The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-12-31
The Great Guns OF England.

England's big guns are made Of bars
such as that just described, coiled
spirally, and welded into q solid
mass by the hammer. These red hot
furnaces contain a straight bar; at q
word the door is slightly raised, and
with huge nippers it's head is seized by
loops made for the purpose. A
steam which draws out the glow
Ing mass, and brings it to q
horizontal capstan fixed before
the door. A water hose is turned
upon the loop, and while it blackens
under the chill a stalwart fellow,
welding a heavy sledge, fixes the loop
on q nut projecting from the eapstan
wheel. Then the machine revolves
with resistless force, curling the hot
metal round and round on its drum
neatly and smoothly, and a easily
as one of Jordan arsh's girls would
wind ribbon. So the coil is formed,
whether for the breech piece or the
body of the gun, or for it's jacket.
This again is cooled, and after a while
is refined for welding under the ham
mer.
You ought to see this Woolwich
hammer. 1t weighs forty tons sheer
weight, and when it drops itfalls forty
feet IN to a block that rests on spiles,
massive masonry and enormous
quantities of iron. Between two
great shafts this hammer is suspend
ed, a solid block, which, driven fron
above by steam, and gathering impes
tus as it fall, strikes with q force OF
many hundred tons. A veteran work
man has charge of this massive ham,
mer. He starts and drops it by a
touch Of his thumb and finger. Isaw
an open face watch laid down on the
block; then he dropped the hammer,
and he stopped it just in timeto break
the crystal-and nothing more. They
call this last operation of the furnace
the great heat" and about every
monarch there is in Europe has seen
it just as / did. While / am wonder
ing what they thought about it, the
furnace to be emptied is faring with
impotence. Through the enterstices
of it's great door blue, red and purple
flames are leaping out. A huge crane
swings around a pair ofpincers, at the
end OF which a dozen Britons cluster.
The door rises a little, the white light
blinds us, and, although ] am at least
twenty yards away, the heat burns
my face uncomfortably. Water is
thrown into the awful gap, and then
the men perceive their prey. Tho
huge arms part and firmly close, the
door rises to it's fullest extent, q
clash of the crane gear, a shout from
the men and out it comes, east
ly and softly, a monstrous coil.
The crane swings about and
places it on end upon the anvil. Then
the hammer falls, shaking the solid
floor beneath us, crushing the red-hot
mass inches down at a blow, welding
Us coils togethes so that they "a
never part. But the insideholiow has
been knocked out of shape by this pro-
cess, so, when the tube has been re-
duced to its proper length, a solid
mandril is deity slipped betwixt the
hammer and the iron. For two or
three blows the contracted coil at
tempts resistance, but it gives way,
and the mandril slips to it's base, az
into butter. Then the great pincers
are used again, and it drops the mass
on its side, where again it is battered
and struck all around. The irregnlari-
ties caused by all this hammering are
afterward removed by the plane, as 1
have already mentioned, and then
the gun is made by other machinery
Correspondence Boston Herald.