The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-05-03

workmen are all there with their hands
! covered with asbestos mittens. When the
| gray haired man in charge Of the furnace
declares that all is ready, the forty-ton
crane comes over, giant steel hooks seize
upon the cover of the retort, and away it
goes. Great flames shoot up. Down goes
another set of steel hooks, and they Crap
| pie the ten-ton jacket and in five seconds
more 1t is dangling in the air, sizzling and
| spluttering in its white heat. The point is
then to carry it and settle it upon the big,
cold tube, whose stern is in the air to re-
ceive it.
BY this time everybody is busy The man
controlling the crane gets orders at the rate
of sixty a second. Men with guy ropes to
direct the descent of the jacket almost dance
jigs in their intensity of purpose Captain
O'Neill keeps his arms going, and tries to
shield his face from the awful heat. The
cry of Lower away!' comes from every
throat, and 'Steady! Steady!' fills the air.
Sparks fly from the great mass of metal,
and when anything goes amiss Commodore
Folger takes hand. Then the fun begins.
The sparks, the heat, the general excite
ment go for naught when Folger bursts
forth. The brilliant young commodore in
charge of gun manufacture has vocabu-
larry of invective which for forceful pictur-
sequences and variety would shame any
body in Satan's dominion. When the jacket
phere is not only hot but it is sulphurous.
But usually everything works smoothly
and In few hours the gun and its jacket
are sufficiently cooled to be removed. The
cooling process is done by the insertion of
pipe carrying cold water to the inner sur
face of the tube; this makes the cooling
gradual and obviates the possibility of flaws
and cracks in the structure.
From the pit, the gun with its jacket, now
adhering more closely than poor relation,
is carried to the turning lathe and its outer
surface turned and polished. Then comes
the adjustment of the hoops which are
shrunk on in much the same way as the
jacket but being lighter they are put on
with lighter machinery. When all is fin
ished the gun is subjected to final turning
of its outer surface The machinery which
does this Is massive; it moves slowly, but
every bit and cutting utensil that is brought
to bear on the guns surface works with
mathematical accuracy. The whole massive
surface is turned with a precision that is
marvellous. The little bit that does its work
| cuts no wider than a sixteenth Of an inch
or deeper than a thirty secondth of an inch,
| but the big gun revolves into its bite, and
| the result is little coil of steel that is
stretched out indefinitely like an elderly
maiden ladys curl. When that process is
finished the outer surface of the gun is as
smooth as baby's skin. The bore of the
gun has already been polished like glass
The next important thing is the rif1ing
Fifty two spiral grooves have to be cut into
the bore of a twelve-inch gun. The great
crane comes and takes the gun to the rihing
cylinder. The machinery of this is too com
plicated to describe, but it's mechanism is
faultless. 1t is the most tedious process of
all that enters into the manufacture of the
gun. Then comes the cutting and boring
for the breech mechanism. A separate and
distinct machine does this. Altogether it
will be seen that the making of ore of the
big guns requires the highest science and
skill.