Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 2, 1894, Page 20

THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER ! T4 0 5160 SO0 R0 40 4 40 ST. JOSEPH'S FAIR AND RACES, SEPTEMBER 10th to 15th, _SIX Days of Rare Entertainment. MORG TIAY 200 ENTHIES 1AYB BEEN RACEIYY For Thirceen Purses and as usual the St. Joseph Fai il The Display. department will be first class “air will have by far the Best Races to be Seen in the West. Trotting and pacing races will be disposed of by Friday night, and Saturday is set aside a s a gala day for running and bicycle races. LIBERAIL. PURSEES OFFERED. D D BURNES HUZZARS, The Finest Mounted Division of the K. P., Society will Give a Grand Parade and Exhibition Drill. A Gl Camivl o Moniay Now wall Sty gl and the list of general attractions is the best the St. Joseph Fair. The 4th Regiment N. G. M., will be encamped at the ever secured for fair ground Fair Week, and a grand military review, competitive drills and a sham battle at night, are among the attractions. REDUGCED RATES ON ALl RAIL.ROADS, M. F. MYERS, Secretary. ST JOSEPH, MISSOURI. a most significant factor in the harbor detonse | of our cities, and that, however strong fortifi- | cations may be they will not prove completely adequate without one of these guns. There was for several years in Washing- ton a prejudice against the gun.by naval experts, and the failure of the gun on the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius to work satisfac- torily in the exhaustive tests which have been given since the cruiser ha§ been com- pleted, has Increased the lack of confidence in them. The army has always contended that one of these guns, &clentifically manipulated, was capable of greater destructive power than three of the heaviest pleces of ordnanec manufactured for coast defense. General Flagler, chief of ordnance of the army, has maintafned that while there was great devel- opment yet to be secured in perfecting the dyamite gun, suflicient progress had already been made to guarantee its adoption with other ordnance in the protection of great clties. Captain Sampson, chief of the ord- nance bureau of the navy, has aiways been in some doubt as to the expediency of adopt- ing the gun for use in the navy, but he be- lieves that the disadvantages Which have been encountered, mounting one of the guns on a war ship, can be readily removed with a stationary piatform on shore, and that all the difficuities which prevent its effective use can easily be reduced to a minimum. The récent results obtained at Sandy Hook are regarded by ordnance officers here as in- Ordinary card tickets, whict are ueed fos transportation ane way’ briween Jocal seaiCl nl](l\r"lm:’);‘(aY': 15 ot suflcient travl 1o Justify paying the cost of sey printing, are never punched by lf.um:‘e'm.:: agent. Besides the “L" and star, il tickes offices have the mark “i," which s applied 10 tickets s0ld to childreri entitlod to ride at halr fare. It baggage is checked from. the otel, : the letters ' punched out on the ticket, um:‘mn::" Ating checked.” The transfer’ company and aleg the baggageman a the' depot have this ch, which preven passel from getting 150 pounds of baggage nenbon at his 1,1:‘!!\3 and another 150 pounds at the A]lulll\lyll.“ I“H'll(ill large cities the gatemen have l‘ unch, “G," which means holder passed through the gate,” and nothing Xllflnl:; l(‘l(vl agents, baggagemen and gatemen always the punches bilonging to thers respective cla Conductors have indl- vidual punches, as already explained, no tug of which make the same mark. Ten thow sand would b2 a m de Imate of all the conductors’ punch in this ciuntry, The system of punching tickets held by ugers 18 simple enough. It a ket a point on his divis conductor punches |t and pla '”‘:liulr:l (|ll1: pocket. 1t it reads beyond he punches it to the end of his division, and If n separate section represents his division ho tears It off and places it in his pocket, Haef sue. ceeding _conductor follows the same. rule It the passenger asks for stop-over at uny Intermediate point his ticket is punched ty by arrangement of a piecs of gas pipe and a | pounds roughly made dynamite torpedo. He suc- | ceeded fn throwing his projectile by means | of an improvised mortar, but could not make it explode more than onc: or twice in a half dozen efforts. This was due to the fact that bis fuses were not adequate. time Meffort’s idea has been improvzd upon from time to time until the present 'gun ivas devised, and members of the company say that the latest tests have suggestod possible improvements in the details of the gun, The gun and carriage weigh in the aggre- gats fifty-two tons, but the gun can bé moved by the turn of a wheel or turned in any direction. A telescope stands