The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-08-26

these cylinders in the twelve-inch shell
fred last week: Each cylinder was ten
inches in diameter. four and one-half
thick and had hole through the center
three and three-quarter inches in dame
ter The inventor planned that each of
these charges should weigh fifteen
pounds, making $50 pounds of the ex-
plosive as the shell charge, but the ord
nance officers decided to use a Smaller
charge-113 pounds This made the test
more severe, for a loose charge is more
violently disturbed than a dense one by
the firing shock The gelatine was placed
inside the projectile through holes pierre
ing its shell-ore hole for each dia-
phragmed space. These holes were closed
by screw plugs. 49, - -
The twelve-inchs Isham projectile. cast
In one piece, is of this design: The outer
shell is an inch thick, the base and head
being several inches thick. From the
center of the, base to the head. through
the hollow interior, runs a thick round
pillar. At right angles to the pillar are
the diaphragms, at intervals of four
and a half inches. These diaphragms are
Of half-inch steel, and, apart from the
rest OF the shell, would look like big
washers. They divide the hollow in
terror into ten cheese-shaped or annular
chambers for the bursting charges. In
the base Of the she'll is the fuse, and
running from it, through the center Of
the pillar, a long thin fuse hole. Off
from this hole, at right angles to 1t, run
the small fuse holes to the ten chambers.
The shell Is 57A inches long, more than
foot longer than the ordinary twelve-
inch shell. Loaded it weighs 1O5O pounds.
This is the torpedo type Of the 1sham
shell; the arnor-piercing type type has
not been designed. -
Because Of the repeated failures Of
diaphragm shells Isham had difficulty in
getting anybody in Washington to listen
to him when he came up from Mexico
last July. Washington was then over
run with cranks with all sorts of ideas
of how Spain could be whipped, and
some of the ordnance officers took the
plain-spoken Vermonter to be one of
them. A few days after the blowing up
of the Maine Isham had sent to the
government from the City Of Mexico his
sive shells, but his ideas were not thought
valuable. When Minister Clayton sent
Isham to Washington at the time of the
siege of Santiago the inventor was long
while in getting anybody to listen to him,
but when Senator Proctor stepped in and
said that while he didn't know anything
about Isham's shell, he knew that Isham
would do Whatever lie said he would, the
ordnance bureau at the war department
gave the inventor an order for a trial at
Sandy Hook That trial came off in
September. a shell carrying twenty-five
seven-inch Ames rifle at four inch steel
plate. Although the test was a success
the ordnance bureau did no more with
Isham's shell. In February 1slam came
to the board Of ordnance and secured
allotment of $4,000 to carry on his tests
at Sandy Hook. 5
When Gen. Miles and his associates on
the board Of ordnance and fertilization
came back from Sandy Hook on Tues
day evening they were enthusiastic over
the success of the test Of the diaphragm
shell. In the Sun of the next morning
was told what the shell had done. Load
ed with 113 pounds of explosive gelatine,
it had been fired from a twelve-inch sea-
coast rifle, with charge Of $50 pounds
Of brown powder, and had withstood the
enormous twenty-ton chamber pressure
and the shock of being; suddenly with a
velocity of 1000 feet a second. The
she'll was not fused and did not decorate
when 1t struck the water and richoted
out to sea. Never before had any such
quantity Of explosive gelatine been fired
from powder gun. Nearly all the Off
GERS on the grounds expected to. see the
big gun blown into thousand frag-
ments More guns have. been destroyed
at the proving grounds from premature
explosions Of high-explosive shells than
in any other way. .'..
One. Of the Interesting features, Of the
tests that day was the statement OF w.
-
company, that the shell thrown from his
new hve-tnch owder-pneumatfc gun was
made with lilphragms This she'll car
ried twenty pounds Of explosive gelatire
and was fired at altN extreme range of a.
mile and a half. The Permont inventor,
when he heard that the Sims Dudley peo-
pie were using diaphragms, protested to
the board, but the ordnance officers said
that the question of patent rights was
not for them to deal with. For that mat
ter, Gen. Abbot's board was experiment.
ing with diaphragms down at Sandy Hook
as long ago as 1890, but the tests were
unsuccessful, and since then the atten-
ton Of the board of ordnance and forti-
fcation has been directed more to finding
"a safe high explosive than to devfsing a
safety shell. Isham says that the dia-
phragm sheils-some had tin diaphragms
failed because they were made by rule
of thumb. He has evolved complete
theory OF construction, applicable to all
| kinds Of guns. from sixteen-inch coast
defense terrors to mountain howitzers
and field-pieces. If his system proves
| fawless he will have no difficulty in pro-
tectng his rights. ~
| Sand and armor tests Of the Isham
shell will be made within few days. An
INFUSED shell will be fired into sand to
see If 1t can withstand the shock. Then
| the shell will be fired at armor plate
representing battleship. Two plates of
| LWelVe.1nCn hrupp steer are now Del1lS
! made. They will be. put up against an
oak and earth backing and attacked by
| the Isham shell. This will determine the
destructive power Of twelve-inch shell
charged with $50 pounds of explosive.
The detonation Of this mass Of the ex-
| plosive produces million foot-tons Of
energy, sufficient to lift the battleship
| Oregon hundred feet in the air. One
| hundred and fifty pounds Of explosive
| gelatine decorating in the water within
twenty-fiv feet Of a battleship would
blow her sides right in. Fired from one
of the big seacoast guns, an Isham shell,
with a detonator fuse. would sail twelve
1 miles out to sea and explode in the midst
Of hostile fleet with the same destruc-
tive forcc as # 1t were detonated at the
guns mouth.
No armor-piercing trials will be made
/ just now. Tee Yankee inventor says he
doesn't wait to try the impossible. An
armor- piercing shell, he says, may be
made on the diaphragm principle, with
a SUFFICIENT number of chambers, SO that
/ 1t can take a small quantity Of explosive
gelatine through armOr. But he holds
/ that $50 pounds OF explosive gelatines
decorating against the side OF the ship
is better than a few pounds twisting In
/ the hull DR.. Hiram Tuttle OF Tacoma,
i the inventor Of the new high explosive,
/ thOrite, sent thirteen pounds OF his dee
istroyer through a soft steel plate four
and a half inches thick, on the day the
i 1sham shell was tested The ordnance
j OHcers do not believe thorlte will with.