Explosive shells of melinite are the leading idea in France. It is manufactured at Bourges and is said to be a hundred times as powerful as gunpowder, or ten times nitroglycerine, and reduces what it strikes to a fine powder. They have also a new rifle powder which explodes without smoke.
Russia has a new explosive, fifteen times as strong as any gunpowder, which produces no smoke.
America is not behind in explosives. Lieut. Graydon has been giving exhibitions near Washington of a new patent shell said to be seven times more powerful than dynamite, and yet so safe that it can be fired with powder from a common gun. Mr. Bernard Fannon of Westboro, Mass., has invented and patented a shell of terrific power. It is made of iron, three inches thick, and weighs 540 pounds. The effects of its explosion in a swamp near Westboro were wonderful. It is also said to be perfectly safe.
The rivalry of cannon and armor plates is going on, the development of torpedoes and shells is reaching its maximum, and the power of taking a nation to the edge of starvation, for the building of monster ships, costing each millions of dollars, is the study of Christian (!!) governments.
Thirty years ago, the largest British cannon was a sixty-eight pounder, costing $561, which might be fired for $275. Now they have a 110-ton gun costing $97,500 to manufacture, and $935 to fire once.
The British government has gone into such matters deeply, paying Mr. Brennan over half a million dollars for his torpedo invention.
The British ship “Victoria” uses 900 pounds of powder to one of its 110-ton guns which send a missile of 1,800 pounds.
Nelson’s flag ship “Victory” used no larger powder charge than eight pounds, and its heaviest shot was only sixty-eight pounds. A broadside upon the “Victoria” consumes 3,000 pounds of powder. Its 110-ton gun is moved by hydraulic machinery. Such a metallic monster would seem almost incredible, but Krupp has constructed a still larger gun for Italy, 46 feet long and weighing over 118 tons.
It could not be sent overland by railway, but was sent to Antwerp for shipping on a specially constructed carriage 105 feet long, running on 32 wheels.
The American steel cruiser “Atlanta” has two guns of eight-inch bore, 24 feet long, sending out a projectile of 300 pounds which explodes on striking,—firing correctly five miles. It costs $150 to to fire once.