by the gun, and through this the gunner places his aim. The gun is moved by electrict The compr:ssed air is conveyed from t engine rooms by means of pipes to wrought iron and steel reservoirs, which are in chambers | (¢ under the gun platform. From these reser- aving a range of 5,200 yards. The fuse voirs the air Is conducted by means of large A in this projectile is somewhat more pipss up through the carriage to the trun- | than twelve inches long and three and one- nions, and from the trunnions through a | haif inches in diameter, and weighs twenty large' casing surrounding the barrel to the [ pounds. To the end of it s attached a breach. Rotary joints are provided in this | brass case containing a priming charge of pipe at the pintle and at th trunnions, | two and cne-half pounds of dry gun cot- which allow the gun to be moved with fres- | ton. About thirty-seven grains of fulminate dom without breaking the continuality of the | of mercury are used to explode the gun cot- pipes and Allowing any escape of air. A | ton. All of the mere Important parts of the large valve near the breech controls the ad- [ fuses are in duplicate, in order to secure cer- mission of air into the barrel. The opening | tainty of action. The hammers are locked and closing of this valve Is automatic and | until the projectiles are well out of the muz- complet:ly under the control of the gunner, of the gun, when they are automstically THE PNEUMATIC SYSTEM unlocked. A feature of the pneumatic system Is the | The fuses may be set to explode the in- abllity of he gunner 1o change ithe range | Stant the projectile strikes the water, or two without changing the elevation of the gun | 9F three seconds later. = The projectile flies by controlling the amount of compress:d air | HrCUEh (he alr always in view until it that escapes at each discharge. When the | Striker the water. —Tons of water burst Alscharging lever In pullcd the. largs valve | 1210 the air and ten settle down into great at the breach opens and remains op:n a sufi- | Stretches of white foam. —The force of the clent time to allow a certain quantity of air | $10t8 is felt at S:ndy Hook, and one on To escaps. inte he “bemrer heam Y Of g | Friday was distinctly noticeable on_ Atlantic o betore the projietile leaves the o, | Highlands, “four miles from the spoi where zle, cutting off the escape of the air and | Y5, Projectile exploded. retaining in the reservoir all that was mot 8. Goard oL oronanne omPAREimIIL popory nesded in propelling the projectile. The f O the results of the test, and until that length of time the valve remains open. is | e It 18 not likely that army or mav under control of the gunner, and by regulat- | Oficers will give their opinions. 1t is pre- ing the amount of air that enters the barrel | Sumed that it will be accepted by the govern- he regulates the encrgy imparted to the pro- | MeUt, as the “conditions have been more ile, and so can change his range without | than complled with. = On Friday, for in- H e ot i il stance, the five shells fired fell in a straight The system of keeping the reservoir always | 106 Within a space of thirty-nine and onc- stocked with compressed air is a simple | ha!f yards long at a distance of 2,000 yards one. At each discharge of the gun the air | [FCM ' the gun. The government would pressuro in the reservoir falls according to | AV been satlsfied it 74 per cent of the the adjustment of the valve. IC the stand- | phells bad fallen In a spece three times as ard pressure in the reservolr is 1,000 pounds to | (O e ocuracy of the projectlles scem the square inch, one shot may reduce this | (O De stablished, as well as the certainty of pressure to 900 or 850 pounds, or any pres- | ¢Xh.oslon :“ el YE time. sure, not usually less than $00 pounds. By 9 SRHRguPIARS 188 It drawing from a storage reservoir beside 4 (ER4 . SRy erpment of high explosive. The point is made of bronze and the body of steel three- sixteenths of an inch in thickness. The ex- plosive charge s divided into two parts by a dlaphragm across the interior of the pro- Jectile, about at its middle, the object being to distribute equally the strain caused by the setting back of the charge at the instant ot the discharge, thus causing less shock to the explosive. The fuse which causes the explosion is situated in the point of the projectile, where it is inserted just before the The range of this projectile is on the value of dynamite on war ships as follows: “Each time the conclusion has been more or less favorable. ~Bach report, however, has stated that the accuracy af the guns leaves much to be desired. It is manifest that the accuracy of a gun Is its most im- portant quality, and without a satisfactory degree of accuracy all other advintages are