Show affy 1 flop dynamite apt Zali nikl acquired thame death dealing instrument new york naval loffi cers and cry experts have more than a passing interest in the announcement that capt louis gray the mentor ot the pneumatic dynamite sun has passed away at hla home in for a number of sears the method of firing shells loaded with dynamite gun cotton of other high explosives has been under experiment by the united states and other nations with the result that ex seem to be of the that capt EJ G akl for coast defense at least the gun may diio permanent and great value the dynamite gun Is op aerated by compressed air dynamite it Is well known Is easil exploded by a sudden shock and because of this tact it cannot be fired from an or gun or cannon compressed air however Is highly elastic as well as powerful powei ful and these qualities make it possible to fire safely and effective ly from a gun whose motive force Is compressed air a shell containing a large amount of powerful explosive As developed by capt the gun Is about fifty feet long and Is 15 inches interior diameter such guns form the equipment of the dyna mite cruiser vesuvius which was tried in actual warfare against the span lards before santiago harbor in 1890 the first official tests of the invention were made by a committee of naval officers on the delaware Dela waie river near cheater pa shells nearly nine feet long weighing with the dna alto more than pounds were fired the naval officers had vo little faith in the invention that they withdrew in a tug to a distance of a mile before they gave the signal for firing this test showed that the could be fired safely and sent more than a mile with the certainty of exploding on striking or at the end of the time tor which a time fuse was set subsequent tests by the united states and foreign governments govern menta showed an effective range up to two miles owing to the fact that the gun must be inclined upward so aa to throw the shell in a high curve and drop it upon the target the invention la considered by naval experts hardly practicable for extensive use aboard ships As a weans of coast defense ref ense however it Is said to have great pos and some experimenters have predicted that eventually it will displace the torpedo dy graduating the amount of compressed air used the range of the gun Is controlled to a degree of accuracy that has been found surprising in some of the tests made by british experts |