Part 11

The empty carrier then passes through a little door at the side of the building, and drops into the yawning mouth of an automatic tube. In the twinkling of an eye it appears in front of the operator in one of the distributing stations, where it is refilled, and returned to its proper loading machine, in order to keep the machine going at a perfectly uniform rate; while at the same time it allows but a minimum amount of powder to remain in the building at any moment. Each machine has but just sufficient powder in its hopper to run until a new supply can reach it. Greater precaution than this cannot be imagined, illustrating as it does that no effort has been spared to protect the lives of the operators.

It is remarkable that, in an output of something like four million per day, every cartridge is perfect.

Such things are not accidental. The secret is, inspection.

~TESTING MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS~

Let us see what that means. It means laboratory tests to start with. Here are brought many samples of the body paper, wad paper, metals, waterproofing mixture, fulminate of mercury, sulphur, chlorate of potash, antimony sulphide, powder, wax, and other ingredients, and even the operating materials such as coal, grease, oil, and soaps. In the laboratory we see expert chemists and metallurgists with their test-tubes, scales, Bunsen burners, retorts, tensile machines, microscopes, and other scientific looking apparatus, busily hunting for defects.

For example, one marker is examining a supply of cupro-nickel, such as is used in jacketing certain bullets. A corner of each strip is first bent over at right angles, then back in the other direction until it is doubled, then straightened. It does not show the slightest sign of breaking or cracking, in spite of the severe treatment, therefore it is perfect. Let but the least flaw appear, and the shipment is rejected.

SHOT TOWER--TALLEST BUILDING IN CONNECTICUT]

LARGEST CARTRIDGE EQUALS MORE THAN 1,000,000 OF SMALLEST (HELD ON HAND)]

Two large iron cylinders descend in the center, coming down through the ceiling from above; we are invited to look through an open port in one of these.

We see nothing but the whitened opposite wall, against which a light burns.

It appears absolutely empty, though within it is raining such a swift shower of invisible metal that if we were to stretch our hands into the apparently vacant space they would be torn from our arms.

A large water tank below is churned into foam with the impact of the falling shot, and as we look downward we make out finally the haze of motion. It is so interesting that we take the elevator and rise ten stories to the source of the shower.

Here high in the air are the large caldrons where many pigs of lead, with the proper alloy, are melted into a sort of metallic soup. This is fed into small compartments containing sieves or screens, through the meshes of which the shining drops appear and then plunge swiftly downward.

But this only begins the process. Taken from the water tanks and hoisted up again, the shot pellets, in a second journey down, through complicated devices, are sorted, tumbled, polished, graded, coated with graphite, and finally stored.

The pictures shown in this story were prepared especially to illustrate this story of “How Man Learned to Shoot” by the Searchlight Library for the Remington Arms Company.

Photo by Bethlehem Steel Co.

This photograph shows gun ingots after being “stripped” and “cored.”]

Photo by Bethlehem Steel Co.

This photograph shows a gun ingot in the process of being forged under forging press.]

Photo by Bethlehem Steel Co.

This photograph shows a gun being fired at the Proving Grounds for test.]

The Parts of a Big Gun

~THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT A BIG GUN~

Before going into a description of the manufacture of a big gun it would be well to understand the following definitions:

The “breech” of a gun is its rear-end, or that end into which the projectile and powder charge are loaded.

The “muzzle” of a gun is its forward end.

By “calibre” is meant the inside diameter of the gun in inches. A 5-inch gun is one of “minor calibre,” and one of 14-inches a gun of “major calibre.”

The length of a gun is never expressed in inches or feet, but in the number of times that its calibre is divisible into its length; thus, when we say a 12-inch 50-calibre gun, we mean a gun of 12 inches in diameter, and 12 times 50, or 600 inches long.