On Tuesday, the Times published an account of a new
,dynamite-gun, at this moment being tested by the British Government, which appears to have solved the problem of how to use explosives of high energy in driving projectiles. Up till now the difficulty has been to discover some means for prevent i-
ng the discharge of the gun prematurely exploding the shell.
A solution appears to have been found by Lieutenant James W. Graydon, of the United States Navy. In the first place, he uses compressed air as the motive-force of the projectile, and next, he has contrived to neutralise the shock of the dis- charge. "His shell is lined with asbestos cloth, which is an excellent non-conductor of heat as well as a elshion, and the charge of dynamite contained within the shell is divided up into small pellets or cartridges, each enclosed in a wrapper of waxed paper." If the gun succeeds in practice, we may be on the eve of a complete revolution in ordnance, as shells loaded with gunpowder are mere child's.pIay to dynamite. The change, if it comes, like most of the recent changes in war materiel, will still further detract from the picturesqueness of battle, A battery of ordinary artillery presents a really beautiful appearance, but if composed. of dynamite-guns, it would look as if a set of telescopes had volunteered, for the front.
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