The Red Cloud chief., 1888-02-17
GUNS AMI y
Al Alabama CONGRESSMAN Chats ADout
Fast European War ships.

l Fast European War ships.
Congressman Herbert. who has been
! abroad since the close Of the last session
| of Congress. devoted considerable at
tentiOn to the study of naval matters.
His service as Chairman of the Naval
Affairs Committee in the last Congress
made him especially familiar with tho
subject. and. of course, added 20 his
; interest in his studies and researches.
IL saw the fastest cruiser ever built"
he said to your correspondent. "Shc
was just being completed By an En-
! gii,h firm when l visited her. She is
finished now. however. and has been
tested and makes. rs l learn from the
builders. over twenty-One knots al
hour"
..EIow many miles is that. Mr.. Her
bert9"
"A knot" said the ex-Caairman of
the Naval Committee. with Il look Of
pity for the ignorance Of the newspaper
man who don't. know u knot from II
mile. 81 knot. my dear sir. is about y
mile and One-seventh. Apply your
mental arithmetic. and You will find
that ;weEty-one knots are equivalent
to tw~enty-fOar miles. As this vessel
made something over twcnty-One. knots.
it is safe to put dOwn her speed ut
nearly twenty-five miles IN ehour. or
nearly equal to \ fair railroad rate"
..How does that compare with the
speed attained by our new cruisers??"
WELL" WAS the frank reply. lit is
considerably ahead of us. Oar new
cruisers as now completed we began
several years ago. and have not all ths
appliances of the latest sOr, to secure
speed They make something Ove
| sixteen knots an hour. We are prom
ised. however. that M or two Of the
vessels lately contracted for will be ~
fast as any thing afloat in this line"
'.D,cs thi, new fast cruiser carry
very large guns:'"
NO: cruisers do not carry large
guns. YOU know. She has four twenty
one ton guns and several smaller
ones"
''You don't call twenty-one ton guns
large. them
%. no: they are very small compared
with the large guns nude now"
How large are the largest guns low
made"
That is Il little difficult to answer ut
an Otf-hand statement. bu; it is within
the limit to say that the great guns
now made. the greatest of them. shoot
u ball sixteen inches or in diame-
ter and weighing owe 1000 pounds"
HOY far do they shoot:'"
'.Some of the great guns now made
will sheet Il ball fifteen miles"
Fifteen miles-you don't mean
that. do you. Mr.. HERBERT"
.'Yes. fifteen miles. Of cOnrsc. they
will not shoot with great precision that
distance. nor will they shoot 50 far rs
that from the deck Of a vessel. But
| they can shoot that far with sufficient
accuracy. for instance. to throw a shot
into u city or among y fleet Of vessels.
! Of course. it would only be by chance
that it would hit n single vessel if fired
at it ut that distance. In fact. it would
be difficult, probably impossible. to see
| the hull uf a vessel that distance"
..Why can not these big guns DO
! fired as we'll from u vessels deck ~ on
land?"
because the deck Of the vessel doe
not offer tho same firm and unyieldins
foundation: and. beside. the use Of so
much powder and such a heavy gan
| would make it likely tO sink the vessel
! from whose deck it was fired. You See
when they shoot these long distances
| they elevate n gun-that is to say.
! they elevate the muzzle Of it, so that
the gun stands ut an angle Of thirty or
even ~forty-fve degrees to the earth's
| surface. Of course. the recOi. Of II gun
weighing two hundred tons. when fired
with nearly n thousand pounds 81
powder would be something tremcnd-
ous."
do the improvements in armor keep
! pace with those in guns?'
CIbs tiCy 4 u"ahS W
! turre:ed vessels. of q thickness Of about
twenty.six to twenty-eight inches. Yet
| they are able to make guns that will
pierce that"
How about dynamite guns and tor
pcdoes."
That is still in an experimental stage.
The year past has demonstrated the
possibility If throwing Il shell contain
ing a great quantity of dynamite Il dis
lance IF s. mile or 80. and exploding it
a.ains, \ vessel. But some Of the ex-
periments have led to Il doubt ~ to the
effectiveness of the dynamite when ex-
plodei against the side Of u vessel in
this way. 1t is still in the experimental
. stage. Washington Cor. Cincinnati
| Times.
Points in q Good Horse.
A horses head indicates his char
| acter very much as a mans does. Vice
80 .Lo,,.u IN Tho ovo aud month. intalli.