Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1902 — THE UNITED STATES HAS THE MOST TERRIBLE GUN EVER MADE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE UNITED STATES HAS THE MOST TERRIBLE GUN EVER MADE.

The United States has just developed a cannon that will be the despair of foreign gunmakers. A gun has been built, weighing only four tons and with only 4%-inch caliber, which, the experts figure, will throw a 555-pound shell 25 miles. After 15 years’ of experiment the new gun has finally been perfected. It is called ths “Brown regimental wire tube rapid-fire” gun. The shell starts with a velocity of 4,ooo'feet per second, sails ten miles into the air and strikes the earth 25 miles away, all in one minute and 48 seconds. It requires only 32 pounds of powder to accomplish this. The tube and foundation of the gun are curled sheets of steel, one-seventh of an inch thick. Ten miles of wire Is wound into each gun, giving a tube that will stand the unheard of pressure of 92,000 pounds to the square inch. The range and energy of this gun are attained by using a comparatively big powder chamber, together with a long barrel, and a special carriage has been designed to stand the recoil that comes from firing the gun at an angle of 40 degrees. Time was when it was considered that New York, owing to the batteries at Sandy Hook arid on Coney Island, was impregnable to the guns of a hostile fleet. Now, a foreign fleet armed with such a gun as this might lie out of sight of Sandy Hook and blow New York off the map.

DESTRUCTION BY A SHELL.