Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-12

| jacket, Is SR ullS upOu q idtuc, anu Tie
latter begins its tireless revolutions.
Experience has proved that all the
force Of the escaping projectile is not
confined to the chamber from which it
starts, but that considerable pressure
is also exerted along the muzzle. 70
overcome this, steel hoops which
average in size about four to the
length of the muzzle are placed around
the tube, being first heated and then
allowed to shrink tightly into place.
This Is done, however, upon the lathe
and without second visit to the
shrinking pit.
What was a matter of days in the
boring OF tube becomes now a matter
of weeks, as the steel bit of the lathe
cuts off long shavings of steel from
the slow revolving cannon. The SYM
metry Of the gun now begins to ap-
pear. It needs no label to identify it.
During all the time that it is upon the
lathe the ordnance inspectors measure
it carefully, compare it with the draw
ings Gor every gun has its working
drawings as detailed and as intricate
as those for a house), and hardly q
revolution of the lathe is made with
out test or inspection. 1t is difficult
to describe in plain words the amount
OF care which is given to each one of
these death-deaEng creatures. Every
thing that human ingenuity could de-
wise and human thought develop is be-
slowed upon it.
The gun has now progressed from
rough ingot to bored tube. which in
turn has become clothed with jackets
and hoops of steel. Once more the
finest lathe runs with careful touch
through the interior, making the bore
as polished as a mirror 1t is now
ready for the most important step of
all. Right at the entrance of the ma
chine shop stands the riaing machine.
On its capacious bed the cannon rests,
securely fastened. Into the guns cir
cular mouth is placed a long bar with
four sharp teeth.
For day and half this bar re-
wolves within the guns interior, slow
ly cutting out a couple of dozen of
twisted grooves about 5-100 Of an inch
in depth. Not many months ago each
groove was cut out separately, and
what is now accomplished in seven
teen hours then occupied week. No
where else in the world, not even in
the famous arsenal and ordnance shops
of the Old World, are four grooves cut
at once in rifing a cannon. So care
fully, however, is this work calculated
that the grooves come out mathematic-
ally exact to the thousandth part of
an inch.
The gun is now almost complete.
Once more it goes upon the lathe and
revoIves again, while man with big
o.rerv rubbers r2lishes the steel until
it glistens, like streak of silver
against the somber background of the
dingy shop. Previous to this, how
ever, the trunnion bands-the bands
which form the support for the gun
when resting in the carriage-have
been put in position, and the gun is
taken from the shops where it has
spsnt so much time to another room to
have its breech mechanism perfected.
In has been critically examined by
electric light and star-gauged at every
point of its progress, but all the care
that has been spent upon it would be
as nought if it lacked the power to dis
charge the shell. It is almost i'm
possible to describe in popular way
the breech mechanism.
In consists, to picture it in a word,
of a steel door which can be locked
when the charge is in and unlocked
when the charge is out. Part of this
door, which is probably foot thick,
consists of asbestos and mutton suet,
tightly compressed. When the charge
is expanded this band, which is set
between two rims of hard steel, spreads
against the interior of the cannon ant
thus cuts off most effectively the es-
cape of the gas. So important is it
that every part of this expansive gas
shall be utilized that even the printing
hole, hardly two-tenths of an inch in
diameter. is made self-sealing, and il
is estimated that if the gas could force
itself backward through this minute
aperture the velocity of the shell at
the muzzle would be reduced fifty feet
a second.
The last stages of the gun are now
fast approaching. 1t remains for il
to be sighted. and, simple as this
operation would seem to be, Lieuten-
ant Winslow. who has charge of the
six-inch gun, says that it is matter
Of six days. The utmost care is taken
in leyeling the gun and in making the
sight parallel with the axis of the
bore. The value of a sight on rife
is known to every one. In the case OF /
an immense cannon it is no less i'm I
portant. Finally the gun is weighed |
to find out whether it is muzzle heavy /
or breech heavy. This preponderance.
as it is called. is carefully marked upon |
the gun. the date and place OF its /
manufacture is neatly chiseled in the 1
shining steel, and the gun stands ready /
for use
What does one of these high-power. |
breech-loading, mechanically perfect |
guns look like now that ii is CON-
pleted? It is longer than the old style |
OF cannon. 1t is more symmetrical, /
and i Is Constantly much more haa,,ti. 1