Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-03-21
A Yankee Gunmaker.


cannon made day before yesterday, just
auspices of the Dutch government,
which recently ordered one of the guns
to try. He is pretty we'll known to
Americans who have been here much.
Mr.. Hotchkiss, who is originally Con-
necticut man, has an enormous manu-
factory Of cannon at st. Denis, where
he is equipping the French navy and
coast defepces with some of his most
valuable inventions. He is also manu-
featuring to the order of the Russian,
English and various other governments,
all of which are anxious not to be left
behind in the great race for superior
armaments. Mr.. Hotchkiss is one of
the highest types of the American in
ventors; his mind is clear, precise, and
now and then he has luminous revela-
ton which entities him to be consid-
cred genius. will give you a good
illustration of this fact later on in the
story. The revolving cannon which
has created so much excitement here,
and which believe the United States
government now has two specimens of,
is of two kinds. One is tield-piece,
the other is small, mounted on pivot,
easily handled, and managed from the
shoulder as readily as carbine. This
terrible engine of destruction is fred
by turning a crank, anG sends forth
eighty shots per minute without the
slightest difficulty. 1t has been known
to fire nearly twice that number in
sixty or eighty seconds, but absolute
accuracy is claimed for it only at o
rate of four score per minute. The
trials here and in other adjacent coun-
tries have created perfect revolution
in public sentiment on the subject of
aquatic warfare. OF course, every ma.
ton that expects sooner or later to be
forced into war has looked askance at
this uncouth spectre of the torpedo
boat, which has been thrusting its ugly
nose into the light occasionally. What!
was there to be some delicate diabolical
monster devised specially to disem-
bowel the noblest and strongest ships
and to send many valiant souls of he
roes down to Hades even while they
slept? The thought was disquieting.
The Russian campaign came and
brought in its opening days two signal
triumphs for the torpedo boat. 1t was
all true, then! Bismarck's few remain
ing hairs stood straighter on end than
ever; the French minister of marine
was exceedingly nervous, and the rep
resentative men of Europe rushed to
Hotchkiss and besought him to protect
them. "Save, oh save u.s." they cried,
from this terrible demon of the deepw
After the experiments with the
Hotchkiss gun. all these great men felt
more comfortable. Still, until last
week, there had never been what might
be called a decisive test, something
from which there could be no appeal,
and it was reserved for the Dutch gov
eminent to make it. The willy mari
ners who are constantly coming and
going between the colonial possessions
of the Netherlands and the Dutch ports
on the North sea have no intention of
being caught mapping; and so they
have been anxious to test the new
Yankee invention. Mr.. Hotchkiss was
invited to be present at the experiments.
He sent over one of his chief engineers
to explain the mechanism of the guns to
the Dutchmen, but they understood it
already, and so Mr.. Hotchkiss followed
it at once. He found, on one of the
large war ships, every man connected
with the governmental marine service
in important posts. As soon as they
had taken him on board, they steamed
away to sea to point opposite the Hell,
der. There, just before them, Just
showing the top Of her back above the
water, was torpedo boat--a dummy
of course, as real one would have
been rather too expensive to practice
upon.
"Do you think that you could defend
this vessel against that torpedo boat
with your gun ?" said the admirals, the
representatives of the ministry of the
marine and the other big wigs, to
Hotchkiss.
at think could" was his answer.
"Well then, said the practical d utch-
man, "let us see what she amounts to. I"
They had brought their own gunner.
and he evidently understood the use of
the aim very we'll, He took his posi-
ton at the side of the ship, and the
gun being loaded with great rapidity,
he fred about thirty shots, putting
eighteen out of twenty of them right
through the torpedo boat. Inasmuch
as one of them would have settled her,
this experience was Supplying. They
tried it again with rather better result.
Then they went off at some distance,
and putting on all steam, went directly
at the trpedo boat, trying to get the
same effect that would be produced if
the boat were approaching them and
they were defending themselves against
her approach. The speed which they
could get up was between fourteen and
fifteen knots an hour. When they
were within six hundred yards of the
torpedo boat the gunner was ordered
to open fire ON her, which he did, de-
spite the constantly varying position of
the ship and the consequent difficulty
of taking aim, he riddled the boat again,
and with such lightning like rapidity
and signal effect that the splinters and
pieces were not to be counted.
Out of one hundred and seventeen
shots fred at the torpedo boat, seventy
had been lodged in her and had explod-
ed, tearing the Inflated craft into frag-
ments.