of minor importance. The difficulty in the pneumatic guns appears to center in the main valve which admits the alr to the gun. At all ranges except the maximum the suc- cessful working of the gun demands that this valve should open and close in an ex- ceedingly short time, probably a small frac- tion of ® second. Tha difficulties en- countered in accomplishing this have not been overcome. The department has already expended 000 upon experiments with these guns without any decided improvement. Without entering further at this time into the merits of the system the bureau recommends that further ex- periments be deferred until after the in- stallation at Sandy Hook of the fifteen-inch guns now n course of construction for the War department. In these guns the com- pany promise to overcome the difficulties which exist in those of the Vesuvius.” EFFECTIVENESS OF DYNAMITE. Next to the Interest that attaches to the establishment of the effectiveness of dyna- - s n. WAR'S DEADLIEST WEAPON Tom Masson In New York Sun. “I'm going back to town,” he said Spake the maiden, ¥ no mo While the waves from the sea curled rest- essly Over the whitened shore. The Poeumatio Dynamite Gun and Its Vast Fossibilities. . REVIEW OF THE SANDY HOOK TESTS “You're cruel and heartless and all things els, _You're a mean old horrid thing! For you sald you'd stay till 1 wer There! ‘Tll give you back your ring. “I'm going back to town." “En ake with look of ake you suffer you poor rry that you were LAkely to Become an Essential Part of Our ugh!™ Const Defeuses—dethod of Applying the Compressed Alr—Composi- tion of the Projectiles. PROJECTILI sub-caliber projectiles are One ten inches in diameter, which carries a-charge of 200 pounds of high ex plosive and has a range of more than 4,000 yards, and the other eight ches in diam arrying 100 pounds of dynamite én sizes of born, “You are going back ta town, then go, There are other men as sweet!" And she quickly rose (rom her former. pose, The great guns that threw Into the alr A e oS fnom he! an lcr:rul the Atlantic ocean last week, pays the New York Sun, are perhaps help- Ing another cause than that of war, and flolng thelr Involuntary share in moving the world along toward that state of friendly guiet In which the Peace congresses believe we should dwell. The knowledge of the power for dreadful destructiveness that each hew improvement gives causes even Kings to hesitate while the name of war grows more hateful to the people. Improvements iIn explosives and in small and big arms hiave done this much for the peace of the world, and now a quarter of a ton of dyna- mite thrown a mile and a half out to sea, and placed with an accuracy that has va- ried only slightly throughout the tests, has come to ald in the work of abolishing war. There comes out of these tests the con- elusion for New Yorkers that a hostile ship I8 not likely to enter the harbor. If the guns at Sandy Hook were not equal to keep- fng out a forelgn vessel then a battery of the guns stationed on Coney Island and Rockaway could add strepgth that should prove invincible, The owners and promoters of the new guns maintain that one of the projectiles s capable of destroying three men-of-war. Seven years ago an experi- ment In the lower bay gave a measured in- dication of the destructiveness of one of these projectiles when it was discharged at a wessel. An old wooden schooner which Bad been used In the coast survey was an- ehored about 1,864 yards from Fort Lafay “I'm golng b “Nay, deare: And don't To carry k to town," hear me speak, sh—to get the cash h next week." PUNCH WITH CARE. he sald; be me Various Reasons Why the Conductor Shouli Obey This Injunction. The ticket punching system is the ma- sonry of railroading. It almost ranks as an occult science. The ticket auditing depart- ment is the custedian of these mysterious symbols—the punch marks, whi are as important in the disposition of tickets as | {h e end of the run just the are signnatures In the acceptance of bank | over check ls leuner 'I'I||~l:;‘l’n:fi:“::r‘vr‘:l:r‘lo:i checks. In any case of disputo between | @ round-trip ticket Is never. ousm " passenger and conductor, or conductor and | COnductors © on going passage. 