Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-07-07
EXPENSIVE EXPERIMENTS.
The Great Cost Of Tests Made by Army
and Navy.

Some few years ago, when the HAD
field projectile company, at the cost or
e 1000, fired an experimental shot that
pierced 16 inches of Harveyized steel
armor and nine inches of wood back
ing and buried itself 80 feet in a sand
bank behind, it was imagined that the
last word had been said in respect to
expensive experiments. This, however,
has. proved far from being the case
Soon after the $1,000 shot had been
fired our own government, using as a
target the 22-year-Old battle ship
Belleisle that originally cost G240,O0O,
tested the explosive power of lyddite
upon armor plate in most effective
manner, and in L. minutes had con-
verted the ancient vessel into COM
plete wreck. That the experiment was
not inexpensive can be gathered from
the fact that the cost of the 1896 pro-
jectiles poured into the Belleisle repre-
scented an expenditure Of f9 per sec
ond throughout the time over which
the firing continued, or e4590 in all
At Brest in 1903 the up-to-date bat
tleship Suffren was subjected to the
severe test of bombardment, her crew
covering whether the shock of pro-
jectile striking her turret would dis
arrange the electric mechanism work
ing 1t. Naturally, the result of this
expensive and sensational experiment
was not published abroad. but it trans
pired that the shock of the impact of
the shell on the armOr was sufficient
to kill couple of sheep that were shut
up in the turret.
Practice with live shells, such as has
been resorted to at Portsmouth on more
than one occasion of late, is distinctly
expensive, but so far as sensation is
concerned the inhabitants of the chief
naval seaport and the Isle of Wight
are quite satisfied with the shock they
got on the occasion in the autumn of
1903, when something like 1000 pounds
of guncotton. spread over 40 submarine
mines was exploded with such success
in Stokes bay, opposite Ryde, that it
was generally thought in the surround
ing district that an earthquake had Oc-
CURED.
Apropos of earthquakes it is inter-
esting to note that when, rather over
two years ago, a landslide occurred in
Savoie that deposited 10000 cubic
yards of rock in the valley and over
the railway line in the neighbOrhood
OF Notre Dame de Briancon and left a
number of loose and unstable frag
ments of rock at the summit of the
mountain range, the French minister
Of war decided to give his alpine artil
lefy a chance of practicing with shell
and ordered a detachment with two
guns to alter the landscape through
the agency of cannon shot. On the
first day of the experiment so shells.
fired at a range of 1000 yards, effected
the removal Of 200 cubic yards of rock;
but when on the second day, melinite
shells were used, 35 projectiles, which
were fired from the guns through the
agency Of an electric battery, removed
about 600 cubic feet with celebrity, but
at very considerable expense.
That a modern bombardment is a
distinct military luxury was proved
beyond a doubt ON the occasion of a
great. experiment carried out by the
Austrian headquarters staff at Lesnica
toward the close of August, 1903. when
a special steel and wood fertilization
was erected, covered over with piles of
earth i'm which trees were planted to
give it the appearance of a harmless
hillOck, and then reduced by artillery
fire. In addition to the cost of the la
Dor utilized in building the fort and
the outlay in special ecrasite shells
used. there was a considerable expen-
diture in respect to the policing of the
neighborhood with the view of expell-
ing all civilians and unauthorized in
dividuals from an area having rad1us
of five miles from the scene. 1t was
stated at the time that this highly sue
cessful experiment entailed an outlay
of $4,000. but in all probability this sum
was very much below the actual cost.
Some little time ago our admiralty
officials. in order to test whether coaI
will retain it's steam-raising value if
stored under water i'm place of the open
air, where in II months it loses 10 pei
cent. Of its heating capacity, sub
merged 10 tons of Welsh fuel in one OF
the basins in Portsmouth dockyard.