Evening star., 1898-12-23
LIFE OF NAVAL ORDNANCE.
some Facts Developed by the Recent
War i'm Cuba.

| From the Iron Age.
| The Navy Department has received re
! ports from nearly all the war vessels which
| took active part either in the battles or
| the bombardmei.ts of the Spanish American
war. These reports show in detail the
number of rounds fired from every gun on
! board, from one-pCund rapid fires up to
| the big thirteen-inCh rifles, and the ord
| nance bureau experts have examined them
with much interest to note the condition OF
| the guns before and after firing in order
| TO estimate the probable deterioration re-
| sulting from the war service The de-
! partment officials are disposed to treat the
| hgures of the reports confidential mill
| tary lnforma ton not To be made public but
Captain Neil, chief of the ordnance bu-
reau, and Professor Alger, ordnance expert
ana Mathematician, have given the CORE
spondcnt ol the Iron Age some Interesting
information concerning the condition of the
| guns and the seN Nerity of the tests to which
| they were put during the war. In this
! GO injection Captain Omen said
our reports show that our ordnance
from the smallest guns to the largest cali
| bers DEVELOPED The highest degree OF eff
| cheney and little if any deterloratiou
speak especially of the large-caliber guns
when | say that no evidence whatever has
been found that the ordnance has DEVELOPED
any Weakne"S. So far as | am advised
not a single gun has shown any bad effects
from the firing tests to which many of
| them were subjected, and there has not
| been even a suggestion of dropping muzzles
| or other eviG ences of structural weakness.
We have at no time expected that the
scVerest tests would cause the muzZls of
our long rifles to droop as we have had
every confidence that the guns were manu-
| factufed on correct principles. a dropping
ntuzzle indicates, TO my mind. poor CON
structlon based Oh faulty principle. The
.4xr
TINS sort several years ago with a special
| class of guns that lacked the stiffness that
should be possessed by first-class weapons
| but the drooring of the muzzles of the guns
referred To was due entirely to poor con-
struction and imnrouer design and not to
| the result of firing more rounds than the
| guns should properly stand. We are mitch
Pleased with the manner in which our ord
nance behaved, and believe that a great
majority of our guns came out of the war
in as satisfactory a condition as they en-
tered it
Professor Alger. who has gone into the
subject In closer detail than Captain O'Neil
said: with the exception of the small
rapid-fire guns. our navy rifles were not
fired a sufficient number of rounds to
weaken well-constructed ordnance. Even
on the ships which took part in the bonn
bardments the big rifles were fired only
few times comparatively, and their total
service during the war did not constitute
any great high-power gun OF large caliber
W hIIt bil'It - CpISlutTdDle ulutfence OF
opinion on the point, l think it is safe to
say that such weapon a thirteen-imch
rife. as constructed for our navy. may be
fired from 25n to 400 rounds without show
Ing any deterioration. Even then the gun
does not become structurally weak. The
first defect noted is the effect OF the erosion
of the tube near the base, caused by the
action of the powder gas. Sometimes this
effect Is seen in the erosion of a considera-
BILE area in the tube which ultimately Sc
riously affects the velocity and accuracy
When first developed at the base of the
shell II can be remedied by using a larger
metallic ring On the shell to secure more
accurate fit to the tube, and in some cases
the erosion is so serious and affects such
an area of the tube to make the gun
useless. Even then, ii should be remenl-
bered, the gun can be retUbed. although
the process is somewhat difficult and ex-
pensve. If chis operation is resorted to,
however. ] do not see why the life of the
gun cannot be prolonged Indefinitely. / he
heVe the theory has been presented in the
past that the constant firing of a gun tend
ed to crystalline the metal composing it,
thereby rendering it liable to burst.
DO not think that modera ordnance experts
give any serious consideration to this
theory, which seems to have no basis in
fact
with regard to the small rapid-fire guns
which went through the war, l am quite
prepared to learn that a considerable num-
Der of them are nearly worn out. Guns
like one, two and three-pound rapid fires
are likely to show serious erosion after fir
ing 1000 rounds, and wherever such serv-
ice has been approXimated We would be
disposed TO examine the gun with consd-
erahle care. In firing such gun the first
serious effect of erosion would be noted in
the 'tumbling' of the shell, which would
be quite appaf ant when the gan was fired.
The life of q gun in which nitroglyceriue
powder used would be necessarily
shorter than that in which guncotton was
employed. We nave not yet received suf-
ticient data to determine the extent to
which the rapid-fire guns approxirnated the
do not think that any very large proper
ton of them have suffered from the war
service"
The ordnance experts are all disposed to
make light of the suggestion that the Span
sh artilerists kept up frequent firing from
The shore in the hope of inducing the
American commanders to wear out their
guns in useless bombardment, thereby
rendering them inefficient when brought
into play in a raval engagement. The
Spanish" said Captain O'Neil. did not
have ammunition to waste in any such eX-
pertinent that suggested, and ! think it
fair to say they knew too much of ord
nance to believe that our guns could be so
easily rendered Ineffective"
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fast substitute for hot bread. AS its