The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-01
THE NEW EMPHASIZES
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By Frederic J. Haskin.

A stnrle broad side. from the twelve ,,ch runs of the new 26, 900 ton battie- shtn which Congress is expected 10 authorize will cost some twenty tnou- sand dollars This hroadside VIII hurl over ten thousand pounds or death dealing steel at the enemy, W.th ahe Tremendous force generated by che exnloslon. of three thousands pounds nf hiah grade powder. It will repre- sent a destruc tive force third greater eAan the combined firing of all the Runs in. the fleet with which Dewey ended forever the Casttllan rule Tn the Phillippines. Il.
 Each time a single gun is fired IL will sent forth a shot weighing S6o pounds. and costing. sS10. Each shot requires 250 pounds of powerful pow. der, which costs $500, making soIV an all. Bat even this is not the totai axpense Eef-sring one of these big guns. Each of them costs $65,0OO, and when one hundred shots have been fired through one of them 1t Is about ready for permanent retirement. rms means S650 per shot to be charged to deterioration. Therefore, without count ing the labor required for firing one of these guns. the total cost or nrihs 1t reaches the tremendous totai oL ei560s per shot.
 But this is not the end of the possi- bi1lty of gun power aboard snip. The Navy Department advocating the four teen-inch gun. and 1t seems but the question of a little time until we shall have a battleship mounting a battery of such guns. During the Spanish American War the thirteen inch gun was tried out, and today we have thirty-two of them on some of the earlier battleships. But dmmedi- ately afterward there was return to the twelve-inch type at home and abroad. Recent developments in the construction Of water-tight compart- ments and improvements in armor have tended to make bigger guns necessary, The time has passed when a twelve inch shell can do all the damage de- sired. England is making some new guns whose bore Is thirteen and half inches. but 1t is probable that America will first have the fourteeh- inch gun.
 There are two other reasons which make the fourteen-inch gun desirable for the new battleships. American gunners are the best in the world, and the greater the fighting range the greater their advantage over the enmey The other reason Is that the life of 9ourteen-inch gun would be propor- tionately longer than that of a twelve inch one. The erosion caused by the virtual melting out of the bore by 1ervent heat, would be lessened, and at the same time the effective range of the gun increased.
 The approximate increase in every item would be In the neighborhood of oneythird. On this basis a fourteen inch gun would literally eat into the pock cts of the taxpayers. One of these guns would cost ss7,0Oe, and whole battery over a million dollars. Each she'll would weigh about HOO pounds and cost over $400. It would require $50 pounds of powder, making the total net cost of single shot we'll on to S700. One of these shells would pierce nearly five feet of wrought iron Ii would generate force beyond ordi' nary comprehension. The Masonic Tenn ple In Chicago, until recently the larg' sst ofEice building in the world, weighs 30,000 tons. The force that gets be- hlnd a fourteen-inch shell and drives ak out on it's death-dealing missloH would be great enough to lift the Mas onic Temple two feet In a single sec ond. The force behind a single eight gun broadside from fourteen-inch gum would raise that building sixteen fee an a slnkie second
 ~rhe9 new sB.0o0 ton battleships ar expected tS seost the government nj mere than the 10000 ton ships wiiicl have hitherto been authorized. S' great has grown the demand for worl at the various ship building yards tha the snip builders are willing to con stuet one of these vessels at practicall! the same cost to the government. Blu this IS not an exceptional case. Tn, Vermont, whose keel was laid in 1904 cost more to build by $2oo, 900 than thu Utah. now building, although the latte has displacement five thousand ton greater than the Vermont.
 Measured by gun-power, taking tn ten eleven-twelve- ve-andthirteen-l -lncl guns as the basis, the United State