El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-16

twice every minute.
New Method of Fighting.
The uptodate method of sea fighting
is to concentrate simultaneously all
the guns OF a number Of warships upon
a single vessel of the enemy, thus rem
devlng her quickly hors de combat,
and then to turn the attack in similar
fashion upon another member of the
vessels as the new Texas 1--WE shall
start building two more like her next
year, were to concentrate their gunfire
IN this way upon an enemy's battle
ship-hoN long could the latter, even
though herself a formidable craft, with
stand the assault?
How long, indeed, could anything
aflouat stand up against such blows?
For many years there was great rival
ny between armor and guns, and it was
as things stand today, the gun seems to
be far and away the winner. Offence
has become stronger, apparently, than
defence can ever hope to b. How are
human hands to fashion any floating
object that will resist the impact of
a projectile capable of piercing 26
inches OF solid steel-a projectile that
strikes with an energy equal to that of
ton of steel dropped from a height
Of II miles?
The Cracking Effect.
Such a projectile, in striking a bat
tleShtp fairly, may not penetrate, but
1T IS likely to dish" the armor plate
it hits and to start leaks. This is what
Is technically known as a "racking eff
feet" Or the mighty shell, if it
chances to hit turret, may easily jam
Its machinery, preventing it from re-
Folving, and thus putting its pair of
big guns out of business. Or, again,
it man strike the coming tower (f-om
which the mana cement of the vessel is
directed). and crack it in two.
All Of whihc does not take into ac-
II
plosion of the projectiles on landing.
Impact sets off the high explosive
packed inside of them, and they are
rent into a thousand fragments weigh
Ing anywhere from an ounce to so
pounds. These fly in all directions,
inland are liable to kill a great many
people The carnage in sea fights Of
the future will be inconceivably dread
ful.
The big naval guns of today are
strikingly different in shape from
those Of a few years ago. The latter
were strengthened by enormous steel
hoops at the breehc, to withstand the
sudden explosion of the old fashioned
less powder burns very slowly, and in
consequence the rifled cannon of late
pattern has 'spindled OUT in a sur
prising way, becoming very long, and
thus giving the powder plenty of time
to resolve itself into gases before the
projectile leaves the muzzle When one
comes to think of the matter, it seems
surprising that the world should have
been satisfied to get along with sub
stantially the same kind of gunpowder
from Biblical times (when the Chinese
used it) up to the twentieth century.
or very nearly. Then came the smoke
less powder, which made necessary a
change in guns.
Has Greater Penetration
AS already stated, the projectile
fired from the IA inch gun has a muz-
zle velocity of $500 feet a second. The
she'll fired from a IL inch gun leaves
the muzzle at 1900 feet per second.
But it only weighs $40 pounds, as
against 400 pounds. This difference in
weight signifies that much less energy
is delivered in striking the target.
Greater energy means more penetra-
ton Furthermore, the heavy shell ig-
nores wind and variable air densities
These great guns which will COM
pose the formidable armament of the
Texas and the New York are deemed by
the navy departmnt the most efficient
weapons ever made They can hit
harder blows, and strike with greater
accuracy, than any other rifled cannon
now existing in the world. If it be
asked how the ships carrying them