The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-31


1t has lifted ITO tons and il is so arranged
that one man rides in cage which swings
Just under the crane, and moves il about
over this big shop just as he pleases.
With IL be could lift up good sized train
of cars, and by twist of the wrist he
could with this crane carry passenger
locomotive from one end Of this room 10
she other. He takes up one of these guns,
which is thirty-six feet long, and stands it
on end without any trouble, and in fact
the moving about of these immense
masses Of metal is done with greater man
ual ease than the handling of the iron in
an ordinary blacksmith's shop.
All kinds of gun-making are going on
here, and the making of big gun is as
fine piece of scientific manufacture as
anything done in the machine shops Of the
United States today. These guns when
completed have to be so strong that they
will Withstand a pressure equivalent to
fifteen tons to the square inch, and if you
could take rod of metal an inch square
and stretch IL out toward the sky until the
whole rod weighed the enormous amount
of fifteen tons, you could rest the lower
end OF this upon piece of one of these
guns and it would not affect il. At the
time of the last war between the North
and the South, nearly ali the guns in use
were made of cast iron or cast brass, and
II was common thing for gun to ex-
piode and 60 to pieces. Guns were cast in
one piece. and the most of them were
loaded from the muzzle, and a cannon
which would carry 500-pound field ball
for twelve miles was not thought OF.
The old guns could not Withstand {. pres
sure Of the modern charges. The guns Of
today are made of the finest of wrought
steel, and the twelve-inch gun which Is
now a San Francisco was built M of a
dozen or more great logs of steel. The in
side tube of it ghenit was brought TO the
factory was a hollow log of steel which
weighed ir the neighborhood of 10000
pounds and which was thirty-five feet long
and as big around "a the largest oak tree
you have ever seen. This log had been
made at Bethlehem. Pa, and il
had been hammered and drilled into
shape, and its interior was far smaller
than ii is now. Logs Of this kind OF steel
arc now lying in the gun factory ready to
be used for the making OF more
OF these twelve-inch guns, and the
steel of which these logs are made is care
fully tested before they are accepted.
When this immense steel log is received
here II Is put on great lathe and the out
side OF il is shaved down, q stream of ice
water running continuously on the bit of
the lathe as ii cuts the steel shavings from
the outside shell. The friction is so great
that the water becomes boiling and rises
in steam from the shavings, and the in
terror OF the steel log Is drilled out until IL
Is Of the exact size for the ball Of over so
pounds which is TO go into 1t.
Now the steel log has been drilled out
ready TO form the inside of the barrel of
the gun. 1t has to be strengthened many
times before it is ready for use, and this
strengthening Is done by binding it again
and again with hoops of steel. First
comes the jacket. This is another steel
log three feet thick and about thirteen feet
long. 1t is made at Bethlehem. Pa, of
the finest of forged Steel and when il is
ready to be turned and bored il weighs
$4,000 pounds. 1t comes to the navy yard
a hollow log of forged steel as high as
table and so long that you could hardly
get 1t into the average par.or. IL is here
drilled out until it is just little smaller
in its interior diameter than the circum-
ference of the steel tube and il is shrunken
on this In the very same way that a black
smith shrinks tire on a wheel. In the
middle OF this big gun factory there
Is a great hole big enough TO
hold fonr-story house of about
forty feet square. This contains great
furnaces and machinery which will hold
one OF these great guns upright. The big
crane picks up this twenty ton or so of
steel which constitutes the barrel of the
gun, swings IL over this hole and stands il
on end, and then 1t takes the 10000 or
10000 pound steel jacket and puts 1t into
the big furnace which stands in this hole.
BY means of coal oil an immense heat is
produced, and the jacket becomes white
hot. The crane now catches hold of it,
lifts ii up, suspends it over the barrel, and
10, the heat has so expanded it that 1t slips
down upon the barrel and it is left there
to COOL Cold water is sprayed over it
through bands of copper wire, and in a
day the heat has left il and il has en-
hraced the tube with a terrible pressure,
which is sometimes so great that il makes
IL necessary TO drill out some of the in
terror of this massive tube 10 bring it to
the right size. This jacket is now
three or four inches thick. 1t has
20 be shaved down until nothing but
the best and the purest of steel remains in
IT, Other great hoops of steel are shrunk
on To the other parts OF the barrel, and
these are shaved down and other hoops
Ehrunken on top of them until the whole
barrel has three different layers of the
finest of forged steel more strongly welded
together than though they were one solid
piece OF metal. The gun is now polished
oil until IL shines like mirror, its breech-
loading apparatus is fastened 10 il or made
with II and you have. after many months
OF work, at an expense Of nearly $1,000,
one of the most wonderful things in war
almost as big around as a tlour barrel. AT
the muz1le 10 Is just twelve inches in
diameter. and &c Is SO arranged when hung
In the ship u could be almost manipu-
lated hy child.
One gets no idea Of the size of these
guns from the technical description of
them. There are many ten-inch guns
here. These are twenty-sjx feet long and
they carry SOS mound steel hall AZ the rata
of 1000 feet per second. The Maine will
have four OF them. The baltimore has in
its armament four eight-lnch guns which
carry balls Weighing $50 pounds and these
guns weigh 1900 pounds apiece. The six
inch gun weighs $500 pounds, and the
amount of weight which the batteries Of
our warships will be able TO throw a, a
time is almost inConceiyahle Secretary
Tracy saws that the Indiana Will, when
completed, throw over three tons or q. SEQ
pounds of prujecules at single DISCHARGE
and the shells from her thirteen-iuch gan
viii 80 twenty-five inches into a steel plate
one mile away. he SAYS that her
secondary batteries Will DISCHARGE
$50 projecties minute and she
Will have torpedo tubes which will shoot
out an al3-aFuund fire of eightecn-inch tor
pedoes, each containing 30 pounds of
powder. Discharges ike this Will cost an
enormous amount. and every minute of a
great naval battle Will send fortunes up in
smoke ana sound. Every round of fire
from twelye-lnch gun viii cost hundreds
mon hundreds Of dollars, and the expense
OF making these arOor-plercipg shells is
very great
During my stay at the navy ward I
visited the shell house and had 4 talk with
Gunner Walsh. lie tells me that each shin
. go - al