INDUSTRIES 



struction of armour-plating, which was built 

 up in hexagonal sections. Since then the 

 armour-plate department has been largely de- 

 veloped at Openshaw, and recently several battle- 

 ships and cruisers have received their complete 

 equipment of armour from these works. At the 

 present time in the gun department all sizes of 

 ordnance are manufactured from 3-pounders up 

 to the largest guns of 13^ in. bore. Amongst 

 other works some hundreds of the new 

 1 8 ^-pounder field artillery guns for the British 

 and Indian armies are being made at Openshaw. 

 The manufacture of gun-mountings is also 

 carried on here ; there are several pits in which 

 ammunition hoists can be fixed, and turrets with 

 guns mounted complete, as on shipboard, and 

 worked and tested before being sent out. 



Vickers, Sons & Maxim have manufactured 

 guns and gun-mountings at Barrow-in-Furness 

 since their establishment there in 1897. In this 

 connexion the manufacture of projectiles may be 

 mentioned. For the large armour-piercing shot 

 the steel ingots are cast at the Sheffield works of 

 the firm, and are generally forged there prior to 

 being sent to Barrow to be completed in the 

 machine shop. At Barrow the forged projectile, 

 after having been centred, is turned externally to 

 the finished size, and the nose is formed to the 

 correct radius. The rear end is then machined 

 and a groove formed near the base to take the 

 copper band which fits into the rifling of the gun. 

 The cavity in the shot is next bored, after which 

 the projectile is hardened by a special process. It 

 is then gauged and threaded at the base, so that a 

 steel plug can be screwed in tightly to close up the 

 cavity. The copper band, after being fixed by 

 means of a special hydraulic press,iis finally turned 

 in a capstan lathe to ensure absolute accuracy. 



In the case of semi-armour piercing shells, 

 the steel is supplied from the Sheffield works in 

 billets and is forged and drawn at Barrow, prior 

 to completion there, by the same processes as 

 described above. Another specialty of the Barrow 

 works is the equipment for making the forged 

 steel caps, which are frequently fitted to ar- 

 mour-piercing shot and to shells carrying a 

 highly explosive compound. Another product 

 of the establishment is cast-steel shells, which 

 are to be used with explosive charges fired by 

 a fuse. 



The construction of large gun-mountings by 

 Vickers, Sons & Maxim at Barrow has already 

 been mentioned. To understand what this really 

 means, some acquaintance with the mounting of 

 a large naval gun is necessary. It consists of a 

 great number of separate units ; there are the 

 slides supporting the weapon itself, the mechanism 

 for elevating or depressing the muzzle, the 

 mechanical gear for running the gun along the 

 slide to the firing position, and the hydraulic 

 cylinders for taking up the recoil after discharge, 

 as well as the charging appliances, which include 

 hoists from the magazine below and rammers for 

 pushing the great 850-lb. projectiles and pro- 

 pelling explosives into the chamber of the gun. 

 The turn-table carrying these several units, which 

 together form what is known as a barbette 

 mounting, is in effect a platform, having upon 

 it, or suspended to it, a great collection of 

 mechanism, and the whole, weighing 350 tons, 

 is rotated by hydraulic power upon a roller-path 

 immediately within the 1 2-inch steel walls of the 

 barbette, which completely protect the mounting. 

 It is all this complicated mechanism, which as 

 a whole constitutes a gun-mounting, that is made 

 at the Barrow Works. 



SHIPBUILDING 



This industry has been connected with Lanca- 

 shire for more than two centuries, though our 

 knowledge concerning it is very limited. At the 

 time when all ships were built of wood Liverpool 

 was the centre of the industry. Throughout the 

 eighteenth century the Index to Lancashire Wilh 

 contains numerous references to shipwrights, sail- 

 makers, &c., but this is practically the only in- 

 formation we possess. With the displacement 

 of wood by iron in shipbuilding this Lan- 

 cashire industry has largely left Liverpool for 

 Barrow. 



In 1870 the Barrow-in-Furness Iron Ship- 

 building Co. was formed, and secured a large 

 tract of land on Old Barrow Island, having one 

 frontage to Walney Channel, admirably adapted 

 for launching purposes, and another to the Devon- 

 shire Dock.^ Later the works were transferred 



' Francis Leach, Barrow-in-Tumess, 50. 



to the Naval Construction and Armaments Co., 

 Ltd.,^ from whom they were purchased in 1897 

 by Vickers, Sons & Maxim, Ltd., of Sheffield. 

 Since then the capacity of the works has been 

 more than doubled, and electricity has been 

 adopted as the motive power. The number of 

 men employed has increased from 5,260 to 

 10,300, and the weekly wages bill from ^^7, 550 

 to j^i 7,250.' The works are now equipped for 

 the building of all types of naval and merchant 

 vessels, with their machinery, guns, and gun- 

 mountings.* The reason the company decided to 

 construct everything for their ships was that 

 the town of Barrow is in some respects isolated. 



' Iron, Steel, and Allied Trades, Barrow-in-Furness 

 (1903), 38. 



' Richardson, Vickers, Sons (§• Maxim, 6. 



* These last departments have been dealt with under 

 the heading of ' Ordnance.' 



375 



