The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-25
SHOOTS over AIR
Shells From Big Gun Probably
Travel Above Atmosphere.
That Is Statement Made by
Hudson Maxim Today.
NOTHING new IN THE IDEA
Inventor Says 1t Is Possible 10
Shoot Long Distance.
Little Resistance When Pr0!ec-
tile Goes Thru Vacuum.

New York. March 25.-Hudson
Maxim, inventor. declared IN q Sea $50
ment issued today regarding<tne poIli-
bardment of Paris by the new de!
man cannon, that 1t is ehsile.s 49,
BILE to secure a range or over SHY
miles with a gun but that there IL
nothing new in the idea
IT understand that the new proJec-
tile is practically of nine-lncn car
her" said Mr.. Maxim. with nine
inch gun from forty to fifty feet in
length and with a maximum eieVatlon
of AS degrees, a projectile may pc
thrown to a distance of more imam
twenty miles.
Now if we double the caliber OF
the gun, we quadruple the area OF inc
base of the projectile. If we were 70
make a gun of eighteen-inch calioer
and shoot a nine-inch pro1ectiie from
that we would have four times tne
propelling energy on the base OF the
shell during the entire flight OF the
projectile thru the bore of the gun
Nothing New in Idea.
at would be perfectly possible TO
employ a gun for such purpose OF
twenty-inch caliber. throwing a sub
caliber projectiie of nine inches. Then
we would have a good deal more than
four times the area upon which the
powder gases would push against the
projectile.
There is nothing new in this idea
of a b-caliber projectile. Sub-caliber
projectiles We're used in the old fif-
teen-inch Zalinski dynamite gun in or
der to get greater range.
with a gun of twenty-inch caliber
made from eighty to 100 feet long
it would be perfectly possible to get
Germans. The gun would probably
be what is generally designated as a
knockdown gun-one shipped to the
firing line in sections and erected in
place The gun, however. would be
$50 long that it would not support itself
without dropping. 1t would have to
be supported by an external structure.
The mounting of the gun would be
somewhat of a bridgebuilders' job.
Use -Glyccrin.
1.-The best kind of powder charge
for such a gun would be a cordite
composition, consisting of about 80
per cent nitro-glycerin and SO per
cent guncotton.
This gun when fired at a maxi
mum elevation of As degrees would
throw the projectile above most of
the atmosphere of the earth, so that
jectile would be thru a partial
vacuum and the total resistance
which the projectile would encounter
in. gay sixty miles, would not be more
than it would be in thirty miles if
the projectlle were passing thru at
y
surface.
81 understand it is rumored the
projectiles now reaching Paris are
partly driven by a propeller during
flight. II this is a fact the Germans
are accomplishing the result by a
method MT so simple or as good as
that which / have indicated, for the
flight of the projectile would neither
be as accurate nor as sure as on the
projectile and should derive its en-
tire energy from the gun"
Novelist Predicted Gun.
Baltimore. Md, March 25.-Ger-
many's mysterious super-cannon was
Rocked the Earth written three
years ago by Maj. Robert William
Wood, former professor of physics at
johns Hopkins university. in col
Elaboration with Arthur Train. The
writer's described the Smelling of
Paris from a distance of sixty miles
by monster gun whose projectile,
| exploding. shot forward a smaller
shell. the operation being continued
until the inside or core shell, finally
fell upon the slumbering city.
The description follows in part:
safe in the knowledge that the Ger
mans second advance had been
blocked sixty miles outside the walls.
Paris slumbered peacefully.
Behind a small hill within the Ger
: man IoTllIicdtlOnS d group OF OI1lcerS
| stood in the moonlight examining
what looked specifically like the
! hangar of a small dirigible. From the
| open end of the house the cylindrical
barrel of the gigantic engine of war
raised itself into the air at an angle
of forty-degrees.
The projectile of this invention was
95 centimeters in diameter. which in
full flight. 20 miles from the gun and
at the top of its trajectory. exploded
in mid-air. hurting forward its con-
tanned projectile with an additional
velocity of 1000 feet a second. This
process repeated itself. the final or
core bomb weighing over 500 pounds
and filled with lyddite, reaching its
mark 1 minute 35 seconds after the
firing of the gun"
HUNS OFFERED HIM