The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-01-02
TRIALS FOR FlELD-GUNS
RIGOROUS TEST THEY UNDERGO
BEFORE ACCEPTANCE.

| Service Conditions Initiated - Excessive
Powder Charges Fired - ANN unition
Immersed In water and Then Fired -
Fifty shots to Test the Gums Accuracy.
| The ingenuity inventors have dis
played in simplifying and perfecting
the fieldpiece. the long, slender weapon
Of that dashing service, light, flying
artillery. has remarkable parallel in
the methods devised by ordnance ex-
| perts to detect the slightest fault of
| design or construction In these pieces.
| If the inventor has lain awake o.
nights over his gun, SO. apparently,
has the ordnance expert 1t Is skill
! against skill; not that the designer
| or builder has the remotest idea of i'm
posing an inferior weapon upon the
| inventor (he could not do that II he
| tried), because the gun is of Uncle
| Sans own make. The aim OF the
expert is to aid in improving the
weapon, destructive as his method
may seem to be. He feels 1t Is his
of tests, which, although based upon
| service conditions-that is, upon the
haps and mishaps II would encounter
| In the feld-are of magnified severity
| This means that when the fieldpiece
/ shall have withstood the trial 1t may
rest assured in its own inner conscious
ness that It is a very fine gun indeed,
| and that it is extremely unlikely, even
in the trying time of warfare. to have
to bear up under such burdens.
These elaborate and exhaustive tests
are now being made at the Govern
ment proving ground at Sandy
Hook. Experiments-this would seem
to be a better word than "tests'-are
being tried with field pieces Of four
models, two of them of foreign de-
sign, the others American, one being
the Government piece.
The ability to fling its small, swift
missile at an enemy is only part of
what is demanded of the light artil-
lery weapon. Warfare imposes real
hardships upon it from the moment 1t
is ordered to the front It must with
stand the stress OF weather, the jolt
Ing and jarring of rough roads; 1t must
stand wetting, even be effective when
unavoidable rust has occurred; 1t must
be able to do its duty with defective
ammunition, although this is primarily
test Of ammunition itself, and do it's
work willingly. cheerfully, If you will,
as IL 1t had been reared under glass
case.
For such demonstration of service
ability the War Department, through
Its Ordnance Bureau, lays down rigid
rules covering wide range. They
begin with the requirement that the
gun shall fire at least two rounds with
excessive powder charge to develop
the enormous chamber pressure of A, :
900 pounds-twenty-tw tons-to the
square inch, and end with a practice
march Of $50 miles over country roads
Even then the Board of Ordance and
Fertilization may not be satisfied, so
1t leaves the door open by saying that
any other tests seeming necessary will
be conducted.
While the fieldpiece is comparative
ly small weapon, it weighs, behind
|
pounds. The shell used in 1t weighs
fifteen pounds, and 1t leaves the piece
at muzzle velocity OF 100 foot-sec-
onds.
When the fieldpiece is ready for test,
the experts devote themselves first to
Its mechanism, scrutinlzing it as the
horse In the show ring is scrutinized,
with critical eye to its simplicity of
action, its certainty, and how readily
injured parts may be removed and new
parts substituted. Then 1t must under
| go the dust trial, in which sand and
dust are blown into the gun, into all
parts of the mechanism, and the rust
test. to determine whether it is eff.
fective when water has been allowed
to cover the piece.
Fifty shots are fired to test the ac
curacy of the gun, the target being
2oO0 yards distant. When it comes
to rapidity, the piece is fired ten time:
without aim from a loan platform
then ten shell and ten shrapnel are
fired for both rapidity and accuracy
from clay platform. To determine
the maintained rapidity forty-five shots
are fired. The behavior of the gun, tht
recoil and the jump, which is the de
parture from the line of fire. are care
fully noted. In one test the trail ot
the gun, that part which rests upoI
the ground in the rear of the piece
is braced against stake The gun /.
elevated and depressed to its extremes
and then fred and 1t is even wheeled
upon rocks and discharged. and ther
moved to plowed ground and dis
charged again, In order that servic,
conditions may be counterfeited
The ammunition is dealt with quit,
as severely. Metallic ammunition II
immersed for five minutes in watel
and then made to stand for twenty
four hours before being fired. Th,
humidity test is at 100 degrees f., witt
a humidity of ninety five degrees. Thi
is maintained for thirty days, and afte
that the ammunition Is expected t,
be unharmed.
From the gun and the ammunition