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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1901)
,32 ,. .V - ,-, ingenious anb daring Tests of Cannon an& Projectiiles at the i'iiiLi' '!' '.'. jiIJ. '.-LI .l,.'1'.'. ' '.! '!.'. .'.'.'. ...'. '.' ' '' ' ""i ""'" '" i Fanovs Proving Sroknss on Sandy k I- - A - m - Vn j. tf .BvKSNBWI r . 2iJX jm iifc KPFATUg5.. s v ii ' . HgllliglggistP3 X'S fc. . lb: iMUBBmi iTW&l w IfflWWfJPlIP 111 - if nutriYZ2--zz--i i FixTrr v v , - v 11 v uwn 1 jii i i ibitc.'! iii ii iu hi ' 4n tfTiiiiiiiniin i" ifirji xtiufuii! iiiiiiiiifimn wmsmk v a ass insn'iM iihi HH1 ill 1 :ISII 1 I X.v S? AJyXV.t jv i . 4'S2J!!4r i 1 . OTSytf lMkW77 HP." (TMI1 QHliAKCK GRAVIYARb lfEIRD AND INGENIOUS GUNS "tha,T WERE BETTER ON PAPER h-RAN IN SERVICE, SB Is as dainty and as pretty &a the prettiest shotgun thbt eVer Tras turned out by a loving ota maker of guns. She sits 11 fet' UD In the sir. i,Hh n nnlw ss light as that of the swallow that has jufct perched for a moment on her long, thin muzzle. .If you were told to climb -up and swing her, you -would not dream of using more than one "hand to do It. Shfe Is 40 feet long and weighs 61 tons. She throws half a ton of solid steel 10 xhi!6s and never trembles from the shook. She explodes 1ST pounds of powder In her "wpmb and never weakens. Her blast win laiook you head over heels, though ou stand 50 feet outside of her line of- lire. She Is the American 12-Inch, all-steel," Tinea, seacoast-defense gun, the quean of them al, and, until the American 16-Inch gun shall have been tested, the ruler of the shore. She Is an earthquake harnessed. She is leashed death and ruin. How do we know wliat she can do? She never has been proved in that flnal battle te&t when the warships ring the land around her with Are and must make her great voice si lent, or else themselves go down In the sea, with all their armor, batteries and men. She Han Been Trlert. But we know what she can. do, because we have sowed the long, white sea beach aad the opon ocean for ten miles off shore with tons on tons of steel projectile, in or der to know. "We have "tried her out" at the Army Ordnance Proving Grounds, hid den away on Sandy Hook, the wave washed spit of land that New Jersey sends reaching Into the Atlantic Ocean, like the long, white skeleton arm of Davy Jones himself. That long, white arm for many years has trembled and echoed dally to every noise that every gun can make, from the spiteful little Norden-felt to the steel mortar that can throw a thing that presently will drop from the sky eight miles distant and plunge through a battle-ship from the deok to keel with much more certainty than even a bolt of light ning would. At the very point of the Hook is a little office in a little building. It looks a bit L like a chemist's laboratory, a bit like an architect's draughtlng-room, a bit like a machinery-maker's ante room. That is where the ordnance officers of the United States convert every shot that is fired Into long tables full of figures. Telegraphs Each Shot. The gun Itself telegraphs a good part of the story of each shot Into the office. Sit In that quiet place always as quiet and silent as most offices connected w ith great noisy works like forges and saw mills and other roaring industries usually are, and suddenly there will sound "Click! Click! Click!" all around the room, just as the faraway throbbing complaint of a great gun loosed trembles on the air. Those clicks have all been separate and distinct. But no ear ever was fine and quick enough to catch them as anything ex cept one commingled sound. They have stopped while the ear still Is gathering them and transmitting their message to the brain. Those few sharp sounds that sounded Mke one have recorded the rfve-mile flight of a projectile. Click one told when it left the muzzle. Click two recorded its flight a thousand feet away. Click three 6aid that the projectile had just passed the roiIe. So they caught its passage one mile, two miles, three miles, Ave miles awa. Small wonder that the ear could Hot catch the different messages sepa rately. That shot. If it was a 12-inch. 1000-pound projectile from the 12-inch gun, traveled J952 feet in the first second. It was a quarter of a mile from the muz zle of the cannon before