The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-20
ARE OUR BATTLESH|P
GUNS WEARING OUT?
They Through Ten Years of Peace Pracice?Th De-
terioation and Means Taken Check It,

I period now about twenty years ago tbs
modern b-ecchloading rife built up OF
| forged stcel parts had been almost uni
| ve,Saliy adopted.
| At first these guns used charges OF or
| binary black powder. nodded into large
| grains TO give comparatively slow com
| bustion and Weighing from a fourth TO a
third as much as the projectile. and Civ:
| ing the latter 4 velocity OF l.SD or 1.IH
/ feet per second.
| through the vent around the breech
plug rendered g gun unserviceab!e after
! a. few rounds. but vent-seaiing primers
| and efficient gas checks were devised and
| these sources OF deterioration thus re-
| moved.
| 1t was then found that the escape Of
gas past the projecti!e produced serious
| adoption CT the az present universally used
ooinprcssive system OF inpartins rotation
10 profectiies.
A copper band fitted around the projec-
tile and made slightly larger than the bore
OF the gun is forced by the powder press
| ,Ire into the rifling grooves, thus moi only
rotating the projecttle, but sealing up all
the space through which the gases would
otherwise rush.
At this period the struggle for suprern-
scy between guns and armor had fairly
begun, and rival Governments. as well as
rival gunnakers, were bending every ef-
fort toward producing guns OF greater and
greater power
The first necessity was reliable steel
ferEinss q great size, and under the spur
easier to-day to obtain sound steel
forging of The highest quality weighing
thirty tons than 1t was twenty years ago
to get one weighing three tons and OF
even moderately good quality.
Then an improved propellant was called
for and brown. or cocoa. powder was dis
covered and took the place of black pow
charges without increase OF the maximum
pressure.
GUNS MADE LONGER
ChamberIng. or making the powder
chamber of greater diameter than the
bore, came into use. and guns were made
longer and longer to give time for the
combustion within the bore Of larger and
larger powder charges.
Finally. about ten years ago, came the
invention of zmokeless powder and tho
discovery of a reliable means Of safely
using the high explosives. Suncotton and
nitroglycerin, as propeiing agents in guns.
and at once The power and efficiency OF
ordnance were enormously increased.
or course, this immense increase in
power was accompanied by a correspond
ingly great increase of the strains which
the guns and their mountings had to en-
dure but the improvements in materials
and in methods OF construction have geii-
orally kept pace with the increasing de-
modern guns proved deficient in strength.
In FACT. but for few instances of guns
originally designed fS. cocoa powder hav-
smokeless powder. the writer knows Of
no case of modern naval gun having
burst in service use.
In the earlier stages of this great devel-
opment there were many who predicted
that the tremendous shock and vibrations
OF firing would. after awhile. destroy q
huilt-up gun by dtsinteErating it. even
though it showed no signs OF weakness
after a few fires.
The dropping Of thu muzzles OF certain
English I10-ton guns and the opening up
Of the joints between their poops was con-
sidered proof positive that the lifetime Of
the modern large calber gun was a very
short one. But experiences has shown The
prophets of evil TO have been false
prophets
The d-oopins rnuzzIes were caused by
strains in the forgiugs. which should
have been removed by proper heat treat
sient. and the opening up of the joints
was merely sign of bad construction
Our frs: very long 6-incli guns were
made at the Washington gun factory at q