The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-13
AMONG THE GUNS AND SHELLS.
Some Curious Sights in the Wool
witch Arsenal.
From the London News.


From the London News.
One OF the most curious of the sights
at Woolwlch is the making of the cart
ridge cases for the Nerdenfeldt and Hotch-
kiss guns. The process is very similar
to that employed in the making of the
cases for bullets described in these col
umns the other day, only that instead Of
taking little fat disk Of metal, say, as
big as shilling, and squeezing ana
stretching il into a bullet case perhaps
three-eighths of an inch in diameter and
some Where about one and 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 nat. In
much the same way as the bullet cases
are formed these solid slabs of metal are
forced by irresistible piston power through
a 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 of the other side.
Just as one forces his finger into tight
fitting glove, so the pistons in these sue
cessive machines drive into the cup form
ed of the solid metal and with more APP
parent ease and smoothness than the
glove stretching the metal cup is narrow
ed and elongated until it has become a
tube. closed at one end. perhaps six
inches IN diameter, and foot and a half
long, or thereabouts These are to be
filed with cordite. In the middle OF
the cordite, however, is little
powder magazine for exploding it, the
powder itself being first fred 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
a certain interval, so that the firing of
a ha t11ya To fatra i've f1a
throwing of timepiece at the enemy.
The gun carriage shops are extremely
interesting, more particularly the making
of the wheels. The actual carriags are
complicated structures of metal for the
most part, and the uninitated stranger
can do little more than stroll through the
vast wilderness of machines that are
drilling and boring and turning and punch
ing and slotting in the hardest of metals
as though il were chalk or cheese. They
have huge Circular plane in one of the
shops. The thing is a ponderOus cross beam
turning on a central pivot and covering
circular space for twenty-five feet in di-
ameter. over this space the crossbeam
thrusts down some half dozen tools, each
capable of planning away the surface of
the hardest steel as easily as a carpenter
will take off shavings from a deal plank.
One of these tools brought 10 bear on
plate of steel adjusted not too far from
it is most powerful-wiI strip off a shaw
ing an inch wide and a sixteenth of an
inch thick In connection with this gun
carriage work they have a steam hammer
but nobody takes much notice of that. 1t
is a puny affair that might be unpleasant
to get down upon a bad corn, but con-
pared with the big one further off is not
thought much of. The hammer itself
weighs only sevent tors. tbs all. What
is that compared with a hammer of hum
dred tons coming down with a drive Of a
thousand tons? Yet either of these ma
chimes will crack a nut without dana giug
the kernel if required.
But the making of the whees is the
Drettiest part of The gun carriage factory
at Woolwich. These wheels must nat
only e,,rry a very heavy weight of metal
but theN may be required to go dashiug
across a rough country at the heels OF a
team of no, ,ses going at The top of their
speed. They may so plunging down into
trenches or TIN 'mpng over rocks, and the
giving way of a wheel means the disabling
of the guns. Ev, ry part of every whsel.
therefore. is the slaSaiect Of the closest
study aud though the Y are made of wood
for lightness they are practically un-
breakable under almost "a ny conditions of
strain. The box in thu center of the
wheel, through which the a.Ye runs, is
made of gun metal; the spokeA are Oh OAK
and the outer rim of ash.
The cutting and turning of thu spokes
are particularly pretty processes 10 Watch.
They are oval in form, and they are
turned with a copying" lathe The re-
quired form of the spoke is produced in
iron. This iron model is part of the ma
chine, 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 evolution against cutting blade
are all effected with an ease and precision
and celebrity that give you almost the inn
preston of 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
hot, when, of course 1t Is considerably
expanded. When it has been firmly Sc
cured to the wood it is plunged into cold
water and the sudden contraction tightens
it up. But there is no heating of this
stout steel band 1t is forced onto The
wheel quite cod, and then ii is laid in
circular bed with powerful hydraulic rams
all round it. As the water power begins
to crush in upon 1t all round there is
grooming and a creaking as of some
wretched body under torture The spokes
are forced into The box, and,the cold steel
tire is frightened round The rim, the solid
metal Itself being contracted and con-
liensed and thus losing no less than five
inches of its circumference. The wheel
of gun metal oak and ash and steel is
thus frightened without any joints what
ever, and the pressure being absolutely the
same all round, the perfectly circular
form is secured. 1t is the very perfection
of the wheelwright's craft, and can be
seen only in first-class work.
-s-<o-s "
Charles Fox and Charles III.