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 the odd
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 Waller 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 not
promise 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.
"Attached to the steel well, or chamber, will be a gauge, a pressure
recorder and other apparatus. When the powder, of which I will use only
a pinch, carefully weighing it, goes off, it will raise the
hundred-pound weight a certain distance. This will be noted on the
scale. There will also be shown the amount of pressure released in the
gas given off by the powder. In that way I can make some calculations."
"How?" asked Ned, who was much interested.
"Well, for instance, if one ounce of powder raises the weight three
feet, and gives a muzzle pressure of, say, five hundred pounds, I can
easily compute what a thousand pounds of powder, acting on a projectile
weighing two tons and a half, would do, and how far it would shoot it."
"Bless my differential gear!" cried Mr. Damon. "A projectile weighing
two and a half, tons! Tom, it's impossible!"
"That's what General Waller said about his gun; but it burst, just the
same," declared Ned. "Poor man, I felt sorry for him. He seemed rather
put out at you, Tom."
"I guess he was--a bit--though I didn't mean anything disrespectful in
what I said. But now we'll have this test. Koku, take the rest of this
powder back. I'll only keep a small quantity."
The giant, who, being more active than Eradicate, had rather supplanted
the aged colored man, did as he was bid, and soon Tom, with Ned and Mr.
Damon to help him, was preparing for the test.
They went some distance away from any of the buildings, for, though Tom
was only going to use a small quantity of the explosive, he did not
just know what the result would be, and he wanted to take no chances.
"I know from personal experience what the two kinds of powder from
which I made this sample will do," he said; "but it is like taking two
known quantities and getting a third unknown one from them. There is an
unequal force between the two samples that may make an entirely new
compound."
The steel chamber that was to receive the hundred-pound steel block had
been prepared in advance, as had the various gauges and registering
apparatus.
"Well, I guess we'll start things moving now," went on Tom, as he
looked over the things he had brought from his shops to the deserted
meadow. The fact of the test had been kept a secret, so there were no
spectators. "Ned, give me a hand with this block," Tom went on. "It's a
little too heavy to lift alone." He was straining and tugging at the
heavy piece of steel.
"Me do!" exclaimed Koku the giant, gently pushing Tom to one side. Then
the big man, with one hand, raised the hundred-pound weight as easily
as if it were a loaf of bread, and deposited it where Tom wanted it.
"Thanks!" exclaimed our hero, with a laugh. "I didn't make any mistake
when I brought you home with me, Koku."
"Huh! I could hab lifted dat weight when I was a young feller!"
exclaimed Eradicate, who was, it is needless to say, jealous of the
giant.
The powder had been put in the firing chamber. The steel socket had
been firmly fixed in the earth, so that if the force of the explosion
was in a lateral direction, instead of straight up, no damage would
result. The weight, even if it shot from the muzzle of the improvised
"cannon," would only go harmlessly up in the air, and then drop back.
The firing wires were so long that Tom and his friends could stand some
distance away.
"Are you all ready?" cried Tom, as he looked to see that the wiring was
clear.
"As ready as we ever shall be," replied Mr. Damon, who, with Ned and
the others, had taken refuge behind a low hill.
"Oh, this isn't going to be much of an explosion," laughed Tom. "It
won't be any worse than a Fourth of July cannon. Here she goes!"
He pressed the electric button, there was a flash, a dull, muffled
report and, for a moment, something black showed at the top of the
steel chamber. Then it dropped back inside again.
"Pshaw!" cried Tom, in disappointed tones. "It didn't even blow the
weight out of the tube. That powder's no good! It's a failure!"
Followed by the others, the young inventor started toward the small
square "cannon." Tom wanted to read the records made by the gases.
Suddenly Koku cried:
"There him be, master! There him be!" and he pointed toward a distant
path that traversed the meadow.
"He? Whom do you mean?" asked Tom, startled the giant's excited manner.
"That man what come and look at Master's new powder," was the
unexpected answer. "Him say he want to surprise you, and he come today,
but no speak. He run away. Look--him go!" and he pointed toward a
figure of distinctly military bearing hurrying along the road that led
to Shopton.