The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-23
WARS NEWEST WEAPON.
ISHiM'S man EXPLOSIVE SHELL
TESTED AT SANDY UOOE.
Terrific Destruction OF which 1t Will He
Capable II Other Trials Are as success
full ms the FirSt-Atten,pts of Other In
hon

Just year ago. when the American army
was before Santiago. Yankee engineer was
down on the old Moline del Rey battlefield,
near the City Of Mexico. firing now fan gled,
high-eXplosive she'll Among the guests Of
President Diaz at the firing tests OF this new
shell was Powell Clayton. the American Minis
ter to Mexico When he saw fired from an old
S-inch smooth bore Coumbiad enough dyna-
mite to blow up the whole city OF Santiago, he
advised the inventor. Willard s. Isham. Bur-
lington. VT, man, TO go to Washington at once
and offer his invention to tho Government.
1sham, who had been in Mexico building rail-
roads. dredging harbors and digging mines,
dropRGd his work and started for the States.
Eight lays later he was in Washington with his
invention. After Il long. hare fight he won
recognition from the ordnance experts. and
last week. after a year Of waiting" oscillating
between New York and Washington" he puts
1.-THE saw his shell successfully Withstand
remarkable test at the Sandy Hook proving
grounds before the member OF the Board Of
Ordnance and Fertilization.
Isham is Yankee through and through-a
tall, raw-boned square-ia wed. sharp-eyed.
straightforward young Vermonter who does
things for the pleasure OF doing them. Before
he took his G. f, degree at the University OF
Vermont, then boy Of twenty years. he took
contract on the Canada Atlantic Railroad. and
after his graduation he did piece OF work
the Ontario and Quebec. couple Of years
later he rebuilt the street car lines OF his home
town. He drfted westward and became a
division engineer on the Atchison Topeka
and Santa Fe. When the railroad boom col
lapsed he went over into Mexico and
took contracts TO constPct the Mexican
National southwark. doing the rock work
in Pihonis Pass. Then he was chief engineer
in charge of the building of the Michoacan and
Pacific. From there he went to Frontera, Ia
basco. and took charge Of the harbor work.
When an English syndicate proposed to head
off the American Pan American line 1sham
was made its chief engineer. He rode through
Mexico TO Panama and back. $500 miles. on
the hurricane deck Of n mule. with party OF
engineers. After that he turned his attention
to mining acquiring some copper and silver
mines. which he was working when he left for
Washington year ago.
The Burlington engineer came to devise his
high-explosve shell in this way: While he was
up in the mountains Of Jalisco, seven years ago.
developing copper mines for an English syn
dictate. he studied the question Of how he would
cope with his native miners shond they break
loose, Every day he was using dynamite for
blasting in the mines. and 1t occurred to him
that if he could throw dynamite shells from an
ordinary gun without blowing himself over
into the Pacific he could quel the biggest riot
in Mexico The young American engineer
knew more about mathematics than he
had use for in raroading and mining:
he had dabhlcd some in ordnance mat
tiers. and he had taken out patents on
various devices. The idea Of using dla-
phragms in shells to prevent the set back and
detonation of high explosives carried in them.
he got back 10 the city OF Mexico again he
began working W his; theory. He found out
ali the di"rhraSm shells had failed i% and and that that
ordnance experts had given them up. lshamS
Investigations c93nSyinced him that diaphragm
guesswork, and he went TO work to devise q
diaphragm system scientifically. He carried
ton. while he was looking after mining, prop
critics he was developing on his own hook:
have been seeking hiGh-e1 plosive shell which
can withstand service conditions. High ex-
nlnsys,s IKE dynamite tH;1pl1nsve gelatme End
bursting charges in ordinary shells. they tear
big guns to lieces. Ordnance. EXPERTS have
the terrific shock Of the discharge would not
detonate the sensitive high. explosive and the
With The wrecks Of guns destroyed in these
Investigations; Failure has followed failure.
Before the outbreak Of the Spanish war our own
experiments with wet guncotton and emmons-
lite had progressed SO well that these eI posives
were adopted for the seacoast defences. but
this; was only an emergency measure. Neither
of these explosives was to be used except in
small quantities, and. as the Spanish Navy
all. The navy used no high ex plosivc shells.
because We didn't want to blow w any of our
Iw1 shpI: since the var the search for safe
doubled interest.
High-exrosiyc shells are sought for by the
mense superiority to ordinary shells as de-
stroyrrs One Of the Oregon's 13-inch armor-
enemy than make a hole in the armor and do
stroy some woodwork. but shell charged with
eXPl95ye GS!atne o and 1 r red from 3pch gun
explosive geIatpe fired at Sandy Hook on
twenty feet of the Oregon would have
sent the shin to the bottom. Had Samp-
shells. tervera's ships would have been
sunk at the entrance to the harhor. if not In
the harhor itself Had Cervera's guns hurled
thes" shells the Amer lean navy would be no
more. Between the shells now in use and
shells charged with the most Destructive ex-
is why he high-expnsivc shell question is 40
engroasing, and why ordnance, officers are SO
new shell made by the Yankee engineer
Dinrhragms are used in the lsham shell to
fSHs ss Of fGhH s S ssns liz
moment OF discharge and exploding under the
sn9e pn 2h who
guesswork. but the Vermont inventor has
worked out mathematical FORMULA. which de-
thickness oithe walls. His formula for deter
mining the distance between the diaphragms
Is the basis of his system This formula takes
the weight of the shell, the minimum pressure
necessary to detOuate the explosive. the firing
pressure. and the density Of the explosive and
from them del uces the maximum weight OF
the bursting charges. In making shells for
the Sandy Hook tests the factor OF safety was
made very high. SO that under the most OK
traordnary conditions there would he no mia
haps. More diaphraRms were put in than
were needed, and walls were made thicker
than the pressures required. Before the firing
of live shells. and-tilled shells were fired to be
sure that the shells would withstand the enor-
nous chamber prrSSures.
Tho geatino charges in the Isham shell are
checsc shaped ylndors with round holes in
the centre. There were ten OF these cylinders
in the l2-inch shell fired last week. Each cyl
Under was 10 inches in diameter. A. inches
thick. and had hole through the centre IN
that each of these charges should weigh fifteen
pounds. making 100 pounds Of the explosive
rs the shell charge, but the ordnance officers
decided to use a smaller charge. ! IL pounds.
This made m" test moro severe, for a loOS"
charg" is more violently disturbed than a
dense one Ivy III" firing shock. The geIatine
was placed inside the prolectilc through holes
piercing its shell-Oue hole for each da-
phragmod space These holes were closed by
screw plugs.
The twrvc-inrh Isham proIectilc. cast in one
piece" is Of this design: The outer shell is an
inch thick, the base and head being several
inches thick From the cent rp a the In n