The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1907-01-24
FsNfNo slo GUNS.
Testing Operations as They Are Car
rred on at Fort Warren, Boston.

u&2httIW INV 80 ~
rfed on at Fort Warren, Boston.
For the first time in the history OF
the United States army, Fort War
rem, in Boston Harbor, was thrown
open the other day TO newspaper pho
tographers, who were invited, with re-
porters, to witness tests of the big
10~inch and 12-inch gums in target
practice. The photographers were
permitted to take pictures OF the guns
at work, but were not allowed to see
or photograph any of the secret me
chanism of the guns.
The fixed target was a large red
painted buoy, and a few hundred
yards beyond was the movable tar
get-three buoys, pyramid shaped and
twelve feet square, used to represent
a battleship. 1t was towed by a tug
separated from the target by a space
If two hundred yards. The first and
third buoys were 145 yards apart,
the ordinary length of a ~battleship.
Between the two end buoys the sec
ond was used, to represent the vital
part, or boiler and machinery rooms,
of a battleship.
The 10-inch guns throw a ~projectile
weighing 575 pounds. and the 12-inch
guns throw one weighing 1000 pounds,
Each 12-inch discharge costs Uncle
Sam just $500.
In the range finding towers the tar
get was first sighted and after a math'
ematical calculation the result was
telephoned to the gunners, who fixed
the sights of the guns upon the large
compasses on the carriage, and fired
at the word of command. In sighting
the target, pe~rfecting the range po'
sition and firing the gun, two men at
the finding range, five in the plotting
room and three at the gun were re
CURED to make twenty-five mathemat
zeal calculations.
Those in the range finding observa'
ton tower found the target and trans
mitted the distance to those in the
plotting room, who figured the dis
lance between the observation tower
and the guns, examined the barometer
and thermometer, found the velocity
of the wind, the height of the tide,
the speed of the ~projectile, and finally
designated the exact spot OF the All
muth chart which should be used in
firing.
All this was done in the allotted
time of twenty seconds. If more than
the twenty seconds are taken up in
the computation, the operations are
all begun again. This is because
twenty seconds is the time allotted
to firing at a moving target in the
regulations of the coast defense artil
lery.
In addition to the men utilized In
the towers and at the guns, there are
more ahan $50 in charge of the load
ing and swabbing and the carrying
of the shot and powder.
And shot which strikes the water
sixty yards short of the middle tar
get Or 120 yards on the far side o.
that target is accounted a hit in the
records, because in actual warfare
a sAot CALLING within those limits
would be effective.
Electric power is used to load The
guns, and they a be fired eithel
by electricity or sy a lanyard helt
in the gu1ner's hand. Each 12-incl
gun weighs 81 toas and is 36K feei
long. Il is mounted on a disappear
ing carriage, and as soon as the giani
is discharged it sinks down below
the Pfotection of yards of earth and
concrete, and becomes invisible II
the enemy. Four officers and tive
hundred men guard the equipment al
Fort Warren, which cost $4,000, o00.-
New York Tribune