Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-01-06
Helping to Pound
Out Our Big Guns

THE mobilization Of the nations indus
I trial resources to meet the sudden
exigencies Of war has inspired many
achievements in the great laboratories and
manufacturing plants upon which the new
army depends for its equipment Of guns and
ammunition. The exigencies Of war have
developed many remarkable, epoch marking
inventions, and many stupendous feats Of
both scientific and mechanical nature. Some
Of these must remain secrets until the end of
tho war.
Ono OF the most interesting OF these prod
ucts of the wars emergencies, is mammoth
steam-forging hammer, to be used in an ord
nance plant at Washington, which is capa-
BILE Of striking blow equal to the combined
force Of 5000 tons
No such gigantic engine Of power and
force ever was conceived by the human brain
until the country peril suddenly demanded
unprecedented exertion toward the imme-
date arming Of huge army Of soldiers.
This great steam hammer will do by itself
almost the whole work formerly done by an
entire armor testing plant. 1t replaces
hundred other engines; it does with one
blow what formerly it took days and days
of strenuous mechanical labor to complete.
NSo great is the striking force of this enor-
nous hammer that the mind hardly can con-
template its possibilities expressed III fig
ures. One of the other notable products of
tho wars demands for new things is the
armored tank, the device which was SO sue
cessfully used by Field Marshal Haig to help
him break through the Hindenburg line.
The armored tank is cumbersome, slow
moving uhwieldy engine Of destruction,
which, like the ancient juggernaut, sweeps
over everything in its path, moving down
men, batteries and barbed-wire entangle-
ments as it founders ahead in the face of
the most terrific gun fire. Yet the staunch-
est armored tank yet built would be but
pebble in the pathway Of this 800o-ton ham,
mer which American army engineers have
built to speed up the manufacture Of NUM-
tions for America s new army.
If this hammer could be SO mounted that
it could strike one of its 8,0O0-ton blows
against the heaviest armored tank at General
Haig's command, it would lift the tank from
the ground and hurl it through the air
distance of "a miles. So swiftly would the
hammer hurl the tank through the air that
the latter would fall to the ground, twisted
mass Of metal and machinery, u miles away,
in one minute and eighteen seconds. Not
even the shell from the great 22-inch coast
defense gun mounted at the entrance to the
Panama Canal would SO completely wreck
one Of General Haig g tanks as would sin
gle blow from this great hammer.
The hammer was built for steam forging.
Also it is used in testing armor-plate and the
steel used in making the barrels of big field
guns. The metal used in fashioning one of
the new American guns must be strong
enough to withstand not only one. but a
series Of these 8,000-ton blows. Yet if one
blow from this hammer could be concen-
trated on one square foot Of the roof of the
Woolworth Building the pressure would
crush the enormous building as~easily and
completely as the grip Of a mans hand
crushes an egg-shell
Only by comparison can the mind con-
ceive the amazing strength of an 8,000-ton
blow. The average man can strike blow
measuring only 100 pounds in force, even
though the. whole momentum Of his body is
behind his fist. 1t would take an army of