Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/507

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HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
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usual broken appearance, but arc much distorted by the violence of the explosion.

A live-inch armor-piercing projectile was next filled with Maximite and fired through an armor plate, as above described, the projectile being afterwards recovered intact. It was found that the shock had in no way affected the explosive. The shell was then armed with a fuse and fired by electricity. The number and character of the fragments showed that the same force was developed in proportion to the weight of the shell, as in the case of the large 12-inch shell above mentioned, which was exploded in the sand. The five-inch shell is shown in Fig. 2. The fragments recovered after the explosion are shown on the right of the shell.

The next test was with projectiles filled with Maximite fired against

Fig. 2.

Five-inch forged steel armor-piercing projectile, weight 45 lbs., before and after exploding the Maximite. This shell, after filling with the explosive, was first fired through a four-inch nickel steel plate into a sand butt, where it was recovered intact. It was then exploded for fragmentation. There are a little over 800 pieces of the shell shown in the photograph, the average weight of the pieces being, therefore, about one ounce.

a concrete wall, with results which demonstrate that the power of the explosion was superior to that of any other high explosive ever thrown from a gun.

Projectiles loaded with. Maximite were then fired through a wooden screen, after passing which they exploded, and the fragments went into the sea. The fragmentation was such that the appearance of the water was similar to that which would be produced by the simultaneous fire of a regiment of musketry. On this occasion, a result was produced hitherto unknown, and which, perhaps, illustrated the violence of the