National Republican., 1883-07-28
TONS OF GUN.
The MultiCharge Monster Now on the Way
From Reading Pa, to New York.
The Theory OF Its Construction aud tho
Results II Is Expected 20 Accomplish.


The new multi-charge gun recently con
structed at Reading, Pa, has been loaded ON
railway ear, and is now on route for New
York, where IL is to be tested. Mr.. D. Il. Has
kell recently gave reporter of the New
York Telegram some interesting information
in regard to this gun. 1t weighs twenty-five
TONS and requires for its transportation the
strongest sixtcen-whcel car that the Reading
railway possesses. 1t will be tried at the
government proving grounds at Sandy Hook,
N. j. The trial will commence soon after
tho gun is mounted, and powder, shot, &c,
have arrived. Mr.. Haskell says he cannot
understand why the gun should bo called
American" There is nothing distinctly
American about it. This gun is simply a copy
of guns made in Europe; and even the steel
out of which it is made, a portion of it, at
least, was imported from England. As to the
originality of this Armstrong American gun,
| recolloct n previous article given to tho
press describing this 6-inch gun at Annapolis,
which referred to the immense intellectual.
labor of designing these guns for the navy,
and said, 1.-THE designer (2) found the hole
required and built tho gun around it," This
reminds me of the Irshman's description of
the way guns were made: They first make
a hole in the ground and then cast the metal
around it,"
The multi-charge gun is strictly an
American invention. The inventors are ma
tive born Americans, and no essential part of
the gun has been copied from anything ever
made in Europe All the ideas are original
and no such gun has ever been made or tried
except by the inventors of this gun. All other
guns are made on the principle of the first of
guns-that is, using single charge of powder.
The multi-charge gun is the first radical de-
parture from the original form and is revo-
lutionary in principle. We accomplish by
mechanical means what other gunmakers
have sought after by various methods
such as using "slow burning" powder,
enlarged powder chambers lengthening
the bore, strengthening the breech, &c.
The great result aimed ut by all gunmakers
is the capacity to burn more powder, for
this means more power-greater velocity.
range, and penetration. All the metal used
in our gun was made in this country The
cast iron was made in New England and
Pennsylvania The steel was made by the
Midvale Steel company, at their works at
Nicetown, in Philadelphia. The steel tube
was bored and rihed Mt the West Point
foundry, Cold Spring, N. Y. The gun was
cast and finished at the Scott foundry, Read
ing, Pa. The work done on it is of the best
quality, and is as nearly perfect as mechanical
skill can make it. The work has been in
spected by officers of the ordnance depart
ment, by direction of tho chief of ordnance,
at various stages during the progress of con-
struction, and has been pronounced by them
to be first class.
Reporter. In letter recently published
in the Herald occurs the following passage on
the powder question: In spite of all modi-
fications of its rate of burning that have
been SO far accomplishment much has
been omplished-gunpowder OCCASION
ally behaves eccentrically, and guns some
times go to pieces in q distressingly unac-
countable manner In the English practice
there is record of simultaneous reading of
sixty tons and thirty tons pressure per
square inch in two gauges placed within two
inches of each other. In our own practice a
single pressure disk has been known to show
double record an indication that first
effort upon the gauge piston was fol-
| lowed by sort of reflex action, which
| disturbed the position of the disk, and which
was in turn succeeded by second direct
pressure. Artillerists call these curious eff
| fects the results of wave action and local
pressures,' and have usually modestly alb
stained from particularizing as to the cause.
| 1t may, however, be briefly stated
| that what is demanded in powder for large
| guns is, first, that its rate of combustion shall
| be uniformly constant, with constant weights
of charge and projectile and equal conditions
| of projectile band Second, that this rate of
| burning, at first slow to assure safe and gem
| tie start of the projectilc, shall have pro-
gressively increasing development, in order
| that the point of maximum pressure may be
reached with the projectie as far down tho
muzzle toward the bore as possible" What
is your opinion on the powder question? What
| has been accomplished and what remains to
be accomplishedP
Mr.. Haskell. The passage quoted states that
the "rate of burning, at first slow to assure a
safe and gentle start Of the projectile, shall
have progressively increasing develop
ment," sc. Now the question arises as to the
means to accomplish the desired result. In
Europe and in this country they make pow
der of three degrees of quickness in burning,
and these three kinds of powder are pressed
| into one cake, sometimes into cubes of ono
| inch, or sometimes these cakes are hexagonal,
or of other forms. The first, or quickest burn
| ing powder is put in the center; outside of
this is slower burning powder pressed
| around it, and outside of that again is n layer
of slower burning powder, all being pressed
together in mould. The cartridge placed
| in the breech of the gun is filled with
| these large grains or cakes of powder.
The letter referred to says the
powder sometimes acts eccentrically." and
| refers to abnormal pressure, &c. 1t
also states that artillerists call these curious
effects the results of wave action and local
pressures,' and have usually modestly ab-
| stained from particula arzing as to the cause" "
As none of these artillersts have ever got
| into powder chamber with a microscope and
observed with great care tho process of the
burning of these different cakes or grains of
powder during the explosion, it is impossible
| to tell whether the outside layer of slow
burning powder burns of first, "to assure a
safe and gentle start of the projectile," and
that then, after this desirable result is at
| tained the middle layer of quicker burning
powder burns off clean, and, finally, that the
central part of quickest burning powder ig-
Mi tes and all is safe. 1t is mainly conjecture
and cannot be depended on. Suppose the
cakes of powder became ruptured, and the
quick and slow all got mixed together,
wouldn't that account for the eccentricity," !"
without any "wave" theory or other
scientific explanation which extreme
"modesty" prevents being given? With
| the multi-charge gun the powder ques-
| tion becomes one much easier solved and
safer in its application. In the powder
chamber at the breech of the gun we use a
slow burning powder and less in quantity
than is used in the single charge guns, There
ism complex manufacture-no quick burning,
then slow and then slower burning powder to
cause eccentric" pressures. Our breeoh
charge "assures the safe and gentle start of
the projectile" because we use just the right
quantity of a known material for the sole OBJ
ject of overcoming the inertia of the shot,