The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-10-15
QUEER NEW EXPLOSIVES.
MALE MILLION POUNDS STORED
AT FORT LAFA YETTE

of Strings, Macaroni, Saratoga Chips and
Brown JelIy--They Are Hammered with
Mallet and Could Destroy Half the City.
Few New Workers know it, but the Navy De-
partmcnt is maintaining today within the city's
borders, a magazine containing enough high
explosives TO blow half the town into sniithcrccns
At the present time this magazine holds not far
from 200 tons or 400 900 pounds Of black. brown
and smokeless powders and this is about its
average though there Is room for at least 100
tons more, and there have been days since tho
beginning Of the with Spain when upward
of half million pounds was stored there. Yet
there is really little or no cause for alarm, since
water surrounds the powder depository com
petcly and accident is guarded against with all
the precautions that ingenuity suggest and
tho utmost carcfulncss enforce
This little known storchouse Of potential death
and destruction is situated on a tiny island in the
most contracted part of the Nnrrows II is housed
in a venerable diamond shaped structure Of solid
masonry, built for defensive purposes nearly
cighty-nve years ago, Just after the close
ot the last war with England named Fort
Diamond from its distinctive shape and
fitted with an armament of 2-pounders
When Lafayette visited the United States
in 1924 he inspected Fort Diamond and
pronounced II one Of the finest defensive works he
had ever seen, and said its guns were ample to
stop any ship that ever sailed from proceeding UP
the harbor TO the city. In his honor il was re-
named Fort Lafayette, and for many years was
held in high regard both by the General Govern
ment and the people Of the big town il was built
to defend. Fort Lafayette ceased to be regarded
seriously as fertilization long ago Before the
beginning Of the Spanish war IL occurred to some
one that II would be an ideal distribution maya
zine for the Navy. The forts transfer from the
Army TO the Navy was suggested and madr.
As soon as the transfer was made mel we're set
to work making repairs and fitting the place UP
for its new service Parts Of walls had TO be re-
built new roofs had TO be put on, new floors had
to he laid and the arched classmates that had
served variously as barracks for troops chambers
for smooth bore cannon, cells for prisoners and
living quarters for army officers had to be trans
formed TO suit magazine purposes. The days
Immediately following the wars beginning werc
stirring ones Hardly an hour of any day passed
without the reception Of an invoice Of powder,
black, brown or smokcless: there was hardly an
hour that a shipment was not sent away. Relays
of ordnance men were kept at work, port OF the
time by night as well by day, loading shells
and cartridges and getting ammunition in order
for its journeys across the continent to California
there TO be shipped TO Dewey the Asiatic coast
to Fort Monroe for Scheys flying squadron. to
| Tampa for Simpsons ships that 10 blockade
Cuba and other points where Uncle Sans sea
| fighters needed war material. Much Of the
| pairing and rebuilding was still undone, and the
| shell and cartridge leaders. the assembers Of
ammunition, the masons the carpenters and the
shipping forces were all busted in and about the
fort at the same time.
But to day it is different at Fort Lafayette
| As the Nays chief distributing magazine the
way, but a. this lime there is none q the con
| fusion WHICH marked it early in 1898 was
| done away with in fact, long before the close Of
the wal. though much Is to be accomplished vet
| j G <uhwcn who was gunner ON Drwey's
| flagship Olympia when the battle Of Manila was
f S the SG pow soeF vas ali Of hs bac
| and brown varieties, but by the time actual hos
ttics had begun. quantities of the new smoke.
| less varieties had begun TO pour in To-day.
while there is still heavy stock of the old cN
plosvcs in the magazine, goodly quantity Of
| gradually as the old styles useh up for salute
firing and target practice they will disappear
| altogether.
\ fn!r stock Of shells and cartridge. cases is
| kept at Fort LAFAYETTE constantly. in addition to
| and asscmblers can have material to work on;
but the main stock Of shells. cases, &C, is stored
s tS the oy "n paFcuay I s e
| say 100000 or Whereabouts, counting the powder
at 20 cents pound and allowing $4,000 Tor the
| estimate may seem excessive, but cartridge cases
and shells especially hrmor, piercing ones, cost
| money. Thus. each armor-piercing shell for one
Of the biggest guns is worth 500 Five inch
| shells are worth SIS apiece, and the cartridge
cases cost from 81 for the one, FOUNDERS To SO for
the . inch Shells once fired are gone forever
Of course. but cartridge cases are preserved after
firing and used over again after being reshaped,
being available for seventeen or eighteen frlngs
before being sent to the old metal heap. and there
'f1 re at e Of sa%ss may
| be some that saw service at Manila, but that is
| not certain
| Is new comparatively. and the methods Of its
manufacture are undergoing changes, that in
TO be OF several radically different sorts to the
layman, though with the exception of the cor
position. The corditc obtained from Eng
| land. together with the warshps bought there
just before the beginning OF hoStilities Its name
pressed into cylindrical strings Of various sizes
in the small gunS to nearly half an inch. and
then hardened somewhat, but not enough to de-
| The oldest appea ring explosive now at Lafayette
is the smokeiess Powdt,t SO called; hTSt made mad
lsh cordtc, it is powder in name only II looks
for all the world like carefully cut strips Of slip
perry elm bark, being light brown in color; II
n quarter Of an inch thick and from eighteen
inches LONE This cd ps%as
a. blow, providing no sparks are struck. Like
special danger i a match be, applied TO il, with
a clear, Steady flame not ila'hing up with big
| y
| there are also quantities Of powder at Fort La
! fayctte in shorter narrower strips hut 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 pow
der resembles the smaller sizes OF Corditc some
what, though the color, light yellow, gives 1t
| an appearance not unlike Ncrmicclli and maca-
| rOni But the use Of explosive strings in Uncle
| Sans guns will not be continued long, for a new
| and preferable form with which Fort Lafayette
| is arra,iv fairly well stocked has been DEVISED
| SmOkclcSS powder Of the new form intended
| for smaller guns appears, on casual inspection,
10 be grained, and presents blue black or violet
| appearance. The grains appear To be Of a re.
| narkahc uniformity as 10 size. Look at them
| closely and the secret Of their form becomes np
| parent at once The powder is first turned out
| in string form and then cut up into lengths cacl
| one bcing approximately u perfect cylinder
After being cut up II is put into Il receptacle along
| with powdered hlnrl; lead plumbagO, such
| Us is used in lead pencils, and then the mass is
thoroughly shaken together. so that the plum.
| hagO forms coating ON the little cylinders 1t
is tins coating which gives them their blue black
color. and il is applied for the same reason that
| plumbaEo is used sometimes as lubricant ~ ma
| thinery because il is slippery. II is the theory