Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-08-22
aside with this



remark: rkxs9eGk.-=
Il don't know uch..about.. these de-
tails and dimensions. What | want to
know is whether, if you let all these
guns go off at once, they would beat
the delivery of the guns on those battle
ships the English and French are build
ing"
'tThey would not, | am sorry to
say" replied the young constructor.
go back and make them do 1T, )"
said the Secretary.
Mr.. Nixon went back and..added 1000
tons to the displacement of the vessel,
and in a day or two sought the Secre-
tary.
Nov, will they beat those foreign
boats?' asked the Secretary.
"Well,' said the constructor. Il
am afraid they won't beat them, but
they'll nearly do SO. y
go back and make them do it, y
said the Secretary again, adding; 1--WE
can launch just as big boats as any one
else. -
Mr.. Nixon went back, and the third
time hit the mark, producing plans for
a 10, BOOT ton vessel such as the Indiana.
That he did successfully what he was
ordered to do is shown by the fact that
the main batteries of the English battle
ships Victoria (sunk last year i'll the
Mediterranean and Royal Sovereign
are planned to hurl 5000 pounds of
metal at single discharge, while the
Indiana of nearly 1000 tons less dis
placement, and drawing three feet less
of water, hurls $500 pounds of metal at
a single discharge of her main batteries.
One can only conjecture what dam
age its guns can do. We know that
one of these 13-inch guns, hurting a
100-pound projectile at velocity OF
certainly 1000 feet second, will pierce
thirty inches of wrought iron at its
muzzle, and probably twenty-five inches
of the same material mile away. We
know that such gun would throw its
projectile with accuracy distance OF
twelve miles. The 8-inch guns would
throw projectiles of $50 pounds weight
effectively eight miles. The 6-inch
guns would fire with certainty dis
lance of six miles, and all the smaller
weapons might be used at distances up
to two and half miles. In ten min
utes, by using all the guns at their full
powers, each 13-inch gun firing once i'll
two minutes, and some of the rapid
fire guns once in every four seconds,
the Indiana could fire sixty tons of
metal.
In AN engagement where her main
batteries could be in constant use, with
only part of her second battery, she
would hurl, in ten minutes, from fifteen
to eighteen tons of projectiles each 60
ing with velocity of say 5000 feet a
second, and weighing from one pound
up to 100 pounds. When one thinks
of this appalling power, and realizes
that after these missiles have landed
their work has only just begun-for
they are arranged to burst, and some OF
them to send forth noxious gases, pois-
oning every one within their reach-the
capabilities of destruction pass beyond
comprehension. Added to all this is
the ability to keep up the bombardment
at this speed for between four and five
hours.
Mr.. Nixon has calculated roughly
that if the Indiana were driven at full
force against stationary object, such
as one of the Brooklyn Bridge towers,
she would strike with force of 100, 900
tons, that is, force that could lift
100000 tons one foot. The writer
leaves it to engineers of much leisure
and large mental endowments to calcu-
late what the effect of such blow
would be on the tower or ON the boat.
He knows one man who would not like
to take his chances on the bridge. Ger
tainly no vessel struck by such blow
could live. In addition to all this, re-
member that with her four powerful
search-lights for eyes, this terrible craft
has the power of discerning small boats,
mere specks ON the water, at distance
of one to three miles in the night, and
she becomes a monster for the imagina-
ton to deal with.