Attack of Fortified Places. Including Siege-works, Mining, and Demolitions.: Prepared for the use of the Cadets of the United States Military AcademyMercur, James
History
Attack of Fortified Places. Including Siege-works, Mining, and Demolitions.: Prepared for the use of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy
Mercur, James
Defensive (Military science); Military engineering; Offensive (Military science); Siege warfare
These fuzes (Pl. XII, Fig. 32) are made up of two insulated copper
wires, _A_, _A_, passing through a small cylindrical block of
insulating material, _B_, and terminating about 1/16 inch above its
end. A very fine platinum wire, _C_, about 1/1000 inch in diameter and
1/8 inch long, connects the ends of the insulated wires. Surrounding
the platinum wire is a small quantity of gun-cotton, mealed powder, or
fulminate of mercury, _D_. A copper capsule containing 15 to 30 grains
of fulminate of mercury, _E_, is pressed down over the cylindrical
block far enough to bring the fulminate in contact with the material
surrounding the platinum wire, and the whole fuze is then coated with a
water-proof composition. The insulated copper wires are cut to various
lengths for convenience in connecting with the conductors or lead wires
from the battery.
=68.= Fuzes of the first and third classes are now but little
used. Many of them are unsatisfactory and dangerous. They differ in
construction from those of the second class principally in that the
platinum-wire bridge is omitted, and the exploding spark or current
passes from one insulated copper wire to the other through a material
which is ignited by it.
=69. Placing the Fuses in the Charges.=--A certain number of
cartridges or packages should be selected, each fuse inserted and well
packed in the explosive, and the wires or free end of the safety fuse
brought out through the opening, which should be made water-proof, if
necessary, by securely closing and thoroughly pitching it. The wires
or exterior part of the fuse should then be securely fastened to the
outside of the cartridge, so that an accidental strain upon them will
not break the waterproofing or move the fuse from its place. They are
then coiled up and remain so until the cartridge is placed in the
general charge of the mine.
=70.= Several of the high explosives congeal at a temperature
above the freezing-point of water, and in this state are less sensitive
to shock, and explode with difficulty if closely packed in cartridges
as usually delivered from the factories. They explode more readily when
in the form of a powder. When using them in cold weather, therefore,
each fuse should be put in a cartridge loosely filled with the powdered
explosive, or with some high explosive not affected by cold. Others
need special primers to cause detonation. The fuses should, of course,
be placed in these primers.
=71. Placing the Charges.=--The charge is placed in the
mine-chambers, either in the dark, by light reflected through the
galleries, by closed lanterns carefully placed and guarded, or, when
practicable, by incandescent electric lights. It is carried through low
and narrow galleries on men’s backs or in miner’s cars, and should for
this reason be put up in packages not exceeding 50 lbs. in weight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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