THE DYNAMITE GUN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2614, 13 April 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE DYNAMITE GUN.

Tjik American expm'm. Nts with a dynamite gun will not make pleasant reading for those who hapten to feel a want of cordiality in their relations with th« United States. The discovery that rlyna mite may safely lie discharged from an air tube has now I>,:eu carried a *tep further. The inventor has shown thai, u can be discharged in the enormous volume of the explosives of modern warfare. On the first occasion ho succeeded in firing a small portion OI dynamite iroin a pneumatic tube. He linn now proved that as much as 5001b. of t can be sent through the air from a 15 inch pneumatic gnu, with consequences which it is considered must be absolutely desetructive to any vessel within :i radius of 100 feet of the point at which it explodes. At this rate the 100-ton pun may soon become the Brown Boss of heavy ordnance. The two shells fired on Saturday were not remarkable for accuracy of flight, but their explosive force left nothing to be des-ired. They were fired from Fort Lafayette seawards, and they raised mountain* of water as they burst beneath tho surface. The description of their effects recalls the momornblc account of the blowing up of Hell Gate in the same harbour some few years ajro. There is a wide margin for marksmen's errors in a radius of 100 feet. Mere accuracy of aim can be but a question of detail, "now that the possibility of handling immense masses of this terrible explo.-ivo with safety to the operator has been satisfactorily proved. There will henceforth bo more reason than ever for Lord Wolsoley's assertion that many of the finest fortresses in the world have been rendered obsolete by the improvements in gunnery made within the past 20 years. With dynamite projectiles on one cido of the ocean, and melinite on the other, mere saltpetre will soon liwe all its reputation for villaiuousness. For this country there can be no additional comfort in the reflection that the dynamite gun is to bo mounted on a new dyuamite cruiser, and that both originate amoug a people whose invention of the Monitor and the Mer-1-imnc revolutionised the navies of the world.—D.iily News.