The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-02

seven times as great quantities Alto l gethsr We now have more than 1,o00, GOO
 sprint:fields and American Enfields, and 1 by the first of July, next, we shall have | ,2oo' o0o American Enfields and 700.00O new 1 SDrngfields in tho hands of the army. 1 We are steadily increasing our machin- 1 cry of production. and are now maxing about four times as many guns as the British did year after they entered the war, md twice many as they were producing two years after the war began
 It is expected that the monthly produc- ton will soon be 250,000. This means that | we could equip an army of ,090 eco men with rifles within the space of three months, and when 1t is remembered that
 only 5o per cent of the troops use rifles,
 the numeer of men might be doubled and l wo could still supply them. We have one l plant at New Haven, which, with it's
 proving grounds and terminals covers 7Sl acres It employs about Is 600 hands and 1t fires 25,ooo,ooo rounds of ammunition every year in testing it's output There | Ia another factory making American En- | fields at Ilion. N. Y. It is one of the | oldest and largest rifle plants of the country There is a third at Eddystone,
 near Philadelphia. The Springfields are being made at the United States armory l here.
 | In order to show you how the guns of | our roldiers are manufactured I have l gone through tho great arsenal at Spring. | field. It is owned and operated by the Unitet States government. and 1t has
 been our principal gun factory since the presidency of Gen. George Washington. An army laboratory was established here two years after the signing of the Decla- | ration of Independence. and during a
 large part of the Revolutionary war this
 was the general depot of supplies for all the troops north of Philadelphia The
 arsenal Itself was established in 1794 and | the first money appropriated was S59,- | 000 The same act of Congress provided that tho President should have the right | to spend S2i9,000 for small arms and am- ! intuition. and that the yearly expenses | of the gun factory should not exceed
 S22. .sG5. These figures show something as | to our military expenses at the begin
 ming of the government They are in | striking contrast to the billions of dol lars we arc spending today.
 | The buildings of the Springfield armory | look more like medieval castles than fac | tories. Some of them are almost 100 years 1 old and the main building was modelled after the East Indian House in London. The grounds altogether cover 900 acres, ! abou. one-third of this being devoted to the machine shops. which are in the
 
 the foundries and forging establishment | in the United States water shop, about l a mile away The plant normally em- ployes about 1900 hands. It has now 4e0O, and it works day any night l Everything connected with the army gun Is mace here at Springfield. Many | of you have seen the rifles in the hands of soldiers. They seem to be simple,
 and it is hard to realize their complicated construction and the careful workman ship required in their making. The new Springfield has 93 parts. ranging in size l from screws not bigger than those of 1 a watch to the tubular barrel of rifled | steel. which $ more than 26 inches in length. One of the most important parts of the gun is the bolt used in the firing.
 This is of nickel steel and 1t is strong
 CT than that of any other gun now in
 use. It has to be so carefully made that la0 different gauges are required to test i its accuracy.
 l The gun of the latest model is a lit 1 tie over 46 inches long, and without the
 bayonet it weighs just 10 pounds and l five ounces. The stock is made of well seasoned walnut wood, brought from the
 forests of the middle west. and the metal l. is of the toughest of steel which is | forged. hardened and tempered to resist l the enormous shock of the firing. The gun barrel, for instance, must withstand
 pressure of 25 tons to the square inch.
 The huge army tanks, which have been
 running about over the country to stim-
 ulate subscriptions to the Liberty Loan. do not weigh more than that, and you | could balance one of those tanks on any
 square inch of the gun barrel and 1t
 would not affect the steel.
 1 The gun is loaded with metal clips,
 each containing five cartridges. It takes
 but an instant to throw in a new clip. l It has sights made to the accuracy of
 an astronomical instrument and the
 whole is combination of mechanical