the finger that pressed the fifing button had even con sciously ceased pressing. Iilfflitninpr-Lilte Flight. No clock ever was made fine enough to begin to denote the minute fragments of tlme that are occupied in the flight of a shot from a modern, high-powered weap on. The best stop watch In the world is many hundred times too slow to do it. Even If one could be made fine enough for the purpose, the quickest man In the world couldn't stop it In time. -Before the sharpest eye had passed the knowledge t'0 the nimblest brain, and that, in turn, had passed the command to Uie quickest fin ger that ever moved, a half-ton of metal would have hit Us goal 10 miles away. Ordnance officers have to deal not with half seconds or eighth seconds, but with the one-thousandth part of a second. In the office In Sandy Hook is a queer instru ment of polished 6teeL Day after day It records Instants of time too small for the mind even to conceive. To measure and record the one-thousandth of a sec ond is play for It. It Is always set to do that But It can measure a millionth part of a second. Yet the work of recording the course of a big shot is beautifully simple. Thi real work, that demands many years pt prepa ration und study, is to kiiow what to do with the records after you have-them. Gould Hecord Every Foot. So pimpleand perfect is the method that It is ontlrely possible on Sandy Hook to' record the speed of a projectile in every foot ot Its course, if such knowledge were necessary, which it Is not As one stands by the long line of taper cannon one can see large frame supports scattered at uniform distances down the range. Each bf them is hung with wires, and looks a. great deal like-the weighted -wires hung over railroad traoks just In frost of overhead obstructlo'ns to tap for- J Z'i "!- "Pt . . r y ft. :?- 1 '. KCr gotful trainmen on tops of freight cars gently and warn them that a "low bridge" demands an immediate duck, if they wish to reach the other side of the obstruction with their heads where they belong. All these wires are electric, and each is con nected with Instruments in the office. As the flying projectile breaks them they re cord the fact instantly. "When a gun is tried at Sandy Hook every item of its behavior must be re corded. What pressure does the powder develop In the chamber? With what vio lence does the gun recoil? What speed does the projectile develop in the bore before it leaves the muzzle? What speed does it develop within a second after leaving the gun? What Is its sustained speed at various distances from the gun? Powder Pressure. When a gun is to be tested, after all its parts, have been inspected carefully and cleaned and oiled, small copper plugs are fitted in little holes in the breech. These are pressure plugs. When the powder ex plodes, It compresses them and thus is re corded exactly the pressure exerted in the powder chamber. After the plugs are In, a wire is fitted over the muzzle. It connects with one of the instruments In the onTce and records the time when the shot breaks it Then, as the projectile pierces frame after frame along the range, they. too; telegraph the exact Instant to waiting instruments. But even the practically Instantaneous record made by an electric recorder Is not swift enough In Itself. Electricity has to be helped with ingenious means. The wires that are scattered along' the range do not lead to an Instrument that makes a record on paper. That would be far too slow. They lead to the queer apparatus of polished steel that has been mentioned as being able to record inconceivable frac tions of seconds. It is known as ih bieoer veiocimeter. 'Its noticeable feature Is a chunky, beautifully polished cylinder of steel, a few Inches long. It has one sharply pointed end. By this end, which is magnetic, it Just hangs to an upper supporting arm. Hovr It Works. When the shot breaks the first wire, it. In turn, breaks the electro-magnet that holds the steel bar, and down It falls. It has only a few lucres to drop. Yet Hefore it falls that short distance, the projectile has smashed through framework after framework. As the successive wires break, successive circuits are broken, and 'tinv. sharp gravers shoot out from the sides of the instrument and strike that falling bar. Each graver marks it