The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1904-12-31
JAPANESE EXPLOSIVE
SOMETHING ABOUT THE TER
R1B1E sH1MosE POWDER.
Nature and Effectiveness Explained
4 by It's Inventor Simplicity "
~ Of Its Compo-
sitfon.

the Shanghai Times. A few days lgo
the inventor, DR.. Shimose, delivert j. i
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
headings, namely, those for mining and
those for military purposes, the latter
being again classified into those for dis
charging and those for destructive rur-
poses.: "Shimose" belonged to the lat
Ter category and was never used for the
purpose of dischargirg shots. The ex-
plosive used by the European powers for
.warlike purposes was gun cotton. But
manifold inconvenience attended the
use of gun cotton; for instance, W hen
dried too much. it exploded even by
slight friction.
In order to prevent this danger, 1t was
necessary to combine it with water to
he extent Of 20 per cent, in which case
it burned with difficulty when ignited.
But when the water exceeded 20 per cent.
gun cotton would not explode. Again,
owing to possible evaporation: the water
contained in gun cotton did not main
tain an equal quantity, makingits safety
unstable. Sometimes it would become
moldy, thus losing most of it's explosive
power, which could not then be easily re-
stored. At present the most powerful
explosive power in the world was blast
ing gelatin, which was used by Ameri-
cans, though not for military purposes.
1t was far superior to gun cotton in de-
structive power, and could be quite safe
ly handled in ordinary times. One de-
feet, however, of, gelatin, was its easy
freezing. Frozen gelatin would explode
from the slightest cause, and this fact
made it unfit for military purposes.
The "Shimose" explosive was very SIM
ply constituted but 1t was sufficiently
safe to be used by the navy.
Continuing. DR.. Shimose said neither
the falling of an iron hammer upon it,
nor ignition. nor the firing of bullet
into 1t, would cause his explosive to ex-
plode. In such cases 1t would burn like
turpentine. but the fire could be extin-
guished by cupful of water Combined
with certain ingredient, it had sufl-
cient explosive power for warlike pur-
poses. Among the explosives in tho
world the American gelatin, had the
greatest destructive. power; Shimose
came next, gun cotton and dynamite fol-
lowing In order. To illustrate the ex-
plosive power Of Shimose, small guam
tity placed upon an iron plate one or two
inches thick would, when exploded, per-
forate the plate for the area covered BY
the powder. At an, experiment carried
out at Kugenuma, Soshu, a six-inch Shi-
NOSE shot was fired at coal store pro-
tected with armor plate similar to that
of certain cruiser. The shot made a
hole about three feet in diam eter, where
as In the case of the ordinary shot, the
diameter of the hole was only six inches.
1t burst on contact with the plate, while
the other exploded only when it had
Travelled about three feet after passing
through the plate. The Shimose shell
was blown into 1000 or 5000 pieces,
while the other broke up into ten or IS
fragments. This tremendous power was
testified to by the fact that bluejacket
on the Variag was struck by more than
$50 fragments Of the SHE'LL The placing
OF one such shot on the deck would mean
the woundfng Of all the crew there. But
the explosive was not intended for the
killing Of men, but for the destruction
OF warshfps. One more noteworthy fea-
ture Of the Shimose powder. concluded
the doctor, was the fact that it's cost was
about half that OF gun cotton.