Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-08-30
AMERICAN INVENTOR
SCORES TRIUMPH
Mr.. Labram's invention Saves
the Day tor the British
Army.
NECESSITY MOTHER AGAIN
Without the Aid OF Fills Long Fire Gun
English Would Have Beer Com
PEELED to Abandon Kim
berry 10 Beers.

From the Century.
Although Nj. l.ahra!I services were
Known and appreciated by the autlorl
les. il was pot until thu second month
Of the siege that The people of the town
rs a whole and the rank and file of
he troops came 10 realize the versa
.ility of his enius From the some
What prosaic problems Of water. food
and lighting the chief engineer of De
Beers suddenly turned To u work which
set all Kimberley talking.
When the siege began the artillery
strength of the town consisted of the
rwenty-third battery. Royal Garrison
irtillery. with six se~ven-pound noun
ain guns. and a local volunteer bat
cry OF six sevea-pound ms These
.welve pieces had each an effective
.ange of about 1000 yards, two unre-
liable old Cape police seven-pounders
completed the list. The inadequacy OF
enough. 1t paralyZed the whole scheme
IT defense. The full gravity of the sit
lation did not ppear. however, until
he beginning of November. when Col
mel Chamier. Who commanded the
artillery forces. reported that the am
nunition for his guns was giving out.
A moments reflection will show that,
With her cannon silenced, Kimberley's
loom was accomplished. Small as her
uns were. they prevented the enemy
rom bringing up their heavy
% within 1000 yards of the town, and
hey made possible a number of minor
operations outside the barrier. such as
"Reminiscences. patrols, and the graz
ng of horses and mules. In fact. their
presence insured Il marginal area
'ound h town essential to defense. II
! hey went out of action. the enemy
would inevitably move up their artil-
cry and batter the place from point
blank range.
Attempt to Conserve Supplies.
The authorities at once reduced the
expenditure Of ammunition: but still
he supply dwindled. Apparently there
vas only one possible upshot. At a
Meeting of the staff Mr.. Labram asked
f he might see one of the severn
ound shells. After examining it care
'ully he said. Il guess l can make
Kings like that all right" His conf
lence was not immediately commune
.ated to the officers about him. They
ine.i that the manufacture of shells
$ highly specialized work, and is con-
ined to the great arsenals of the world.
on inquiry, it appeared that the only
powder ~procurable in Kimberley was
Intended for blasting, and was. with
nut special preparation. wholly insult
,ble for artillery use. Mr.. Labram,
however. refused to be deferred by
such considerations. That afternoon
lie obtained a requisition from the mil
tary stores of such material as was
likely To be of use in the experiment.
md began work in the De Beers shops.
His foundry ma be said to have been
he child OF his own brain, for he was
Without even reliable handbooks to
guide him. The most important part
IT shell manufacture is the fixing of
, satisfactory fuse. Mr.. Labram over
anne this difficulty by invention. He
designed a percussion fuse to be in
serted in "A hole drilled for its recep-
ion in the point of the she'll. The fuse
consisted of a brass body with a screw
bread outside ana II steel block. o:
olunger. working freely in an axial d!-
lection inside. The plunger, through
which a hole was bored, was pointed
1t the front end. In a recess in front,
, percussion cap was held in position
~ d screwed plug.
How Invention Worked.
While the shell Travelled forward, the
olunger, being loose. remained at the
pack of the fuse. on IA sudden stop
struck the percussion cap. A spark
hen Travelled along the hole and eX-
,loded the bursting charge of gum
powder contained IN the body of the
she'll. To prevent the plunger from
moving when the she'll was handled.
% require compression before the nip
pie could touch the cap. AS an extra
~orecaution, safety wires were provid-
ID, which had to be broken before the
olunger could move. The united
strength of these safety attachments
vas not more than sufficient to pre-
vent premature explosion in case of
accidental fall.
In practice Mr.. Labram's astonishing
invention proved entirely satisfactory.
N an amazingly short time this man,
who had scarcely seen a shell until Il
Few days before. was supplying the
artillery headquarters with between
sixty and seventy projectiles every
.wenty-four hours-shells. moreover. of
4 quality which the military authori-
les. after the exhaustive test of over
.hree months continual use. pro.
bounced extraordinarily good"