The Washington herald., 1915-02-28
POWER Of GUNS
| in new STEEL
Part of the German Methods
Gained in u. S., Peerless
Official Says.
AUTOS BENEFITED, TOO
Machines and Cannon of Old Mate
nal Could Not Stand War Strains.
He Asserts.
AUTOS BENEFITED, TOO

The two most conspicuous feature.
of the European war are the big cali
Der gun and the military motor We
hicle. The big cannon and military
motor car are possible only because
through the extremely high develop
ment of the heat treatment of alloy
steels. il is possible to produce ma
terials that will withstand the enor'
nous stresses to which the parts OF
\ both cannon and motor ears are sub.
| mitted in the terribly severe work
| they are called upon to 40.
I'VE do not, of course, know the
actual dimensions of the big German
E! forty-two-centimeter gum" says r. 4
Abbott, chief metallurGist of the Peer
| less Motor Car Company. of Cleveland
I and pioneer Investigator in the motor
car steel field, but we know enough
of its destructive powers to guess at
the weight of the projectile it throws
J and the range it covers. The pres
! sure that this gun is called upon to
withstand must be simply astounding
and the movement of the projectile
| through the rifled barrel of the gun
| certainly calls for material that has
| the ability to retain its structure I'M
der temperatures suddenly raised to
an enormous point.
German Visited Laboratory.
"AlI drivers know something of the
shocks that motor cars are called upon
to Withstand in ordinary use over our
American roads and streets. In pas
senger vehicles. shocks, while ex-
tremely severe, are not as hard to
handle as they are in commercial We
hicles because the weight carried and
therefore the momentum, is not as
great.
when you consider a load of four
tons and the vehicle weighing per-
haps three more, making mass OF
seven tons. laundering over an I'M
broken road at the rate of thirty or
thirty-five miles an hour, you can
imagine something of the force that
IL is necessary to check in coming to
"a sudden stop or in turning a quick
corner. and in every part Of the We
hicle a shock or stress just a little
different than the others must be with
stood. 1t is only because. with alloy
steels for a base, we can with heat
treatment develop material that will
Withstand almost every conceivable
kind and extent of shock that motor
cars and trucks, able to stand up I'M
der this grilling service. can be pro-
duced.
Il recall distinctly a very interest
ing conversation with Herr Director
laboratories about two years ago.
Prominence Of the Krupp Works as
gun manufacturers has very largely
overshadowed the fact that this COM
pany is also an enormous producer of
cement machinery, farm implements
and various kinds of tractors.
Although the directors visit to
America and his inspection of motor
car factories undoubtedly was made
chiefly for the purpose of improving
the methods employed in the great
German shops in the manufacture of
motor tractors and farm implements.
it is perfectly fair to assume that a
great deal of the information secured
in America has had it's bearing on the
production of the great German guns
which could never have been produced
without properly heat treated alloy
steels.
The directors visit to our labora-
tories occurred when our investigation
of all the steels manufactured in the
world was at it's height and he was
somewhat surprised to discover that.
in America, our metallurgical work in
the production of superquality steels
was not only equal to their own but
il, some details farther advanced"