Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1914 — GREAT PANAMA GUN CARRIES 23 MILES [ARTICLE]

GREAT PANAMA GUN CARRIES 23 MILES

Big 16-Inch Gun .Would Send ProTectile From Reneselaer All the Way to Medaryville. '

Washington, D. C., J.uly lA—When its breech locking device has been perfected at Watervliet arsenal, the great sixteen inch gun, the biggest piece of ordnance in the world, which has been shipped from the Sandy Hook proving grounds, will ..be virtually ready for service on the Panama canal fortifications. The carriage for this giant gun is under construction at the Watertown, Mass., 'arsenal. It probably will be taken back to Sandy Hook for tests after being mounted and will not be shipped to Panama before next spring. A conception may be obtained of the tremendous power of this gun, destined to protect the Pacific entrance to the Panama canal, from the fact that ft is fifty feet long. The projectile weighs a ton and is discharged by 665 pounds of powder. It requires eight men to carry the powder charge. This gun has a maximum range of from twenty-two to twenty-three miles, or half the distance between New York city and West Point. The eleyatdon permitted by its carriage will enable the gu*n to fire a projectile about eleven miles across the Pacific ocean. It has sufficient power, theoretically, to .piece two feet Of the best ormar at the muzzle At eleven miles the gun is calculated to pierce a twelve inch armor plate or any side armor afloat When a shell leaves the gun it is revolving around its axis at about 4,000 revolutions a minute and develops a pressure of 38,000 potmds to the square inch. The pressure to the rear of the gun and forward on the projectile amounts to 7,600, 000 pounda The projectile’s velocity of 2,250 feet a second gives a muzzle’energy of more than 84,000 foot tons—that Is, an energy capable of raising forty-two tons one foot every second.

Army ordnance officers believe this gun will be a tremendous instrument of ipeace when it is in position on the Panama canal.