Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-05
|sHIM0SE POW DER
SOMETHING ABsouFaF THE EFFECT
I'VE JAPAMsEEsE.7 il,s
It's Native Inventor = The Simplicity
of It's Composition and It's
Terrible Bower.

From the Shanghai Times.
The explosive used in the Japanese navy
bears the name o. it's inventor, DR.. Shi-
NOSE. The destructive power of this ex-
plosive was demonstrated during the re-
cent naval engagements. A few days ago
the inventor. DR.. Shimose, delivered a
lecture in Tokyo. 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. "Shimose''
belonged to the latter category, and was
never used for the purpose of discharging
shots. The explosive used by the European
powers for warlike purposes was gun cotton.
But manifold Inconvenience attended the
use OF gun cotton; for instance. when dried
too much, 1t exploded even by slight tric-
ton.
Gun Cotton.
In order to prevent this danger, 1t was
necessary to combine it with water to the
extent OF 20 per cent, in which case 1t
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 con-
tained In gun cotton did not maintain an
equal quantity, making it's safety Unstable.
sometimes 1t would become moldy, thus
losing 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 mill
tary purposes. 1t was far superior to gun
cotton In destructive power, and could be
quite safely handled in ordinary times.
One defect. however. Of gelatine was its
easy freezing; Frozen geiatine 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.
Features of Shimose.
Continuing, DR.. Shimose said neither
the falling of an iron hammer upon it,
nor ignition, nor the firing of a bullet
into it, would cause his explosive to ex-
plode. In such cases 1t would burn like
turpentine, but the fire could be extin-
gufshed by cupful of water Combined
with certain ingredient, 1t had sufficient
explosive power for warlike purposes.
Among the explosives in the world the
American gelatine had the greatest de-
structive power; Shimose came next gun
cotton and dynamite following in order
TO illustrate the explosive power of Shi-
nose, a small quantity placed upon an
when exploded, perforate the plate for
the area covered by the powder At an
experiment carried out at Kugenuma
Soshu. 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 diameter, whereas 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 1t had travelled about three
lee aftcr passing through the plate. The
Shimose she'll was blown into two or
three thousand pieces, while the other
broke up only into ten or fifteen frag-
ments. This tremendous power was testi
ned TO by the fact that a bluejacket on
the Variag was struck by more than 100
fragments of shell. The placing of one
such shot on 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 war
shlps; one more noteworthy feature of
.he ehlmose powder concluded the doc
Tor was the fact that its cost was, about
half that of gun cotton.