The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-17
HE FINDS THAT HE IS SHORT OF
POWDER FOR HIS GREAT
EST GUNS.
MAY BUILD A FACTORY.
SUPPLY AVAILABLE WOULD ONLY
LAST TEN HOURS IN A GREAT
NAVAL FIGHT.
Government Believes 1t Cheaper to
Manufacture Its Own Supply
Than to Buy 1t.

WASHINGTON. Jan. 15.-Uncle Sam
| Is short Of powder for his high-power-
| ed guns. After his war ships shall
have fired away what powder they
| have on board, which they would do
| In the course Of a ten hours battle,
there would be left in the entire coun-
| try barely enough to supply them for
thirty minutes combat And it would
! take the powder mills of the United
States, with their present facilities,
| nearly year to produce enough pow
der to supply the ships for another ten
| hours battle.
Such is the substance of a report
! recently made to Secretary Long by
the board of ordnance and fortifica-
lions, which has recommended the i'm
mediate building of a government pow
der factory, by which the cost of sup
plying this powder could be greatly
reduced.
Ordinary powder. 1t must be under
stood. will not do for high-powered
guns. There is plenty Of this, and
| plenty of fine blasting powder in the
country. but very little rifled cannon
powder This last Is made by only
| two factories in the United States, one
| Of them Of very limited capacity.
Hence the Importance of having in
store enough to meet all possible de-
| mands of war until more could be
manufactured. A naval war would be
sharp and fierce, and might be over
| before new factories could be built
|. The stock Of ammunition carried by
a ship of war has relation to the dis
DlaCamPnf M
| of all sorts into account, the weight of
it Is enormous and must not exceed a
certain limit. At present each ship in
the navy has a full supply, all she
can carry. and sufficient for all ordi-
| nary needs, but If she shoots 1t all
| away she might as we'll go out of COM
| mission for all the damage she could
do to the enemy.
A modern navy is an expensive toy
at the best. The board estimates that
to refill all the ships, including the
hVe new battle ships now approaching
completion, would require 1888, 900
pounds. costing 50 ,O2657S for smokeless
powder and 1872, 416 for common brown
powder. To replace the shells and
projectiles on these ships would cost
S6,521,9S7, amounting altogether to
quite pretty penny to be burnt up
Modern ordnance requires huge
charges of powder, of peculiar shape
and strength. All Of it is in the shape
of heXagons, with a hole running
through their axis The hexagons.
which are an inch and a half across,
are packed solidly in a bag, and it is
in this form that the charge for a big
gun is put up. The charge thus pre-
pared Is placed in a bronze cylinder,
which IS hermetically sealed. This
precaution is taken in order that the
powder shall not suffer damage in case
an emergency renders it necessary to
flood the powder magazine with water
A thirteen-inch breechoadng rifle Is
forty feet long and fires a projectle
weighing LOO pounds. For each
charge it uses 315 pounds of smokeIess
powder. The charge Tor an eight-inch
rifle is seventy-two pounds of powder,
and for a six-inch rifle the charge Is
twenty-seven pounds. In action one of
the huge thirteen-inch guns would be
fired about once in three minutes the
less ponderous weapons would speak
somewhat faster In practice at tar
gets the rapid-fire guns throw four or
five explosive shells a minute; in a sea
fight they would average probably not
more than one or two a minute.
A modern battleShip like the Kear-
sarge, soon to be launched carries
363,19 pounds of explosives. She is
provided with $50 armor-piercing shells
of which 100 are thirteen-inch, and 100
are eightinch. To these are added 240
ordinary cast steel Shells, with explo-
sive charges. The armor-piercing
shells are of forged and tempered steel,
and contain no bursting charges, be-
ing expected merely to drill holes
through the enemy. The supply of am
lnunition also includes sixty shrapnei
shells, which are flied with small balls
| of iron. and contains just enough pow
| der to break them open and scatter
| the inclosed bullets at the proper mo-
| ment. Modern shells, of course, are
very different from the old style sort,
which made a beautiful curve through
| the air and gave a Watchful enemy
! time to get out Of the way. The up
| tO-date prOjectije leaves the muzZle OF
! the gun with the velocity of half q
nile a second, and on striking a metal
! target is partly melted by a transfer
nation Of it's energy to heat, a flame
actually leaping from the place hit.
TERRIBLE ENGINES OF WAR.
Besides, the Kearsarge carries some
| 600 projecti'es for FIVE and six-pound-
er rapid-fring guns. one-half of which
arc armorp piercing. These cartridges
are made up complete, like rifle cart
ridges with projectile and powder
charge in one case. The tremendous
! damage which the explosive shells are
| capable OF QDlnS was SHOWN In the sea
| fights Of the war between China and
|. Japan, particularly at the battle Of
| Yalu. Thrown in continuous rain
against hostile ship, they scatter
! wholesale destruction, manning or kill
! ing every exposed man, setting fire to
boats and woodwork. and Kidding all
parts of the vessel that are not pro-
tected by III ok armor
The fighting ship par excellence Is
the battle ship. 1t Is actually a float
ing fortress. and is expected to stand
it's ground and hammer away at the
enemy as long as it stays afloat With
d cruiser it is quite different, mas
much as that type of vessel is intended
mainly for destroying commerce, and
the speed of a greyhound is given to
it III order that 1t may be able to show
a clean pair of heels if threatened by
formidabI foe. The business Of
cruiser is not to lombard forts or to
engage a battle ship; consequently its
armament is comparatively light 1t
follows that the quality of ammunition
required is much less than in the case
of battle ship.
The Minneapolis, for example. a first
class cruiser. carries only 10000 pounds
of powder. She is provided with 125
armor- piercing shells and 210 ordinary