Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-26
THE MAKING OF BIG GUNS.
1t Is Attended with Dificulty-A Costly
Accident at the Navy Yard.

The course Of the making Of big guns does
not always run smooth. There are obstacles
hidden at every turn in the construction and it
often happens that large sums Of money are
wasted through the loss of time and material
| occasioned by the failure of a casting or some
hitch in the mechanical processes. Such an acct
dent occurred recently at the navy yard in the
building of one of the new s-inch steel breech
loading rifles that will probably entail an ex-
pense Of $1,000 or more to the government and
delay In the completion Of the gun for some
weeks.
DIFFICULT PROCESS.
These new guns are made by shrinking hot
jackets of metal on the main tube, thus build
ing the piece up to the required thickness at
the breech, tapering off toward the muzzle.
This process is extremely difficult as the enor-
nous masses Of steel have to be heated to a
precise temperature and fitted with great care
over the shaft Of the gun, which has to be
taken hither and thither 20 permit the various
operations of construction.
The result is that modern built-up gun of
eight or ten inches caliber costs as much as q
iarg mansion in the West End, and an acci-
dent In the making is
QUITE SERIOUS MATTER.
The recent one occurred in cooling or shrink
ing the main breech jacket on the gun. It was
lowered part way down over the tube and
when 1t was within few inches of its proper
place 1t stuck fast and could not be forced into
position, rapidly cooling and tightening on the
gun. The explanation offered by the officers
and generally received is that the intense heat
OF the jacket as 1t passed over the tube caused
the latter to warp sufficiently to bind the
JACKET This was pretty well shown when,
on the tube showed that the jacket had not
caught evenly. Some facetious individual at
the yard said that the gun twisted because Of
the chilling influence Of q newspaper man in
the yard, but this is not true. 1t is libel
PROBLEM SOLVED.
When it was discovered that the jacket would
neither go on or get off the problem was to do
something with it, and after it had been re-
heated in an unsuccessful effort to unshrink it
1t was then decided to cut it off, and the great
tube was put into planer and sharp knife
was run up and down the jacket until it was
ripped open In two places, falling from the gun
Ike the shell OF nut cracked in half. This Is
NOT TOTAL LOSS
to the government, beyond the labor ex-
pended upon it in turning it to the proper
shape, for the steel in it, which is an important
and costly factor, can be easily used in other
ways. 1t is now being cut up in smaller pieces
some Of which will be worked over as fittings
Tor gun carriages, some as small breech plugs
and it will even be possible to obtain sufficiently
large blocks from which tubes for small ma
chine guns can be made. The jacket, before
cutting, was about feet long, 3 feet in diam
eter and inches thick.
This accident was something like that which
occurred about about year and a half ago,
when the breech-plug of a 10-inch rifle was
stuck in the breech during the fitting process
and could not be removed. 1t was finally after
weeks Of working, bored from the gun and
totally destroyed, involving loss to the gov
eminent OF several thousand dollars. The ex-
perience had with this plug proved that the
best way to do when an accident occurs is to
perform a mechanico-surgical operation at
once.