New Britain herald., 1918-03-25
PR0JECTILE GOES
 B MILES INTO AIR
Expert Explains Theory on Ger
 many'S New Monster Gun


 ! get d fairly accurate description of ! the 9.5-inch gun with which the. Ger l mans are smelling Paris. the Times i consulted yesterday ono of the most l noted ordnance experts in the world. i This was in advance of the receipt of i the German official announcement | that long range guns had ShClled | Paris. After careful reading the ca 1 blegTams from Paris this man .aid 1 that there seemed to be no longer
 any reason to doubt that the Germans 1 had succeeded in constructing T monster with a range of 70 miles. but 1 he added the comforting assurance 1 that 1t was mathematically certain | that such gun would be useless af- 1 ter 1t had been fired fewer than 50 times. 12-inch gun with a range of 25 miles has to be refined after being fired fewer than 100 times, he said, while one with a range of only
 15 miles is not good for moro tan 200 shots under the very best cOndi- tions of construction and operation. This expert figured that to ire a shell 70 miles would require a nuEzle velocity Of at least 5000 feet ! soc- ond. The gun would have to be fired from an angle of 1 5 degrees. WlicE means that at the half way point be- tween the gun and it's target the pro Jectile would be travelling at an Clti- tude of about 35 miles. When fired Ut an angle of , degrees the highest altitude obtained by the projec'ilc equals half the distance between the gun and the target.
 ITurthermore, he pointed out that in order to obtain a, 70-mile range ;l gun of at least 15O calibres would bo required. This would mean that the projectile would have to travel a dis tance of about 119 feet between the breech and muzzle of the weapon, or, 1,425 inches
 The awkwardness of such a weapon also was pointed out. With a barrel 120 feet long the expert said, it was practically certain that the gun had to be built on the spot from which it was fired.
 ''The impractica bility of transport ing a single gun barrel more than half a city block long is apparent" he said. Tn addition the gun would have to be braced with the most powerful of permanent supports, else the barrel would certainly bend un- der the strain of it's own weight. -hnd these braces would have to be uon- structed so as to withstand the force of the recoil of such a weapon. This, of course, means that they would have to be practically of permanent construction. To sum up, such a gun can be fired only where built, and af ter fifty rounds at the most it would be out of business and would be use less until refined, and refining would take long time in q weapon of such dim ensiOns."
 I,1 for, ton with the operation of such ;C gun would be the tremendous size of the charge. To fire a 12-inch shell 1 25 miles the barrel of the gun has 1 to be about 50 feet long, and the 1 powder charge weighs 325 pounds, 1 Offhand, the ordnance expert would l not estimate the size of the charge 1 that the Germans were using to send ] a shell from their lines into Paris.
 Hudson Maxisn's View.
 Hudson Maxim of the Naval Con sulting Board of the United States 1 as follows on the reports concerning the gun:
 "When first heard the report that 1 Paris was being bombarded from a distance of more than sixty miles ana was asked whether or not the thing was possible, I told my lnterroGntcr that the thing was a possibility, and whether. or not it were a, mere proh- ability or a fact would depend upon the purpose of the Germans.
 Rises Above Atmosphere.
 "Of course. any kind of approved powder charge could be used. but the best kind of powder charge for such a gun would be a COrdite composition. consisting of about 50 per cent nitro- glycerinc and 50 per cent guncotton. made into long bars or rods and m multi- perforated transvcrsely to the axis of the bars. This would give a minimum initial area and consequently minimum initial pressure and the maximum final area exposed to the flame Of combustion just before the complete consumption of the grain. This would tend to keep the pressure well up in the gun during it's entire length.
 "This gun when fired at a maxi m um elevation of forty-five degrees would throw the projectice above most of the atmosphere of the earth so that at least half of the travel of the proiectile would be through partial vacuum, and the total resist ance which the projectilc would en- counter in say sixty miles would not be moro than it would be in thirty miles if the projcCtile were passing 1 through atmosphere as dense as it is at the earth's surface.
 "I understand that 1t is rumored that the projectiles now reaching Paris arc partly driven by a propeller during the flight. If this is a fact the Germans are accomplishing the result bv Q method not so simple or as good as that which I have indicated, for the flight of the projeCtilc would neither be as accurate nor as sure