Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-11-07
OUR NEW NAVAL GUNS.

Terrible Wenpona That Are Experiencing
 New Developments Every Day.
 From an article on the above by Com mander c F. 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 vis- ited 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 thou sand yards. Try to imagine for a 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 a 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. It 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 cur metal must be tough, elastic and of great tensile strength. These qualities find their highest development in forged steel. 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 shell of our fathers. To-day we are using e1on- gated steel proiectiles-weighihg in. some cases ton eaeh-that will pierce iron armor measured in thickness by the foot, or even the yard; we are chafg- ing some with melinite or other fright full explosives that will create untold havoc, or with noxious chemicals to suffocate a whole ships company.
 "Other weapons are experiencing the same development Hotchkiss-an American, of course-brought out his revolver cannon, then his rapid-f1re guns. The largest of these was 8 six pounder. Mounted on a swivel it could be fired from the shoulder like an old wall piece, delivering about twelve shots a minute. Prestol we now hear of SO-pounders, 70-pounders and 100- pounders of this type. Imagine shoul- der practice with 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 1 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 han dle 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 so | great as to amount to revo- l lution, and their constant end has been increase in the power of the gun and in the rapidity of it's fire. In | the first direction we appear to have reached limit in the 110-ton gun. and
 there is a tendency to recede, for it is
 generally agreed that a 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 1,2OO-pound
 shell with a velocity of 2,1OO feet per
 second. In the second direction we are making constant progress, but it is mainly by improvements in gun mount | ipgs 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 this limit has even been passed in the En- | glish six-inch rapid-flre gun. For the present at least we are content with a four-inch gun firing a S6-pound shell; and large part of the armament of the ships now building will consist of these | guns"