The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-07-10
GATEWAY TO TIE NAVY YARD.
Especial Correspondence,

GATEWAY TO TIE NAVY YARD.
non, look with curiosity on the guns
ranged to illustrate the progress of the
country and nre specchless with aston
ishment Mt the wonderful machinery
which borcs out the rifled cannon-ma-
chinery which seems to movo so easily
and yet requires SO many thousands of
horsepower.
Pondcrous Stiffness.
The ride to tho navy yard is quite
pleasure in itself. The cable limo OH
Pennsylvania avenue turns south OH
East Eighth street and terminates at
the entrance to the yard. The visitor is
at first charmed with the magnificent
gateway which looks monolthic, but is
not, and is really awcd by the sentinel,
who is impressive i'll blue and white
and stands us stiffiy as if he had swal-
lowed one of the hammers. Tho general
silence about the place is almost op-
prcssive. The rules governing the yard
amount to quito code, and i'll addition
to stringent regulations against loud
talk or swearing or unnecessary noise
there is an explicit instruction to every
one OH duty to hold no conversation
whatever except in tho line of duty.
Even i'll most of the workshops there is
comparatively little noise, everything
running with what might be called a
ponderous smoothncss. The ono oxcep-
ton is i'll the great hall where the riflcd
cannon are manufactured 1t is the
nature of man to respect power whether
Ill the machine or the human being.
and know of no other place where
everything seems to move with such re-
sistless force.
Overhead the great tram car, with its
monster tentaclcs of iron hoops and
clamps and girder loops, moves back
ward and forward with All energy which
seems as If it We're beyond control and
yet tho engineer who sits in the iron
cage attached can stop Or start it with
a touch of his finger. shall not weary
the reader by describing the long guns
of steel and nickel, weighing ever so
many tons, which are so easily raised
and lowered by the machinery of this
tram car, nor tho great augers, if 1 may
call them such, which bore ont the
guns, seeming to move with tho most
gentle responsiveness and yet tearing
off the delicate shavings of steel and
nickel with power which really fas-
clnatcs tho bcholdcr. Nor shall / at
tempt description of the process for
various reasons. 1t would take me at
least three months to master the subject
and probably another month to put it
into simple English, after which tho or
binary reader would require three
months or SO to understand it, by which
time some of MS would he dead or pros-
trated with brain fag
Uncle Sans Navy Yards
The noted navy yards and stations are
at Norfolk, Brooklyn Mare island near
San Francisco; League island, near Phil
adelphia; Portsmouth, N. H.; Boston,
New London, Conn. Port Royal, S. c.,
and Seattle, the last three being regard
ed as mere naval stations. There are q
training ship and torpedo station ut
Newport, r. l., and minor establish
ments elsewhere. Tho Naval War col
lcge at Newport, r. L., was formally
opened few weeks ago by Assistant
Secretary of the Navy William McAdoo
The general result of all the work done
at all these places and in the various
shipyar(is is thus summed up by Mr..
McAdoo MS the close of the fiscal year
1894: "The United States, while it does
not possess great navy III the number
of its'ships, has within its limits colossal
plants, both public and private, and
great armies of skilled workmen, led bv
contractors, designers and inventors of
marked ability. 1t is therefore essen
italy and substantially capable of ma
tional defense and, if need be, of offense,
operations. " The general summary of
every naval report of this year is that
we are just ready to make great navy
and to make it quickly.
History = taught at this navy yard
by object lessons, and the lessons are
fascinating indeed. First is the progress
i'll ordnance making shown by tho old
guns ranged in their order from the old
est pieces hammered ont by tho black
smiths of colonial time; and coming
down OF IN through all tho changes
wrought ~ til Revolution. the second