Prepare War by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1862

Prepare War.

By Uriah Smith

THE directions which the Lord gives by the mouth of his prophet to the nations of the present day, are these: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears." Joel iii, 9, 10. Religious teachers have marked out a very different course from this in which they propose to have the world travel from this time onward. They declare that the swords must and will be beaten into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks, and the nations learn war no more. But the world is rushing on in the most utter disregard of the voice and predictions of man, but in the most exact accordance, unconscious though it may be, with the declarations of God's word. As well might men declare that at a certain time this rolling earth will reverse its course and revolve from east to west, as that the nations will deviate from the prophetic commands of the Lord, when the time has come for them to fulfill them. That the prophecy above quoted from Joel is now receiving its fulfillment the following statements, which we find in late numbers of the Scientific American, will show, as far as our own nation is concerned.

ANOTHER MONSTER GUN. One of Rodman's fifteen inch guns was successfully cast a few days ago at the Fort-Pitt works in Pittsburgh. This is the third casting made of these guns, and the work will soon be regarded as an every day performance. The process was as follows: The rough casting in the pit weighs about 78,000 pounds, and nearly forty tuns of metal were melted for the purpose in three furnaces. The furnaces were fired about five o'clock, and at eight minutes past ten the first furnace was 'tapped.' A line of troughs or 'runners' had been laid from the furthest furnace some eighty feet, the second furnace about midway joining in, and the two streams, emptying, with that from the first furnace, into a large cauldron at the edge of the pit, from which two streams diverged and, passing around the pit, emptied into the gun on opposite sides of the core barrel. The furnaces were tapped in succession, and nearly all the metal allowed to run out before the next in order was opened. At twenty-four minutes past ten the mold was filled in just sixteen minutes from the opening of the first furnace, showing that the metal must have poured into it, at the rate of nearly two and a half tuns per minute.

Think of the above statements for a moment. Think of the vast amount of science that is brought to bear upon the formation of these mighty implements of war. Think of forty tuns of iron being melted and formed into a huge instrument of death, to deal terrible destruction against any opposing thing. Truly the spirit of war does not lack for instruments by which to attain its bloodiest aspirations. The above is spoken of only one gun: below we have an account of the ordering of fifty of nearly the same prodigious size:

MORE LARGE GUNS ORDERED. The Pittsburgh Chronicle says:—'We understand that the Navy Department has ordered the casting of fifty 15-inch Dahlgrens at the Fort-Pitt Works, in this city. The draughts for the molds, &c., have been prepared by Captain Dahlgren, and it is understood that the guns will be much shorter and thicker than 15-inch Rodman guns. Most of them will be smooth bored, and are designed for use on board the new vessels, of the Monitor style, and others, whose construction has been already directed by Secretary Welles. These guns will weigh, in the rough, over seventy thousand pounds each, and will carry a ball weighing over three hundred pounds. They will doubtless be ready by the time the vessels for which they are intended are completed.'

Another peculiarity of modern warfare consists in the iron plated war vessels. The day of wooden ships of war has gone by. In more senses than one have we reached the age of iron. A description of the process of plating as it is now going forward on the steam frigate Roanoke in the Brooklyn navy-yard, will be interesting and give the reader some idea of the magnitude of the work. None but the present generation would have found itself adequate to such achievements. Swords, plowshares, pruning-hooks, and spears, are scarcely to be mentioned by the side of the huge slabs of iron weighing from two to four tuns each, which are bolted all over these modern floating batteries. We quote again from the Scientific American:

