Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-09-02
MODERN GUNS COSTLY
NOT ONLY TO MANUFACTURE
BUT TO OPERATE.


Be Erroneous = Speed Versus
ArmOr.
About three years ago an official pa
per OF England, in describing the mcr-
its OF 1lO-ton gun. said that it could
fire two 81 800 shots a minute, and
that such guns would not do in Amer
lea, for the reason that after an hours
fighting the gunners would have to
stop and wait for another appropria-
ton from Congress. What was then
fact is now matter of history. Con-
gress shellcd out money for ammu-
milton at rate that fairly broke all
records the world over. Few lands
men have any idea of the immense
cost of naval war. When SIMPSONS
fleet was bombarding San Juan, says
the New York Mail and Express, the
expenditure of ammunition was so law
ish that an attache OF the French con-
sulate said that it looked as if the ma
val officers and the ammunition man.
ufacturers had formed a combination.
The bombardment was hardly a sue
cess, considering all the money that
was spent on powder and shell, and
this fact was doubtless responsible for
the remark. If landsmen were told
that the cost of shot and powder for
one hours firing of the main batteries
alone Of, say, sixteen OF our best ships,
would reach the sum of nearly 81, ,OOO,-
QUO some of them would certainly
doubt the accuracy Of the statement.
A distinguished naval officer, whose
knowledge of ordnance is next in inn
portance to that of the commander in
chief of the squadron off Santiago, was
shown the figures from which this re-
suit was derived, and he declared it to
he altogether too small.
"More than q million dollars an
hour" he said. "This, too, for the
main batteries OF the ships that you
select. dare say that we spent 49,
100000 at the very least to silence
Cervera's fleet"
To get an idea of how the cost is ar
rived at it is necessary to furnish some
data rs to the guns and ammunition
of the main batteries of some Of the
ships in the American squndron. A
l3-inch gun, for instance, such as is
to he found on the Indiana, Massachu-
setts and the Oregon, weighs over
sixty tons ond is forty feet in length.
The weight of the armor-piercing shell
used in one of these pieces is 1,10O
pounds, and to give this projectile a
muzzle velocity of 2,l00 feet per second
it is necessary to use $50 pounds of
powder. This velocity is equal to an
energy of 33,627 tons in feet. The
shell is capable of perforating 34.6
inches of iron. With 425 pounds of
powder Pinch gun is able to drive
an S5O-pound projectile quite as rapid
lily as the l3-inch does its larger shell,
but the muzzle energy of the 12-inch
is only 25,9S5, and its perforation 3l.4
inches Of iron. An 8-inch shell weigh
ing $50 pounds is forced 1000 feet
each second with charge of 115
pounds of powder and will 60 through
1872 inches of iron. The charge for a
6-inch is forty.five pounds, and this
! will send 10O-pound shell through
1877 inches of iron. The Woolwich-
Armstrong llO-ton, used by England,
is a 16.25-inch, with length Of 1886
feet and a muzzle energy of $3.50
tons in feet. The projectile for this
weapon weighs 1880 pounds and to
give it velocity of 2,OS7 feet per Sec
ond a charge OF 96O pounds of powder
is used. England's 13-inch is certainly
more costly in firing than the Ameri-
can piece of the same caliber.
Where $50 pounds OF powder is fired
here in 13-inch, $50 pounds are used
abroad, and the shell, instead of being
1,l00 pounds, is 1850 over there.
With this difference in weight of
charge and projectile it might be in
ferred that in the matter of perfora-
ton the English gun would excel, but
it is capable Of driving through 1874
inches of iron as against 34.6 for the
American. This, of course, is due to
velocity, that of the foreign piece be-
ing 2,Ol6 as against 2,l0O for the
Yankee cannon. The larger guns of
England burn slow-burning cocoa, but
the guns here burn brown prismatic
powder. The price of the latter var
les, but fair quotation all the year
round may be put down as at 33 cents
per pound. Making the figure 80
cents, for the sake of argument, it will
be seen that for the $50 pounds used
in each discharge Of the l3-inch the
government pays something like $l65.
A common shell for the same weapon
costs $ll6.63, but an armor-piercing
projectile for the same caliber is worth
$4lS. Material sufficient to make a