The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-10-09
A BIG GUN.
Largest Cannon in the World for
New York HarboE
win BE Fifty Feet Long and WIN
Take Three Years 70 Make.

In a few years the United States
viii own one Of tho biggest guns IN
The world. tis 10 be sixteen inches
in diameter on tho inside and will
shoot a projootilo larger than the body
OF good sized man and weighing
over $500 pounds
AT the War Department IN Wash
inglon bids we're recently opened for
furnishing tho mount and the steel
forgings necessary b fore the gun IT,
self can DO built Some idea Of the
size Of this gun can bo gained when
il Is known that IL will take three
years Of steady work TO make it. It
will cost a small fortune, and will con-
sumo 800 pounds Of powder at = sim
gle shot
The building Of this monster gun is
largely an experiment. Ever since
1886 the board which has charge Of
Qualifications and coast deienses has
urged Congress to set aside enough
money for building q sixteen-ineh gun.
Several foreign countries have such
guns both for use in coast delenses
and aboard vessels of war. Though
there has been no opportunity to test
them in active warfare, it is claimed
that notwithstanding their enormous
size and the force Of their recoil when
discharged, the result Of their work
will fully warrant their cost and the
necessary danger connected with their
use. A sixteen-inch gun when dis
,harged, is NOT only dangerous at the
muzzlo but at the breech, for the re-
coil, il not properly provided for,
might sink the ship, gun and oil.
The United States government does
not intend 10 use this big gun aboard
ship, but it will be placed on one OF
The Notifications in New York harbor!
General Flagler, the chief of ordi-
nance Of the army, says that one we'll
directed shot from the sixteen-inch
gun would destroy or stop any vessel
known at the present time. He says
one such gun in New York harbor
would de more good in case of war
than q dozen guns OF twelve or thir-
teen inches in size, the largest now in
use by this government on land or
sea. The more conservative officers
of the War Department have recon-
mended until recently the building Of
more twelve-inch guns, but it has been
demonstrated within the last year that
a twelve-inch proiectile will not pene.
trate the Armor now used on war
ships unless the shot is especially ia
vorabla
The argument for the 12-inch gun
has been that if one shot at a hostile
war ship did not do the work more
shots would, and shat the largest YES
sci in the world could not stand q
dozen shots from q 12einch gun. Gen
eral Flagler meets this argument by
saying that while the 12.inch guns o.
the United States were pounding away
at foreign ship the guns on board
the vessel would not be idle, and h'
thinks it wise, therefore, to have I
gun big enough to do the work quick
".
The big gun will weigh abou
ssventy-6ve tons and will be abou
fifty feet long in the clear, the inside
bore or barrel being about forty fee
in length. Two miles will be shor
distance for its proIectiles to reach
and even at that distance they will b.
skipping along at speed of 1000 fee
every second. The destruction tina
would be wrought by 1900 pounds o
hardened steet, shaped like a Mini
ball, going at the highest speed, Gu
scarcely be imagined.