Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-11-13
UNCLE SANS BIG GUN
LARGEST CANNON IN THE WORLD
FOR NEW YORK HARBOR.
viii Take Three Yoars to Make
Will Weigh Seventy.Five Tons
and he Fifty Feet I'm Length-A
Small Fortune will he Expended
at Every Shot.
Chicago Times-Herald.

Chicago Times Herald.
In n few years the United States
will own one OF the biggest guns in
the world. 1t is to be 16 inches in
diameter on the inside and will shoot
a projectile larger than the body OF a
good-sized man and weighing over L.
500 pounds.
At the war department this after
noon bids were opened for furnishing
the mount and the steel forgings nee
essary before the gun itself can be
built. Some idea of the size of this
gun can be gained when it is known
that it will take three years of steady
work to make it. 1t will cost small
fortune and will consume 800 pounds
of powder at a single shot.
The building of this monster gun is
largely an experiment. Ever since
1856 the board which has charge of
Notifications and coast defenses has
urged Congress to set aside enough
money for building q 16-inch gun.
Several foreign countries have such
guns both for use in coast defenses
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 16-inch gun, when discharged,
is not only dangerous at the mnzzle
but at the breech, for the recoil, if not
properly provided for, might sink the
ship, gun and all.
The United States government does
not intend to 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 ordinance
of the army, said that one well-di-
rected shot from the 16-inch gun
would destroy or stop any vessel
known at the present time. He says
one such gun in New York harbor
would do more good in case of war
than dozen guns of II or 13 inches
in size, the largest now in use by this
government on land or sea. The
more conservative officers of the War
Department have recommended until
recently the building of more 12-inch
guns, but it has been demonstrated
within the last year that a Pinch
projectile will not penetrate the armor
now used on warships unless the shot
is especially favorable.
The argument for the 12-inch gun
has been that if one shot at hostile
warship did not do the work, more
shots would, and that the largest YES
sci in the world could not stand a
dozen shots from 12-inch gun. Gen.
eral Flagler meets this argument by
saying that while the 12-inch guns Of
the United States were pounding
away at a foreign ship the guns on
board the vessel would not be idle, and
he thinks it wise, therefore, to have a
gun big enough to do the work quickly
The big gun will weigh about IS
tons and will be about so feet long in
the clear, the inside bore or barrel be-
ing about 40 feet in length. Two
miles will be a short distance for its
projectiles to reach, and even at that
distance they will be skipping along
at speed of 1000 feet every second
The destruction that would be
wrought by 1900 pounds of hardened
steel, shaped like mimic ball, going
at the highest speed, can scarcely be
imagined.