The evening times., 1896-12-15
ARMORIES AND ARSENALS.
Rock Island. WaIerviiet, "atertown,
SDriugfield and ErankfOrd.

with the increase or ordnance fwork for
tie coast Ge!cnses. the various government
stations and Shops where 1t is carried on
acquire greater importance.
Rock Island arsenal Is tIie one csieHdtcu
for rnlakIng the carriages, implements. equip
uIents anu harness ioF field ana siege ar
tillery, II being well suited Tor TINS WORK,
Tie carriages are steel, or new types ana
or the highest excellence. It's annual ca
pacity is about fit field Carriages and Ilfty
CaIssons. bOth with liiibeTs, eiSht t"iuEed
battery wagons and Iorgcs, and twenty
siege cirridg gts and hnIbcrs. II is proposed,
however. To double the capacity Or 'utput.
and an estimate or S15.S15 has been put IN
Tor tins purpose
Ultimately II Is proposed to make the an
nUal output abolt 2iu field carriages, 36O
cd,sSODs iu cnIutined battery wagons nd
fOTEcS, 20 travelling carriages ana iiinDers
.Or the , inch Siege gun. 30 carriages ana
iImhers for the 1-tnCh si' - howitzer, ana
3UCGTTiages FOR the t-incn siege iuGTtar per
aunuuI. Modern tield and siege guns are So
vastly superior To those which were used IN
our ClyII war that they alone can be relied
upun fur The needs or the future, and IL Is
clear that there should be reserve Tor
use IN an emergency. The new field pieces
should also he a the service q! state troops
WaterVliet is the sea-COast gun factory.
Ii Is astonishing To learn that hufnDer vi
the eu.pIuycs were discharged during the
past fiscal year, and that at one time during
last spring the guHShOp was running AT
about Onc-haif its capacity, through the
failure of Congress 10 appropriate ,he sum
needed However, the output for the year
inclUGed ten S-inch, nine lO-inch ana
uin,. 2-inch guns besides others on which
work was done. There were also com
peted ten 5-InCh siege rifles, ten I-lnch
hcwitzcrs, and ten 3.6-inch field Inortars,
and there was various other work.
The total number OF seacoast guns thus
far completed at Wateryiet. at Gen. Flag-
Ier's report. was forty s-inCh, fort y-one 10
inch and tWent y-One 2-inch guns. The rea-
son why 50 ie W of them are mounted Is To
be found in the neglect to provide empiace-
ments and carriages Tor them as soon as
they were ready. a small shop AZ Water.
viet has identified up for making Held and
siege guns, and can turn out fifty OF the
former per year. While there is room
| enough in it for increasing its capacity
about three-fold- A new water power
pla nL has been put In, and the coal storage
"a pJcity or the factory has been increased
to about 5000 tons. The plant FOR making
| u l6-inch gun las been in process OF erec-
ton.
watertown Is the site Of the government s
seacUast gun carriage factory ne COIN
pieted Output for the year Is not very great,
consisting Of SIX harbette carriages for 10
| inch smooth bores; four barbette carriages
| for lU-iuch nrle. one barbette carriage
| for 1O-inch rifles. one harbette carriage
| for 2-inCh rifle; five disappearing car
| carriage Tor u Iv-lnch rIne ana Two gun
| nrt carriages for IL inch rifles. But
li addition a good deal OF work has been
| done onCarTiages, and several thousand east
| iron prOjcctiIes have been manufactured.
| The TOGndryis not adequate tothe work re-
CURED, anu should be increased. Fortu-
| iateIy the urgent need OF gun riagcs has
| caused contracts to be placed at private
| WORKS for their manufacture: bu, III addi-
| uDn. care should be taken to facilitate the
| output at watertown. theineineering
| WORK upon eInplaCemcnJs at last going on,
| with Ialr degree OF energy, several cOll-
! tracts having been given out at different
| points, and with SO many guns and Hortars
| awaiting carriages, these latter should be
| hurried away from Watcrtown as soon as
| completed. one striking example OF this
| racI was recently gtvcn in the Imperative
| order from the war Department for send
| ing carriages to Charleston.
| In regard To the care necessary in trans
| Porting the disappearing carriages and in
| mounting them on their cmpiaccInentS, the
| commanding ser at Watertown makes
| these remarks.
| This latter work should not be intriIsted
| to unskil!cd labor with cNtemporiZe'l i'm
/ pleIneItS. The carriages need to he erected
properly at first Icy skilled mechanics I2mil-
| lar with the designs OF the carriages and
| accustomed to their erection and adjust
| ment. If such men are not available at
| the forts, the department should nIfintaiI
| q force at this arsenal or elsewhere for
| this purpose; and as the gun platforms ere
| liable TO settle under the heavy weight.
| imposed upon them, the carriages should
| be releveled from time to time until they
| have assumed permanent level have
| thought 1t proper to mention :diS subject
| for, no matter no W good tn C design work
| manship, defective mounting Will not give
| satisfactory results"
This subject derives special importance
| from the news that the first of the 10
| Inch guns mounted at Nll!etS GOlnt IS Ou
| of plumb. and that the defect must b,
| remedied in order to give accurate guI
| fire.
Springfield armory turns out sman arms
| and the yield for the last fiscal rrar com
prised 10 ,535 magazine rifles, i'll maya
| zine carhines. and iOi cadet lilies, "a libe
80; while / 800 Sprinfield .ifles, oa,ibel
a. were altered to cadet rifles, mode
1854. The daily output is now I 20 maya
zine rifles or carbiDcs, and the shops vii
be run on carbines during two months cacl
year. The buildings now occupied can b,
| arranged to produce 200 arms per da y
and. with other available buildings, 800
or 800 arms per day, and by working tw
gangs ten hours each, to produce 500 ARM
per day of twenty-four hours
| FTdukIogd arsenal turns out ammunition
both for small arms and field artillery, to
| chemical laboratory tests smokeleSs pow
ders. The last fiscal years output Of am
munitIon for the 30 -cahber rifle comprised
about 5 ,O67 200 bali, and l ,2oT 600 blanl
| cartridges, showing considerable incr"as
| over the preceding year IL Is hoped, there
| fore, to begin accommodating Il much-ncPie
reserve. About 23,U0O rounds of the 30
caiiDer can now be turned out daily, with
| perhaps, 900 other cartridges. but 1t
hoped that the former amount by next Jun
| may be increased To 1000 per diem, wit
a total daily output OF all sorts or 5O. .OOi
rounds An increased capacity is strJngl
urged.
sandy Hook proving ground must he ,dde'
| Tor It's tests or seacoaSt guns are of prim
importance, andithas a useful machine shop
|
| Army Officer head