Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-02-09
ROOM FOR THE WORK.
Abundance of Accommodations
For Small Arms Factory
at Arsenal.
COULD MAKE 1000 RIFLES PER DAY.

Possibility That Armory Row May be DC
cupied For the Purpose For Which 1t
Was Originally acknowledgements at
Springfield Cramped-An Interesting
Talk With Maj. Blunt.
Maj. Blunt, at the arsenal. when
shown the Associated Press dispatch
received by The ARGUS yesterday
announcing that an appropriation
of $3.50, 900 had been recommended at
Washington for the establishment of
n small arms mandatory here.
said that no information had vet
reached him on the subject. Recon-
mendations looking to the result
now contemplated had, however, Of
ten been made, and the subject had
been considerab bly, agitated of recent
years, n delegation from the three
cities being now present in Washing
ton endeav oring to further the inter-
ests of the arsenal and to hasten the
establishment of small arms manu-
factory thereat as early as possible.
springfield armory, where all this
work has been executed for many
wears and since the abandonment of
the Harper's Ferry armory about the
time of the civil war" said Mai.
Blunt. lis less than 100 acres in eX-
tent and divided into two separate
parts. separated by about mile, and
both living entirely within the built up
portions OF the CITY of Springfield,
Mass. No extension or addition of
ground IS therefore feasible except At
very great expense.
From the lower shops where the
heavy forging is first done, all the un
finished parts have to be carried by
wagon to the hill shop at, of course, Il
considerable added expense in the
cost of the guns. The hill shops com
prise three large buildings, that is,
fairly large, but actually small i'll
comparison with the massive shops
ut Rock Island. Two of them are
about 800 feet long and the third
somewhat longer, and about 40 feet
wide, and consist of two stories and Il
basement. Each of the shops at Rock
Island, it will be remembered, com
prises two wings 3O0X60 with con-
Meeting arm about 220 feet. The at
tics, also, at this arsenal are high.
light and airy and we'll adapted to the
reception of smaller machinery. There
are, therefore. four floors to each of
the shops, or as much room in one
shop, or certainly in one and one-half,
as in the entire Buildings on the hill
at Springfield.
Shops at Springfield Filled.
"All the shops at Springfield are now
filled to their utmost limit with ma
chinery, new machine tools having
mer and fall and the work pushed,
Il
mands there, with great energy. The
output has been greatly increased and
is now 200 magazine rifles per day of
eight hours, or, as the shops are run
ming with two shifts, 10 hours in all,
the daily output is about 400. There
is little bit of space left on the hill
where new shops could be erected,
and if such space were taken the ca
pacity could, of course, he somewhat
added to. but there is very little room
eft in the lower, or forging shops,
and it therefore can be concluded that
the output has practically reached it's
limit.
IF machinery were placed in all
the north or Armory row, as it has
always been designated, of the build
ings at Rock Island, and which were
erected with the intention of utilizing
them for the manufacture of small
arms, the capacity of fully devel-
oped plant would be about 1000 of
the. magazine rifles per day. If the
plant were only partially developed
the output would, of course, depend
upon the appropriations which were
granted for the installation of the nee
essarv machinery.
1T is too early yet to determine
how far the appropriation, which
seems to have been considered, would
20 towards procuring the necessary
machinery, and, of course. considera-