A NEW LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5681, 14 June 1879, Page 3

A NEW LIFE-SAVING APPARATUS.

A new projectile, intended to be fired across wrecks for the purpose of establishing connection with the shore, has been experimented on lately by the War Office authorities at Slioeburyness. AVe, take the following description of the new invention, which appears to be admirably adapted to the purpose it is designed for,'from the Neio York Maritime. Register ;—“ The projectile weighed, when filled ready for firing, gated shell, carrying a line tightly coiled within, which it pays out without the smallest risk of breaking as it travels through the air. It is put into the gun, as it were, the wrong or conical end first, and, leaving the muzzle, at once reverses, the front end becoming the rear end, and maintaining, due to four wings on the principle of the arrow, an accurate and distant range, with none of the wobbling and swinging and consequent loss of power so common to shot fired from, existing rifled ordnance. • In make up, the projectile is a tin tube 20in. long, 3;|in, in diameter, having wings at one end and a leaden shot weighing 61b. at the other. Within the tube is a compact coil of line 17Jin. long and the diameter of the tube. This line is from 200 to 400 yards in length, 1 with a breaking strain of from 2501 b. to 4001 b. The shot is attached to a second or short coil lying alongside the gun, so arranged that on the shock of the discharge the line runs freely from both coils. At a-range ef ~22Jdeg., an elevation which the inventor has found by continued practice best suited to surely throw the line over any wreck .with the smallest strain to it and the projectile, the distances obtained and measured on the official range course were 589, 448, and 507 yards ; the deviation of the shot and line from the target being 4 2-sths/9 and 8 yards respectively. Three shots fired at 30deg. and 35deg. elevation, traversing a line of flight some 400 ft. in the air, ranged 478, 489, and 386 yards, with deviations of the shot and line from targets of 2,6, and 6 yards respectively. It is in contemplation to replace the line by some five pounds of rocket composition, so that the shot, when it has nearly peached its greatest range of, say, 2000 ‘ yards, may have a fresh energy imparted to it, ■ which combination of gun and rocket power will not unlikely give an effective and accurate range of about two miles. Another idea is to fill the case with inflammable material and compressed gun-cotton powder, for setting fire to and destroying villages, and for general savage warfare ; while a third idea, without enumerating others, which readily suggest themselves to the inventive mind of diabolical gunners, is to fill the large space now occupied byline with material somewhat after the nature of the shrapnell shell, thus producing the most murderous missile ever fired from light ordnance. The cost of each projectile, including the wear and tear of line and purposely light charge of from to ounces of powder, was less than 75., or less than onehalf the cost of the Boxer rocket. This last element of cost enters materially into the question of the introduction of any new system, whether for saving life or for purposes of war ; and it may be asserted that no projectile, both from an economical and varied use stand-point, has ever entered the arena of competition with European field ordnance with such recommendations as the toy gun and projectile recently presented to the Koyal National Life- , boat institution. Two brass guns, perfect toys ■to look at, weighing 561bs. and 691bs. respectively, each 2ft. in length, were used to fire the projectile, the charge of powder varying from 3i to 44 ounces."