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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 1917)
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JUNE 3, 1917. 7 mm pJdb . . hi J U i I i r Amazing Size and Power of the New Monsters of Steel, and How They Are Made to Meet the Severe Requirements of Modern Fighting in Long Range Attack and Defense Twelve-Inch. THIS is a war of explosions explo sions from bombs hurled by. hand at the enemy to explosions of shells weighing 3000 pounds thrown 20 miles by giant guns of 17-inch caliber and weighting over 100 tons. It Is a war of machinery, with the limits of the danger cones limited only by the range of the greatest guns. In fact, tbs art of war today is "a-r-t-illery." a state 'V Gun la Actios) The Photograph 4 Showing ment which appears literally to be true. The United States Army and Navy are now being rapidly equipped with guns of various types, most of them Ameri can inventions, among which are ma chine guns, horse artillery guns, field artillery guns and howitzers, heavy siege guns, anti-aircraft guns that can shoot 27.000 feet straight up in the air and, naval and coast defense guns of Shows the Thousand-Pound Projectile a Steel Ingot for a 16-Inch, 126-Ton 1( and 17-inch caliber, capable of hurl ing a ton of steel more than a score of miles. At the Kavy-yard In Washington is assembled what is said to be the fin est assortment of machine tools in this country. If not In the world, for in the Nation's Capital U the big Job of mak ing tbs giant guns of marvelous ac curacy and power with which Ameri 5: is.' 1 Passing Through the Gas and Smoke Gun. can dreadonghts are armed and coasts defended. Tbs Government's gun factory at Washington, running 24 hours a day for a year, could. It is estimated, build only 10 12-lnch or 14-lnch guns, so vast is the amount of work required to con struct one of these monster weapons, of which one of Uncle Sam's dread noughts carry as many as a dotes. Hot all of the Government's great - f.M-t;. Jf Mm A Jfc' "Mushroom." -rJr V-' guns, however,' are built at the Wash In g too Navy-yard. Some are con structed at the Army gun factory at TV'atervllet and still others at privately owned steel plants. While the naval gun plant at Washington machines and finishes the rifles turned out there. Jt is dependent upon private steel plants for the monster rough forging re quired. The time required to complete a gun it- ?r v...- Monster Disappearing Gun and of 13-Inch or 14-inch caliber ranges from eight to nine months. These rifles are the output of mechanics of the highest skill, and welch anywhere from S to 10 tons. Independent of their mounts. They are fashioned with such precision that they must agree in some of their dimensions within 1-1000 of an loch with the sizes specified. This, of necessity. Is an -unavoidable brake upon speed in production. These big guns are constructed on what Is technically termed the "built up" principle, that la, they consist of a O; -at -4 A 10', -Inch Karveyized Plate series of steel tubes Eh runic on sue- ' evasively. When the final hoop or par tial packet has been shrunk upon the gun this cumbersome mass is then ex actly centered in the lathe, preparatory to finish boring. the Inner tube. The workmen in charge of this op eration watch every tiny curl of the cut metal to prevent any particle of it from lamming between the boring hits and set-etching or marring the wonder fully smooth steel surface. - Many weeks are often required to bore one of these big guns. The powder chamber is next formed ta at the rear, and after that follows the delicate task of cutting and rifling the grooves. Almost superhuman ac curacy is required In this operation, for the gun is machined to .0006 of an inch by a tool that is a mechanical marvel. The efficiency of the modern rifle depends upon the speed with which it can be loaded, fired and reloaded, and the breech mechanism Is the chief fea ture that makes this posible. The breech plugs must absolutely seal the rear of the rifle at the instant of dl charge against the backward escape of the Intensely hot powder gases, which have aa estimated pressure of 17 tons to the square inch at the moment of the .1. Carriage in Firing Fo&ition. explosion. Because ofthe great pr"J clsion and highest type of engineering skill demanded by this operation It takes fully as long to make the breech plug as it does to build the gun and tn. the biggest of Uncle Sam's rifles this often means a period of eight months and even longer. What Aantralla lias Done. Geographic Magazine. Within two months after war was declared the little Australian fleet of five cruisers, three torpedo-boat de- a .... "ir- .6 J I'M : i.MMHMtbf After Tests With an 8-Inch Gun. stroyers and three light gunboats. bultC and manned at the nation's expense, had occupied the German Pacific is lands Samoa. Marshal L Carolines, Pelow. Ladronee. New Guinea, New Britain broken up the German wire less system, captured 11 enemy's ves sels, forced 25 others to intern and prevented the destruction of a single Brttieh ehip in Australian waters. in the third month of the war the Emden. lying in wait for Australian transports, met its fate before the guns of the cruiser Sydney. Later on the watch ful Australian fleet played its part tn driving Von Spree's squadron from the Pacific Into the trap set by Admiral Sturdee at the Falkland islands. The response of the military forces waa likewise quick and effective. Al though fighting at a distance involved unusual effort and expense, ibe task was loyally assumed. Universal mili tary service was inaugurated for the first time by an English-speaJting com munity. Factories were turned over to the government. 70 steamers were re quisitioned and rebuilt for transport service, war loans were offered and quickly accepted. By July. 1918. nearly 300,000 volunteers had crossed the seas. The creation, equipment and supplying of this army, involving enormous cost; and personal sacrifice, constitutes a thrilling chapter in the history of loy , alty. .