and by the time the shot has struck its mark, the little steel cylinder just about reaches the end of its drop. Now, knowing to the thousandth part of a second how fast It dropped, the ordnance expert can calcu late the swiftness of the projectile, by measuring the distances between the marks scratched on the cylinder by the gravers. To measure the recoil another simple method is used. One end of a long, thin strip of steel, with Its face smoked to a uniform blackness, is fastened to the car riage of the gun. Near the muzzle end of the, cannon Is an apparatus with a tuning fork so arranged that a little spur on one of its jaws just touches the face of the blackened face of the steel band. When all Is ready for firing, this tuning fork is set to vibrating by an electrical Instrument that makes it vibrato exactly one thousand times a second, without varying by a single vibration. When the cannon is discharged the recoil naturally jerks the steel band backward, and the little spur, on the fork marks a long -waving llhe on the steeL The band is dipped In a solution that fixes the record so it will not rub off. An Eauy Slntter. .Now, knowing Just how far the gun recoiled a matter that is, of course, measured easily it is merely a question of counting the waves marked on the 6teel to determine how many thousandth parts of a second It required for the weapon to complete the distance. And, by knowing th velocity of recoil, it Is possible, calculating the entire weight of the gun and carriage, to find out how great was the force of recoil in pounds,, which is a most important factor in de termining the strength of emplacements where the weapon is to bo mounted finally. , While Sandy Hook isbfflcial!y a prov ing ground, it is .fully, as Important as a lfeteSSfearS. 1FRYIN0 5M0KELES5 PWDER IfiiKUulHlH IK ill fl 181 UWM Mwfct it flHHHKBBrt.flMHnBnr sr QT Mrkm MM kM fllssIM -& tfJi&TaJliSsi jP g-r- 111 lIM ill EsP5 raS- msgssssssimm miBMmm2mmmmssESmvr mm i 3 .. -JU: nzr n I ' 1 -xL-TrOJIJfci- Hill. ' - - . w n . - HlflMU iBR 31 IBS H i SI I nlll 1 IliErJilil III . m ' .u H1HH1RH liriraW I v T n -' A MHWilSlaSl 119 f - ! I U ' HlhIA W ". ''' . X .-fj'jvfosr&vvvjtt?svfaffj .Vy 1 x II " 5 ?TZZ7 - ? ri i' testing ground. The difference between the two Is this: When the Government decides to adopt an arm of a- certain pat tern, type guns are sent to the' Hook be fore the United States commits itself to the final purchase of that particular kind of cannon. These type guns go to the testing department, where they are sub jected to the most severe tests and ex periments that can -be' devised. Practi cally the testing-ground officers try to smash the gun. They try It with maxi mum and minimum charges of powder and projectile. They let it "weather." They load it to the bursting point Histories of Test. Sometimes a gun will undergo tests for a year or more, each shot being care fully recorded and a little hlstorv beine- written about It before the Government cets a final renort nn t Montr' onnn has had enough to fill a big book -written' aDout it in successive reports of tests, and then been rejected. If a gmTgets . the "O. X." mark fijora Sandy Hookjit Is a good one. Foreign governments .realize that more keenly than do the people of the United States. Foreicn milltarv men consider the proving grounds on Sandy TTnli- .. -... il-- .. ...,...." u.uu-0. no Kuv jl me must uuuioritailVQ government departments in the world, and its reports are at a premium in every War Office on the globe. If atype of gun doesn't develop a fever ish pulse before its test is ended, and if it Is accepted finally, more guns of the same pattern are ordered. An Army officer superintends every step of T their manu facture and sees that each Is made exactly like the gun that was tesfed. As eacfi, is finished, It is sent to Sandy Hook to be "proved." Five shots are Ilred from it under service conditions, and if it acts correctly, it is sent on to a Coast forti fication. Not a single gun-is'mounted to day in a fort unless it Jia heen through the hands of the'proving-ground officers. Beauties of "War. Testing and proving, guns is not war, but it has many of the beauties of war. In the long line of beautiful weapopj look ing out to sea over the miles of beach that are holy for the