The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-16
GREAT GUNS AND AIR SHIPS.
4 TALK WITH MAXIM. THE INVENT
OR AND EXPERIMENTER.

[ SHIPS.
/ From the New York Advertiser.
dined with Mr.. Maxim a few days ago
at his house at Baldwyns Park. Bexley.
ami could not help contrasting as a sig
nificant feature Of the affairs Of nations
! the palace Of the gun maker Of to-day and
his personal Importance with the grimy
| quarters and the humblencss Of his prede-
lessor Of a century ago. Mr.. Maxim is a
private business man not officially con-
snected with any government, yet ne knows
more about what is going on in the war
departments of the nations of the world
than almost any other man. Were he not
good man and true how valuable the
Information he might be prevailed upon to
impart would be to any statesman in Eu-
rope.
Mr. Maxim was born in Maine. His age
1 do not know, but judge him to be So His
silver hair is brushed straight up and back
and corresponds in color with his mustache
and beard. He is above medium hight and
has a frame of enormous strength. His
eyes and complexion are beautifully clear.
denoting mental and physical energy. He
never uses tobacco. says a London writer
to tho Philadelphia Inquirer" and in
dulges only in a little wine at dinner.
After dinner. in the course of a long. free
interesting talk. Mr.. Maxim said: II would
not advise any young man to take inven-
ton up as a profession. ] was not born
an inventor. Early in life 1 became a me-
chanical draughtsman, and as 1 was very
skillful at drawing / had opportunities Of
working on good many different kinds
of machines. First I commenced to make
improvements in them, and then TO make
new machines. and finally to take out pat
tents on new machines. Forty or fifty years
ago l think the majority of inventions
came from illiterate workmen. A man
would be working on a machine and would
discover some way to improve 1t, and then
take out a patent, but the day is past
when we may expect much from the UNI
scientific. 1 think you will agree with me
that all the late patents of merit have en-
anated from highly trained and scientific
engineers"
What is the actual length Of life of the
biggest guns. and what is their cost?''
1.-The latest high-power guns, made by
Canet at the FORCES ct Shantiers de la
AIediterranee. can only be fired sixty
rounds. The latest guns in the English
service also can only be fired sixty rounds.
The cost of a thirteen-inch gun is about
S5O,OOO."
Us that the prevailing caliber?'
I'm England they make them thirteen>
inch. The states make them twelve and
thirteen-inch. The English used to have
seventeen-inch guns, but they do not any
more"
"What is the cost of single charge
for one of those big guns on board ship?"
"About 5000"
"And the wear and tear is what?'
''If a gun cost $4,000 and should fire
sixty rounds. that is 1898 shot; the total
cost would then be Sl,4S3 a shot"
"Then war is becoming very expen-
sive?"
THAT is it. War becomes more and
more expensive every day. The cheapest
thing that man can have is a club, the
most expensive is a Maxim gun. The small
est size cost SIS a minute to fire-that is,
the cheapest one. The one and half inch
gun costs $500 a minute to fire"
THAT is at its maximum speed?"
eyes"
From that down to nothing"
According to what rate you fire at"
How many shots can you fire from
one of these guns?"
with the one and half inch gun we
can fire 400 rounds minute"
What Will be the result of the race be-
tween the armor plate maker and the
gun maker?'
THE gun maker will always be ahead"
'Will they keep on increasing the size
of ships in order to float the great armor
necessary to render them proof against
projectiles?"
They could not do that very well. A
man-of-war is always q compromise If
you have very thick armor you cannot
have high speed. Moreover when a gun is
larger than 12-inch bore the mountings
and everything about it becomes enor-
mously heavy. The comparative strength
of the steel as relates to the volume also
becomes less in large guns so l think that
instead of their being made larger than
now the tendency will be to make them
smaller. II is quite true that armor plate
might be piled upon a very large ship thick
enough to resist the fire from Pinch guns
but ship so protected would be too heavy
and cumbersome to be of much use; it
would be more like a slow moving fort
than a ship. l 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 defense?"
yes"
What do you think comparatively, of
the naval ordnance of England and 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"
In single action would not the French
gun be more e1ective?"
"The velocities are only slightly higher"
"How about the Russians?'
THE Russians are rather conservative
in guns; they prefer not to have such enor-
mousy velocities and to have the guns
last a little longer, and the same may be
said of Krupp."
How about the armor plate of ships of
different nations?"
"All the recent armor plate is practically
the same; II is Harveylzed nickel steel"
Then it becomes a question of equa-
ton Of officers and menu"
Yes 1t is very evident that the Anglo
Saxon race, for instance, would manage
a huge fighting machine, such as a ship
which has at least sixty steam engines on
board, with greater facility than Span
iards or Turks would be able to-"
but how about Frenchmen?"
Il am not prepared to say. Perhaps the
highly trained Anglo-Saxon would not be
so apt to make blunders in action as Rus
slams, Austrians or Italians, but the
French and Germans might prOve Them