Casting Great Guns by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 18.

Casting Great Guns.

By Editor

THE following from Harper's Weekly is not very highly suggestive of the millennium. From this it does not look as though the time is at hand when the nations shall not "learn war any more," as so "many people" are saying. Does it not rather show the fulfillment of the proclamation in Joel 3: 9–14, "Prepare war," etc.?

The production of a modern heavy gun is not only a costly affair, but often one of no little risk, as it must be perfect for its work, and able to pass the severe test imposed upon it. On the 5th of April the fourth attempt to cast the last of the great 12-inch cast-iron rifles for the Government was successfully made at the South Boston Iron Works. The last previous effort had been made in October, and had proved a failure. On the present occasion the pit had been very carefully prepared, with an unusually stout core. Three large furnaces were filled with an aggregate of 105 tons of ore. The fires were started, and in a little over fifteen hours the iron was ready to run. The signal was given, and the troughs leading from the furnaces at once began to pour the metal into the gun cradle in the center of the building. In twenty-two minutes the pit, dug forty feet into the ground, was full, and the great rifle took its first rude form. Early in May the core will be removed, and the gun taken out.

The weight of one of these cast-iron breech-loading guns is 54 tons; that of its Powlett pneumatic carriage, also made at the same works, 40 tons. The length of the gun is 30 feet. Its projectile weighs 800 pounds, and is thrown by a charge of powder weighing 265 pounds, with a maximum muzzle velocity of 1,840 feet per second, and an approximate muzzle energy of 19,000 foot-tons. The pressure per square inch of bore is about 15 tons, and the penetration of iron plate 23 inches. Enormous as is this weapon, the carriage with the gun can be maneuvered by one man in 30 seconds.

A quarter of a century ago the most powerful piece of ordnance anywhere constructed was one weighing five tons, carrying a projectile of 78 pounds, with a velocity of 1,570 feet, and an energy of 1,100 foot-tons. A comparison of these figures with those of the heavy breech-loading rifles just spoken of, will show the advance made in our country. But in other lands this is very far surpassed by high-powered modern steel guns. The Armstrong and Krupp monsters now in use dwarf even our 54-ton gun. The Armstrong 100-ton gun throws a projectile weighing 2,000 pounds, with a muzzle velocity of 1,841 feet, produced by a charge of 772 pounds of powder, and developing the enormous muzzle energy of 47,037 foot-tons. Guns like these are actually mounted in some of the Italian iron-clads. There is also an Armstrong 110-ton gun in process of manufacture, and there are many 63-ton and 80-ton Woolwich guns. Krupp is making for Italy four 130-ton guns, 55 feet long, to carry projectiles weighing 2,330 pounds each, with a velocity of 1,825 feet per second. Such are the prodigious weapons of other lands.