Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1898-02-08
HINT FOR UNCLE SAM.
FINDS HE IS SHORT OF POWDER FOR
HIS BIG GUNS.

4
HIS BIG GUNS.
Hay Build . Tsotory-A Million Pounds
Moro Nssded--It Il. Believed the Gov
! erument Can Make it, Own Supply Nor.
Cheaply Than to Buy II.
/ Uncle Sam is short Of powder for his
high powered guns. After his warsbips
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 country barely
enough to supply them for 80 minutes
combat. And it would take the powder
mills of the United States, with their
. present facilities, nearly year to produce
enough powder to supply the ships for an
other ten hours battle
81. Such is tho substance OF report made
TO Secretary Long by the board of ordnance
and Notifications, which has recommend.
ed the immediate building Of govern
ment powder factory, by which the cost Of
supplying this powder could be greatly
reduced.
Ordinary powder, it must be under.
stood, will not do for high powered guns
There is plenty Of this, and plenty Of fine
blasting powuer In the United States, but
very little riaed cannon powder. This
last Is made by only two factories in the
United States, one IN Delaware and one
in California, both Of them Of very limited
capacity. Hence tho importance Of having
In store enough to meet all possible do
mands of war until moro could be manu-.
featured. A naval war would be sharp
and fierce and might he over before new
factories could be built.
The stock of ammunition carried by a
ship of war has relation to the displace.
mont Of the vessel. Taking shells Of all
sorts into account tho weight of it Is enor.
nous and must not exceed certain limit.
At present each ship in the navy has full
supply, all she can carry and sufficient for
all ordinary needs, but If she shoots it all
away she might as we'll 60 out Of commits.
sion 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 re.
MI all the ships, including the five new
battleships now approaching completion,
would require 2,633, 900 pounds, costing
e2.O26, 678 for slnokeless powder and 1884,
4l6 for common brown powder. To re-
place the shells and projectiles on these
ships would cost So, 52l, 1887, amounting
altogether to quite a pretty penny to be
burnt up.
AIS inch breeohload!ng rifle is 40 feet
long and fires q projectile Weighing !, 100
pounds: For each charge 1t uses Sl5
bounds Of smokcless powder, The charge
Tor an inch rife Is ~ pounds OF powder,
and for q 8 inch rifle the charge is 81
pounds. In action one Of the huge ID inch
guns would be fired about once In three
minutes. The less ponderous weapons
would speak somewhat faster In practice
at targets the rapid fire guns throw foul
or five explosive shells a minute In q sea
fight they would average probably not
more than one or two q minute.
A modern battleship like the Kearsarge,
soon to be launched, carries 1858, 1877 pounds
Of explosive She 10 provided with ESQ
armor piercing shells, of which 100 are 10
inch and 100 .rc inch. To these are add
cd 24O ordinary cast steel shells with ex'
plosivc charges. The armor piercing shells
are of forged and tempered steel and con-
tain no bursting charges, being expected
merely to drill holes through the enemy.
The supply OF ammunition also includes
60 shrapnel shells, which are filed with
small balls of iron and contains just
enough powder to bronx them open and
scatter the inclosed bullets at the proper
moment Besides, the Kearsarge carries
some 5000 projcctiles for fivo and six
FOUNDER rapid fire guns, ono-half Of which
are armor piercing. These cartridges are
made up complete, like rifle cartridges,
with projeotile and powder charge In one
oase.
Tho armament Of cruiser is compare
lively light. The Minneapolis, for exam:
pic, u first class cruiser, carries only 40, OC1
pounds of powder. She Ia provided with
1876 armor piercing shells and $40 ordinary
shells for her inch and = inch rifles. She
has IS shrapnel shells, 084 cartridges fol
rapid fire guns Of A inch caliber, 1875, 600
rifle cartridges, $4,000 revolver cartridges
and the usual number Of blanks and dunn. |
mics for salutes and drills.
10 these should be added 5,1S5 car.
tridges for six FOUNDER and one FOUNDER |
rapid fire guns. The equipment Of rapid
fire guns for cruiser Is very formidable, |
inas,nuoh as she relies mainly upon those
weapons for her fighting power, possessing |
no rifles Of very great caliber.
Today, according to tho report of the
board, there is only 700, OOO pounds OF rifle
powder in the country In addition to what
is now a1oat Smokeless powder costs 60
cents pound, and wo need at the very
lowest estimate 1000, 900 pounds more.
If tho governent spends $1,000, 900 fol
this powder, tho board thinks it con get 1t
at IS cents a pound, which would give
1881, 1888 pounds for $l,Oo0,Oo0. But II
$1,000, 600 is spent on building powder
factory the board thinks the cost will be
reduced to 80 cents, giving 1900, OU0
pounds and the factory. This last bargain
would seem far the more profitable
; Recently the navy department made the
largest contract for explosives that has
been given since the close Of the war. 1t
consisted of 10000 six inch shells at &l5
each, $4,000 sixspounder SHELLS at 81 each
and rs, 900 soft steel points tor armor piero'
ing projeotiles of all caliberA The money
value of this contract was s2?0, 600.
When this contract and others already
let are completed, our seacoest defenses
will be fairly woll Lupplied with projec- |
tiles, and II Spain or any other country |
wants to try full with US we shall be
quite ready f"r her.-Chicago Ttmes-Her'
aid.
Avn~AnAlNAkia-