Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

■ ■ ■ 412 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. A GROUP OF 12 INCH SHELLS. (Photo, Gale and Polden.) A word as to cost. We are dealing now with the mounting and machinery only of the larger guns. In the Majestic class—ships of 14,900 tons, and now fifteen n °* years old—the pair of 12-inch mountings, containing four 12-inch. guns and placed fore and aft of the ship along the keel line, cost £49,000, or about 5 per cent, of her total cost. The King Edward VII. has six large gun mountings —two for paired 12-inch guns, four for single 9’2-inch guns. The cost here was £220,000, or about 15 per cent, of the total cost of the ship. In the Lord Nelson class the mountings have risen to eight, and represent £440,000, or 27 per cent, of the cost of the ship! This last figure is interesting, for, as a comparison with the Dreadnought will show, single guns in barbettes increase the cost out of all pro- portion to the military value. The Dread- nought has five gun emplacements mounting ten 12-inch guns in pairs, and yet the price of her gun mountings was only £365,000, or 21 per cent, of her total cost. The Lord Nelson mounts but four 12-inch guns paired, the remainder being ten 9’2-inch weapons— eight paired and two mounted singly. A well-known expert has analysed the results of improved firing in recent years. In the case of the larger guns of 1 O-inch and 12 - inch, calibre, the accuracy is Improved Gunnery. three times greater than it was ten years ago. The average for the whole fleet is now 0’61 hits per minute per gun (and it is only the hits that count), as against 0'23 under conditions then prevailing. The improve- ment in the case of the 9'2- incli gun, the most popular weapon in the service, is even more remarkable, the figures having risen from 0'32 hits to 3’25 hits a minute. With the 6-inch quick-firing gun also the advance is striking. Ten years ago the hits per minute totalled only Ml, but now the score through- out the service stands at 5’93 hits. When one considers the maximum results and, therefore, the degree of accuracy which may be achieved by perfection in mechanism and efficiency in personnel, the gain is still more remark- able. With the 12-inch guns two hits per minute have frequently been made, and four hits per minute are not uncommon with the 92-inch. projectile, even under severe con- ditions of firing. All that has been said of the 12-inch guns applies generally to every weapon entering into the category of “ main armament.” We may just notice, however, that the four 12- inch weapons of the vessel under review, the King Edward VII., are mounted in pairs at either end of the ship. The four 9’2-inch guns are mounted singly in barbettes on the upper deck at the four corners of the super- structure. Before leaving the main armament of battle- ships, we will describe the most powerful gun in the world. This, the 16-inch United States