The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-09-15

A Remarkable Reduction OF CaIibre-Nictei
Steel the Material.

steel the Material.
| wAsu1SGrox Sept 1.-the navy has taken
| new and noteworthy departure in tho manu-
| facture OF small-boro arms. Secretary Herbert
has fixed upon callbre OF less than quarter
OF an inch for the now navy magazine rifle. by
approving a recommendation Of tho Chief Of
the Ordnance Bureau. founded on the rerort
of the Newport Board. which puts that calib,c
at .234. This is over nth loss than that Of
tho new army gun and smaller than tho diam.
eter OF an ordinary lead pencil.
When tho Board composed OF Commander
Converse, Prof. Alger and Ensign Diefren bach
OF the navy. and Capt. Reid OF the Marine
Corps. convened at Newport about tho middle
OF August. their duty was limited to dctcrmin.
ing tho best calibre for a service rife. The
question as to the magazine system which
should be adopted was to come iutor. II was
generally thought that, whether the new Krag.
J0rgensen gun OF tho army was or was not
recommended tho 30 calibrc OF that rifle
would be accepted, because OF tho obvious and
very great advantages OF an interchnngeabiIity
OF ammunition between the two services.
Tho Board, in fixing on different calibre
did not attempt to unarrrAte this advantage
but have put their choice solely on the ground
OF the still greater importance which they at
tnch to the smaller bore. They consider that
the .234 calibre will give higher velocity.
greater range, greater penetration and great.
or accuracy than the 30, besides allowing tho
men to carry greater number of cartridges,
and that 80 many and SO great advantages
ought not to be sacrificed to that OF inter-
changeabity Of ammunition.
The first point to note is that the navy now
carries the modern tendency toward dimn-
ished bores to the greatest extreme yet found
anywhere .234 being the smallest calibre so
far as has been noted. yet regularly adopted
IN any service in the World. The French
f S and Ge sam has aso aT N The sqSs
tina, has 800. The, English .ee-s reed has
Portuguese Guedes has 3l5. Tho Danish
Krag- Jorgenson has, 1913, and our army model
is also 80 Tic swedish single loader fleming ing
ton is .3l5. The Swiss schmidt is ..295. The
newer Of the Italian an rifles les. is 25G. which Wass
in turn is at length far outdone 10y the calibre
Just fixed upon for our navy.
particular within a few years. it may be OBJ
served that the long familiar Springfield
Martini; that the once famous French Ches.
sepot was. ,i33; that the Austrian Wernd the
German Mauser. and the French Gras were
present Beaumont Vital of Hollands: that the
Swiss and the Italian vetterli were .4o5 or Al
and that Russia's Bertan was ~. Some OF
the rifles thus spoken Of are repeating or mag
Rzine guns which. after being adopted and
issued for service. were withdrawn and dis.
placed. sometimes at great expense. by other
arms conforming to the tendency TO dimin-
ished calibres.
How far can that tendency proiltably go2
Has our navy. in its new move gone up to
beyond the limit? llebler the famous expert
on this special subject. is a strong advocate Of
decreased calibres. The matter Is really OF
greater consequence to the army than to the
navy. because SO much more use is made OF
small arms by the former. However. the
present inquiry will soon pass out of the do
main OF theory into that of demonstration. as
Secretary Herbert will next call upon the gun
.234 calbre. The supply OF magazine rifles
needle by oui navy is small. but the dopart
ment will furnish the barrels, II desired so
that inventors need only apply their breech
mechanism to them:
And this opportunity will be used for another
everywhere for it's use OF nickel alloy in tho
armor of ships. Under Mr.. Tracy it had al
ready begun to employ 1t also for guns and
for torpedo noting. The last report OF Com
mander Folger then Chief Of Ordnance. after
speaking OF u new S-inch nickel; steel gun on
the Sellers principle. now nearly completed.
made the following statement:
The bureau is Of the opinion that the corrodihe
quality OF tho alloy coup ell with other physical char.
acteristcs renders 1t specially adapted 10 the
struction of guns subjected TO high prsssures with
niropowdcrs. believing that the erosion effects are
largely primarily action by the powder
lery type and few smaLarm barrels will be made of
this M aterial
1t is therefore not surprising to learn that
the .234 barrels to be furnished to the COM
peting inventors OF magazine arms, will be
made OF nickel steel alloy. This will increase
the interest which must in any case attend
competitive trial of magazine guns having 80
remarkably small calibre.