The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-08-17


is now looked down upon, a amila
question suggests itself to the sOreIy
PerPlexed tax payer who has to PrOyid,
the money for all these Iuxuries. The
truth appears to be, that armor-pIate
makers can now go very far beyond the
twelve inches of thickness that was lately
their maximum; and that unless armOr
is eventually to defeat guns and shot,
the WOlSich Infants must be more
brObdingnagian than ever. And 90 we
come to the Infexlble, destined to be
released into the water by the fair hands
of a princess. This mighty ship will be
dOubie-sCrew, dOubleturret, with load
displacement exceeding eleven thousand
tons. The length between the perpen-
diCulars, three hundred and twenty feet,
and breadth seVenty-fve feet (almOst
equal to one fourth Of the lengthy. Each
turret will carry two guns of eighty-One
tons, twenty seven feet long, and sixteen
inches bore, firing a shot of twelve
hundred and fifty pounds Those in the
secret assert that such a shot, coming
from such a gun, and fired with the
improved gunpOWder now manufactured,
will have an impact of momentum equal
to the whole ramming force of the Iron
Duke that ran down the luckIess
Vanguard. The steel tube that forms
the innermost part of each gun excels in
size every single piece until now made,
being twenty-five inches external
diameter. When coil upon coil of tough
iron have been wound round the middle
and breech of this steel tube, the exterior
diameter will vary from twenty-five
inches to six feet. The government pay
Messrs. Firth of Sheffield sixteen hundred
pounds for the solid mass Of steel to make
one inner tube, the boring out being
done at WOOlwich. 1t was last September
that the first of these huge guns was tried
in the marshes at WOOlwich how long
time must elapse before all four will be
ready to be mounted in the Infexiole,
the future must show.
When we are told that the original
estimate for the hull and the engines of
the InfexibIe was five hundred and
twenty thousand pounds, and that the
armament and FITTINGS are not included ;
and when we bear in mind that the !
actual outlay always exceeds the |
estimates in these mntters-we may
guess, if we can, how tar this ship will |
go to affect the pockets of John Bull.
Have we even now come to the end of !
this costly contest between the attacking |
and the defensive power of ships of war,
this rivalry between guns and armor
plates? Engineer and naval constructors
do not believe in any such fnality.
Their fertile brains are teeming with
new schemes-more especially on the
part of the makers of great guns, who
manifest an increased confidence that
they can more than keep pace with any
increase in the thickness of armor plates.
Russia has established a naval arsenal at
Nicolaieff, near the mouth of one of
the rivers flowing into the Black Sea,
where iron clads ofthe largest dimensions
can be constructed; and she has also
provided herself with a factory in which
great guns and pOnderOus armor plates
can be fabricated. Indeed, we owe to
Russia (for good or for bad) the incentive
to the planning of the eighty.one-tOn
gun. The Peter the Great Gan appropri-
ate name for the cars mighty ship has
been planned to carry twenty-inCh armOr,
at time when a shot from our thirty
fve-ton guns could only penetrate q
fourteen-inch plate. What was to be
done? WOOlwich was consulted, and
replied that a gun of something like
eighty tons weight would be required to
larry shot which would pierce twenty
inches of armor. There was no existing
furnace that would heat, no existing
that would forge the
masses of iron necessary for such a
mighty gun. New furnaces and new
were thereupOn set up at q cost
which we are afraid to mention
he guns are being made, and per
knows?-may enc day
ry their strength against the iron
ides of Peter the Great. Russia
ras already vessel carrying guns ex-
eadinr our Devastation and Thunderar