1t company, the punch marks are final and in- | b UKL, eads - over iwo | or controvertible - evidence, except where an | aro responsible only for thels owr psrtrich original punch mark has been punched out 7 hertionyg and must under no cireumstances by a larger punch in criminal hands, which | With any foreign portion. In this \::)Drddnll? seldom happens. confusion is avoided by the respective ticket Every passenger conductor In America, | AU0IUNE departments in making the monthly says the St. Paul Pioneer Press, has 4 | Settlement of proportions with cach othen punch of his own, though not of his own se- | I the case of ordinary tickets it is fmma- lection, and when he applies it to a passen- terial whether conductors punch high or low, ger's ticket he has committed himself to it | 0 the right or left, but involuntarily they as frrevoczhly as though he affixed his sig- | Select certain pet portions. Of course, there nature on the back of the contract. ~Every | 4re portions cf every ticket where 1o oo conductor must punch every ticket on his | ductor is supposed to apply his instrument. train, or hold himself liable for personal Bvery conductor knows a few other con- payment of the fare for his division or part | ductors’ punch but the ticket auditing d thereof over which the unpunched portion partment knows them all. Before the ge reads, In nothing are rallroad companies | €ral passenger agent gives out a puneh to a more strict than in e of ticket punches, conductor the ticket auditor writes th es the the conductor's ins £ e and . th name of the recipient in a large book, and oppo 1 arge book, and opposit company's material guarantee of square deal- | it his mark is punched out, and for every ing by all interested. f z ticket with that mark which’ {8 subscque The punch mark fs the passenge received that conductor is personally :."u.:.t:.’- tion. By it or Its absenc ) SIDB VIEW OF+THE BIG PNEUMATIC GUN. [mite as an ammunition, probably as in- teresting o lesson of the recent tests is to be drawn from the use of compressed air in the guns. The officers say that for many dicating that the use of dynamite in modern warfare has become practically indispensable to the proper protection of harbors, and they will be turned now admit that whatever doubt was formerly s protec- aver by the Pneumatic I any mistake or | sible. His mark means ( ette. An elght-inch pneumatic gun was mounted and loaded with a projectile con- taining fifty-five pounds of nitro-gelatine, Which Is somewhat more than one-tenth of the strength of the projectiles used In the tests las week. The gun, moreover, had not been brought to Its present stats of gompletion, altaough these experiments at- tracted public attention to the use of dyna- mite. The schooner was ninety feet long and was anchored bows on. The first shot from the gun at Fort Lafayette fell short, and the second exploded about ten yards from the el, broke off the malnmast and blew up a part of the deck. The third rojectile exploded under the schooner and ifted her out of the water. She seemed 86 slowly Into the air and then broke In fwo parts directly amidships. Two more ectiles completed her demolition and left ly & mass of floating wri the result of the experiments made when gun was jncomplefe and the cxplosive the projectile only & small proportion of the rmulml used now. But it indicated melhing of what might be expected when jne of these projectiles and a vessel should ome Into close quarters, AS COAST DEFENDERS, The news comes from Washington that {ho results obtained by these latest test, and, miore especially, lkn great accuragy with which projectiles hive been placed, have at- tracted the admiration of the ordnance ex- ports in both services. They belleve the suc- cens of the gun will lead 1o its adoption for purposes of coast defense, and for the ection of those coastwise cities for which Fortification Board bas recommended a meral policy of defense agalnst attacks foreign fleets. The army ordnance offi- belleve that these tests have proved @ Houbt that the dynamite gun will be ; ' held as to the impossibility of securing range and accuracy has been removed by the appar- ent facllity with which the projectiles were discharged by the fifteen-inch gun last week, The present congress authorized the secre- tary of the mayy to convert the dynamite crulser Vesuvius into a torpedo cruiser in the discretion of the department. The Sandy Hook test, however, will probably lead to the postponement of any such action until the guns on the vessel have been tried again, EARLY EXPERIMENTS, The navy was the first to take up the question of using dynamite expelled from tubes by compressed air for the destruction of @ ship. Early in 188 the department ordered the construction of a vessel which was to be fitted with three dynamite tubes mounted forward stationary and aimed by the ship's rudder. The vessel was to have great speed, and it was believed she would “revolutionize warfare.” A favorable re- port on the system had been made by the pneumatic gun board, end the vessel was built by the Cramps at a cost of nearly $400,000. The fl“h‘ trisl with the guns occurred in 1380, Three shots were fired for range and fifteen for endurance. The report of the board says that no attempt wis made to secure accuracy