The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-03-02
UNCLE SANS BIG euNsHoP.
Making Huge Machines for the Slaugh.
ter Of Mankind.

Making Huge Machines for the Slaugh.
ter Of Mankind.
West Troy Letter in New York Sun.
Chief Engineer Anthony Victo-
rim, United States Ordnance De-
partment, has practically completed
the working plan for the new 800,
600 great gun factory at the Water
vliet Arsenal, and by February 1st
the contracts should be ready for
letting. The plans involve a radical
departure from anything ever at
tempted in this country, or, for that
matter, any other, in the way of
making big machines for the ener-
getic slaughter of mankind. The
great works of the world, Krupp's,
Armstrong; and Whiteworth's, all
devote their energies to other BRAN
ches of metal manufacture, and
such appliances as they possess are
to degree designed to be useful
for purposes outside of gunmaking,
and have been accumulated as de-
manded by occasion. The new can
non shops Of this country are SIM
ply annexes to some other sort of
iron or steel industry, and the most
famous of them all, the South Bos-
ton foundry, had its ninety-foot
lathe constructed for adaptation to
cannon-boring or cutting out wide
steamship cylinders to the disad-
vantage Of the gun work.
Here at Watervliet every piece of
the immense amount of machinery
required will be built from special
designs by the Chief Engineer, for
the single purpose of gunmaking.
and will be set up in a giant build
ing constructed and arranged for
it's accommodation.
The factory is to be erected about
in the centre of the walled-in field
Of 100 acres constituting the ar
mory reservation midway between
the Delaware and Hudson railroad
in the rear and the Hudson river in
front, and contiguous to the Erie
canal. which traverses the lower
portion of the grounds. A branch
railroad will run from the Delaware
and Hudson main track right
through the middle of the shop,
across the canal by new bridge to
the river front, making it available
for connection with the three sour
ces of transportation and including
a siding into the building. The
contract for building the bridge and
railroad and excavating for the
main building foundations has al
ready been let to ex-State Engineer
Elnathan Sweet of the Wilton
Bridge Company for $34 300. This
does not include a railroad scales
and turntable incidental to the road.
The gunshop will be 963 feet long,
with width of 1913 feet on the north
wing and 158 feet on the south.
Each wing is to be 400 feet long
and between them will be a central
structure covering the rest of the
room, to hold two 2OO-horse power
engines-one for service in each
wing-ofice, tool room, machinery
for assembling the guns, and
shrinkage pit so feet deep, with
three levels, 20, IS and so feet below
the ground. Assembling" a gun
means putting it together by slip
ping on the breech jacket and hoops.
They are warmed up in a big oven
until hot enough to expand fully,
and then slipped over the big tube
which forms the gun, to be then
poked into water and shrunk so
tightly that only an expert can find
the Joints in the rough, and nobody
after the gun has been turned and
FURNISHED.
The north wing, which will be
finished FIRST, because Congress
hasn't given money enough for the
whole, as economy would have die
tated, will be formed of a central
structure IS feet wide and 50 to the
caves, connecting through h arches
12x28 with an annex Is feet wide
on each side, running the length. in
which the minor mechanism will be
slowed. !,
This north wing is to be utilized
for the construction Of cannon from
s to IL inch bore, the kind now con-
sidered the most useful BY the Ord.
nance Board. 70 this end it will,
accommodate fifteen huge lathes
ranging from 20 to l05 feet in
length. all specially constructed.
They win have to be, as the right
sort are not made. Manufacturers