purpose at Sandy Hook, and on which no man is allowed to set foot, there hardly is one that could not tell a story of narrowly averted death premature discharge due to causes which no human skill or caution could prevent the bursting of a breech block, the yield ing of a vent plug, the unaccountable rlcochettlng of a projectile. Congress often kindly aids In making Sandy Hook, unpleasant It is common for an invento.r to get a bill through, or dering the War Department to test his weapon or his explosive, for the testing and proving grounds are for trying pro jectiles, shells and explosives as well as ,guns. Time and again explosives or weapons have arrived at the- HooTc that , were so blzarreand evidently more dan gerous to the shooter than they ever would bo to the enemy, that the officers in charge declined to risk the lives of their soldiers by assigning any-of them to the work -of-flring them. Not that the offi cers refused to test them. They sent the soldiers to a. safedlstance and did the work themselve u : " " Eight years ago a young Lieutenant, one 1 r- i ' ' " all IWMrTMWBMilliiil'1tiiinilffiliMiwiiiiiiiiM Trnfrm-TTIm''TfirJr'ir v n TV ''"IBI. Tim -rrrtf iiffrf i IB ritf JKfff 1 1 AN! to5Rg s: jgjy flSiiBlrii!I-7TfculjLJLj& tfeci &5i8r 4 ja.i.i i.ii wM f IMIM IllMfllTlS BM)SiIffllliUs3J r 3 IlllHliill 11 -- " i ' ' . 1 1 1 tl Z 1IHI..H ivn 111 inlTwiuliNi M (JJ lulu I! - f N IJ-TT". Xlj Bt.:M ur-nvr. vn5vm iMC.PPtADi.ir I At0)tt WITM Ift IMfkl All VTTtRl ipnucvni-uHvinu Kr-LO? trJiNur.LKKW&c j T - J of the most promising men in the Ord nance Department, was assigned to the duty of testing a new shell. He exam ined it and found that it was highly dan gerous even to handle the thing. But he made no objection. He-simDlv ordered One Of his men to sret n whpolhnrrnw TVion !,. Do i. ?, ? I .tWay. n Sme trifUn dUtV and WhpptArl tha nr .Mm tViInn- a wH, down the beach. There he made 'the test He was not reckless, and he took all the precautions possible. Bu, despite his care,, the shell exploded and mangled his' face, besides Injuring his eyes so badly that for many months it was doubtful if ho would recover his sight. , , Another Inventor a few years ago In-' vented a unique cast-iron -cannon of frightful calibre, with an eauallv unlaue' 'shell to carry an equally unique bursting 'charge. He went td the Hook to witness the tests, and when he saw k that the offi cers were taking unusual "precautions, he became grieved and then' indignant, aid; finally made slurting remarks about the .conspifcuous amount of bravery that the sumiers uiu -not nave. jTheroupon the offi cer in charge said to him: Fool Inventor Called Down. "This gun Und this shell an'd this pro jectile, are sent .here to be tested. We are .going toip It falrly,,as you can see. Bjrt We knOWthnt thnv nr-a oil -,-..... in.. -' ' .--. ...w.7 wtu Uil CAl.iUJiUJiJ' line- ly to hurst and kill some one- It is our duty to take th& fisk, and it is equally our duty to guardour men. That we are going to do. When the gun is loaded, we .shall remain near it to fire it and observe CJRCUMSTANCES Mrs. Mmihwed Before we were here as long as sho pleased. IWBMWr iImI mmmBJmJIRHi Mr. Muchwed Tes, but she doesn't please any more. LOADING THE aiPRlIPARATORY, & Uft ft. You have not only the privilege of retiring behind the bomb proof, but prob- ably we shall insist on your doing so. Or would you prefer to sit on top of your gun?" The inventor decided not to sit on his gun. Indeed, when the word was given that all was ready, he was one of the first behind the bomb proof. It was just as well. In a fraction of time after the firing button was pressed, there was no gun. The explosive had burst In the shell, the shell had burst In the gun and the gun was in pieces. Luckily Its construc tion was so weak that It did not scatter . ..... ....... un ine aeaaiy results that might have been ejected, otherwise, not an officer ! ... . ' would have escaped There Is a gun lying in a prominent part of the ordnance graveyard, on the Hook. That Is, at first sight it appears to be a gun. On examination It turns out to be a beautifully built-up piece of Iron mosaic work. Preserved In Mosaic. It was a patent gun. The first shot fired from It broke Into so many little pieces that the authorities had them all