Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-04-11
The Manufacture OF Naval Guns.

But the manufacture of the great guns
for naval warfare forms the really i'm
pressive feature of Woolwich Arsenal.
lnsular England, dependent on her
Navy, has for the last twenty years al
most concentrated the mechanical talent
of her Woolwich factories on this branch
of her armament. How to make guns
which shall perforate the iron-clads of
other nations, how to make iron walls
which the guns of other nations cannot
perforate, is the two-fold problem which
constantly spurs her forward. A single
sight inside the Woolwich Arsenal
grounds shows how steadily the fight
goes on between the iron-clad and the
proiectile. One sees hundreds of great
guns in line side by side, made a few
years ago, which have never been fired
since they were tested, and are as new
and fresh as when first turned out from
the factory. Yet all these guns are to
he broken up and recast into improved
ordnance. Within a few years-almost
months-they have become obsolete, and
all the vast labor and expense they rep
resent goes for nothing save the expert
cnce gained. To the cost as well rs the
progress of wars these long lines of cam
non, condemned without trial, bear mute
but impressive testimony. For the most
part they are recast into the heavier
guns, weighing from forty to one hun
drcd tons, which equip the modern De-
vastations and Infexibles of England's
Navy.
Two-thirds of all the structures of the
Woodwich Arsenal appear to be given
up to the manufacture of these colossal
cannon. At the first stage of their con-
struction there is made a long core of
cast steel. Then strips of wrought steel
as long and large as the beams of a
house are wrapped around the breech
end. The strips are laid on hot, one
after another, in coils, and, contracting
as they cool, form a brccch of prodigous
strength. Next the gun is placed on u
lathe, turned smooth, the centre bored
out and the inside polished until one can
see the face reflected from its curves.
The ritling is an operation needing Pc
culiar dclcacy and skill. 1t is done
with long stiff rod, upon the end of
which is fixed cutting tool of the hard
est steel, growing, as it must, the steel
core of the gun. So slowly does the
the breech where it has largest diameter,
it scarcely seems to move at all. The
ritling rod as well as the rate of revolu-
ton is regulated by beautiful piece OF
mechanism, covered with num-
bered ares and figures, and described
as a marvel Of mathematical skill APP
piled to mechanical process. When the
huge hundred-ton creature is done, il is a
wonder indeed. Its weight is twice that
of large railroad locomotive; ii is forty
feet long from breech to muzze, and laid
across Broadway il would reach Just
about from curb TO curb; it is seven feet
in diameter ut the breech and two feet
eight inches from inner bore to outer
surface. With an efficient range of sew
eral miles, it carries conical shot,
twenty inches through, weighing almost
ton, and needing several hundred
pounds of powder to project it. A shot
of this size now penctrates the thickest
naval armor plating, and cuts through
twenty inches Of solid iron backed with
oak as clearly as a bullet through
cheese. 1t has, after much experiment,
been found that the most effective rifling
for these cannon is q groove starting as
straight line at the breech. Half way
to the muzzle the groove begins to turn,
and at the muzzle the curve is greatest,
sending the ball out with a kind of cir
cular ''snap," which, so say the engi-
neers, gives the greatest range and pre-.
cisiOn to the projectile.
The massive machinery which handles
these big pieces of ordnance as readily
as childs toy cxcitcs scarcely more
wonder by its strength than by its uncr.
ring accuracy. Ii includes horizontal
revolving bed, used for cutting the bed
plates for the guns, and probably moi
less than forty feet square; crane which
lifts easily 200 tons and can readily swing
in the air four American locomotives
and the famous trip-hammcr, weighing
forty tons, and said TO be the largest in
the world, yet which can be so gently
managed as 10 force watch-crystal into
its place without breaking it. How ex.
cellent are both the material and work.
manship turned out by these splendid
machines at Woolwich, IL proved by &C.
oident ~ well rs by design. In a small
building is shown an eighty-ton gun
which was tested Intentionally until i
burst. BY its side lies the big gun of the
Thunderer ron-olad, which was burst by
accidental double loadng-a few years
ago, with the deadly result which many
viii recall. In both these great pieces