THE NEW POWDER
"Bless my cartridge belt, Tom, you don't really mean to say that stuff is powder!" exclaimed Mr.Damon.
"That's what I hope it will prove to be--and powerful powder at that." "Why, it looks more like excelsior than anything else," went on theodd man, gingerly taking up some yellowish shreds in his fingers.
"And it will burn as harmlessly as excelsior in the open air," went on Tom."But I hope to prove, when it is confined in a chamber, that it will be highly explosive.I'm going to make a test of it soon.""Give me good notice, so I can get over in the next State!" exclaimed Ned Newton, with a laugh.
This was several days after our friends had returned from the disastrous gun test at Sandy Hook.Tom had at once gotten to work on the problem that confronted him--a problem of his own making-- to build a giant cannon that would make the longest shots on record.And he had first turned his attention to the powder, or explosive, to be used.
"For," he said, "there is no use having a big gun unless you can fire it.And the gun I am planning will need something more powerful in the powder line than any I've ever heard of.""Stronger than the kind General Wailer used?" inquired Ned.
"Yes, but I'll make my cannon correspondingly stronger, too, so there will be no danger.""Bless my shoe buttons!" exclaimed Mr.Damon."You boys must have had your nerve with you to stay around Sandy Hook after that gun went up in the air.""Oh, the danger was all over soon after it began," spoke Tom, with a smile."But now I'm going to test some of this powder.If you want to run away, Mr.Damon, I'll have Koku take you up in one of the airships, and you'll certainly be safe a mile or so in the air," for Tom had instructed his giant servant how to run one of the simpler biplanes.
"No--no, Tom, I'll stick!" exclaimed the eccentric man."I'll notpromise not to hide behind the fence, or something like that, though, Tom; but I'll stick.""So will I," added Ned."How are you going to make the test, Tom?" "I'll tell you in a minute.I want to do a little figuring first."Tom had, before going to Sandy Hook, made some experiments in powder manufacturing, but they had not been very satisfactory.He had not been able to get power enough.On his return he had undertaken rather a daring innovation.He had mingled two varieties of powder, and the resulting combination would, he hoped, prove just what he wanted.
The powder was in gelatin form, being made with nitro-glycerine as a base.It looked, as Mr.Damon had said, like a bunch of excelsior, only it was yellow instead of white, and it felt not unlike pieces of dry macaroni.
"I have shredded the powder in this manner," Tom explained, "so that it will explode more evenly and quickly.I want it to burn as nearly instantaneously as possible, and I think it will in this form.""But how are you going to tell how powerful it is unless you fire it in a cannon?" asked Ned."And you haven't even started your big gun yet.""Oh, I'll show you," declared Tom."There are several ways of making a test, but I have one of my own.I am going to take a solid block of steel, of known weight--say about a hundred pounds.This I will put into a sort of square cylinder, or well, closed at the bottom somewhat like the breech of a gun.The block of steel fits so closely in the square well that no air or powder gas can pass it.
"In the bottom of this well, which may be a foot square, I will put a small charge of this new powder.On top of that will come the steel block.Then by means of electric wires I can fire the charge.
