Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/510

502 adhere tightly to, the walls of the shell, so that it is quite impossible for the charge to shift in the shell. In the event, however, of the shell rotating upon the Maximite charge, the surface of the substance exposed would simply melt, producing a fluid and perfectly frictionless bearing. In the Transvaal War many Lyddite shells exploded prematurely, either from shock in the gun or from the rotation of the shell upon the charge. Such prematures would be impossible with Maximite.

 Three 3-inch shells, which were filled with Maximite and primed with 50 grains of fulminate of mercury. The points of the shells were blown off with the fuse without exploding the Maximite. The confinement and the force of the exploder wore not sufficient to detonate the Maximite. This is a good illustration of the extreme insensitiveness of this material. (See small piles of unexploded Maximite below the fragments of the shells.)

When wet compressed guncotton is used as a shell charge, there is always some danger of a premature from the rotation of the shell upon the charge, especially when the percentage of water is not great.

Maximite is the first high explosive, satisfactory in other respects, which could be tired through armor plate of such thickness as to lender it available for armor-piercing shells.

In a recent test it the Sandy Hook Proving Grounds, a 12-inch armor-piercing forged steel shell, carrying a bursting charge of 70 pounds of Maximite. was fired through a 7-inch Harveyized nickel steel plate. This is the maximum thickness of such a plate for which