A Terrible Explosive.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 228, 12 November 1887, Page 9

A Terrible Explosive.

Writing on the 12th of September, the St. Petersburg correspondent of the London *' Times " gives the following account of a new explosive : — There is no end to the perfectly diabolical competition of the military Powers of Europe in the discovery of new chemical agents for the destruction of mankind. It is reported that the Russian Minister for War has just concluded a series of experiments of a new explosive compound, which bids fair to outdo the qualities of melinite, roburifce, and all other explosives whatever in its application to all the present uses of gunpowder. This new and murderous composition is destined, say many persons, to revolutionise the existing system of ammunition. The new explosive is the discovery of a Russian engineer, and has been christened Sleetover. Its strength is equal to that of pyroxyline, and it has the advantage of being ten times cheaper than ordinary villainous saltpetre, Another great superiority which it possesses over all the known explosives of the dynamite class is that when fired its force does not strike downward, but entirely in a forward direction, so that it can be used for all the purposes of cannon and musket charges to which ordinary gunpowder is now applied without any damage whatever to the weapon from which it is discharged. It is stated, in fact, that ball cartridges loaded with it have been fired out of cardboard barrels, as a te&t, without the least injury to the latter. So satisfactory, indeed, have been the experiments that it is reported the Minister of War is about to have a special factory built for its manufacture. The composition is, of course, a deep secret.