The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-19

cylinders. 1t is this coating which givos
them their blue-black color. and il =
applied for the same reason that DIur,
bago is used sometimes as q hurricane
i'm NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. il is SIiuper,l
} | 1t is the theory of the government :;
coating it's cylinders of smOkeIess e-
plosives with plumbagO that SO coated
it is less likely to generate heat from
friction when roughly handled and ca
less liable to unexpected explosion
Powder of this sort for the larger guns
is plainly cylindrical in appearance. tb..
cylinders being about half an inch In
| diameter and of the same length IL i
more than probable that there will ba
many changes in the composition of
the smokeless powder used by tb.
United States navy, but the last word
has been said, apparently. with regard
to it's form. the pIumbagO coated ryIfr-
dersbeing much more easily mampu-
lated than any other form vet devised
or likely to be.
LOADING AMMUNITION.
Every home station of the United
States navy has a distributing maya
zine. but that at Fort Lafayette is m.
largest. undoubtedly. its stock of ax-
plosives being exceeded only by that of
| the great storage magazine, located
near Dover. among the New Jersey
! hills. miles from the sea and all pos
| sibIe danger from a hostile fleet iu case.
| of war Gunner Dugan, who saw sew
| ice in the civil war. as Gunner kuhr-
vein saw it in the Spanish war has
| charge of the Dover magazine. and
| there are times when he has round
million pounds of powder in stock
/ enough, it would seem. to blow all thee
northern part of ersey into kingdom
come.
Naturally, the most important work
at Layfayette is loading shells and
cartridge cases and assembling ammu-
milton. Loading shells is simple. black
grain powder being used altogether
(fOr smoke at the point of explosion is
not objectionable), and black powder
can be poured in with little scoops.
Loading cartridges with the old style
prismatic powder is more tedious work.
the OctagOnal grains having to be piled
carefully in a brass form, so that each
cartridge for a heavy gun presents a
good part of an hours steady and skill
full work. Loading cartridges with the
new plumbago -coated cylinders is as
simple as leading shells with black
powder. for cylindrical powder can be
poured" The big strip powder for
heavy guns is bundled into bags. and
this is a simple operation also. but
loading the small strip powder into
cartridge cases is another matter. This
has to be broken up as loaded and
there are few persons, unused To see
ing high explosives handled with Seem
ing careleSsnes5 who can watch the
cartridge leaders without momentary
feeling of fear.
The ordnance men who do this work
are all experienced hands not enlisted
men, but mostly old men-of-war's men
who have served in the navy for years
and been hOnOrably discharged. When
loading cartridges half a dozen or more
of them sit about long table formed
of boards resting on trestles, with an
open box of the powder handy. Enough
explosive material is weighed out on
little scales for a charge first, in each
instance. and then if the strip powder
is being used. the ordnance man takes
a handful in his hands and breaks it up
into pieces that look more like the
of potatoes called Sara
tOga chops than anything else, after
which he stuffs the cartridge case full
with apparently as little caution as if
he were handling Saratoga chips i'm
very deed. In the majority of cases
he has to jam the stuff into the case
with a short stick of special shape. and
sometimes he has to pound it in with a
small mallet. But the carelessness is
only apparent, for the mallet is Of
wood, (which will not strike sparks and
AIKEN up is also wooden, while the
metal pan of the scales is covered and
10 particle Of iron or steel with which
he powder might come in contact is
allowed in the room.
In this respect there has been great
at the Fort Lafayette
magazine since the breaking out OF
he Spanish war. Then the floors were
Uneven and in many places the nails
which held the floor boards to the
oists projected above the surface. Long
LSo this was changed by driving all
he nails down below uhe upper sur
ace of the floor boards. after which
ne holes were filled with putty After
hat the floor was covered with thick
inOleum, which was cemented G2Wu,
rot nailed, cement being applied also
t all seams. Today it would be i'm
Ossible for spark to he
truck by the contact of iron in any
f the parts of Fort Lafayette where
OWder is stored or loaded, for all tho
oors are linOleum covered and no one
5 allowed to enter the storage rooms
4 the classmates or the loading and
ssembling rooms on the ground floor
earring anything but magazine
hoes which are sewed and contain
% nails. OF course no smoking is al
'wed. and the only explosives which
ould be set off by a blow, the primers
III uSlOiidlOISr containing illuminate or
lercury, are stored outside the walls
the fort proper, in a little structure
ullt specially to hold them.
In spite of the fact that enough high
rade powder to destroy a fleet fire.
uently passes in a single day through
lie hands of each ordnance man en-
Oyed at Fort Lafayette. they are d
leerful lot, telling stories to one an
her as they work and cracking Jokes
CaPrlV X
ne the most harmless substances. and
lie storage rooms containing tier on
er of ordinary looking packing cases,
Guild suggest nothing so little as a
)Wder magazine to most persons We're
not for the frOwning appearance C
e arched windows pierced through
one walls six feet and mere in thick
IS OSBORN SPENCER.
Cardinal RampoIla.