THE DYNAMITE GUN AND SHELL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1233, 16 October 1885, Page 3

THE DYNAMITE GUN AND SHELL.

The fearful ravages wrought by the explosions of dynamite leave no one unable to conjecture what might be the consequence of a bombardment in which missiles charged with dynamite should be employed. The difficulty has a'so been easy to anticipate. The shock of explosion of the gun charge would under the old system in all probability fire the shell charge, dynamite being easily exploded by mechanical shock, and the gun and shell might naturally be expected to destroy the gunner rather than the enemy. The Americans, who seem rather fond of trying the supposed impussib’e, first began to experiment on dynamic missiles, and an officer of the American navy contrived what might be called a colossal air-gun, in which the shell charged with dynamite might be started on its flight with an easy but accelerating motion, avoiding the shook so certainly productive of premature explosion, and obtaining by a high air-pressnre through a long bore the velocity requisite. The idea had been foreshadowed by the Lyman accelerating gun, which, starting the shot with a small charge, followed it up by successive explosions of accelerating charges placed along the bore, aud giving it the highest initial velocity ever attained by any gun. The Lyman gun tailed, as might have been anticipated, through the week spots introduced into the system by the mechanical arrangement for securing the accelerating charges from exploding premaurely or not exploding at all, and the great reflef given to the gun by the modification of the explosive qualities of the powder has probably put an end to the experiments in accelerating charges. The success of the experimental air gun in throwing to effective distances shells filled with dynamite or even nitro-glycerine was such that a gun of 8 inch calibre and calculated to throw a shell three miles was planned. It was perfectly correct in theory, and was made apparently on the only safe method ; but while the scientific officer who conceived it was following out the development of his system by mathematical calculations, one of the more characteristic inventors had attacked the problem of the other side. Instead of making his propelling force more elastic he gave the elasticity to his missile, and by a wad or cushion of caoutchouc of the requisite quality so took up the 6'St impulse given by tho explosion that a shell tilled with dynamite was fired with complete safety and an effect which can be imagined more easily than ca'culato.l, A shell fired from an ordinary battery gun and oirryiog 111b of dynamite striking a ledge of gneiss which formed a target blew out a cavity 20ft in diameter and Ofb deep. No fuse is required, as the shell explodes by concussion as it hits its mark y and it was easy to perceive that a single shell of this description striking the side of the most solid i ouclal iu existence near the water

line would be likely to send her to the bottom.

Thus fa>- no accident is reported in the experiments, which sreto be, if they are not by this time repeated with guns of much heavier calibre. But the calibre of the gen is of. secondary importance; its range and capacity of the shell for carrying dynamite are the chief elements to calculate on, and if a shell carrying 10.01b of the explosive can be fired from one of tbe heavy guns now in use, the first hit decides any conflict between single ships, and one of onr steel unarmoured cruisers will yield no quicker than tha Inflexible to the shock of such an explosion; The prospect of such a change in the condition of watface is appalling, and the only consolation which civilisation can draw from it is that it is always the defence that profits most. It is truu that comparatively small gunboats carrying one larue gun might approach by night, or even by day, near enough to a seaport to throw several dynamite sheila into an inhabited city, and with a devastating effect which recent events can suggest, and the boa*o themselves being small and swift, may be very difficult to hit, while the oity can hardly be missed ; but tbe land defences have not only the faculty of employing heavier artillery, and of longer range, but of working with much greater accuracy and safety and mnch less expense, .as an acci* dent with dynamite, such as premature explosion of a shell, will sink a ship but would be attended witn but slight damage to works or men in an open battery, and such accidents will always be more likely to happen at sea than on shore. A flotilla of small unarmoured boats, each carrying one heavy gun, will, thus armed and aided by shore defences, defy in defence eny ironclad fleet that can be formed today, and as the boats and guns are already in existence, any rifled gun being available, as the entire novelty is in the shot, it is possible that we may see ironclads out of fashion, and the navies of the whole civilised world running to She opposite extreme from that lately resorted to, and building the smallest gunboats that can safely carry a gun, It is rash to conclude anything on such novel conditions, but one thing is clear—that if from a gun of modern calibre a shot can be fired which shall crash in the side of any ironclad in existence, the work of a shot will be wisely expended in getting range with accuracy alone, and it may be necessary to make new calculations for the construction of the most efficient type of gun, while ironclads will be considered as far more speculative investments. A long pun of relatively small calibre and carrying a long shot would seem in such circumstances to be the gnn of the future. —Times.”