The New Explosive.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 5

The New Explosive.

It is a mooted point whether the new explosive, melinite, is such a &ucc<^-. as claimed by the French military .authorities. On their side it is stated that in recent naval experiments against an old ironclad the shells .-howed unexampled powers of destruction : so much bo that steei plates of the heaviest dimensions 'would be useless as a means of defence. On the other side it is claimed that this new chemical compound decomposes in the course of time. It is clearly, therefore, useless for war purposes. If this had been discovered sooner by the Fiench Ciovernment, a. great saving would have been effected, as about fifty millions has already been spent for its manufacture. In the meantime its destructive qualities have been bo magnified that people living in fortified places in Europe are frightened out of their wits at the idea of being blown to pieces at any moment. A comical incident is related in this connection : Some time since a well-dnesaed man stopped at a hotel at Reichenberg, in Bohemia, and on his departure he left a handbag with the porter, saying ho would come again and fetch it. Weeks passed, but the man did not return. As it was found that the bag had a weight out of proportion to its size, suspicion was aroused and the bag was treated with the greatest caution. After a brisk exchange of telegrams between Prague and Reichenberg, the order was given first to keep the suspicious article in a cool place, and then to take it to an open space, half an hour distant from the town, where no one was allowed to approach nearer to it than 100 paces. Various plans were then devised for getting rid of the dangerous reticule, and it was even proposed to throw it down from a high rock and let it explode in a harmless way. Thi? scheme was, however, relinquished, as two courageous men offered to open it with a knife after it had been left awhile in a cool place. Accordingly the bag was brought back to town, again observing the strictest precautions, and stowed away in an isolated cellar, where it would probably be still lying if the owner had not suddenly appeared and claimed his property. To tho great disgust of those prudent worthies, the bag wa,s found to contain only iron tools, which the commercial traveller, whose disappearance had caused so much anxiety, now carried away with him, enjoying a hearty laugh at the expense of the Reichenberg folk.