| |
| | AmericanHeritage.com / When America Was Last in the Arms Race |
 | | Poudre B, or B powder, consisted of Reid’s collodion mixed with guncotton. |
 | | Cordite, which was invented in 1889 by Frederick Abel and James Dewar, is more stable than B powder, and it eventually became the most common of smokeless powders.) Still, the muzzle velocities obtainable with B powder loads were impressive, well over 2,000 feet per second, and military observers much appreciated its clean-burning properties. |
 | | As Rep. George B. McClellan, Jr., son of the Civil War general, remarked in early 1898, the U.S. Army had been reduced to a “clumsily organized national police force.” It could bully Indians and striking workers, but it was totally unprepared for modern warfare. |
| www.americanheritage.com /articles/magazine/it/1995/4/1995_4_20.shtml (5580 words) |
|