The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-10
Who Claims that Our BuiIt-Up Cam
non Have Never Been Tried I'm
der Severe Service Conditions,
AND MAY NOT STAND THE TEST
ENGLAND, HE CLAIMS, HAS ABAN-
DONED THIS TYPE OF CANNON.
His New One-Piece Gun, He Thinks,
VIII Solve the ProbIem-sOme
Startling Figures Presented.


| Copyright 1898, by George Grantham Bain1
| CLEVELAND, April Sis the govern
ment of the United States wasting millions
| Of dollars on worthless ordnance? Are we
prepared to meet an enemy with the guns
which we now have on our ships and along
| our coast? Dr. Calling of machine-gun
| fame, says the "built-up" guns on which
we have spent $26,OO0.O00 are failure. He
says If we ever go into battle with them
they will go to pieces possibly in a few
days.
| DR.. Calling has gun of his own, built
| on another principle, for which Congress
appropriated $4,000. That gun was in
| spected by the board of ordnance and forth
| fications under Gen. Nelson A. Miles on
Tuesday, March 20. 1t will be shipped 10
the Washington navy yard to be rifled and
| finally to Sandy Hook to be tested. DR..
Calling wants the government to adopt his
gun in place Of the "huit-up'' gun.
| Abroad they are making a ''wire-wound''
gun. 1t is made of 2SO pieces fitted together.
General Miles gave it his Endorsement be-
fore q Senate committee two years ago. 1t
is very expensive and it is slow to build.
The ''built-up' gun is made of eleven pieces,
and it is less costly, but slow. 1t requires
| almost a year to make a, "built-up" gun.
The mortar is in eight pieces. Dr. Cat
| lings new gun is in one piece. He says he
| can make it in half the time needed to
make ''built-up'' gun and at half the cost.
"If do that, have done something for
| Uncle SAM" said DR.. Calling to-day. Also,
| he has done something for DR.. Calling; for,
| If what he believes proves to be true, every
| great nation win have to substitute the
/ Calling gun for those now in use There
are millions in it, and for that reason DR..
| Calling has not taken out his patents in
| this country yet. He has filed papers with
the Patent Office, and he awaits the gov
eminent test before fling application for
| patents abroad. Until he does that his pro-
| cess will remain aecret.
when General Miles returned from
| abroad said DIR. Calling, ''he told me
that England had stopped making built-up
| guns. had heard the same thing on other
authority before. England has proved that
they are failure and has stopped making
them. while we are going ahead and making
contracts for more in the United States.r
THE LIFE OF A GUN.
| The doctor fished out Of his pocket some
| clippings from scientific papers telling OF
accidents to guns neutrality-suspicious. caus-
| ing loss of life and otker casualties. He
showed me one authority which said that
| under service conditions the 110-ton gun
! would not last for more than thirty Wounds
| Hrlngl Tour times an hour, and the sixty
seventeen guns would not last for More
than fifty. 1t has been estimated that the
| shot from a big gun costs $1,000 or more.
| The average cost of big guns is 100000. At
| the rate Of even fifty shots, $1,000 would
have to be added to that estimate for
| wear and tear" And where would our
| coast defense be if the big guns should be-
| come useless after firing thirty or even fifty
| times at an enemy?
II thought the life of a gun was three
hundred rounds or more" I said.
Firing once day." said DR.. Calling.
"But even at the rate of four times an hour
the gun becomes heated. Do you UNDER
stand the construction of the modern gun?
They take a thin tube and shrink it on
| series of hoops. Where these hoops come
together there are join }. When the tube
becomes heated from rapid firing 1t ex-
| pands and there are spaces between these
| joints into which you can drop a half doll
| lar. Then, the English have found the muz-
| zle of the gun drops like this" The doctor
crooked his finger to show how the muzzle
Of the gun fell from the horizontal. Then
what sort of fix are you in?" he added.
''How often should a gun be fit for fir
ing?' asked.
II believe that my new gun can be fired
| ten or fifteen times an hour without injury;
that is, as fast as you can load it. OF
| course, there will be a limit to the guns
life-there is to the life of every gun. But
it won't warp out of shape. My gun Is a
single casting, and it has no joints. No
joints understand. That is where the weak
ness of the built-up gun lies.
Great changes have come about in the
casting Of STEEL" Or. Calling continued.
There are alloys of steel now which have
/ a higher resisting power when cast than
the finest OF wrought steel Some months
! ago I was at Indian Head, near Washing
| ton, and man named Johnson, who has
steel works near Spuyten Duyvil brought
some cast steel projectiles to be tested. He
had been furnishing forged steel projectiIes
! to the government at a cost of about 40
| cents, and the cast steel cost about or
/ or 10 cents. In the test the cast steel pro-
| jectile made better record than the forged
1t went right through the armor plate.
making a clean, round hole, and was very
! little altered, while the forged proiectile
made ragged hole and mushroomed. An
| other test they made was with a plate of
cast steel They stood up a one-inch plate
against Hotchkiss gun, and the shot did
| not go through the plate. The same shot
would have gone through a 11s-inch forged
plate"
DR.. GATLING'S NEW GUN.
'Is your gun made of an alloy?'
Yes. The process is secret. The alloy
is one thing that gives it strength. Then
have peculiar process of treatment and
| cooling by which, without the joints of the
built-up gun. 1 get the resistance from the
outside to the center. The mandrn process,
too, is my own. BY it strengthen part
of the gun which needs Strengthening
against erosion. 1T is the part which gets
the force Of the gases from the powder be-
fore they overcome the inertia OF the
projectile. The casting is a new process,
too. When the metal runs into the ladla it
! follows tangent so that it runs around In
| the bottom of the ladle, and, expelling the
air becomes homogeneous mass. We put
1t under weights then. and when Il is cool
we cut on the impure part which is at the
| end"
What will be the range of your gun.ss
II expets Il to have range Of seven or
eight miles,
| In case Of war, would you be able To
make any number Of these gums Quicksy?''
| u takes rme % make the casting and