Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07
NEWLY IIsED BARRELS OF The TAf1ous FsENcH rs MILL
Net RE LIGHT fELD GUNS BEING INsPEerEDAND FITTED
NTH BREEcHLoc1cs In The 1rGENsE SHOPS At LIE cREusor

state. would do credit to the skill of a
Swiss Observation-Disclosures
1t contains thirty delicate brass parts
and represents nearly two hundred dis
tinct operations undergone during it's
manufacture. The micrometers that
test its accuracy are even more delicate
than those that prove the perfection of
the steel projectile. No chronometer
was ever made to a finer scale.
For it is entirely upon the precision of the
fuse that the effective work of the shell
depends. So lengthy and painstaking is
the process of turning and mounting a
Bourges to devote their entire time to
making single fuse the operations from
start to finish would consume a period
of eight full working days. In actual
practice the time for manufacturing a
fuse is computed in weeks, not in days.
While the fuses are in process of COM
pletion in one portion of the pyrotechnique
shops another department is busily at
work filling the waiting projectiles with
melinite.
The "75" shell is charged with some
thing over a pound of melinite, under a
pressure Of twelve tons The charging
is done in aIrored chambers by hy-
draulic presses. No man dares venture
INTO those chambers during the operation,
Tor mel1nlte under pressure is of a very
uncertain disposition, and explosions in
the charging chambers are of almost
daily occurrence
AS for the charging of high-caliber
shells, that is done in pits sunk some
fifty feet into the ground. A 37o-milli-
meter shell carries more than 200 pounds
OF meiin1te. and is charged under a pres
sure of nearly f1ve-score tons. 1t seldom
expiodes, but when it does-!i
once the shells are charged they are
ntted with fuses and fixed in the long
DrasS tubes containing the gunpowder
tnat VIII one day hurl them from the
mouth OF some cannon at the terrific
speed OF 5000 feet a second Finally
they are painted and-sent to the front,
put between the time that they first
LOOK rude shape under the blows of the
crop forge and the day when they re-
es a.sal, ene1r last coat of paint weeks have
passed Thousands Of men and women.
working feverishly under the spur of
patriotic ardor. have been unable to turn
them out any sooner. 1t takes time a
great zeal OF time. to make ammunition
and the cannon, naturally, take much
longer. Under the very best conditions
1t requires at least forty-five days to
forge. bore. sweat and finish the barrel
Of "oixante-quinze." the famous French
seventy five-millimeter light feldpiece
The larger pieces require proportionately
more time for their manufacture Many
of the high-caliber guns, the ''24O" and
the 3TO, for instance, are being mount
ed on armored railway trucks
These monster cannon in themselves
represent. each one a small fortress, and
three months is not considered an un-
toward length of time to spend in forging
and mounting one of them. Hardly, when
even a rifle or machine gun is not to be
made properly in less than a month and
a half.
of
dictated the immense proportions of
Frances industrial army. What the
country needed most in its tagging mu-
milton industry year ago was an mex
haustible supply of time. That is WHY
France has since modified nearly 300,-
900 men and women in her factories For
each man and woman in her industrial
army can dispose of a supply of that