SMOKELESS POWDER. EXPERIMENTS TO BE MADE IN AMERICA.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 420, 16 November 1889, Page 5

SMOKELESS POWDER. EXPERIMENTS TO BE MADE IN AMERICA.

Although foreign powerfc have for almost a year been experimenting with smokeless gunpowdsr and talking about its results, says a Washington despaoch, it was only a few days ago that the Ordnance Dopartment of our army concluded to look into the subject seriously. Daring the next three weeks some tests are to be made in this country. However slow our army officials may appear to have been in experimenting with smokeless gunpowder, they have kept apace with the times. Upon all oocasions where its claims were presented by an official te";t in Europe the United States, had its representatives present, and there have been &everal official reports filed upon this subject with the Secretary of War. Although the attempt has been made to keep the composition of this new explosive a pecret,wo know pretty accurately cf what it is made. Dynamite and gun cotton enter largely into its composition. Cascor oil is also used in some samples. The newspaper accounts of all the tests made thus far in continental Europe are most flattering, and predict a involution in modern warfaie. Offioial and impartial .^tatoments put a different light on the subject, The combustion of one sample of the smokeless powder produces such an overpowering stench that it sickens persons compelled to be in the vicinity, Jn other casea the results are so unoertajn that the praotical utility of the invention is a matter of serious doubt. Jf it is discovered that practical and permanent results are likely to be the outcome, the tests and investigations will be carried on indefinitely until the merits or demerits of the scheme have been developed. Thero is a crnzo now for the adoption of rifles of smaller calibre than heretofore used. Investigations have bepn in progress in t\\\s djroctJQn of our Ordnance Department lor nearly two yeuis.