Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-19
AMONG GUNS AND SHELLS.
Some Curious Sights in the Arsenal
Mt WOOlwich.

Some Curious Sights in the Arsenal
Mt WOolwich.
From the London News.
One Of the most curious of the sights at
Woolwich is the making of the cartridge
cases for the Nordenfeldt and Hotchkiss
guns. The process is very similar to that
employed in the making of the cases for
bullets described in these columns the other
day, only that instead Of taking a little flat
disk of metal, say, as big as a shilling, and
squeezing and stretchingit into a bullet case
perhaps three-eighths of inch in dame
ter, and somewhere about one and a half
long, the machines for the large missiles
may start with what looks to be a circular
slab Of brass three-Quarters of an inch
thick and as big as the crown of your hat.
In much the same way the bullet cases
are formed these solid slabs of metal are
forced by irresistible piston power through
series of holes rather too small for them.
The piston drives right into the middle of
the disk, and squeezes it into the hole and
out the other side.
Just as one forces his finger into a tight
fitting glove the piStonS in these sue
cessive machines drive into the cup formed
of the solid metal, and with more apparent
ease and smoothness than the glove
stretching the metal cup is narrowed and
elongated until it has become a tube, closed
at one end, perhaps six inches in diameter,
and a foot and a half long Whereabouts.
These are to be filed with cordte. In the
middle of the cordite however is little
powder magazine for exploding it, the
powder itself being first fired by a fuse. In
the firing of the shrapnel shells this fuse is
little piece of clockwork that may be set
like an alarm, to go off after certain in
terva1. so that the firing of every shell may
be taken to involve the throwing of a time
piece at the enemy.
The gun carriage shops are extremely in
terestng. more particularly the making of
the wheels. The actual carriages are COM
p.icated structures of metal for the most
part, and the unfnitiated stranger can do
little more than stroll through the vast
wilderness of machines that are drilling
and boring and turning and punching and
slotting in the hardest of metal as though
it were chalk or cheese. They have huge
circular plane" In one of the shops. The
thing is ponderous cross-beam turning on
l central pivot and covering circular
space for twenty-five feet in diameter.
over this space the cross-beam thrusts
down some half dozen tools, each capable
# planning away the surface Of the hardest
steel as easily as carpenter will take off
ShaVingS from deal plank. One of these
tools brought to bear on plate of steel adj
iusted not too far from the center of the
"nachne-where, of course. it Is most pow
arful-will strip off a shaving an inch wide
md sixteenth of an inch thick In con-
lection with this gun carriage work they
have a steam hammer but nobody takes
much notice of that. 1t is a Duny affair
that might be unpleasant to get down upon
| bad corn, but compared with the big one
further off is not thought much of. The
hammer itself weighs only seven tons and
It strikes a steam engine blow of 40 tons.
That is ALL What is that compared with
hammer of 100 tons coming down with
drive of 1000 tons? Yet either of these ma
chimes will crack a nut without damaging
the kernel if required
But the making of the wheels Is the pref
test bart of the gun carriage factory at
Woowich. These wheels must not only
carry a very heavy weight of metal! but
they may be required to go dashing across
/ rough country at the heels of a team of
horses going at the top of their speed They
may go plunging down into trenches or
humping over rocks, and the giving way
Of a wheel means the disabling of the guns.
Every part of every wheel. therefore Is the
subject of the closest study, and though
they are made of wood for lightness they
are practically unbreakable under almost
any conditions of strain. The box In the
center of the wheel, through which the axle
runs, is made of gun metal; the spokes are
of oak and the outer rim of ash.
The cutting and turning of the spokes are
particularly pretty processes to watch
They oval in form, and they are turned
with copying" lathe. The required form
of the spoke is produced in iron. This iron
model Is part of the machine and from it
the wooden copy is exactly reproduced.
Every spoke is thus bound to be exactly
true in form, The fitting of them into the
box, the building round the outer rim in
sections and its swift revolution against a
CulllllS Dldue are all elleCleu WITH an ease
and precision and celebrity that give you al
most the impression of a natural process
The completion of the wheel is the appli-
cation of the tire. In the making of ordi-
nary wheels the iron tire is put on red ho:
when, of course, it is considerably expand
ed. When it has been firmly secured to the
wood it is plunged into cold water. and the
sudden contraction tightens 1t up. But there
is no heating of this stout steel band. 1t
is forced onto the wheel quite cold and
then it is laid in circular bed with power
full hydraulic rams all around it. AS the
water power begins to crush in upon it all
round there is a groaning and creaking
as of some wretched body under torture
The spokes are forced into the box, the rim
is driven in upon the spokes. and the cold
steel tire is frightened round the rim, the
solid metal itself being contracted and con-
densed, and thus losing no less than five
inches Of its circumference. The wheel of
gun metal. oak and ash and steel is thus
frightened and compacted into whole al
most without any joints whatever and the
pressure being absolutely the same all
round, the perfectly circular form is Sc
cured. 1t is the very perfection of the
craft, and be seen only
in first-class work.