The Russellville Democrat., 1877-06-21
HOW THE BIG GUN WAS CAST.
Successful Operation at the SOuth Boston Iron FOumdry-the Twelve-imch Rine
 Gun Designed fOr New York HarhOr.

Iron FOundry-the Twelve-imch Ride
 Gun Designed for New York Harbor.
 The heaviest gun ever cast in this country, with perhaps two exceptions, was successfully produced at the South Boston iron company's works, near the Broadway bridge, South Boston, yester- day afternoon, in the presence of about one hundred and fifty persons, several of whom were ladies. Col. Crispin, Col. Bayler, Capt. Phipps, Capt. Bryant, Lieut.. Smith, and Lieut.. Whipple, of the ordnance corps; Col. Randall, Major Sanger, Capt. White, Capt. Andrews, Lieut.. Nichols, and Lieut.. Patterson, of the first artillery were present. The material used was the ordinary charcoal iron. The gun, which will be l2inch rifed Rodman, carrying 00.pound con ical ball, when finished is expected to measure 273 inches, or about P feet, in length. The diameter at the widest Bart will he 55 inches, and the casing will be 20 inches for depth of 232 inches. At the muzzle the outside diameter will he about 29 inches. The weight when finished will be S9,530 pounds, and when cast was about 162,000 pounds. There was 90 tons of metal in the three fur naces. The gun is expected to be com pleted in November. It is estimated that the mass will cool in about 15O hours.
 Three large furnaces were used for the melting. The flask. which was some % feet long, was sunk all but about six feet into the ground, muzzle up. From the c.. rA <xf trough or spout, lined with clay, about inches wide at the top, 4 inches at the bottom, and $ inches deep, and each about Is or 20 feet long. These led to a sort of central tank or pool within six or eight feet of the point where the flask or mold was placed. In this was an open- ing which led into two runners like those coming from the furnaces, and the run ners carried the material from the pool to the mold. The pool was for the pur- pose of equalizing the consistency of the iron before it entered into the compost, tion of the gun. At about 4:50 the visi tors were requested to preserve quiet {; the word was given, and the deep red stream of molten iron was soon seen rolling through the runners, with the dCCOAu pdHiiuVuo VI kiSoo IudhuelcS ot beautiful golden stars scintilIating over the fiery mass. From the pool the liquid, after being thoroughly amalgamated. passed through the shorter runners and dropped to the bottom of the mold, the material rising gradually until the level of the troughs was reached. This occu- pied about l5 minutes, and then it be- came necessary to pour in from the top, which was several feet above the trOughs. This was done by filling "ladles," great tubs of iron lined with clay, each holding several tons of melted iron, and swinging them by the three enormous derricks around to a runner raised higher than the others, and which led to the top of the mold. The portion filled up with lades was in addition to the length of the gun, which must be cut of some six feet. This is necessary in order to have the end perfectly solid. The gun was cast upon the Rodman principle of having the core, which is hollow, filled with water during the process of casting by means of a pipe to convey cold water to the bottom of the core, and another to carry off the water from the top when it becomes heated. This causes tho cooling inside and outside to be much more uniform, and adds greatly to the strength of the gun. The casting was finally finished about 5:30 o'clock, without accident of any kind. The gun when finished will be forwarded to Sandy Hook for experi- ments by the United States authorities. Journal, May 3lst.