The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-27
THE sHIMosB EXPLOSIVE.

The explosive used In the Japanese Navy bears the name of its inventor Dr. Shimose. The destructive power Of this explosive was demonstrated dur ling the recent naval engagements. A few days ago the inventor, Dr. Shimose delivered a lecture in Togio, in which he explained the nature and use of the powder. The inventor said that, ac- cording to their use. explosives were classified under two headings, namely, those for mining and those for military purposes, the latter being again classi- i fled into those for discharging and those for destructive purposes "Shi- mose' belonged to the latter category. land was never used for the purpose of discharging shots. The explosive used by the European Powers for warlike purposes was guneotton. But manifold linconveniences attended the use of gun lcotton; for instance, when dried too much 1t exploded even by slight fric- ton. In order to prevent this danger it was to the extent of 20 per cent, in which case it burned with difficulty Iwhen ignited. But when the water ex- ceeded 20 per cent. guncotton would not explode. Again, owing to possible eva poration. the water contained in gum cotton did not maintain an equal quan- tity, making it's sefety unstable Some times it would become mouldy, thus losing most of it's 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. It was far superior to guncotton in destructive power. and could be quite safely hand lied in ordinary times. One defect, how ever, of gelatine was it's easy freezing. Frozen gelatine would explode from the slightest cause, and this fact made it unfit for military purposes. The 'Shi- nose explosive was very simply con- stituted, but it was sufficiently safe to be used by the Nevy.
 Continuing D. Shimose said neither the falling of an iron hammer upon it, nor ignition, nor the firing
 4 into it would cause his explosive to ex- plode. In such cases it would burn like turpetine but the fire could be ex- tinguished by cupful of water. Com l DtAAC0 n1ln q CGI le1lll 4llSI6U6IlLt IL QdQ sufficient explosive power for warlike purposes. Among the explosives in the world the American gelatine had the greatest destructive power; Shimose came next, guncotton and dynamite fol- lowing in order. To illustrate the ex- plosive power of Shimose, small quan- ttty placed upon an iron plate one or two inches thick would, when exploded, perforate the plate for the area cover ed by the powder. At an experiment carried out at Kugenuma, Soshu, six finch Shimose shot was fired at coal store protected with armor plate sirni- lar to that of a certain cruiser. The shot made hole of about three feet in diameter. whereas in the case of the ordinary shot the diameter of the hole was only six inches. It burst on con- tact with the plate. while the other ex- ploded only when it l7ad travelled about lthree feet after passing through the plate. The Shimose shell was blown in- to two or three thousand pieces, while the other broke up only into 10 or 15 fragrants. This tremendous power was testified to by the fact that blue Jdchel ui the NdrydB was Stfuck Dy more than 160 fragments of shell. The placing of one such shot on . deck would meaning 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 Shtmose pow der. concluded the doctor, was the fact that its cost was about half that of