of practice, the trial being aimply to mest thy coniract requirements as to the rapidity of fire and {hé capacity of the system to Malntaly (hat rapidity for & glvep Ymes After donsider- ing the report the deplrtment ordered recond ¥t€1 the projectile to e Lied be- ng 8 fub-caliber containing a 204-pound charge of gun ecotton and fitted with me- chanical fuces. The result showed that a thell containing 200 pounds of gun cotten or other high explosive could be thrown at least one mile by each of the dynamite guus constituting the vessel's armament. Atter considering maturely all the tests on the Vesuvius the chief of ordmance reported reasons_it would be impossible to use pow- der. Perhaps the most important is that it would detonate so sensitive an explosive as dynamite. The 36,000 pounds pressure to the superficlal inch, which is about the average force of powder, would csuse the projectile to explode before it left the gun. Another necessity which renderg the use of powder impossible is the importance of keeping the gun cool. Powder would heat it to such an extent that the dynamite would explode. As It is, the pneumatic gun is made cooler by every introduction of com- pressed air. 1t powder were used the shell of the projectile would have to be very much heavier that it is now, and there would be less space for the explosive. The largest projectile now weighs 1,120 pounds, and about 45 per cent of this welght i3 in the explosive, which in these large projectiles weighs 500 pounds. The projectile must, moreover, be expelled at a uniform rate. The first shock of the explosion of powder, diminishing until its force ceases, would cause the projectile to explode, while an explosion is prevented by the unvarying pressure of compressed air, which malntiins the same rate—about 1,000 to the inch—throughout the gun. An- other reason given by the company for the use of compreseed uif Is that the forve: of powder {s likely to be variable. It is not always uniform, and for that regson greator squrgcy In qbigined by the ule of coy- }fg:lq& air, which they say they can be cef- aln Wil Alwa¥b projyce an exact result. In .dg on to these advantages, as the com- pany Tegards them, there Is. of course, no dirt or smoke or necessity for scrubbing out the gun after it has been used. The idea of using compressed alr as a substitute for powder Is sald to have origi- nated with a Toledo mechanic named Mef- fort, who had made a study of explosives, The pneumatio gun of today Is said to have developed from ap idea suggested to Meflort the engine rooms, which contains air at a pressure of more than 1,000 pounds to the square inch, the pressure in the gun reser- voir may be speedily restored. This is, in brief, the compressed air system which the company uses. The system of loading the gun has been arranged so that there is no danger from the rapid handling of the projectiles. The projectiles are brought from the magazines in trays, which are run onto a loading car- riage. This carriage runs on a circular track around the gun and brings the pro- jectile Into position for loading. A wind- lass is used for forcing the projestile into the bore of the gun. . It requires four men to load the gun with a sub-caliber projectile, while the fall caliber projectiles, which which welgh es much as 1,120 pounds, re- quire six mep. The company's managers say they have never bad an accident. Captain Rapleff, the designer of the gun tested last week, says that the projectiles can be easily thrown upon the deck of & g THE FULL CALIBRE PROJECTILE, vessel. There are two kinds of projectiles used in the gun—one, termed a full cgliber, fits the bore closely; the other, a sub-cali- bér, is consideraldy emaller than the bore and 15 made to fit ‘snugly at the ends by a system of circular blocks, which are loosé and_ which fall imo the water a few hun: dred yards from the gun after the discharge, All of the projabtiles have ogival heads and long bodies. /The gun being a smooth bore, rotation Is Eivem to the torpedoes as they move through the air by means of spiral vanes, somethimg on the plan of a ship's propeller, Whith are attached to the rear. The full ¢aliber projectile is eleven feet 1o length adl Uas & capacity for 600 Torpedo and Construction company, includes the three guns with their carriages and all of the electrical appliances, the engines and machinery which compresses and stores the air that forms the motive power, the dyna- mito magazine and all of the storage reser- volrs, outhouses, projectile carriages and gun attachments. The total cost to the gov- ernment for the plant will be $162,000, and it will represent almost the first large amount of money the company has received since they began to perfect the gun some twelve