Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-03-24
Invention Permits Shells to
Penetrate and Explode Be-
hind the Heaviest Hardened
Amor Plate,
SUCCESSFULLY TRIED
ON GOVERNMENT RANGES
Marks Final Victory of Gun
Over DefenSeS = SmOkeIeSs
Powder Experiments Promise
to Reduce Cost of War.
IBy Morning Journal Special Leased wlre.I

LBy Morning Journal Special Leased wlre.I
New York, March 23-Hlram Max
i'm, inventor Of high explosives. made
the dinner rendered Sir Percy Sander
SON retiring British consul, by the
Canadian club last night, the occa-
sion of the first announcement con-
cernng a new safety decorating fuse
which he has invented after ten years
of experimenting and which, he de-
clares, had been the aim of inventors
for years. BY it, he said, it is possible
to send an armor-piercing shell
through armor and cause il to explode
at exactly the distance behind the ar
NOR desired by the gunner. 1t vii!
not matter whether the armur is one
inch or twelve inches in thickness
the inventor said.
Mr.. Maxim recalled that several
years ago he made the Canadian So-
ciety dinuer the vehicle TO carry to
the world the news Of his invention
of the high explosive now known as
MaXimite. Tonights announcements
he said, marked another step forward
in the art of war mechanics and
lutdlll lllt llldl NltlbIN over dIlllOlt Us
at present hardened. by armor- pierre
ing shells. Besides the new detonat-
ing fuse. he said. he could tell the
diners about new smokeless powder
Stabilize which he had just begun Ia
manufacture, but which is still in the
process of experimentation.
This new weapon Of modern war
fare, Mr. Maxim declared, would wipe
out he was convinced. many or most
of the dangers attaching to the use of
sm0keless powder
The speaker prefaced his talk about
high explosives by talk on compara-
lively undefended seaboards on the
Atlantic and Pacific of the United
States
THE tremendous expense OF mod
ern warfare he said makes the un-
prepared nation the only inviting
bait. Poor old China is a good sam
pie Of what may happen to a nation
unprepared to maintain its own peace
by being prepared for war We are
relatively as defenseless as China.
Suppose some other nation should at
tempt to force our hand and call our
bluff, Thanks 10 England she does
not call the bluff.
when the Venezuelan trouble
came we put our backs up an showed
our teeth. And do you know what
the real truth was2 our capacity
our national capacity, for the manu-
facture of smokeless powder at that
time was one charge for one ten-inch
gun each day.
"Now, as a matter of fact, on our
Pacific coast we are absolutely de
fenseless. The japanese have 750,O00
trained veterans and we have $4,000
OH halp In
shoveling and In waiting on the Off
GERS.
1T Is true that we have got behind
us the great American genius, but
while that Is getting to work the Jap
anse might capture the Pacific slope
land a quarter Of million troops and
occupy California. And California is
rich enough in her own right to sup
port the whole Japanese nation.
"In experiments at Indian Head on
Tuesday and Wednesday of last week
a new detonating fuse lust completed
was used IN shell. shot through five
six and eight-inch Krupp process ar
NOR and exploded the shell behind
the armor at the distance that would
be most effective
"It will not matter whether the
plate is one inch or twelve inches in
thickness. | have been working on
the fuse for ten years. II Is possible
to so adjust the fuse that It will be
utterly impossible for the she'll 10 ex-
pode until after It has been fired
from the gun. This is highly impor-
tant in the use of high explosives.
"rhe new powder is not affected
by the impurities. 1t will not decom-
pose like the ordinary powder. 1t can
be made and used In the same day.
think II viii save from 100000 to
$3.50, 900 in interest money to the gov
ernment annually