Daily inter mountain., 1899-09-02
THORlTE IS A SUCCESS.

Ordnance officers of the United States
army are conducting experiments and
tests at the Sandy Hook proving ground
have been devoting special attention to
high explosives with view to the pro-
curement of some preparation which will
comply with all the requirements neces-
sary for its use in the high power guns
mounted in our modern coast fortitica-
tons.
Hitherto the army mas expended most
of it's energy in substituting compressed
air for gunpowder, and it had led all
other countries in this direction in the
pneumatic dynamite gun. But, while
this gun has almost unlimited power
within its range, that range is too short
for many of the more important pur-
poses in coas, defense. Hence it is de-
sira bic to find a system for using most
powerful explosive in the shells of mod
ern high power guns with the regular
service charges of smokelesS powder as
adopted by the army.
Two systems which the United States
has chiefly resOrted to meet these require
ments are. first that which requires a
modification of the shell or the firing APP
paratus. or both. SO that the high ex-
plosive may not be prematurely exploded
by the shock of discharge, and, second,
that whith makes the bursting charges
of such a compound that they cannot
possibly be exploded, either by shock in
the bore of the gun or even by shock
upon impact with the object aimed at,
but only after penetrating the protec-
tive armor and reaching the interior Of
an enemy's vessel
1t is in this latter direction that the
most important eNpel iments have been
made. Among the high explosives of this
type now used by the different foreign
powers are the English lyddite, French
melinite, Austrian ecraslte and bellite,
together with hellofite, roburite and other
compounds.
Up to the present time the United
States has found wet gun cotton to more
nearly meet all the important require
ments than any other high explosive
tested. This explosive has been practi-
cally adopted for the service. and will be
used by the artillery in our coast forti-
cations until further developments are
reached.
Although wet gun cotton is insenstive
to either shock or concussion. it is very
sensitive to ignition with the smallest
particle of dry cotton, The explosive
charge in the armor piercing projectile is
not permitted to act until the shell has
passed through the armor. when the very
accurate delay fuse Of illuminate of mer-
curry acts upon the dry gun cotton. which
causes the detonation of the wet gun cot
ton charge.
DANGER IN DRYNESS.
Shells charged with gun cotton have
to be frequently weighed to see that they
have lost no weight by the evaporation
of the water in the gun cotton. Should
the cotton become dry there is the great
est possible danger of a premature ex- I
plosion. This is found to be one of the /
most difficult elements met with in the !!
procurement of suitable high explosives
for service, but it is being gradually over !
come.
Similar to the lyddite, hellofite. robur-
ite and bellite of Europe. this country has
developed several compounds which can
not pc exploded upon impact, among the
most importan. q WHICH are emmensite,
jovite, liddite and tholit5.
Emmensite is very similar to the
French invention known as melinite,
which has an explosive power twice that
of gun cotton and 10 times that of gum
powder Emmensite is a mixture of en-
mems acid and sodium or ammonium nj
trate. When used as the explosive |
charge for an armor or deck piercing !
shell it is poured into the shell cavity and |
hammered down tightly with wooden
mallet until the cavity is completely
filled. This explosive is smokeless and
almost insensible to shock, thus render-
ing it very safe TO handle.
One OF the last experiments made with
emmenslte was to determine the effect Of
the exceptionally severe shock Of dis
charge upon a shell filled with an enorm-
ously heavy charge of the explosive. A
large muzze-loading gun was specially
rif1ed for the experiment and mounted on
one of the oldf ashioned recoil carriages.
The gun and carriage was surrounded on
three SIDES by traversas of heavy oak
timbers imbedded in sand Into the
breech of the gun was rammed the heavy
prCpel1ing charge of prismatic powder,
and then the monsirous high explosive
Shell, weighing 800 pounds. and filled
with 230 pounds of enmenste. The gun
was then fired electrically.
THORITE A SECRET COMPOUND.
Thorte is the invention of DR.. H. P.
Tuttle, of Tacoma. Wash. Its formula
is known only to the inventor and the
army officers, and is held secret by them.
a test was recently conducted to deter
mine the fragmenting power of the COM
pound. Tine projectile for this test was
7-lnch cast steel shell, weighing, empty
1"2 pounds. 1t was filled with an explo-
sive charge of only four pounds of thor
lite and fused with a Dunn fuse weighing
seven pounds, thus making the total
weight of the loaded shell 143 pounds.
The shell was exploded in the heavy
steel exploding cham ber, a room about 10
feet square. the walls of which are of a
double thickness of cast steel surround
ed on the exterior by heavy oak timbers
joined by bolts and nuts and deeply en-
bedded in mound of sand. 1t was found
that the exact augmentation of the pro-
Jectile could not be determined by count
ing the pieces, owing to their minute
ness, but it was calculated that the pro-
jectile had exploded into 10000 frag-
ments. result probably never before at
tanned in any type of projectile of any
size.
One of the first tests was to determine
1
of thOrlte in a Pinch mortar deck pierre
ing shell. The shell was buried in deep