The Jasper Weekly Courier

The Dynamite Gun.

Secretary Whitney is pleased with the result of the dynamite gun experiment. He said, "the experiment was most successful. Seeing is believing, and I wish to see something actually done. I have been incredulous, but I confess that I was greatly impressed with the power of the explosion. The vessel was lifted up bodily and went out of sight instantly. The resistance of that target was evidently no measure of the power of the projectile. It demonstrates this—that they can lodge dynamite in destructive quantities a mile and a quarter off with considerable accuracy and it is a matter of details merely to increase the range of the gun and the quantity of the explosive so as to render it capable of destroying the strongest iron clads. It avoids the present contest between torpedo and machine guns. The method now employed for using high explosives is in torpedoes. Torpedoes are met with machine guns and steel nettings placed about ships; but this pneumatic gun is a new method of attack. Taking its range and the line of flight of the projectile it is difficult to say how it can be met. For coast defense it seems to me the most important arm yet invented. Its usefulness on ships is yet to be established, but its importance generally in naval warfare as an arm cannot be over estimated."