Huntsville gazette., 1890-10-11
OUR NEW NAVAL GUNS.
Terrible Weapons That Are Experiencing
New Developments Every Day.

Terrible Weapons That Are Experiencing
New Developments Every Day.
From an article on the above by Com
mander c. I. Goodrich, in the Century,
we quote as follows: How very few
persons by the way, appreciate the
latent power Of a modern projectile
when in motion. Those who have Wis
tied the Atlanta and have seen her
smaller guns, of six inches caliber,
whisked about BY one man, will be even
the less likely to realize that their shot
can pierce an IRON plate over eight
inches thick at the distance Of a 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 make 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, it is evident, use the best material
obtainable; the best at the be-
ginning, best in the midst of the firing,
and best at the close. 1t must stand
the sudden and heavy first shock; must
yield little, without rupture or per-
manent distortion, when the pressure is
at its greatest; must return to its
original shape when all is over; and it
must offer, at all times, the greatest
possible resistance to fracture. Tech
nically our metal must be tough, elastic
and of great tensile strength. These
qualities find their highest development
in forged steel. y AS in guns, SO
in what they throw, the tendency is to-
ward larger masses, more perfect mate
rial, greater destructiveness. The can
non-ball Of our grandfathers gave place
to the eight-inch and nine-inch she'll of
our fathers. To-day we are using elon-
gated steel jectiles-weighing in
some cases ton ,each--that will pierce
iron armor measured in thickness by
the foot, or even the yard we are charg-
ing some with melinite or other fright
full explosives that will create untold
havoc, or with noxious chemicals to
suffocate whole ships company.
''Other weapons are experiencing the
same development. Hotchkiss-an
American, of course--brought out his
revolver cannon, then his rapid-fire
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 30-pounders, 70-pounders and 100
Founders of this type. Imagine shoul-
der practice with a six-inch gun weigh
ing five tons and three-quarters, at the
rate of eight or ten rounds in a minute,
each round capable Of piercing fifteen
inches of wrought iron! Such guns
exist, and will constitute a large
part of the armament Of the most
modern ships of war. Every one
is inventing some new form Of
mounting to hold the gun that deals
such rapid and powerful blows, or Of
breech mechanism to lessen the time
taken up in loading. Electricity, steam,
hydraulic and pneumatic powers are
used in our new ships to load and ham
die guns. Maxim-American 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 50
great as 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 we appear to have
reached limit in the 110-ton gun, and
there is tendency to recede, for it il
generally agreed that smaller
gun will do the work required for
naval service. The largest gun
contemplated for our new bat
tie ships is the thirteen inch
Cotton gun, firing a 1,200-pound
shell with velocity Of 2,100 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.
The limit Of the rapid-firing principle
is reached when the ammunition be.
comes too heavy to be easily handled
by one man, and it is believed that thit
limit has even been passed in the EN-
glish six-inch rapid-fire gun. For the
present at least we are content with
four-inch gun firing a 36-pound she'll;
and large part of the armament Of the
ships now building will consist Of these
guns"