Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1889-05-03
MAKING A CANNON.
HOW MODERN STEEL RIFLES
ARE PRODUCED.

J. "A mUNO Ell W HUN Will -
TON SHOT TEN MILES, AND WILL
HAVE A HALF TON OF POWDER
FOR A CHARGE
The Washington navy yard has
been transformed into an immense
gun factory, says the Washington
Post. All during these peaceful
spring days, when the ancient will
lows of the yard are shooting forth
long stehs of green and the heavy
black smoke of the tall chimneys
drifts laz!ly on the balmy air, near
ly 700 skilled workmen are ham
mering busily from early morn till
late in the afternoon. In nearly a
score of immense buildings giant
lathes are turning steadily, large
drills are boring continually,
and in every nook and corner OF
the yard there is evidence of I'M
wonted industry and activity
With the new navy came the ne
cessity for new guns. The old canon,
smooth of bore and clumsy of
management, would have been use
less upon the new armOred and un-
armOred vessels upon which Con
gress finally decided to construct.
A gun factory became necessary.
Up in the heart of the Pennsyl-
vanla hills, where the air ls black
with smoke by day and lurid with
fame by night, the first step In the
process of gun making is to be
witnessed. In the great rolling
mill of the Midvale Company, huge
masses of steel, weighing at first
10000 pounds, are hammered and
rehammered until cast in an iogot
OF little more than half that weight.
These ingots are about twenty-six
feet long aud about eight inches in
diameter. When each long column
of steel is ready to be turned over
to the government, piece OF 1t is
cut of by the government inspector
stationed at the rolling mill and
sent to the testing room at the
Washington factory. The piece of
steel sent to this city is about four
inches in length. An inch Of this
at each end consists of a thread
like screw, and between these is a
thinner cylinder of plain STEEL
When a sample duly marked is
taken fro N its box, each end is
screwed into the arms OF a tall
testing machi ne, capable OF testing
up to 100000 pounds. BY system
OF levers, scientifically arranged,
one man standing by the wheel,
which is not much larger IN diane
ter than the length of ones hand,
can pull the bars apart, and thus
stretch the little column of steel
until finally it snaps apart with a
noise like a good.sized Fourth Of
July flrecracker.
The steel ingot has now been
forged, inspected and shipped, and
is in the gun factory awaiting
further disposition. Although 1t
weighs something like 5000
pounds, the huge derricks lift 1t
easily, and it is placed upon one of
the gigantic lathes with which the
shops abound. At one end of the
lathe a steel drill or bit is fastened.
Then the great wheels revolve, and
slowly but steadily the drill begins
to convert ;he solid mass of steel
into a tube. At first the hole which
is bored is only 81 inches in width.
1t leayes a rough, jagged surface,
which in turn is smoothed down by
a drill OF finer build.
Having been, therefore, subJec-
ted to all of these tests and lnspec-
tions, the tube is carried over to
the foundry and there placed muz-
zle upward in a deep pit ready to
await Its jacket.
One need not be an expert to IN
derst and that the greatest force to
be resisted is concentrated In the
rear OF the gun where the powder
is fired and the shell starts on its
mission of death. SO enormous
are the charges now placed in a
gun that the pressure to the square
inch in the powder chamber is now
no less than Is tons. The stately
Washington monument, a mass OF
} stone rising $50 feet in the air, has
a pressure of only five tons to the
square foot, and this comparison,
perhaps, best illustrates the enor
nous force OF the powder when con
verted into gas.
To withstand this shock the tube
of the gun is strengthened by
= Jacket, a wall of steel about a foo
; and a half thick, placed around II
directly over the powder chamber
While the tube was being bored this
Jacket was also undergoing a sim
: liar operation, so that when th'
tube was at last lowered into the
pit the jacket was ready to bt
placed In the furnace, there heated
and finally, after being hoisted
from its heated bed by crane, il
slipped down upon the tube. Coils
of copper wire filed with water
! play upon the heated band of met
! al, causing it to shrink around the
cold tube with an embrace destined
to last forever.
For a day or longer this cOolinI
: process is allowed TO continue
Once more the tube, now with 1
steel jacket, is swung upon th'
/, lathe, and the latter begins it's tire