The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-02

fish used to have seventeen-inch guns.
but they do not any more"
What is the cost of a single charge
for one of those big guns on board
ship?"
about $780,"
''And the wear and tear, is what?"
IF gun cost $4,000 and should
fire sixty rounds, that is 1898 a. shot,
the total cost would then be Sl,4S3 a
shot,
Then war is becoming very ex-
pensive?'
THAT it is. War becomes more and
more expensive every day. The
cheapest thing that a man can have is
a club, the most expensive thing is a
Maxim gun. The smallest size costs
SIS a minute to fire, that is the cheap
est one. The tx inch gun costs $40O
a minute to fire"
THAT is at its maximum speed?'
Eyes"
From that down to nothing?"
According to what rate You fire
att
How many shots can you nfe from
one of these guns?'
with the 11a-inch gun we can fire
400 rounds a minute.
What will be the result of the race
between the armor plate maker and
the gun mal1ers?"
The gun maker will always be
ahead
'SWiu they keep on increasing the
size of ships in order to fioaS the great
armor necessary to render them
proof against projectiles?"
They could not do that very WE'LL
a man-of-war is always a compro-
mise If you have very thick armor
you cannot have high speed. More
over, when a gun is larger than a 12-
inch bore the mountings and every
thing about it becomes enormously
heavy. The comparative strength of
the steel as relates to the volume
also becomes less in large guns, so Il
think that instead of their being
made larger than now the tendency
will lie to make them smaller. 1t is
quite true that armOr plate might be
piled upon a very large ship thick
enough to resist the fire from Pinch
guns, but a ship SO protected would
be too heavy and cumbersome to be
of much use; it would be more like a,
slow moving fort than ship. think
that the next ships will depend upon
great rapidity of fire rather than
upon thick armor plate"
Increase the power of attack rather
than that of defence?''
Yes"
How Leading Nations Compare IN
Naval Ordnance.
'eWhat do you think, comparatively
of the naval ordnance of England ana
the United States and France?
There is not a very great difference.
The new guns made in the United
States are very effective; those made
in England are almost identical with
them. Some of the recent French
guns might give higher Velocities but
as against that they are shorter
lived
French guns be more effective?"
''The velocftieo are only slightly
higher"
'7How about the Russians?"
1.-The Russians are rather conserva
tive in guns; they prefer not TO have
such enormously high velocities and
to have the guns last a little longer,
and the same may be said Of Krupp."
''HCw about the armour plate of
ships of different nations?"
'"All the recent armour plate is
practically the same; it is Harveyised
nickel steel"
''Then il becomes a question of
officers and men?"
Eyes. it is very evident that the
<AnS lO-EocAO44 ldCE5 LII lis NclI4OC MOuI0
manage a huge fighting machine. such
as g ship which has at least sixty
steam engines on board, with greater
facility than Spaniards or Turks would
he able tor
But how about Frenchmen?"
'T am not prepared to say. Perhaps
the highly trained Anglo-Saxon would
not be so apt to make blunders in ac-
ton as Russians, Austrians or Italians
but the French and Germans might
prove themselves to be quite as good
as the AnglOlSaxons. In a modern
man-of-war, with guns and ma
chinery worked by steam, the men
that are the best stokers, that under
stand machinery best and those who
are the least liable TO become excited
in action will be the ones who viii
win the fight; everything else being
equal. It is not a question of bravery
nor one Of boarding a ship with cut
lasses in their hands; 1t is Simply a
question now of manipulating ma
chinery. The machinery does the
fighting"
How do these rapid firing guns
apply on land? They might, it seems,
place lines Of automatic guns in posi-
ton and let them do the fighting in
case bota SIDES are armed with
them?"
Il can tell you a story about that.
When the nrSt automatic gun was
made and it became known that it
would really load and fire itself, the
German government asked me to
make one which could be regulated to
fire all the way from l to 600 shots
minute. The idea was that such a gun
could be mounted in a certain place,
charged with say 1000 or 5000 rounds
and set to fire 100 shots a minute, for
instance, and that the gun would con-
tinra m fra evan if tha man uora
killed or ran away. This 1t was pro-
posed to use in fertilization Or to fire
on earth works at night, the gun be-
ing aimed in the daytime and arranged
to continue firing all night if recess
sary. 1 sent one of these guns to Ger,
many. Tt was loaded with belt Of 333
cartridges. aimed at the target and the