National Republican., 1884-10-11

any foreign navy carries gun equal In
power to the 9.inch rifles Of the Chicago,
Boston, and Atlanta. 1t is, of course, an
arm or D iercing weapon, and with maxi.
mum charges at close range will probably
develop penetrative capacity equal TO
twelve inches of iron or eight inches Of
armor.
Last, but by no means least, comes the
1O-inch. This magnificent arm Is "a
feet inches long. Its rined bore extends
81 feet inches. Its powder chamber.
including tho shoulder, is 81 inches long
and l3l inches in diameter. Its brooch
block, with gas.check IS inches, and IL
uses 250 pounds Of powder to propel q
projectile 81 feet long, weighing 800
pounds. The peculiar feature of the 10
inch gun is that IL has no trunnions.
Their place 10 supplied by recessed rings
cut In tho periphery of band which
occupies the position of the trunnion coil
in other guns, and these rings fit into
slots cut in the sliding block which forms
tho substitute for a top.carriage in
mounting turret guns. BY dispensing
with trunnions some weight is saved. but
the chief advantage lies in being able, to
place the two guns in the turret much
closer together than was possible on the
old plan an advantage Of primo i'm
portanco where space Is so valuable as 1t
is inside the turrot of monitor. Some
account of the relative power of the
American 10.inch gun has boon intro
duced elsewhere, so that 1t is not
necessary to repeat it here. Suffice to say
that it is superior to any gun Of similar
calibcr made elsewhere, exsept possibly
Sir William Armstrong; latest wire wound
- l..It
by two. tcnths of an inch and in weight
by nearly ton. There will doubtless
be some pretty sharp competition be-
tween the two whom our gun is ready for
the trial tosts. Sir Williams gun is said
to have given its projectile muzzle ve-
locity of $500 feet per second, with an
energy in foot tons per inch Of circum-
ference exceeding anything previously
accomplished by over 20 per cent. which,
if true, will give our 10-inch gun q foe.
man worthy Of all its steel, or words to
that effect. The weight of tho American
10-inch rifle is $4,000 pounds, and its
effective range for bursting shell Is CAL
culatcd to be about seven miles.
In addition to the standard service
guns, above described, there Is building
at the yard one 6.inch wire.wound rifle
on the plans of DR.. Woodbridge. This
gun embodies the ordinary features of the
standard 6-inch, SO far rs tube, jacket,
trunnion, coil, and brecoh mechanism
are concerned, hut substitutes wrapping
of steel wire in place of the hoops
employed to complete the stan
dard gun. This wire Ia square, having
a section of one-eighth of an
inch, aud is wound on through u friction
brake, which produces statical tension
to the section of the wire equivalent to q
strain of about $4,000 pounds to the
square inch. This gun Is to be made
about 1900 pounds lighter than the
standard hooped gun of equal caliber, and
is experimental. If it stands the tests,
and proves more economical in construc-
tion than the standard arm, 1t may ulti-
mately be substituted for II. 1t looks as
if it ought to DO serviceable. Not the
least of its advantages Is the fact that the
small section of tho wire en-
ables the inspecting officers to exercise
much more minute scrutiny as to the
character of the metal than is possible in
dealing with the massive forgings of tho
built-up guns. 1t has occurred to the
writer of this, however, that DR.. Wood
bridges plan Of leaving the wire wound
surface bare, trusting simply to solder for
cohesion, is an error, and that experience
will demonstrate the necessity of casing
the wired portions Of this gun with
light steel envelope, either forced on cold
by hydraulic power or shrunk on with
mild tension. As to this We shall sec by
and by.
Having observed all this activity and
enterprise at the yard. the emissary Of
The REPUBLICAN, sought Commodore
Sicard to ascertain by what means he had
an old-fashioned gun shop Of
small capacity into an embryo Elswiok,
and that embryo rapidly assuming adult
The commodore said he had
spent no money on new plant, except the
little that congress had given him in the
usual appropriation of the ordnance
bureau for the supply of machinery and
tools. With this fund he had in the past
year or SO succeeded in building two new
lsthes, having n capacity of ffifty-four feet
length with forty-eight inches swing, and
was now constructing right there in
the shops another that would take o
length Of sixty.eight feet with n swing
seventy-two inches. For the rest he had
simply adapted to ordnance uses the
machine shop formerly belonging to tho
bureau of steam engineering, which the
ItEthb VI tohBIOso sho
Washington yard as navy yard proper
this machinery was good Of its kind, and
with such indications as the in
genuity of his inspectors and
could devise and execute it could be
proftably turned to the construction Of
all the medium calibers. His new plant,
particularly the new SO by @ foot lathe,
was designed to handle guns of 12-inch
caliber or greater. The commodore said
he was busy. and for more ample details
as to the equipment and possibilities OF
tho yard referred The REPUBLICAN to
Lieut.. Comd'r G. +. Goodrich, inspector
in charge, and to ]. b. Davis, esq, the
veteran foreman of tho ordnance shops.
The last named gentleman became fore
man Of the ordnance machine shops of the
Washington navy yard in 1855, and has
filed that responsible post continuously
since, He has superintendent the con-
struction of every kind Of gun, from a
Dahlgren boat howitzer or q 15-inch
Rodman smooth bore to the modern
l0-inch steel breech-losding rifles now on
the lathe, and expects to supervise the
making of a great many more. His long
service has not made an old man of him,
and there is nothing about him except
ripeness of experience TO indicate the
veteran of thirty years standing.
Mr.. Davis, after repeating much that
the commodore had said about the condi-
tion of tho plant, observed that 10 would
not be fair to judge of the capacity Of the
yard, even with its present plant, by what
had been done during the past year.
Without going into mechanical details he
would say there was always more or less
delay attending the adaptation of any
machinery to new uses, and much of the
work of the past year had been in this di-
rection. At this time, however, he felt
warranted in saying that the plant of the
yard was in good condition for turning
out all classes of work up to and includ-
ing the 10.inch gun. When the new
lathe was put up they would be able
to handle anything up to sixteen inches
caliber, 30 far as turning and boring were
concerned. Some further enlargement
of heating facilities might be required to
shrink on the jackets OF very large guns,
anI tho aHanau naad 70 hanhIa THAR parta