The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-06-02
JAPANESE EXPLOSIVE
SOMETHING ABOUT THE TER
RIBLE sHIMosE POWDER.
Nature and Effectiveness Explained
by It's Inventor-simplicity
of Its Compo-
sition.

The explosive used in the Japanese
navy bears the name of its inventor,
Dr. Shimose. The destructive power of
| this explosive was demonstrated dur
ing the recent naval engagements, says
| the Shanghai Times. A few days ago
the inventor, DR.. Shimose, 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
headings, namely, those for mining and
those for military purposes, the latter
being again classified into those for dis
charging and those for destructive pur-
poses. "Shimose" belonged to the lat
| ter category and was never used for the
| purpose of discharging 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, when
dried too much, 1t exploded even by
slight friction.
In order to prevent this danger, II was
necessary to combine it with water to
the 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, making its safety
unstable Sometimes it would become
moldy, thus losing most of its 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 1t unfit for military purposes.
The "Shimose" explosive was very sim
ply constituted, but 1t was sufficiently
safe to be used by the navy.
Continuing, DIR. 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, 1t had suffi-
cient explosive power for warlike pur-
poses. Among the explosives In the
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, a small GUAM
uty 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 six-inch Shi-
nose shot was fired at coal store pro-
tected with arInor 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 1000 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
l6O fragments OF the shell. The placing
OF one such shot on the deck would near
the wounding OF all the crew there. Blu.
the explosive was not intended for the
killing OF men. but for the destruction
OF warships. 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.