Show > OCO < > O < IJOJES IHI MODIRN ARMY Rim WOlAII JilE GINIVA N CONVINHON 1 I OoOCOsO < 4X I RECENT EXPERIMENTS HADE BY EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS SHOW THAT ORDINARY LEAD BULLETS ARE AS EXPLOSIVE IN THEIR EFFECT AS IF FILLED WITH THE DEADLIEST OF COMPOUNDS THIS RESULT DUE TO THE GREAT VELOCITY WITH WHICH THEY ARE PROJECTED FROM THE MODERN BIFLE EFFECT OF THE HIGH VELOCITY BULLET ON GLASS CLAY METAL AND FLUIDS AS COMPARED WITH THAT OF BULLETS FIRED FROM GUNS USED IN RECENT WARS At one of tho last meetings of the International I In-ternational congress which met at Geneva Gene-va Switzerland for the purpose of de I 1 elding upon methods and rules for the j I relief of the wounded In battles It was I tacitly agreed between < the contracting I nations that explosive bullets were not to be used in civilized warfare Late developments In firearms seem to Indicate Indi-cate that the spirit If not the letter of the convention is being violated Neither have the vlslators gone around Robin Hoods barn to accomplish their purpose pur-pose It Is the result of accident or I rather of a development in physics We have simply found that we were not as well acquainted with the rule of Inertia I or momentum as we thought we were Geneva convention or not If any civi I lized country were to put dynamite or other explosive compound Into Its bullets I all the other civilized countries would rise up in combined protest against the practice Yet rarr nations are now using guns the bullets of JlICs quite off i as explosive In their effect as though filled with the deadliest of compounds I Most remarkable Is the fact that these hlbltlon set nn it But nearly every I Ivlllzed country now uses rifles 1 with a eloclty very much In excess of that of the old Express rifle and while they have I no mechanical contrivance to Increase the destructive powers of the bullet are I yet even more deadly In I their effect on human tissues As mentioned above this happens to be the result of an unexpected I t development In physics I It Is found that w heh a bullet of very high velocity enters living tissue it produces pro-duces an explosive or latenU effect directly di-rectly In proportion to tBeforce of its flight The phenomenon may be said to resemble the dropping of a stone In a pool of water The stone continues down to the bottom Uut concentric rings of force may be seen circling off In all directions di-rections The more fluid the substance the greater the effect ai the particles of matter and hence the waves of motion more easily communicate their force to one another Thus a mpdern bullet may enter a manes body and make but a smallsized hole yet the communicated I shock would be terrible shattering every delicate organ In its way and extending in Its Immediate effect throughout the whole system and proving fatal If not Iin one part then In another Dynamite could not be more deadly CONCljySIVE EXPERIMENTS Professor Rocher of Berne Switzerland has recently made some very Interesting experiments showing just how this explosive ex-plosive effect acts on different substances sub-stances At these and Into these he fired bullets of high velocity Now in regard re-gard to glass plates The man who remembers re-members his natural philosophy will tell you that a stone thrown through a window would probably smash the glass all to pieces while a bullet would make a small clean hole where It had gone through without otherwise shattering It But these oldtime calculations are all set at naught under the new system A low velocity bullet shot through glass during the experiments caused a perforation of about the diameter of the bullet A high velocity bullet made a large opening from which rotated numberless concentric fractures frac-tures communicating and intcrcommunl catlnc with each other all over the plate of Klpss Plates of lead and of soap exhibited ex-hibited a plain hole when a low velocity bullet made It With high velocity the perforation was much larger than the caliber of the bullet and as there was I no loss of weight In the plates It was clear that the large holes were the result of lateral compression due to the explosive explo-sive effect J Most curious was the effect of high I velocity bullets on clay targets After tho bullets had passed through It was I found that at the point of entrance and of exit tho hole was but little larger than thq diameter of the bullet but in the center a cavity somewhat oval In shooe and fully ns large as a mans fist had been formed The explosive effect of the buiet had thus expanded or rather compressed the clay outwardly In all directions di-rections as It passed through the mass How terrible would be this literal form when acting on tho tissues and llulus of the body If the effect on solids was startling I what shall be said of the effect on fluid Tin cans either empty or filled with dry substances were fired through with the result of boring small hole at the point of entrance and exit and of compressing outwardly the substance contained in the cm but when cans of fluid were perforated perfor-ated by high velocity bullets they burst in all directions conclusively proving that the explosive effect Is worse when opposed by liquids In a recent experiment experi-ment made by the German government the terrible results of the explosive effects ef-fects of bullets were noticed Some anatomical ana-tomical specimen were placed In a convenient con-venient position to be shot at They were wrapped In sheets so as to give the effect of wearing apparel The tissues were made as lifelike as possible by tho I Injection of fluids particularly the Injec tion of blood Into the blood vessels Bullets Bul-lets were fired at various distances up to 2000 meters Even at this distance with the bullet traveling at the rate of 170 meters a second the explosive effect was noticeable while at a shorter range the lateral disruption was very great The reason for this explosive effect In wounds produced by bullets of high velocity ve-locity has not been clearly explained Even Major A C GIrard one of the foremost I fore-most surgeons In the United States army Is at a loss to explain It He says concerning I con-cerning It The centrifugal action assumed i as-sumed to be produced by the rotation of the bullet has been believed to be the cause of explosive action Unfortunately for this theory this