448 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Avhich can oiilv be realized at present in modern breecli-loading 

 rifles. Although experience has shown the futility of all our efforts 

 to use gun cotton and nitroglycerin explosives in this manner, it 

 has been proved that the nitro-substitntion explosives can be em- 

 l)loyed with safety and effect. 



The nitro-substitution explosives are made from nitrobenzenes, 

 nitrotoluenes, nitronai)lithalenos, nitrophenols, and bodies of a 

 similar character, and one of them, called joveite, has given excel- 

 lent results in this country. After having demonstrated that the 

 destructive effect of joveite was greater than that of gunpowder, 



smokeless powder, or gun cotton, 

 and, by repeated trials under se- 

 vere conditions, that service shell 

 loaded with it could be fired from 

 service guns under service condi- 

 tions with safety, on November 

 3, 1897, the naval officials at In- 

 dian Head fired a fused ten-inch 

 Carpenter armor-piercing projec- 

 tile containing 8.25 pounds of 

 joveite, with a velocity of 1,960 

 foot-seconds, at a Harveyized 

 nickel-steel plate taken from the 

 armor for the United States 

 steamship Kentucky. The shell 

 passed completely through the 

 armor plate, where it was 14.5 

 inches in thickness, and burst 

 immediately behind tlic plate, 

 [n a second round an unfused 

 ten-inch Midvale semi - armor- 

 piercing shell containing twenty- 

 eight pounds of joveite was fired 

 with a velocity of 1,925 foot-seconds at the same plate where it 

 was sixteen inches thick. The shell penetrated to a depth of twelve 

 inches, and the heat produced by the upsetting of the shell was 

 so great as to explode the joveite, which broke the plate and burst 

 the shell with tremendous violence. In fact, the explosion was so 

 very severe that the heavy base plug of the shell was sheared 

 longitudinally, an effect never obsorvcr] before with any exj'jlosive 

 fli-od at the proving ground. 



Notwithstanding that no accident occurred in any of the many 

 firings, that the stability and safety of the explosive are assured, 

 and that the explosion has been effected with a well-known and 



Shooting an Oil Wki.l with 

 Nitroglycerin. 



