Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1896 — The Power of Guns. [ARTICLE]

The Power of Guns.

One might be accused of romancing were lie to assert that a gun is of several million horse power, uud yet nothing Is more exact, as we shall demonstrate. The Italian one-hundred, ton gun (model of 18711), with a 550. pound charge of powder, throws a projectile, weighing 2020 pounds at an Initial velocity of 1715 feet per second It communicates to it, therefore, a 11 v« power of kinetic force of 1)2,507,000 foot pounds. The thrust exerted by the gases due to the Ignition of the powdei lasts less than n hundredth of a second The result Is that during the active period of the work of the powder Isgreater than eighty-seven million foot pounds jH*r hundredths of a second, say, 8,700,000,000 foot pounds per second. This represents a power oi twelve million kilowatts, or seventeen million horse power. There is, unfortunately, another side to this picture. Although large guns are extraordinarily powerful, their active life is essentially ephemeral, since, after a hundred shots, they are generally out ot service. They have then worked actively one second. The same calculation applied to modern guns that throw 2200-pound projectiles, and communicate thereto an initial velocity of 1970 feet, a second, demonstrates further,, that such guns, during less than a hundredth of a second each time, develop a formidable power of 13,050,000,000 foot pounds per second, say 24,-000,000-horse power.