The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-27

Washington, Nov. 26.-Secretary La.
mont's report of the operations of the
war department for 1896 shows tota
| expenditures aggregating nearly $751;
100000, and an unexpended balance OF
nearly 100000 turned back into the
For the three years of Colonel La
monts administration, the surplus has
amounted to more than S5,O0O,00O.
On the first of July, $685. but one
| high power gun was mounted. By the
first of july next. we will have in po-
sition 70 high-power breech-loading
guns and 50 breech-loading mortars of
modern design, and by the following
| July, on completion of work already
under way or provided for, 12S guns
and 153 mortars. The battery of two
or three of these guns takes the place
of the former pretentious fort, and is
| vastly more executive. An eight-inch
gun weighs 1412 tons, is 23A feet long.
requires a powder charge of 125 pounds
and throws a Drojectile weighing 300
pounds about nine miles. a ten-inch
gun weighs 90 tons, is 3O1a feet long,
requires a powder charge of $50 pounds
and throws a projectile of 5S5 pounds
about II miles. A 12-inch gun weighs
81 tons, is 40 feet long, requires a
powder charge of 500 pounds, and
throws a 1,OOO-pound projectile IS miles.
A 12-inch mortar weighs 29,12O pounds,
is 10 feet long, requires a powder
charge of los pounds and throws a
filed proiectile weighing 800 pounds
over five miles.
The defenses now under consideration
are distributed among the ports of
Portland, Me-: Portsmouth, n. H.;
Boston, Narragansett Bay, eastern en-
trance to Long Island sound, eastern
and southern entrances to New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington
Hampton Roads, Wilmington, Charles
ton, Savannah, Key West, Pensacola,
Mobile, New Orleans. Galveston, San
Diego, San Francisco. the mouth of
the Columbia river. and Puget Sound.
The total amount appropriated for
sea coast defenses. including cost of
sites, Notifications and armament since
the adoption of the present scheme is
$25, Asst 600, of which more than one
third was carried by the act passed at
the last session of congress.
Before the end of the present year
we shall have IL 12-inch. ~ 1O-inch.
eight 9-inch, rapid-fire guns and
112 mortar emDlacements. By July
next, there should be COMPLETED Il
12-inch. 46 10-inch, 10 S-inch and II
rapid-fire guns and 112 mortar en-
placements; and by the close of the
coming year. this will be increased to
20 Pinch, &c 1O-inch, 25 S-inch and 16
rapid-fire guns and 1856 mortar en-
placements.
In the belief that he problem of a
satisfactory disappearing gun-carriage
had been solved. the appropriations |
committee was informed at the pre-
vious session of the present congress
that this department proposed to spend /
no more monev for gun-lift batteries, |
thus saving s2O,O0O,OOO. The construc-
ton of the carriages in as large num-
bers as the appropriation would admit
was Immediately undertaken, both at
the government carriage factory at
Watertown arsenal and under contract.
A still more difficult problem was the
designing of a disappearing all-around
fire carriage for the 12-inch breech-
loading rifle. How difficult a problem
it is will appear when it is noted that
such a carriage must endure without
breaking or Straining any of its parts,
the tremendous shock due to the bal
listic force necessary to propel a 1000
pound proiectile at a velocity of 2100
feet per second, lowering it's 52-ton
gun for a distance of nearly eight
feet to secure position for loading and
it to its firing position, and
that it must do this rapidly, certainly
and easily, and by mechanism not
liable to get out of order and only to
be operated by the average soldier.
The technical difficulties involved may,
perhaps, be better appreciated when it
is considered that a similar case would
be that of a Seton locomotive and
tender, running at speed OF 20 miles
an hour. which is required to be
brought to a full stop from this speed
within a distance of IS feet, or one
bird of its length, yet so easily and
gently that at the end of the motion
here shall not be the slightest jar
Both of these problems, it is believed,
lave been satisfactorily solved One
Pinch all around traverse disappear
ng carriage is now under construction
nd eight or ten such carria ges of sim
lar design are about to be contracted.
Secretary Lamont says his predeces-
ors IL Office at the head of the war
department. had during many years
he difficult task of arousing the pub
&c mind to a realization of the ma 7
ional difficulties in the matter of coast /
efense. The interest which has been 7
Weakened has grown deeper each sue f
essive congress and more liberal ap- t
ropriations for the accomplishment +
the adopted scheme have become C
lore liberal. Therefore, in submitting h
lie estimates for another year, he o
eels that it is no longer necessary to T
epeat the arguments that have been t.
eiterated so many times While earn a
silly inviting attention to the great is
ork which yet remains to be done. b
is also his fortune to have the il
ore grateful duty of exhibiting the n
nportant results that have been act
ally accomplished, as well as the