St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-11-29
OUR NEW NAVAL GUNS.

OUR NEW NAVAL GUNS.
Terrible Wsapoas That Are ExpsrssusIse
New DsveioPosnts Every Day.
From an article on the above BY Com.
mander C +. Goodrich, in tho Century,
No quote - follows: "How very few
persons By tho way. appreciate the
latent power OF . modern proiectile
when In motion. Those who have Wis
tied the Atlanta and have seen her
smaller gunA Of six inches caliber.
whisked about BY one man. will be even
the loss likely 70 realize that their shot
can pierce IN iron plate over eight
inches thick at the distance Of . thou
sand yards Try to imagine for . mo-
ment the number Of men who would
have to pull on line that, arranged in
any conceivable way. could be made to
throw the hundred-pound shot with
force enough to mako such hole. Yet
all of this power Is stored up in car
fridge weighing less than fifty pounds
To contain and restrain such . power We
must, 1t IL evident use the bost material
obtainable; tho best at the be-
ginning. best in the midst Of the firing.
and best 1t tho close. It must stand
the sudden and heavy first shock; must
yield little. without rupture or per.
manent distortion, when the pressure IL
at its greatest; must return to Its
original shape when all Is over: and II
must offer. 1t all times. the greatest
possible resistance to fracture. Tech.
nically cur metal must be tough. elastic
and Of great tensile strength. These
qualities find their highest development
In forged steel. As in guns, 50
in what they throw, tho tendency is to-
ward larger masses. more perfect mate
rial, greater destructivencss. The can
non-ball Of our Rrandfathers gave place
to the eight-inch and nine.inch she'll OF
our fathers To-day we are using elon.
gated steel projectiles-weighing in
some cases ton .each-that'will pierce
iron armor measured In thickness by
the foot or even the yard; VIC are charg-
ing some with melinite or other fright
full explosives that will create untold
havoc. or with noxious chemicals ~
sufiocate whole ships company.
''Other weapons arc experiencing tho
same development HOtchkiss-an
American, Of course-brought out his
revolver cannon. then his rapid-firo
guns. The largest of these was . six
FOUNDER. Mounted on swivel it could
be fired from the shoulder like an old
wall piece. delivering about twelve
shots minute. Presto! We now hear
Of SO-pounders. 70-pounders an1 100
Founders Of this type. Imagine shoul-
dor practice with . six-inch gun weigh
ing Ave tons and three-quarters. at the
rate Of eight or ten rounds in minute,
each round capable Of piercing fifteen
inches Of wrought iron! Such guns
exist and will constitute . largo
part Of the armament Of the most
modern ships OF war. Every ono
is inventing somc new form Of
mounting to hold the gun that deals
such rapid and powerful blows. or Of
brecch mechanism to lessen the time
taken up in loading. Electricity, steam,
hydraulic and pneumatic powers are
used in our new ships to load and han.
die gunA Maxim-Amcrican again
utilizes the recoil Of the piece to do all
the loading and firing.
'The improvements in guns within
the last few years have been 10
great IS to amount to . revo-
luton, and their constant end
has been increase in the power of the
gun and in the rapidity Of its fire. In
the first direction VIC appear to have |
reached limit In the l1O-ton gun. and |
thero 10 tendency to recede, for it Is I
generally agreed that . smaller
gun will do the work required for |
naval service. The largest gun
for our new bat
tie ships is the thirteen inch
Cotton gun, firing l.e00-pound |
shell with . velocity Of 3.100 feet per |
second. In the second direction we arc |
making constant progress, but it is
mainly BY improvements in gun mount
ings and in the service Of ammunition.
Tho limit Of the rapid-fring principle
Is reached when the ammunition DO.
comes too heavy TO be easily handled
BY one man, and It is believed that this
limit has even been passed In the En-
glish six-inch rapid-fire gun. For tho
present 1T least we are content with .
four-inch gun firing = S6-pound shell;
and largo part OF the armament OF tho
ships new building will consist Of these
guns."