Big Guns

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 3, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 43.

Judge Anderson
(See Item on Page 11, “The Government Beaten.”) — Judge Anderson (See Item on Page 11, “The Government Beaten.”)

Big Guns.—Two new guns have been devised and manufactured by the United States; one the new navy gun, the bore of which is 14 inches in diameter, the weight nearly 64 tons, or 10 tons more than the 12-inch rifles built for the battleships North Dakota and Delaware. Total length of the gun is 53½ feet, the capacity of the powder-chamber 15,848 cubic inches, requiring 365 pounds of smokeless powder to hurl the projectile, which weighs 1,400 pounds. This huge shell will travel a distance of 542 inches in the bore of the gun, and after leaving the muzzle is good for a 25-mile flight, altho the battle range would be about 9,000 yards, or five miles. The shell will leave the muzzle of this at a rate of 2,600 feet per second, and its muzzle energy will be 65,606 foot tons; 13,000 foot tons more energy than the latest 12-inch guns. When fired with a full charge, it will penetrate 22 8-10 inches of the best Krupp steel armor at the muzzle, and at the range of 9,000 yards would pass right through a piece of armor 13 inches in thickness.

The new army gun is also a 14-inch gun, weighing about the same as the present 12-inch gun, but firing a heavier projectile with a lower velocity and a greater curve of trajectory. Its great advantage is that it can fire 250 to 300 rounds without serious erosion, while the 12-inch can fire only from 80 to 85 rounds. These facts we gather from the Scientific American.