DYNAMITE SHELLS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 691, 29 May 1885, Page 7

DYNAMITE SHELLS.

Experiments with the Projectiles at ihb Washington Navy Yard. There was a preliminary trial at the Washington Navy Yard last week of the Snyder dynamite shell, using gunpowder as the projectile agent. The distinctive feature of the Snyder system is an elastic compressor or buffer interposed between the base of the / shell and the powder charge, whichitakes up the concussion of the discharge and prevents premature explosion of the dynamite shell. The trial was under the auspices of the Senate Military Committee. The gun used was a six-inch rifled breech-loading howitzer of the Moffatt pattern. The shell was loaded with twelve pounds of explosive gelatine, , containing 95 per cent of pure nitro-glycerine. The firing charge was the maximum that the gun would take, and was of common hexagonal powder. The projectile struck the target, exploding: with a force that completely shattered both target and backing. The concussion of the air in the vicinity was such as to shatter window glass in houses 400 yards from the target, and some of the fragments of the shell were picked up nearly half a mile away. The test, which was designed merely to try the efficiency of the buffer, was a success. Further trials to test the effect of the projectile upon heavy targets will be made during the current month. A reporter lately visited Mr Snyder for the purpose of ascertaining the results of his experiments, Mr Snyder has been for » number of years engaged in torpedo and ordnance expeiiments, not only-in this country* but abroad, and was associated with Col. John L. Lay, M. A. Hardy, and Martin Hu-„ boe, in developing the famous Lay torpedo, which is controlled in its movements by electricity. He also took au active part in the late war between Chili and Peru, holding a -a. commission under the Peruvian Government. He said : ‘ I have no particular objections to letting the public know what I have accomplished, but you know if I open myself to interviews ou the subject of dynamite, it will be hard, for me to keep out of the range of your flying artillery reporters. In this respect I have already been the attacking point of an army of scribes, but I will give you what information I can, consistently. * My preliminary experiments began about three years ago with a f inch shot-gun, from which I fired shells charged with one to one and a half ounces of dynamite. I perfected the system so that I safely fired from the shoulder. I then began increasing the size of my guns until my present experiments are made with canon of six inches calibre, I consider that the system is so well developed now that| dynamite shells can be fired from guns of the largest calibre, and that as long a range can. be secured as with ordinary projectiles. From the six inch guns of the old pattern, which are considered obsolete for modern warfare, I, have fired projectiles charged with lrom eight to ten pounds of the~ strongest grade of dynamite. * The system is applicable to all kinds of guns, and the shells can be fired from breech or muzzle-loading, smooth-bore or rifled ordnance.”—St. Louis Globe Democrat, March 26.