The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-06-30

S11.t- al -t-E- j tie ~ --- vs.
s. q pound and --l- q the bonn
.a-'l..l-, have listed many hours.
I an assuming Cl4- these four guns
k--p " steady ring a. c1-ir max
.lIL rate IF o1e shot il three min
---,. AID. that beng The case. the
heaviest TEN II -G- expenses = stiu
% D. counted fo- each ou- u these
--e-ra--I r-oj.a-..-s costs S."sJ.
vl.e- zv-- <5J- -v--: time the four
guns - u. Or $1,000 for al hours
airing
Bu, there ar other guns OF the
oregon. many other guns. and 70 ind
OUT what an hours ariug Of a big bat
t.e-h.p viii cost. We must take all
these INTO consider on. \ single shot
from one ri the e.-aCinch guns costs
= and there ar eight Of these. 50
that a single round from them costs
sIyu But their ire IS much more
rar.d HAT that d The thirteen-inch
guns. each one can De- discharged once
IL g minute. or six times il an hour,
which would give $4,000 for an hours
firing By them all. assuming it be kept
up continuously.
Then there are we fve-inch guns,
and round from liz five costs about
$500. But again -ae nre increases
very much in RAJ .dity, 50 that we
may count 80 rounds an hour, or
cost Of $4,000.
Thus for these three classes Of
guns alone. We have an expense per
hour during continuous firing Of $216,-
900. or more than the Presidents
salary for his whole four years. 1t
may be that such continuous firing Of
all the guns would never take place
III actual practice, but the figures may
stand for purposes Of illustration.
And Of course, nothing has yet been
said 81 the many guns Of smaller
calib"r which are OF the Oregon; there
are the six-pounders which throw out
a shot each five seconds; there are the
thee Founders. the Founders. the
ltty-,eyen millimeter rifles, the thirty
seven millimeter revolving cannon,
and the wonderful machine guns,
which discharge eighty one-inch pro-
joctiles a minute, or 4,S00 projectiles
al hour.
just how many thousands of dollars
per hour must be added to our esti-
mate for the consumption Of these
guns is a matter Of expert calculation,
but it is evidently well within the
truth to assume that the Oregon could
fire away S1,0000GU worth Of powder
and projectiles in single day $ fight
ing, using only the hours Of daylight.
And each one Of the other big battle
ships could do the same. And still
we have not taken into account all
the cruisers and other fighting craft,
each one of which would be blazing
away, we may 1e sure, and using up
money according to her best capacity.
Let us now consider the cost of am
munition used by regiment of in
fantry in an hours fighting This is
a matter Of easy calculation, since it
Is known that the rag-Jorgensen
cartridges cost SIS a thousand. 1t is
merely necessary to estimate how
many cartridges would be used. AS
suming a full regiment, of 1000 men,
and allowing each man to shoot once
in five seconds, which is slower than
they often shoot we will have twelve
thousand shots fired every minute or
100000 shots in an hour, which num-
| Der Of cartridges, at the rate lust
mentioned, will cost $1,000 And
that is an estimate for a single regi-
mcnt, firing for a single hour. What
it would cost for a whole army to fire
! for a whole day and then 90 on firing
for many days, is again a matter for
expert calculation. But it is easy to
see how this would eat into the mil.
lions of dollars.