| Show HOW THE BIB bla GUMS GUNS ARE AIRE MADE the batteries of our 0 nr new war ships and what they can accomplish bew york 1 ork swi imagine shoulder practice with a 2 8 six ix anci inch gun weighing five tons and three quarters ai a t the rate of night or ten rounds in a minute each round ca capable Is of piercing fifteen inches cf alb wrought gilt iron this ia is what commander man der 0 F goodrich invites us m to do in the century magazine in order to boine some idea ot of the pro progress greas that the art ot of gun inaki inamine lor for our navy has achieved the tile late rate 0 of that progress is shown by he I 1 tact a et that the crat steel gun PP prop properly eily IV bo so called built in this country was constructed at the south hoston iron works tor for experimental purposes only eights years ago while hile the tile first steel guns meant lor for actual service were vi ere made at the washington navy yard only about BIS six years ago Batte of sir inch and eight inch buns ma tt f r t the h dolphin atlanta boston I 1 abton f chicago ic g C charleston h ar leston York tan ton petrel baltimore and san francieco Fran citco have since been een completed and bat batteries terIN for the newark and other vessels esele are in couras of construction of the ten inch guns for the aliantro nomah three have been finished and the firt of 0 the four fout inch rapid fire gu guns are coming coniing forward this work co comprises is a list lintot of something like a hundred modern high power breech loading rifles built up of separate pieces of open hearth sl st el the way in which oar our present ya ys teco tem of making goods for the navy has bean been developed is described by commander Goodich an elongated projectile holds its velocity better than a round shot of the same saine calibre on account of its grester weight iet et if firo from a smooth bore I 1 it t i ap to turn end over end and mi miss i in ti mark hence arises the necessity of rifling a such nc h gun which means that they have spiral grooves that engage a soft metal band on the shot and cause tf spin about its longer lonier axia ax a and this keeps tha lie point foremost to introduce more powder and BO so get higher velocity the chamber in breach is enlarged and provided larger than those that could enter the muzzle so that new are a re habitually loaded at the breech h while breech loading also gives in increased security to tho the and a more lapid rapid service of ammunition the powder too lias has been improved in order to use larger without producing to 0 violent pre 8 aurea on tha the gun it was wag compressed aiuto large prisms then another step wa w as taken in alto ing its composition so that it might burn mora more slowly one famous R re result a alt being ho the cocoa powder so call called ed f from rom its color having more nitrate ard charcoal the itter latter 1 being and much less than the quicker burning black powder to keep the ahoi sho longer the influence of such p power awer came increases in tho the length of the tile gun tube further inventions invention have shave produced ammonia powder and the powder these last con consisting siBling of compounds comp ounla mainly introducing a proportion of the tigh explosives explosive S w with ith the violence of their action ino modified edified the metal needed in guns must be elastic in the technical a cense e ne and of great tensile strength and these qualities according to the theory hitherto adopted by our government and others are found to a high degree in corgel steel toe strains when the charise charger is fired come first transversely tending to burst barst tile gun and then longitudinally tending to blaw the breech off the former strain acts so quickly that the inner layers of metal in a amid gun aro are stretched beh before re the outer layers have time to come to their aid if a gun be made of beveral concentric cylinders and if the 0 outer u ter ones can be made to compress the inner the powder will wilt havo have to overcome this compression at the boro bore before it can exert the strai strain n of tension thence cornea comes the process of shrinking outer cylinders upon inner ones putting tha tila former in when I 1 hot lot EO that on oa cooling therill the will contract and produce r aduce iha lie haired compression an fn in the hodman rodman process of casting guns of steel and iron the same result is aimed at by cabil ing the metal to bagin cooling it at t the bore while the exter exterior lor Is kept hot but the tile former is the tile method on which our nanci guns are now constructed ted these guns are built of a number of separate pieces of steel cast into in gots that are forged turned c off frand and bored out nearly to t 0 the eiza required the forging producing toughness and a il fibrous brous structure then they are raised to a cherry red heat and dipped into a tank of oil for tempering to increase the tile elastic limit next they are annealed by heating beating and arid deloly cooling which increases the tile ductility of the metal alt all this the 1116 steel makers do and tho the washington g gun un factory then puts the pieces together the tile jacket as it is called ia Is shrunk k upon tho the tube to increase the tile strength at the breech and then two sets of hoops hoo p s are put on tha the first going over the tile front of tha the t tube ube or chiase and tho the second over the bicket when all theao these parts are thus assembled the roughly bored gun la Is bored ag again ain to its final calibre rifled by a cylinder which fita tho the bore and cir carnea rieb a number of cutters cut and supplied with its breech loading mechanism the ginch G 6 inch guns throw a IOD pound projectile with a 60 pound charge of powder perforating 10 0 inches of wrought iron at 1000 yards tho the 8 inch with a pound charge and a soo pouce projectile penetrates ac 3 inches the 10 inch gun with 50 pounds of powder ani an I 1 it a I 1 00 pound shot penetrates laches cut but while these aro are the largest cali calf bres yet constructed the new now batttle ships will require a 13 inch CO go loll 1011 on enn dring firing a 1200 baund ball contrasting with are the 4 ilich guns firing a 30 pound shell bell F in process of construction tor for th tha a naw now 3 WO ton an and 2000 ton toll cruls cruisers ere the of which will bg be derived from heir their delivering ten tell aimed roun rounds ds a minute thedoar theao development are e a direct development fro from tri the small rapid fire guns mounted 01 0 MY on swivels wand and froia from the 4 inch oar our navy may ner per hapa hape pam pass to tha the C 6 cinch inch guns of this t type pe althou although as commander bood r ell says atho tile pr proper oper limu limit is reached when the th 8 arri ammunition 11 inan heavy avy to ba aas easily ily ilan handled died becomes ty by one t too 00 |
