Settling the Question.
Nitrate of amyl, according to Mr Edward Weston, an American electrician, is the agent which will either make naval warfare an impossibility, or enable contending ileets to capture each other without the least loss of life, he to be the victor who possesses
the greatest skill in handling and dis
tributing that compound Nitrate of * amyl, which is very cheap and plentiful, possesses the power of causing insensibility very quickly in a human being breathing its fumes, and its effect is equivalent temporarily, to a paralytic stroke. Mr Weston proposes to fire shells filled with this chemical,
which shells need not penetrate the ship. A few gallons of this nitrate Ashed on the deck of a warship would tow render her crew helpless. The most powerful iron-clads would be even more vulnerable than the light cruisers, for they would be sucking down great draughts of air
through their artificial ventilators, and the odour would thus rapidly penetrate the whole ship. The whole crew being rendered helpless lor an hour or two, the ship could be towed into a safe spot, while the captors ventilated her, and secured the insensible men.
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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2915, 4 June 1888, Page 3
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193Settling the Question. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2915, 4 June 1888, Page 3
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