The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-08
Estimate of the Cost of Ammunition
to Army and Navy During the
Late War-Enormous Figures.
BY CLEVELAND MoFFATr.

1t is only by going into details OF
what the sinews of war actually cost
that one understands how this govern
ment has been spending a. million dol
iaTs a day, or thereabout. during all
these weeks Of fighting and preparation
for lighting. Thousands of tons of gun
powder, for instance, have been bought
at prices ranging from a dollar a pound
downward. A ton OF gunpOwder seems
q gOOdly quantity until one learns that
it would not even suffice for a single
discharge of the four 13-inch guns on
the Oregon. These four guns eat up
powder at the rate of twenty-five tons
an hour-S44, 900 an hour, if the powder
cost a dollar a pOund-and some of the
bOmbardmeEtS have lasted many hours.
1 am assuming that these four guns
keep UP a. steady firing at their maxi
mum rate of one shot in three minutes.
and, that being the case, the heaviest
item in the expenses is still TO be
counted, for each one of these 400
pound projectiles costs $500. which
gives $500 every time the four guns
go off, or So, 900 for an hours firing.
But there are other guns on the
Oregon, many other guns, and to find
out what an hours firing of a big bat
tleship will cost, We must take all
these into consideration. A single shot
from one Oh the Cl54l-Ai1tll uUS COSlC
Soc, and there are eight OF these, so
that a single round from them costs
81 500. But their fire is much mOre
rapid than that of the thirteen-inch
guns; each one can be discharged once
in minute, or sixty times an hour.
which would give $4,000 for an hours
firing by them all, assuming it to be
kept up continuously.
Then there are five five-inch guns,
and a round from the five costs about
$500. But again the fire increases very
much in rapidity, so that we may
count 240 rounds an hour, or a. cost OF
S4S. 900.
Thus, for these three classes of guns
alone, we have an expense per hour
during continuous firing of $4,000, or
more than President McKinley'S salary
for his whole four years. II may be
that such continuous firing Of all the
guns would never take place in actual
practice, but the figures may stand for
purposes of illustration. And, of course,
nothing has yet been said of the many
guns of smaller caliber which are on
the Oregon; there are the six-pound-i
ers. which throw out a shot each five
seconds; there are the three-pounders,
the one-pounders, the fifty-seven
millimeter rifles, the thirty-seven milli-
meter revolving guns, which discharge
eighty 0ne-inch prCJectileS a minute. or
I, SEQ pro1ectileS an hour
Just how many thousands of dollars
per hour must be added to our esti-i
mate for the consumption of these
guns is a matter Of expert calcUla tiOn,l
but it is evidently well within thd0ruthi
to assume that the Oregon could fire
away a million dollars worth Of pow
der and prOjectiles in a Single days
fighting, using only the hours of day
light And each one of the other bigs
could do the same. And stills
We have not taken into account all thei
cruisers and other fighting craft, eachi
)ne of which would be blazing a.way,s
we may be sure, and using up money!
according to her best capacity.
Let US now consider the cost Of am
nunition used by a regiment of in-j
'antry in an hours firing. This is a,
matter of easy calculation, since it is
known that the Krag-JO rgensen car
ridges cost SIS a thousand. 1t is
merely necessary to estimate how
many cartridges would be used. As
suming a full regiment, of LOCO men,
md allowing each man to shoot once
n five seconds, which is slower than
hey often shoot, we will have Il, 900
shots fired every minute, or 720, 900 shots
n an hour. Which number of car
ridges, at the rate just mentioned. viii
cost 81, $780, And that is an estimate
or a single hour What it would cost
or d whole army to fire for a whole
lay and then go on firing for many
LAYS. is again matter for expert
But it is easy to see how
his would eat into the millions Of
dollars.