The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-05-25
Not long ago Capt Kolokotzoff invented

Not long ago Capt. KolokotzoH invented
new process of refining the guns after
they had served for 300 shots. Formerly,
after this limit of safety had been passed.
the gun material was recast into various
shapes, such as axles, shafts, wheels, ETC.
Capt. Kolokotzoff's idea was to bore out
the interior anew after the safety limit had
been passed, and to insert, under hydraulic
pressure, an interior tube of one inch 10
thickness. and the gun is again rified. A
hoop previously heated in oil, as before
described, is placed on the muzzle, and
each shot as it comes out tends to establish
more perfect contact between the old
and the new material. According to this
process gun having been fired 800 times
is refined, and serves for 500 shCts, being
again refined it can serve for 800 shots.
This method has proved very successful,
and is certainly very economical.
PRODUCTION OF THE WORKS.
The foundrics at Oboukhaff produce
many sizes and classes of guns, from four
pound howitzer to forty-one ton gun hav.
ing q twelve-inch bore, carrying shot
weighing us pounds, and using charge
of 1870 pounds. The average production
in guns for the last FIVE years Of peace has
been some 5000 tons, at cost of, in round
numbers, say of 81 900 per ton 10 finished
gues. The works furnish guns for for
tresses and the army as we'll as the navy.
and manufacture also some forty thousand
gun-barrels per aunum. In time of peace
large amount of railway and other ma
terial is manufactured. Since their estab-
lishmeDt these works have furnished some
four hundred guns of heavy calibre to the
| Russian Imperial navy.
THE DISPOSITION OF THE oBoUKHoFF GUNS
IN THE IMPERIAL NAVY.
The large iron-clads, such as the Peter
the Great the PopOffkas, Novgorod and
| Wee Admiral Popof, use the twelve and
eleven inch guns. Some of the larger tur-
reted frigates also use the eleven-inch
guns, The majority, however, of this
class of ships and the monitors use the
Dine-inch guns. The seagoing frigates and
cruisers, such as the flagship Svetlana,
DOW in our waters, use the eight-inch guns
The six inch Oboukhoff guns are used or
board the corvetts and clippers of the i'm.
perial navy, as well as on the coast defense
| gunboats. The new guuboats, built in
sections and capable of being transported
about which much curiosity is felt and
from which so much is expected, are sale
to easily steam eleven and one.half knots
and to give easy handling of their power
fui eleven inch thirty-ton guns. The niue
pound howitzers are used on the smaller
vessels Of the navy as a supplementary
ordnance. They are also used on yacht:
and gunboats. The four-pound howit
GERS are used on the bulwarks of large
ships for defense against moving torpedoes
The only difference between these Obouk
hot guns sent to the navy and those mad
for the fortress lies in the carriage. Th
powder used to fill these guns is tina
known as prismatical
THE GOVERNMENT GUN FOUNDRIES AT
PERM
These great works. which furnlsl
principally the artillery used in RUSSIA
tortresses and in the Russian army, ar
situated on the left bank Of the rive
Kuma, about four versts from the city Q
Perm, the chief seat of the district an
government of the same name. Thes
works produce large steel guns up to a
high as eleven-inch bore, and guns an
prolectlles up to twenty-inch diameter
q field artillery, musket- barrels, projectiie;
etc. The works were started by the In
q perial Russian government in 1864, an
now have an annual production of wa
material of from 20 to 25 steel guns @
various calibres, from 20 to 25 nine-incI
mortars, weighing from $4,000 to $50,
900 pounds; from 10000 to $4,000 muske
barrels; guns of cast-iron, weighing fror
600,000 to 100000 pounds, and of pro
J iectiles of hardened cast-iron some 300,
, 900 pounds The total annual productio
: amounts in value to about ST. 400, 00(
. The total number of workmen employed
S some $500
e THE WORKS.
e The various steam engines emplOye
e have a capacity up to 2,30O-horse power
g There are 240 furnaces for the manufactul
n of cast steel, which are heated with woo
: and IA which use ccke There are
o ovens of the system known as SischinI
e and / of that known as Peruv; pudding
d furnaces; welding ovens, for gaseou
e cast IL reverberatOry furnaces; 2 Amer
II can furnaces, and about 100 Smith
J. hearths. The array of steam hamme
J. is formidable. There are with a cap
y city of so tons. with 5 tons, with
r, tons, l with tons, with % tons, vi;
$50 pounds, with $50 pounds, and Fl
ally with 400 pounds, The cast ire
IS used is received from the great blast fu
m naces in the mining district Of Goroblag
al dat, whose great magnetic iron mountai
Is Blagodat, has the immense annual produ
% ton of ore of 40, 900 tons Of 1000 pound
% Some puddled steel is received at Il
is Perm gun works from the mining di
! trict of ZlatOust, in the Ural, but the ID
S jor part Is manufactured on the spot.
= The two fouudries above described a
II the principal ones in Russia though the
are several smaller Ones both governme
IS and private-notably Alexandrovsku worl
in government of Olnnatz