The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-06-25
A TERRIBLE AND
AWFUL SUCCESS


From the Washington Times.
Six hundred pounds OF gun cotton put
up in three packages and hurled from the
giant guns of the cruiser yesuvius against
the forts at Santiago have produced noise
enough to be heard around the world. IRE
world has been waiting to hear those shots
fired Naval experts had speculated upon
the effectiveness of dynamite guns as I'M
plements of warfare. The defenders of
gun cotton and the big guns asked only
for something to shoot at. They have
made the experiment, and apparently are
indicated. Cervera and the Spanish ex-
perts have deereed that the vesuvius, with
her wonderful equipment, is a terrible sue
cess. In all the history of naval warfare
there has not been another object to at
tract as much attention and invite
many different opinions as has the cruiser
Vesuvius and her marvellous guns.
Away back in 1888 Pelouze observed that
cotton immersed in nitric acid and then
washed of the free acid subsequently be-
came converted into a substance of explo-
sive properties. In 1916 Schonbein announced
the discovery as a substitute for gunpow-
DER Experiments continued, and the eff
caey of the material destructive force
was developed. There was a discouraging
feature about the experiments, however.
Gun cotton persisted in exploding violently
at inopportune moments. One terrible in
stance at the works In Faversham soon az
ter the discovery and a similar casualty in
France drove most of the scientists from
their tests Won Lenk, in Austria, perse-
vered. His system consisted in spinning
long staple cotton into yarn, which was
converted into gun cotton by immersion in
a strong composition of nitric and sui
phuric acids, then washed in running water
and treated with weak alkali. For use in =
firearms the yarn was wound on reels; for
shells or mines 1t was made into compact
ropes with hollow cores, or into plaits of
lampwick form. This was some advance,
ard yet gun cotton, with all Its possibill-
ties, had not been rendered practicable. But
the awful destructiyeness of dynamite and
g., cotton have never been doubted since
the discovery. The great problem has been
to produce an instrument that could throw
a great mass of the high explosive with
safety and accuracy. Experiments were
costly. After many guns were ruined by
premature defamation 1t was discovered un-
safe to attempt to use more than seven
pounds of dynamite in powder gun. Later,
by sacrificing velocity, range and accuracy,
1t was demonstrated that a large quantity
of dynamite incased in a thin steel envelope
could be discharged The sacrifice was
great enough to be discouraging but to
this extent the problem had been solved.
Under these conditions and under a
wave of adverse predictions the vesuvius
came into existence. Her keel was laid
in 1887, she was launched in 1888 and COM
missioned in 1890. An expert, writing of
her recently, had this to say: 1.-THE ve-
suvius was not exactly a failure, yet she
was by no means a success" For a year
before war was declared the little unar-
mored cruiser laid low in st. Johns river,
spying for filibusters, "the Spanish police
boat" her friends called her. Experts
wondered what would become of her. "Will
she blow up inside, OF will she blow up the
enemy Without?' was the query. Some
went far to predict that not only
would the first shot from the big guns send
her precipitately to the bottom but that
the rest of the squadron about her would
go down with the shock.
The Vesuvius sent the answer to the
world at Santiago Her effort was slight,
but it has taxed the English language to
describe the effect of those three shells
of gun cotton. The-fort which had with
stood another bombardment and the land
under it was "convused" by the first shot,
The other two smote the hill and the for
tifcation like an earthquake, tons of rock
and soil leaped into the air, and the guns Of
the enemy were silenced forever. That the
experts had some grounds for anxiety Is
proved by the report of the shock felt
by s" ynpson and his ships. The Vesuvius
has roved that gun cotton is a success
The United States government has estab-
lished a precedent in naval warfare. Ex-
perts the world over have waited for this
country to risk the first awful test. Spain
awaited it anxiously, and has been forced
to acknowledge that to her enemy belongs
the glory of making practical the explosive
on which scientists have worked for half
a century.