The herald., 1894-08-06
AN ORDINANCES SCANDAL.
Detective Work in tho Construction of
Carpenter Shells.

DoioCsivo tvOrk tnO CONTRACTION oil
Carpenter Shells.
New YoRK, Aug. 5.-A World dis
patch from Reading, Pa, says: Wesley
May, mschinist OF this city. says there
ia rottcnness in the Carpenter armor
piercing workp, and Secretary Herbert
has been making an investigation of the
Carpenter shells piled up in the navy
yard at Washington as a recult Of Mays
disclosures.
May was formerly employed in the
works OF the Carpenter Steel works at
North Reading, having charge of the
shell department.. He said he saw
enough to convince him the government
was being ewindlsd. May began work
for the Carpenter Steel company Sep.
tember /, 1898. In two weeks he was
put to work on lathe. turning the pro-
iectiles. and in few days he was as
signed to the grinding depart
ment. May had not worked in the
this room long before he came across a
shell that had been warped in temper
ing. that lie, it was not true. This par
ticular proiectile ran out of the center 80
far that May decided it would not
enter o gun. He called his foreman,
named Wilson. and aeked him what
to dc with the eheli. The foreman told
him to true up all the shells and not to
mind whether the rear end was out Of
the center or not. The foreman ex-
planned that the main object was to get
true and square band around the
burl so as to not disfgure the shell.
Otherwise 1t would make bad impres-
sion on the government inspector when
he came, and, ii he measured this with
his dividers, he could see something wes
wrong.
May saId then he was satisfied that all
responsibility had been removed from
him and so he worked along up to May
10. 1894. He was taking the place Of
another employee who was sick for many
weeks. While Msy waa working the
lathe, very large proportion of the
shells which he turned were far from
being true, but be kept no acconnt of
their number, though he kept q quiet
investigation as to the quality. They
had been warped during the tsmpering
process.
May went to Washington on May 26th.
He inquired for the Office of the secre-
tary oil the navy and was told Mr.. Her
bert was in Alabama. He learned the
matter in which he was interested was
under the administration OF Captain
Sampson, chief OF the ordnance bureau.
To Captain Sampson's Office, therefore,
he went. Captain Sampson got May to
tell him the defect in the shells and
Mays says he was surprised when Cap
tain Sampson made this remarkable
statement:
"Young man, that warping, as you
call it, does not affect the efficiency of
the shell at all. The copper bands
around the base of the projectile will
attend to ali that and keep the parts
you speak of from wearing away the
bore OF the gum"
May obtained entrance into the navy
yard and saw the proiectiles banded and
discovered the way in which they were
placed in the lathe, that the maohinists
and presumably the inspectors at the
yards had no idea the shells were not
straight.
Later Jacob s. May visited Washing
ton, saw Secretary Herbert, who gave
him en- order to inspect the shells etthe
navy yard. They were treated as May
had said and they went away more con-
vincsd than ever that fraud was being
perpetrated.
May, however. failed to impress this
belief on the Washington officials, the
latter declaring no Irregularities existed
in connection with the shells.