Evening star., 1941-11-23
SmokeIess Powder
Shaped 10 Burn at
Precise Speed
Explosive Used in Big
And Little Guns Burns
Relatively Slowly
The Stars Special News Service.

The Stars Special News Service.
Aboard the Navy's newest battle
ship, the North Carolina, bells
jangle, signal flags ripple to the
yardarm. the three 16-inch guns of
one forward turret lift slowly and
turn on a target unseen, beyond the
horizon.
Then suddenly the mouths of the
guns flash and roar out their steely
tons of death. The big ship shud-
ders, rebounds and settles to the
waves again.
What happened there inside the
turret in the chambers of those
mightiest of cannon? Simply this,
to borrow technician's description
OF the process: A relatively stable
solid had been converted into a
much larger volume of gas. The
solid was smokelesS powder.
Used alike in the 16-inch guns of
the North Carolina and the 80 cali
bre rifles of the foot soldiers. smoke
less powder is peculiar stuff and
even the experts accustomed to the
term admit it is somewhat mis-
named 1t is not a high explosive
like INIT is slow w-burning pro-
pellant. Moreover. it is not a pow
der and 1t is not smokeless.
Amount Affects Shot.
It is essentially a combination of
cellulose Chighly purified cotton)
and Of nitrogen in the form OF nitric
acid
Great precision is required in the
manufacture because on the amount
of powder fired in a gun depends
the accuracy of the shot. The anna
teur sportsman has little need to
worry. The company which makes
his shells takes care of it for him.
But the gurmers on a battleship
load powder and shell separately
The powder is packed in silk bags
and must be right to the ounce, else
a few seconds later, Is or 18 miles
away, the deadly shell may fall wide
of its target.
In depth bombs of the type Ameri-
can patrol vessels now use in hunt
ing submarines in the North At
lantic, TINT is used because Of
the force with which it eXplodes. A
device adjustable before the ashcan
is dropped determines the depth at
which it goes off.
Ideally this explosion should occur
Just as the can plumpS down on or
beside the undersea vessel Actual
ly 1t is probable that direct hits are
very infreqrent. The greater
chance is that a well-aimed bomb
merely falls near the submarine.
but that ordinarily may Go all the
damage necessary to disable or sink
1t.
Greater Conclusion Below.
When a can of the size Of your
backyard ashcan let's 60 down below,
the conclusion is so great that even
the stout plates of subs hull may
be buckled at 100 feet or more.
Marine life in radius of 200 or 800
feet is killed. The force of depth
charge is much greater far below
than on the surface.
What originates the great force Of
TINT as compared with smoke
less powder is the fact that all of it
goes off virtually instantaneouSly.
Smokeless powder. by contrast, is a
slow-burning explosive. if you can
count something slow which is
measured in tiny fractions OF a
second.
What happens then when a gun
Is fired? The first thing is that
the illuminate of mercury detonator,
a very unstable kind of explosive
charge, goes off and fires the lgnl-
ton charge which usually is black
powder. That. in turn, sets the
smokeless powder to burning.
As the gases which the smokeless
powder generates grow in volume
and force the projectile begins its
Journey along the gun barrel. The
powder burns at an increasing rate,
50 that the shell reaches maximum
speed at the muzzle and scars out
In a belch of fame, followed by a
misty light smoke from the smoke
less powder,
Right Shape Needed.
Part of the great care used in
manufacturing this explosive goes
toward getting the pieces into just
the right shape. Cannon powder
is actually a hard, dark material
that looks and feels much like pipe
stem material. 1t is formed into
cylindrical pieces that run as large
as / inch in diameter and 2 inches
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