The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-27
APOTHEOSIS OF
THE FIELD GUN
Modern Field Gun Is Fully Equal to the
Development 10 Other Armament
is AS ACCURATE AS A RIFLE
The United States Have No Better
Guns Than Those of France and
Germany, but They Are Every Bit
ms Good in the
Large Guns Are Products of Ameri-
can Brains--Terrible EGec, OF the
Watervliet Pattern,


gun is fully equal to the development
of other branches of military arma-
ment 1t has been especially rapid
within the past dozen years. The work
of specialists and the results of ex-
tended tests have ended in the produce
tion of q weapon Of great accuracy and
of Titanic force. The field gun of to-
day is the favorite weapon of the mill
tary man, and he expects from it some
very remarkable demonstrations when
opportunity to use it occurs. Napoleon
is credited with the remark that Provi-
dence is always on the side of the
heavy artillery, but the artillery which
Napoleon knew was not worthy to be
mentioned on the same day with the
light, graceful and deadly arm with
which the moderns are prepared to do
slaughter. The first great step forward
was taken when the breech-loading ac-
tion was invented. Well-kppIn scien-
tiflc rules Of boring and the improve
ment in projectiles and powders have
done the rest. The field gun now in use
by the powers is as accurate at its
range as rifle and has tremendous
energy.
The United States have no better
field guns than those with which the
armies of Germany and France are
armed, hut they are every bit as good.
Like our other ordnance, they are all
made on this side of the water. The
American manufacturer yields to no
one in ability to make perfect weapon.
Indeed, many of the chief improve
ments in field guns and in the larger
sizes, sometimes called Siege" guns,
are the products Of American brains.
The field guns of the United States
army are made at Watervliet, New
York, just as the large guns for the
navy and for coast defense are turned
out at Washington, They have a cali
Der of a little more than three inches,
are, of course, breeCh-loading, are
rather lengthy for their width and are
lightly but strongly mounted. They use
a pointed shell, which eXplodes either
on cOnCusson or by time fuse, gem
orally the former. and are fired with
great rapidity. Each gun of a battery
is in command Of a lieutenant who,
under the eye of his superior. sights it
and directs its working. He has his
elevation, depression and wind gauge
formulae at his fingers ends, and with
him good shooting is mainly question
of care. The powder used in these guns
is of the smaller grained brown hex
agonal kind, though the spheroidal is
preferred for some calibers. The recOil
of this gun on level ground is twenty
six feet, with the wheels unlocked.
With the wheels locked it recoils five
feet and is run forward and resighted
very swiftly. Its point blank range is
1900 yards. 1t can be made effective
at much greater distance, of course,
but officers prefer that range for ac-
Curate shooting.
TRIAL OF WATERVLIET GUNS.
1t fell to me some seven years ago to
report the first field trial given the
Watervliet guns. Three of them were
sent to Fort Sam Houston at San An
tonic. Texas, where Light battery F,
Third artillery, was stationed under
command of Major James b Burbank,
a most capable officer now attached
to the staff Of the governor of New
York. Major Burbank was instructed
to try them out thoroughly and for
this purpose selected an ideal range on
Ganahl's ranch, sixty miles north of
San Antonio. The guns We're planted
| In line and twenty feet apart on the
side of a green hill and pointed across
a shallow valley On the opposite hill
1900 yards away a tent fly was put up
as a target. 1t was u by feet in di-
| mensiOns, and was stretched on two
| poles. At that distance it looked like
nothing in the world so much as a
| mans pocket handkerchief. One shot
was fired as a range finder, and that
| shot proved the range was found. Then
! the work began.
For a half hour these guns pitched
shells through or under or over the
target, according to firing directions
with as much accuracy as a man would
use a Winchester rifle at a hundred
! yards. The work was done with the
| precision of clock. There was the
rush of the piece into it's first position,
| the quick command to load, the rapid
! aim and discharge, the faint scream of
the shell, the puff of smoke and dull
report as it struck and the dust rose
up in a pillar. When it was ended we
rode across the valley and up the oppo-
side slope to the spot where the tent
! fly had stood. Bits of it lay about here
| and there. One of the poles was bit
ten short off. For fifty yards below the
other pole, for thirty yards on either
side Of it and for a hundred yards
above it the earth was not plowed-
it was narrowed. An ant could not
have lived on the ground.
1t was not difficult to imagine what
would have become Of an opposing
force. Men and horses would have
been dead and all guns dismounted il
| five minutes after the firing began
There could have been no better illus
tration of the absolutely fatal charac
ter of these pieces 1t was found tha
they did not become unmanageabl,
through heat, that the breech mechan
ism displayed no sign of strain, tha
the recoil was not greater than wa'
calcuated and that accuracy wa,
as perfect with the last shell as will
the first These findings were report
ed to the Washington authorities, ant
the manufacture of the guns went on
The regular army is now thorough,
supplied with them, and If they ar
sent to Cuba they will be found to b.
the most convincing takers i'm favo
OF Cuban independence ever devise,
by man.
NO STATIONARY DUELS.
! said to Major Burbank: "You wi
admit, | suppose, that the Europea
guns of this caliber are just as good
and the presumption is that they wi
be as well handled?" He said that wa
so, Then" / continued, 'in case c
an artillery duel between equal bat
teries OF these guns at a 20O0-yar
range, what is going to happen
We'll" he answered slowly, "if III
batteries were stationary and rename
stationary everybody would be killeC