The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-09-15
THE LARGEST GUN

THE LARGEST GUN
Will Penetrate Present Ship Armor
at Five Miles Range
Philadelphia, Sept. 15.-The largest
and most powerful naval weapon in
the world-a 14-inch breech- loading
gun-is being built by the Midvale
Steel company, and will be delivered
to the navy department, in Washing
ton. the latter part of this month. If
tests of the gun will be made at the
naval proving grounds at Indian
Head. Md, some time in October or
November.
The contract for the gun was
awarded to the Midvale company last
January. 1t requires delivery within
forty-two weeks. or by November 8.
Rapid headway has been made The
gun will weigh 63.3 tons, or ten tons
more than the 12-inch guns of As
caliber. which have been built for the
battleships North Dakota and Della
ware. The gun will be about six tons
heavier than the latest type of So
caliber 12-inch guns intended for the
Arkansas and Wyoming. It's total
length will be So 1-2 feet. The ca
pacity of the chamber of the new gun
will be 15.S43 cubic inches, this being
the compartment in which will be
placed the charge of 1865 pounds of
smokeless powder required to dis
charge the powerful projectile, weigh
ing 1,400 pounds, which the gun VIII
fire. After the she'll is fired it will
travel distance of 542 inches within
the bore Of the gun. There the groov-
ed rifling of the gun will impart a
rotary motion. which will prevent the
huge projectile from turning on end
and losing it's force.
Range Of 25 Miles.
This gun will have an extreme range
of more than twenty-five miles, al
though the range at which it would
be fired in actual battle would be
about 5000 yards, or five miles. The
range Of naval battles has more than
trebled since the Spanish-American
war. Then 1t was thought that bat
ties on the sea would be fought at
5000 yards range. Guns were built
accordingly. All heavy American ma
val guns are now built to engage the
enemy at distance of five miles.
The 1,400-pound shell from this new
gun will leave the lnuzzle of the wea-
pom at the rate of $500 feet per sec
ond. and its muzzle energy will be
65.6O6 tons. This is about $4,000 more
foot tons Of muzzle energy than that
designated for the latest 12-inch guns,
and about $4,000 foot tons more than
that of the .45-caliber 12-inch guns
now in service on the target grounds
So great is the penetrative power of
this new gun that when fired with a
full charge of 365 pounds of powder
the proiectile will penetrate 227 inch
es of the latest Krupp steel armor at
the muzzle
Can Pierce ArmOr at 5000 Yards.
| This does not measure the full pow-
er of the gun for naval purposes, the
muzzle penetration being merely Il
proving ground factor, for after the
shot hurled from the 14-inch gun has
Travelled distance of 5000 yards it
will still have a remaining velocity Of
2,234 feet a second, which would en-
able it to pierce at that distance a
thickness of 1877 inches of Krupp
steel armor. After it has Travelled
5000 yards, or 5000 yards distant,
the shell will have remaining veloc-
ity of 1929 feet second, enabling it
to penetrate IL 1-2 inches of the lat
est Krupp steel armor plating. These
penetrations would be made at normal
impact at actual service velocities and
the projectiles used would be an ar
mor-piercing shell of standard naval
form. although of 1,400 pounds weight
The penetration of the new 12-inch
guns Of .50-caliber to be installed on
the new 26,000-ton battleships of the
Arkansas class is given at eleven
inches of Krupp steel at an extreme
battle range of 5000 yards. The
thickness of the armor on the British
battleship Dreadnought and her sue
cessors in the British navy as we'll as
of the main armor betting of the lat
est American battleships under con-
struction is eleven inches at the max
imum.
Most Powerful Gun in World.
The new American 12-inch gun
with its penetration of eleven incnes
Of Krupp steel at 5000 yards, makes
it the most powerful gun in the world.
1t is capable of more than that; but
the eleven-inch penetration at 5000
yards would be obtained through the
use of normal pressure in the powder
chamber and not through the use of
an excessive pressure that would soon
cause the gun to waste away. The
pressure would be about II 1-2 tons
to the square inch, at the maximum,
In the firing of the latest 12-incn gun,
and this is the pressure that would be
used in actual service. enabling it to
penetrate eleven inches at 5000. The
shot from the proposed 14-inch gun
would be even more powerful than
that of the 12-inch, and would pene-
trate two more inches Of Krupp armor
at 5000 yards than the latest 12-inch
weapon.
EIGHT MEN KILLED,
Nashville, Tenn, Sept. 15.-As re-