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

EM4 tx great gun factory
kZ/E1S go mt the navy yard
Gtkss4sz,S AJ waiting for the
~zwNz*FNyAV special car to re-
~asssss turn from San
Francisco and
carry IL to the Pacific slope. These guns
will be put on the Monterey. The big guns
are among the most wonderful things of
modern times. The one lust sent TO San
Francisco weighed io4,O pounds, and the
freight car upon which it was carried was
made especially strong. and it had to have
sixteen wheels and heavy trucks TO sup
port this immense weight. 1t had to be
much longer than the ordinary car. The
gun itself is more than thirty-ive feet
long, and at its breech it is as big around
as the largest -four barrel. 1t is so long
that If it were stood on end its mug
zle would reach above the top
OF q good-sized three-story house.
and forty-fve of the biggest wagon
loads of hay you have ever seen
would not weigh more than it does. IL
would take about ninety horses TO haul il
II 1t were on wheels on an ordinary road,
and the shot or shell which it uses is so
big that three of them would make good
load for team of Percheron horses. Each
ing on the ground they reach to the height
of mans waist, and they are twelve
inches thick, or twice as large around as
the average telegraph pole. The powder
used in these guns is the, color of choco-
late. 1t is compressed into the shape of
the iron nuts which you use on large
bolt, and il takes about two two-hushel
bags full of these powder nuts to fire of
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 a force that il will
do execution twelve miles away, and its
velocity as it leaves the muzzle of the gun
is 1000 feet second.
Two thousand feet second Do you
realize what that means2 This immense
shell, if it kept up this velocity, would
travel mile in less than three seconds.
1t flies forth twenty times as fast as the
fastest locomotive ever travelled. 1t crosses
the country at a speed forty-three times
as great as that of Sunol, when she made
the best time known to horseflesh on the
kite-shaped track, and it 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
thousand feet a secondl More than
twenty miles minutei From New York
to Chicago in less than fifty minutes
From Washington City to San Francisco
in two hours and twelve minutes. Such
shot, if it could keep it's velocity, would,
at this rate, 60 around the world in less
than day. Its speed is inconceivabie.
Its execution is beyond description. 1t
will pillow its way through steel and
iron, and the guns of modern times
would have perforated the ships
which were in use twenty-five years
ago. like so much paper, and, as it is, they
go q foot or more into solid steel, and the
strongest combinations of metal known TO
modern times will hardly withstand them.
These two guns are what are known as
twelye-inch guns, and they are so far about
the most satisfactory of the large guns
known. The English have made some
guns which measure sixteen inches across
the muZzle but these have not done well,
though they carry shells weighing 1900
pounds and require nearly 1000 pounds Of
powder 10 fire them. 1t is doubtful
whether they have a greater striking force
than our twelve-inch guns, but one of
these sixteen-inch guns at q trial recently
sent ashot through nearly forty-tive feet
of iron, steel granite and concrete, and
left 1t imbedded in six feet of brick
through twenty inches of iron
and steel plate, then throuh eight
inches of wrought iron plate, then cut its
way through twenty feet of oak, on
through five feet of granite, through
eleven feet of concrete, and at last lodged
in the midst of six feet of brick. The
striking force of this gun was so great
that it would have moved 1900 tons foot
if il could have been so used, and il gives
some idea of the wonderful power of these
guns which we are making. The twelve
inch gun Is the favorite gun with the hest
nations Of the world. The English navy
has a number which measure thirteen and
a half inches. but the French have dis
carded their sixteen-inch guns, and il is
said that all over twelve and half inches
are not satisfactory. The biggest gun
afloat in the German navy is 1901 inches
in size, and the biggest of the new guns
ordered oy Japan are only twelve and a
half inches.
These big guns were made at the navy
yard gun-shops here at Washington City,
and we have here now at the national cap
ital one of the biggest and best gun fac
tories of the world. Nearly 1000 hands
are now working here from ten to twelve
hours a day, and there is a colony of 5000
people supported by the gun factory. One
OF the shops covers full acre of ground,
anu thcIS are ClHcF shops anu IOuHurleS
which take mp great part of the navy
yard. The foundry has already turned
out or is making III big guns, and these
range from six-pounders 70 twelve-inch in
size, and the largest guns cost as high as
| $4,000 and $4,000 apiece to make Dur
ing the last few days the shops have been
pushed harder than ever, the guards have
been increased and il requires pass TO
get into the navy yard. You are stopped
by a soldier at the gate, and have 70 regis
ter your name before you can 90 in, and IL
requires the permission OF the superin-
tendent of the shops TO be admitted to
them.
got card from Commander Folger to
| Captain O'Nei and was taken right into
| the great big brick building which con-
| stitutes the main foundry, and which
| looks for all the world like big grain ele-
| yator. Imagine a room go feet long and
| eighty feet wide, packed full Of logs of
/ steel, of polished barrels Of metal in the
| shape Of guns Of great machinery which
/ ghizzes and whirrs with its many bands
/ OF betting Of so0ty workmen by the hum
/ dreds in suits OF blue jeans, and you have
a mazed idea OF our big gun shop. The
/ noise Which comes up IS Ike the confus-
/ ion of Babel. Iou look this way and that.
/ and you see new things at every turn.
/ Along the walls near the roof you note
/ two railroad tracks which run the entire
/ length OF the building. and suspended
/ 70 these, and running on their wheels