Ogden Daily Standard | 1915-02-01 | Page 7 | High Explosive of the Germans

HIGH EXPLOSIVE OF THEGERMANS By R. FRANKLIN TATE. Paris, Jam 31 An officer has just )glven me pome interesting details regarding a new and extremely powerful pow-erful explosive the Germans have been employing. "My battalion calls these bottles of champagne " he said. "They arte cylindrical and about as long as a champagne bottle. We suppose they are filled with liquid air or carbonic acid. "They are thrown from a distance of from 300 to 400 yards without any great initial velocity. You can follow fol-low the course of the projectile through the air and tell where It Is going to drop. They are apparently thrown by mortars. "When they fall and explode the effect is equivalent to the discharge of from 110 to 132 pounds of melinite. The explosion of a single champagne bottle makes a hole fifty feet wide and forty feet deep in ordinary ground. "We conjecture that the liquified air is in a glass receptacle with a thin metal casing. This probably makes It impossible to fire them with guns, tho initial explosion of which would be capable of causing the explosion of the projectile In the bore of the gun. Therefore they are compelled to use mortars, which explains why they can only send the 'champagne bottles' a very short distance." oo