The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-07-28
SMOKELESS POWDER.
Say Dewey Used Some of It
in the Battle of Manila

Philadelphia, July 2S.-While it is
claimed that Dewey was completely
without the modern SmOkeless powder
when he fought the battle Of Manila,
Captain Charles ]. Russell, of this city,
who is one of the foremost powder ex-
pertS of the country, who studied the
subject with Prof. Carter at Harvard
and who has every phase of it's manu-
facture at his tongues end, claims that
Dewey was at least partially supplled
with the SmOkeleSS article and that IL
was a potent factor in the battle. This
powder, he says, was shipped to Dewey
from a western factory a few months
before the engagement that has made
the admiraPs name a household word.
In appearance this powder is as much
unlike the more ancient compounds as
anything well could be. Any one would
mistake a little pile of it for a handful
of maccaroni. The resemblance is al
most perfect in color and shape, but not
in taste. A fine thing about this powder
Is that II is hard matter to set 1t on
fire. It takes more than a suffering
sulphur match to ignite it. One of theSee
maccaroni-like grains of Dewey powder
about q half inch in length was placed
on the edge of a table and the flame OF
an ordinary sulphur match was applied
to it. At first the compound assumed a
whitish color. Then great angry drop
of the half-melted mass gathered on
the end and dropped on the floor with
sizzling splatter. The grain was afire.
1t burned gradually and slowly, and
emitted no smell or VapOr. Another
grain similarly experimental with, and
somewhat more belligerent than the
first, shot across the table with wick
ed squirt when lighted and exploded I'M
der a nearby chair.
Captain Russell also says that while
Sampson really fought his battle with
smoky powder, one out of every twelve
of the artillery discharges was made
with the smokeless variety. This pow
der, however, was very different in
every respect from DeWey'S SmOkeleSS.
Its grains are fiat, thin, and about a
quarter of an inch square, and are the
color of hammered ginger bread. This
is also slow burning, and is capable of
generating powerful gas. Captain
Russell has samples of nearly every
powder made and used both by Uncle
Sam and by some of the governments
of Europe.
The powder used in our light artil-
lery looks for all the world like maze.
The smokelesS powder used in the
Krag-JOrgensen rifles carried by the
United States regulars is uniform in
grain and appearance and has a saffron
color. Capt. Russell says that about
One-eighth of the regulars are now sup
piled with this smOkeless explosive.
The value of the SmOxeleSS powder is
twO-fOld. In the first place, it gives no
smoke, and in the second place, it is
slow burning. Formerly when the pow
der went off with a puff and the gas
was generated, that was the last of it,
The prOjectile was given a mighty push
and that was the end of it. Now the
powder burns slowly, and continues I'M
til the prOjectile leaves the gun. Modern
SmOkelesS powder in fact, says Expert
gun cotton bereft OF its decorating
qualities. There is a vast difference be-
tween this and the powder used during
the revolutionary war, and it is only
question of months before smOkeless
powder will be used by every arm of
our service.