The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-08-11
GIANT AMERICAN GUNS.

Guns OF the Present Day in Companion
With Those Of the Past.
The past and the present OF gun
making are represented by the six
teen-inch gigantic breech-loading rifle
now being constructed at the Water
vliet arsenal, Troy, and by the old
twenty-inch smooth-bo Rodman can
non which daily attracted hundreds
about 1t at the Centennial. The
smooth-bore was then the biggest gun
in the world. The fact that it was
cast during the bitterest year of the
civil war made 1t one of the most in
teresting exhibits of our first great
exhibition. To-day, unmounted and
useless, 1t lies on the ordinance pier
of Governors island, New York. a
grim relic Of type which has had its
usefulness and its day.
Only two twenty-inch guns were cast.
The one is at Governors island and the
other is now at Fort Hamilton, New
York. The first was cast Feb. II,
1864. at Fort Pitt, Pittsburg. Pa. The
molten iron was cast hollow in mould
Of sand, and was cooled with stream
of water and hot air. The work con-
sumed about sixteen days.
The gun thus made cost $4,000 and
weighed fifty-two tons. 1t was 20 feet
3la inches long, had maximum dia-
IF A I;, otn
at the muzzle of 2 feet 10 inches, was
muzzle-loading, and fred shot weigh.
ing 1000 pounds with 100 pounds of
powder. 1t had maximum range of
about four miles. Although its shot
had no penetrative power, it could
punch to pieces any armor which then
existed.
Compared with the gun at Water
vliet it was as effective as one of Paul
Jones' cruisers would be against Ad-
miral SIMPSONS New York. 1t pos.
sessed, however, this advantage over
the new gun: 1t could have been fired
four or five hundred times, whereas
it is estimated that the new gun will
nave pesoCu ITO SLd6S VI uSSluluGSS
when it has been fired 800 times.
Preparations are now being made at
the Watervliet arsenal, Troy, N. Y,
for the assembling or the building
up" of the sixteen-inch engine OF de-
struction, the parts of which have
nearly all been forged. The giant
rife, which has already been in process
of construction two years, will re-
Quire another before completion, and
its cost will be nearly $125,000. Its
manufacture is as follows: The very
best Of steel Is drained into a gi-
gantic mold and then subjected to pres
sure until all the gases and the air
are forced out. The impurities at the
top and bottom are cut away. The
hole is then cut and the casting forged.
1t is put on mandrill and while re-
volving is pressed to the right dimen-
sion. After being heated, it is plunged
into an oil bath to temper it, and sub
sequently heated again for annealing
and coating. when it is ready for ma
Ginning. The eleven parts which make
up the gun comprise the tube, jacket
and hoops, and all go through this
process. The jacket and the outer
hoops are heated and put on the cold
tube in pit, and the cooling Of the
jacket and the hoops with the conse-
quent contraction shrinks the tube to
its right dimension. The tube is then
ritied, the powder chamber bored out
and the breech mechanism fitted.
When completed, the gun will weigh
LAG tons. 1t is called, because~f the
construction Of the parts separately,
and the subsequent putting them to-
gether, "built-up' gun.
Its length will be the width of two
city lots, or fifty feet. At the breech
it will be five feet in diameter and will
taper to the muzzle, where it will have
q diameter of twenty-eight inches. The
bore, which Is sixteen inches In
diameter, will be rined with ninety-six
grooves, little over a third of an inch
wide. This rifling will give the projec-
lie a rate of screw motion and velocity
whose power Of penetration will be
greater than any projectile the world
has known.
The firing charge is 1,160 pounds Of
powder and the projectile weighs over
4 ton. The pressure of the powder,
$4,000 pounds to the square inch, will
mpart to the projectile a velocity at
he muzzle of 2,1OO feet a second, and
IN energy capable Of lifting 1890
IONS height OF one foot. The pene-
ration OF the projectile is thirty-seven
inches Of steel at the muzzle, thirty
i've at 1000 yards, thirty-two at IA
niles and thirty at two miles. Each
firing will cost about $1,000 and the
maximum range Is about fourteen
niles.
The old gun could not pierce armor,
tut could pound it until the bolts were
oosened and plates were bent, but
lgainst modern armor plate it would
,e powerless except at close quarters.
The new gun can cut through the
trongest armor at range Of two miles
nd sink, by the explosion of gun cot
on the shell will contain, any battle
hip AS the old Rodman was at the
lose Of the last war, the most powerful
Jun in existence, so at the close of the
present war, and perhaps before, we
will again have the most powerful gun
n the world.
Although It has not been decided
where It will be mounted, there has
'oen talk by the war department OF
rountlng it on Romer shoals, small
Stand in New York harbor. One such
run in each Of our principal harbors
would almost constitute an efficient de-
eLse,
sunday Long-Faccdness.
A New York daily protests against