The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-11-04
Great Guns of Ancient and Modern
Times.

The contest between guns and armor
continues to excite the liveliest interest
among European nations. The great ar
senals are vying with each other in the
production of mighty cannon which shall
be able to send 4 projectile weighing many
hundreds of pounds through iron obsta
cles of almost incredible thickness, or of
iron targets which shall be able to resist
the heaviest bolts that can be forged A
short time ago it was announced tha
| Krupp, the great German irOn-founder,
| had cast a cannon superior to any hither
to in existence, which was destined to
solve at once and forever the veXed prob
| lem of the relative powers of penetration
and resistance possessed by modern artil-
lery and iron-clads. The English, in their
turn, are now rejoicing over the successful
| trial of their new eighty-ton gun, which
can throw proectile sixteen inches in
diameter distance Of seven or eight
miles and pierce the sides of the strongest
man -of-war afoat at closer range. Next
| we shall probably hear Of the construction
of some unwieldy floating battery special
| ly designed to carry armor capable of re
sisting the tremendous impetus of shot
| from this latest engine of war; and then
the cannon foundries will glow with
floods of molten metal, until gun Of still
greater dimensions and power is produced.
AS there appears to be no limit to the size
of cannon, it seems probable that the vic
tl,a rrla Gatw nd
armor will finally declare itself in favor Of
the former, or that it will, at all events, be
necessary to construct vessels of the mon
itor type only, which present the smallest
possible target to the fire of the enemy.
This is a question, however, which must
be left to the Armstrong;, Krupps and
Whitworths of the future to answer.
In the meantime it is interesting to re-
member that the monster cannons now in
existence are simply examples of the man.
ner in which history repeats itself. -Four
centuries ago, in 1478 the Turks erected
battery of guns against Scutari, the largest
of which was capable of throwing a stone
shot thirty-two inches in diameter, and
weighing $40 pounds, whereas the pro-
iectile of the English eighty-ton gun
weighs only / $50 pounds. 1t is evident,
moreover, that these enormous guns were
of practical service, for it is recorded that
1854 rounds were fired from them in
thirty days. At the Castle of Asia, on the
Dardanelles, there still exists battery of
bronze cannons some of which have bore
twenty-eight inches in diameter. When
the British Admiral Sir John Duckworth
forced the passage of the Straits in March,
1907, one of his ships was struck bya huge
stone bullet thrown from one of these
guns, and it is said that the missile
made so large hole in the side
of the vessel that the Captain, when he
looked over the side to see the ex
tent Of the injury, was surprised
to see two of his sailors thrust their heads
through the aperture at the same instant.
The Royal George, whose name is famil-
lar to all readers Of Cowper's poetry, was
one of the ships injured in this encounter.
The great gun of Beejapore, with caliber
of twenty eight inches, is another instance
of what gun-founders could accomplish
more than three centuries ago. This
weapon was last discharged, it is said,
during the eighteenth century on the oc-
casion of visit from the Rajah of Sat
tara. The shot weighed more than 1000
pounds. The Tar Pooshkar, or great
gun of Moscow, has bore thirty five
inches in diameter, but has never been
fired with shotted charges, and we think
that few persons would be anxious to
make the experiment now. There are
many other great guns famous in history,
but those we have mentioned are sufficient
to prove that in the matter of capacity, at
least, the guns of the present are no more
remarkable than the guns of the past
N. Y. E0ening Post.