Show A i aw V W crale LN dv q A a lieutenant in the united states stales lauy IT cw jt y w w aw yar A sa s1 POWDER TESTS TEST INCE upon a time a ch chemist mist waa kv a 0 ONCE sitting nith mith his an fn feet t cock cocked ed up on the I 1 table able smoking ills pipe it was an off day for the bad smell artist the door opened and in walked a boy he handed a small jar to the artist I 1 menu mean chemist in the jar were several lumps of yellow dough one was streaked purple like a rum heisters hi nose mac says he be thinks aughta see this begin began the th boy A terrific explosion was the answer lie got the chemist seemed to shoot into the air his pipe landed in the corner the boy picked it up stuck it into ills teeth and went away ile he was tafe because of the purple streaks on the yellow lumps in the glass jar the lumps were smokeless powder the jar was the visual test jar in abich samples of powder brands are kept in laboratories the purplish streaks told the be chemist that this particular brand was disintegrating was becoming dangerous might at any minute break down ignite and blow its cont container aiDer whether battleship or box bos into smithereens so he be exploded he wired till all ships having that particular Irl index dee of powder aboard what had happened and he took pains to bury safely all of it that was within danser danger distance of his own back yarl yard that was as years ago nowadays every man of war keeps her eye on her own powder by a series of ironclad iron clad tests and inspections that befit the serious seriousness niss of having a thousand lives to guard indeed the tons of explosive aboard one warship Is sufficient to destroy a fleet it if properly placed the powder Is stowed in bags the bags in clr tight tanks tank the tanks links in watertight rooms called magazines magazines must be kept at less than degrees F r always and as a rule at not more than 05 95 degrees F each has a little shelf on which stands the iiii glass ss jars one for every brand of powder in that magazine about ten in the morning the chief gunner ner goes about the ship recording record ingall all Maga magazine title temperatures and scrutinizing ln alfe the little yellow lumps in the jars A purplish hue which so excited the chemist is caused by action of freed acid on the indicator this is added to powders in order to provide a safety signal when there is danger of explosion due to chemical decomposition the te gunner looks carefully for any such signs litmus paper Is stuck into the necks of the jars it is saturated with an indicator and changes color in the presence of acid besides this dally daily so called visual test there Is held twice a year the semiannual semi annual surveillance test samples from all the powders are heated heated to a temperature of C and kept apt there for sixty days or until they break under the strain iiii 1 HE PUNY P PAST A 5 T CT IN ot of being a chinaman P T i exclaimed n gunnery officer the other day and not being able to throw eggs at your ancestors I 1 A million examples of what he meant are at hand take the he Rear kearsarge sarge and alabama two civil war dread which fought oft off Chei Chel bourg france fifty odd years ago our countrymen thrilled with the spectacular details of the great enga engagement gement each vessel boasted about SOO horsepower in her v wheezy old engines we make no undue comment when wo we hear that horsepower will lambaste the stern sheets of our new battle cruisers the combined armament of the two monsters was one 7 inch one 8 inch and six 32 alabama two 11 luch inch and five 32 kearsarge all together be the bite of a sick flea alongside a salvo from the dozen 18 inch rifled sky shy shifters snifters ers well be buying picture postcards of to send our sweethearts before long in that gigantic enterprise that bloody duel of hot blood and cold steel the kearsarge threw projectiles jec tiles and the alabama had the pair been century model heavy weights they might have slammed some explosives shells against one an others armament and tile the weight of each shell about 1500 lbs ibs would have been three times a whole broadside from the old smooth bores the doughty pair sailed circles around each other at distances from to 1000 yards seven complete circles they made like a couple of lightweights sparring for a knockout oh holy w m inks I 1 we shout when ve lie picture this years sea lion crashing over the horizon at 25 knots speed ed and yards distant from her antagonist when the alabama looked like a loser captain semmes struck his colors threw his sword into the son sea and jumped in after it so that lie he could jmj awis unhampered to a neutral yacht the deerhound the modern skipper give a tinkers d 1 n whether ills its colors were up or not so long