Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1888 — GEN. BENET’S REPORT. [ARTICLE]

GEN. BENET’S REPORT.

What Has Been Done by the Army Ordnance Bureau During the Year. [Washington, (D. C.) special.] In his annual report Gen. Benet, Chief of Ordnance, says that the bureau expended $1,507,382 during the last fiscal year, and that 41,130 rifles and carbines were manufactured at the National Armory. Investigations have been completed relative to the determination of the charge, projectile, rifling, etc., for an arm of smaller caliber than the service piece. It is the intention to use .compressed and perforated cartridges, but as yet the powder-makers have not succeeded in producing a satisfactory powder, the desired velocity being accompanied by too great a pressure. This matter of a suitable powder is still under study and trial. The results obtained in France with the Lebel rifle seem to point to a radical innovation in the manufacture of powder for small arms. The report says that a tract of seventy acres of land immediately outside of the city limits of Columbia, Tenn., has been selected for an arsenal, and the work of construction will begin as soon as the title is accepted. In the absence of regular appropriations the bureau has availed itself of the proceeds from the sales of unserviceable material to procee’d with the manufacture of experimental guns at the Watervliet Arsenal. and they will be completed this winter. In improving the facilities of this place $20,000 has been expended, and tools from other arsenals have been assembled there, so that the present capacity is about fifty field guns and one eight-inch and one teninch gun per annum.