Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-04-16

standing at that spot and were not
otherwise killed would be suffocated
even in the open air. But with the
intervals of time between the firing Of
the successive rounds the carbonic
oxide, which is poisonous, and the car
bonic dioxide, which asphyxiates.
would be dissipated in the open air.
He added:
What the correspondent really
meant, 1 suppose by asphyxiation, or
suffocation, was the effect of the
shock produced by the violent ex-
plosion of such a mass. The bodies
of these poor fellows would be found
without scratch or bruise after the
action, at spots where shells had ex-
p1oded, and then it would be supposed
that they had died of suffocation by
the discharges of gas 1t is not gener-
ally understood what tremendous
conclusion of the atmosphere is pro-
duced by the bursting of a shell
charged with composition of many
times as much explosive force as that
of gunpowder. AS | understand the
naval guns lately employed in the
defense of Ladysmith throw a 6-inch
shell. In our ordnance a 6-inch shell
weighs 100 pounds.
Now, | cannot speak of the effect
of such shell except in the way of
conjecture, but I should say that no
thing within radius of ten feet could
survive the explosion, and many more
wounds would be inflicted beyond that
radius by the fragments. All that is
generally known of its physiological
effects SO far is what has been ascer-
tanned by experiments with chickens.
1t was found that a number of chick
ems that had been within few feet of
defamation like that of a lyddite
shell were unwounded but dead, and
on dissection their blood vessels were
found to be checked with clots of
blood"
This lyddite explosive is one of the
four principal chemical compounds
that have been discovered within the
last ten or twelve years for the promo
ton of peace and good will among
melinite, emmensite and thorite. Mel
mite is the pet of French artillerists.
Emmensite, which may be roughly
described as mixture of picric acid
and nitric acid, was discovered in 1888
by DR.. Stephen HI. Emmens of New
York Thorite is the invention of
DR.. futile of Seattle, Wash, and is
now being tried at Sandy Hook, with
view to it's possible adoption by the
United States ordnance department.
Precisely for this reason it is impos-
sible for anyone not in the confidence
of the government or of DR.. futile
himself to learn anything about it's
composition. What appears to be
understood, however, about thorite is
that, like the other latest "ies,' it is a
modification of what is called Ger
man gunpowder,' the general makeup
of which is not, as is commonly sup
posed, anything like guncotton or any
preparation of nitroglycerine, but an
affair of sugar and prussiate of potas-
SUM, or of preparations of tannin,
nutgalls, cream of tartar and some
oxidizing agent"
AS to lyddite, here again nothing
can be said further than what is
written in the textbooks on explosives.
The British military authorities are
just as secretive as is the United
States. But the books say that lyd
dite is some six or seven times as
powerful as gunpOwder, and in it's
composition akin to melinite, being
a picric acid compound of potassium
and ammonium. The picric acid in
question, otherwise called carbazotic
acid, is a substance which crystallizes
in the form yellowish flakes and
gives a brown solution. 1t is formed
by the action of nitric on carbOnic
acid. This acid itself is not by any
means of modern origin, having been
discovered in 1888, but until recently
it was chiefly employed in the peace
full capacity of a dye for textile fabrics.
and the equally peaceful, though not
quite harmless, capacity of an adult
Grating agent in beer.
One of the chief recommendations
of lyddite for practical use in war is
the comparative safety with which it
can be handled. To explode at all it
must be acted upon by detonator,
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