The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1894-06-23
A GRAND ARSENAL.
The City OF Pittsburgh In Times
of Trouble.
Its Resources Drawn Upon During the
Civil War Experiments and Sue
cesses in the Building OF
Great Cannon.


\ In every war engaged in by the United
! States our citizens have been active
: Not to mention the splendid corps OF
rangers organized in western Pennsyl-
vania, under Col. Cresap, to help Wash.
! sEgton in the siege of Boston, the can
non and balls with which Commodore
Perry fought the battle of Lake Erie,
, near P ut-in- Bay, were made in Pitts
burgh, as were also the chains, anchors
and other fittings for his fleet, at the
foundry of Joseph McClurg, which was
then the great resource and depend
ence of the United States government
The remarkable fact, says the Chron-
icle-Telegraph, that Gen. jackson was
only enabled to fight the battle of New
Orleans through the supply of war ma
terial of all kinds manufactured here,
IS one of the proud points in our local
history. Maj. Foster, United States
| qnartcrmaster induced the whole pop
alation of the then borough to engage
"a the patriotic work, and on a bleak
December evening the second steam
| boat ever built on western waters, the
Enterprise, put Off from our shores on
| it's vital Grand
The Mexican war proved a great OBJ
portanity to show what Pittsburgh
eomld do in the way of furnishing
| powder and cannon balls, not to men
i9n battery and cavalry furnishments
a all kinds. A young lieuten-
asit was then stationed here on behalf
e the United States army, and he is
kaown to every boy. He was the gal
ant w. t. Sherman, the hero of the
march to the sea.
a Few years after that time a studi- |
Gus OF nance lieutenant was CHARTERED |
ct our arsenal, and he had some notion
of impr wing the artillery. His name
also became famous the world over and
5he experiments carried on, by the per-
MISSION of Messrs. Knapp & Wade ia
heir foun dry, located short distance
above the Fort Wayne railroad bridge
over the Allegheny river, had conse-
quences little dreamed of at the time.
rhe name of the lieutenant was T. ].
Rodmau, and every sailor and soldier
of the late war has felt thankful fol
his grand achievements. Mr.. Rod mans
idea was to cast guns hollow, so that
they might cool from the center, anc
IL is one of the evidences of the mys.
FERROUS ways in which Providence
when it is stated tn at no less a
person than Jefferson Davis, then sec
rotary of wax. very esse ntially helped
the young ordnance officer in perfect ;
ing and testing his invention, by get !
ting from congress an appropriation of
itty thousand dollars to this end. The 7
Rodman idea involved a complete !
revolution in artillery, not only as to :
casting, but also as to the very shape /
IF cannon. Dahlgren afterward took S
Up the subject for the navy, and thus
we're ornaments provided ahead of S
lnythlng else in the world. Rodman il
paved the way for Armstrong and a
krupp. t,
The fine charcoal iron of western il
'ennsylvania, with tensile strength
II $1,000 pounds, was drawn upon by
iodruan. and after and 6 inch guns IL
ad stood tests at the proving grounds N
coated at Turtle creek, being fired &c
a2ny more times than ever exacted
efore, the construction of monster
annon of l5-inch bore was under !,
AIKEN. 1t was named the Union, 81
rophetic of the grand instrumentality =,
lown afterward. Its weight was no y
SIS than 500 pounds, and that such - -
huge mass of iron could be cast -
ithout flaw or hitch was long thought %
apostolic by the best metallnrgists -
broad or at home. The ball fred by b,
lie 15-inch guns weighed roo pounds, o. o.
nd the 20-inch gun cast subsequently, -
rived projectile of not less than 900 a.
FUNDS in weight. "a
The Fort Pitt foundry, organized ~
hen the war came for the specific &c
irpose of making cannon and their b,,
by Messrs. Knapp. Dc
ade & Co., with Mr. William Metcalf. -
manager, proved of stupendous i'm &C
'rtance. 1t was a grand sight to see 90
less than twenty-five of the giant n
gs of war under the lathes at one 81
ne. Fully a thousand men we're en- s,,1
Dyed, and the casting time was al IN,
lys one of spectacular interest; five in
pola furnaces, ranged to pour their ~.
uid metal under the intense, and at r.aa
mes vigorously emphatic, superin- &c
ldence of Joe Kaye. a.,
No less than three thousand cannon cat
re cast and finished at these works est
ring the war, and hundreds of forts inc
batteries all over the grand theater ger
g 70 Deicnefi forth their shot and thil
, UesViinony OF the ingenuity, me-
t and enterprise of tsburgh's ar
GERS. The resources of the works
re grandly illustrated at the siege N
After months OF weary of
'rt, Gen. Grant and his officers mil
lck the idea of bombardment. Wis
ers were sent in hot haste to Pitts and
gh for thirty of the hugest mon viii
IS ever made, and inside of thirty he S
king days they were on their way regi
tn, floating on specially constructed and
ges, built by Monroe s. Co. The ond.