The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1918-05-03
More Than 10000 Weekly Are
Turned Out Here.
RUNNING AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
Than British Output After That
Country Had Been in War Same
Length of Tirne-Pro!it by Expert
ence of Our Allies-NeW Model Zig
Improvement Over British Arm.
BY JAMES n. COLLINS.

rom the COiEnltiee on IuDIlC IDiOEi
tion.)
When the ordnance department an
nounced recently that its production
OF rifles had passed the 10000 mark
weekly, the statement was news To the
general public. bringing both surprise
and relief. To the ordnance officers
in charge of SInali-armS production.
however. these figures represented
simply the attainment of IL production
that laG been planned months hciore
an important detail in the war pro-
gram fOreseen and provided f0r-jGNf
another item in tine vast work of prep
aration. which was running on sched-
ule and a little ahead. By now the
production Of rifles will have reached
the 800. OG0 mark weekly. and by JUL
| ! our army will have ,2D0.G00 modified
Enfield rifles, officially known rs the
L. : rifle. 'InGd"l OF 19lI, and lOO,H,D
new sSprin@fialds ot the standard l..
s. army type. known as the L. ). rifle,
model OF 1903. Even if Uncle Sans
own arScnals stop making rifles to-
i-i''i t'N' '''i II i''"'N '''''''''
would be able to pr0yitie Wa$tage for
several armies Of $50 $50 men. Be
sides. it has over 100000 rifles fer drill
purposes.
This production is four times great
er than the British output after Ii year
ri war and twicc rs large rs the Bri;-
iSh output after two ard one-h&!I
Years cf war. 1t is 4 larger lrnduc-
,ion than has ever been achieved lay
any cu:Int"y in q similar period. AMI
i; means mora thHn adequate supply
for IL! Of our s0lsiicrS row in France
a.ad in training here. For we have ii
production capacity for creating, IN
due time. q reserve Of rifles ut the
rate OF 2J0,000 monthly. providing Tor
an increase IN our army. if necessary.
AT lie rate CT Is Var->tr"GT 9Th d.
visions of approximately 2I,lfh SOL
diers each month. as. approZin at".F
only 30 pc" cent of the troops in Il di-
vision are armed with the rifle.
Back Of this achievement there ar
two interesting stories. First comes
the indilStrisl story OF rifle production
I'm such large quantticS-lhe careful
redeSigning Of the standard British
Enfield rifle TO take Springfield am
munition: and second. the story of
the supcriGrity &c the Springfield rife
over these used by al other armies.
Including he German Nau&er..
Could Not Make Army Rifles.
When WAY came To Europe in l3l !
not n single firearms manufacturer in
the United States had equipment or
workmnr for making army rifles. Only
the government ar&enalS at Sprin"-
field. Miss. and Rock Island. ILL.,. were
capable of making anything better
than sporting arms.
The difference between Il sporting
rifle and modern army rifle is great.
Sporting rifles are sold to single pur-
chaSerS as a rule and call for little
exactitudp in the interchangcability Of
parts. If something breaks on the
spnrti y rifle. the owner sends it back
to the factory to he repaired. An
army rife. however. must he rigidly
III sliI I'i'' - 80 t''''
pieces of mechanism Of one rifle can
be used 10 repair another in the field.
| It's ra:,1 must hc maChinaH to tOler-
Rnce of ore nnC-thou<andth Of an inch.
| This calls for exact and expensive
! cau"rS in large quantities.
The Springfield 1902 is composed OF
! ch0ut leo different parts and the car
! tridgp-rGcCivinT mechanism. including
| the bolt. alone requires 100 gauges for
/ it, manufacture. Th"s" gauges can
ouly lee mad" by expert toolmakorS. OF
! whom there are only Il limited number
| In The United ST IS. and the ma Sni-
! tu,'e Of The pT0;liRIa is realized wien
| one knows that thousands of Gupucate
J gauges must he made TO equip niH-
| c!lini:tS and inspectors for larg" guam
! tity production First. there must be
! ufat i, Known rs y CrandnlaSt"r
| CaUc" IawIcSS in its dimensions. Tho
| gTantlmaSier gauge is used only TO
! check up number Of master gauges
| and these master gauges in turn are
! relied upon "a keep the large number
! Standard .Eut only are tens of thou
sands Of -augHs required ia equip n
! factory for the production of arms
! AMI ammunition Oh. the modern scale,
, hit these gauges must he regularly
/! rpplace1. II is estimated that the
most durable of Them became inaccur-
ate after lnGO0 to 3Ho03 parts have
been tested. aai seine types of gauges
| require replacement for every 1000 or
! 1880 paris manufactured.
Preparing Gauges.
Nearly d year WAS spent by private
| manufacturers in this country prerar-
ins gauges and machine tools to
manufacture rifles and ammunition
fer the British and Russians, and even
after actual production had begun
there WAS trouble with gauges. Con
tracts were placed with different con-
Germs. each of which undertook to pro-
vide its own gauges from grandmaster
gauges brought from abroad. When