The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-07-01
Rnual Ralsista agntunrr.
TESTING GUNS.
where the Governments Great Guns
are Tested

where the Governments Great Guns
are Tested.
At the end of ride of an bour and a
half from New York on the tugs ord
nance or Engineer lies Sandy Hook, IA
nous IN the stories of Captain Kidd and
cooper story of the mysterious water
wien; a spit of sand out in the Atlantic
making, with Coney Island on the other
sue, the Lower Bay. Quiet and natural,
~ ieiIiaihs as when the first Dutchman
sailed into the harbor, Here can be
found the most varied flora of the Middle
states, and here, too, are all the birds TO
De Iound which are known as American
ana which used to make tuneful the
woods OF New York's neighborhood
driven to this land of quiet by innumer,
able sportsmen, and supported by the
berries OF the cedar and bay which cover
the peninsula.
For years Sandy Hook has been Gov
eminent reservation, and, with the eXcep-
tlon OF the lighthouse keeper and the
oIlcers and men of the proving-grounds,
mas had no inhabitants except the tele-
graph operator in his lonely tower who
records the winds and announces the in
coming vessels. Yet to this lonely sand
peach we now all turn for the latest news
OF our new army, as to the harbors and
Inc Shlp-yardS Of the Hudson and the
Delaware for news of the new navy, Not
ior tactlcs evolved and appliances manu-
factured, but here are made the truly
sclentlhc experiments by which the art is
developed, which is every day rendering
less and less useful the heavy armor Of
the unWleldy ships of modern navies.
Against the smooth-bore guns of ante
rebellion days the railroad-iron armor of
the Alabama and the iron plates of the
monitors proved effective, but at the
close OF the war methods of construction
typlfled III the Rodman and PARROT gums
had begun new era of manufactures
which has necessitated greater and greater
thickness, till the floating forts of TODAY
nave out scant buoyancy in case of acct
dent with armor which is but a moor nro-
lection against the high penetrating power
'oi the guns. Nor is it simply great
blocks OF steel and high charges of Dowder
when nave made the modern gun. little
by little strains and proportions have
been worked out by these engineers nm
til the modern ordnance engine has be-
come piece OF mechanism beautiful in
its lines of resistance.
The work of the Sandy Hook Proving
Grounds is not merely the mounting.
loading and firing the guns, nor is it an
attempt merely to burst effective work
manship, but shot must be studied in
Hight and guns in recOil with their
proper and improper charges of powder.
O.h'4A wv Oti sihSSI has the uatd Tor con-
Structlng the gun which will not burst
and the carriage which will not break mn
or fail in its duty. TO the stranger who
visits the post from time to time. and
sees from month to month the same gums
IN the same carriages, fired always in a
ike routine, there is little evidence of the
work really done, and he does not realize
that this work which is being done upon
types is really determining the whole
construction OF our future armament
ct such is the very work of these three
or TOUR officers who are firing from dav
to day guns great and little at Sandy
Hook.
Essentially the testing of a gun IS de-
termining the speed of the shot and the
pressure along the bore produced by diff
ferent powders and charges: the velocity
OF recoII, and hence the strains in the car
rage. Such scientific study of gun be-
gan IN Count Rumford's time. when
Benjamin Robins in about l74O invented
the Statistic pendulum. Just as Won
would know how hard you had pushed a
swing with your hand TO drive it for
certain distance up along its arc. so he
had the musket balls of those DAYS strike
heavy iron plumb-bob to which was
bolted wooden facing for the Judgment
OF The ball. A steel tope attached was
dragged out beyond two clips and re-
corded the swing of the pendulum
Count Rumford himself used this nen.
dulum of Robins, but as check suspend
eel the gun to be fired as a pendulum also.
and so at each experiment had a record of
the force OF the ball and the kick of the
gun, which should be- as the action and
reaction of Newton's law, equal and on
posite.-F. a. c.. Perrine in the Enpineer-
ing Magazine for June.