Show A NEW DESTROYER As ax AN A N offset to the heavier and stauncher staunches Sta war ships of the great european powers it is claimed by those who ought to know in the united states that the new dynamite cruiser vesuvius fills the bill exactly it does not and cannot represent the slugging which the bigger and stronger vessels resort to in a fight but is to make a specialty of running and getting in blows on the sly from a distance in ILL fact it la Is a marvel in point of speed making within a fraction of miles an hour under full headway or as much am the average express train while a man of war with eighteen inches thickness of chilled steel en casing it all a around cannot do more than half as well this great advantage being demonstrated and conceded the next questions are as to accuracy of aim and destructiveness of the missile when properly placed to solve these e experiments peri ments mente were recently made which it is claimed gave perfect satisfaction A projectile containing pounds of gelatine and dynamite was discharged from one of the pneumatic guns and after a bowed flight of over a mile in which the missile wobbled considerably because of having been loosely adjusted in the gun it struck the water point foremost as was intended and in a moment exploded throwing up a column of water to the height of feet few vessels could long endure if at all such terrific shocks as that but it should be remembered that that was a light charge the maxi maximum mulo amount of gelatine dynamite or other explosive which the shells cau cao contain and the guns project and deliver at that distance being pounds enough to destroy nbc strongest ironclad that floats in every instance the shells went just far enough beneath the surface to accomplish the greatest results this being an arrangement that is very ingeniously devised devi aed the outer coat ing of the tubing which is of bra braae contains holes through which the salt mat water runs as soon as the shell abell is submerged and when it Is filled the action of the fluid is such i as to produce the n necessary ec essary concussion and the explosion takes place this is within twenty seconds of abo tb time it strikes the water but it if it should strike the vessel marked of destruction that would explode it i also and the result while not so ao completely disastrous as though the projectile were would have the effect of tearing away for a considerable radius all the portion of the ship where it struck and the stronger it was built the greater would be the probable destruction As previously suggested the guns are pneumatic that is the propulsive power is compressed air of course gunpowder could not be used that would undoubtedly cause all U the destruction at the wrong end of the nus siles journey the air is kept in a tank where it is forced by machinery and is thus imparted to the guns of which there are three on the vesuvius all things considered it is certainty certainly a dangerous piece of workmanship and if its kind can be reproduced as rapidly as desired as was the case with the monitors during the rebellion we might again astonish the world by overcoming the of the sea with our smaller and more efficient davids all this suggests the question as to why if the vesuvius style of craft is superior and handier than the bulky and cumbersome ironclads iron the other nations should not adopt them then atoo too there is no such thing as an international patent and if there were the condition of beliger ency between us and another power would obliterate it so far as the latter was concerned and if this should be done it would then be a question of which could destroy the other first and fastest exactly as it is now in point of fact the gun that was experimented with the other day was for the italian government ern ment being designed for the protection of espezzia Sp ezzia though of course it is the same pattern as those of the vesuvius |