Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-05

decorating charge consists of a small guam
tity Of lead picrate, which is placed in the
shell Immediately before firing, and which
on impact produces a shock that brings the
main charge into action"
The following Is part Of a letter appearing
in the Volksstem. in which a Boer named
One Preller, writing from Gen. Botha' 5
lager outside Ladysmth, gives an account
of the effect of lyydite shells. The letter
is written to Mr.. F. j. Kleijhnaus, minister
of mines in Pretoria
I'VE are told by those who called them
selves our friends how unwise it would be
for us to attempt to measure our strength
against that of England and were informed
that the rocks behind which in other wars
we had taken shelter would not serve us in
this case, for the agencies which were to
be employed would shower down upon us a
hellish rain Of devastating material which
would scatter our rocky shelters like chaff
before the wind. For hundreds of square
yards around the spot where one of these
death-dealing instruments fell nothing was
to escape with life, the terrible lyddite
was to perform with certainty such as
had never before been known its MUIR
derous work. And all these terrors, which
had been so assiduously preparing for us
for years past, have, after all. not proved
as terrible as we We're led to expect. Our
surprise on being asked by the prisoners
whom we had captured from the English
What effect had the lyddite shells when
they burst?' cannot be described in words
We had found dum-dum bullets on the bat
tlefeld, but that lyydite had been used We
had never dreamed. On more careful in
vestigation we found. however, that there
was something strange in connection with
the greenish-yellow column of smoke which
arose wherever the bombs fell and at once
rose the cry, Take care, there is death in
that smoke, poison there must be, or other
wise 1t were impossible for death to be
spread for a space Of 400 yards around.
And such destruction must take place, be-
cause the English themselves had said So
ha haan t. I,-l]
1t so happened that we had an opportunity
of seeing for ourselves the effect of lyddite
and that were able to form some con-
ception of the consequences of inhahng the
deadly fumes. We were standing close to
one of our Long Toms, which was at
tracing the fire of the enemy as the mag
net attracts steel: 1t rained heavy and fast
around us from the enemy's guns when
u.s. 1t made a tremendous noise as it struck
the ground. some distance behind our gun
sank about four feet in the yielding SOIL
and, coming upon rock burst with a most
unearthly noise, similar to that which is
caused by violently hammering an iron
building with heavy hammer. It made
hole in the ground big enough to bury
horse in. 1t so happened that one of our
men was at the time not more than ten
PAGES from the spot where the shell ex-
ploded, and loud were our expressions of
sympathy with the poor man whom we
should never see again, the first victim of
high in the air, and the fragments of the
shell hurtled through space. with a snarling
sound. In all directions. Our man stood up
walked toward the hole which had been
made by the shell, and stood calmly gazing
down into it. AS already said, we found GER
tain portions of these bombs. containing
not only lyddite, but also the chemical mat
ter required in order to explode 1t, and
send herewith portion In order that it
may be analysed. The lyddite itself may
be seen in the possession of DIR. Cunning
in the State Museum.
1.-The enemy uses lyddite in connection
with two guns of 12.5 centimeters, and these
are, so we are informed, ships guns served
by the sailors, and are situated in the hills
to the north of the town, and fire two
kinds of shells.
with respect to the actual workings of
the bombs, 1 may inform you that the
material in the bag marked x appears to be
fgn1ted Immediately upon the projectiIe
coming into contact with any hard SUBJ
stance, and this Immediately sets fire to the
lyddite, which explodes with the effect
above described. The English say that lyd-
dite has six times the explosive power of
dynamite, but, at the same time, it is
quiesceat, and will not. like dynamite, ex-
plode merely upon impact, and It cannot,
therefore, be fired with ordinary powder
and when 1t falls 1t bursts into fragments.
which scatter on every side. When the lyd-
dite was experimental with in Pretoria the
same results were obtained, and we came to
the conclusion that the projectiles were
about as harmless as those of the early part
OF the eighteenth century"