The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-05-24
BENDS IN BIG GUNS
Their Weight Gives Some of Them
a Curvature of the Spine. :
DR0OP AT THEIR MUZZLES.
In Some Cases the FIexure Is Great
Enough, if Not Allowed For, to Affect
the Accuracy Of the Weapon-How
the Defect Is Corrected.


Enough, if Not Allowed For, to Affect
the Accuracy Of the Weapon-How
the Defect Is Corrected.
The newest American dreadnaughts
are to be armed with sixteen inch RI
f1es, and the layman takes it as mat
ter Of course that these monster weap-
ons are merely bigger brothers Of the
fourteen inch gun. But this offhand
conclusion is decidedly at fault. The
sixteen inch gun is a more eXacting
engineering problem than the fourteen
inch weapon, and just because of its
greater length and girth and weight it
is more difficult piece to make pre-
else in its action. The bigger the gun
the more it is prone to develop trou-
blesome characteristics, and the ord
nance engineer has his cunning heavi-
ly taxed in order to neutralize or to
minimize these inherent tendencies.
To begin with, the sixteen inch
gun, without it's mount, represents an
outlay of $175,OOO, that being the price
paid for the materials used and the
skilled workmanship. Unless fabricat-
ed with exquisite regard to accuracy
the weapon is neither safe to fire nor
capable of standing up to its work
during relatively short active career,
measured by something like couple
of hundred rounds
1t must be remembered that a six
teen inch shell weighs about a ton
to be exact, 2,10O pounds-and the
powder impulse eXerts sufficient en-
ergy back of the projectile to start it
from a standstill and to send it hur-
Ting from the weapons muzzle at a
velocity of 2, SCO feet a second. 1t would
not do to have that speeding shell jam
in the bore of the rifle, because if sud-
denly arrested it would probably frac-
ture the weapon if it did not cause a
graver disaster Therefore the ord
nance engineer must see that the path
represented by the bore is as nearly
a straight line as it is mechanically
and physically possible to make it.
~ A twelve inch gun of 45 caliber is
forty-five feet long, and except at the
single supporting point the heavy mass
Of the extended weapon is without any
sustaining help. These monster pieces
of ordnance are virtually single pivot
ed Orders, and thei. power to resist
bending or reformation depends es-
sentially upon the strength Of the ma
terials employed and the distribution
Of the mass. Clearly, then, the big
ger the rife the greater becomes the
disposition to droop toward the muz-
rzle,. and not only does this impair the
. shooting accuracy, but in time the
weapon. becomes source of danger to
its own people. III $50 n
The weight Of some of the big guns
now in use in the navy causes them to
droOp at their muzzles as much as half
or three-quarters of an inch, and this,
If not realized and allowed for in sight
ing, will make the shooting inaccurate,
the inaccuracy increasing with the
length of range. In fact, the projec-
tile on leaving the gun is directed by
the last six feet of the muzzle That
is to say that if the rifle has a droop
of taking the line assumed by the gun
pointer at the telescope sight.
The bureau of ordnance in Washing
ton has been working at this problem
as guns have grown in length and di-
ameter Of bore At the present time
the great fourteen inch weapons have
an appreciate droop Of only .3S of an
inch. This droop is not enough to en-
danger the life of the gun or to impair
its range, provided the sights are adj
justed to it. But there is another in
fuence at work which tends to affect
this droop and to cause it to vary some
hundredths Of an inch from time to
time. This is the weather. For in
stance, a gun will droop when the sun
shines fercely upon it's upper side,
while the under side is shaded. But
so long as this total DETECTION does
not exceed half an inch there is no dan
ger of the shell jamming in passing
along the slightly curved bore.
In the latest of our big naval weapons
this droop has been still further re-
duced by extending the jacket or hoop
ing further out over the forward part
Of the gun. This serves to stiffen the
gun so that the sun has not as much
deforming effect as heretofore. 1t may
be asked, what about the other guns
now in service that have not been so
REINFORCED to check dropping" The
bureau of ordnance has reSOrted to
very simple expedient in correcting this
curative.
The deformed weapon is simply ro-
tated in the recoil sleeve Of the mount
until the underside Of the rifle is up
permost. The muzzle then, instead of
dipping actually, is curved skyward.
In time the natural elasticity OF the
metal asserts itself, and the over
hanging weight Of the outstretched
muzzle gradually presses the chase
downward and straightens out the
piece.-New York Sun.