The times., 1899-10-22
A SIORBH0UgG0F DANGER.
Enough ExpIOsiFe Matter in Fort
Lafayette to Rui65 New York.
Let 1t All BECOME IGnited and the
Great City Would Figure Here
after n Hole in the Ground
SmOkeIess Powders and other
Queer Things.
From the New York SUM

time this magazine holds not far from ZOO
tons, or 400, 600 pounds of black, brown and
smokeless powders, and this is about its
average, though there is room for at least
120 tons more, and there have bsen days
since the beginning OF the war with Spain
when upward of half a million pounds was
stored there. Yet there is really little or
no cause for alarm, since water surrounds
the powder depository completely and ac-
cident is guarded against with all the pre-
cautions that ingenuity can suggest and
the utmost caTefulness enforce.
This little known storehouse of poten-
tial death and destruction is situated on a
tiny island in the most contracted part o.
the NarTows. 1t is housed in a venerable
diamond shaped structure Of solid mason
ry, built for defensive purposes nearly
eightyfve years ago just after the close
of the last war with England, named Fort
Diamond from its distinctive shape, and
fitted with an armament of 24-pounders.
When Lafayette visited the United States
in 1924. he inspected Fort Diamond and
pronounced it one of the finest defensive
works he had ever seen, and
said its guns were ample to
stop any ship that ever sailed
from proceeding up the harbor TO the city
In his honor it was renamed Fort Lafay-
cite, and for many years was held in high
regard both by the General Government
and the people of the big town it was built
to defend. Fort Lafayette ceased to be
regarded seriously as a fortifcation long
ago Before the beginning of the Spanish
war it occurred to some one that it would
be an ideal distribution magazine for the
Navy. The forts transfer from the Army
to the Navy was suggested and made
AS soon as the transfer was made men
were set TO work making repairs and fitting
the place up for its new service. Parts
of walls had to be rebuilt, new roofs had
to be put on, new floors had to be laid,
and the arched classmates that had served
YaTiously as barracks for troops, chambers
for smooth bore cannon, cells for prisoners,
and living quarters for army officers, had
to be transformed tC suit magazine pur-
poses. The days Immediately following
the wars beginning were stirring ones.
Hardly an hour of any day passed without
the reception of an irf%Oice of powder,
black. brown, or smokeless; there was
hardly an hour that a shipment was not
sent away. Relays Of ordnance men were
kept at work part of the time by night as
well as by day, loading shells and car
tridges and getting ammunition in order
for its journeys across the continent TO
California, there to be shipped to Dewey
on the Asiatic Coast to Fort Monroe for
Schley's flying squadron; to Tampa for
SIMPSONS s ships that were TO blockade
Cuba, and other points where Uncle Sans
sea lighters needed war material. Much of
the repairing and rebuilding was still un-
done. and the shell and cartridge leaders,
the assemblers of ammunition, the masons,
the carpenters, and the shipping forces
were all busted in and about the fort at
the same time.
But today it is different at Fort Lafay-
cite. AS the Nayys chief distributing
magazine, the old structure is still pretty
busy place in its way, but at this time
there is none Of the confusion which
marked it early in 1898. It was done away
with, in fact, long before the close of the
war. though much is to be accomplished
yet before Lafayette will be in ideal shape.
Leonard J. G. Kuhlwein, who was gunner
on Dewey's flagship Olympia when the bat
tie of Manila was fought, has charge Of the
magazine. Just prior to the war the pow
der in stock was all of the black and
brown varieties, but by the time actual
hostilities had begun quantities of the new
smokeless varieties had begun to pour in.
Today, while there is still heavy stock o.
the old explosives in the magazine, go5d-
" quantity of the smokeless powder is also
kept on hand, and, gradually as the old
styles are used up for salute firing and
=
gether
A fair stock of shells and cartridge
cases is kept at Fort Lafayette constantly,
addition to the powder, so that the car
fridge and shell filters and assemblers can
have material to work on, but the main
stock of shells cases, etc, is stored at the
Brooklyn navy yard. In value the con-
tents OF the fort are not particularly i'm
pressive-say 100000 or thereabouts,
counting the powder at 20 cents a pound
and allowing $4,000 for the cost of the
shells and cartridge cases. This latter
estimate may seem excessive, but cartridge
cases and shell especially armOr piercing
ones, cost money Thus, each armor- pierre
ing shell for one of the biggest guns is
worth S10O Five-inch shells are worth
SIS apiece, and the cartridge cases cost
from 81 for the one-pounders to S6 for the
6-inch. Shells once fired are gone forever
Of course, but cartridge cases are preserved
after firing and used over again after being
reshaped. being available for seventeen or
eighteen frings before being sent to the
old metal heap, and there are cartridge
cases at Fort Lafayette today that were
fired at the battle OF Santiago. There may
be some that saw service at Manila, but
that is not certain.
Owing to the fact that smokeless powder
still is new, comparatively, and the meth
DDS of its manufacturers are undergoing
changes, that in stock at Lafayette is In
various shapes, and seems to be of several
radically different sorts 10 the layman,
though with the exception of the cordite
on hand 1t is all of virtually the same
composition The cordite was obtained
from England, together with the warships
brought here Just before the beginning of
hostilities It's name suggests its appear
ance of which you can get an excellent
idea by imagining brown jelly pressed into
cylindrical strings Of various sizes from
less than a sixteenth of an inch (for use
in the small guns) to nearly half an inch,
and then hardened somewhat, but not
enough to destroy their fieXibiity.
The oldest appearing explosive now at
Lafayette is the smokeless powder, so
called, first made in America for the heav-
ier guns Like the English cordite, it Is
a powder in name only. 1t looks for all
the world like carefully cut strips of slip
perry elm bark, being light brown in color.
II is made in slabs, so to speak each being
about a quarter Of an inch thick and from
eighteen to twenty-fGur inches long This
powder is much safer 10 handle than COM
mon black or brown powder, and will bear
quite a blow providing no sparks are
struck Like all smokeless powder, It
will burn without special danger if a
match be applied to it, with "a clear
steady flame not flashing up with a big
s-s-s-s-s like the old sort. For the small
er guns there are also quantities of pow
der at Fort Lafayette in shorter, narrower
strips, but put up in the same way prac-
tically as these great barklike pieces. but
the quantity of neither style is large, and
manufacture thereof was stopped some time
ago in favor of the stringlike form. This
powder resembles the smaller sizes OF
cordite somewhat, though the color, a light