Daily Yellowstone journal., 1884-09-18

W 0OEbW& WV 0sCce 0Omss
Washington Republican,
No an anvil stroke or even the monot-
onous blowing of forge bellows grcets
the ear us one walks through the vast
iron works into which the navy yard has
been turned by the action of congress on
the Recommendation of the secretary of
the navy. And yet there are close upon
thousand men handling the metal
which has given its name to the present
age. Iron and steel are To be seen in
every stage of manufacture, from the
forge and foundry to the finishing shops.
The principal feature Of interest at
present is the construction of the steel
cannons for the new cruisers. Nearly
300 men are employed in the ordnance
department, the main work Of which is
these guns. These are of four sizes,
five, six, eight and ten-inch bore and
twelve feet six inches, fifteen. twenty
and twenty-five feet long. The pro-
cess through which they pass is aston
ishingly complicated to the uninitiated.
The forged shafts are prepared away
from here and brought in q more or
less rough state. The two larger sizes
are imported from Europe and come
rough bored and turned, this being
necessary TO enable the tempering TO b.
done at place where they are forged.
The Others are turned out in the rough
by the Midvale Steel works, Pennsyl-
vania. and are rough bored and turned
here. heing returned to the works again
to have the ''oil-temper' given to them.
without which they would probably
burst at the first discharge.
When returned here they are bored
out to within one-eighth of an inch
of their final internal diameter. The
Jacket" a cylindrical piece of iron
made about eight-one- hundredtbs of an
inch smaller than the main barrel. and
after being heated TO degree just be-
low that required, to change the color of
the metal. in tho language of the forge.
to a 'black heat" is then shrunk on.
The shrnkage on cooling is sufficient TO
perccptibly decrease the calibr of the
shaft or cone by COMPRISING the, heavy
forged steel. All the processes of turn
ing and boring have TO be very slowly
performed when steel is being worked,
and thirty inches a day is the average
rate al which a six.inch gun is bored
ont. The first cut is five inches and a
quarter, subsequent riming-out increas-
ing il to near the required diameter.
The rifing is done with shaft con-
structed in the yard, AS are nearly all
the machines used.
Outside the jacket which extends from
the breach about one-third the length Of
the gun. are placed a number of steel
rings passing beyond it, and to about
one half of the total length. These are
also shrnnk on All of the surfaces
which are thus brought into contact I'M
der such tremendous pressure are care
fully ground 10 AS near as possible an alb
solutely true cylindrical shape. and are.
therefore, i'm actual contact for their
whole extent, During all Of the hand.
ling after the first boring core is placed
in the gun. with the double object o!
preserving the shape intact and forming
lathe center. The process of boring
and turning the outer surface can be
carried on simultaneously by an i'm
proved double lathe. in use aud manu-
featured in the yard. The exact cost Of
each gun is kept. every mans time De-
ing charged to the work he is actually
engaged upon and the cost of the mate
rial and handling being also accurately
computed.