Arizona republican., 1899-03-22
TERRIBLE GATHMANN GUN.
It Will Throw 500 Pounds of Gun Cot
 ton a Distance of Five Miles.

ton a Distance of Five Miles. The United States government has placed an order for the most terrible weapon ever used in warfare It is the new Gathmann gun, invented by Louis
 Gathmann of Chicago. It will be of 18-inch bore and will thrcw 600 to 800
 pounds of gun cotton a distance of five miles. The gun, according to the tests which have recently been completed at Sandy Hook proving grounds under the supervision of the ordnance bureau,
 amply justifies the invent3F's claims for it. These tests have extended over several years. This new arm, in a
 word, is higher explosive projeotile, with a gun for firing it. It makes pos sible the use of enormous charges of gun cotton in shells discharged from high power rifled cannon of the most modern construction and the longest effective range.
 It has long been a dream of artiIler- tsts to use high explosives in projec- tiles. All attempts to do so have proved abortive CT inefficient Dyna- mite guns have been comparative fail ures on account of the low muzzle ve- locities required by the use of com pressed air The low velocity entails
 
 useless to a great extent. It gives an extremely short range to the gun and
 makes accuracy of aim impossible. These weaknesses and others peculiar to air-dynamite guns have been elinIi- mated by Gathmann and at last a weap- on has been produced whose range and accuracy equal those of any mod ern high power rifle and whose pro- jectiles carry charges of gun cotton sufficient to destroy by cme tremendous explosion a modern war ship and every human life thereon.
 The shells which will be discharged from MT. Gathmann's cannon will con- tain from 600 to 800 pounds of gun cotton, the most terrible explosive known One single shot. striking any part of warship, would overwhelm in one cabaclyam the ship and her crew. With time fuses instead of inn pact det0nators, these shells, if ex- ploded in the neighEorhood of a ship, would derange every instrument of precision on her. even though the ship | herself were not struck by it. Every steam gauge would be broken, every electrical connection shattered, every made useless. Exploiting nearer, but still not in contact with the | target ship, the gun carriages would be | IOA hoTrs du combat. Every thickness, of | arElor used by the navy has been shat | tered in the tests made by MT. Gath ! mann at Indian Head, Md, and Sandy Hook during the time the government has been engaged in experimenting with this new gun.
 Aside from it's terrible destructive ness, its gret economy of ammunition will recommend it. There were thou sands of shots fired from the American ships under Admiral Schley at Santi- ago. Hundreds of these were of large cahber, and tho ammunition bill of the battle ran up into hundreds of thousands of dollars Had the Brook lyn or the Oregon been armed with guns throwing Gathmann shells not 0ne-tenth of the cost would have been necessary to blot out every veStige of the Spanish fleet.
 When approached in regard to his terrible gun, Invent3r Louis Gathmann said:
 ''It is well known that, in order to throw torpedoe5 or explosive proiec- tiles to Q. great range, it is necessary to use power enough to give the shell a high muzZle velocity. It is also known that the greater the speed to be inn parted to the torpedo or explosive the 1Sd V lOI It IS nSC6SHdIY ilO COuSuIuCJ the latter, in order that there may be no danger of a premature explosion This is principally of importance where the torpedo CT projectile is loaded with large masses of high explosives. At present all the known systems have his defect, that the greater part of the weight of tOrpedoes or shells consists 1f metal, thereby leaving but little room for the high explosives, and ne eessitating the construction of heavy piece of ordnance to harmonize with it's projectile, so that by the present system such weapons cannot be adapt ad for light built cruisers or torpedo boats.
 My invention relates to projecti,e 1r aerial torpedo of novel construction, and to a gun, also of novel construc- ton, for throwing the same, the ob- feet of the invention being to enable l projectile or torpedo having a shell lf minimum weight and containing a maximum of explosive material to be 5afely thrown accurately a greater dis -ance than has heretofore been pos 'ible.
 First, 1 provide a gun whose bore It or near the muzzle is Of practically he same diameter as the shell, but of I