502 



Popular Science Monthly 



the increased number that we are per- 

 mitted to mount on any ship of equal 

 displacement." 



But we have not rested here. In 

 August, 1 914, a type of sixteen-inch 

 gun forty-five calibers in length was 

 tested. This gun fulfilled the expecta- 

 tions of its designer. It is probably 

 the most powerful gun in existence 

 to-day. Some day it will be mounted 

 on our battleships. 



A Modern Fourteen-inch Gun Is Better 

 Than Sixty Thousand Muskets 



The projectile of the modern four- 

 teen-inch naval gun starts at a velocity 

 of about two thousand six hundred 

 feet per second. Its weight is one thou- 

 sand four hundred pounds. Compare 

 this with the weight of a musket-bullet 

 ■ — one hundred and fifty grains — which 

 starts with a velocity of two thou- 

 sand seven hundred feet per second. 

 Rear-Admiral Bradley A. Fiske has 

 made a very interesting comparison of 

 the striking energy of the two. "After 

 the bullet has gone, say five thousand 

 yards, its energy has fallen to zero, 

 while the energy of the fourteen-inch 

 projectile is nearly the same as when it 

 started. While it would be truthful, 

 therefore, to say that the energy of the 

 fourteen-inch gun within five thousand 

 yards is greater than that of sixty 

 thousand muskets, it would also be 

 truthful to say that outside of the five 

 thousand yards millions of muskets 

 would not be equal to one fourteen- 

 inch gun." 



The high-powered, long range fifteen- 

 inch guns mounted on modern dread- 

 noughts of the Queen Elizabeth type 

 have made it necessary for the United 

 States of America to consider its coast 

 defenses. Remember that the Queeji 

 Elizabeth can fire her great guns accu- 

 rateh' at a range of twenty-five thousand 

 yards, and that our best coast defense 

 guns could not touch her, partly because 

 they are mounted on obsolete disappear- 

 ing carriages which do not permit an 

 elevation of more than fifteen degrees, 

 and partly because the guns on dread- 

 noughts of the Queen Elizabeth type 

 represent the very latest advance in 

 ordnance. Even our newest fourteen- 

 inch coast-defense guns, of which fi\e 



were completed last year, have a maxi- 

 mum range of only eighteen thousand 

 yards, which has been increased to 

 nineteen thousand three hundred by 

 enlarging the powder chambers. 



Some idea of the power of a modern 

 fourteen-inch coast defense gun may be 

 gained when it is stated that its sixteen 

 hundred pound projectile gun will drill 

 through nearly twenty-three inches of 

 the best quality of armor at one thou- 

 sand yards and through ten inches at 

 one thousand nine hundred yards. The 

 fourteen-inch coast defense gun made 

 at Watervliet Arsenal, weighs when 

 finished one hundred thirty-eight thou- 

 sand pounds, costs fift^'-five thousand 

 dollars and is wound about with thirty- 

 seven thousand pounds of wire. 



Realizing that even this mighty 

 weapon is too feeble an opponent for a 

 Queen Elizabeth, we are beginning to 

 build sixteen-inch coast defense guns. 

 They are the largest and longest in the 

 world. Unfortunately only two of them 

 have been built, and these are intended 

 for Panama, to protect the canal. 



Shots That Cost One Thousand 

 Dollars Each 



At an elevation of forty-three degrees, 

 such a gun will have a range of twenty- 

 one miles. That is about the distance 

 which many suburbanites have to travel 

 in an hour in order to reach their offices 

 in New York city. The piece alone 

 weighs one hundred twenty-seven tons. 

 The shell, two thousand four hundred 

 pounds, can pierce twenty-one inches 

 of armor 2.8 miles. The powder charge 

 is four hundred pounds. The shell and 

 powder alone cost one thousand dollars. 



The most commendable feature of 

 our fortifications are our mortars. They 

 are first-class and their high angle fire 

 is as good as there is anywhere. Our 

 twelve-inch mortar fires a shell weighing 

 one thousand and sixty-four pounds and 

 has a maximum range of twenty thou- 

 sand yards. 



Our coast defenses are in reality 

 harbor defenses. Of our five thousand 

 miles of coast line not more than three 

 hundred are under potential protection 

 of fortifications. The greater part of 

 our seaboards is absolutely undefended 

 at the present time. 



