The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-09
ARE THE GREAT GUNS A FAILURE
The English Think They Have Good
Reason for Thinking Theirs Are.
From the London Times.

Reason for Thinking Theirs Are.
From the London Times
The delay in completing the armament Of
those of our battle ships intended to carry
hilton and 67-ton guns, scandalous and in
ercusabls as it is, is a mere fleabite COM
,ared with the grave doubts that have from
recent experience been forced on US as TO
whether the guns, when we get them, will
he worth having. 1t is a very serious state
If affairs for the first naval power in the
world. a nation whose very existence de-
lends on the efficiency OF her navy, that
her most important and heavily armored
ironclads should be supplied with ordnance
about which a cloud of misgivings and
suspicion hangs, which few believe to be
tryltworrhy weapons if war should come
mon rs. and that these n.isgivings should
he more than justified by what has lately
occurred.
The construction of the monster modern
Reapons has been entered upon without
ADEQUATE preliminary trials and graduated
experiment, and the very large number of
failures which have occurred quite in re-
cent times throw a very disgusting light
on the probable results of holly contested
action at sea in which the ships of our navy
sbould find themselves engaged
The failures during the trials preliminary
10 their being offered for acceptance to the
government that had ordered them, have
been sufficiently numerous to give
rise TO the gravest apprehensions
in respect of those guns that Just
managed to scrape through the ordeal
without going into details, it is sufficient
that. at the works of one firm alone, one
105-ton gun, one 12-inch gun, two 10-inch
aud two S-inch guns have had to be con-
denned while undergoing proof, and, ret
jcent as the authorities have been ON the
subject, there is not much doubt that both
Hilton guns of her majesty's ship Victoria.
are practically h0rs de combat. If such a
number of guns have collapsed after fe w
rounds what may we expect with rapid and
continued firing in action? He would be
bold man who would guarantee that half
our existing guns would escape self
destruction in such case.
The first, and perhaps most important,
reason for the failure of our in every way
monstrous ordnance has been the enormous
difficulty of getting sufficiently good metal
wherewith to build it. Whether it be that
our metallurgists have Lot yet sufficient
experience or scientific knowledge to pro-
duce as good steel as is turned out without
difficulty by Krupp or Creusot, or whether
our gunmakers ask more of the metal they
use than it can possibly bear-both these
suggestions are probably correct-the
fact remains that the quantitity of metal
sent in from the steel shops to the gun
factories that is perforce rejected for its
defects gives rise to the grRvest suspicious
that much that is accepted and used is very
little better. Another cause is the highly
unsatisfactory character of the powder at
present supplied. The new powders have
been lauded to the Skies But our powder
is anything but what it should be, and its
uncertain and violent action accounts for
many of the accidents to our guns. The
muzze-loading thirty-eight ton gun of the
A jax was blown to pieces the other day
because the prism black" powder en-
poyed had, from frequent shipping and
transshipping, been broken up into
small fragments, and its action thereby
had become quick instead of slow Ii this
same powder, or the chocolate" now pre-
ferred to it, is stored for any length of time
in magazine subject to the usual tempera-
ture of a man-of-war, it is liza BILE to become
violent explosive with a decorating &C
ton, of which unpleasant fact the damaged
breech-pieces of the 6-inch guns of the
Imperieuse China the other day gave us
fair warning. Neither have the French,
with all their experience, escaped. The
bursting OF the 34centimeter gun on board
the Amiral Duperre was undoubtedly due
to the powder having been exposed for
long time to such a temperature as is CON-
monty met with in the magazine of an iron
clad.
But it is not only the abnormally in
creased force of the powder that is to blame
for many misfortunes; it is the excessive
quantity of charges that no gun can stand
and live. The amount of powder used in
English ordnance has long been stigmatized
by the more sober-minded and prudent
artillerists of the continent as des charges
JotteS, and the experience we have had of
late without protiting by it. goes far TO
show that these critics objections
were well founded. The full
charge of powder for our twelve
inch gun is 295 pounds; for the French
32-centimeter, which pretty nearly cor
responds to it, it is only 235 pounds. A
little higher initial velocity is dearly bought
at the price of safety. The erosive force of
modern powder, moreover, is an element
that has to be reckoned with. Whether
chemical or mechanical in its nature mat
ters not, but the result is that some barrels
after only 400 rounds resemble plowed
held; so great is the erosion that lands and
grooves are indistinguishable. Instead of
the powder pressure following diminish
ing curve as calculated, it often rises to
maximum near the muZZle and destroys the
piece, exerting its greatest energy at the
weakest point of the gun.
There is something utterly and radically
wrong with the whole system of gun manu-
tacture in England, which fact is to us, who
by rights ought to be the first engineering
country in the world, nothing short of a
national disgrace. 1t is reported, and prob
ably with only too much truth, that Italy,
Whlch hitherto has obtained her guns ex-
cluslvely from English makers, has now de-
termlned to transfer her custom to Ger
many. x