WHERE BIG GUNS ARE MADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1916, Page 12

WHERE BIG GUNS ARE MADE.

THE ELS'WICK WORKS. The great Elswiek works and shipyards are at Newcastle-on-Tyne, extending for nearly a mile along the river, covering an area of nearly 390 acres, this huge industrial hive is unequalled in Britain, and unsurpassed anywhere on earth. Then, iu addition to the present works at Elswiek, the firm have; another shipyard'ou the Tyne, large works on the Thames and at Manchester, and extensive concerns in Canada, Italy and elsewhere. And yet, interesting fact, it is only thirty years since the firm commenced their first ship, the small torpedo boat Panther, built 'for the Australian Government. More remarkable still, less than seventy years ago, the founder of the whole concern, the late Lord Armstrong, was still following his original profession as a solicitor. Visitors .to Elswiek may yet see the little workshop where, in the year 1857, the future world's naval provider began the manufacture of hydraulic machinery, a branch which has ever since remained prominently in the foreground. Next to the arsenal at Woolwich, the Elswiek ordnance works are probably the largest in the kingdom. Everything appertaining to guns and gunnery is made and completed there, from a I'2 or 15 pound projectile for a field piece to a Dreadnought turret, which, with guns, mountings, and machinery, weighs anything up to 500 tons. One of the first processes in the manufacture of a modern "big gun" is the rifling. From the forge comes the huge steel cylinder, weighing,' when solid, janything up to 00 tons, which forms the nucleus of the barrel. Lifted on a powerful crane, without apparent effort, the great load is swung along and over a lathe, into which it is presently "set" and securely clamped. Apart from the weight to be handled, the "setting" naturally take 3 a considerable time t as everything must be dead true. According to circumstances, anywhere from one hundred to two hundred hours are occupied in drilling out the bore of a GO-ton gun, the work of course being done in a succession of operations necessitating frequent adjustments and change of drills. Needless to say, the gun tube is made of the finest steel it is possible to procure. The rifling and grooving complete, the next step is the wrapping up of the gun with—wire! This may seem an unstable material to use in connection with cannon-making, but as a matter of fact, without wire no big gun would withstand for long the tremendous pressure when being fired. In appearance the "wire" closely resembles that used for making clock springs, and the quantity required for a comparatively ordinary-sized gun is one hundred miles! Fixed overhead in coils, the wire is wound round the gun barrel, while the latter itself revolves slowly in a lathelike machine. So firm and even are the layers laid on that, at a short distance away, the barrel still appears to be solid. The next process is to put on the gun's steel "jacket." Brought to a huge furnace, the wire tube is placed near a crane which in itself is a mechanical marvel. Tnto the furnace dips the crane, guided in a manner which is beyond the understanding of a mere lay-, man, and out comes the fizzling, sizzling "jacket." A few orders, which the crane and not the men controlling it, seems to obey, sundry adjustments, deft blows and "bats" with tools which their users handle as an ordinary mortal would a light crane, and before you have done gaping, that jacket is in its appointed place, and already commenced of itself to "cool off." Exactly how it has all been done you couldn't tell if you wanted to—the whole process, with its weird glare, glitter and clatter has bankrupted your powers of gathering and conveying impressions. But, after all, there are other interesting things to see and learn concerning this same gun, which so far has undergone only about one fourth of its total operations. Among other things, it has yet to receive its mechanism and mountings. Should the weapon be intended, as it almost certainly will, for mounting on a ship in course of construction, the gun, or rather guns, will first be set up complete, turret and all, in the workshop. The "pit" in which this operation is performed is some forty or fifty feet deep, and everything corresponds with positions and depths that the guns will occupy on board ship. It should not be necessary, even were it possible, to closely follow the various fitting processes, but it might be mentioned that when everything has been satisfactorily fixed up, Armstrong's people do not go to the trouble of taking the gun to pieces again, and re-ereeting it on the ship. There is a big crane at Elswiek, one of the biggest in the world, capable of lifting up to 150 tons at a time. The entire operation involves less trouble, and certainly less shouting, than is usually associated with the removal of a cottage piano at "fitting" time.

Other processes are followed, and other types of gun are made at Elswick but instead of describing these, we might see what there is of interest concerning the manufacture of ammunition. To commence with, it may be said that a shell composed of half a ton or so of "solid steel," a description commonly met with in works of both "fact" and fiction, does not exist. Big or little, no projectile is quite solid, though in their first state they may be cast or wrought solid. Ingots of steel form the basis of all large shells, and when these have been turned on a lathe to exactly the fit the bore of the gun, a cavity is drilled in the base ■end to receive the charge. Near the base there is subsequently fixed a band of copper or brass, which, together with a corresponding artifice in the rifling of the gun barrel, gives to the projectiles when fired a spinning motion, without which it would neither keep its direction nor carry half the intended distance. Another interesting item is the cap which is fitted to the nozzle of a shell. Without this cap, a comparatively in-signiilcant-loking affair shaped like a candle extinguisher, the biggest of projectiles would be almost harmless against modern armour-plate. Protected by the cap, which sustains the initial impact, the uninjured point of the shell will " take" and penetrate the plate; uncapped it would either force harmlessly off or mere bury itself armour inwards. In regard to other kinds of shells and ammunition, of which Armstrong's manufacture every type, there does not appear to be a device for destruction with which the firm is unfamiliar, while the same may assuredly be said concerning ingenious time-saving machinery used in this branch of their business. At Elswick alone, and exclusive_ of other big yards lower down the river, there are nine building bertln, the

larger of them capable of accommodating vessels of the biggest class. From these berths, not mere units, but wholfe navies have been launched, including many of the most famous warships of modern times.