as ills vessel floated ile he would be imprisoned lini imi in the I 1 steel COTIn conning flig td tower lr and ap if ile he tried and LI 11 1 1 amord mald hi alian artler rier kia hla la ettre ittre s ft t bo be by nitric fumes aiom smokeless cies s powder r nut hut mark me worthy contemporaries a ril S the next nest generation are already gathering their eggs tor for us MOON TAXPAYER attention and 11 MR nil all you poor browbeaten brow beaten people of the streets especially residential streets add ts anti militarists and other land lanO crabs I 1 bring a message of cheer the gov from first to last Is accustomed to pay some toward the entire and final education of a naval officer in many ways annapolis Is the grandest educational institution in the world and yet even with mith till all this frightful expense a vital point Is overlooked 1 one oae sad example will suffice he was a graduate ensign for four long years he be had bad been molded into the tha hold bold resourceful type of youth a warship lures by choice he had relinquished high marks in engineering and had concentrated on the enthralling subject of navigation ile ha soon goon perceived the popular fallacy of believing that eliat only sun and stars are used in piloting frisky fleet about the wet parts of our globe th dear old cheesy moon Is no less important por tant with the sun for instance latitude north or south of the equator Is far more easily obtained than longitude or time but by a simple twist of the mathematical wrist one may measure a stars distance from the man in the moon and thereby set ones clock to a second at any time of the night again there ts Is the matter of nations tat lons ions these are eclipses of stars try one your yourself pelf some clear night from time to time a fat star goes behind the moon it if you note the time then and again when it emerges the mean of the two will be the mo moment by your watch it at which the star was in line with the moons center by comparing this time with a list the naval observatory publishes you may discover the exact error of your ing ingersoll ingersol ersoll ersol the moon enn can be observed in the daytime as well ns as the sun that she is wan and pate pale Is an advantage la in being less trying on the eyes both latitude and longitude are to be got tills this way all of which the graduate ensign learned at a cost of thousands of tax bled dollars and yet alas when lie took a furlough to rest from his labors lie he discovers too late that hed never been tau taught bt one fearful truth about the moon that a moon makes moonlight and t that a in moonlight a maiden fair air Is fairer than ever and well he has two satellites by now VOICE PIPES tawit ann rip hairy balry savage lias hag legend his gods and spirits the navy biot hot so different d iff erent in the fleet there are stock yarns about everything frem radio ticklers tic klers and secret codes to rubber boots and swabs the innocent voice pipe has come in for its share first hat Is a voice pipe this piping Is brass or composition that it fiill IN III not rust from two to four inches in diameter ametEr dl depending on the length and in d there may be feet of it on a single ship it Is used to communicate from one place to another when telephones bells buzzers buzzerd buz and other systems are shot away on a up to date fighting craft so the legend runs there was a voice pipe from chart aliouse to en 9 with a branch to tile chief ahle f engineers cabin for the admirals ur or captains curiosity this arrangement was a great gratification two points about this pipe make the story possible firt fart it led rind and opened just above the middle of the chiefs hunk in emergency lie he could I lie IC C called tit at night secondly the machinist in charge of the starboard en gine room was tin an artist on an harmonica ni it Is worth adding that the admiral abhorred a harmonica fairly loathed its lethal lugs gs one butet night at sea the old man was indulging in a nice hot cup of tea in the pilot aliouse house said lethal ings sifted up through the voice pipe that d d caterwaul again agal til 1 he exclaimed and just the way he said again was a 11 hymn of hate b by Y itself such a peaceful tropical night it was warm too and the clatl clinef ef lay a face downward on ills his bunk bare and cool bare as the day he was waa born r pace ice dow dom n WOW lie ile leaped naked biked into the night clutching himself behind 1 he le fairly screamed up the tube what he said was indistinct except fit at tho iho end came just jost wait you and a gurgle three minutes later he was in the th it was empty so 90 was another ten tell seconds the admirals teapot 0 and lie he was on the bridge so mas aa tile each salil ald good talt ts lh 01 saas to in lul in admiral |