Identifier: chicagorecordswa00chic (find matches)
Title: The chicago Record's war stories : by staff correspondents in the field ; copiously illustrated
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors:
Subjects: Spanish-American War, 1898
Publisher: Chicago : Reprinted from the Chicago Record
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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carbonsteel. The gun weighs about 3,400 pounds,and it can be fired twenty times a minute.It has a range of about four miles, and theprojectile travels twice as fast as soundtravels. At the guns muzzle the projectileenergy is 915 foot-tons—that is, it hasenough force back of it to lift 915 tons onefoot in one second. The weight of a five-inch gun is three andone-half tons and its projectile weighs sixtypounds. A six-inch gun weighs seven tonsand throws a bullet weighing 108 pounds adistance of six miles, and it can pierceeleven and one-half inches of steel armorplate at close range. A well-directed shotfrom a four, five or six inch gun will sinkany torpedo boat afloat, and every such gunin Admiral Sampsons fleet has a gunner whois a sharpshooter. The one, three and six pounders generallyare mounted in elevated parts of the shipand in the military masts so they can beused to clear the enemys decks. Just as thearchers of years ago were wont to try for THE CHICAGO RECORDS WAR STORIES 4;
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THE U. S. CRUISER NEW YORK OVERHAULING THE SPANISH STEAMER PEDRO. 46 THE CHICAGO RECORDS WAR STORIES every opening and crack in the armor of aknight, so the gunners of the smaller rapid-firing guns are expected to send their deadlyshells inside the turrets and gun ports ofthe enemys ship. It is estimated that one of the huge ten,twelve or thirteen inch guns is good for about100 shots. Each shot will use about the one-hundredth part of a second traveling throughthe barrel from breech to muzzle. Thus theactive life of a thirteen-inch gun—which isthirty-three feet long, weighs seventy tonsand uses 500 pounds of powder to hurl its 1,000-pound projectile from ten to twelvemiles—is just one second long. If this mon-ster is fired 100 times it will use up twenty-five tons of powder, at a cost of $17,500; shoot100 1,000-pound projectiles at a cost of $35,000,and, as the gun costs originally $60,000, agrand total of $112,000, or about $1,120 foreach shot. Some of the officers on the Iowa be

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