Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-31

|N>@ on tne monterey
The big guns are
among the most won
derful things of modern times. The one
just sent to San Francisco weighed 104 900
pounds. and the freight car upon which it
was carried was made especially strong,
and it had to have 70 wheels and heavy
trucks to support this immense weight. 1t
had to be much longer than the ordinary
car, and the gun itself is more than 35 feet
long, and at its breech it is as big around
as the largest flour barrel Iti so long
that ifit were stood on end its muzzle would
reach above the top of a good sized three
story house. 1t would take about 90 horses
to haul it if it were on wheels on a ordinary
road, and the shot or shell which it uses are
so big that three of them would make a
good load for team of Percheron horses.
The Shell and the Powder.
Each of these shells weighs $50 pounds
Standing on the ground, they reach to the
height of mans waist and they are IL
inches thick or nearly twice as large around
as the average telegraph pole. The powder
used in these guns is the color of chocolate
1t is compressed into the shape of the iron
nuts which you use on a large bolt and it
takes about two two-bushel bags full of
these powder nuts to fire off the gun. For
every shot that is fired it will take 425
pounds of powder and this powder will
send this immense shot forth from the gun
with such force that it will do execution
Il miles away and its velocity as it leaves
the muzzle OF the gun is 1000 feet second.
Two thousand feet a secondi Do you
realize what that means? This immense
shell if it kept up this velocity would travel
a mile in less than three seconds. 1t flies
forth twenty times as fast as the fastest loco
motive ever travelled, and plows its way
along through the air, losing but little of
this terrible speed as it carries its 800
pounds of death and destruction straight to
the mark II miles away. Such shot if it
could keep its velocity would at this rate,
go around the world in less than day.
Execution of the Big Guns.
Its speed is inconceivable Its execution
is beyond description. 1t will pillow its way
through steel and iron, and the guns Of
ships which were in use 25 years ago like so
much paper, and as it is they go foot or
more into solid steel, and the strongest COM
binations of metal known TO modern times
viii hardly Withstand them.
These two guns are what are known as L.
inch guns, and they are so far about the
most satisfactory of the large guns known.
The English have made some guns which
measure 16 inches across the muzzle, but
these have not done well, though they carry
shells weighing 1,S00 pounds and require
nearly !, 900 pounds of powder to fire them.
1t is doubtful whether they have a greater
striking force than our 12-inch guns, but
one of these 16-inch guns at trial recently
sent shot through nearly 45 feet of iron,
steel, granite and concrete and left it i'm
bedded in six feet of brick in the end The
shot went first through 20 inches of iron
and steel plate, then through inches of
wrought iron plate, then cut its way through
20 feet of oak, on through five feet of gran
ite, through IL feet of concrete and at last
lodged in the midst of six feet of brick.
The Guns Are Large Enough.
The 12-inch gun is the favorite gun with
the best nations of the world. The English
navy have number which measure 1917
inches, but the French have discarded their
16-inch guns and it is said that all over 12k
inches are not satisfactory. The biggest
gun afoat in the German navy is IL 1-100
inches in size, and the biggest of new guns
ordered by Japan are only 121S inches
These big guns were made at the navy
ward gunshops here at Washington, and
we have here now at the national capital
one of the biggest and best gun factories of
the world. Nearly 1000 hands are now
working here from 10 to II hours day and
there is a colony of 8, 900 people supported
by the gun factory. The foundry has al
ready turned out or is making 117 big guns
and these range from 6-pounders to 12-inch
in size and the largest guns cost as high a.
so, 1000 to S5O, 900 apiece to make. Now,
that there is danger of trouble abroad, the
guards have been increased and it requires
pass to get into the navy yard. You are
stopped by soldier at the gate and have to
register your name
Inside the Main Foundry
l got a card from Commander Folger to
Captain y Neil, and was taken into the
great big brick building which constitutes
the main foundry and which looks for ali
the world like big grain elevator Im-
agine room 600 feet long and SO feet wide
packed full OF logs of steel, of polished
barrels OF metal in the shape of guns, of
great machlney which whizzes and whirrs |
with its many bands of belting, of sooty |
workman by the hundreds in suits of blue |
Jeans and you have a mazed idea of our big |
gun shop. The noise which comes I'D is |
like the confusion of Babel.
Along the walls near the roof YOU note |
two railroad tracks which run the entire |
length of the building and suspended to |
these and running on their wheels back and |
forth, is the mighty crane which picks up 4
these 45 ton pieces of steel logs and carries
them as lightly as though they were
matches from one end of the shop to the |
other. This crane is the biggest lifting |
affair in the United States 1t has lifted |
10 tons and it is so arranged that one man |
rides in a cage which swings Just under |
the crane and moves it about over this big |
shop Just as he pleases.
No Trouble to Handle Them.
With il he could lift up good-sized
train of cars, and by a twist OF the wrist he |
could. with this crane, carry passenger |
locomotive from one end Of this room to the |
other He takes up one Of these guns, |
which is So feet long, and stands it on end |
without anv trouble, and in fact the moving |
about of these immense masses OF metal is !
dcne With greater manual ease than the |
handling of the iron in an ordinary black
smiths shop.
All kinds of gun making are going on
here, and the making of big gun is as fine