Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-09

Y part of the wide popular interest in 1t, a spe-
cial interest concerning what part it is to play
in future
It has always been recognized that If the flying ma
chine should actually come it would nave great posi-
blities as a scouting craft whereby one army cou'u
spv upon and observe the operations and manoeuvres
of another army make pictures and drawings OF for
@ifcations and highways and note the disposition OF
troops and that it might have great usefulness III
the TRANSFORMATION small bodies of troops from one
point to another
But bv far the greatest use that has been predicted
for the flying machine in war has been naturally tnac
which has most strongly appealed to the popular
IMAGINATION and it is the dropping of high explosive
bombs upon war ships coast Notifications and ces'
There is probably one subject OF equal interest
about which there is so wide misconceptoh as INC
nature and power and possibilities of high explosives
unless it be what constitutes poetry III popular
novels we often read of depredator blowing up
block of buildings, destroying large bridge OF
blowing battle ship into the air with mere hand
full of high explosive.
An anarchist undertook to blow up Lonuon
Bridge with a pound of dynamite. AT another time
an anarchist exploded handful of dynamite IN the
h, entrance hall of the British House of Parliament,
exnectng to see that huge structure hurled TO eartn
IN utter ruin but he merely succeeded in breaking
fo1v Aapstones shattering some glass and getting
hirsolf into a bad mess. In newspapers and mag
oznes IL is not to see pictures OF alrsnlps
dropping huge steel bombs and the ARTIST oIIen goes
70 the extent of mounting big cannon on his nylng
machines. ..
al, over the country and from well educated prac-
teal men, too some of them well known engineers,
h s,,bnit to me plans of various kinds of aerial
,,,bs for use on flying machines, which are eA-
noc+ed nv their inventors to be capable OF WORKING
,noo+ destruction wherever they may be dropped
Wild publicity ought to be given to the actual
truth about this matter of aerial pomparunlen' VI
attlo sbins coast Notifications, cities and towns tor
u"'N ,, noron+ MANY an inventor losing much vau-
-, tiro and spending considerable sums OF money
- +ornrisa where there is no possibility OF
marked success
Fact VS.. Fiction in Explosives
.aI low is an MEMORABLE thing and cannot be
honded Human fancy and imagmauoh may n men
I,los Verne flights, and in fiction Martah "aii10 =,
- oor,a TO earth and do combat with u.s. out Il"
may =. 4A,, world can never require defensive
+ os AGAINST the inhabitants of other stars' We
,,itod in our accomplishments not only oy the
limitations of our intelligence but by 1he ii'"'i'H
Of earthly materials and natural Iorces' VIC CO. -.
ooomnlish levitation and make hed'y gums '
- ,vo cannot make high explosive whch
hu no so powerful and destructive When empty Gu -
,o1 bombs as to fulfil the expectations anu P
.t of +be oyersanguine aerial war prophets
iii endeayor to explain why dynamite cropped
-. oirsbins would not anG could not be "luey oe
structive. .,, cose or hoy
LOT us take for example, an ordinary case vi poA
90 dynamite weighing fifty pounos' anu pace ~ y"
~ ,rfaca of ground in open field and explode
a. o,d note its action. round crater VIII NC INV
A. "nO III whore the dynamite box sat, varying In
a. I'd width according to the hardness or SOFT
s Of the earth. If exploded on sano 1t "ouiu
blow, crater perhaps six feet across anu posSpi'
two feet Deep depending upon the yleoins
:. tho sand whether it were wet ana packeu naiu, Ii
hicb event the crater would not be SO iarse. ia
I'D in the middle of hard, trodden earth road
the crater would propapS no' W
inches to a foot deep
70 +ho exnIoder were placed on the top OF the po1
foo+ mon the earth would be somewhat greater
than if placed in the poet3 o 81 70 the
I;ve wave and if the dynamite be EXPLODED at tne
Ton the wave moving through tne uyh s;', tbn
,ard strikes the earth somewhat more IorclplS ina"
- ~ +he dynamite be detonated from the Dottom
s%ain LET MS 90 out into the field with some more
anenlita Let us take this time lnousahu
uSn dsNbe1f a ton Now let us prepare to make an
elaborate experiment. We select leVe piano -,
build some frame houses around c!lee W nc usnal
eer shall be about equal to the Wlath Vi INC NO ono
oodern CITY street Let some of these houses pe one
story high some of them two stories hlgn ana SOM i
Of them ten stories high Place IN the miuue VI d
on circular space our half ton of dynamite mace
into a round ball, laying 1t on top OF the sloun
Place the exploder exactly IN he ot mon tbe nd
iacant buildings? If the ground be perfectly ieve
many of the windows on the ground noofs Oh tne
b,,idings will be blown out. not away from the eA
nlosion but in the direction of the exploslon' anu
mon the second floors probably some of the windows
viii also be blown out in the same manner, while on
the third floors and the higher floors many Oh %.
indoys will be blown in and away from the ex
plosion.
When Clay or Rock.
# the formation of the earth be sand and grave
fine foundations of the buildings will not be mucf
shaken or injured and the framework of the build
mrs will not be much injured If, on the other hand
tho Garth formation be solid clay rock the buildings
will he considerably shaken. The size of the
ctaler blown in the earth will, as have said before
ID end bon the character of the earth, whether hare
OF soft
Nd the ms amt of defamation the ball of high ex
plosive is converted into ball OF incandescent ga
reactnr upon itself with pressure of perhaps five