St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-12-08
A DINNER IN JAPAN OUR ARMY RIFLES
There Are None Better Than
Those Made at Springfield.
IN UNCLE SANS BIG ARSENAL.

Processes by Which a Billet of the Fin
est Steel Is Turned Into One of the
Famous 30 caliber Weapons - The
Manufacture of Small Arms.
Had LongfeIlow lived until today and
visited the Springfield arsenal he would
find that the famous old gun racks
which inspired his verses have van
ished Also be would discover many
other changes. The double tiers of gun
racks that the New England bard com.
pared to huge pipe organs are gone.
save for a small section which has been
preserved in the museum. The bur
nished arms with their highly polish
ed barrels are among the things dis
carded, too. and as for the pattern OF
the rife-well. there have been at least
a dozen different styles of firearms pro-
duced at the famous armory since
Longfellow.
Records have it that there have been
sixty distinct types of small arms man.
ufactured at Springfield since its estab-
Iishment during the Revolutionary war.
These range from the old Brown
Bess'' and Charleville type with their
flint locks and smooth bored barrels to
the famous springfield" Of the war
between the states period and the still
more famous 80 caliber rifle of today.
which has been pronounced the most
serviceable small arm in the world.
The Springfield armory. with its va
rious foundries, factories, carpenter
shops, barracks and storehouses. has
cost the United States government in
the neighbOrhood of $66.OOOOO0. This
expenditure has ena bled the ordnance
department to supply its enlisted men
with the best type of army rife, re-
volver and saber at a very small cost.
Moreover. in periods of pressing need
the government has never been ham
pered by red tape. contracts and spe-
cial legislation in order to arm its
forces. During five wars Springfield
has been able to turn out enough arms
for immediate service, or at least
enough to take care of emergencies.
though of course the government has
purchased rifles from private firms.
During the Spanish war this was nee
essary because of the quick formation
of volunteer troops.
The manufacture of a rife entails
dozens of separate operations and con-
sequently dozens of different kinds of
machines are necessary. Indeed. there
are ninety three component parts of
rifle. fifty different operations being re-
70 fa ofI ho hoTr oil
And as for the bayonet there are
twelve separate parts to that simple
looking portion of soldiers equip
ment.
1t is difficult to decide which is the
most important the lock. stock or bar
rel of a rife. but from the amount Of
work involved in all probability the
barrel is considered of more conse-
quence by the Springfield gunmakers.
The material from which the barrels
are made appears first as short billets
of steel. These are placed in furnace
and subjected to intense heat, and
when they become deep orange in color
they are removed and placed in anOth
er furnace where the heat is even
greater. By means of long tongs the
steel is removed from this heat and put
into a peculiar roller equipped with
grooves of eleven different sizes.
These rollers are operated under tons
of pressure. and gradually the billet is
formed into a tapering blank"
In this process the man in charge of
the rolling mill passes the billet
through eleven different grooves. run
ming it twice through the last groove,
thus executing twelve distinct opera
tons before the barrel is even shaped
The rifiing machine is a long, ugly
looking affair that moves very slowly.
Four ri1ings are put into the barrel OF
a gun and six are cut into the short
barrels of the automatic revOlvers.
which are also made at Springfield
after the rifiing the bar
rel is chambered and sights are put on.
Then the CLINT of polished steel is kill
ed by a process of browning the
metal
In the old days the soldiers rifle was
polished and buffed until it fairly gilt
tered Today every metal part is dull
ed, first because the old time CLINT re-
hected the sunlight and made the sol
der a better mark for his enemy. and
also because the browning process pro-
tects the metal from the weather.-Ed-
lson Monthly