MODERN HIGH EXPLOSIVES AND THEIR DESTRUCTIVE WORK.
By T.
Nothing in the field of military or mechanical invention has received more attention during the last fifteen or twenty years than the development of high explosives. And the results of this activity are most marvelous indeed. These high explosives are much used and with great effect in mining and other industrial fields. But nowhere are they being studied more closely and experimented with more carefully and earnestly than in the line of the military profession.
The Battle-ship Maine at Full Speed on Her Last Trip. (Reproduced from the "Scientific American.")
Port Side of the Wreck of the Maine, Showing Superstructure, Deck Ruins, and Overturned Smoke-stack. (Reproduced from the Scientific American.)
The gunpowder used in the time of the late war in this country would be as much out of date now as the old-fashioned stage-coach. Fortifications and naval armor that would have successfully withstood any projectile that the best explosives and cannon of those times could hurl, would hardly be sufficient to resist the attack of a battery of the one-pounders of to-day. Much of this development is due, of course, to the improved construction of the cannon itself. But far more is due to the great advance that has been made in the power of the explosives used.
The terrific effect of the explosives used to-day is very forcibly illustrated by the cuts on this page. The destruction of the Maine in Havana harbor has been the theme of discussion everywhere for a number of weeks. But it is difficult to imagine the great force that had to be exerted to so completely destroy such a stoutly-built vessel. The hull of the modern battle-ship is built as strongly as the inventive genius of man, with the best of steel and other materials at his command, can make her. And above the water-line the Maine was covered with an armor of steel twelve inches thick.
In our first cut a view is given of the Maine as she appeared under full steam on her last trip. Her great strength and power are apparent even in the picture. Our second cut gives a partial view of this same majestic ship after the explosive had done its work. The pictures tell what words can not express, so nothing further need be said upon this point.
But the fact should never be lost sight of that the infallible Word tells us that “the time of the dead, that they should be judged,” “the nations were angry.” Ingenuity and activity, the like of which has never been seen before, are manifested among all the nations of earth in their maddened preparation for war. And when we look at this in connection with the other signs that have appeared all about us, is it not evident that the judgment of the great day is even now impending?
