The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-12
THE sHlMosE EXPLOSIVE.
Something About the New Japanese
Powder and Its Inventor.

From the Shanghai Times
The explosive used in the japanese navy
bears the name of its inventor, DIR. Sham-
ose. The destructive power OF TINS eX-
plosive was demonstrated during the re-
cent naval engagements. A few days ago
the inventor DR.. Shamose, delivered a
lecture in Toxic, in which he explained
the nature and use Of the powder The
inventor said that, according to their USE
explosives were classified under two head
ings, namely those for mining and those
for military purposes, the latter being
again classified into those for discharging
and those for destructive purposes.
"Shimosev belonged to the latter cat
egory, and was never used for
the purpose of discharging shots.
The explosive used by the Euro
pean powers for warlike purposes was
guncotton But manifold Inconvenience
attend the use of guncotton; for instance
when dried too much it exploded even py
slight friction. In order to prevent this
danger 1t was necessary to eomoine IL
with water to the extent of 20 per cent
in which case it burned with difficulty
when ignited But when the water ex-
ceeded 20 per cent the guncotton would
not explode. Again, owing TO possible
evaporation, the water contained in gun
cotton did not maintain an equal guam
tity, making its safety unstable. some
times II would become mouldly, thus los
ing most Of its explosive power, which
could not then be easily restored. AT
present the most powerful explosive in
the world was blasting gelatine, which
was used by Americans, though not for
military purposes. 1t was far superior to
guncotton in destructive power, ana could
be quite safely handled in ordinary times.
One defect however, Of gelatine was its
easy freezing. Frozen gelatine would ex-
plode from the slightest cause and this
fact made 1t unfit for military purposes.
The "Shimose" explosive was very simply
constituted but 1t was sufficiently safe
to be used by the navy.
Continuing. DIR. Shimose said neither
the falling of an iron hammer upon 1t, nor
ignition. nor the firing of a bullet into
it, would cause his explosive to explode.
In such cases it would burn like turpen-
tine, but the fire could be extinguished by
a cupful of water. Combined with a GER
tain ingredient, it had sufficient explosive
power for warlilze purposes Among the
explosives in the world the American gel
atine had the greatest destructive power;
Shimrose came next, guncotton and dy-
Mantle following in order. To illustrate
the explosive power of Shmrose. a small
quantity placed upon an iron plate one
or two inches thick would, when eXplod-
ed, perforate the plate for the area COW
cred by the powder At an experiment
carried out at Kugenuma, Soshu a six
inch Shimose shot was fired at a coal
store protected with armor plate similar
to that of a certain cruiser. The shot
made hole of about three feet In d.
ameter, whereas, in the case of the ordi-
nary shot the diameter of the hole was
only six inches. 1t burst on contact with
the plate, while the other exploded only
when 1t had Travelled about three feet
after passing through the plate. The
Shimose shell was blown into two or three
thousand pieces. while the other broke up
only into ten or fifteen fragments This
tremendous power was testified to by the
fact that bluejacket on the Varyag was
struck by more than 100 fragments OF
shell. The placing of one such shot on a
deck would mean the wounding Of all the
crew there. But the explosive was not
intended for the killing of men, but for
the destruction of warships One more
noteworthy feature of the Shimose pow
der, concluded the DOCTOR was the fact
that its cost was about half that of gum
cotton.