Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1893-10-21

Monitor and the Merrimac, was i noi''
ayes" replied Secretary Herbert
THAT battle struck the death blow to
the ships OF that day. With d the age
of wooden war vessels passed away. and
that Of iron and steel began, Every
civilized nation at once put It's ship yards
to- work TO build new iieets, and human
ingenuity busted itself to construct
better guns Guns then began 10 be
made OF hammered steel, and in order
that they might carry still heavier char
ges they were made longer and longer,
and slow.burning powder was invented.
The powder we now use IS nothing like
that used at the time OF the last War Il
Is the color Of chocolate, and DO IS mol
dcd into grains as big as q blhy's fist
II burns from the time Il Is iguicl until
the charge leaves the gun, and d steadily
pushes, as Il were, ON the charge from
the powder bed to muzzle.'
OUR WONDERFUL Guns.
ut Is much more effective than the
powder Of the past' asked.
"Yes." replied the secretary. II can
hardly describe is power. Some OF the
pr,iccti.cs we now use weigh us high as
/, 100 pounds. or half a ton, and the guns
which shoot these great masses OF steel
and balls are forty feet long and weigh
more than sixty tons each. Il takes $50
pounds Of this powder for a single
charge OF one OF these guns, aud
through II this hall ton OF chilled steel
lies from the muzzle Of the gun at the
rate OF 7too feet per second and goes
thirteen miles before It stops. Take
your pencil and estimate what those
figures mean. a ton Is q good load for
a team Of horses. -Four charges OF
powder for one Of those guns would be
all that the horses would want to pull.
Two OF those projcctilgs would be
wagon load, and to carry Oft the que
itself we're ID loaded upon wheels, unu
hundred and thirty horses would have
To be hitched to II. Twenty one hun.
bred feet per second IS 1t the rate Of
almost mile w two aud ahali seconds
10 that velocity could continue the pro-
icctilc would 10 ON at the rate of about
tWcnty-thfcc miles a minute. II would
cross the Atlantic In less than two hours
aud a halt and It could 20 around the
world In less than a day. These guns
are called the thiucun.inch guns. Four
Of them are to be placed ON each of the
battle ships, and tfra will form q part Of
the armament OF the Indiana, The Orc
gon and the Massachusetts"
Can we make as good guns as the
| Europeans" | asked.
There Is no doubt OF H." was the
reply. Experiments show that we are
doing so. The gun mandatory at the
navy yard here is one Of the finest in
the world, and man from one Of the
! big establishments Of Europe when he
| visited Il the other day said he had
never seen anything equal 90 o. We
can turn out guns very rapidly, and
since d. opening wc have completed a
large number OF fine guns, ranging from
four 20 thirteen inches DO size. and
weighing from thirty. our hundred
pounds to one hundred and thir,y.fyc
/ thousand pounds each. We have now
one hundred aud eight guns ailoai, two
hundred and nine,y'eight completes and
have scyuntyacyen On hand. We will
| soon be making armorpiCrclng shells
| Tor our six and tighl-inch guns. aud will
J eventually make shells for our largest