Costly Implements of War.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 2 October 1890, Page 2

Costly Implements of War.

Texs of thousands of pounds of capital have to be sunk ere a suigle 111---ton gun can be manufactured. A particular reason for its being costly to innke is that its production «on-

surnes a great amount of time. To build such a gun bakes as long as to uild a first c a«s cruieer Yet another reason lies in th© fact that there are many and inevitable fail-' ures, which entail great waste of i.ibour, if not of material, The 111 -ton guns, without their mountings, cannoc be produced by or sold to the Government for much 1 ss than £15,000 apiece, the 67-ton guns for less than about £10,800, or the 45 -ton guns for less than £6.800 a ,d the exp nse of tiring these gune, apart from wear and tearot weapons mountings, and ships, may be judged from the amount of powder and the weight of projectile used. In the cate of the 111-ton gun, the full powder charge is 960. ba of ilow burning cocoa, or 8501bs of Westphalian brown prism ; and the projectile weighs l,Boolbs. In the case of the 67-ton gun, he full powder-charge of slow burning cocoa is 680.b5, while the projectile is of 1,2501ba weight. In the caie of the 46 -ton gun, the full charge of brown prismatic powder is 2951ba, and the projectile weighs 7141b5. the esiimatad cost of one round from the largest gun is about £80, from the second about £50, and from the em»J lesfc abou fc £30 ; but this is tbe cost of p<T w< *er, cartridge end projectile only.