"The steam frigate Roanoke, which is now in the Navy Yard at Brooklyn, has been razed, and is being converted into an armor-clad turret war ship. She is to be clothed amidships with thick iron plates, which are to extend about five feet below the water-line; and she will have three great revolving gun turrets on deck, and a powerful iron beak or ram on her bow. This beak resembles a huge axe, and is formed of plates twenty feet long, and four and a half inches thick, thus making nine inches of iron on the front edge. Each of the revolving gun turrets will be twenty feet inside diameter, and the sides will be formed of eleven courses of inch iron plates. These plates are laid over and riveted to one another in such a manner as to 'break joints,' and vertical plates are also bolted to several courses so as to secure the whole in the most rigid and perfect manner. These gun turrets, for the Roanoke, are now being constructed at the Novelty Works, in this city, where the plates for them, likewise those for the armor, are bent to the proper curves. Each plate for a turret is about nine feet in length, by forty inches in width, and an inch in thickness. Two courses of rivet holes are punched out in each, and they are all bent cold in a powerful hydraulic press. The bed plate of the press is of a concave form, and the top block is of a convex form. A plate to be bent is placed upon the concave bed plate of the press, and when properly adjusted, the pump forces up three rams under it, and the plate is reduced to the proper curve against the top block. The pressure to which each plate is submitted, to give it the proper curve, is three and a half million pounds. By this method of bending the turret plates cold, there is perfect uniformity and accuracy secured for the whole. The turrets for the Roanoke will be of a superior character, but only six courses of plates have as yet been laid on two of them."

"The bending of the thick plates for the ram, and also for the sides of the frigate is quite a different and difficult operation to perform, compared with those of the gun towers. Each of these plates has to be bent to the proper curve to suit its own particular place on the vessel, and not only the broad side, but the edges also must be bent to suit the particular curves. The bending operation is under the charge of Mr. George Bonniwell, an intelligent young shipwright. All these plates are of hammered iron, and are furnished by several companies, in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. When they arrive, they resemble huge strait iron slabs, varying in length from eleven to twenty-two feet, and in breadth, from twenty-two to twenty-four inches, and their average thickness is four and a half inches. One of eleven and a half feet length weighs about 4,240 lbs.; one of twenty-two feet length, for the ram, weighs over four tons. Such masses of iron are difficult to move about, and the operations connected with bending them are necessarily tedious and troublesome; and they require great care and skill to conduct properly. Of course it is impossible to bend such masses of iron cold, hence each plate is first heated to nearly a white heat in a long furnace, shaped somewhat like a baker's oven, with a movable arched cover. The press for bending is quite different from the one used for the turret plates. Outwardly it resembles a long, strong iron screw press, used for pressing woolen cloth. Its top block, or platen, is moved up and down, but its bed is fixed and very solid. A Dudgeon hydraulic jack at each end supports and moves the top block up and down. The bed upon which the heated plate is laid is formed of a series of adjustable bolster blocks, each of which is capable of being set by a screw to any desired hight on either side, and at any desired angle to suit the bend to be given to a plate which is compressed between the descending top-block and the adjustable bed. A plate is first placed in the furnace, and it is then raised to nearly a white heat. The cover of the furnace is now raised by a block and tackle, and the plate is then raised by a powerful crane, secured on a carriage. The heated plate is now lifted, the crane carriage moved back, and the plate swung around and placed in the press, where it is perfectly adjusted to obtain the proper curves. The huge top-block is then forced down, upsetting the great mass of iron into the desired shape. In about half an hour the plate has acquired a permanent set, and it is taken out, ready to have its edges planed, when it is fit for bolting to the frigate. The bolt holes in these plates are all drilled. It requires a large number of men to move such great heavy masses of iron, and from the time a glowing plate is lifted out of the furnace until it is secured in the press, the scene is one of extraordinary activity and excitement, as the plate requires to be placed in the press as expeditiously as possible, before it becomes cool. The metal of these plates appears to be first class; but until within a few days past they were furnished very slowly by the different contractors. The plating of the Roanoke will now proceed with greater rapidity; still she will not be finished for several months to come. We were told that this frigate is expected to obtain a speed of about ten knots per hour."

THE IRON FLEET OF THE UNITED STATES.—By the month of November next, the United States will have ready for service fifteen iron-clad war vessels, independently of the Galena, besides a large number of iron-plated river steamers.

Truly the mighty men are "waked up;" and not only so, but all the mighty achievements which the science of the present hour is able to accomplish, they are bringing to bear upon the art of war. They not only fulfill the prediction, but it would almost seem that they go beyond anything contemplated in the prophecy. And what is to be the end of these things? After the mighty men are waked up, and the preparations for war made, there follow, in quick succession, the gathering in the valley of Jehoshaphat, the thrusting in of the Lord's avenging sickle, the multitudes in the valley of decision, and the great day of the Lord which closes up the drama of earth. Read the prophecy and prepare for the issue.

U. S.