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

~ the First-HOw the Dreadful
Weapon Works-Attempts Of 9th
err Inventors to Produce q Dia-
phragm She'll.
Just a year ago, when the American
army was before Santiago, Yankee en-
gineer was down on the old Moline del
Rey battlefield, near the City of Mexico
firing new-fangled, high-explosive she'll
Among the guests Of President D;az at
the firing tests of this new shell was
Powell Clayton, the American minister
to Mexico. When he saw fired from an
old S-inch smooth-bore Columbia enough
dynamite to- blow up the whole city of
Santiago, he advised the inventor, Will
lard s. Isham; a Burlington, VT, man.
| to go to Washington at once and offer his
| invention to the government. Isham, who
| had been in Mexico building railroads,
| dredging harbors and digging mines,
dropped his work and started for the
States. Eight days later he was in Wash
| ington with his invention. After long,
hard fight he won recognition from the
ordnance experts, and last week, after
year of MISUNDERSTANDING between
New York and Washington he puts it
saw his shell successfully Withstand a
remarkable test at the Sandy Hook prov
! ing grounds before the members OF the
board. Of ordnance and fertilization.
| Isham is a Yankee through and through
| "a TALL raw-boned, square-jawed, sharp
eyed, straightforward young Vermonter
who does things for the pleasure Of doing
them. Before he took his E. G. degree
at the University of Vermont, then a
| boy of twenty years, says the New York
Sun, he took contract on the Canada
Atlantic railroad, and after his gradua-
| ton he did a piece of work on the On
tario &. Quebec. A couple of years later
he rebuilt the street car lines Of his
home town. He drifted westward and be-
came division engineer on the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe. When the railroad
boom collapsed he went over into Mexico
and took contracts to construct the Mex
| lean National southwark, doing the rock
work in Pinonis Pass. Then he was chief
engineer in charge of the building of the
! Michoacan & Pacific From there he went
to Frontera, Tabasco, and took charge;
| Of the harbor work. When an English
syndicate proposed to head off the Ameri-
| can pan-American line Isham was mads
| it's chief engineer. He rode through Mex
leo to Panama and back, $500 miles. on
| the hurricane deck of a mule, with
party of engineers. After that he turned
4
| copper and silver mines, which he was
/ working when he left for Washington q
year ago.
! The Burlington engineer came to de-
I wise his high explosive shell in this way:
| While he was up in the mountains of
| Jalisco seven years ago developing cop
| per mines for an English syndicate he
studied the question of how he would
| cope with his native miners should they
| break loose. Every day, he was using
/ dynamite for blasting in the mines, and it
occurred to him that If he could throw
| dynamite shells from an ordinary grSl
without blowing himself over into the
| Pacific he could quell the biggest riot in
Mexico. The young American engineer
knew more about mathematics than he
had use for in railroading and mining; he
had dabbled some in ordnancA matters
! and he had taken out patents on various
Devices The idea of using diaphragms
in shells to prevent the setback and deto-
Enation of high EMPLOYEES carried in them
came to him before he left Jalisco, and
when he got back to the City of Mexico
again he began working up his theory.
HE found out that the diaphragm idea
wasn't new, but that all the diaphragm
I shells had failed and that ordnance ex-
I!perts had given them up. Isham's inves-
shells had failed because they were made
by guesswork, and he went to work to
devise diaphragm system scientifically
He carried on his investigations In ex-
plosives as a recreation, while he was
Hooking after mining properties he was
developing on his own hook.
For years the armies and navies Of the
world have been seeking high explosive
&shell which can Withstand service. condi-
Etiors. 1:sh explosives, like dynamite.
explosive gelatine and guncotton, are sd
unstable that, when used as bursting
charges in ordinary shells, they tear big
suns ito pieces. Ordnance experts have
tried all sorts Of ways of SO loading
shells that the terrific shock Of the dis
charge would not detonate the sensitive
high explosive and the gun proving
grounds of the world are strewn with the
wrecks of guns destroyed in these i'm
INVESTIGATIONS. Failure has followed fall
Lure. Before the outbreak Of the Spanish
war our own experiments with wet gun
cotton and e-nmonsite had progressed so
we'll that these explosives were adopted
for the seacoast defenses, but this was
Eonly an emergency measure Neither of
these explosives was to be used except
In small quantities., and, as the Spanish
navy never got near our coast, they were
not used at all. The navy used no high
! explosive shells, because we didn't want
to blow up any of our own ships. Since
The war the search for safe high ex-
piosive shell has gone on with redoubled
q Interest. g.%,7s Il M IS
High explosive shells are sought for by
the governments Of the world because of
their Immense superiority to ordinary
shells as destroyers. One of the 1Oregon's
thirteen-inch armor-piercers may not do
any more damage to an enemy than a
hole in the armor and destroy some wood
work. but a shell charged with explosive
gelatfne and fired from ttirteen-inch
gun will sink any S5,OOO,OOO battleship on
l I.a 1890 IL T,1.r,
with 113 pounds Of explosive II gelatine,
fired at Sandy Hook on Tuesday last, If
Il it had exploded within twenty feet of the
q Oregon, would have sent the ship to the
bottom. Had Simpsons squadron at San
tiagO carried Isham shells Cervera's ships
would have been sunk at the entrance to
q the harbor If not in the harbor itself.
Had Cervera's guns hurled these shells
y the American navy would be no more.
u Between the shells now in use and shells
charged with the most destructive ex-
!. plosive known there is no comparison.
This is why the high explosive shell aues-
a ton is so engrOssfng and why ordnance
officers are so interested in the outcome
Of the tests OF the new shell made by the
Yankee engineer, al 81 :5s4 5{
g Diaphragm are used in the Isham shell
i to prevent the explosive gelatine from set
ting back against the base of the pro-
6 Hectic at the moment Of discharge and
icxpiodtng under the enormous pressure.
81 Other INVESTIGATORS who have put dia-
Z lphragms In shells have done 1t by guess
work. but Il the Vermont Inventor has
worked ont mathematical formulate,
{ (which determine the position Of the dia-
81 enais the Thickness Of the walls.
FITS formula For determining the distance
between the diaphragms Is the basis Of
his system. This formula takes the
weight OF the shell. .the minimum pressure
q NECESSARY to %detonate the explosive, the