Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-09-20
A NEW AND NOVEL GUN.
UNCLE SAM is BUiLDiNG A WONDER.
FUL PIECE OF ORDNANCE.


Defenses Altogether - VIII Weigh
Thirty Tons-Terrific Striking Capacity.
Uncle Sam, says New York letter
in the Detroit Free Press, is building
a new 10-inch wire gun ola brand new
pattern to astonish the world. When
Uncle Sam wants to do thing he
generally does it, and consequently all
the governments on the surface of the
globe watch his movements with no
small degree of interest. Never be-
fore in the history of the manufacture
of war implements has the world wit
messed fiercer struggle for superiority
between gun and armor plate in every
country of the globe than at the
present time. Governments and
private concerns alike take part in
this race at breakneck speed. AT this
time of the race, however, no one can
safely predict which of the two, gun
or armor, will be the victor. As far
as the navy is concerned the odds are
slightly i'll favor of the guns, for it
seems as if the thickness of armor
for men-of-war has been nearly
reached. Congress, taking this fact
into consideration, made an appro-
priation last year for the construction
of n 10-inch wire gun according to a
new system invented by John Hamil-
ton Brown, an American. This gun
is now being built ct the plant of the
Reading Iron Company, by the in
ventor, under the supervision of one
Or two inspectors from the Ordnance
Department of the United States
Army.
Nearly every power of Europe has
tried its hand at wire wound guns
before and since that period. 1t now
appears that only England and Rus
sia made any headway, while France
Tor the time being dropped the matter
entirely, confining herself to keeping
watch over the achievements of other
governments. At present England is
doing fairly well, but she will be left
tar behind if the new Brown ten-inch
wire gun half way fulfills the expec-
tations of government and inventor.
The gun will weigh thirty tons and
and is expected to hurl 600-pound
she'll with muzzle velocity of 29SS
feet per second. Such velocity
would give the proiectile, if the shell
weighs 600 pounds instead of the
regulation weight of $50, striking
capacity of SO, 40 foot-tons. In 9TH
er words, the striking capacity per
ton of weight of gun would be 1880
foot-tons at the muzzle-something
unequalled in gun construction in any
country.
This new 10-inch gun is and only
can be intended for coast Defense Its
| great length, thirty-seyen and one
half feet, makes it at once unavaila-
BILE for use in the navy. The great
length may also cause fortification
engineers trouble with regard to con-
struction of parapets when the gun is
mounted on disappearing carriages in
! forts, as it must be.
The core of this new gun will con-
sist of ninety longitudinal bars (seg-
ments} of approximately little less
than five-eighths of an inch in thick
ness; three and three-eighths of an
inch in hight at the breach and then
tapering down to the muzzle to one
and one-fifth of an inch in hight. The
length of the segments will be in the
neighborhood of thirty-seven feet.
The steel in the segments of the
new gun will have tensile strength of
1000 pounds to the square inch.
The elastic limit will be 70, 900 pounds
per square inch, and the elongation
from twenty to twentyfour per cent.
There is no room for doubt that bar
of steel 100 feet long which can be
stretched to a length of 124 feet be-
fore rupture takes place must contain
metal of excellent quality.
After the segments have been as
sembled and the breech and muzzle
nut screwed on to them, thus forming
the core of the gun, the winding of
Che wire round and round the core be-
gins. The wire used in the new gun
has an area of Lao of an inch, each
side measuring IL of an inch. As the
wire is to be wound round the core
under pressure of about $4,000
pounds per square inch, and must re-
tain an equal margin of strength in
order to permit the core of the gun to
expand safely in the firing and con-
tract after the shot, it becomes ut
once apparent that the wire must have
very great elastic limit.
The weight of the seventy five miles
of wire amounts to 30,94S pounds.
At the breech the gun will have from
thirty-three to thirty-four layers of
wire uniformity wound.
The winding, indeed, of each inch
of these seventy-fve miles of wire,
with the uniform pressure of 5000
pounds per square inch represents in
itself problem which it will be diff
cult to solve. 1t was clear from the
start that the winding could not be
done from an ordinary machine. A
special one had to be constructed, land
is now finished.
The total cost of the new gun is
estimated at 100000.