St. Paul daily globe., 1893-04-16
BEST OF ALL CANNON
First Public Test Of a Seq
mental Wipe-WOund
Gun.
It Withstood a PPeSsureWhieh
Would Burst Any Other
Cannon.
The United States Now Placed
in the Van in Gunmak-
ing.
Pressure Declared by Experts
to Be Over 10000
Pounds.
:~ s5MM SCHUNEMAN & EVANS [a:M9

BIRDSBOEo, Pa, April 15.-The mrs
public test of the Brown segmentalt
wire-wound gun was made today in the
presence Of governmental experts, rep
resentatives of foreign powers, and
number of invited guests from New
York, Philadelphia anu other cities.
Three shots were fired, and the gun sue
ceSSfully WithStoOd a pressure which
the experts declared would blow any
other gun in the world to atoms. The
tests today broke all records and marked
decided step forward in gun
manufacture, placing the United States
in the van in gun-making. as it
already is in armOr-pate manufacture.
The tests today were in charge OF Lieut..
q. \. Whistler, of the Fifth artillery,
[. A. John Hamilton Brown, the
Inventor, assisted. Lieut.. De T. Cloth,of
the French navy, was present as repre-
sentative Of his government. Among
those present were: Gen. E. P. Whip
pie, L. ). A.: Lieut.. Hagenman, U. S. A.;
Lieut. Col. q. II. Litchfield. U. S. A.;
Gen. Blllinger. Elizabeth, \. j.; Ii. NJ.
Munson. of New York; 4. w. Porter,
of New York, general manager of the
company. and number of stockholders
and others interested in the gun.
Results of the Tests.
The gun was mounted on fiat rail-
road car and taken by special train,
with two coaches filled with guests, to
the proving ground, which is an old
stone quarry two miles from town. The
first shot was fired at 2:44 p. IN. \
charge of tweLty pounds of a special
sIow-burnIng powder was used. The
proiectile weighed sixty pounds. The
gun, still mounted Oh the car, was
pointed at the stone quarry, and
when the spectators had retired to a
safe distance the electric connection
was made, there was a sharp report,
and big puff of smoke and cloud of
dust and broken rocks rose from the
stone quarry. The gun recoiled about
FIVE feet OH the car. and the car itself
moved a dozen feet backward. The test
gauges showed a pressure of 25,3O0
bounds per square inch. The gun was
cleaned and reloaded with twenty
five pounds of powder. The second
shot was fired at 3:19 p. m. The
recoil was ten feet. The pressure
gauged a pressure of 33,S00 pounds.
The gun was carefully examined and
showed no signs of injury. The third
and final test was then made. The
charge was thirty pounds of powder,
the projectile sixty pounds weight. The
shot made louder report than either of
the others. The gun was recOlled about
fifteen feet, and a section OF the stone
quarry rose in the air as the projectile
struck On examination of the gauges,
which were set to show pressure be-
tween 10000 and 60,000 pounds, 1t was
found that the pressure had gone
Beyond the Larger Figure
and exceeded the means at hand for
measurement The actual compression
was 1855 of an inch. How much press
IRE was required to do this may be in
ferred from the fact that a pressure of
10000 pounds produces compression
Of only .OS41 of an inch. The pressure
was declared by the experts to be some
thing above 10000 pounds. The gauge
will be sent to Frankfort arsenal for
accurate measurement, AS the stand
ard army requirements are only $1,000
pounds, il will be seen that the wire
gun has far exceeded all expectations.
The gun has Just been finished as a
sample for the United States govern
ment. 1t was built at the Diamond Drill
Works at this place under the personal
supervision of John Hamilton Brown,
the inventor. 1t is built on new syS-
ten, which is the winding of steel
wire around a segmental core of steel.
The core is made of twelve pieces of
steel nineteen feet long, and with a
cross section like the key of an
arch. The core is three inches
in thickness at the breech aud three
quarters of an inch at the muZZle. 1t is
wound with thirty-three layers Of steel
wire or of an inch in thickness. The
gun is about fifteen inches diameter at
the breech and ten inches at the muzzle.
The gun Is nineteen feet in length, and
weighs three and One-third tons. Its
cost is less than that of a built-up gun,
and If rennireS less time To manufacture