Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — THE HIGHEST EXPLOSIVES. [ARTICLE]

THE HIGHEST EXPLOSIVES.

High explosives, hitherto untried in either military or naval contests, will play a large and important part in the warfare of the future. The most powerful at present known is “explosive gelatine,” being fifteen times as strong as gunpowder. It is made by dissolving gun-cotton in nitro glycerine, the preparations having tho consistency of honey. Unfortunately, it is very unsafe stuff to use in battle, because a bullet striking it will set It off by concussion. No explosive is good for fighting purposes that can be touched oft by shock or otherwise than by actual contact of fire. A novel kind of bomb is filled with what the inventor calls “helloflte.” The two chemical ingredients, binitro-ben-zole and nitric acid, arc in separate glass vessels, which are broken when the shell is fired, their contents being mixed together by the rapid revolution of tho shell and exploded by a time fuse. Wonderful accounts are given of the havoc created by the bursting of projectiles of this description. Up to the present time no method of throwing high power explosives from guns by means of gunpowder has been proved successful, although one scientific fentleman has wasted SBOO,OOO of Uncle am’s money in experiments which only resulted in bursting many valuable cannon. However, triuls that urc being conducted under Government auspices with a new mixture .termed “emmensite” seem likely to solve this problem. Until now only pneumatic guns have been found available for such purposes. Flying machines for use in war have engaged no little attention of late on the part of the inventors. Maxin, the designer of the famous gun, claims to have produced one which can be controlled. He declares that he can fill his aerial car with explosives and hover in it over the city of London, holding that great metropolis at ransom to the extent of as many millions of pounds as he chooses to mention. Thus situated, be can announce his terms by dropping a small package containing a statement of them and his ultimatum of “cash or crash 1” His contrivance is a cylinder of aluini-' num containing a three-fourths vacuum, its collapse being prevented by strong ribs inside. It is propelled and steered by electric gear, and is further sustained and balanced by the wings of a great aeroplane, with an automatic arrangement of a compensatory nature that tarings the machine immediately back to the horizontal when it tends to vary therefrom. BALLOONS IN WABFAIIE, The War Department has been recently conducting experiments with balloons for military purposes. It will exhibit at the Columbian Exposition one of its new “balloon trains,” consisting of three wagons. One of the wagons carries a balloon packed in a basket, while the other two convey steel cylinders etyirged with hydrogen gas. When it is desired to send up the balloon it is taken out of the basket, connected with one or more of the cylinders and is ready to u ake the ascent in fifteen minutes. It attains an elevation of 2,000 feet v remaining attached to the earth by a wire rope through which a copper wire runs. The copper wire connects a telephone in the balloon car with another telephone on the ground, so that direct communication is maintained. If desired, the telephone wire may be continued to the headquarters of the commanding general, miles away. Meanwhile the observers in the balloon car can overlook the positions and intrenrhmenta of the enemv, being at a safe distance from the hostile lines. Sketch maps can be sent down by means

of the wire rope. A plan recently suggested is to send up small captive balloons carrying nothing but photographic cameras, which could be worked automatically from the ground. They would be allowed to drift over the fortifications of the foe, each one taking a series of pictures of whatever was beneath.