The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-16

powder in stock was an Of the black and
brown varieties. which make smoke an
plenty of it, but, boy the time actual hOs,ii-
tiles had broken OUT quantities Of the new
smoke9ess varieties. got from an sorts OF
sources, had begun TO pour in. To-day.
while there is sin heavy stock of 4 he Old
explosives In the magazine, go0diy va
rie.y of the smokeless powder is also kept
on hand, ana, gradually as the old styles
are used up for salute firing and target
practice, they will disappear altogether.
a fair stock of shells and cartridge cases
is kept a. Fort Lafayette constantly. in
addition to the powder, so that the car
fridge and shell filters and assemblers can
have material TO work on, but the man
stock of shells. cases. etc. Is stored al
the Brooklyn navy yard, being sent dow n
TO the fort when needed. In value the
contents of the fort are not particularly
impressive-say 100000 or therea bouts.
counting the powder at 20 cents a pound
shells ana cartridge cases. This latter es-
innate may seem excessive. but is not,
probably since cartridge cases and shells,
especially armor piercing ones, cost money.
Thus, each armor piercing shell for one
Of the biggest guns is torth 500. Five
inch shells are worth Slj apiece, and The
cartridge cases cost from 81 for the one
Founders to s. for the s.x-inch. Shells
once fired are gone forever of course. bur
cartridge cases arc preserved after firinS
dll uEt0 over dGdln dllfE Doing feSndDt1s
being available for seventeen or eighteen /
hrings before being sent TO the old metal
heap. and there are cartridge cases at
Fort Lafayette to-day that were fired at
the battle of Santiago There may be
some that saw service at Manila, but that
is not certain
Lafayette's smOISeIess Powder.
Owing to the fact that smokeless powder |
sim is new, comparatively, and the meth
DDS of its manufacture are undergoing
changes, that in stock at Lafayette is it,
various shapes and seems to be of several
radically different sorts to the laymau,
though with the exception of the cord |
ite'' on hand, il is all of virtually the same
composition. The cordite was obtained
from England, together with the warships
bought there just before the beginning of
hcstilities. Its 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 Cfor use
in the small guns) to nearly half an inch.
and then hardened somewhat but not
enough to destroy their flexlbilty.
The Oldest appearing explosive now at
Lafayette is the smokeless powder, so
called, first made in America for the
heavier guns. Like the English cordite, !
it is a powder in name only. 1t looks
for all the world like carefully cut strips
-
color. 1t is made in slabs, so to speak.
each being about a quarter of an inch
thick and from eighteen to twenty-foIr
inches long. This powder is much safer
to handle than common black or brown
powder, and will bear quite blow provid-
ing no sparks are struck. Like all smoke
less powder, it will burn without special
danger if a match be applied to il, with "A
clear, steady flame not flashing up with a
big s-s-s-s-s like the old sort For the
smaller guns there are also quantities of
powder at Fort Lafayette in shorter, mar
rover strips but put up in the same way
practically as these great bark-like pieces,
but the quantity of neither style is large, |
and manufacture thereof was stopped some
time ago in favor of string-like form. This
powder resembles the smaller sizes of cor
dite, somewhat, though the color, a light |
yellow, gives il an appearance not unlike
vermiceli and macaroni But the use of
explosive strings in Uncle Sans guns will
not be continued long, for a new and pref
cradle form and with which Fort Lafay-
cite Is already fairly well stocked, has
been devised.
Smokeless powder of the new form, in
tended for smaller guns, appears, on cas-
ual inspection, TO be grained, and pres
ents "a biue-black or violet appearance The |
grains appear TO be of a remarkable uni |
formity as 10 size. Look at them closely |
and the secret of their form becomes APP
parent at once. Inc powder ~ HTSt turned !
out in string form and then cut up into |
lengths, each one being approximately a !
perfect cylinder. After being cut up it is |
put into a receptacle along with powdered !
black lead or plumbago, such as is used |
A lead pencils and then the mass is thor
oughly shaken together, so that the plum |
bago forms a coating on the little cylin- |
ders. 1t is this coating which gives them
their blue-black color, and il is applied
for the same reason that plumbago is used
sometimes as a lubricant in machinery
because il is slippery. Ii is the theory of
the government in coating It's cylinders of
smokeless explosives with plumbago, that
SO coated it is less likely to generate heat
from friction when roughly handled, and
so less liable 10 unexpected explosion !
Powder of this sort for the larger guns is
plainly cylindrical in appearance. the cy
finders being about half an inch in diam
eter, and of the same length. 1t is more
than probable that there viii be many
changes m composition of the smokeless |
powder used by the United States navy, !
but the last word has bsen said, apparent
ly. with regard 10 it's form, the plumbago
coated cylinders being much more easily
manipulated than any other form yet de-
vised or likely TO be.
Loading Ammunition.
Every home station of the United States
navy has distributing magazine, but
doubtedly, its stock of explosives being
exceeded only by that of the great stor-
age magazine located near Dover. among
the New Jersey hills. miles from the sea
and all possible danger from a hostile |
fleet in case OF war. Gunner Dugan, who
saw service in the Civil War, as Gunner
Kuhlwein saw IL in the Spanish war. has
charge OF the Dover magazine, and there
ore times when he has round million
pounds of powder I'm stockt-enough. IL
would seem. to blow all the northern part |
of Jersey into kingdom come
Naturally. the most important work at
Lafayette is loading shells and cartridge |
cases and assembling ammunition. Load |
ing shells is simple. black grain powder |
being used altogether (for smoke at the |
point of explosion is not objectio ble) |
and black powder can be poured in with |
little scoops. Loading cartridges with the |
oid-style prismatic powder is more te-
dions work. he octagonal grains h wing. |