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26 MARINE REVIEW. across the freeboard of a ship 15 ft. high, which would include all the vulnerable part of the ship, in somewhat less than one-tenth of a second. This is a period of time too small to be appreciated by a man's nerves, and, indeed, the accuracy of operation of the firing apparatus of the gun can hardly come within this limit. "The naval officer has a certain weight to put into battery, and the question comes to him at once: Having 100 tons to dispose in guns and gun carriages, shall it be put in so many 8-in. guns or in so many 6-in. guns? Roughly, the weights of guns vary with the cube of the calibers, and for every 8-in. gun you can have eight 4-in. As the 4-in. gun fires a good deal faster than the 8-in., the weight of metal and of bursting charge thrown by the battery of light guns would considerably exceed that thrown by the heavier ones. The weight of a single discharge from a battery of fixed weight, of any caliber, would remain about the same, of: course. 'These, it seems, are the great tactical questions in regard to guns: First, having a fixed system of guns--that is, having guns of differing calibers in which the dimensions are about proportional to the calibers--what size guns shall we use? and, second, there is the other question: Is the system right? That is, should 8-in. guns weigh what they do, or should they weigh more or less; or, to put it in another way, are we satisfied with present weights of guns, or do we want more velocity in a gun of fixed caliber, and are we willing to accept the increased weight that must be given to the gun to get this. Much discussion is going on now in regard to the substitution of 7-in. and 7.5-in. guns for 6-in, guns on the broadside of battleships, and while everybody must be desirous of increasing to the utmost the size of the guns, and consequently their destructive effect, it must be remembered that this inevitably makes the weight carried heavier, and in certain cases limits the speed of firing. It has been generally asserted that guns cease to be rapid-fire when increased beyond 6 in. in caliber. Even 6-in. guns must have their cartridges separate from the projectile, and, as the projectile weighs 100 lbs., it is about all that one man wants to put into a gun quickly when standing on the deck of a rolling ship. "In no respect perhaps has greater improvement in gunnery been made in the last ten years than in the practically universal adoption of smokeless powder. At present, the pure nitro-cellulose powder is gen- erally held to be much the best. Though smokelessness is usually put forward as the great advantage of the modern powder, yet the absence of solid residue in the products of combustion would appear to be the real gain in this regard. In the old powders about 40 per cent. of solid residue was projected from the gun as uselessly as though its weight was in sand, while in the modern powder all or nearly all the charge turns into gas and helps to propel the projectile. On the other hand, the gas of the modern powder, particularly where much nitro-glycerine is used in making it up, as is the case in cordite, for example, is of very high temperature and scores and gutters the gun very badly. This is much less so with the nitro-cellulose variety, and with the latter, where moderate pressures are used--say, of 34,000 or 35,000 lbs.--the scoring of the gun is not a very serious matter. The scoring of steel by hot powder gas is a most extra- ordinary phenomenon. If there is ever so little a channel through which the gas can escape the steel is washed out and disappears in a most won- derful way. As, however, the propelling power of powder depends upon the amount of gas given off and upon the temperature to which it is heated, it is desirable, of course, to use as high a temperature as we can. In other words, if the scoring and guttering of the gas could be controlled, the hotter it is the greater the velocity attained would be. As a matter of fact, however, when high pressures--say, 40,000 or 50,000 lbs.--are reached, the destructive power of the gas becomes very great. When the new powders came in first it was thought that a charge of one-fourth or one- third the weight of the projectile would be ample to give all the velocity that would be needed, but owing to the desire to attain very high veloci- ties (3,000 ft. and upwards), the weights of charges have been creeping up of late until now, in some guns, they approach one-half the weight of the projectile, which is the figure at which they stood roughly in the days of brown or cocoa powder. It need hardly be pointed out here how impor- tant a matter this is as controlling the sizes of magazines of ships. In- deed, in some classes of artillery, as for instance in field artillery, where weight is of vital importance, there are many who believe that some form of nitro-glycerine powder may still be used, as it is with shoulder