Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-03-25
The Cannons of the Future.

The Cannons of the Future.
The London Standard says: England
is now building a ship to carry twenty
| four inches of armor, and she is making
gun which will be eighty-one tons in
weight. 1t may be said here is proof
enough of England's superiority I'm
questionably the ship is splendidly de-
| signed. So also is the gun which we
| are to have ready some time about next
July, and which will doubtless turn out
to be wonderful weapon. Artillerists
speak of the coming monster as an aw-
full gun. Crowds assemble at the forge
whenever one of the huge coils is to be
pummeled by the new steam-hammer at
Woolwich Arsenal. Even III the making
of the thirty guns masses of
| iron weighing twenty-eight tons, at
welding heat, have to be laid under the
hammer. For the larger gun an incandes-
cent mass of forty-fve tons has to be
fetched out of the fire and duly ham
mered. The furnace has the Ca
pacity of q cottage, and the tongs
by which the glowing cylinder is
lifted out of its burning bed weighs
no less than thirty tons. A steam crane
bears the whole weight of tongs and coil,
and everything proceeds without acct
dent or hitch of any kind. At night the
sight is truly grand and we'll repays
| those spectators who take the trouble
to be present. Other nations are not
likely to be blind to the advantage which
accrues from the possession of guns ex-
ceptionally powerful. Already it is
known that steel tubes are being made,
having diameter six inches greater
than that of the tube of the eighty-one-
ton gun. These tubes may be intended
| for the lining of the American smooth
bore guns which are to be converted in
to rifles. Possibly they are for the use
of the French Government, or for the
| Italian. At all events such masses of
steel are being made, and are destined
| to play some part in connection with
foreign artillery. Most certainly the ap-
pearance of the 100ton muzzle- loading
gun among foreign ornaments is by no
means remote contingency
"But what are we prepared to do?
Assuredly the great steam hammer at
Woolwich Arsenal can accomplish some
thing more for us than the making of an
| eighty one-ton gun, big as that undoubt-
edly will be, with its bore of sixteen
inches in diameter and twenty-four feet
in length, firing projectile weighing T.
600 pounds, propelled by 800 pounds of
powder, the range of the weapon being
seven miles. All this is very formidable,
but it is not by any means what can be
done. We may double the weight of the
gun, making it 100 tons, having caliber
of twenty inches and bore of at least
thirty feet. This would be a mag
nifcent piece of ordnance, but even
then there would be something be-
yOnd, and Why should we stop short of
that which must be gained at some peri
cd or other? Let us contemplate the fur
Their step at once. Why not have a gun
| with a bore of twenty-four inches:-
simply two feet. The weight would be
275 tons, the charge Of powder would be
1000 pounds, the weight of the proiectile
nearly two tons and half and the
range eight or nine miles, This
is not mere dream, but perfectly prac-
| ticable piece of work. The cost would
probably be trif1e less than e10O per
ton, or about e25, 900 for the entire piece.
In weight of projectile such gun would
be something more than a 5000
FOUNDER. Perhaps when we had made
such weapon we might think we had
gone far enough. AS for armor, the pro-
jectile of the 275-ton gun would possibly
penetrate three feet with corresponding
backing. AS we showed some time ago,
DR.. Collins Browne has modelled a ship
| which shall actually carry three feet of
armor This armor would also be pre-
sented at slope, SO that our 5000
FOUNDER would have it's work to do. An
for cost, there is the consideration that
one such gun will give results such as no
number of smaller guns could accom-
plish. The Inflexible. sheathed in part
with two feet of armor, will carry four
eighty-one-ton guns, costing $4,000 each.
Her four guns, therefore, will cost more
than one 275-ton gun. Yet how would
such vessel as the InfleXible be able to
stand the attack of so tremendous a
weapon? The 5,OOOpound projectiles,
unless striking with considerable OBJ
liquity, would readily smash through the
thickest part of the armor, and two or
three such visitors, having bursting
charge of 800 pounds of powder, might
decide the fate of the ship. Surely the
result would be cheap at the price"