col lected andkput together again for a relic. Some, of the fragments were found miles away. Hardly one of them Is larger than a man's hand. A famous corpse in tho graveyard is the multi-charge gun. In its time it was far more famous than any of the late patent guns for firing high explosives. It made heartburnings in Congress, and there were many kindly and pleasing remarks about the obstinacy and hide-bound Idiocy and old fogylsm of the Ordnance Department because it persisted Jn reporting tb Con gress that the multl-chargQgunjWastno' good. But the Inventor of the gun had a pull, besides his genius for trunmakifur. so he got an appropriation and built his terrible B) vj. wu.i. it was hkc an oramary HAD CHANGED. married you said tjhat marftma could stay 1 ""- 6 r ' V f GftEAT ll-INCH RIFLE. 70 A 'SHOT fOR A RECORD WA0RAM SHOWING 12 INCH ALL STEEL Tcu.ni.v)rtKifi(j KlrLCD WtTwN PWBElTTEi CAKKIAGC. I cannon from the muzzle to about half way to the breech. But there It swelled out Into wonderful and hideous protuberances Each of these protuberances was designed to hold an enormous charge of powder. The Idea of the maker was that the first charge of powder would Ignite the second and the second the third, and so on, and that all these charges combined would drive the projectile with frightful force. The multi-charge gun was fired Just once. Perhaps it cannot be said truth fully that it ever was fired even once, for the first charge of powder In the first chamber wrecked It before the test had even become ignited. Other Pleasing Occupations. There are all kinds of pleasant occupa tions on Sandy Hook besides firing guns. You meet a mcrn casually. He Is carrying a large glass jar with something that looks like water In It He la merely an expert carrying a new explosive that he must test. There I3 a great line of romantic and mighty granite walls, partly In ruins, just behind the proving grounds. They are the remains of a great fortiflcatloh begun by the Government In the Civil War and abandoned when stonework no longer was useful for forts. In the deep casements are stored tons of powder of all kinds. Red tape forbids the destruc tion of powder sent to tho Hook to be tested. And, as half a ton generally is the minimum quantity that the eelf respect of the ordinary- inventor permits to dream of sending, there is enough there to blow a. fair-part 'of New Jersey Into the moon and introduce the apple jack Industry on "that pranet with ce lerity. If the visitor happens to see a man bending over a little round stove In the open air and watchinga frying-pan fond ly, It Ms well not to 'rush up to him in the hope of finding him in the act of, frvincr country sausages. He is trying smokeless powder to aee how.it acts. Frying smoke less powder Is not a profession that makes the chef a favorable subject for a life insurance company, but there are many men on the Hook who are proficient in that form of cookery. - It Looks Nice., Smokeless powder comes in nice, sqft colored black cubes, generally about the size of dice. It cuts nicely' with a knife, and when It burns it does so slowly ana like reeln. When It explodes It does so a little bit le3 slowly, something like light ning. Not everybody would find his Ideal of life in poking a thermometer Into a papful of It. Even when the gun l4jlds together all right and the powder explodes all' right' and the projectile -starts away all right, the gentle modes of diversion on the Hook have not reached an entirely hopeless end. All sorts of things may happen when the projectile hits the target The target generally is a huge steel plate, anywhere from sLx to sixteen inches thick. It is bolted to a backing of great timbers and tons of sand are heaped be hind it The plate Is made by persons who are Interested In making armor for battle-ships that no projectile can pierce. The gun and the powder and the pro jectile are made by other persons, who are devoted to the task of knocking any known steel plate Into little, UtUe bite. This make a meetinar of nlnte Uriel nrn. Jectile- truly interesting and often' heated. The projectile need not be loaded with a bursting charge to make its attack on the plate resemble a dynamite explosion. You couldn't expect to slam a locomotive IS INCHHARffY17Fh 5TPH Pi ATE- AF1 BEING