Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-23

derful weapons and the testing of ar
NOR powder and projectiles that goes
on daily at Indian Head. twenty-five
miles down the Potomac.
1t would be hard to find a place bet
ter suited to the purposes for which
the station was instituted. 1t is with
in easy reach of our big naval gun fac
tory and yet remote enough from any
considerable settlement to minimize
the menace to life and property. Its
comparative nearnesS to Washington
has proved OF advantage more than
once at some critical stage in naval
appropriations, when Congressman
that had to be shown could be taken
down there and convinced by perform
ance both to our accomplishments
and our immediate needs.
Our latest and biggest battleships
building represent total outlay of
something like S11.000,000. and nearly
half of this must go TO provide guns
and ammunition and arrnor plate. Not
a bit OF this material is allowed to
go into the ship until after 1t has been
subjected to rigid examination and
test at the naval proving ground. A
test piece OF every group of armor
plates undergoes the closest scrutiny
and severest attack. and each type
plate is subjected to some thirty-od
chemical analyses and ten physical
tests of searching character.
Nothing is taken for granted in this
department Of battleship's get-up;
every gun, each lot of powder and each
group of shell is put through a rigorous
series of service tests before acceptance
and assignment to its proper place on
shipboard. The wisdom of this course
has been verified by the comparatively
few accidents which we have had in our
and IL yyoro hy,f fajr RI
that our entire ordnance equipment has
been radically revolutionized and brought
to its present marvellous stage of devel-
opment in the short time since our war
with Spain; nearly every lighting unit
has been modified or greatly changed
and these remarkable results have not
been reached by ploddng, methOdical
bounds. of which most of us know but
little.
In addition to the fairly routine work
of testing and proving the service guns.
armor and other ordnance supplies. a
large part of the duty devolving upon the
officers at Indian Head consists OF carry
ing on experimental work of eX-
tended range and varied character. This
is done that new designs, new implements
of war and new theories can be satsfac-
torily tried out ere being stamped as tit
to take their part in our service or to be
recognized as proper guides for future
Developments.
Naturally much of this work and many
of these results must be held confidential.
but it is in finding out these things by
painstaking research. as we'll as in keep
ing them secret. that one nation can hope
to lead another in these days of rivalry
in the designing and the building of
dreadnoughts.
The books on ordnance engineering are
full of conflicting theories, but it is the
work of the naval proving ground to
show the real value Of these theories, and
by practical results to blaze the way To
certain Improvement Upon the officers
at the station and certain other special
lists in the service rests the heavy reSpon-
sibility of evaluating these performances
and of giving to each true import OF Its
disclosure.
r IS generally acknowledged that the
guns manufactured for the United States
navy are unsurpassed by these of any
other nation, but. as beautifully fabri-
Gated as they are. NONE of them can take
its place in the batteries of our fighting
ships until after it has been proof-fired
at Indian Head and stamped with the
large official ''P' of perfection.
Each gun, great and small. is there
fired five times with increasing charges
of powder until the maximum chamber
pressure is one and quarter times that
REQUIRED for battle service. This is the
margin of safety required.
TIE maximum service pressure for our
big guns ranges between sixteen and
seventeen tons to the square inch. ard 1t
is this tremendous impulse that sends the
shot hurting through the air at rate or
quite 3,OCJ feet second. PreSsures near
" double this have actually been GeVel-
oped without disaster in testing guns at
the naval proving grounds. In fact.
six-inch rife. made of special steel, has
been tested there and safely withstood
chamber pressure of thirty tons.
Unfortunately, however. the alloys which
gave to the steel its great strength incl
dentally lowered the metals melting
point; and the high temperature, 400
degrees Fahrenheit, of the explosive gases
can eat into the bore of the weapon, thus