The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-27
MIGHT HAVE COME HERE.
Brown Segmental Gun Com
pany is Successfully
Located.

In Worcester's business life the sting
ing might have been" stands out
prominently just now in the case q,
the Brown Segmental Gun Company
Last year Worcester investors were
treated to an inspection of the gun,
and w. P Porter posed as the repre-
sentative of the concern, which was en-
deavoring to interest local capitalists
to the extent of erecting a factory for
the manufacture of the segmental gun,
which had then neither fame nor prom
Use Of it.
Members of the board of trade could
not be induced to work for it, and the
agents established an office in the State
Mutual building and made a final eff
fort to establish company here 1t was
as fruitless as telling funny stories to
deaf man, and the discouraged pro-
motors packed up their kit, and, with
the precious gun, which had been eX-
hibited as model, left the city. Cap
italists then had an opportunity to sleep
without bags of gold denting their.
heads, and fear of the agents persua-
sive powers faded away when the Of
flee of the company in this city was va
Gated.
Local capitalists who remember the
Brown segmental gun, and most of
them do, describe it as patterned much
after the ordinary mounted gun, save
that the barrel is of wire. The coiling
wire was heralded by the promoters of
the project to interest local citizens, as
the means whereby the velocity of tho
projectile would be Increased to such
an extent as to make the gun invalua-
BILE as a means of defense.
A short time after leaving this city,
local capitalists who had scoffed at the
claims of the agent, heard indirectly
that the company had succeeded in in
6ucing the board of trade in a Penn
sylvania town to give the gun a trial
Tests were made, and capitalists be-
came interested. Scientists regarded the
gun as the marvel of the age, and men
who had studied the needs of warfare
declared the gun to be a world aston
isher. Worcester had an opportunity to
realize the pangs of what might have
BEEN when the government became in
terested in the wire wound gun.
An official test was made at Sandy
Hook a few days ago, and it resulted
in the company's receiving an order for
100000 worth of guns for government
use. At Birdsboro Penn, the 5-inch
wire wound gun was tested a short
time ago under United States govern
ment auspices and it was demonstrated
that the government is in possession of
the most formidable weapon of its kind
in the world.
The test prepared consisted of firing
300 shots. and all but seven were fired.
The remaining shots will be taken Sc
parately, and the thoroughness of the
test makes it the more likely that the
government realizes the features which
the promoters vainly tried to impress
upon local capitalists.
With a charge of 171a pounds of per-
forated grain navy smokeless powder,
muzzle velocity of 2752 feet per Sc
cond was developed. The gun showed
chamber pressure of $4,000 pounds 70
the SQUARE inch. The Pennsylvania
plant of the gun company is being err
iarged. and Worcester capital is not
sought, but there are scores of shrewd
men who would be glad to have the
plant located in this city, now that it
is successfully established elsewhere.
One of the strongest points in favor
of having the guns manufactured here
was due to the reason that wire could
be secured easily and at comparatively
low price.