PIERCED BYA IZIXCH fR0CCT.t.j .IMC WAI ICPttf NWCUllt ft SHOWN OHTHtlEfT) MEASURING A CMiHOM BMl!S SPt..... THE FRAMES ALONf, TMF RANKf- WCmttl. MWWfl5. AS THtreOJKTILt FLIES THROUGH TKC THEY BREAM, A UKIUIT AND TEH THE EMCT VtlOClTY TQ THE THOUSANDTH MT OF lA SECOND w at full speed Into a steel plate without seeing things fly, and a locomotive at full ..peed wouldn't even have time to wheeze once In the time it taJ.es a pro jectile to go 10 miles. There was a 12-inch steel plate once. "Was" is used, because this article alms at fidelity to fact, and the present tense could be used In reference to that stetl plate only just before the firing button was pressed. It was a 12-lncb solid steel projectile from a 12-inch gun that was pounded into it from a distance of 500O yards. There was a burst of f.rc and a cloud of smoke from the gun, and si multaneously, a burst of something where the plate had been. If the air did not really and truly turn black for a fleeting moment, the eyes of all observers lied. And then things began to rain down from the sky. Some of the things came like real rain fine and plentiful. That was sand. Others of the things came hurtling and made covers agreeable. That was kindling wood. Others of the things came with a roar and a scream and a whirr and a bang. That was steel. And then It stopped raining. And then some body shouted "Look!" Away In the sky was a black specie It was as big as a dime. It was as big as a bird. It was as great as a tumbling safe. It was a huge thing blotting out the sky. It hit tho beach and a fountain of sand went up many hundreds of feet and som Inches. Five houre of hard digging un covered It It was a dainty bit of the 12 Inch steel plate, weighing about 4000 pounds, enough to cause comment had It fallen on a tender toe. Like a Furnace When a big projectile bores a hole through a steel plate, It generally makes an aperture as clean as If it had been .done with tools. For half an hour after ward It Is Impossible to hold the hand In that hole. One might as well thrust It Into a furnace. Sometimes the projectile is bent and warped and twisted and split, as If it had been made of tin. At other times it isn't even marked; that is, Jt isn't even marked from its flight through the plate. But It always is marked if It buries itself Into sand. What the best nickel steel cannot do the tiny grains of the seashore do every time. When that revolving shot dives Into them, they en grave It wonderfully with millions of delicate and minute lines. A half-ton projectile fired on Sandy Hook often has sheared through 13 inches of steel, 10 or 15 feet of oak timbers, a small 'mountain of sand, and gone as straight as an arrow on Its course until It struck the sea. Then it would Just touch the crest of a trifling little wave, and up it would fly straight Into the dlr. Water Is the one thing that they can not calculate on the proving grounds. When a shell hits steel and timber and sand they know pretty well how It will go. But a shell that hits the water may go In any direction. A ripple that Is not big enough to rock a rowboat may divert a shell and jump it miles out of it3 course. A Record Shot. , One of the record shots-at Sandy Hook with a 12-lnch rifle sent the projectile mure than 10 measured miles out to sea. That projectile rlcochotted eight times before ir finally took Its last plunge. Every time it struck the water it roared as If a sea monster were bellowing In mortal agony. Every time It Jumped, it jumped higher in the air than the masts of a full-rigged ship. . At an ordinary routine test a projectile from a 10-lnch steel rifle struck the plate true, went through eight Inches of steel, struck a huge oak timber and sheared It clean, transversely as if It had been cut with a circular saw, and then hit the head of a little five-inch bolt and rlcochetted and went 'nto the air till It was out of sight It came down not a thousand yards from the gun. Around the base of every projectile there Is a band of soft copper. It flts the rifling of tho bore accurately and thus forces the shell to take Its rotary motion. Oftn,' after a shell has gone through a steel plate, long pieces of this soft dopper are found forced clean Into the hard steel, as a toothpick might be forced Into cheese. J. w. SL f m i"