Bridgeton pioneer., 1917-03-01
Coast Is Well Protected
Now.
HEAVY GUNS.
Latest, MIST Up-to-Date duns.and
Appliances in Hidden Pits
and Forts.

considerable is being heard of the
coast defenses of the Delaware, which
include Forts Mott, Delaware and du-
Pont. However, the people living in
this section have but a vague know
ledge of the nature of the instruments
of war which are located at the three
forts of this section. The guns are
secluded in Notifications, which, more
than anything else, resemble the typ
ical country graveyard.
But if the guns are ever called up
on to defend the rich industrial sec
ton on the banks of the Delaware,
the people will realize the power of
the mighty machines which crouch in
their pits, like monsters ready to
Jump at their prey.
The armament of the coast defenses
of the Delaware are of the most mod
ern and up-to-date type, with all the
latest appliances. The equipment con-
sists of the smaller calibre rifles,
which are used to cover the mine
fields and the larger guns, which form
the primary defense.
The primary defense guns consist
OF the eight-inch disappearing guns,
the twelve-inch mortars, the twelve
inch rifles and the twelve-inch disap-
pearing guns. These guns are scat
tered among the three forts of the
Delaware and would present seri-
Gus obstacle for any feet that ever
attempted to pass up the Delaware
River.
The twelve-inch mortars arouse
much interest in spectators. These
guns are fired from pits, in which the
men who fire them, are not able to see
their targets, but who fire according
to instructions sent from observation
towers. A thumb screw much bigger
than that with which you wind your
watch fixes the aim of these guns,
which can send shells weighing over
1000 pounds, nearly eleven miles.
These mortars are of the same pat
tern that have been so effective in the
European war.
They are fixed at the bottom of a
steel and concrete pit, protected by
sixty feet of sand, concrete and steel
implacements, and fire their shells
upward in an arc over the thirty-five
foot wall. A battleship's guns cannot
reach them. They are aimed and
fred by mathematical calculation and
a split second time schedule. They
can be adjusted to the thousandth
part of an inch in angle.
Four m0rtars in one pit formerly
comprised nest. Now, however, two
guns only are being used, it being
1 claimed that as much efficiency can
. be obtained from two. Gunners of the
coast artillery service have fired all
four simultaneously and have dropped
three shells in a space of four feet
four miles away.
! The barrel of a twelve-inch disap-
pearing gun weighs about seventy
tons, and yet the touch of a small
lever sends it soaring twenty-five feet
into the air over the concrete en-
placement wall. The guns falls back
ward at the recoil and settles into a
loading position as gently as a
dropped handkerchief. The gunners
never see their target. The big wea-
pom is fired according to a mathemati-
cal formula telephoned from obser-
vation towers, which in turn is worked
out by minutely-adjusted instruments
in the gun.
The gun sends 1000-pound shell
nearly fifteen miles, and can be fired
once minute. This is the one great
instrument of war originally devised
and perfected in this country. Disap-
pearing guns are almost unknown in
Europe. although the British navy
evolved minor type of smaller cali
ore. - aAhI I.a1
IN addition to the 12-inch disap-