Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 34 December 1886 to May 1887 . nd. An old wrouglit-iron gun would have had to be unmanage-ably large,thick,and heavy to do anythinglike that, and would never have fired an-other shot. In modern gun-making merebulkiness is got rid of, as in nature themegatherium has been got rid of, the in-creased size of guns representing an in-crease of power rendered possible by re-finement of material, and the humaniza-tion of liorse-])ower in machinery for man-aging and moving large masses. Chief-Engineer King, in his Wai ShijJSand Navies of the Worlds pronounces the71-
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 34 December 1886 to May 1887 . nd. An old wrouglit-iron gun would have had to be unmanage-ably large,thick,and heavy to do anythinglike that, and would never have fired an-other shot. In modern gun-making merebulkiness is got rid of, as in nature themegatherium has been got rid of, the in-creased size of guns representing an in-crease of power rendered possible by re-finement of material, and the humaniza-tion of liorse-])ower in machinery for man-aging and moving large masses. Chief-Engineer King, in his Wai ShijJSand Navies of the Worlds pronounces the71-ton Krupp gun the most powerfulbreech-loading gun ever constructed onthe continent of Europe, and holds it su-perior to the 100-ton Armstrong. The71-ton is 32 feet 9 inches long, greatestdiameter, 5 feet 6inches ; length ofbore, 28 feet 7 inch-es; diameter of bore, inches; diam-eter of powder-cham-ber, the tube (oftwo parts, neatlyjointed) are 4 cyl-inders, and a ringaround the is rifled with auniform twist of 1in 45. It is impos-. sible to fire it until the breech is fullyclosed. The back of the breech-block isrounded like the letter D. It holds a max-imum charge of 485 pounds of powder, car-rying a chilled iron shell of is the gun that fossilises so manyfortresses. It is quasi-miraculous that thismass can be so easily moved. The huge rock at St. Petersburg onwhich the statue of Peter the Great standshad to be moved by a regiment of men,because horses were not intelligent enoughto combine and concentrate their force ata signal; heavier masses are easily movedin modern establishments by machinerywhich answers a touch. A whole essaymight be written on the machinery inKrux^ps works for raising and transport-ing heavy masses. One they called by anEnglish name, the lifting-jack, which Irespectfully wrote down L. John, Esq.,so neatly did this small machine, weighingsome 25 pounds, lift its 25,000. It couldnot be done without brains
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