guns." Mr. Meigs here devotes a paragraph or two to improvements in the quality of steel in guns, and continues: "It used to be accepted as a sort of an axiom in ship design that the armor should be so distributed and the vulnerable parts of a ship so pro- tected that no one shot could destroy her. This has led, in view of the heavy turret guns carried by ships, to the heavy side armor and heavy armor on the turret and barbette. I think a study of naval history will bear me out in the statement that the resistance of ships has been over- come nearly always by silencing the battery and not by destroying the ship. If this is so, a ship should carry large-bored guns of respectable penetrating and mine power, and their magazines and ammunition supply arrangements should be such that they could be served at maximum rate. Roughly, if the systems of the guns are the same--that is, if the guns are of the same dimensions, when stated in calibers--then for every 12-in. gun we may have twenty-seven 4-in. guns, and as the rate of fire of each 4-in. gun, owing to the size of which the ammunition could be handled at the gun (providing it could be brought there from the magazine) is quite five times that of the 12-in. it becomes apparent how much total metal and bursting charge is sacrificed for the heavy turret gun. Suppose a ship, instead of, say, four 12-in. guns and four 8-in. and sixteen 6-in. guns, should carry about 170 4-in. guns or eighty 4-in. on her broadside, or a total of fifty-six 6-in., say. Which would be the better ship? Of course this parallel may be reasonably combated, but to me it means a great deal. If it be true that ships are overcome by their batteries being silenced-- that is, by their men being driven from the guns--then the number of shots fired becomes a question of great importance. _ "At the present time it may be said that the principal guns of battle- ships are in turrets, usually in pairs, and are of 12-in, caliber. The thick- ness of the turret armor is 12 in. usually, or less. The so-called secondary batteries of battleships are composed of 6-in. guns, which are in broad- side, and are often isolated by transverse armor and armor to their rears, which renders it unlikely that more than one of them could be silenced by the bursting of a single shell. These 6-in. guns are for the most part behind 5-in. and 6-in, armor. In other words, as the actual velocities for turret guns now afloat do not exceed an average of 2,300 ft., the turret [November 21, guns of contending battleships can destroy each other only when within 600 or 700 yards range, and the guns of their secondary batteries, the ruling velocities of these being put at 2,300 or 2,400 ft., when, within 1,000 yards range. More powerful guns of both classes are now being built and mounted, but a great number of 6-in. and 12-in. guns now in use would come within the approximate rule just laid down. Thus we may fix the fighting range of battleships at 1,000 yards. There appears to. be no disposition to increase the caliber of the 12-in. turret guns forming the main battery of battleships, though there is considerable movement look- ing toward making these guns longer and heavier, and, consequently, imparting to their projectiles higher velocities than those now ruling. As respects the 6-in. guns forming the secondary batteries, naval opinion is entirely at variance. In this country there are many who would substitute for the 6-in. guns 8-in. guns, and others who would substitute 7-in. guns, while in England the bulk of opinion is in favor of a 7.5-in. gun, whose projectile weighs 200 lbs. To this 200-lb. projectile would be imparted a velocity of 3,000 or more feet, so that the 7.5-in, gun in England is a very large and very powerful weapon. The 7-in. gun proposed in this country requires a 160-lb. projectile, and to the projectile is imparted a velocity of 3,000 or more feet. There is some disposition on the continent of Europe to use lighter guns in turrets than those of 12-in. caliber, which will weigh from 45 to 50 tons; but in this country and in England the 12-in. gun seems to be pretty strongly held to. The secondary battery guns, however, as stated, are quite unsettled. Besides the 12-in. and 6-in. guns, protected, respectively, by 12-in. and 6-in. armor, battleships carry a large number of 3-in. 15-pounder guns, having a high velocity and having very little protection. The large armored cruisers, which, in their elements of offence and defence, now approach battleships very closely, carry some- what smaller guns than the latter and their armor is accordingly reduced. When we come to the smaller vessels of all classes, the protection afforded the batteries is usually very little, besides the gun shields, and the side and other armor, of course, is also materially reduced. "There are many reasons why the battleship, armed with 12-in. guns in her turrets and 8-in. guns on her broadsides, which is the favorite bat- tery with those