The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-05-14
AMONG GUNS AND SHELLS.

ridge cases Tor the Nofuentelut ana
Hotchkiss guns. says the London News.
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 fiat disk of metal. say.
as big as a shilling, and Squeezing and
stretching II into bullet case perhaps
three-eighths OF an inch In diameter.
and somewhere about one and half
long, the machines for the large missiles
may start with what looks 10 be a cir
cular slab OF brass three-quarters Of an
inch thick and as big as the crown OF
your hat. In much the same way as
the bullet cases are formed these solid
slabs of metal are forced by irrrsista-
BILE piston power through series OF
holes rather too small for them The
piston drives right into the middle or
the disk, and squeezes IL into the hole
and out the other side.
Just as one forces his finger into
tight fitting glove, so the pistons in
these successive 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 II has
become a tube, closed at one end. per-
haps six-inches in diameter, and foot
and a half long, or thereabouts. These
are to be filled with cordite. In the
middle of the cordite. however, is lit
tie powder magazine for exploding IL,
the powder itself being first fired by
fuse In the firing OF shrapnel shells
this fuse is a little piece OF clockwork
that may be set like an alarm, TO go or
after a certain interval, so that the
firing of every shell may be taken 10 in
rtNaar of n or
the enemy.
The gun carriage shops are extreme
ly interesting. more particularly the
making of the wheels. The actual car
riages are complicated structures or
metal for the most part. and the un-
initiated stranger can do little more
than stroll through the vast wilderness
of machines that are drilling and Dor
ing and turning and punching and slot
ting in the hardest of metal as though
il were chalk or cheese. They have a
huge circular plane" in one or the
shops. The thing is a ponderous cross
beam turning on a central pivot ana
covering a circular space for twenty
five feet in diameter. over this space
the cross beam thrusts down some naif
dozen tools, each capable of planning
away the surface of the hardest steel
as easily as a carpenter Will take on
shavings from deal plank. One or
these tools brought 10 bear on plate
of steel adjusted not too far from the
center of the machine-where, ''of
course. IL is most powerful-will STRIP
off a shaving an inch wide and SIX
teenth of an inch thick. In connection
with this gun carriage work they have
a steam hammer but nobody taxes
much notice of thas 1t is puny ar
fair that might be unpleasant TO get
down upon a bad corn, but compared
with the big one further of is not
thought much Of. The hammer isseit
weighs only seven tons, ana IL strikes
a steam engine blow of 140 tons. That
is all. What is that compared with a
hammer of 100 tons coming down with
a drive of 1000 tons? Yet either of these
machins will crack nut without DAM
aging the kernel il required
But the making of the wheels is the
prettiest part of the gun carriage rae
tory at Woolwich. These wheels must
not only carry a very heavy weight or
metal, put they may be required TO go
dashing across a rough country at the
heels of a team of horses going at the
ton of their speed. They may go plung-
ing down into trenches or humping
over rocks, am the giving way OF
wheel means the disabling or the guns.
every part OF every wheel. theIeioIe;
is the subject of the closest study, ana
though uhey are made of wood Tor
Igntness they are practically unpreak.
able under almost any conditions OF
strain The box in the center or the
wheel, through which the axle runs, ~
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 10
watch. They are oval in form,and they
are turned with copying" lathe. The
required form Of the spoke ds produced
in iron. This iron model Is part or the
machine. and from ii 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
bunding round the outer rim in Sec
tions and it's swift revolution against
a cutting blade are all effected with an
ease and' precision and celerity that
give you almost the impression OF
natural process.
The completion Of the wheel is thu
application of the tire. In the making
of ordinary wheels the iron tire is put
on red hot. when Of course, IT con-
siderably expanded. When II has been
firmly secured to the wood IL Is
plunged into cold water. and the sud
den contraction tightens II up. But
there is no heating Of this stout steel
band. Ii is forced onto the wheel quite
cold and then IL is laid in a circular
bed with powerful hydraulic rams all
around 1t. AS the waiter power begins
to crush in upon ii all round there is a
groaning and n cracking 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 con-
tracted and condensed. and thus losing
no less than five inches cf its circum-
ference. The wheel of gun metal. oak
~ nd ctn fsf nh
compacted INTO n whole almost with
out any joints whatever. and. the pres
sure being absolutely the same all
round, the perfectly circular form is
secured. It lis the very perfection OF
the wheelwright's craft, and can ba