The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-04-16
POWDER FOR THE
MONSTER GUNS


duced; its was made less bulky and more
cleanly; but its components were the same
and its expansion about the same Military
powder, as we know it today, is the In
vention and perfection of a decade. Great
minds have been bent upon 1t; much
money has been made out of 1t. Without
1t modern ordnance would be comparative
~ worthless. With it, the amount of dam
age of which the thirteen-inch gun is ca
pable is a matter of conjecture only. A
practical demonstration of the effect of a
shell backed by this modern explosive
would be given many times during a war
between Spain and this country. To this
possible struggle the military men of Eu-
rope are now looking. In fact, they talk
of little else.
The man who invented smokeless pow
der was German named Dittmar. He
came to America with his secret and tried
to sell 1t, but nobody would buy 1t until
its worth was proved. Dittmar built some
works and endeavored to show its value.
but failed. The smokeless powder was not
success. Much was printed about it.
and enormous force was claimed for it,
but it was all paper. 1t was not any
pertinent with it In hopeless sort of way.
but military people do not look to it TO
produce any results. 1t would be ex-
cellent thing, of course, If this powder
could be made perfectly smokeless and
sufficiently strong and safe. All gunners
would like to see Immediately the effect
of their fire upon an opposing ship. The
advantage of having the sight clear for
harr ic all 1n6n
sportmen For big guns, however, the
Dittmar smokeless is valueless.
The United States have as good ordnance
powder as is to be found in the world Sew
en- years ago they did not have. Their
possession of this modern explosive in its
state of highest development is due wholly
to the skill, patience and nberality of Du-
pont 1t should be said that big gun pow
der is a German invention. The German
government made the powder and it guard
ed the secret of manufacture with jealous
care. Dupont tried in vain to>purchase the
formula. The servants of the autocracy
were incorruptible. Possibly his French
name had something to do with his failure.
He did manage to get a sample of the pow
der With this as his model he began to
experiment Tie was not ln1neQldtely Sue
cessful His work extended over some
years and bled him heavily He hit upon
the secret after many disappointments,
however, and then improved upon his dis
covery. Today his product is as good as
that of any German factory. The secret
of this powder is now common to half
dozen of the European governments. Prob
ably their formulate all came from Dupont.
States contain but two factories capable
of manufacturing the ordnance powders.
One is owned by the Dupont-Nemours COM
pany, and is at Wilmington, Del. The
other is owned by the California Powder
company at Santa Cruz, Cal. The Dupont
people and the Santa Cruz people are re-
lated by blood and marriage. The COM
panies are practically one.
OF powders now made there are probably
100 kinds. They may be divided, however,
into three classes-blasting, sporting and
military. The military powders look as lit
tie like ordinary gunpowder as it is possible
to conceive. That intended for the thirty
calibre rifles, with their lead-pencil bullets
and 2000-yard zone of fire, is a very good
imitation Of clean, yellow, well-grained
sand. Then there is powder intended for
similar use that is of a reddish brown, and
Is cut into thin minute squares Powder to
be used in certain of the field guns looks
like nothing so much in the world as sheet
glue, one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and
broken into irregular bits. The powder for
the Hotchkiss gun is in blocks one-fourth
of an inch square and as solid as coal.
is al nd wi q
something larger than an ordinary marble.
1t looks like a bit of lead hardened into
globular form. This is also field piece pow
der. The thirteen-inch guns take the brown
prismatic and the black prismatic. The
black, which is the quicker of the two, Is
used merely for purposes of ignition. These
powders are called ''prsmatic' because they
are many-sided, like prism. Each grain
has hole through its center, also an aid
to general ignition. A grain of these pow
ders is one inch in height and two inches
in circumference. These explosives are of
saltpetre and charcoal bases. They make
much smoke and much noise.
The charge for a thirteen-inch gun is 1000
pounds. This will be composed of lao
pounds of brown prismatic and $50 pounds
of black prismatic, which is inserted behlnd
the printing. The charge by this device Is
made practically symmetrical and instan-
famous. Its effect, of course, is Titanic.
At the Indian Head proving grounds, below
Washington I once saw projectile from
thirteen inch gun sent against a Harveyized
plate seventeen inches thick. The plate was
one of a lot made by the Carnegie people
and sent on for trial. The missile drilled ?
a hole through seventeen inches of Harvey
lied steel, through forty-four inches OF
solid oak backing and through five rect OF
earth. So far as the records extend 1t ID
still going. Somebody called for another
plate and it was set up. 1t was struck with
a Carpenter shell, which fused in part. A
chunk of it Weighing two pounds rebounded
25O yards and threw hatful of dirt into
the lynx eyes Of Amos Cummings, who had
come out Of the bomb-proof to see the
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