Great Guns | AdventAI

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1875

Great Guns.

THE CANNON OF THE FUTURE—HOW THE MILLENNIUM MAY BE BROUGHT AROUND.

The London Standard says: England is now building a ship to carry 24 inches of armor, and she is making a gun which will be 81 tons in weight. It may be said here is proof of England's superiority. Unquestionably the ship is splendidly designed. So also is the gun, which we are to have ready some time about next July, and which will doubtless turn out to be a wonderful weapon. Artillerist's speak of the coming monster as an "awful gun." Crowds assemble at the forge whenever one of the huge coils is to be pummelled by the new steam-hammer at Woolwich Arsenal. Even in the making of the 38-ton guns, masses of iron weighing 28 tons, at a welding heat, have to be laid under the hammer.

For the larger gun an incandescent mass of 45 tons has to be fetched out of the fire, and duly hammered. The furnace has the capacity of a cottage, and the tongs by which the glowing cylinder is lifted out of its burning bed weighs no less than 30 tons. A steam crane bears the whole weight of tongs and coil, and everything proceeds without accident or hitch of any kind. At night the sight is truly grand, and well repays those who take the trouble to be present. Other nations are not likely to be blind to the advantage which accrues from the possession of guns exceptionally powerful. Already it is known that steel tubes are being made, having a diameter six inches greater than that of the tube of the 81-ton gun. These tubes may be intended for the lining of the American smooth-bore guns, which are to be converted into rifles. Possibly they are for the use of the French Government, or for the Italian. At all events such masses of steel are being made, and are destined to play some part in connection with foreign artillery. Most certainly the appearance of a 100-ton muzzle-loading gun among foreign armaments is by no means a remote contingency.

But what are we prepared to do? Assuredly the great steam-hammer at Woolwich Arsenal can accomplish something more for us than the making of an 81-ton gun, big as that undoubtedly will be, with its bore of 16 inches in diameter and 24 feet in length, firing a projectile weighing 1,600 pounds, the range of the weapon being seven miles. All this is very formidable, but it is not by any means all that can be done. We may double the weight of the gun, making it 160 tons, having a calibre of 20 inches and a bore of at least thirty feet. This would be a magnificent piece of ordinance; but even then there would be something beyond, and why should we stop short of that which must be gained at some period or other?

Let us contemplate the further step at once. Why not have a gun with a bore of 24 inches—simply 2 feet? The weight would be 275 tons, the charge of powder would be 1,000 pounds, the weight of the projectile nearly two tons and a half, and the range eight or nine miles! This is not a mere dream, a perfectly practicable piece of work. The cost would probably be a trifle less than £100 per ton, or about £25,000 for the entire piece. In weight of projectile such a gun would be something more than a 5,000-pounder. Perhaps when we had made such a weapon we might think we had gone far enough. As for armor, the projectile of the 275-ton gun would possibly penetrate three feet with a corresponding backing. As we showed sometime ago, Dr. Collis Browne modelled a ship which shall actually carry three feet of armor. This armor would also be presented at a slope, so that our 5,000-pounder would have its work to do. As for cost, there is the consideration that one such gun will give results as no number of smaller guns could accomplish. The Inflexible sheathed in part with two feet of armor, will carry four 81-ton guns, costing £8,000 each. Her four guns, therefore, will cost more than one 275-ton gun. Yet how would such a vessel as the Inflexible be able to stand the attack of so tremendous a weapon? The 5,000-pound projectiles, unless striking with considerable obliquity, would readily smash through the thickest part of the armor, and two or three such visitors, having a bursting charge of 300 pounds of powder, might decide the fate of the ship. Surely the result would be cheap at the price!—San Francisco Chronicle.