New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-01
Amer;z an Naval Guns
B Account Of Some Construction I@ Ho0e No0o 4"
Acwmv win Fcw ordsA About Pr0ccal and Range FINDING

From the beginning OF our government 10
the time Of the new navy the United states
made but few lasting contributions 10 the
science of naval warfare. One great inveh-
ton it did produce. the Monitor, which was
the first practical application of turrets LOT
the protection of guns on ship. Naturally
during the Civil War Yankee ingenuity pro-
Guced many temporarily valuable weapons oil
which the repeating rife and the Calling gun
alone survived the war any length OF time
hope will not be charged with wandering
too far from my subject when refer TO tne
fact that those who go down to the sea IN
ships whether bound on peaceful or warliSe
errands, owe r debt to the United States such
as few Americans even realize. In the early
rart Of the nineteenth century learned New
Highlander by the name of Bowditch wrote
work on navigation, which, enlarged ana
brought up to date, is the standard work
or the subject here to-day. Hundreds OF
Young men have been studying Bowdltch our
ing the past six months VINO probably never
heard of the work before Then naval Off
the same century, developed after years OF
the most patient and careful study system
Of navigating sailing vessels across the ocean
in a scientific manner by taking advantage OF
winds and currents something never thought
Of bofore by any of the many thousand navI-
gators of The Atlantic aud Pacific. And later
another naval officer, Rear Admiral Luce VINO
died only recently, wrote the standard work
on seamanship, a book known, like Maurys
work, the world over. With the progress Of
science and the development Of the steamship,
Maurys and Luce's works are not as impor-
tant to-day as they once were. Bowditch still
reigns supreme.
| American improvements in Naval Guns
But to return to war. II the monitor tur-
ret is the one naval product that survived
the Civil War. It is nevertheless true that
prior to that war we had brought our naval
guns TO a very high state Of perfection. The
famous Dahlgren smoothbOre gun was very
fine piece Of ordnance Of its kind, especially
the TX and XI inch guns. They were the out
come Of a scientific study of the pressure
exerted in the gun by the powder charge, and
the resulting cannon had peculiar, rather
graceful, curves to its outline. No smooth
bore cannon, however, was very accurate, and
A range of four miles was, believe, an ex-
trene range under the very best conditions
Riaed guns were made during the Civil War
by the PARROT Company at Cold Spring, New
York These (cast irony guns had hoop OF
wrought iron shrunk onto the breeeh end OF
the gun TO make Il especially thick at that
point But this shrinking was not always well
done and cast iron rife cannon was not a
wholly safe weapon. They, too, were muzzle
leaders and were very efficient in their way.
7 am not aware that our guns were copied by
foreign countries.
Il is an extraordinary fact that during the
European wars from the siege of Toulon TO
Waterloo not single improvement was made
in muskets or guns either afoat or ashore
The muskets were fintlocks in 1898 and in
1915. The guns were smoothbores and were
fired by a match. Rihed muskets, which had
lcng been known, were used very sparngly In
Europe They were not as numerous in Napo-
Icons and his enemies armies proportion
ately to the number Of men as in Washing
TOMS forces during the Revolution. Not long
after Waterloo, however, illuminate Of mer-
curry. the substance used to make percussion
caps, was discovered, and this promptly led
10 complete change in the method Of firing
the charges in muskets and cannon
Rifng
In the French Sardinan war against Aus
tria 1850 the first rhed field pieces were
used in action. The French guarded the
secret of their guns so carefully that it was
not known to the Austrians until they
captured French battery But once the
advantage OF rifed guns was seen their
use extended very fast. The Federal artIl-
lery was far superior to the Confederate on
many occasions because of its rfed guns
IT vaqtl
the French in 1870 because OF the superior
quality of the rifed steel gun over the
French rifed bronze guns. For rfed
cannon has a greater range and is far more
accurate than a smoothbore, and the better
the make the better the results.
The theory of rihing is, Of course, known
TO even most laymen, for whose benefit | am
again writing these lines, Rifing consists Of
a series of shallow spiral grooves cut in the
bore Of gum the raised surfaces between
the grooves being technically known as
lands The length Of the twist and its
extent is most scientifically worked out
problem. Some very original experiments
have been tried with rihng, one OF the most
peculiar being the heXagonal bore guns OF
the famous English steel man, Whitworth,
for which moulded heXagonal projectlleS
were necessary. If reader of these lines
has ever looked through a modern naval gun
he has no doubt been struck with the mar
vellous care with which the rifing is done
A very ingenious machine is used and very lit
tie variation from perfection is permitted or
IL, in fact, permissible. The projectile, which
is of steel has a narrow band Of copper near
It's base, which projects just enough to take
Preserve Historic Regiments
u. A. Il Tba Tribune