Evening star., 1942-04-06
Second OF q SerieS.)
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Staff Correspondent.


A UNITED STATES ARMY ORD
NANCE ARSENAL, April 6.-Tor-
rental showers of steel and brass
jacketed death pour from the as
sembly lines all day long.
Here is produced about 10 per cent
of the rifle and machine gun am
munition used by United States
forces. The life of soldier, the
accuracy of the best marksman with
the best weapon that can be pro-
vided for him, depend on differences
as small as a thousandth of an inch
in the bullets and cartridges pro-
vided for him Making them is a
fine ordnance art.
Here, in an Army Ordnance plant
that looks deceptively like a peace
full college campus with co-eds
strolling arm in arm along paths
lined with leafless, dinosaur- like
ginkho trees, the art has been pre-
served and improved through a
quarter-century of peace. 1t has
been kept ready for the torrential
outpour today, whereas otherwise it
would have been forgotten as the
artisans of the first World War went
to their graves.
Millions of Bullets Needed.
Now the output is many-fold
greater. This is war of small arms
ammunition. Production figures
cannot be revealed but the Ord
nance Department colonel in charge
of the mass production output cites
a theoretical case.
Assume" he says, "a force of
$4,000 planes, each plane carrying
eight machine guns, and each ma
chine gun in action firing 1000 shots
minute. How many millions of
50-caliber bullets would be needed
to keep this force in action for
single minute?"
Through the years of peace the
Ordnance officers here have calcu-
lated on a production problem
roughly comparable to this and as
the need arose they were able to ex-
pand the manufacturing capacity to
meet their own calculations. This
arsenal is run on the business basis
of any mass production industry.
1t serves as pilot plant for other
factories which have taken up the
same business.
Customers Are "FusSiest."
But" says the colonel, I'VE have
the worlds fusSiest customers. The
men who use our products are all
privates and on-commissioned Off
any one OF them has the slightest
cause to kick about the materials
we furnish him he should kick-and
he does. He's the fellow whose life
Is at stake
During the years of peace the
Ordnance Department research men
have been hard at work with the
result that the ammunition fur
nished the American soldier today
is by far the best the world has ever
known. That provided during the
last World War was crude in COM
parison. The details of some of the
differences are, of course, military
secrets. But, for one thing, the bull
lets provided today move lot faster
due to the quality of the propellant
explosives.
In 1918 .50-caliber machine gun
bullet Travelled at about $500 feet
a second and bullet from Spring
field about 2,700 feet a second, both
muzzle velocity. Relatively, this was
the horse-and-buggy age of bullet
speeds, and a hundredth of second
may make a lot of difference in fire
power.
Small Bullets Pierce Armor.
In 1918 the idea of armor- piercing
small arms ammunition would have
been fantastic. Here today are be-
ing manufactured machine gun bull
lets which can pierce armor-a de-
velopment due largely to certain new
metallurgical compounds, as well
as more powerful propellants.
Perhaps the most important ord
nance development of all has been
a metallurgical one-an open-hearth
method of making steel which has
improved the quality and at the
same time cut the cost of the metal
and the time of the machining pro-
cess in half.
Money still means something to
the Ordnance Department. They
are producing today for 21a cents
what would cost 10 cents if the
methods and material used in
World War One days were still in
vogue. The actual cost of a round,
however. is not much cheaper Both
material and labor were lower
quarter century ago.
Gun Aimed Like Hose.
One of the biggest advances made
at this ordnance arsenal is in tracer
ammunition for airplanes. 1t en-
ables "a machine gun to be aimed
like garden hose" The improve
ment is a closely guarded military
secret. The ammunition, however,
Is now on mass production basis
and is so efficient, says the colonel,