Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-21
rhe Age of Steel I'm Naval Matters.

anu tne MerT1mac, was IL nOtE
Yes" replied Secretary Herbert THAT
battle struck the death blow to the ships
OF that day. With II the age Of wooden war
vessels passed away, and that of iron and
steer began. Every civilized nation at once
put It's ship yards to work to build new
neets. and human ingenuity busted itself to
construct better guns. Guns then began
70 De made Of hammered steel and In order
.nat tney might carry still heavier charges
sney We're made longer and longer, and
powueI we now use is nothing like that
useo At The time of the last war II Is the
color OF chocolate. and IT is nodded into
Iran anns ~, as big as babys fist. 1t burns
i ,Iom the Time 1t is ignited until the charge
leaves the gun. and 1t steadily pushes as
muzzle." wv w
Our Wonderful Guns,
As II much more effective than the pow
DER OF the past?" asked
Yes" replied the Secretary. ct ran
hardly describe its power. Some Of the pro-
)ectiles We now use weigh as high as LOO
pounds. or half ton, and the guns which
shoot these great masses of steel and balls
are torty feet long and weigh more than
slAy TONS each. 1t takes $50 pounds of this
powoer Tor single charge of one of these
guns. ana through IL this half ton of chilled
steel dies from the muzzle of the gun an the
rate OF 2.l0O feet per second and goes thir-
teen miles before it stops. Take your PEN
al "a. ana esumate what those figures mean.
"A ton Is 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 projectiles would
;,s wagon load, and to carry OF the gun
itseit, were 1t loaded upon wheels. one
nunored and thirty horses would have TO be
nltched TO It Twenty-one hundred feet per
second Is at the rate Of almost a mile in
TWO ana a half seconds. II that velocity
couio continue the projectiie would go on at
.ne rate OF about twenty-three miles a min
ute. 1t would cross the Atlantic In less than
TWO hours and half. and II could go
a s,'na Ine world In less than a day. These
guns are called the thirteen-inch guns. -Four
VI Ihem are to be placed on each of the
useue SHIPS, and thus will form a part of
.ne armament of the Indiana, the Oregon
ana the Massachusetts"
can We make as good guns as the Euro
peansT' I asked
There is no doubt Of it," was the reply.
experiments II show that we are doing SO.
Is one OF the finest in the world and a
man from one Of the big establishments OF
Europe when he visited IL the other day
s ~ ne nad never seen anything equal to
~. we can turn out guns very rapidly, and
since It's opening we have completed a large
NUMBER OF nne guns, ranging from four to
thirteen inches In size. and weighing from
thirty-four hundred pounds to one hundred
and thirty-dve thousand pounds each We
have now one hundred and eight guns
anoat, two hundred and ninety-eight COM
pleted. and have seventy-seven in hand
We viii soon be making armor-piercing
shells for our six and eight-inch guns and
Will eventually make shells for our largest
guns. weighing eleven hundred pounds.
at a velocity Of from 1000 to 1900 feet per
second"
Our Gun Works and Torpedo Factor
Are our naval factories such that we are
now practically Independent of any other
country In the making and equipment Of
our naval vessels?'
Yes" replied the Secretary; I'VE can
make any kind Of a gun that may be
needed. and with the great forging works
which we now have at Bethlehem and at
the Carnegie works near Pittsburs we are
IN the position to create as great a navy as
the future may demand. What We now
need Is more battle ships. We need plenty
Of good torpedo boats to defend our har-
bors, and my idea Of the navy is that II
should be large enough to command peace
and protect American citizens in their
rights the world over. We have lately
established factory in this country for the
making of torpedoes, and we are making
some of the best armor OF the world. The
armor which binds the naval vessels today
Is Of rolled or hammered steel, to which we
have added about three per cent OF nickel.
rior to any other armor plate Of the world"
A Word About Torpedoes.
It's the torpedo OF much value In the ma
val warfare Of today?' asked.
IT think there is no doubt OF that" re-
piled the Secretary. "An OF the great ma
lions are adding torpedo boats to their
naval forces. England has nearly 10 and
Is building Is more. France has $50 ana is
building 40 Russia has $50 and is building
more. Germany has loe. and the other
powers are well equipped. At a test OF tor
pedo boats last summer in England twenty
four torpedo boats attacked a squad Of
cruisers and gun boats. The result was that
after seven days trial these had destroyed
one battle ship and six cruisers. and eigh-
teen out Of the twenty-four torpedo boats
were destroyed. OF course there was no ac-
tual destruction Of these vessels, and the
torpedoes were 50 fixed with colapsible
heads that no real damage was done. 1t
was. In fact, like the firing Of a blank car
fridge, but the effect could be scientifically
estimated from the torpedoes having struck
the ships The result of the trial was as
have stated. and the estimated value Of the
battle ship and six cruisers destroyed
amounted to about S.5o0.00o including 2050
boats was only 81 500. COO. and the men de.
stroyed would have been only $50 In other
words, the torpedoes did about five times as
much damage in proportion to their cost
as the battle ships and cruisers. The tor
pedo vessels which are now being built
abroad are fast, and they range in size
from 700 to 800 tons. They will go from
hiHStSSu " tWeuty knOtS per nOur. The
torpedo boats are from 100 to 800 tons in
size. and they will go from twenty-three to
twenty-nfne knots per hour. Twenty-nine
knots Is more than thirty-two miles and
these boats fly through the water at the
speed or the average railroad train. The
torpedoes used are the automobile tor
pedoes. ana they are about eleven feet long
with diameter Of seventeen inches
They explode as soon as they touch the
ship. and they are SO made that they can
De sent as straight through the water as a
ball from gun. They are fired by powder
or compressed air, and compressed air is
the motive power which runs the engines
In the torpedo and propels IT by means of
the screws. They go forth from the tor
pedo boat at the rate Of about thirty miles
per hour, and they run by the air power
contained within them a half a mile with
accuracy.
This is the Whitehead torpedo The
Howell torpedo Is propelled by the gyratorv
motion Of a wheel within II which is GO,
ship" u'e
How about electricity in the use of tor.
pedoes?' WI
The Simms-Edison torpedo is worked nv
electricity. Some of these are stationed OF
from the shore and connected by electric
wires They are propelled, steered and ex
ploded by electricity. The power comes
from q machine on shore or on a shin We
have not found them as efficient as the
Whitehead torpedo, and IL is with the
Whitehead and the Howell that our hest
experiments have been made"
How about the dynamite CRUISER"
You refer to the svesuvins' Th;, a. .