High Pressures

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 6, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 14.

THE pressure on steam boilers usually ranges from one hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch; but according to the careful calculations of some of the most able military men, the pressure produced in discharging the modern high-power cannon is, in less than three tenths of a second, twenty tons to the square inch. The shells fired from these guns are under such great tension that they have to sustain a pressure of seventeen tons to the square inch, while the device that takes up the recoil sustains a pressure of about twelve tons to the square inch.

Inventions and improvements in the manufacture of steel have made it possible for the materials in these guns and shells to sustain such forces. The inventions that have been a blessing to mankind in many respects, have proved a great curse as they have been turned in the channel of devices for the wholesale dealing out of death.