St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-03-22
The BIG GUN DOOMED.
SUCCESSFUL TEST or THE NEW GUN
AT INDIAN HEAD.
A DISTINGUISHED AUDIENCE.
gress and Foreign Represent
atives Witness the First Trial
of the Big Thirteen. Inch Gun
The Largest Gun Ever Mani
ufactured in This Country. So

The Largest Gun Ever MANI
ufactured in This Country. 81
WASHINGTON, March 21.-A distin =
guished party of public men anu depart
mental officials ana number of ord
nance experts accepted the invitation of
the secretary of the navy today to visit
the naval ordnance proving grounds at
Indian Head to see the official test of
the first of the big thirteen-inch guns
which have been completed at the gov.
eminent works. This is the biggest
gun ever built in this country. and a
vast amount of interest was manifested
In seeing 1t operated.
Just as the warning had been given
to retire to the Mills preparatory to max
Ing the gun ready for firing water
pipe III tue hydraulic rteoil apparatus
burst. As Il was found that this would
require some time to repair, arrange
ments were made Tor test of some
projectiles from a tent nch gun in the
interim. The first of these projectiles
was Johnson cast steel. fired point
blank at sheet or armJr of HarveyiZed
nickel steel placed at distance of less
than 30 yards from the gun. The pro-
Jectile penetrated the twel Ve-inch arnor
about six inches and then was shattered
an scattered.
A Carpenter armor-piercing shell of
wrought steel from the same gun met
with hardly better fate, although it
crashed around the dent made by the
former shot. The initial velocity of
these projectiles was 1000 feet.
The damaged water pipe on the big
gun was by this time repaired, and the
visitors ranged themselves on the hill
back of the embrasnre cut in its side
for the rifle to project from. Here they
could watch the loading. The enormous
mass of metal of the gun, sixty seven
tons in weight. is easily under control
for elevating or depressing by a n.y.
draulic apparatus. The 1.lOO-pound
cast steel shot was hoisted up to the
breecil by tackle pulley and then
rammed home by hydraulic rammlng
apparatus which extends itself in
most astonishing manner by telescope
arrangement and then folds up into
convenient compass to rest al the
breech of the gun. The 03-pound
charge OF powder was then put in be-
hind the shot. The powder is in grains,
shaped mnch like an iron nut, such as
are used to mold rivets, each grain being
an inch or more in diameter.
Many spectator stood not On his
dignity, but retreated to retired points
and held his fingers in his ears while
the gunner, from the neighboring shell
ter OF bomb-pr0of, pulled the lanyard
OF the gun and sent the metal roaring
and ripping and tearing and raging into
the Utmost receSSes Uf the opposite hill
side.
The explosion and conclusion were
not equal to the apprehension of most of
those present. In fact, the sharp crack
OF the smaller rifle e unS is more trying
10 the tympanum than the deeper-toDed
roar of the giant. The initial velocity
of the first shell was l,720 feet per sec
ond.
The wonderful extension ramrod was
brought into use to sponge the gun, and
second charge was then inserted, this
time 49, pounds of powder. The testing
instruments indicated an initial velocity
of 1875 feet per second, Interested OBJ
servers OF the test were the naval at
taches of the embassies of Great Britain.
France, Germany and Italy aud the
Russian and Japanese legations. After
Two SHOtS from q IOur-lncu rl11e with
smokeless powder, the projectile from
which was dropped far up it the chan
mel of the Potomac, the tests were over
for the day.
Among the distinguished observers
were Vice President Stevenson. Secre-
iary of the Navy Herbert, Assistant
Secretary McAdoO, Chief of Naval Ord.
nance Sampson, Inspector General
Breckinridge, of the army; Senators
Hawley. hale, Perkins. Shoup. Mander-
son, Gibson aud Villas; Representative
Cummings, chairman of the naval af-
fairs committee, and many others.
There is no DEFINITE Information OBJ
talnable as to the exact cost OF this piece
OF ordnance, but it is estimated to cost
near $780, 600. This is in large part &C.
counted for by the experimental charac-
ter of the work. and it is estimated that
other guns OF this class can be built for
100000. 1t will require. a day or two
more for estimates to be made of the
power of the gun from the results of to-
days test. The general eminent was
one Of satisfaction with its performance