The range of these giant cannon is enormous and their destructive power great, this being added to by the fact that the explosive shell has replaced the solid round shot of old-time gunnery. A 14-inch gun of 45 caliber can discharge a 1,400-pound projectile at a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet per second. If we compare this with a locomotive going at the speed of sixty miles an hour, we have in the latter a speed of eighty-eight feet per second to compare with the 2,600 feet per second of the cannon ball. From this we can well conjecture the vast speed with which the latter moves, its enormous range and vast powers of destruction.
Three-inch Horse Artillery Gun, Long Recoil Carriage and Limber
Length of gun, 85 inches (28 calibers). Weight of projectile, 12 pounds. Travel of projectile in bore, 74.65 inches (24.88 calibers). Weight of charge, 17.1 ounces of smokeless powder. Muzzle velocity, 1,750-foot seconds. Muzzle energy, 255-foot tons. Weight of gun, carriage and limber, containing 36 rounds of ammunition, 3,355 pounds. Ground clearance, 18 inches.
Courtesy of the Bethlehem Steel Co.
As facts are better than theories, it will be of interest to adduce a recent example of gunnery of a most illuminating type, but as regards distance and remarkable accuracy of aim. In September, 1916, the American battleship “Pennsylvania,” armed with a main battery of twelve 14-inch guns, fired these simultaneously at a target in the Chesapeake 22,000 yards, or more than twelve miles, away. The target was the sunken hulk of the “San Marcos,” formerly the battleship “Texas,” which for several years had been used for similar purposes. As the target was invisible to the gunners it was hardly to be expected that any of the shots should fall near the target. But the extraordinary result appeared that five of these twelve shots struck the hulk. As each of these projectiles weighed 1,400 pounds any battleship receiving such a broadside would probably have gone promptly to the bottom. The result, which has never before been equaled in accuracy, sufficiently attests the remarkable proficiency in range-finding that modern engineers have developed.
As for the penetrating powers of such huge shot we may take the 15-inch gun, the type of the largest guns in our fortifications and which is claimed to be able to pierce sixteen inches of armor at a range of 18,000 yards and ten inches at a range of 20,000 yards. A notable example of this took place on September 15, 1916, at the proving grounds at Indian Head, on the Potomac River, when a 16-inch, 2,100-pound, solid steel shell, said to be the first ever fired from a naval gun of that caliber, with a small charge of explosive, went through a plate of armor, penetrated a thick sand backing, and continued its course, striking the house of an employee of the proving grounds and plunging through the kitchen rending all before it. This was a naval gun, the largest yet made for naval purposes.
Patented Chain Rammer