Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-08
GUNS FOR THE NAVY.
They are Making Some Very Big Ones
at the Washington Navy Yard.
MONSTERS OF ORDNANCE.
Four, Six, Eight, Ten and Twelve-inch
Cannon-Powder and Quick Firing
PrOblems-HoW a Gun IL Made-New
Departure I'm Gun Making.

ESN IMAGINE an he1agonal prism an inch
| llivAG0wide and possibly two-thirds Of an
! EsJITS.1 inch thick with hole bored through
| GdlQgI% he middle of it and resembling
SY nothing so much as q chunk of wood
The last thing you would suppose it to be is
what it really is-a grain Of gunpowder. 1t is
funny sort of gunpowder too. If you touch
red hot coal to it it will take seven or eight
seconds to go off. Slow burning powder like
this is used in cannon, because it does not
strain the gun so much. The quicker the ex.
plosion the greater the shock-so that in such
high explosives as dynamite and nitro
glycerine the rending force is so tremendous
| as to ruin the cannon under ordinary condI-
tons.
This subject OF gunpowder STAR reporter
was informed, is one that is at present earn
estly engaging the attention of the experts at
the Washington navy yard To begin with, the
powder of the future, it is thought, will be
smokeless and its explosion will make very
little noise. Thus igh ting can 60 on to the
best advantage and in wel-bred sort Of way
without the incidental deafenng Of the COM
batants and the annoyance OF having their eyes
filled with smoke. One boast of modern civ.
ilizstion is that people can be killed so much
this improvement has already progressed 30
far that armies nowadays very rarely get within
a mile OF one another, and at that comfortable
out.
GUNS AND p wDER
They make guns at the navy yard-and big
ones, too-but the powder to load them with is
bought from various manufacturing compa-
MES, which are constantly improving the
quality OF their product What is particularly
wanted Is powder that will strain the cannon
as little possible. few years ago it was
thought practicable to make an explosive which
would exert pressure In the bore of the gun
on hring OF only fifteen tons to the square
inch, but now the pressure has been reduced
even below this. or course the less the strain
the longer will be the life of the weapon and this
Is necessarily matter of very serious conse-
quence. The finest gun made cannot be reas-
onably expected to be fit for further service
after having been fired two hundred and fifty
times with full charge of powder. At that
rate 1t costs good deal of money to fire off
cannon, taking into consideration the cost of
the cannon to begin with ana the expense of
the charge OF fifty or sixty pounds of powder.
THE RIGHT KIND OF POWDER.
The manufacture of hrst-rate cannon powder
In this country Is comparatively q new thing
When the Dolphin, Chicago, Atlanta and Bos-
ton were built the powder for them had to be
got from abroad. People speak of smokeless
powder as II II was altogether a novelty, but 1t
Is really quite an old idea and has been talk ed
OF Tor good many years. There Is not actually
any difficulty about making powder that is
smokeless. 1t Is simply necessary, in order
that powder shall be smokeless, that its COM
bustIon shall be perfect. Smoke means imper-
feet combustiOn-matter unconsumed passing
OIL IN that shape. But the trouble is that the
smokeless powders made heretofore have not
lasted well. To be serviceable gunpowder must
keep well for long period and be not at all
affected by extremes of heat or cold. 1t would
hardly do for vessel ordered from northern
station to the tropics TO find her powder useless
at the end of her voyage. Experiments said to
have been successful have been made recently
abroad with smokeless powder under the aus
pIces OF the German emperor but authorities
on such subjects here are dubious No doubt
sooner or later the thing will be accomplished,
and gunpowder that is practically smoke less
and comparatively noiseless will be used in the
battles OF the future.
sLow-BURNINa POWDER,
At the navy yard they say that an important
new departure in gunnery consists in using
fifty pounds, say, of slow-burning powder,
where formerly only ten pounds were used
for charge. The strain on the gun is no
greater and the velocity of the projectile Is
enormously increased. 1t is worth RENE IN ber-
ing. by the way, that slow-burning powder does
not take several seconds to go off in the gun where
the temperature OF the powder chamber is raised
to 5000 or 1000 degrees Fahrenheit The ex-
ploslon under such conditions is practically in
Simultaneous. But the most important project
at present under consideration by gunners con-
Germs the rapld-tire guns, which are sure before
long to take the place of those used now, What
Is the use of firing two shots in three minutes
which Is just about what the cannon in con-
structon at the navy yard will do when you
can just as easily discharge sixty projectiles of
like weight in the same time? The sort of guns
made at the navy yard are as fine as any known
In the world, save for this rapid-fre novelty
But, beyond doubt, the guns made at the
navy yard ten years hence will be rapid-fire
cannon. Gunnery has by no means passed the
experimental stage. In the future there will
be wonderful things accomplished with cannon.
Powder, too. Is still a thing experimental. Some
day 1t will be an astonishing improvement on
what it is now.
HOW CANNON rs MADE
The beginning of cannon like those turned
out at the navy yard is a solid cast-steel cylin-
der about twice as long as the gun is to be and
quite twice the diameter. After it is cast one
| third or more Is cut off one end and also
small piece off the other the best of the cast
ing being thus secured, without any of the un-
desirable matter that collects at the top of the
mold and finds its way to the bottom. The
cylinder Is then taken and forged with great
| steel hammers that strike blows of rs tons
weight until 1t Is reduced to one-half of its
original diameter. Thus an ingot of wonder
fully fine steel, 1t arrives at the navy yard from
the firm employed to make il. In the vast gun
shops there all the facilities are at hand for
| turning the steel cylinder into the gun that is
| to be. In the first place the cylinder must be
bored with huge lathe that, beginning at one
end, cuts out cylindrical hole through its
| heart. The making of this hole takes ten days
| maybe, but it would not do to make the boring
quite tull size at first. because the slightest err
| ror of oversize would spoil the Job, even
| though 1t were but little gouge Of one or two
thouSandths of an inch out of the interior
| surface OF the tube So the cylinder is bored
| and rebored, until finally it is perfect basis
| FOR a cannon, its caliber being precisely the
same throughout aud the thickness OF the tube
| unvarying.
| PUTTING ON THE JACKET
The next thing is to put on the great Jacket
| Of steel that covers the breech of the gun and
| strengthens it over the powder chamber, where
| it most needs reinforcement. 1t is really a
ry wonderful sight to see such jacket put
on. Hitherto at the navy yard it has been Gus
tom airy to dig great hole outside of the build
| ings to stand the tube on end in, in order to
| get at 1T conveniently. People have always
come in crowds to watch the spectacle when
| they heard Of it in advance. Now, however,
| there is nearly completed an enormous pit,
wa He'd with masonry and as big as two ordinary
roo ms, inside the gun shop, and henceforth
| the jacketing OF cannon will be done there.
Beneath the bottom of the pit and far below
the water level OF the river have been sunk tuo