Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1896 — Firing Cannon Under Water. [ARTICLE]

Firing Cannon Under Water.

The most curious experiment ever made with a piece of ordnance was at Portsmouth. England. A stage was erected In the liarbor within the tide mark, on this an Armstrong gun of the 110-pound pattern was mounted. The gun was then loaded and carefuly aimed at a target—all this, of course, during the time of low tide. A few hours later, when the gun and the target were both covered with water to a dept'i of six feet, the gun was fired by means of electricity. We said “aimedat a tafget,” but the facts are that there were two targets, but only one was erected for this special experiment, the other being the hull of an old vessel, the Griper, which lay directly behind the target and in range of the ball. The target itself was placed only twentyfive feet from the muzzle of the gun. It was composed of oak beams and planks, and was twenty-one inches thick. In order to make the old Griper invulnerable a sheet of toiler plates three inches thick was riveted to the water-logged hull in direct range with the course of the ball was expected to take if not deflected by the water. On all of these—the oaken target, the boiler plates and the old vessel hull—the effect of the shot from the submerged gun was really startling. The wooden target was pierced through and through, the boiler iron target was broken Into pieces and driven into its "backing,” the ball passing right on through both sides of the vessel, making a huge hole, through which the water poured In torrents. Taken altogether, the experiment was an entire success, demonstrating, as it did, the feasibility of placing submerged guns in harbors In time of war and doing great damage to the vessels which an enemy might dispatch to such poiiits for the purpose of shelling cities. —lnvention.