The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-05-06
COPPER AND CARTRIDGES.
Length of War May BE Determined
by Ammunition Supply.

ridges last in a war of the size of the
present one? How much copper has
Germany on hand from which to
make new cartridges for the infantry
rifles and machine guns. and driving
bands for the shells of all sizes?
Great Britain has declared copper
contraband of war, and is trying to
stop its going to any port whence 1t
might reach Germany. Other things
might end the war more speedily,
but when the supply of copper quits
then the war quits likewise. The
Germans were reported to have had
nearly 100000 rifle cartridges
on hand when the war broke out.
They probably have 100000 men
under arms. possibly more. They
have thousands of machine guns.
each of which eats up cartridges as
fast as a whole infantry battalion.
Twelve hundred and fifty rounds per
soldier, excluding the machine guns.
and the 5,000,000.000 cartridges are
gone. Without doubt the Germans
are reduced already to picking up the
fired cases when it is feasible to do
so. Trench fighting is particularly
we'll adapted to this purpose, while
from machine gun the elected cases
are thrown so uniformly that bas-
ket would catch practically all OF
them. The German cartridge cases
are not we'll adapted to being reload
ed. The American government re-
loads the fired rifle cartridges, and
the requirements specify that each
case must stand 20 such reloadings
without splitting or giving way at
any spot. Hundreds of thousands OF
fired cartridges are reloaded by the
United States army each year, and the
economy thereof is great because
while the completed loaded cartridges
cost . 1-2 cents, the case itself costs
nearly l 1-2 cents, a saving OF 6O
per cent. through reloading.
Both the German authorities and
Sir Charles Ross. the designer of the
Canadian army rifle, have experiment.
ed with the manufacture of steel cart
ridge cases. Ross produced them,
but they were too costly to be COM
mercially practicable.
The start of the brass cartridge
case is a fat disk of copper-Zlnc al
10y. 1t goes through battery OF
draw presses until it has been drawn
out to a brass cylinder, about the
length of the complete shell. Then
the head is formed from the thick
brass left in the base. During these
drawing operations the case has to
be frequently annelled, the process
making the brass very brittle. IN
American cartridges the final opera
ton IS to neck down" the cylinder
to the proper bottle-neck form for
that particular rifle. In the British
service. where the cordite powder is
loaded in the form Of tubular strips.
the powder is inserted before the
case is necked down. Every she'll
has to be gagged to make sure it will
chamber in the rifle, for a bad one
might jam a rifle or tie up machine
gun for a day.
Brass instead of pure copper is
used, being thrust against the cham
Der walls in the rifle by the terrlhc
pressure. If resiliency to spring back
to form after the case does not DO
this it cannot be extracted. So the
temper of the finished shell is very
important. If it is too brittle, it Will
split at the neck or break OFF at the
base. disabling the weapon. If it is
too soft, it will upset or swell into
the chambers most minute. rough
SDOtS ana CduuOl ue chlio
The chamber pressure of the rifles
used in the war ranges from 10000
pounds to $1,000 pounds per square
inch of chamber area. The actual
thrust on the head of the bolt hold
ing the shell in the Mauser rifle is
5000 pounds. With the high pres
sures, brass has not always proved
entirely sufficient to stand the strain.
The cartridge case is the weak point
of the modern rifle. The first sign
that the chamber pressure is too
high is the flowing" of the head of
the cartridge out into the unsupport-
ed space around the extractor cut,
and. over the head of the bolt. In
very high pressure the case is literal
" "smeared" all over the head of the
bolt, flowing back like butter. The
steel case is not open to the objec-
tions pertaining to brass cases. but
steel refuses to be jammed at high
> nrC