effect was obsered with round balls propelled from smoothbore smooth-bore guns whenever the velocity reached a certain degree Another circumstance tending to disprove this theory Is that although In the modern riffe the bullet makes 2500 revolutions in a second Its velocity Is such that In a flight of thnee feet approximately only four revolutions revolu-tions are accomplished and It would therefore perform but a small part ot one on striking the human body The fusion of the lead and the scattering IK all directions of molten particles has IIa bI Lkt Wi I EffECT or BULLET I EXPLOSIVE EFFECT OF BULLET ON f FRQn OLD Tint RIFLED J 5AriEfWERIAL fROM MODERNWFLEj lCan of Watery 2A Cube of Clay 3A Plate of Glass bullets affect living tissue worse than I they do any other substance PRACTICES AVHIC li THE GENEVA CONVENTION PROHIBITS The Geneva convention prohibited the old Express rifle bullet This bullet was of larger callbrt than the bullet of today but It was made of soft lead was hollow and had si Small steel point When this steel point struckto bone it stopped short in Its flight wfiile the lead Qelng sorter kept on aridYunable to go r I ward spread out like an HI shaped funnel h lkrn eU edt f I i in all directions inflicting a terrible wound Pieces of wax were also used In place of the steel point the effect being to bunch or set up the lead behind creating so to speak a bullet with a knob on It destructive In Its effect and Ifllcult to extract < vM this was mechanical me-chanical I and as such dt a definite pro been given as another explanation Positive Pos-itive experiments with careful thermometric thermo-metric measurements have shown that the bullet while It Iv i heated In Its passage pas-sage through the barrel of the rifle never acquires the point of fusion there by The theory had Its origin from the observation that the bullet on striking Iron plates or stones becomes heated to the point of fusion This however Is due to the sudden arrest of Its energy and Its transformation Into heat under well known physical laws Such an arrest ar-rest does not take place In the human body unless the velocity of the bullet Is greatly reduced when the transformation transforma-tion Into heat Is not sufficient to cause fusion or even scorching VELOCITY OF BULLETS The last number of the Journal of the Military Service Institution which Is i published by the officers of Governors Island gives a list of the high velocity rifles used by different countries It IsIS Is-IS follows Austria uses the JIannllcher and Portugal the Kropatscheck cal 315 m m France the Lebel cal 315 S m Denmark and the United States the KragJorgen cal 30 76 m m Germany Ger-many the Mannlllcher model SS cal 31 79 m m Belgium and Turkey the Mauser cal 30 7G m m England the LeeMetford cal 1 303 77 m m Switzerland Switzer-land the Schmidt 75 m mV Spain the Mauser cal 2S3 72 m m and the Neth crland and Roumania the Mannllcher cal 25 65 mm The average weight of these guns Is eight pounds The average length of the bullet Is CO m m The velocity at 1000 yards will average about SS5 feet per second Now with the small calibre and consequently the reduced weight of the cartridge each soldier can carry a larger amount of ammunition than heretofore here-tofore and as the Journal points out the methods of renlacing the ammunition ammuni-tion expended by rapid firing will be so perfected 1n the future that troops within with-in firing distance will hereafter have to meet a perfect hall of buiiPts Vben the explosive effect of each of these bullets bul-lets Is considered we get some Idea of what a battle of the future will be like Some time nrrA rcnnrts rtf the inefficiency of small cnlibrc high velocity lei were published in which It was pointed out that their rerforntlng power was so great as to reduce their power of destruction de-struction the Intention being to show that the would perforate a bone or tissue tis-sue so quickly and so neatly as to cause hardly any wound at all It Is evident however that the observations must have concerned spent bulcts For minus concerne mnns an explosive effect which ceases as the extreme range Is reached the effect of I wound would be exactly as recorded I was noted by the surgeons of the Chltral campaign NEW HORRORS OF WAR In fact the horrors of war Increase In prospect as time passes It will need more than tacit agreements at peace ronventons to overcome the future tendency ten-dency to hiehlv destructive engines of war The Maxim and other guns of a In similar nature simply mean If Fred Into m enemys ranks death and destuc tlon ten thousandfold greater than was possible under the old system But even these are surpassed by the onetimatlc dynamite gun In use In Cuba This KUI shoots dynamite shells which explode when the object aimed at Is struck Manifestly Man-ifestly the gun Itself could not be exploded ex-ploded with powder or the dynamite In the shell would also exnlode as a result of sympathetic concussion The Cuban gun Is therefore operated by compressed air which practically blows the shell to Its destination Extending In a coil under the gun proper Is a long compressed air tube At the proper moment the air acting through the tube Imninees on i the dvnamlte cartridge and protects It to Its destination Quite a lengthy range Is attained Of course such a firearm Is In direct violation of the articles of the Geneva convention Inasmuch as the dynamite cartridge constitutes what Is known AS nn explosive bullet But as the Cubans had no part In the proceedings of the convention and as the belligerency of tho Insurgents has not been recognized generally the practice of this kind of warfare on the Island 13 1 rendered pars doxtcally legitimate It Is therefore an Interesting question to consider In case Cuban belligerency Is acknowl be1gerenc acknowledged whether the use of the dynamite gun would be permitted by other countries Spain certainly could not resort to the same tactics Inasmuch as she Is a party to the convention In fact with the requisition re-quisition of new states the changed condition con-dition of firearms and the decidedly anarchistic methods of warfare which have been lately suggested It Is the opinion of some prominent arm officers that new articles will have to be added to the convention If It Is to have any Influence In-fluence on the battles of the future THEODORE WATERS I J i 1 I j |