The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-12-05
SIXTEEN NILES RANGE
PIECE SIXTEEN INCH AND NEAR
LY FIFTY FEET LONG.
Penetration - ProjecUhe - Gun t
Weigh 125 Observation-Disclosures
1869 Pounds of Powder.
New York Journal.)

Largest of all the guns ever bullt IN
this country, and one of the largest
ever built in the world, is the sixteen
inch gun which the Watervliet Arsen-
al near Albany, n. Y, is now getting
ready to build.
The United States has built two of
larger caliber for its coast defenses,
but they We're old-fashioned smooth
bores, and not to be compared to the
new gun in size, weight or anything
except caliber. They are two twenty
inch guns. one of which is mounted
at Fort Hamilton, and one of which
Sies mounted on the ordnance dock at
Governors Island. These guns were
not a startling success. The one at
Fort Hamilton has been fred few
times, and each time its recoil raised
the very dickens with its carriage.
The twenty-inch guns are twenty
feet long, and have range of between
five and six miles, The new gun will
be nearly fifty feet long Ito be accur-
ate. 1857 feet). and will have a range
of sixteen miles and be able to pene-
trate twentyseven and a half inches
of the best steel armor at distance
of two miles. The gun will weigh 125
tons. and it will throw "A solid armor-
piercing proiectile' weighing 1870
pounds. When the projectile leaves
the muzzle of the gun it will be travel
ing at the rate of 1000 feet second,
and if plate of Harveyized steel thir-
ty-three inches in thickness were
placed near the muzzle of the gun it
would be penetrated by the flying
mass of the projectile
, This gun, mounted at Fort Wads-
worth, would be able to hurl a 1870
pound proiectile upon a hostile man
of-war before she got within seven
miles of Sandy Hook. The vessel
would be exposed to American shot
before she got in American waters,
for the range of the gun would be far
beyond the "threemile limit" the
distance off its coast for which ma
tion claims jurisdiction.
Technically the building of gun is
called the Assembly of the gun. The
assembly of the new siXteen-inch
thunderer will not be a matter of
days, weeks or months, but of years
1t is estimated that even under the
most favorable circumstances it will
be three years before the gun is ready
for delivery. The building of sixteen
inch guns, has been something long
desired by the Ordnance Department,
and the plans for one have been care
fully prepared.
The necessity of guns of this cal
iber is evidenced by the fact that sew
eral foreign men-of-war have armor
against which even a 12-inch gun
would be ineffective. There is the
British battleship InfleXible, for in
stance, with twenty-four inches of
armor, and the Duilio and Dandolo of
the Italian navy, with twenty-five
inches of armor.
England has in her coast defenses
and her navy sixteen guns of 16-inch
caliber, and France has eight. Italy
has twenty-five guns of 17-inch cal
iber. The new gun, work upon which
has now begun at Watervlet, will be
superior in effectiveness, however, to
the italian guns, although they do
have one inch more of caliber. The
great trouble so far found in the CON
structiOn of guns of such immense size
as those considered has been that they
dropped" at the muzzle after being
fired "a few times. The Ordnance
Board in designing the Watervliet
gun, however, believes that it has sue
ceeded in overcoming this defect The
maximum diameter of the breach of
the new gun will be siXty-two inches.
The diameter of the breech opening is
twenty inches. To fire this gun will
require a charge of LOGO pounds of
powder, if the usual brown prismatic
kind is used. If the gun is a success
more of the kind will be built. The
Ordnance Board is confident it will be
a success and superior in effectiveness
to any gun in the world.