Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1898 — NEW NAVAL TERROR. [ARTICLE]

NEW NAVAL TERROR.

YANKEE INVENTION TO BLOWUP BATTLESHIPS. ' -< ' Fires a Dynamite Bomb-It Is Intended Mainly for Use on Board Small Vessels to Sink Hostile Crafts—Cotton Mills Started Up.

Planned for Destructiveness. In an old barn in Ke.vport, N. J.. is the latest creation in the dynamite gun line. ■ln a few days an official test will be made of the weapon, when its powers will be publicly shown. The gun is the property of a New York company, and is the first of its kind in the world. Tarts of the gun were made in Newark, parts in Neiv York and parts in Elizabeth, N. J. It is now ready for service. It has been given several satisfactory private tests. These tests are to be continued. If a market is found for the gun enough patterns and molds are at hand to turn out a thousand such gnus in short order. There is mystery about the inventor and the firm which is putting the gun on the market. Persons prominent in army and navy circles are interested in the enterprise. It is intended to be used in the field, on the sea or for harbor defense. It can be mounted in several ways. This gun is known as a low-pressure piece. Its bore is but three inches, but it is eleven feet long. The projectile thrown is about, two feet long. It weighs 10 pounds. The explosive charge is 35 per cent of the total weight of the projectile, which is loaded at the breach and set off with a mechanical fuse. Five pounds of dynamite can be thrown one mile with such force that it would pierce a half-inch steel plate. By increasing the size of the gun the range and power would be increased. • 7T far- -T—r,r— ; * Started Up Cotton Mills. The York cotton mills in Saco. Me., opened the other day, but out of l,t>oo' striking employes only 200 went to work, and in several departments there was not enough help to start the machinery. In the weaving department fifty ont of 1,800 looms started. The managers claim that they did not expect the mass of the.operatives to go to work at once, hut hope to get most of them hack in the course of a few days.