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HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION] diameter of the seating is made just large enough to freely admit the projectile; this is usually considerably smaller than the maximum diameter of the chamber, consequently a less area is exposed to the gas pressure and less screw thread section is required.

The principal features of the various systems of construction of modern heavy guns may be briefly described.

EB1911 - Ordnance Fig 55-57.png . 55-57.—British, French and American Construction.

Fig. 55 is that adopted in England. The barrel or “inner A tube” is surmounted by a second layer which is either shrunk on in two or three pieces, as at Elswick, or is formed of one long piece called the “A tube,” as in the Woolwich system. This second layer is covered with wire, and over this is shrunk the chase hoop or B tube and the

jacket. The breech bush is screwed into the rear end of the A tube so that the principal longitudinal stress is taken by this tube.

Fig. 56 is the system adopted in the French service. In this the barrel is surmounted over the breech end with two layers of short thin hoops, which consequently approximate to the wire system. Over the muzzle end two or three long tubes are shrunk; the chase hoop is also screwed to the barrel near the muzzle. A jacket is shrunk over the breech portion of the gun, and the breech bush is screwed into it at the rear end. The gun is further strengthened by a long tube in front of the jacket to which it is attached by a screwed collar.

Fig. 57 shows the design adopted for the United States navy. Here the barrel is surmounted by a second course in two lengths, and over the breech a third and fourth layer are shrunk. The breech screw is screwed into the rear end of the second course.

Fig. 58 is the Krupp system, of which, however, it is an old example; it is believed, however, that Krupp still retains the essential peculiarities of this design, viz. that over the breech end of the barrel is shrunk a solid breech piece, made particularly massive in rear where the breech wedge is seated. The remainder of the layers consist of hoops which are comparatively short but may be covered with longer thin tubes.

EB1911 - Ordnance Fig 58.png . 58.—Krupp Construction.

When guns are fired, the interior surface is gradually worn away by the action of the powder gases; the breech end of the rifled portion of the bore becomes enlarged, and the rifling itself partly obliterated. The ballistics suffer in consequence of the enlarged diameter of the bore, and the rifling may be worn so much as not to properly rotate the projectile.

In all modern gun designs provision has, therefore, to be made for repairing or replacing the barrel when it is worn out. There are two methods of providing for the repair in the original design—the first is by replacing the whole of the barrel by an entirely new one; the second is to make the original barrel thick so that when it is worn the interior can be bored out, either over a portion of its length to cover the eroded part, or the full length for “through lining.” In large guns it is usual to make the original barrel, if it is intended to be removed as a whole, tapered from end to end, so that by warming the gun in a vertical position breech downwards to about 300° F. and then suddenly cooling the barrel by a jet of water it can be knocked out by heavy blows from a falling weight. A new tapered barrel can then be inserted by driving it in. When a gun which had originally a thick barrel is lined part of the barrel is bored out in a machine, and it is usual to make the hole tapered so that a new tapered liner can be inserted and driven home.

The wearing of the barrel owing to erosion is one of the mo.st difficult problems the gun constructor has to face. Sir Andrew Noble (see “Some Modern Explosives,” a paper read at the Royal Institution, 1900, also “Researches on Explosives,” part iii., Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.) has conclusively proved that the erosion is mainly dependent on the very high temperature to which the interior surface of the gun is raised and on the quantity of this heat. Both these factors are, for any particular explosive, determined by some function of the proportion of the weight of the charge to the extent of the exposed surface. The passage for the products of combustion gradually reduces from the maximum diameter of the chamber to the diameter of the bore. The highly heated gases therefore impinge more directly on that part of the bore which forms the seating for the shot and acts on it for the longest time, i.e. for the whole time the shot is in the gun. Consequently this part suffers most wear.

It may be assumed that the weights of the charges vary as the cube of the diameters of the bore, while the circumference of the bore varies directly as the calibre; now as the wear depends principally on the weight of the charge in relation to the exposed surface at the shot seating it varies as the square of the calibre. It is evident too that the allowable wear will vary as the calibre, so that the life of the gun or the number of rounds which can be fired is inversely proportionate to the calibre.

The heat of combustion and the time of burning of the explosive are factors in determining the amount of heat developed per unit of time, and thus influence the proportion of heat conducted away from the interior surface of the gun. The time of burning of the explosive depends on the size and form of the explosive and on the density of loading, while the heat of combustion depends on its composition and cannot be treated of here, but it may be stated generally that for equal weights Ballistite is more erosive than Cordite Mark I., and Cordite Mark I. than Cordite M.D. All of these explosives contain a fairly large proportion of nitro-glycerine, and it is found that as the proportion of this ingredient is reduced the erosion also decreases, so that for pure nitro-cellulose powders it is less still. Unfortunately pure nitro-cellulose powders are not ballistically equal to the same weight of nitroglycerin powder; the advantage of the less erosive action is lost owing to the greater weight of pure nitro-cellulose explosive required to obtain the same ballistics.

The effect of erosion on large high-power guns is serious, for in a