareot
| alone would eat up more than ten Ion,
| of powder every hour. The cost Of ths
| brown powder Is about 81 cent : mound
| With all the guns In service. Il modern
battleship would use so TO 70 tons Al,
powder every hour, or from ssO0O 10
| $4,000 worth.
The smokeless powder IL more costly
than the brown. But with the refine.
ment in the methods of fighting IL Il
certain that actual encounters will be
fewer and with the range of file con.
stantly increasing the exchange OF shots
will be less than In the old days Of
hand to hand fighting
| The government owns number Of
! magazines in which II keeps stores OF
| powder ready for emergencies They
are at the League Island navy yard.
Norfolk navy yard, Mare Island navy
yard: Dover. n. j.: Portsmouth. n. H.:
Fort Wadsworth. n. Y; Chelsea, Mass;
Maiden, Mass. and Fort Lafayette.
N. Y.