years ago. nd of a Feud. For repeating to General Butler, then in command of the Army of the James, a dispar- aging remark made by a subordinate con- cerning the general's military efficiency, an officer in a Pennsylvania regiment, says the Pliladelphia Record, was promised a sound thrashing by the officer whom he had reported, and who, in consequence, had suffered a bad quarter of an hour In the general's soclety. The {hrashing was to be bestowed after the War was over, at thelr very first meeting, no matter under what circumstances it might occur. The two officEF betame prominent civilians In adjoining states. For many years one of them went around armed with a revolver, the other with a blenk bail bond. Though often in this city (where one of them resided) at the same time, they never met until recently, and then they encounte: each other face to face in the surf at Atlantic City. Each had grown so stout as to weigh over 250 pounds, yet they instantly recog- nized each other. Something ludicrous in the thought of such vast spheres of flesh engaged in & rough-and-tumble fight may have entered thelr minds at the same mo- ment, for they called each other by name, smiled and shock hands, The feud thus termivated. oversight on the conductor’s part involving subsequent confusion or loss to the passen- ger can easily be traced, proved and rectified. For {llustration, a passenger recently pur- chased a round-trip ticket from Portland to San Francisco. On the going trip a con- ductor, by mistake, tore off the section read- ing ““to San Francisco.”” The next conductor, having no evidence of the passenger's right to travel over Lis division, demanded cash fare, which was paid and receipted. On ar- riving at San Francisco the passenger called upon the general passenger agent, and, show nig his return portion of the ticket and r ceipt for part cash payment on going trip, asked that his loss be made ] eral passenger agent h 1 a moment. “*Look " sald the passenger, “I know something aboutl rallroad tickets myself, even if I'm not a deadhead. You look up the going portion of my ticket, and if you don’t find punch mark ‘V' on It I'll give you $50 cash and go home.” The ticket was looked up and the identical punch mark discovered, whereupon the pas- senger department refunded the cash pay- ment made on the train. The first mark punched in the ticket is the lettep “L," meaning originally “lmit,” by the clty ticket agent or local agent who issues (t. This letter is used by all agents who sell tickets in this country, and desig- nates the class and limit of the ticket. The star punch is used about as freely as the “L,” ‘and has about the same significance. It snerally applied to ironclad, or non- stop-over, one-way tickets, and ' also de scriptive tickets. It 1s even used on coupon tickets, ' known to auditors as ‘“ex cursion” tickets, which read over some foreign lin and book tickets, which - read to far point on home to designate class and limit. Like the it 18 used on the body of contracts. In the audiior's oflice It 1o used for cancellation, within a given time on a certain train, running over a cars tain division, be accepted from a pi enger, named or unnamed, the material evidence of his right to travel, and endorsed the coms pany's specification of privileges to sald senger. The punch mark means all this and more. It means that the conductor holds himselt pereonally responsible for any oversight, in- discretion, or Irregularity In his handling of the ticket. If he loses his punch he must report immediately to headquarters, wheres upon his genvral passenger agent will fur nish him with a new ssarlly not of the same denomination. Tho old punch mark 1is Groat care s exerclaed In_this regard becauso of the o portunity afforded a scalper securing the old punch and manipulating tickets, A fa= vorite trick of somo scalpers used io be punch out a small mark by Inserting about it a larger mark, thereby changlng the de- nomination o ket Such marks as ters, excepting “G," no significance whate an angle or bar. § or other let- *and “B. C," have ny more than b people suppose they represent conductors’ names. Every mark has untold significance to the ticket auditor, but none to any one else. Having exclusive jurisdiction Quctors, the division euperiniendents can change them around to Aifferent traing without notifying the ticket auditing depart emut, which litle, in fact, sine same conductors always carry the same punches, and the nfalible reeord is not dis- turbed over con- E. P. Dlodgalt the oldest p Rev. of Gre nwleh, i pomt of service, with one except I the Un'ted States, closed his official ccon.ction w.th. ils cungregation with a parting sermon last Sunday aftere noon after 4 warvice of Afly-one years. Mass.,