The Washington herald., 1907-10-26
BY FREDERIC j. HASKIN.

Despite the fact that the United States
Is ever pilgrim TO that mystical shrine
at The Hague, and that the iovial Sec
retary Of Peace" is ever bearing the olive
branch to Jealous nations. the great gun
factories Of the nation are not still. and
the universal practice OF preparing for
war in time Of peace Is not being neglect
ed. Before he left for the Orient, Secre-
tary Taft commissioned the chief of ar
tillery to draft bill which will be sent TO
the White House. and will doubtless be
the basis for a special message to Con-
gress. This bin will provide for the trans
fer of the coast artillery from the War
TO the Navy Department. and make II a
more effective branch or the service. A
regiment OF siege artillery is to be shortly
organized, and with the transfer Of the
five and seven-inch siege guns from Fort
Riley. the entire field artillery OF this
country was left supplied with three-iuch
guns New Siege guns Of the latest Krupp
pattern will be ready for use in a few
months.
The making of arms is an old art in
America, where necessity was ever the
mother Of invention. When Great Britain,
IN IVA, prohibited the expectation of arms
TO her growing colonies, she was informed
that il did not matter, as there were gun
makers enough on this side 70 make 10O,-
600 stands Of arms year if necessary.
The following year further inquiry de-
veloped the fact that nearly all the
colonies We're making brass cannon. When
war was declared every gunsmith was
made exempt from military duty, and
ordered 70 manufacture arms. BY 1776 the
industry had become a great one A
Reading furnace bored iron nine-inch
guns at the rate Of one a day At the
battle Of Germantown Washington car
Tied pair OF rihed. hint-lock pistols
twelve inches long that had been forged
by a gunsmith at Charlottesville, n. =.
Cannon founders seem TO have known
their business pretty we'll in those days
In 17SS, when Philadelphia was giving a
big celebration In honor of the ratifca-
ton Of the Constitution of the United
States. a procession of floats was a
feature Of the day. On one OF these
floats rode Daniel King with a furnace
in full blast. and in the presence Of the
howitzer, and when his float turned on
Union Green his gun was mounted and
discharged. As early as 17i0 the gun
smiths Of Albany. n. Y, were turning
out pretty good musket for Indian
trade, much 70 the discomfort of the
French of the valley Eight years later
Hugh Orr, a ScOtchman, living in New
England. completed 800 stands of arms
Tor the province Of Massachusetts Bay,
casting them solid and boring them out.
the first time that this method was ON
ployed in this country. The British took
these guns away with them over twenty
years later when they evacuated Boston
When the new country began looking
about for a good situation for an arsenal.
Springfield, in western Massachusetts.
was chosen. having proved convenient as
recruiting station and as a place for
manufacturing and repairing arms in the
earlier years In 177S the government
opened works there. and # was made tle
permanent site of one Of the national
armories they had planned. the other be-
ing located at Harpers Ferry. To Eli
Whitney, the inventor Of the cotton gin
is due the first important Improvement
IN the manufacture Of American fire
arms In l7S8 he contracted to make
10000 stands Of muskets. the time allowed
being little over two years. He was
20 receive Sl3-4O for each of them. He
bent his genius toward the improvement
Of the gunsmith's art, and introduced so
many excellent Innovations IN buildings,
in tools, and machinery that they have
become the foundations for the processes
now In use IN government works
1t was the versatile Jefferson who
studied fire arms and caused uniform
ity OF pattern 10 be introduced. When In
France in .17S5 he saw the advantage of
having the corresponding parts Of all
guns alike, so that the part Of one
could be used on any other in the same
magazine, and the assembling Of each
gun in a factory would be easier. It was
a long time before this could be brought
about, and for many years there was a
wide diversity in the pattern Of Ameri-
can fire arms. Arms OF English, Span
ish, and French, as we'll as American
make. were in use. and Brown Besses %
with barrels eight feet long. went out
with the pioneers over the Cumberland
and Wilderness roads and. loaded with
home moulded bullets. won Kings Noun
tain and many frontier struggle.
The War Of 1872 gave another impetus
to gun making. and at Foxalps Foundry
in Washington were cast the great iron
cannon for PerTy's battleships. TO be
hauled overland 10 Lake Erie by patient
oxen. The Civil War armament offered
little improvement over that Of 1872
though percussion caps had come into
use and breechloaders were finding
favor. Inventive genius was called into
use and a machine-gun Of practical value,
but OF no general use. was offered the
Northern Army. The now famous gun
invented by DR.. Richard Gatling, of
North Carolina, in 1861 found It's popu-
larity after the war was over. At the
end Of the war the coast defense de-
pended on muzzle-loadlng smooth-bores
with smooth-bOres and Parrot rifles for
siege artillery. From 1880 10 lSH the
Dahlgreen, a solid cast iron smooth
bore. using nine pounds Of powder and
ninety-pOund projectile, was the standard
navy gun.
In 1888 the President decided that the
antlQuated equipment Of the army and
navy was no longer 20 be endured, and
sent a commission abroad to study the
armament OF England, France and Rus
sia. AS a result Of this expedition an
army gun factory at Watervliet on the
Hudson sprang into being, and the
Washington navy yard was turned into
gigantic factory for naval equipment,
completing the big guns now cast at
Bethlehem, Pa A short while ago the
new Springfield was adopted as the reg
,,1a+so, rife for the army and ir1rne-