Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-29
WORLDS MOST POWERFUL GUN
PIECE WILL BE BROUGHT HERE
FOR RIFLING.
After Breech Mechanism Is Installed
Weapon Will Be Sent to Indian
Head to Be Tested.

The largest and most powerful naval
weapon in the world will be received at
the Washington gun factory in a few
days, for completion. 1t is a fourteen-inch
breech- loading gun, and is being built
by the Midvale Steel Company. The work
to be done at the local factory includes
rifing and the Installation of the breech
mechanism. When completed. the gun
will be tested at the proving grounds at
Indian Head.
The fourteen-inch guns will weigh ESD
tons. or ten tons more than the twelve
inch guns of 40 caliber length built for the
battleships North Dakota and Delaware,
and about six tons heavier than the lat
est type of .JO-caliber-length twelve
inch guns intended for the Arkansas
and Wyoming. Its total length will be
J31s feet The capacity Of the chamber
of the new gun will be l5,S4S cubic inches.
that being the compartment in which will
be placed the charge Of 800 pounds or
smokeless powder required to discharge
the powerful projectile. weighing 1.4OO
pounds, which the gun viii fire.
Range of Over Twenty-Five Miles.
This gun will have an extreme range
Of more than twenty-five miles, although
the range at which it would be fired in
actual battle would be about five miles.
will leave the muzZle of the weapon at
the rate of 1000 feet a second, and its
muzzle energy will be 65,6O6 foot tons.
This is about 1900 more foot tons of
muZzle energy than that designed for the
latest 12-inch guns. and about 22,O0O foot
tons more than that OF the .41-caliber-
length 12-inch guns now in service. So
great is the penetrative power of this new
gun that when fired with full charge of
365 pounds of powder. the projectie
would penetrate 227 inches of the latest
Krupp steel armor at the muzzle.
This does not measure the full power of
the gun for naval purposes, the muzzie
penetration being merely a proving
ground factor, for after the shot hurled
from the fourteen-inch has travelled a
distance of 1900 yards it will still have
remaining velocity of 2,254 feet a second,
which would enable it to pierce at that
distance a thickness Of 1871 inches of
krupp steel armor.
Penetration at 5000 Yards.
The penetration of the new twelveInch
gun of .JO-calber-length to be installed
on the new 26,O0O-t ton battleships of the
Arkansas class is given at eleven inches
of Krupp steel at an extreme battle range
of 900 yards. The thickness OF the
armor on the British battleship Dread
nought and her successors in the British
navy, as we'll as Of the main armor belt
ing Of the latest United States battle
ships under construction. is eleven inches
at the ma ximum.
The new American twelve-inch gun.
with its penetration of eleven inches of
krupp steel at 5000 yards. makes it the
most powerful gun in the world. 1t is
apabIe of more than that, but the elev-
en-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 sew
enteen and one-half tons to the square
inch at the maximum in the firing of the
latest twelve-inch gun. and this is the
pressure that would be used in actual
service, enabling it to penetrate eleven
inches at 5000 yards. The shot from the
fourteen-inch gun would be even more
powerful than that OF the twelve-inch.
and would penetrate two more inches of
Krupp armor at 5000 yards than the lat
est twelve-nch weapon.