Waterbury Democrat., 1901-04-01

The Endicott Board on Ordnance and Fortifcations a number of years ago decided in favor of the disappearing iaboring to obtain satisfactory one. The one shown at the Pan-American Exposition is considered the most per- feet in the world.
 The ten-inch breechloading rife is from the model of 1895 and weighs G. TOO pounds. Its total length is 3O.76 | feet, and the diameter of the breech Is thirty-seven inches. The projectile is an armor piercing shot or she'll The shell carries a bursting charge of PA pounds of gun cotton and weighs 676 pounds, having a length of four feet. The solid shot is three and one-half feet long. The powder charge is 40 pounds of smokeless powder, and the muzzle velocity of the projectile is 2,300 feet in a second. The maximum pressure per square inch is S7.O00 pounds. The muzzle energy with the charge of smokeless powder is 21.0S6 foot tons. The gun has penetrating power of twenty inches in steel at 2.500 yards.
 At the right of the ten-inch gun a twelve-inch mortar has been mounted. and 1t is no small affair. Farther to the right is five-inch rapid fire gun. All are mounted behind sections of a para pet, and the four pieces represent one gun of each type used in seacoast forti- fications.
 To the left of the great twelve-inch disappearing gun will be exhibited the old seacoast ordnance of the United States, arranged in historical series, the twelve-inch gun itself representing the climax. Near the small building specially constructed for this purpose will be displayed the mountain, field and siege guns of the present day, to- gether with types of old guns used in the different wars in which the United States have been engaged.
 The Ordnance exhibit will show the historical development of ordnance in the United States, gun representing every type adopted by the United States and showing the evolution of guns, mortars and howitzers. Among the howitzers will be one made in 1793 There will also be thirty or forty tro- phy guns, displayed according to peril cd of capture. A novel feature will be trophy fountain. representing burst ing shell, with water spouting from it's crevices. This will be mounted on a pile of projectiles, surrounded by tro- phy guns.
 The largest guns mounted in any of our seacoast batteries during the war of 1872 were twenty-four pounders, the diameter of bore being less than six inches and the weight of guns $500 pounds. They were 8 little over ten feet long, and the powder charge was six and eight pounds Of black powder. They were mounted upon wooden car riages. Tn 1929 the thirty-two pounder, with a caliber Of 6.41 inches, using a charge of eight to ten pounds of black powder, was adopted, and in 1881 the forty-two pounder, with caliber Of seven inches and using ten to fourteen pounds of black powder, came into use. In 1S44 the eight and ten inch Colum- biads fired shot weighing sixty-five pounds and used a charge of ten to flf- teen pounds of black powder. The ten Inch shot weighed 126 pounds, and the powder charge was eighteen and twen- ty pounds.
 In 1861 the first fifteen-inch Rodmap gun was cast. These guns were smoothbores of cast iron. The process of manufacture was evolved by Gen. eral Rodman, who, to prevent injuri- ous strains produced by cooling cast ings from the exterior, cast these guns on hollow core and cooled by stream of water or air passing through the core. Rodman's fifteen-inch gun fired a shot weighing 42S pounds with a charge of forty pounds of black pow der and was the first great gun intro dueed in modern times in any service. Just before the Civil War rified mus kets and guns began to displace smoothbores. Captain Parrott's rifles were the first ones of large calIber used