The San Francisco call., 1898-04-17

steel 23.42 inches thick at distance of 1900 yards. It has a velocity at the muzzle of 2100 feet a second, and ve- lOcity of 1895 fe~- a a distance Of 250O yards, which is produced by the explo- sion of $50 pounds of brown prismatic uowder, each grain of which is oc- tagonal in shSne and molded to an ex- act size.
 The cost of each discharge is about $1500. The range of a gun of thirteen inches c,.liber is about thirteen miles, or a mile to. each inch, which is the ap proXimate range of all guns. A 13-inch gun is built to fire 250 shots before it loses its temper and becoI--es useless, except for old iron; but in most cases many more could probably be fired.
 The 11O0-pound projectile is almost as carefully made as the gun. It is of hard steel, with an armor piercing point and is fitted with copper bands which take against the rifling, and being of soft metal do not injure the delicate grooves of which there are fifty-two.
 Besides these monster cannon the Washington navy yard produces small rapid fire ordnance of the Fletcher, Maxim, Driggs- Schroeder and Hotch- kiss types, which are used aboard ship as a protection against torpedo boats, for landing parties and for boat service. These weapons are much simpler in
 
 nance, but the same great care and thoroughness of workmanship charac- terize their building as the heavy ord nance.
 Six weeks is practically the minimum of time for the making of a modern gun, and to finish one within that space everything would have to go on mar velously well. The treatment" of the steel would have to be a success at the very first attempt-something that does not often happen-and the first tests would have to show that the Gov ernment standard had been reached. Oftener than otherwise these results can only be obtained through much try ing and the expenditure of time. A batch of guns may thus take months in the making, while good luck may bring. it down to weeks.
 It is in the casting shop, of course, that the process of gun making hss it's very beginning, in the furnace where steel is made from a medley of pieces of old iron, pig iron lengths, broken bits and odds and ends of castings, long since relegated to the scrap yards.
 Here is the first stage of the modern gun-ragged and rusty metal that is carted in wheelbarrows up to the fur mace doors. The maws of blazing heat, several thousand degrees in intensity, stands open to receive it. So over IS l1llS neat lIldl even lHe master melter has to put on blue glasses to peer into the flames rising over the bubbling sea of metal when the doors are open. When the doors are dropped down-that is, shut-there is only revealed a single spot of bright ness, an eye that looks into the fur nace's flame, and even this cannot be approached too closely with the naked eye.
 The gun is under way. Ten tons of metal are already in the furnace-a | lake of molten, seething metal held in by banks of sand. Other things of steel are to be made of this mass. the gun works being only a portion of the plant. Whether used for peace or war, steel is steel, differing only in quail ity. It is all boiled down. in the same way.
 In shadow is the casting shop, except when the doors are raised, when a flood | of light, wave of extreme heat, is thrown out In the dusk of the shadows grimy men raise the sea of metal with long bars. The master mel ter. never still, steps now and then to his wheels. set at one side of the fur mace and looking like the brake wheels on freight car, and gives one or the other sharp twist. By this he regu- lates his fire-fve hundred degrees at a twist. The silica bricks with which the furnace is lined can stand four