Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 115, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1919 — USE CANNON MADE OF WOOD [ARTICLE]

USE CANNON MADE OF WOOD

People of .at Least Three Countries - Employ That Material and Have Found It Satisfactory. • « 1 ■ " " Anyone familiar with modem weaj> ons of war and the high explosives used in them would naturally suppose a wooden cannon of little use. Wooden cannon have been used with considerable success in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The wood used is very tough, having a twisted grain that curls about the log in such a way that to split the timber with the ordinary means is almost Impossible. The best trees are selected and a piece of the tog five or six feet in length and one foot in diameter is cut. After the bark has been removed npd the log made perfectly round, ft Is swung up on a crude truss and a hole is burnbd into it from one end. The log is wound with fresh rawhide, which shrinks and hardens. When the cannon is covered another layer is wound on after certain treatment, and this is continued until the weapon has increased several inches in diameter. Then the weapon is treated to a hot blast, which tends further to contract the hide binding until it becomes almost as strong as wire. These crude cannon have been employed in a number of instances, and it is astonishing, so it is said, how many times they can be fired before they burst or are otherwise disabled.