who would push the weight of battery very far, would have great advantages over battleships carrying only 6-in. guns in their secondary batteries; but, if the muzzle velocities of the 8-in. guns be equal to those of the 6-in. guns, and the total weights of battery are about the same, the number of 8-in. guns would be one-half that of the 6-in. and the rate of fire of the 8-in., as compared with the 6-in., will be very materially reduced--it is, perhaps, not too much to say that it will be reduced by one-half. The 6-in. gun can be man-handled--that is to say, the shot can be handled by one man and all operations performed with ease, without the use of mechanical apparatus. There are many devices for simplifying the handling of projectiles and getting them into the gun, but it must always remain that the weight of the 8-in. shot--now 250 Ibs. --will be a serious impediment in the way of handling the gun rapidly. "To summarize results it may be said that, in the past ten years, by the use of better mixtures, by improved heat treatment, and by very marked improvement in face hardening, the power of armor of a fixed thickness to resist penetration has been increased about 40 per cent., while its power to resist cracking has been increased in even greater degree. This has been taken advantage of in large measure in a reduction of the thickness of armor plate on a ship's side. The total weight of armor carried is not less than formerly, and indeed it is perhaps greater than it was, but it is more spread out, and, while the protection on the vital parts is as good and perhaps better than it was, there is now some weight in armor left to cover parts that formerly were without protection. Gun steel also-- and in speaking of gun steel we may include the steel for shafting as well --has been materially improved in the period under review. The shafting steel now going into ships is very much stronger than that which was used ten years ago. It is, indeed, perhaps quite 70 or 80 per cent. stronger than the former material. The advance in gun steel has not been so marked, because ten years ago the purchasers of gun steel wanted an elastic strength of about 40,000 Ibs., whereas only 28,000 or 30,000 lbs. was asked for in shafting. Now they both run 50,000 Ibs. or even more. "When we come to what may be called the tactical aspects of guns and armor, we find also material changes. The quality of the gun steel and of the armor, as is stated above, has advanced by perhaps 40 per cent., and full advantage has been taken of this in design. The modifications in design which have come about have been numerous. The armor is more distributed. It has come to be recognized that unprotected guns have no chance, and that 6-in. and 12-in. guns should be protected, respectively, by 6-in. and 12-in. armor. It should be noted that this means, if battle- ships are to penetrate each other, that ships must approach within 1,000 yards range in combat. This brings us back to the fighting range of old wooden ships, very nearly, for they had to approach within about 600 or 700 yards; and, when you consider that a battleship's 6-in. guns must have normal impact to perforate the armor protecting the 6-in. guns of their opponents at 800 or 1,000 yards, it may be said that the fighting range of ships has not so very materially altered in the past 100 years. What is here said may perhaps be combated, but, as 2,200 ft. velocity in a 6-in. projectile will not, even with normal impact, carry it through 6-in. armor, nor will 2,000 ft. carry a 12-in. projectile through 12-in. armor under like circumstances, it follows, when the vast preponderance of oblique impacts is considered, that ships must fight within 1,000 yards. "Finally I want to bring forward, in order to more definitely determine the coming range of naval combat, the fact that there is one of its ruling factors which remains constant for all time. This is, the accuracy and delicacy of the firer's eyes and nerves. If a man can appreciate four inter- vals in a second, and if the firing apparatus put into his hands is instan- taneous in action, he can hit a ship 15 ft. high, at a range of about 1,000 yards, when his own gun is swinging, in rolling, at an angular rate of one degree per second. Another important consideration is what is usually called the 'danger' space. With medium calibers, with 2,000 ft. velocity, the danger space is 1,100 yards. That is to say, the gun is independent of the range, as the trajectory is so nearly flat at that distance. The new guns now coming along, having 3,000 ft. velocity, have a greater danger space with existing targets, and are therefore independent of the range up to 1,300 or 1,400 yards. Whether it is better to use a 7-in. or 7.5-in. gun on the same weight as the 50-caliber 6-in. gun--that is. about 18.000 Ibs.--in the secondary battery of battleships, is one of the pressing ques- tions of the day. If the 7-in. or 7.5-in. gun has its weight increased pro-