A BIG CUN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 29, 4 October 1913, Page 4

A BIG CUN.

Jt is now stated that the largest gun in the world is to be used to guard the Panama Canal. It is a 16in. breech-loading rifle, and is the first several similar great cannon that are to be built for the sea toast defence rf the United States. The total length of this gun is 49ft. Sin. At tSio breech it has a diameter .of 60in. and tapers from this to-28m. at the muzzle. The mam bore is 3/ft. 4|in. long, and it has a diameter of 16in. The cylindrical part of the powderchamber is 7ft. oin. long, with a diameter .of 18.9 in. If smokeless powder is uSed it will require 5761 b. for a single charge; and if black powder is used, 117GH). will ho necessary. The projectile of the gun measures sft. Jin. iu length, weighs over a ton — 23701 b—and when it leaves the muzzle it can penetrate 42.3 in. of steel. The range is twenty-one miles, and the projectile will leave the gun at a speed of 2300 ft. a second. In ranging this score of "miles the shell reaches an elevation of about 30,500 ft— higher than Mount Everest, the loftiest mountain in the world.